Introduction It Is a Well-Known Fact That the Expansion of the Ottoman
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INTRODUCTION It is a well-known fact that the expansion of the Ottoman Empire pro- ceeded through various phases of power relations between the states and peoples of the invaded lands and the empire itself. Tributary states, such as the Bulgarian tsardoms of Trnovo and Vidin, Serbia, or many of the Aegean Islands were, in the course of renewed attempts to enlarge the territory under the sultan’s rule, incorporated into the empire. By the sec- ond half of the sixteenth century, however, a more or less stable system of tributary states was formed, which, despite the ever-changing scale of imperial influence, remained largely constant. The acknowledgment of the Ottoman overlords was a fundamental element of the policies of the rulers of Crimea, Moldavia, Ragusa, Transylvania, and Wallachia during the early modern period. In other entities, such as Cossack Ukraine, or Northern Hungary, the Ottoman tributary position was a short-lived expe- rience, which is, nevertheless, worthy of attention. The status of Ottoman tributary states has, until recently, all but escaped the attention of researchers of the Ottoman Empire and has mainly been treated in the context of national historiographies. Croatian, Italian, Hungarian, Romanian, and Transylvanian German historians have dedicated numerous studies to the contacts between the Ottoman Empire and the country to which they declared allegiance. It is hardly surprising that in spite of the growing number of recent publications on the Crimea, it remains the European tributary that attracts the least scholarly inter- est, as no nineteenth- or twentieth-century nation state has claimed the legacy of the khanate as its own. National historiographies reveal many important details in the history of these states; however, their focus on single states as closed units tends to distort the interpretative process. Seeing the single case as unique—or applying only a rather coarse defi- nition of the other states being in a “better” or “worse” situation—often results in misinterpretations of Ottoman attitudes and local responses, the nature and causes of the connection. In recent decades, the most important development of historical schol- arship that had its impact on the histories of the Ottoman tributary states was the re-assessment of the history of the empire itself, with an emphasis on its composite state character, a re-evaluation of its activities, and the identification of its inner logic of empire-building. The shift of perspective 2 introduction from one focused on the “Ottoman yoke” to the “Pax Ottomanica”— or, rather, an emphasis on the negotiation between imperial and local perspectives—has resulted in a more nuanced understanding of the his- tory of Ottoman-dominated Europe. Moreover, a change in the assessment of the Ottoman tributary status took place, with more understanding for the imperial perspectives. There have even been very promising initiatives for systematic comparative studies in this field; however, they have so far focused mainly on the legal framework of the tributary status, based on Ottoman sources, usually with a special focus on one tributary state. Given the wide geographic area covered and the linguistic variety of the sources, it is clear that only an international network of scholarly exchange would render it possible to create a nuanced understanding of the experience of tributary states that would “give voice” to both imperial and domestic sides, and at the same time take into account general trends and regional differences. From 22 to 23 May 2009, a conference in this vein was convened in Dubrovnik (Croatia) as a cooperation between the project “Ottoman Orient and East Central Europe: Comparative Studies in the Perceptions and Interactions in the Border Zones” at the Geisteswissenschaftliches Zentrum Geschichte und Kultur Ostmitteleuropa an der Universität Leipzig (GWZO) and the Institute for Historical Sciences in Dubrovnik of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts (HAZU). It was the first event aimed at creating an international scholarly network, such as described above, by bringing together well-known experts of the various tributary states to discuss the state of the art and further possibilities of research. The topics of the papers presented at the conference were selected to cover the broadest possible field, maintaining a balance topically as well as regionally. The goal of the convenors was to provide a current over- view of the historiographies of the individual states and thereby open up new perspectives for further research. The program thus covered the most important topics in the history of the Ottoman tributary states, offered the widest possible regional scope (Ragusa, Wallachia, Moldavia, Tran- sylvania, Crimea, and even the Cossack hetmanate), and even provided a conceptual panel that addressed, in detail, the meaning of tributary status from the Ottoman perspective. This volume, based on the material presented at the conference in Dubrovnik, but completed with additional studies by experts in various fields, was compiled with a similar aim. The articles are grouped into three sections which cover the crucial aspects of the political relationship between the empire and its tributary states. The first section is dedicated .