About: | Yavuz Köse |
Position: | Key Researcher |
Nodes: |
The framework of a COE facilitates diachronic and synchronic studies in environmental history across a wide area stretching from Mongolia and Central Asia to the Caucasus, the Middle East and Southeast Europe. These regions include a high variety of topographies, landscapes and social constellations, accessible through a great diversity of sources. For Ottoman / Turkish studies this topic allows a rereading of a rich collection of texts, not yet systematically investigated, that often contain information related to nature, environment, human – nature, human – animal as well as human – nature relations.
This case study of a large and understudied collection of Armenian manuscripts in Vienna aims to a) raise awareness of an important entangled heritage collection in Austria/Vienna; b) foster relations with diaspora Armenian institutions; c) provide new learning and training opportunities for researchers and students; d) present interdisciplinary ways of engaging with and preserving manuscripts at the interface between heritage science and manuscript (print) culture, and e) make accessible the collection and the results of the project as open source. A preliminary survey of the collection has revealed at least 62 mss. from the late 17th to the 19th centuries. Around 50 of them are either only in Armeno-Turkish, or in Armeno-Turkish and Armenian, and 12 mss. are in Armeno-Qypčaq. The larger part of this corpus of book prints stored in the Congregation consists of more than 800 Armeno-Turkish volumes printed between the late 18th and early 20th centuries and probably the most comprehensive collection of Armeno-Turkish newspapers (19th-20th century). These collections enable a shared vision of an entangled cultural heritage connecting the history of the Ottoman Empire, the Armenian diaspora, Venice and the Habsburg Empire. Research will be pursued in close collaboration with the Armenian diaspora community and institutions such as the Hrant Dink Foundation (Istanbul) and The Nubar Library (Paris) as well as the Mekhitarist Congregation (Venice and Vienna). We also plan to develop new and innovative interdisciplinary conservation and preservation techniques as well as sustainable dissemination solutions, making use of new technologies and methods from the natural sciences. Findings will be integrated into the curriculum of Turkish Studies allowing for research- and DH-based teaching and learning. They will be complemented by teaching Armeno-Turkish at the department of Turkish Studies of the University of Vienna. The long-term goal is to move from the study of Ottoman literatures (Ottoman, Karamanli, Armeno-Turkish/ Dačkeren) in separation to viewing them ‘in their diachronic and synchronic dimensions’ (Balta 2010: 12).