Knowledge on the move in a Transottoman perspective : dynamics of intellectual exchange from the fifteenth to the early twentieth century

actors, goodsand ideas, following them as they transcend boundaries between spaces of very different scale and type; doingsocan reshapelocal perceptions of boundaries, spaces and belonging. In this book, we applythe heuristic and analytical concept of translocalitytothe emerging field of the history of knowledge. The affinity between these approaches is evident. Both translocalityand the history of knowledge are very much inspired by the worldwide experience of profound societal and cultural transformation, evoked by whatw eu sually describe as the emergenceo faglobal knowledge society. What is more, both approaches havec omplementary research interests: While the translocal approach is concerned with understanding the dynamics of transboundary mobility and theirl ocal repercussions, the history of knowledge investigates the social and cultural preconditions of the (re)production, dissemination, appropriation, and application of knowledge, pointingout that knowledge is shaped and reshaped in processesofcontinued, multi-layered circulations. In this book, we focus on flows of knowledge between and within tworegions that are conventionally addressed as the Middle East and Eastern Europe. We engage with movements of knowledge that transcended boundaries as they havebeenperceived by the actors involved or, which is even morechallenging, as they havebeen constructed by traditional Western scholarship evolving since the 19 th century. We do so in an experimentalsetting that we label as 'Transottoman'. In our understanding this term has spatial, temporal, and,m ost importantly, methodological implications. Although the starting point of our investigation into the history of knowledge is ap olitically defined territory -the Ottoman Empire -it is not our intention to circumscribe ag eographically determined research area. Instead, we approach our subject through the 'lens of mobility', 6 investigating multi-layered and multi-directional processes of exchange and cultural production between the Ottoman Empire and the world around it. We are interested in reconstructing concretefigurations of interaction that attest to different kinds of spatial relationality. In the settings of our case studies -which cover atime frame from the 15 th to the early 20 th centuryand are concernedwith a wide variety of social spaces and geographical areas, including the Ottoman capital Istanbul, provincial settings like Ottoman Palestine, and also Egypt, Bosnia, Crimea, the Persian realm and Poland-Lithuania -the understanding of space is contextual and case-specific. Regarding the history of knowledge, the Transottoman perspectiveh as the potential of putting ag reater emphasis on both the spatial and transcultural