Mecmuas in the Ottoman World
Interdisciplinary Approaches and Current Research
4–6 June 2026
About the congress
Mecmuas in the Ottoman World: Interdisciplinary Approaches and Current Research is dedicated to the study of manuscript miscellanies (mecmuas) as a key yet insufficiently theorised format of knowledge organisation across the Ottoman world and Eurasia. These composite manuscripts, which assemble texts of diverse genres, languages, and functions within a single codex, provide valuable insights into practices of compilation, transmission, and adaptation. By examining mecmuas as dynamic sites of intellectual, religious, and practical exchange, the conference foregrounds their significance for understanding processes of communication and transformation across regions and periods.
Moving beyond a narrowly Ottoman framework, the conference situates miscellanies within a broader Eurasian perspective, inviting comparative and interdisciplinary approaches. It creates a platform for dialogue among scholars working on manuscript cultures in different linguistic and cultural traditions, while offering a shared analytical vocabulary for composite and multiple-text manuscripts.
The congress is organised by
Hülya Çelik (Ruhr University Bochum) and Sami Arslan (FSMVÜ Istanbul), in collaboration with Janina Karolewski (Saxon Academy of Sciences and Humanities in Leipzig) and Yavuz Köse (University of Vienna).
The Vienna conference builds directly on the workshop “Mecmua Typologies”, held in November 2023 at Fatih Sultan Mehmet Vakıf University (FSMVÜ) in Istanbul. The workshop was organised by Hülya Çelik from Ruhr University Bochum, Sami Arslan from FSMVÜ and Janina Karolewski from Hamburg University’s Centre for the Study of Manuscript Studies (CSMC Hamburg). The main conceptual organisers of the planned conference in Vienna are again Hülya Çelik (Ruhr University Bochum) and Sami Arslan (FSMVÜ) in collaboration with Janina Karolewski (Saxon Academy of Sciences and Humanities in Leipzig).
Organised in the framework of the project „Cluster of Excellence: EurAsian Transformations“ DOI: 10.55776/COE8 funded by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF).
The COE ‘EurAsian Transformations’ aims to establish a research and training infrastructure to study the rich resources of the past created over 3000 years of Eurasian history and to address the challenges of understanding this history in all its diversity. It addresses ‘Eurasia’ as a historically and discursively constituted category for framing political, social and cultural developments that unfolded across the vast Eurasian landmass.
For further information, see: https://www.oeaw.ac.at/eurasian-transformations/