Journal of Balkan Studies (Jan 2025)
An Assessment on Balkan Historiography
Abstract
In addition to their own originality in historiography, Muslims inherited the accumulation of ancient civilizational basins such as Hijaz, Bilad al-Sham, Egypt, Maghreb, Andalusia, Iraq, Iran, Sindh and Mawara' al-Nahr. They created a wide variety of genres by making it more systematic and methodological. The Muslim historiography of the 7th-10th centuries, which harmoniously combines authenticity and heritage, was in contact with the Balkans indirectly through the Byzantine Empire during this period. However, its main impact and contribution to the basin was in the 11th-18th centuries, when it continued its development in historiography. During this period, Muslims, especially the Ottomans, who established political dominance in the region modeled the historiography, which had completed its development and developed a methodology, in the basin and brought an era to the activities of the basin in the field of historiography. The historiography, which was based on the narration of either the history of empires or the history of emperors in the form of special histories, has changed and developed with the methodology and model developed by Muslims. İn this regard, they created a great linguistic richness in the basin with Ottoman Turkish, provided diversity through the four main genres of siyar and maghazi, general, special, city and regional histories, and established a close relationship between administrations and historians. As a result, the Balkans have made great progress with the strong contribution and influence of Muslims in historiography. This study deals with the process of historiography in the Balkans in a comprehensive manner. These issues are discussed through more than four hundred historiographers and historical sources, mostly based on historiographical studies available in Turkish and taking into account the activities of the Ottoman Empire, a dynasty of six centuries. The main significance of this study is that it takes the step of presenting the strong contribution and influence of Muslims in historiography in the Balkans, which developed especially until the 19th century, in a holistic manner. The aim of this study is to increase the interest in Balkans studies, which is constantly developing in our country, and to attempt to unearth the huge heritage in the field of historiography.
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