Nir Shafir
Biographic Data
| ID | 272180 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Nir Shafir |
| GIVEN NAMES | Nir |
| FAMILY NAME | Shafir |
| SIGNATURE | SHAFIR N |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of California San Diego |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-6223-6762 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 12 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 15 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 12 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2014 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
The Ottoman Scientific Heritage by Ekmeleddin İhsanoğlu (review)
The Poetic Gift: The Social and Material Life of the Arabic Travelogue in the Early Modern Ottoman Empire
Between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries, a strong intertextual tradition of travel writing emerged among Arab litterateurs of the Ottoman Empire. The authors of these works rarely, if ever, ventured beyond the boundaries of the empire. Instead, they described their journeys initially to Istanbul and then to other major Arab cities. These works detailed not foreign geographies or peoples but the poems these men encountered. The travelogues …
‘Commodities move easily, as can people… but ideas and cultural practices are easier to transplant than translate’: An interview with Nile Green
Nile Green is a historian of the multiple globalisations of Islam and Muslims. After beginning his career as a historian of India and Pakistan, he has traced Muslim networks that connect Afghanistan, Iran, the Indian Ocean, Africa, Japan, Europe, and America. He has published ten books on the subject, including the award-winning volumes Bombay Islam: The Religious Economy of the West Indian Ocean, 1840-1915 (Cambridge University Press, 2011) and …
Nābulusī Explores the Ruins of Baalbek: Antiquarianism in the Ottoman Empire during the Seventeenth Century
Although it is generally thought that Muslims paid little attention to pre-Islamic antiquity, the Damascene scholar ʿAbd al-Ghanī al-Nābulusī visited and described the Roman ruins of Baalbek twice, in 1689 and 1700. He interpreted the site, however, not as a temple but as a palace built by jinns for Solomon. Nābulusī was very likely aware of the site's Roman past but purposefully played with its historicity to highlight Syria's innate sanctity. H…
The Almighty Akçe: The Economics of Scholarship and Science in the Early Modern Ottoman Empire
The Almighty Akçe: The Economics of Scholarship and Science in the Early Modern Ottoman Empire
Phanariot Tongues: The Mavrocordatos Family and the Power of the Turkish Language in the Eighteenth-Century Ottoman Empire
The Phanariots — Grecophone Christian elites who ruled the Danubian principalities in the eighteenth century — were the only non-Muslims in the Ottoman Empire who claimed power by virtue of their command of the Turkish language. Why were they the rare exception and what does their story reveal about the ways in which power and language were intertwined in the early modern Ottoman Empire? The implicit power relations embedded in the Turkish langua…
Vernacular Legalism in the Ottoman Empire: Confession, Law, and Popular Politics in the Debate over the “Religion of Abraham (millet-i Ibrāhīm)”
In the seventeenth century, Ottoman jurists repeatedly tried to stop Muslims from stating that they “belonged to the religion of Abraham.” A century earlier, however, the expression had been a core part of the new confessional identity of the empire’s Muslims. This article explores how the phrase changed from an attestation of faith to a sign of heresy through a study of a short pamphlet by Minḳārīzāde Yaḥyā Efendi. Minḳārīzāde argued that the us…
Reading Modernity in (and out) of the Ottoman Empire
Reading Modernity in (and out) of the Ottoman Empire Nir Shafir (bio) Keywords Early Modern, Manuscript Culture, Ottoman Empire The Ottomans certainly loved their books. From the massive book collections of bureaucrats to the books a father gifted to his daughter whom he affectionately called “Miss Molla (Monlā Ḫānım),” evidence of bibliophilia is never far off.1 Ottoman books were overwhelmingly copied by hand rather than printed, much to the su…
In an Ottoman Holy Land: The Hajj and the Road from Damascus, 1500-1800
Previous articleNext article FreeIn an Ottoman Holy Land: The Hajj and the Road from Damascus, 1500-1800Nir ShafirNir ShafirUniversity of California, San Diego Search for more articles by this author Full TextPDF Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditEmailQR Code SectionsMoreThis is the story of a holy land in the Middle East-but not the one you might expect. Cities like Jerusale…
Moral Revolutions: The Politics of Piety in the Ottoman Empire Reimagined
Over the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries an immense body of morality literature emerged in the Ottoman Empire as part of a widespread turn to piety. This article draws upon the anthropology of Islamic revival and secularism to reassess this literature's importance and propose a new view of the history of political thought in the empire. It does so through a close analysis of a fundamental concept of Ottoman political life: 'naṣīḥat,'or 'advic…
The international congress as scientific and diplomatic technology: Global intellectual exchange in the International Prison Congress, 1860–90
In the 1870s, the American prison reformer E. C. Wines attempted to bring together representatives from every country and colony in the world to discuss the administration and reform of the prison, under the auspices of the International Prison Congress. This article tackles the challenge by exploring how the international congress operated as both a social scientific technology and a diplomatic forum that emerged from this short-lived world of a…
Digital Frontiers of Ottoman Studies
Moral Revolutions: The Politics of Piety in the Ottoman Empire Reimagined
Over the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries an immense body of morality literature emerged in the Ottoman Empire as part of a widespread turn to piety. This article draws upon the anthropology of Islamic revival and secularism to reassess this literature's importance and propose a new view of the history of political thought in the empire. It does so through a close analysis of a fundamental concept of Ottoman political life: 'naṣīḥat,'or 'advic…
In an Ottoman Holy Land: The Hajj and the Road from Damascus, 1500-1800
Previous articleNext article FreeIn an Ottoman Holy Land: The Hajj and the Road from Damascus, 1500-1800Nir ShafirNir ShafirUniversity of California, San Diego Search for more articles by this author Full TextPDF Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditEmailQR Code SectionsMoreThis is the story of a holy land in the Middle East-but not the one you might expect. Cities like Jerusale…
The international congress as scientific and diplomatic technology: Global intellectual exchange in the International Prison Congress, 1860–90
In the 1870s, the American prison reformer E. C. Wines attempted to bring together representatives from every country and colony in the world to discuss the administration and reform of the prison, under the auspices of the International Prison Congress. This article tackles the challenge by exploring how the international congress operated as both a social scientific technology and a diplomatic forum that emerged from this short-lived world of a…
Digital Frontiers of Ottoman Studies
Nābulusī Explores the Ruins of Baalbek: Antiquarianism in the Ottoman Empire during the Seventeenth Century
Although it is generally thought that Muslims paid little attention to pre-Islamic antiquity, the Damascene scholar ʿAbd al-Ghanī al-Nābulusī visited and described the Roman ruins of Baalbek twice, in 1689 and 1700. He interpreted the site, however, not as a temple but as a palace built by jinns for Solomon. Nābulusī was very likely aware of the site's Roman past but purposefully played with its historicity to highlight Syria's innate sanctity. H…
The international congress as scientific and diplomatic technology: Global intellectual exchange in the International Prison Congress, 1860–90
In the 1870s, the American prison reformer E. C. Wines attempted to bring together representatives from every country and colony in the world to discuss the administration and reform of the prison, under the auspices of the International Prison Congress. This article tackles the challenge by exploring how the international congress operated as both a social scientific technology and a diplomatic forum that emerged from this short-lived world of a…
Digital Frontiers of Ottoman Studies
Moral Revolutions: The Politics of Piety in the Ottoman Empire Reimagined
Over the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries an immense body of morality literature emerged in the Ottoman Empire as part of a widespread turn to piety. This article draws upon the anthropology of Islamic revival and secularism to reassess this literature's importance and propose a new view of the history of political thought in the empire. It does so through a close analysis of a fundamental concept of Ottoman political life: 'naṣīḥat,'or 'advic…
Vernacular Legalism in the Ottoman Empire: Confession, Law, and Popular Politics in the Debate over the “Religion of Abraham (millet-i Ibrāhīm)”
In the seventeenth century, Ottoman jurists repeatedly tried to stop Muslims from stating that they “belonged to the religion of Abraham.” A century earlier, however, the expression had been a core part of the new confessional identity of the empire’s Muslims. This article explores how the phrase changed from an attestation of faith to a sign of heresy through a study of a short pamphlet by Minḳārīzāde Yaḥyā Efendi. Minḳārīzāde argued that the us…
Reading Modernity in (and out) of the Ottoman Empire
Reading Modernity in (and out) of the Ottoman Empire Nir Shafir (bio) Keywords Early Modern, Manuscript Culture, Ottoman Empire The Ottomans certainly loved their books. From the massive book collections of bureaucrats to the books a father gifted to his daughter whom he affectionately called “Miss Molla (Monlā Ḫānım),” evidence of bibliophilia is never far off.1 Ottoman books were overwhelmingly copied by hand rather than printed, much to the su…
In an Ottoman Holy Land: The Hajj and the Road from Damascus, 1500-1800
Previous articleNext article FreeIn an Ottoman Holy Land: The Hajj and the Road from Damascus, 1500-1800Nir ShafirNir ShafirUniversity of California, San Diego Search for more articles by this author Full TextPDF Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditEmailQR Code SectionsMoreThis is the story of a holy land in the Middle East-but not the one you might expect. Cities like Jerusale…
The Almighty Akçe: The Economics of Scholarship and Science in the Early Modern Ottoman Empire
The Almighty Akçe: The Economics of Scholarship and Science in the Early Modern Ottoman Empire
Phanariot Tongues: The Mavrocordatos Family and the Power of the Turkish Language in the Eighteenth-Century Ottoman Empire
The Phanariots — Grecophone Christian elites who ruled the Danubian principalities in the eighteenth century — were the only non-Muslims in the Ottoman Empire who claimed power by virtue of their command of the Turkish language. Why were they the rare exception and what does their story reveal about the ways in which power and language were intertwined in the early modern Ottoman Empire? The implicit power relations embedded in the Turkish langua…
Nābulusī Explores the Ruins of Baalbek: Antiquarianism in the Ottoman Empire during the Seventeenth Century
Although it is generally thought that Muslims paid little attention to pre-Islamic antiquity, the Damascene scholar ʿAbd al-Ghanī al-Nābulusī visited and described the Roman ruins of Baalbek twice, in 1689 and 1700. He interpreted the site, however, not as a temple but as a palace built by jinns for Solomon. Nābulusī was very likely aware of the site's Roman past but purposefully played with its historicity to highlight Syria's innate sanctity. H…
‘Commodities move easily, as can people… but ideas and cultural practices are easier to transplant than translate’: An interview with Nile Green
Nile Green is a historian of the multiple globalisations of Islam and Muslims. After beginning his career as a historian of India and Pakistan, he has traced Muslim networks that connect Afghanistan, Iran, the Indian Ocean, Africa, Japan, Europe, and America. He has published ten books on the subject, including the award-winning volumes Bombay Islam: The Religious Economy of the West Indian Ocean, 1840-1915 (Cambridge University Press, 2011) and …
The Poetic Gift: The Social and Material Life of the Arabic Travelogue in the Early Modern Ottoman Empire
Between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries, a strong intertextual tradition of travel writing emerged among Arab litterateurs of the Ottoman Empire. The authors of these works rarely, if ever, ventured beyond the boundaries of the empire. Instead, they described their journeys initially to Istanbul and then to other major Arab cities. These works detailed not foreign geographies or peoples but the poems these men encountered. The travelogues …
The Ottoman Scientific Heritage by Ekmeleddin İhsanoğlu (review)
History (7 works) · Islamic Studies and History (7 works) · Law (7 works) · Political science (7 works) · Empire (6 works) · History (6 works) · Law (6 works) · Politics (6 works) · Ancient history (5 works) · Art (5 works)