Murat Umut Inan

Biography and/or project

I specialize in literary, cultural and intellectual histories of the Ottoman Empire and the wider Islamic World. My teaching and research focuses on the multilingual literary, cultural and intellectual production in the Ottoman world, with an emphasis on the flow and interaction of people, texts and ideas in a region extending from the Balkans through Anatolia into Iran and the Arab lands. I am completing a book manuscript entitled Persian, Persians and the Making of Ottoman Imperial Literary and Intellectual Culture, 1400-1600, which explores the reception of the Persian language and classics in Ottoman cultural and intellectual history during the period of empire building. By examining the relationship between language, culture, identity and imperialism in the Ottoman context, the book aims to bring new insights into Ottoman cultural and intellectual history and to contribute, on a larger scale, to our understanding of early modern imperial systems.