Gottfried Hagen

Gottfried Hagen is Professor of Turkish Studies in the Department of Middle East Studies. He teaches a broad range of courses on Turkish, Ottoman, and Islamicate cultural history, as well as Ottoman language. In his research, he asks how Ottoman culture constructed the globe and the universe, space, self, and others. Hence, he is interested in representations of space such as geographical writing, travelogues, and maps, as well as the narrative representation of the past in chronicles, hagiographies, and other literary texts. These questions hinge on the role of religion, specifically Islam, as a means to understand the order of the cosmos and to attribute meaning to the human experience. His publications include his book Ein osmanischer Geograph bei der Arbeit. Entstehung und Gedankenwelt von Katib Çelebis Gihannnüma (2003), numerous journal articles, and book chapters in volumes such as Evliya Çelebi-An Ottoman Mentality, by Robert Dankoff (2004), Legitimizing the Order: The  Ottoman Rhetoric of State Power, ed. by Maurus Reinkowski and Hakan Karateke (2005), and Exploring Other Worlds: New Studies on the Prophet Muhammad's Ascension (Mi‘raj) ed. by Christiane Gruber and Frederic Colby (2009). Currently, he is working on a study of Ottoman narratives of the life of the Prophet Muhammad. Other aspects of his work include translations, myths, as well as Western travel and Orientalism.

Field(s) of Study

• Turkish Studies
  Islamic Studies

Language(s) and Proficiency Level(s):

• Fluency in German, English, and Turkish
• Limited fluency in Russian, Arabic, and French
• Reading knowledge of Ottoman Turkish, Persian, Italian, Spanish, Latin
• Basics of Biblical Hebrew and Middle Syriac