Kyle Capps

Kyle (he/him/his) studies the history of administrative systems utilized by early modern Islamicate empires. His research centers primarily on the semi-feudal land tenure (tımar/dirlik) system of the Ottoman Empire, tracing its evolution over the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. His prior research highlighted the range of perspectives and sources through which we can understand the multifaceted impact of Ottoman administration on bureaucrats, subjects, and diplomatic visitors. During his doctoral studies, he endeavors to expand on this topic by comparing different methods of administrative governance, both within the Ottoman Empire and among its contemporaries, to reconstruct the experience of imperial subjects through the contrasting governmental apparatuses that oversaw their lives. Furthermore, Kyle strives to elucidate the underlying influences on the Ottoman Empire’s administrative structures, positioning the Ottoman state at the confluence of differing cultural and political spheres of influence. His other interests include the development and propagation of Turco-Persianate culture during the medieval and early modern period, diplomatic relations between the Ottoman Empire and Iran, Ottoman historiography, and the intellectual frameworks embodied in the writings of Ottoman bureaucrats during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. 

Research Interests:

• Socio-economic history of the Ottoman Empire, 15th – 17th centuries
•  Administrative systems used by early modern Islamicate empires
• Turco-Persianate culture in Anatolia and Central Asia
• Cross-Cultural Interactions within the Balkans
• Diplomatic relations between the Ottoman Empire and Iran
• Ottoman historiography
• Ottoman nasihatnames and intellectual culture