Scientiae 2025: Istanbul, 16-19 September, Annual Conference

Session

S.4.5. Reframing Knowledge: Critical Approaches to Historiography, Evidence, and Representation

19 Sept 2025, 11:00

ROOM 1 (Amfi 8) (Istanbul University Faculty of Letters)

Conveners

S.4.5. Reframing Knowledge: Critical Approaches to Historiography, Evidence, and Representation

• Utku Can Akın (University of Toronto)
• Andre Araujo (University of Brasilia)
• Gül Kale (Carleton University)

Description

Chair: Kaan Üçsu

How Not to Contextualise Materialism in Ottoman Historiography

Utku Can Akın

19/09/2025, 11:00

Individual papers

This paper provides an in-depth examination of the narrative surrounding “Ottoman materialism” in late Ottoman historiography, focusing particularly on the common assumptions clustered around the Ṭıbbiyye (Medical School) students. While mainstream accounts often conceptualise the so-called “Ottoman modernisation” by contending that institutions such as the Ḥarbiyye (Military Academy), the...

The Graphic (Re)Configuration of Historical Evidence: The Collective Construction of Diplomatics in Eighteenth-Century Germany

Andre Araujo (University of Brasilia (Brazil))

19/09/2025, 11:20

Individual papers

This paper explores the collective and material construction of historical knowledge in the Early Modern period, a dimension often neglected in historiography. While traditional studies emphasize epistemological foundations and the uses of history, this research highlights the collaborative processes underlying the production of printed artifacts. It argues that historical knowledge emerged...

A Critical Historiography of the Intersection Between History of Architecture and Science in the Islamic World

Gul Kale (Carleton University)

19/09/2025, 11:40

Individual papers

This paper will look at the intersection between architecture and the history of science in the Islamic world, focusing on the early modern Ottoman empire. It will particularly discuss the role of mathematical sciences in relation to architectural practices. Whereas geometry and arithmetic were important in various artistic practices, their use constantly changed, altering architectural...