Edited volumes by Maximilian Hartmuth
After the failed Siege of Vienna of 1683, the Ottoman Empire gradually withdrew from Europe. Even... more After the failed Siege of Vienna of 1683, the Ottoman Empire gradually withdrew from Europe. Even so, monumental reminders of its former presence survived across the continent. The contributors to this volume show that the various successor states adopted substantially different approaches towards their Ottoman architectural inheritance. Even within the same countries, different policies appear to have been pursued in different periods, in keeping with differing circumstances. Case studies inquire from diverse vantage points how this heritage has been coped with discursively and materially. Importantly, readers will find that it is almost impossible to disentangle these two levels of action.
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Der Sammelband „Gezimmertes Morgenland" widmet sich einem wenig erforschten Phänomen der europä... more Der Sammelband „Gezimmertes Morgenland" widmet sich einem wenig erforschten Phänomen der europäischen Orientfaszination: den sogenannten „Arabischen Zimmern", die im Laufe des 19. Jahrhunderts Einzug in zahlreiche Adelssitze, großbürgerliche Wohnungen aber auch Museen hielten. Elf internationale ExpertInnen analysieren dieses Phänomen erstmals in einem breiten Umfang, indem sie nicht nur einzelne Interieurs beschreiben, sondern die Rezeption und Reproduktion zunächst als Distinktionsmerkmal adeliger und bürgerlicher Repräsentation erkennen und darauf aufbauend sowohl die marktorientierten Interessen als auch die wissenschaftliche Faszination daran anhand von Beispielen aus ganz Europa verdeutlichen.
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In the vast expanse of lands in the Mediterranean and Near East that came under Muslim sway in an... more In the vast expanse of lands in the Mediterranean and Near East that came under Muslim sway in and after the seventh century, the spread of Islam at the expense of Christianity was a more gradual process than is often acknowledged. While the status of Christians was indeed reduced to that of a tolerated community, the production of religious art within such congregations was not brought to a halt (as the silence about it in traditional art history might suggest). Rather, it simply continued, and often very productively, under different precepts. While some examples, such as the art of Mozarabs and Copts, are better known, Christian artistic production in other Muslim contexts and in the period after the Mongol invasion is less explored. Moreover, there have been few attempts to integrate this body of art into mainstream art history.
The workshop from which most of these papers were collected sought to explore to what extent this art produced under non-Christian rule, when collected together, irrespective of period and region, can serve as a useful frame for analysis. It aimed to do so by bringing together scholars working on different territories in the Islamic world between the seventh and nineteenth centuries to present and discuss case studies with a view to identifying common threads.
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There has been a tendency to view the history of the Balkans as essentially determined by histori... more There has been a tendency to view the history of the Balkans as essentially determined by historical legacies. Whether in scholarly literature or in popular discourse, the Ottoman or Habsburg pasts are thought to be accountable for a large variety of phenomena ranging from democratic culture (or the lack thereof) and adaptability to a free market economy to nepotism and the filthiness of public facilities. By contrast, the papers in this volume demonstrate that "legacies" are not unchanging determinants. Instead, they are very much open to constant reinterpretations and re-assessments depending on conditions in the present; they are, in short, as much shaped by the present as they are by the past.
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Is there a crisis in Balkan Studies? Most recent commentators did not put it as drastically but h... more Is there a crisis in Balkan Studies? Most recent commentators did not put it as drastically but have still noted a number of problems, among which being: 1) the limited impact of professional history-writing on more popular renderings and understandings of history; 2) the seeming reluctance of scholars to take up theoretical and methodological innovations and approaches as pioneered and adopted in the historical writing on other regions, as well as in related disciplines in the social sciences and humanities; 3) a sustained conservatism with regard to nation/identity as the principal object of historical study in the region. 4) Balkan Studies in the West's perceived mandate for the deconstruction of nationalist myths cultured by the the regional historiographies; and 5) the question in how far researchers’ self-limitation to a European geography in approaching things Balkan is sound or, to the contrary, precisely a limitation.
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Papers by Maximilian Hartmuth
Maximilian Hartmuth, "Forging a Habsburg Muslim elite: The architecture of the Islamic Law School (Scheriatsrichterschule) in Sarajevo, 1887–1889," in: Beiträge zur Islamischen Kunst und Archäologie, VIII (2022), 51-67.
Under Habsburg rule in Bosnia-Herzegovina (1878-1918) there was significant building activity in ... more Under Habsburg rule in Bosnia-Herzegovina (1878-1918) there was significant building activity in regard to the Muslim community's infrastructure. Architects and engineers trained in Vienna and other centres of the monarchy found employment in Bosnia, where they drafted plans for mosques, schools, mausoleums and other buildings serving a predominantly Muslim public. The style found most appropriate for such projects was an eclectic blend of elements drawn from various Islamic artistic traditions: from Spain, from Egypt, and-to an extent that perhaps has not been duly appreciated-also the local Ottoman heritage. This paper focuses on the former Islamic Law School in Sarajevo, built between 1887 and 1889 according to a design by Karl Pařík, a Bohemian student of Theophil Hansen. The portal and the windows' horseshoe arch forms too quickly give away its stylistic orientation on an Islamic heritage external to Bosnia's Ottoman tradition. In my reconstruction of the building's planning and design I attempt to draw a more nuanced picture.
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TheMA: Open Access Research Journal for Theatre, Music, Arts VIII/1-2, 2019
Der Binnenbalkan war zur Mitte des 19. Jahrhunderts einer zeitgenössischen Wortmeldung zufolge no... more Der Binnenbalkan war zur Mitte des 19. Jahrhunderts einer zeitgenössischen Wortmeldung zufolge noch so wenig bekannt wie das Innere Afrikas. Die Tatsache, dass die Region überhaupt ein bedeutsames künstlerisches Erbe aufzuweisen hatte, schien nicht wenige der "Entdecker" zu überraschen. Ihre Karrieren waren meist mit der Reichshauptstadt verbunden, deren Einrichtungen die kunsthistorische Erschließung Südosteuropas vor dem ersten Weltkrieg maßgeblich förderten. Ziel meines Beitrags ist, das wissenschaftliche Interesse an der Region nach 1850 zu verfolgen und dabei auch der Frage nachzugehen, warum sich Wien, trotz vielsprechenden Anfängen und räumlicher Nähe, nicht dauerhaft als Zentrum der Balkan-Kunstgeschichtsforschung etablieren konnte.
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This paper presents an analysis and interpretation of the ‘Dictionary of South Slav artists’, a c... more This paper presents an analysis and interpretation of the ‘Dictionary of South Slav artists’, a compilation of artists’ biographies by the Illyrian and later Croat nationalist Ivan Kukuljevic Sakcinski. Released in 1858 after many years of research, it was modelled on earlier publication projects that had helped produce a modern literary genre flexible enough to be used to further agendas beyond a disinterested quest for knowledge. Kukuljevic was a cultural-political activist intent on advancing the standing of Slavic communities in the Habsburg monarchy’s south and neighbouring territories. His ‘Dictionary’, as I shall argue, must be understood as an essay in national pedigree building. Disputing the ‘ownership’ of objects, monuments and outstanding historical personalities, it promoted a sense of collective cultural self.
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Postcolonial Studies, 2014
This article examines the attention paid to the cultural heritage of Southeast European societies... more This article examines the attention paid to the cultural heritage of Southeast European societies by the academic and governmental circles of the Habsburg capital between 1848 and 1918. At the beginning of this period, pioneering studies were published both on regions within the monarchy such as Dalmatia, Hungary, and Bucovina, and neighbouring territories such as Serbia, Walachia, and Moldavia. The central role of Vienna in facilitating knowledge production on this region was retained well into the twentieth century. Recent research has repeatedly pointed out that the institutional establishment of the discipline of art history in Vienna during the second half of the nineteenth century was decisively shaped by factors such as the accelerating economic modernization, the heightening tensions between the nationalities within the Habsburg Monarchy, and the onset of the monarchy's decline following the territorial losses in Italy. In order to counterbalance these processes by promoting the idea of a joint cultural heritage as a unifying imperial concept, research bodies such as the Institute for Austrian Historical Research and the empire's monuments protection office were set up. A number of publications by leading figures of the so-called Vienna School of Art History are informed by these aims of cultural policy, for – regardless of their innovative methodology – they convey notions of a civilizing mission to be imparted by art history with regard to specific peripheral regions of the monarchy as well as neighbouring countries. These aspects of the discourse have thus far largely been addressed in relation to publications from the Vienna School milieu dating to around 1900. Instead, this paper focuses on a number of mid-nineteenth century scholars who uncovered the artistic heritage of several peripheral regions and brought it to the attention of a wider European academic public for the first time. Next to the efforts of outstanding individuals, the significance of institutions, such as the imperial monuments protection office or the network of applied art schools in the region, will be discussed.
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Material Evidence and Narrative Sources, 2014
This chapter examines oral traditions as they pertain to the origins and historical contexts of O... more This chapter examines oral traditions as they pertain to the origins and historical contexts of Ottoman monuments erected in the Balkans. The author focuses on one specific monument, a sixteenth-century mosque in the Bosnian-Herzegovinian town of Foca, which was destroyed during the war in 1993. He evaluates how the content of an oral tradition recorded in the late nineteenth century, that narrated the foundation of this mosque three centuries earlier, relates to information gathered from textual sources and material evidence. The Mosque of Focan included a detailed oral tradition about the circumstances of its construction. In its design, the monument is a typical example of a medium-sized provincial congregational mosque: it is a near-cube measuring approximately 14 m square, constructed of limestone blocks, surmounted by a hemispherical dome with an internal diameter of approximately 11 m, and it is entered through a three-bay portico with three cupolas. Keywords: Balkans; Bosnian-Herzegovinian town; Foca; sixteenth-century mosque
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Well-Connected Domains, 2014
The last few decades witnessed a steep increase in research on museums, both on individual establ... more The last few decades witnessed a steep increase in research on museums, both on individual establishments and on the museum as a social institution. This chapter examines a case of what might be described as a civic initiative for the establishment of one museum in the early years of the Ottoman age of reforms. It broadens current understandings of museums in the Ottoman Empire by balancing the centrist perspective of existing studies on this issue and the resulting conception of the emergence of museology and archaeology in the Ottoman realm as the result of a negotiation of power between civilizational metropolises, preferably on the axis Paris and Istanbul. The chapter discusses the case of a Bosnian friar and his project for a systematic collection of antiquities and its conversion into what he called a "museum". It also reflects the implications of this episode for the historiography of the Ottoman Empire. Keywords: archaeology; Bosnian friar; Istanbul; Ottoman Empire; Turkish museum
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This thesis seeks to shed light on the production of art and architecture in the Ottoman Empire –... more This thesis seeks to shed light on the production of art and architecture in the Ottoman Empire – and more specifically its provinces in the European mainland – from the perspective of the artist, that is, the producer. Above all, I am interested in the question of the place we are to give to the individual artist in the historical narrative of the art and architecture in the Ottomans' European provinces between the fourteenth and nineteenth centuries. In recognition of the fact that the same individuals or workshops are recorded as involved in the construction and decoration of mosques, churches, residences, and other building types, I have studied works by both Islamic and Christian patrons and artists. In contrast to a traditional line in art-historical scholarship that supposes both the autonomy of art and creative genius underlying "great works of art," I am more interested in the "negative" factors in the processes of design and production, such as limitations due to traditions, conventions, and codes of decorum. I also study the "provincial artist" not merely in his relation to his better-known counterpart in the West or to singular personages in Istanbul, but as operating within a concrete system of Ottoman social practices. Rather than on the cases of artists whose careers were so exceptional that they were passably documented, the focus of my dissertation is on the identification and rationalization of trends, patterns, dynamics, and structures from a longue duree perspective.
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Turkish Historical Review, 2011
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Monographs concerned with aspects of the artistic heritage of the Balkan Peninsula are an absolut... more Monographs concerned with aspects of the artistic heritage of the Balkan Peninsula are an absolute rarity, and even more so when they are published in western languages. Martina Baleva’s book on the image in a nineteenth-century Bulgarian context is a most welcome addition to a body of critical literature that is only beginning to emerge. The informative introduction reveals that the author’s interest in pursuing an inquiry along these lines was awakened during her studies at the Freie Universitat Berlin, where she came to be exposed to theories of nationhood that sounded, as she writes, ‘quasi-heretical’ to someone hailing from the Balkans. The ethnically-defined nation, so it was now claimed, was not a matter of fact, but a bourgeois construct that dated back no further than two centuries. To become palatable to various social strata, it had to be promoted through visual and other media. Eventually, state institutions that work to reproduce existing society, such as schools and un...
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International Journal of Islamic Architecture, 2013
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There has been a tendency to view the history of the Balkans as essentially determined by histori... more There has been a tendency to view the history of the Balkans as essentially determined by historical legacies. Whether in scholarly literature or in popular discourse, the Ottoman or Habsburg pasts are thought to be accountable for a large variety of phenomena ranging from democratic culture (or the lack thereof) and adaptability to a free market economy to nepotism and the filthiness of public facilities. By contrast, the papers in this volume demonstrate that "legacies" are not unchanging determinants. Instead, they are very much open to constant reinterpretations and re-assessments depending on conditions in the present; they are, in short, as much shaped by the present as they are by the past. (Series: Studien zur Geschichte, Kultur und Gesellschaft Sudosteuropas - Vol. 10)
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Edited volumes by Maximilian Hartmuth
The workshop from which most of these papers were collected sought to explore to what extent this art produced under non-Christian rule, when collected together, irrespective of period and region, can serve as a useful frame for analysis. It aimed to do so by bringing together scholars working on different territories in the Islamic world between the seventh and nineteenth centuries to present and discuss case studies with a view to identifying common threads.
Papers by Maximilian Hartmuth
The workshop from which most of these papers were collected sought to explore to what extent this art produced under non-Christian rule, when collected together, irrespective of period and region, can serve as a useful frame for analysis. It aimed to do so by bringing together scholars working on different territories in the Islamic world between the seventh and nineteenth centuries to present and discuss case studies with a view to identifying common threads.
generalizations on account of their essentialist angle. When the models developed appear to work, they often do so only for limited areas or limited periods of time. My paper strives to emphasize that ‘Ottoman city‐building’, in any period, must be understood not as a linear but as a cumulative process. Just what I mean by that will be exemplified through a closer analysis of how architectural projects in fifteenth‐century Skopje were related not only to the pre‐Ottoman topography but also to each other. Significant, too, was the standing of the city in which they materialized toward other cities, the countryside, and neighboring areas. For each place formed part of a larger system, or network, in which specific actions became meaningful.
This survey seeks to contextualize formal phenomena with broader developments in Ottoman society and the architecture it produced. It also suggests a system of presentation along four broad periods, however uneven. It seeks to identify and analyse their characteristics and the position of individual monuments in them. Notwithstanding its incompleteness and the gravity of certain omissions, I hope that the resulting narrative is conclusive enough to bring forth a more nuanced understanding of this architectural heritage – not as a the quasi‐automatic product of an essentialized 'culture' present in a given area at a given time, but as the consequence of a complex set of interactions between people and groups with different interests, agendas, and points of reference. It is the logic of their resolution to alter, through sponsoring architecture, Macedonian cities' monumental topography that I shall seek to reconstruct.
* Plan to write a review? Order a review copy here: Corinna Popp - popp@narr.de
* Vollzitat:
Clemens Ruthner & Tamara Scheer (Hg.), Bosnien-Herzegowina und Österreich-Ungarn: Annäherungen an eine Kolonie, Tübingen: Francke, 2018 (= Kultur – Herrschaft – Differenz 24).
ISBN: 978-3-7720-8604-5
Verlagsseite: https://www.narr.de/bosnien-herzegowina-und-osterreich-ungarn-1878-1918-38604
more than half a century later, it is worthy to revisit the topic with the organization of an international conference in orde r to trace the current condition of fields such as the research and conservation of Ottoman architecture , urban formation, the history of the city, as well as both Ottoman and Christian art with a focus in Greece