We are pleased to announce that the Institute for Advanced Studies on Asia will host a Tobunken Seminar featuring Professor Betül İpşirli Argıt, a renowned specialist in the history of the Ottoman palace and its personnel. Professor İpşirli Argıt is from Marmara University, Turkey, and has been a visiting researcher at IASA since July 2025.
In this seminar, Professor İpşirli Argıt will focus on the male personnel of the Ottoman imperial palace and examine, in particular, their social origins and their career strategies.
This seminar will be held both in person and online. To register for this event, please fill in the form.
Date and time: August 27, 2025 (Wed), 3pm~5pm
Venue: Institute for Advanced Studies on Asia, First Conference Room (304)/Zoom
https://www.ioc.u-tokyo.ac.jp/en/access/
Speaker: Betül İpşirli Argıt (Marmara University / IASA Visiting Researcher)
Title: Social and Professional Profiles of Members of the Ottoman Imperial Court: A Prosopographic Study (1600-1789)
Chair: Jun Akiba (IASA, U Tokyo)
Registration form: https://forms.gle/puASxvzrFuKT9yJR6 (Deadline: August 26, 2025, 6pm)
Lecture abstract:
This research project focuses on the male palace personnel at the Ottoman imperial court who were positioned at several levels in various departments of the imperial palace organization in 1600-1789. It concentrates on the various aspects of their lives in order to construct their profiles and trace the changing patterns in an extensive span of time extending from the beginning of the seventeenth century to the end of the eighteenth century. This study examines the profiles and the personal experiences of palace-affiliated people from various angles. In particular, it will focus on the social origins of the examined group and their career strategies. The study will then incorporate a comparative perspective with the Japanese experience, taking into consideration the members of the Tokugawa shogun’s palace and the emperor’s palace in the Edo period.
*This seminar is supported by JSPS Invitational Fellowships for Research in Japan.
Contact: Jun Akiba j-akiba[a]ioc.u-tokyo.ac.jp