Thomas Kaufmann. „Türckenbüchlein“: Zur christlichen Wahrnehmung „türkischer Religion“ in Spätmittelalter und Reformation. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2008. 299 S. EUR 59.90 (cloth), ISBN 978-3-525-55222-3.
Reviewed by Charlotte C. Smith (School of Historical Studies, University of Melbourne)
Published on H-German (July, 2009)
Commissioned by Susan R. Boettcher
Images and Islam: Turkish Pamphlets in the Early Modern Period
The title of this book serves as a reminder that questions of Islam and the people of the Middle East have long been considered in western thought. The sometimes fraught relationship between the Christian world and Islam did not end with the Crusades, but continued with the expansion of the Ottoman Empire, following the 1453 capture of Constantinople by Ottoman forces. This book explores the religious and historical incidents that contributed to the variety of attitudes about "the Turks," or inhabitants of the Ottoman Empire in the early modern period, and how these stances impacted religious ideas in Christian Europe, especially during the Reformation. The work can be regarded as an introduction to sixteenth-century pamphlets about Turks, or Türkenbüchlein, and the historical context of the period in which they were created. It includes the most important images as well as extensive bibliographies of primary and secondary material in multiple languages. Freer access to archives and library holdings of Türkenbüchlein in the last fifty years has enabled this work to expand on the scholarship from the mid-twentieth century, such as Carl Göllner's seminal, three-volume bibliography of Turcica.[1]
Thomas Kaufmann's book is mainly concerned with pamphlets produced in German-speaking areas in the late Middle Ages and early Reformation, though a few Venetian works are included. This mix of pamphlets, broadsheets, single-leaf woodcuts, and book sections showcases some of the various ways in which the Ottoman Turk and their religion were regarded by sixteenth-century writers and artists. The pamphlets considered in this book are drawn from the period following 1453. They deal with the religious and political struggle in Christian areas that led to the Reformation and the conflict between the church in Rome and Reformist leaders that followed. Development and use of print technology during this time meant that the ideas spread in pamphlet and image form could be distributed in a greater number of copies and more widely than had previously been the case. The twenty-five illustrations included are some of the most reproduced or symbolic images from the Türkenbüchlein. Kaufmann includes illustrations included in pamphlets, as well as images from woodcut series, broadsheets, and book sections. Although these by no means constitute the main part of the text, their inclusion and the short but detailed notes of explanation make the book an invaluable tool for art historians or cultural historians working with images. Several of the pamphlets contain violent illustrations, especially those produced in the direct aftermath of the military expansion by the Ottoman Empire into the rest of Europe, including the sieges of Mohács and Vienna. Many of the theologians and pamphleteers whose works are included wrote of the military nature of Islam especially as the threat of war grew closer.
Kaufmann's focus falls on religious arguments raised by fifteenth- and sixteenth-century writers, especially among theologians confronted with internal and external religious questions through the perceived threat of Islam who were dealing with the issues that ultimately led to the Reformation. His scholarship is especially interesting on several of the questions dealing with perceived ideas about Islam within Christianity and Christendom and how these changed during the Reformation and the expansion of the Ottoman Empire. He also writes interestingly about the early modern theological discourse of the Turk as the "archenemy" of Christians. Significantly, he points out the labeling of theological enemies as "Turk" after the Reformation, whether they were followers of the pope or belonged to Reformist movements, a grouping not intuitively obvious to the modern reader.
The sections on the history and background of the conversions from Christianity to Islam and vice versa are particularly insightful in their discussion of the Turkish religion and its peculiarities as seen by early modern theologians and pamphleteers, including the notion of the "anti-Christian Mass," which emphasized the violence and strange religious practices said to have taken place. The section on the Koran as a source for the "Turkish religion" considers how Christian theological "experts" used it, especially in writings against Mohammed and Islam. Specific sections of the Bible, the New Testament, and prophecies are discussed in relation to how early modern theologians associated these with the Turk.
The text is relatively short, but contains explanations of the key historical points of the period. The main body of the text is only sixty pages, and reads as an extended article. This is not a criticism, as this section includes all the significant facts about the time from a historical and church-historical perspective. The most important function of the book is as an expanded bibliography or literature review, including all of the major works produced and a large selection of the types of images produced in pamphlet, print series, or broadsheet form. The endnotes are longer than the main body of the text and provide explanations and commentary necessary to give scholars all the background they need for reading the pamphlet sources. All of the major pamphlet works of the period are considered, and the footnotes augment and expand upon the original text.
This book is an excellent bibliographical resource, citing all the primary and secondary works about Turkish pamphlets and the historical context in which they were created. Kaufmann has drawn on all of the major works in order to define and explain the relationship between Christian Europe and the people of the Ottoman Empire during this pivotal time. The primary- and secondary-source lists are extensive, but it is especially impressive how they have been used in the notes. These give context to the Turkish pamphlets and the ways in which they were used when they were created and how they related to the events of the period.
The work stands on its own merits and can be used as either an introduction to the early modern Ottoman relations with Christendom moving into the Reformation, or to corroborate and expand the knowledge of experts in this field. It is written for scholars, but the amount of information provided will be useful to those with a more general interest in the relationship between Christendom and the Ottoman Empire from the fifteenth to seventeenth centuries, pamphlets of the period, or the ways that these ideas fit into the cultural and religious upheavals of the time.
Note
[1]. Carl Göllner, Die Türkenfrage in der öffentlichen Meinung Europas im 16. Jahrhundert, 3 vols. (Bucharest: Akademie Verlage, 1961-1978).
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Citation:
Charlotte C. Smith. Review of Kaufmann, Thomas, „Türckenbüchlein“: Zur christlichen Wahrnehmung „türkischer Religion“ in Spätmittelalter und Reformation.
H-German, H-Net Reviews.
July, 2009.
URL: http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=24356
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