Scholars and Mobility: A Preliminary Assessment from the Perspective of al-Shaqayiq al-Nu‘maniyya

Abstract

The present discussion of trans-regional mobility brings into question what I call ‘the institutional approach’ in the studies of the Ottoman ‘ulama’. By institutional approach I mean studying the ‘ulama’ as a well-defined institution well-integrated with the Ottoman state. This approach does not necessarily pay attention to the question of how the Ottoman scholarly world came into being and how it interacted with the larger scholarly and political world outside the Ottoman territories. Examining the mobility of Ottoman scholars can be a first step in that direction.