Key details
Dr Michael Talbot
Associate Professor in the History of the Ottoman Empire and Modern Middle East
Michael's work examines a number of topics in Ottoman history, linked by the theme of global Ottoman relations and interactions. His research to date has examined Ottoman-British relations, Ottoman maritime history, Ottoman relations with Southeast Asia, Ottoman Algeria, and Ottoman Palestine. His current work focuses on global Ottoman consular networks and Ottoman communities in Britain and Ireland. Above all, Michael is deeply interested in Ottoman relations and interactions with the wider world, connecting different historical periods and geographies, and the question of what made something (or someone) Ottoman. He welcomes enquiries from prospective students interested in any of the above areas.
Michael is committed to bringing Ottoman history to a wider audience. In 2018 he became a BBC and Arts and Humanities Research Council 'New Generation Thinker' making shows for BBC Radio 3, and has appeared as an on-screen expert and historical consultant for the hit Netflix docudrama series 'Rise of Empires: Ottoman'.
Responsibilities within the university
Undergraduate teaching
- HIST1087 Making the Modern World: Europe, Asia, and Africa in the Long Nineteenth Century (Level 4)
- HIST1067 Empire and Nation in the Middle East (Level 5)
- HIST1074 Cities of the Sultans: Life in the Early Modern Ottoman Empire (Level 6)
- OTOP1096 School of Humanities and Social Sciences Work Placement (Level 6)
- Supervising undergraduate History dissertations and research projects in HIST1078 History in Practice
PhD supervision and teaching
- Chloe Emmott, 'British archaeology in Palestine, 1880-1930' (Vice Chancellor's Scholarship)
- Sebastian Rose, 'Imperial frontiers and technologies in Iran, 19th and early 20th centuries' (JCM Scholarship)
- PhD Historiography and Methodology seminar series
Administration and academic citizenship
- Student Success Strategic Project Lead: Personal Tutoring and Advising
- Co-convenor, University UK Advising and Tutoring accreditation training scheme
- Safeguarding Officer, Faculty of Liberal Arts and Sciences
- Co-lead, Greenwich Heritage Network
- Member, Centre for Culture, Language, and History
- Member, University Archive Steering Group
- Member, University Working Group on Antisemitism
- Member, University Pedagogic Research Special Interest Group
Awards
- 秋葵视频 Impact Development Fund Award (2023)
- A.M. Qattan Foundation Research Grant (2019)
- BBC and Arts and Humanities Research Council 'New Generation Thinker (2018)
- 秋葵视频 'Outstanding Achievement in Research' award (2018)
- Postdoctoral research at Universit茅 Paris 1 Panth茅on-Sorbonne on 'Mediterranean Reconfigurations' project (ConfigMed – ERC Advanced Grant No. 295868) (2014-2015)
- University of St Andrews conference organisation grant (2014)
- SOAS research travel grant contributing to fieldwork in Istanbul (2011)
- Gurnee Hart Scholarship funding fieldwork in Israel and Palestine (2006)
Recognition
- Fellow of the Royal Historical Society
- Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society
- Fellow of the Higher Education Academy
- Recognised Practitioner in Advising, UK Advising and Tutoring (UKAT)
- Honorary Secretary and trustee, Palestine Exploration Fund
- Trustee, British Community Council of Istanbul
Research / Scholarly interests
Michael's research interests and publication record covers a wide range of Ottoman history:
- Ottoman-British relations. Stemming from his doctoral research, Michael's primary research to-date has been in Ottoman-British diplomatic and commercial relations in the 18th century, examining the relationship between commerce, finance, and diplomatic practice through both British and Ottoman sources. More recent research is looking at Ottoman diplomats and communities in Britain and Ireland, including working with heritage institutions and community groups to tell local Ottoman stories.
- Ottoman maritime law and practice. Linked to his interests in diplomacy and commerce, Michael has written and presented widely about Ottoman maritime law and practice, particularly Ottoman responses to European maritime violence and piracy in the Mediterranean in the eighteenth century.
- Ottoman relations with Southeast Asia. Stemming from his work as a translator of Ottoman documents in the British Academy-funded project ‘Islam, Trade, and Politics Across the Indian Ocean' (2013-2014), Michael has developed research interests on Ottoman interactions with maritime Southeast Asia, especially Ottoman written and visual narratives of Aceh in the 19th century. He has been learning Indonesian and Malay in the Jawi script to bring in additional sources and perspectives.
- Ottoman Algeria. Michael’s postdoctoral research examined maritime legal space in Ottoman Algiers, and Algerian litigants in European commercial and admiralty courts, and he continues to research legal spaces and encounters in the Western Mediterranean.
- Ottoman Palestine. Using photographs and architecture alongside Ottoman Turkish, Arabic, and Hebrew sources, Michael has written about Ottoman imperial narratives within the context of Palestine, especially Jerusalem and Haifa.
- Ottomans and Japan. Michael has developed a deep interest in historical relations between the Ottoman Empire and Japan, as well as historical comparisons between the two contexts and the historiography of Ottoman history in Japan. He has been learning Japanese to further this project, and is developing links with Japanese institutions.
Michael can supervise doctoral research on a range of Ottoman, Middle Eastern, and global history topics, but is particularly interested in supervising students examining Ottoman diplomacy, Ottoman maritime activities, social and cultural histories of Ottoman provincial communities, Ottoman communities outside the empire, and histories of Ottoman and post-Ottoman Palestine.
Media activity
Television
- Talking head and historical consultant, 'Rise of Empires: Ottoman: The Conquest of Constantinople' (2020) and ‘Rise of Empires: Ottoman: Mehmed vs Vlad’ (2022), Netflix
- Historical consultant, 'Great British Bake Off', BBC 1
- Consultant, BBC Pronunciation Unit
Radio
- Guest, 'Free Thinking', BBC Radio 3
- Presenter, 'The Essay', BBC Radio 3
News expertise
- Interviewee, Al Jazeera English
- Interviewee, El Mundo
- Interviewee, Radio & Television Slovakia
Recent publications
Books
British-Ottoman Relations, 1661-1807: Commerce and Diplomatic Practice in Eighteenth-Century Istanbul. Woodbridge: Boydell & Brewer, 2017
Books as contributing author
Ottoman-Southeast Asian Relations: Sources from the Ottoman Archives, eds. 陌smail Hakk谋 Kad谋 and A.C.S. Peacock with contributions by Giancarlo Casale, Annabel Teh Gallop, R谋fat G眉nalan, Patricia Herbert, Jana Igunma, Midori Kawashima, Abraham Sakili and Michael Talbot. Leiden: Brill, 2019 (two volumes)
Journal articles
- ‘Perceiving Palestine: British Visions of the Holy Land’, Jerusalem Quarterly 82 (2020), 50-76 (co-written with Anne Caldwell and Chloe Emmott)
- 'Sparks of Happenstance: Photographs, Public Celebrations, and the Ottoman Military Band of Jerusalem', Journal of the Ottoman and Turkish Studies Association 5:1 (2018), 33-66
- 'Separating the Waters from the Sea: The Place of Islands in Ottoman Maritime Territoriality during the Eighteenth Century', Princeton Papers: Interdisciplinary Journal of Middle Eastern Studies 18 (2017), 61-86
- 'Protecting the Mediterranean: Ottoman Responses to Maritime Violence, 1718-1770', Journal of Early Modern History 21:4 (2017), 283-317
- 'When Proof Is Not Enough: An Ottoman Merchant in the Gibraltar Vice-Admiralty Court in the 1760s, Quaderni Storici 51:3 (2016), 753-776
- 'Gifts of time: Watches and Clocks in British-Ottoman Diplomacy, 1693-1803', Jahrbuch f眉r Europ盲ische Geschichte 17 (2016), 55-79
- '"Jews, be Ottomans!" Zionism, Ottomanism and Ottomanisation in the Hebrew Press, 1890-1914', Die Welt des Islams 56:3/4 (2016), 359-387
- 'Introduction: Contacts, Encounters, Practices: Ottoman-European Diplomacy, 1500-1800', Osmanl谋 Ara艧t谋rmalar谋 / The Journal of Ottoman Studies 48 (2016), 269-276 (co-written with Phil McCluskey, introduction to special edition on Ottoman-European diplomacy)
- 'A Treaty of Narratives: Friendship, Gifts, and Diplomatic History in the British Capitulations of 1641', Osmanl谋 Ara艧t谋rmalar谋 / The Journal of Ottoman Studies 48 (2016), 357-398
- 'Petitions of the Supplicant Ambassador: British Commercial Representations to the Ottoman State in the Eighteenth Century', Osmanl谋 Ara艧t谋rmalar谋 / The Journal of Ottoman Studies 46 (2015), 163-191
- 'The Exalted Column, the Hejaz Railway, and Imperial Legitimation in Late Ottoman Haifa', Urban History 42:2 (2015), 246-272
Chapters in edited volumes
- ‘Maritoriality’ in Riccardo Bavaj, Konrad Lawson & Bernhard Struck (eds.), Doing Spatial History (London: Routledge, 2021), 222-236.
- ‘The Limits of Cosmopolitanism: Ottoman Algiers in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries’ in Felicia Gottmann (ed.), Commercial Cosmopolitanism? Cross-Cultural Objects, Spaces, and Institutions in the Early Modern World (London: Routledge, 2021), 212-230.
- ‘Notes on Acema艧iran Kantosu Akl谋m Ba艧谋mdan’ in Elena Papadaki (ed.), Exhibiting the Analogue / Exhibiting the Digital: Afterthoughts on an Exhibition (London: 秋葵视频 Galleries / Incandescent Square, 2020), 68-73.
- .陌ngiliz Whig Tarih莽ili臒i ve Thomas Carlyle' [British Whig History and Thomas Carlyle] in Ahmet 艦im艧ek (ed.), D眉nyada Tarih莽ilik: D枚nemler, Okullar, Yakla艧谋mlar ve Tarih莽iler [World Historiography: Periods, Schools, Approaches, and Historians] (Ankara: Pegem Akademi, 2017), 125-136
- 'Accessing the Shadow of God: Spatial and Performative Ceremonial at the Ottoman Court' in Dries Raeymaekers & Sebastiaan Derks (eds.), The Key to Power? The Culture of Access in Princely Courts, 1400-1750 (Leiden: Brill, 2016), 101-123
- 'Tarih莽i gibi Ara艧t谋rmak: Tarih Ara艧t谋rmas谋na Ba艧lamak' [Researching like a Historian: Starting Historical Research] in Ahmet 艦im艧ek (ed.), Tarih i莽in Metodoloji [Methodology for History] (Ankara: Pegem Akademi, 2015), 216-220
- 'Ottoman Seas and British Privateers: Defining Maritime Territoriality in the Eighteenth-Century Levant' in Pascal W. Firges, Tobias P. Graf, Christian Roth & G眉lay Tulaso臒lu (eds.), Well-Connected Domains: Towards an Entangled Ottoman History (Leiden: Brill, 2014), 54-70
- 'Divine Imperialism: The British in Palestine, 1753-1842' in Martin Farr & Xavier Gu茅gan (eds.), The British Abroad Since the Eighteenth Century. Volume 2: Experiencing Imperialism (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013), 36-53
Ottoman History Podcast
(2018, interview with 3rd year 秋葵视频 Historians, Taylan G眉ng枚r, and Zeinab Azarbadegan)
(2018, interview with No茅mi L茅vy-Aksu and Taylan G眉ng枚r)
(2017, interview with Kalliopi Amygdalou)
(2017, collaborative podcast from a conference at Columbia University)
(2017, recorded in Yokohama, Japan)
(2017, interview with Pascale Barthe and Nir Shafir)
(2016, interview with Antonis Hadjikyriacou)
(2016, interview of Lauren Banko)
(2016, interview of Co艧kun Tuncer with Taylan G眉ng枚r)
(2016, interview of Philipp Wirtz with Taylan G眉ng枚r)
(2015, interviewed by Sam Dolbee, Arianne Urus, and G眉ne艧 I艧谋ksel)
Presentations
Recent invited papers
‘From the Abode of Holy War to the Waters of the Sublime State: Layers of law and maritoriality in the Ottoman Mediterranean’, Doshisha University, Kyoto, 9 March 2023
‘Diplomacy in action: Dispute resolution in 18th-century Ottoman-British relations’, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, 3 March 2023
‘Signs of sincere friendship: The rhetoric and practice of trust in 17th and 18th century Ottoman diplomacy’, International Conference on Islamic Trust Studies: Conflict and Harmony between State and Market, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies (online), 10-12 December 2021
'Palestine from the Sky: The British archives', Palestine from the Sky, A.M. Qattan Foundation, Ramallah, 3-7 December 2019
'Protecting the Mediterranean: Ottoman responses to maritime violence in the eighteenth century', Maritime History Seminar, King's College London, 25 April 2019
'The cacophonous history of the Ottoman band of Jerusalem', Palestine Exploration Fund Lecture, British Museum, 4 April 2019
'Consular networks, shipping routes, and the Ottoman world in the late 19th century', Byzantine, Ottoman, and Modern Greek Seminar, University of Birmingham, 7 March 2019
'Execrable music: The off-key history of the Ottoman band of Jerusalem', Arts & Humanities Research Council Lunchtime Research Seminar, AHRC HQ, Swindon, 18 December 2018.
'The late Ottoman refugee crisis and its contemporary relevance for Syria and Palestine', European Institute of the Mediterranean, Barcelona, 29 November 2018
'Cartoons, jokes, and politics in late Ottoman print culture', Ottomans at the Margins: Liberty and Social Life in the 19th Century Empire, London School of Economics, 26 February 2018
'Narratives of friendship in the Ottoman-British Capitulations of 1641', at Neuere Forschungen zur Osteurop盲ischen Geschichte, University of T眉bingen, 7 November 2016
'Constructing maritime space in the Ottoman Mediterranean in the eighteenth century' at Arabic and Middle East Studies Seminar series, University of Manchester, 18 October 2016
'Protecting the liquid empire: Approaches to maritime space in the eighteenth-century Ottoman Mediterranean', at Middle East History Group Seminar Series, University of Cambridge, 11 October 2016
'To protect the coasts from pirate brigands: Ottoman anti-piracy measures in the Eastern Mediterranean, 1718-70' at Greenwich Maritime Research Series, 秋葵视频/National Maritime Museum, 27 April 2016
Recent conference papers
‘Creative methods for teaching histories of the Middle East’, Creative History in the Classroom, Liverpool John Moores University (online), 10 November 2022
‘Narratives of Ottoman anti-colonialism and imperialism in Southeast Asia’, British Society for Middle Eastern Studies Annual Conference, University of Kent (online), 5-9 July 2021
'Peaceful commerce and the Abode of Holy War: Regulating Trade between Algiers and Western Europe in the eighteenth century', Middle East Studies Association Annual Conference, New Orleans 14-17 November 2019
Ottoman Istanbul as a model for studying diplomacy and urban space', Madrid, Urbe Diplom谩tica del Siglo XVII, Museo Nacional del Prado, 19-20 September 2019
'Voices of the victims: Ottoman policies towards piracy and privateering in the eighteenth-century Mediterranean' , The Problem of Piracy, University of Strathclyde, 24-26 June 2019
'Voices of refugees: Algerians and Cretans in late Ottoman Palestine', Narratives and Narrations of Migration in the Eastern Mediterranean, R眉hr Universit盲t Bochum, 14 February 2019
'British ambassador, Ottoman official? Gifts and Ottoman universalism in the eighteenth century', Gifts and Tribute in Early Modern Diplomacy: Global Perspectives, University of Warwick in Venice, 8 December 2018
'Ottoman proposals for mediation during the War of the Austrian Succession', Splendid Encounters VII, Palace of the Grand Dukes of Lithuania, Vilnius, 27-28 September 2018
'The Rhetoric of Mediation in the Ottoman Empire in the mid-eighteenth century', Conflict Management in Modern Diplomacy, 1500-1914, University of Vienna, 8-10 February 2018
'Passports for Refugees: Algerians in Palestine in the 1890s', American Historical Association Annual Conference, Washington DC, 4-7 January 2018
'Gifts and Sociability in Ottoman-British Relations in the Eighteenth Century', Politics and Sociability in a Transcultural Context: The Diplomatic Milieu in Istanbul during the Long Eighteenth Century, German Institute, Paris, 17 November 2017
'Provisioning the Guardians of the Sea: Naval Logistics and the Eighteenth-Century Ottoman Mediterranean Fleet', Das Meer: Maritime Welten in der Fr眉he Neuzeit / The Sea: Maritime Worlds in the Early Modern Period, Herzog August Bibliothek Wolfenb眉ttel, 5-7 October 2017
'Resistance, equality, civilisation: Ottoman imperialism and anti-imperialism in Southeast Asia in the later nineteenth century', In-Between Empires: Trans-Imperial History in a Global Age, Freie Universit盲t, Berlin, 15-16 September 2017
'The limits of cosmopolitanism: Algerian merchants and European commercial courts in the later eighteenth century', Commercial Cosmopolitanism? Policing Contact Zones and Governing "Multinationals" in the Early Modern World', The Scottish Centre for Global History, University of Dundee, 2-3 June 2017
'The filth of the Abode of Felicity: Sewers, stinks, and the late Ottoman Empire', Everyday Empires: Trans-Imperial Circulations in a Multidisciplinary Perspective, University of Birmingham, 25-26 May 2017
'A photographic microhistory of late Ottoman Jerusalem' at Visual Sources in Late Ottoman History, Columbia University, New York, 20 April 2017
'Ottoman views of European empire in Southeast Asia', at Ottoman Global History, European University Institute, Florence, 10 February 2017
'Negotiators, not diplomats: Ambassadors and the notion of friendship in Ottoman-British relations', at Towards a Transcultural History of Diplomacy, Institute for Advanced Studies on Asia, University of Tokyo, 9-11 December 2016
'Protecting the Mediterranean: Ottoman legal and naval responses to maritime violence in the eighteenth century', at Middle East Studies Association annual conference, Boston, 17-20 November 2016
'The sea' at Spatial History and Its Sources, University of St Andrews, 2 September 2016
'Resistance, equality, civilization: Ottoman views of empire in Southeast Asia in the later nineteenth century', at Imperial Comparisons. University of Oxford, 8-9 July 2016
'Encounters on the face of the wide ocean: Ottoman and North African notions of shared maritime space in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries' at Sharing Space in the Early Modern World, 1450-1750, University of Oxford, 24-25 June 2016
'The clarion of Islam in Ayrshire: Islam and Ottoman pan-Islamism in Scotland at the turn of the twentieth century' at Britain and the World 2016, King's College London, 22-24 June 2016
'Separating the waters from the sea: The place of islands in Ottoman maritime territoriality in the eighteenth century' at Insularities Connected: Bridging Seascapes from the Mediterranean to the Indian Ocean and Beyond, Institute for Mediterranean Studies, Rethymno, Crete, 10-12 June 2016
'The requisites of civilization? Satirical critiques of "the West" in the later Ottoman Empire' at Nature, Culture and Civilisation: Talking About and Beyond "the West" (1860-1940), University of St Andrews, 3 June 2016
'The vizier and the wizard: Authority, corruption, and bewitchment in an Ottoman frontier city in the late eighteenth century' at Supernatural Cities, University of Portsmouth, 30 April 2016
'Filth on the Golden Horn: Sewage and sewers in Ottoman Kas谋mpa艧a and Ka臒谋thane', at Firths and Fjords: A Coastal History Conference. University of the Highlands and Islands, 30 March – 2 April 2016