Academic Bio
Arlen Wiesenthal is a PhD student and historian of the Ottoman Empire whose research interests lie at the intersections of urban history and the social, cultural, and institutional histories of monarchy. While his central focus is the Ottoman world (circa 1300-1922) and the House of Osman (Al-i Osman), his work is more generally concerned with the ways that dynasties and dynastic institutions colour the experiences of those who inhabit imperial domains. His research at The University of Chicago examines the character and extent of the mobility of the Ottoman court in the period c. 1650-1750 and the social, cultural, economic, ecological, and demographic effects of the inter-local and intra-local movements of its court society both between and within the multiple “throne cities” of the empire (Istanbul, Edirne, Bursa) and among a network of intermediary waystations in Western Anatolia, Thrace, and the Balkans.
Broad areas of investigation include: Ottoman Dynasty; Social and Cultural History of Monarchy; Istanbul and Edirne as Imperial Cities; Courtly Mobility, Urbanity, and Environment; Animals and Empire; Hunting as an Imperial Institution; Historiography of the Ottoman "Middle" or "Post-classical" period (c. 1566-1789); Modern and Eurocentrisms; "The Unbelieved."