Acknowledgments

This volume has its origins in a workshop entitled “(Re)Thinking Ottoman Sunnitization, ca. 1450–1750,” held at Central European University in Budapest on August 25–26, 2017. However, this was only the beginning of a conversation that continued for three years, and the provisional conclusions of which are presented in this collection. In the process we have all learned a lot from each other and from colleagues involved in various ways, either as commentators at the original workshop, as anonymous reviewers, or as interested readers providing valuable feedback.

Ahmet Kaylı, Aslıhan Gürbüzel, Ayfer Karakaya-Stump, Baki Tezcan, Devin Stewart, Ferenc Csirkés, Rossitsa Gradeva, Sara Nur Yıldız, and Yavuz Aykan participated in the original workshop but for various reasons were unable to contribute essays to this volume. Ayşe Baltacıoğlu-Brammer, Çiğdem Kafescioğlu, and Helen Pfeifer joined us later. We greatly benefited from the expert insights of Cemal Kafadar, Gottfried Hagen, Gülru Necipoğlu, and M. Sait Özervarlı, who were commentators at the workshop. We would like to thank them all.

Both the workshop and this volume are outcomes of the project entitled “The Fashioning of a Sunni Orthodoxy and the Entangled Histories of Confession-Building in the Ottoman Empire, 15th–17th Centuries” (OTTOCONFESSION, Project ID 648498) supported by the European Research Council, Horizon 2020 Program. Our then Project Coordinator Tamas Kiss provided invaluable logistic support during the workshop, while Sona Grigoryan has expertly filled that role since. As part of our research team, Günhan Börekçi has brought many sources and secondary literature to our attention during the preparation of this volume, while Cankat Kaplan meticulously prepared the index.

From his base at Süleymaniye Library, Ahmet Kaylı has assisted us in obtaining digital copies of manuscripts and published studies. Özgün Deniz Yoldaşlar has also helped us access crucial literature. Guy Burak shared ideas for the cover image and helped us obtain it.

The finishing touches to this volume were put at the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown. There we benefited not only from the exceptional technical and logistic support of the WIKO staff and administration, but also from intellectually stimulating and challenging conversations with the Fellows. We would particularly like to thank the Rector Barbara Stollberg-Rilinger, Ulrich Rudolph, Jeanne Kormina, Dror Wahrman, Natasha Wheatley, Elena Esposito, Efraín Kristal, Nicole Brisch, Felix Körner, Zaid al-Ali, Michael Karayanni and Balázs Trencsényi.

Throughout the process we have had the support of the Brill editorial team, including Maurits van den Boogert, Teddi Dols, and Rebekah Zwanzig.

We would also like to acknowledge the encouragement, support, help, friendship, and feedback of Başak Tuğ, Sara Nur Yıldız, Barbara Kellner-Heinkele, Alexandar Schunka, Yael Navaro, Hülya Canbakal, Çiğdem Kafescioğlu, Fatma Taşkent, Emese Muntan, Cristina Corduneanu-Huci, Brett Wilson, Jan Hennings, Robyn Radway, Natalie Rothman, Maartje van Gelder, and Nevena Ivanović. Derin thanks Nuran, Ayşecan, Eren, Deniz, and Kıymet for being there for her in so many ways and for filling her life with meaning. She wishes her father Tosun was also still here. Tijana thanks Kovács Julianna and Sonia Pillibeit for making it possible for her to be a working mother, and Mirjana, Boško, Sunna, Tolga and Leyla for always reminding her of what really matters.

We dedicate this volume to our students with the hope that they will continue the conversation.