Merchants of Knowledge : Intellectual Exchange in the Ottoman Empire and Renaissance Europe.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Morrison, Robert G.

Series:

Stanford Ottoman World Series: Critical Studies in Empire, Nature, and Knowledge Series

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Astronomy, Renaissance.

Islamic learning and scholarship--Turkey--History.

Islamic learning and scholarship.

Jewish scholars--Greece--Ērakleion--History.

Jewish scholars.

Philosophy, Renaissance.

Turkey--Relations--Europe.

Turkey.

Europe--Relations--Turkey.

Europe.

Europe--Intellectual life--Turkish influences.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (344 pages)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Redwood City : Stanford University Press, 2025.

System Details:

Mode of access: World Wide Web.

Summary:

Between 1450 and 1550, a remarkable century of intellectual exchange developed across the Eastern Mediterranean. As Renaissance Europe depended on knowledge from the Ottoman Empire, and the courts of Mehmed the Conqueror and Bayezid II greatly benefitted from knowledge coming out of Europe, merchants of knowledge—multilingual and transregional Jewish scholars—became an important bridge among the powers. With this book, Robert Morrison is the first to track the network of scholars who mediated exchanges in astronomy, astrology, Qabbalah, and philosophy. Their books, manuscripts, and acts of translation all held economic value, thus commercial and intellectual exchange commingled—knowledge became transactional as these merchants exchanged texts for more intellectual material and social capital. While parallels between medieval Islamic astronomy and the famous heliocentric arrangement posited by Copernicus are already known, Morrison reveals far deeper networks of intellectual exchange that extended well beyond theoretical astronomy and shows how religion, science, and philosophy, areas that will eventually develop into separate fields, were once interwoven. The Renaissance portrayed in Merchants of Knowledge is not, from the perspective of the Ottoman Muslim contacts of the Jewish merchants of knowledge, hegemonic. It's a Renaissance permeated by diversity, the cultural and political implications of which the West is only now waking up to.

Contents:

Front Cover

Half-title

Title Page

Copyright

Contents

Note on Translation and Transliteration

Preface

Map of the Eastern Mediterranean ca. 1500 CE

Introduction

One. The Network of Merchant-Scholar Families of Candia

Two. Astrology, a Shared Hermeneutic

Three. Transactions of Astronomical Tables and Instruments

Four. Aristotelianism across Borders

Five. Aristotelianism and Qabbalah

Six. Theoretical Astronomy between Renaissance Italy and the Ottoman Empire

Seven. Tricks of the Trade in Mechanics and Medicine

Conclusion

Acknowledgments

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Series Page

Back Cover.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

ISBN:

9781503642690

1503642690

OCLC:

1507697743