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Dr. Denise Klein

Research associate


Denise Klein is a historian of the Ottoman Empire and the Middle East, with a PhD in history from the University of Konstanz (2014) and an M.A. in Middle Eastern Studies from the University of Munich (2005). She has been a Research Associate at the Leibniz Institute of European History since 2014. She has received several scholarships, including by the Gerda Henkel Foundation (2005–2007), the Research Center for Anatolian Civilizations at Koç University (2012–2013), and the German Research Foundation (2019–now), and has lived in Istanbul, New York, and Athens. Her research focuses on the social, cultural, and urban history of the Ottoman world before 1800. She is currently finalizing her book, Narrating the Past in the Crimean Khanate, and working on a new book project exploring the history of Ottoman Istanbul as a city of migrants.

  • Islamic and Turkish Studies
  • Early modern Ottoman history
  • Social and cultural history
  • Urban history
  • Islamic Historiography

  • Die osmanischen Ulema des 17. Jahrhunderts. Eine geschlossene Gesellschaft? (Berlin: Klaus Schwarz, 2007), http://dx.doi.org/10.25673/91591
  • (ed.) The Crimean Khanate between East and West (15th–18th Century) (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2012)
  • (ed. with Cornelia Aust and Thomas Weller) Dress and Cultural Difference in Early Modern Europe: European History Yearbook 20 (2019), https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110635942
  • (ed. with Anna Vlachopoulou) Transottoman Biographies, 16th–20th c. (Göttingen: V&R unipress, 2023), https://doi.org/10.14220/9783737011662
  • Living in a City of Migrants: The Risale-i Garibe on Difference and Belonging in Early Modern Istanbul, in: Archivum Ottomanicum 40 (2023), 87–116

Jahrbuch für Europäische Geschichte / European History Yearbook 20 (2019)

Jahrbuch für Europäische Geschichte / European History Yearbook, 20: Dress and Cultural Difference in Early Modern Europe
Cornelia Aust (ed.)Denise Klein (ed.)Thomas Weller (ed.)
Berlin: de Gruyter,2019
ISBN: 978-3-11-063204-0
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Ongoing
April 2014 - Dec. 2028
Gesellschaft

Istanbul: A City of Migrants, 1453–1800

Migration made Istanbul an imperial capital and one of the most diverse cities in the early modern world. After the Ottoman conquest in 1453, the sultans repopulated the city by bringing in people from the provinces, prisoners of war from the Balkans to Iran, and slaves from Eastern Europe. Istanbul then became a safe haven for Spanish Jews and, from the late sixteenth century, took in a large number of refugees from Anatolia. As the capital of a world empire, the city also drew in students, career-seekers, merchants, and a growing number of labor workers from the Balkans, Anatolia, and other distant places. The migrants not only formed a significant part of the population but also held key positions in the city’s imperial institutions and dominated important sectors of urban life.
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Ongoing
Sep. 2021 - Aug. 2029
GesellschaftReligion

Leibniz Research Alliance “Value of the Past” / Leibniz-Forschungsverbund “Wert der Vergangenheit”

The research consortium founded in 2021 investigates the question of what value the past holds for earlier and contemporary societies. A focal point in the second funding phase concerns current debates on climate change, on the postcolonial responsibility of the Western world, on the use of the past in the growing right-wing populism, and on the historical legitimization of war.
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Ongoing
July 2019
GesellschaftReligion

IEG-Aktivitäten im Leibniz-WissenschaftsCampus “Byzanz zwischen Orient und Okzident” (Mainz / Frankfurt)

Ziel des WissenschaftsCampus Mainz / Frankfurt ist es, eine breite Plattform für interdisziplinäre Byzanz­forschung institutionell zu etablieren. Beteiligt sind alle Fächer, die zur Erforschung des Byzantinischen Reichs und seiner Kultur beitragen bzw. beitragen können.
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Completed
Sep. 2021 - Aug. 2025
Gesellschaft

After the Conquest: The Ottoman and Spanish Empires in History and Memory

Das Projekt vergleicht die osmanische und die spanische Expansionsgeschichte in der Frühen Neuzeit und deren jeweiligen Ort im historischen Gedächtnis bis in die Gegenwart. Es ist Teil des Leibniz-Forschungsverbundes "Wert der Vergangenheit", Lab 2.1. "Dynamische Räume" (2021-2025).
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