Negotiating Life in between Empires: Debates on the Position, Opportunities and Belonging of Bosnian and Cypriot Muslims under Austro-Hungarian and British Rule and the Role of the Ottoman Empire

When the Ottoman Empire had to cede control over Bosnia-Herzegovina and Cyprus to Austria-Hungary and the British Empire respectively in 1878, the Muslims in these two regions where forced to face difficult questions: How could Muslim life under Christian rule be organized, were the Muslims obliged to emigrate, which role could the Ottoman Empire still play for them? Studying how these questions were addressed and discussed by local Muslims, Muslim emigrants, the Ottoman gov­ernment and press, and the new imperial administrators is the central goal of my project. Thoroughly in­vestigating the diverse views on these issues promises to shed new light on Muslim life under non-Muslim rule in former Ottoman territories and the factors which influenced both intellectual discus­sions on and popular attitude towards it.

First Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Elke S. Hartmann