with Aimee Genell hosted by Ayah Aboelela and Chris Gratien | After the defeat and breakup of the Ottoman Empire in the First World War, Great Britain and France established colonial mandates that remade the map of the modern Middle East. Yet as our guest Aimee Genell argues in a new book, those mandates had surprising Ottoman origins in the diverse forms of autonomy created in the empire over its last century. Rather than passive concessions to European powers and national movements, the agreements that redefined the empire's relationship to emerging Balkan nations, Egypt, Lebanon, Crete, Kuwait, and other areas with special status were the product of active engagement with an emerging arena of international law on the part of Ottoman lawyers, officials, and diplomats. As Prof. Genell explains, even in the empire's final days, amid the Wilsonian moment of self-determination, they looked to such agreements as a means of limiting rather than extending European influence over Ottoman territory. The flexible Ottoman model of autonomy in this view laid the foundations of the Mandate system, with lasting consequences for the region until today. « Click for More »
17 Oct 2026
Race in Transit
with Randa Tawil hosted by Sam Dolbee | At the turn of the twentieth century, large nummbers of people from Ottoman Syria began to settle abroad, giving birth to the modern Arab-American diaspora. Yet for generations, what was lost in the history of their becoming American is the changes that happened along the way, as people undertook arduous and sometimes circuitous journeys across a world of both unprecedented mobility and scrutiny of migrants. In this interview with Randa Tawil about her new book, Race in Transit, we explore that liminal zone and the many itineraries of the early Syrian diaspora as reflected across archives in Beirut, Marseille, Liverpool, Manila, Washington, D.C., Michigan, and Texas. At every stage of their journeys, race played a role in the fate of these migrants, but as Dr. Tawil explains, it was far from a stable category. In crossing the globe, Syrian migrants also crossed a "global color line" and passed through shifting legal and conceptual boundaries that defined the politics of migration. « Click for More »
8 Oct 2026
The Political Ecology of Late Ottoman Kurdistan
with Zozan Pehlivan hosted by Chris Gratien and Ayah Aboelela | What do environmental features like plants, animals, landscapes, and climate have to do with the political transformation of the Ottoman Empire? Everything, according to our guest in this episode, Zozan Pehlivan, author of The Political Ecology of Violence: Peasants and Pastoralists in the Last Ottoman Century. As Prof. Pehlivan explains, environmental history can be a fascinating window onto how imperial and global developments reshaped local society. Focusing on the region of Kurdistan, Pehlivan explores the changing relationships between peasants and pastoralists under the influence of commercialization, Ottoman centralization, and climatic change. She argues that these forces interacted to shape a "political ecology of violence," reflected not only in the shocking anti-Armenian violence of the 1890s, but also in quotidian conflicts over land and livestock fueled by Ottoman policy. « Click for More »
Who has been a guest on Ottoman History Podcast
Names identified in recent episode analyses. Showing up to five guests.
Kate Dannies
Ashley Dimmig
Mustafa Aksakal
A Tunç Şen
Murat Yıldız
Reach and audience
Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.
Apple Podcasts (US)
4.8 / 5
5 ratings
Podcast Authority Score: 41 / 100
A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.
Quality
46
Social presence
0
YouTube
0
Engagement
89
Contact Ottoman History Podcast
Guest appearances
Books guests
Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.
Pod Engine is an independent podcast discovery and analytics service and is not affiliated with or endorsed by this podcast. Artwork and show content belong to their owners. Full legal notice.
Explore this show Podcast research with Pod Engine
