Making Sense of History

Gül en, (Ph.D. 2012, Habil. 2021, University of Bonn), is Interim Professor of Middle Eastern Studies (Turkish, Persian), University of Heidelberg. She has published books and articles on Ottoman history and historiography.

"In the introduction to The Sultans Servants: The Transformation of Ottoman Provincial Government, 15501650,5 Metin Kunt tells of his studies at Princeton. Among the courses that encouraged him to look closer into the Islamic background of Ottoman institutions he mentions David Ayalons seminar on the Mamluk state. And indeed, students of Mamluk historiography would benefit from ens meticulous research. Her insights into the motives, structure and style of Nams chronicle serve as an inspiring study."--Yehoshua Frenkel, University of Haifa, in Mamlk Studies Review, Vol. 25 (2022)[...] "In exposing Nams work to the tools and insights of literary criticism and cultural studies, she invites us into the intellectual world of his contemporaries".[...] "So highly valued was the writing of history in the Ottoman middle period that en describes the work of the court historian as an almost divine mission. Her exemplary volume is a model for the study of the chronicles of subsequent Ottoman court historians" [...].Caroline Finkel, London, in Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies (2023), pp. 12