UE139 - Ottoman Translation Lab: Translingual Practices Meet Digital Humanities
Lieu et planning
Attention !
Vous ne pourrez pas accéder à ce séminaire sans avoir préalablement déposé une demande via le lien suivant
(une demande est nécessaire pour chaque séminaire auquel vous souhaitez participer, merci de déposer la demande au plus tard 72 heures avant le début de la première séance) :
https://participations.ehess.fr/demandes/__nouvelle__?seminaire=139.
-
Bâtiment EHESS-Condorcet
EHESS, 2 cours des humanités 93300 Aubervilliers
Salle A602
annuel / vendredi 14:30-17:30
du 24 octobre 2025 au 19 juin 2026
Nombre de séances : 9- Vendredi 24/10/2025
- Vendredi 21/11/2025
- Vendredi 19/12/2025
- Vendredi 23/01/2026
- Vendredi 20/02/2026
- Vendredi 20/03/2026
- Vendredi 17/04/2026
- Vendredi 29/05/2026
- Vendredi 19/06/2026
Description
Dernière modification : 20 mars 2026 13:49:15
- Type d'UE
- Séminaires DE/MC
- Disciplines
- Anthropologie historique, Histoire, Linguistique, sémantique, Signes, formes, représentations
- Page web
- -
- Langues
- allemand anglais français
- Mots-clés
- Administration Analyse de discours Anthropologie et linguistique Archives Écriture Histoire Historiographie Humanités numériques Informatique et sciences sociales Orientalisme Paléographie Philologie Sémantique Textes
- Aires culturelles
- Arabe (monde) Europe Juives (études) Méditerranéens (mondes) Musulmans (mondes) Turc (domaine)
Intervenant·e·s
- Marc Aymes [référent·e] directeur d'études, EHESS - directeur de recherche, CNRS / Centre d'études turques, ottomanes, balkaniques et centrasiatiques (CETOBaC)
- E. Natalie Rothman professeure, University of Toronto
- Henning Sievert professeur, Universität Heidelberg
Also core team member:
Renaud Soler, associate professor at the University of Strasbourg (Groupe d'études orientales, slaves et néo-helléniques)
To be updated about our programme on a regular basis, sign up to our mailing list:
https://sympa.ehess.fr/sympa/subscribe/otranslab
#
Translingual practices were an essential feature of Ottoman social worlds. Like most imperial formations, the Ottoman political and social system consisted of multiple linguistic jurisdictions. The Ottoman language commanded by the palatial elite, was a mixture of three languages, Arabic, Persian and Turkish. But other subjects of the empire communicated not only in different registers of the above, but in many other languages too, including Albanian, Aramaic, Armenian, Bulgarian, Greek, Hungarian, Judeo-Spanish, Kurdish-Kurmandji, Persian, Polish, Romanian, Serbo-Croatian, Zazaki... And for some of the more extroverted social segments, French, Italian, or lingua franca were de rigueur. Thus translation is a critical facet of the study of the Ottoman Empire.
This seminar focuses on “translation” understood broadly to encompass not only written works (the mainstay of Ottoman Translation Studies to date) but also other linguistic practices, often more anonymous and less authorized, in varied social domains, including administration and commerce. It posits that translingual practices—the circulations of linguistic elements and meanings across languages, sociocultural registers, and genres—were not simply endemic to Ottoman society, but, in fact, key to Ottoman government practices in its longue durée and across its expansive spatial footprint.
Our aim is to approach translation as a sociological as well as a philological issue – i.e., to combine our philologically assembled evidence with a socio-historical framework of analysis of imperial practices of government. We will attempt to take stock of the multiple philologies (analogue or digital) that the study of these practices therefore requires.
Format-wise, although it does not shy away from lectures, our “lab” gives priority to hands-on experiments and workshop discussions on primary sources and/or scholarly literature. All participants involved (including doctoral students, computer scientists or developers) are welcome to present their work so as to better grasp the diversity of scholarship and tools at hand in the field.
Starting in 2024, this seminar is part of an “International Research Network” (IRN) funded by the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (France). Under the codename “Translating Ottomans: Translingual Practices Meet Digital Humanities” it brings together partners such as the Institut für Orientalistik at the University of Vienna (Austria), the Department and Historical and Cultural Studies at the University of Toronto (Canada), the Centre d’Études Turques, Ottomanes, Balkaniques et Centrasiatiques along with the Huma-Num DISTAM Consortium (France), the Seminar für Sprachen und Kulturen des Vorderen Orients – Islamwissenschaft at Heidelberg University (Germany), and the Dipartimento di Studi sull’Asia e sull’Africa Mediterranea at the Università Ca’ Foscari (Italy).
Schedule and programme
(to be updated on a regular basis, please check out this webpage and/or subscribe to our mailing list)
24 October 2025 - Introductions, Perspectives, and a Case Study, by Marc Aymes
21 November 2025 - “Encountering Islam: Dragomans’ Translation Practices in Eighteenth-Century Istanbul”, by Angela De Maria (Sapienza University of Rome)
19 December 2025 - “A Translation Enterprise between the Ottoman Empire and France in the 18th Century: The Franco-Turkish Manuscripts of the Jeunes de langues of Constantinople (1730-1753)”, by François Lavie (Paris 8 University)
23 January 2026 - “Semantics of Empire: Machine Translation, Artificial Intelligence, and the Case of Ottoman Turkish”, by Merve Tekgürler (Stanford University)
20 February 2026 - “Taxes, Censuses, and Unfaithful Translators: The Vlachs of the Pindus and the Challenges of Ottoman Governmentality”, by Andrea Umberto Gritti (New Europe College Bucharest)
20 March 2026 - “From Linguistic Brokers to State Administrators? Toward a Sociographic Approach of the Phanariot Milieu During the ‘Long Eighteenth Century’ ”, by Paul Karras (Paris Sciences et Lettres University)
17 April 2026 - “Penned under the Sign of Janus? Approaches to the Translator’s Preface in Ottoman Turkish Literary Translations”, by Tobias Sick (University of Münster)
29 May 2026 - “In the Shadow of the Segno Imperiale: Stylistic and Translational Choices of 16th-Century Venetian Dragomans”, by Zeynep Ünlü (Ca' Foscari University, Venice)
19 June 2026 - “Translation and Multilingualism in Mughal India”, by Jean Arzoumanov (Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, Berlin)
Master
-
Séminaires de recherche
– Arts, littératures et langages
– M2/S3-S4
Suivi et validation – annuel mensuelle = 6 ECTS
MCC – fiche de lecture, exposé oral -
Séminaires de recherche
– Études asiatiques - Histoire et sciences sociales : terrains, textes et images
– M2/S3-S4
Suivi et validation – annuel mensuelle = 6 ECTS
MCC – fiche de lecture, exposé oral -
Séminaires de recherche
– Études politiques - Études interdisciplinaires du politique
– M2/S3-S4
Suivi et validation – annuel mensuelle = 6 ECTS
MCC – fiche de lecture, exposé oral -
Séminaires de recherche
– Histoire - Histoire du monde/histoire des mondes
– M2/S3-S4
Suivi et validation – annuel mensuelle = 6 ECTS
MCC – fiche de lecture, exposé oral -
Séminaires de recherche
– Histoire - Histoire et sciences sociales
– M2/S3-S4
Suivi et validation – annuel mensuelle = 6 ECTS
MCC – fiche de lecture, exposé oral -
Séminaires de recherche
– Sciences des religions et société-Sciences sociales des religions
– M2/S3-S4
Suivi et validation – annuel mensuelle = 6 ECTS
MCC – fiche de lecture, exposé oral
Renseignements
- Contacts additionnels
- -
- Informations pratiques
Meeting link provided on request.
In-person attendance is required for EHESS MA students who wish to obtain credits for the seminar as part of their course.
- Direction de travaux des étudiants
Please contact organizing team.
- Réception des candidats
By appointment.
- Pré-requis
Language skills in the field are welcome but not required.
Dernière modification : 20 mars 2026 13:49:15
- Type d'UE
- Séminaires DE/MC
- Disciplines
- Anthropologie historique, Histoire, Linguistique, sémantique, Signes, formes, représentations
- Page web
- -
- Langues
- allemand anglais français
- Mots-clés
- Administration Analyse de discours Anthropologie et linguistique Archives Écriture Histoire Historiographie Humanités numériques Informatique et sciences sociales Orientalisme Paléographie Philologie Sémantique Textes
- Aires culturelles
- Arabe (monde) Europe Juives (études) Méditerranéens (mondes) Musulmans (mondes) Turc (domaine)
Intervenant·e·s
- Marc Aymes [référent·e] directeur d'études, EHESS - directeur de recherche, CNRS / Centre d'études turques, ottomanes, balkaniques et centrasiatiques (CETOBaC)
- E. Natalie Rothman professeure, University of Toronto
- Henning Sievert professeur, Universität Heidelberg
Also core team member:
Renaud Soler, associate professor at the University of Strasbourg (Groupe d'études orientales, slaves et néo-helléniques)
To be updated about our programme on a regular basis, sign up to our mailing list:
https://sympa.ehess.fr/sympa/subscribe/otranslab
#
Translingual practices were an essential feature of Ottoman social worlds. Like most imperial formations, the Ottoman political and social system consisted of multiple linguistic jurisdictions. The Ottoman language commanded by the palatial elite, was a mixture of three languages, Arabic, Persian and Turkish. But other subjects of the empire communicated not only in different registers of the above, but in many other languages too, including Albanian, Aramaic, Armenian, Bulgarian, Greek, Hungarian, Judeo-Spanish, Kurdish-Kurmandji, Persian, Polish, Romanian, Serbo-Croatian, Zazaki... And for some of the more extroverted social segments, French, Italian, or lingua franca were de rigueur. Thus translation is a critical facet of the study of the Ottoman Empire.
This seminar focuses on “translation” understood broadly to encompass not only written works (the mainstay of Ottoman Translation Studies to date) but also other linguistic practices, often more anonymous and less authorized, in varied social domains, including administration and commerce. It posits that translingual practices—the circulations of linguistic elements and meanings across languages, sociocultural registers, and genres—were not simply endemic to Ottoman society, but, in fact, key to Ottoman government practices in its longue durée and across its expansive spatial footprint.
Our aim is to approach translation as a sociological as well as a philological issue – i.e., to combine our philologically assembled evidence with a socio-historical framework of analysis of imperial practices of government. We will attempt to take stock of the multiple philologies (analogue or digital) that the study of these practices therefore requires.
Format-wise, although it does not shy away from lectures, our “lab” gives priority to hands-on experiments and workshop discussions on primary sources and/or scholarly literature. All participants involved (including doctoral students, computer scientists or developers) are welcome to present their work so as to better grasp the diversity of scholarship and tools at hand in the field.
Starting in 2024, this seminar is part of an “International Research Network” (IRN) funded by the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (France). Under the codename “Translating Ottomans: Translingual Practices Meet Digital Humanities” it brings together partners such as the Institut für Orientalistik at the University of Vienna (Austria), the Department and Historical and Cultural Studies at the University of Toronto (Canada), the Centre d’Études Turques, Ottomanes, Balkaniques et Centrasiatiques along with the Huma-Num DISTAM Consortium (France), the Seminar für Sprachen und Kulturen des Vorderen Orients – Islamwissenschaft at Heidelberg University (Germany), and the Dipartimento di Studi sull’Asia e sull’Africa Mediterranea at the Università Ca’ Foscari (Italy).
Schedule and programme
(to be updated on a regular basis, please check out this webpage and/or subscribe to our mailing list)
24 October 2025 - Introductions, Perspectives, and a Case Study, by Marc Aymes
21 November 2025 - “Encountering Islam: Dragomans’ Translation Practices in Eighteenth-Century Istanbul”, by Angela De Maria (Sapienza University of Rome)
19 December 2025 - “A Translation Enterprise between the Ottoman Empire and France in the 18th Century: The Franco-Turkish Manuscripts of the Jeunes de langues of Constantinople (1730-1753)”, by François Lavie (Paris 8 University)
23 January 2026 - “Semantics of Empire: Machine Translation, Artificial Intelligence, and the Case of Ottoman Turkish”, by Merve Tekgürler (Stanford University)
20 February 2026 - “Taxes, Censuses, and Unfaithful Translators: The Vlachs of the Pindus and the Challenges of Ottoman Governmentality”, by Andrea Umberto Gritti (New Europe College Bucharest)
20 March 2026 - “From Linguistic Brokers to State Administrators? Toward a Sociographic Approach of the Phanariot Milieu During the ‘Long Eighteenth Century’ ”, by Paul Karras (Paris Sciences et Lettres University)
17 April 2026 - “Penned under the Sign of Janus? Approaches to the Translator’s Preface in Ottoman Turkish Literary Translations”, by Tobias Sick (University of Münster)
29 May 2026 - “In the Shadow of the Segno Imperiale: Stylistic and Translational Choices of 16th-Century Venetian Dragomans”, by Zeynep Ünlü (Ca' Foscari University, Venice)
19 June 2026 - “Translation and Multilingualism in Mughal India”, by Jean Arzoumanov (Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, Berlin)
-
Séminaires de recherche
– Arts, littératures et langages
– M2/S3-S4
Suivi et validation – annuel mensuelle = 6 ECTS
MCC – fiche de lecture, exposé oral -
Séminaires de recherche
– Études asiatiques - Histoire et sciences sociales : terrains, textes et images
– M2/S3-S4
Suivi et validation – annuel mensuelle = 6 ECTS
MCC – fiche de lecture, exposé oral -
Séminaires de recherche
– Études politiques - Études interdisciplinaires du politique
– M2/S3-S4
Suivi et validation – annuel mensuelle = 6 ECTS
MCC – fiche de lecture, exposé oral -
Séminaires de recherche
– Histoire - Histoire du monde/histoire des mondes
– M2/S3-S4
Suivi et validation – annuel mensuelle = 6 ECTS
MCC – fiche de lecture, exposé oral -
Séminaires de recherche
– Histoire - Histoire et sciences sociales
– M2/S3-S4
Suivi et validation – annuel mensuelle = 6 ECTS
MCC – fiche de lecture, exposé oral -
Séminaires de recherche
– Sciences des religions et société-Sciences sociales des religions
– M2/S3-S4
Suivi et validation – annuel mensuelle = 6 ECTS
MCC – fiche de lecture, exposé oral
- Contacts additionnels
- -
- Informations pratiques
Meeting link provided on request.
In-person attendance is required for EHESS MA students who wish to obtain credits for the seminar as part of their course.
- Direction de travaux des étudiants
Please contact organizing team.
- Réception des candidats
By appointment.
- Pré-requis
Language skills in the field are welcome but not required.
Attention !
Vous ne pourrez pas accéder à ce séminaire sans avoir préalablement déposé une demande via le lien suivant
(une demande est nécessaire pour chaque séminaire auquel vous souhaitez participer, merci de déposer la demande au plus tard 72 heures avant le début de la première séance) :
https://participations.ehess.fr/demandes/__nouvelle__?seminaire=139.
-
Bâtiment EHESS-Condorcet
EHESS, 2 cours des humanités 93300 Aubervilliers
Salle A602
annuel / vendredi 14:30-17:30
du 24 octobre 2025 au 19 juin 2026
Nombre de séances : 9- Vendredi 24/10/2025
- Vendredi 21/11/2025
- Vendredi 19/12/2025
- Vendredi 23/01/2026
- Vendredi 20/02/2026
- Vendredi 20/03/2026
- Vendredi 17/04/2026
- Vendredi 29/05/2026
- Vendredi 19/06/2026