Picturing the Ottoman History and Ottomans

Ottoman manuscript and album painting from the 15th to 19th centuries treated as a primary source for cultural history, not just art history — the goal is learning to read images the way you'd read a chronicle, asking who made them, for whom, and what they were meant to do. You'll work through illustrated dynastic histories, sultanic portrait series, literary illustrations, and bazaar-painter albums, ending with a research paper you present in class. The course sits at the intersection of history, art history, and manuscript studies, and it's most useful if you're heading toward Ottoman cultural history or museum and curatorial work where visual evidence carries real interpretive weight.