Martin Crusius and the Discovery of Ottoman Greece | Richard Calis

E572 | In the late sixteenth century, a German Lutheran scholar named Martin Crusius compiled a remarkable ethnographic and scholarly account of Greek life under Ottoman rule in his seminal Turcograecia. Though he never left his home in Tübingen, Crusius spent decades corresponding with a far-flung network of intermediaries, including the Greek Orthodox Patriarch in Istanbul. He annotated books and manuscripts, and even interviewed Greek Orthodox alms-seekers who passed through Germany. In this episode, Richard Calis explores how Crusius’s fascination with the so-called Ottoman Greeks sheds light on broader early modern debates about cultural and religious difference and how Greek identity became entangled with orientalist perceptions of the Ottoman world. The Ottoman Turks, both omnipresent and strangely absent in Crusius’s research, emerge in unexpected places, including in his dreams. More at https://www.ottomanhistorypodcast.com/2025/10/calis.html Richard Calis is Assistant Professor in Intellectual History at Utrecht University. Most of his research revolves around questions of cultural exchange, and how people make sense of the world around them. He obtained his PhD from Princeton University and was a Research Fellow in History at Trinity College, Cambridge before coming to Utrecht. His first book, The Discovery of Ottoman Greece: Knowledge, Encounter, and Belief in the Mediterranean World of Martin Crusius (1526-1607), was published in 2025 with Harvard University Press. Maryam Patton is Assistant Professor of History at Wesleyan University. Her research interests span the cultural and intellectual history of the late medieval and early modern Ottoman Empire, the history and theories of time and temporality, and cross-cultural transmission in the Mediterranean world, among others. She received her PhD in History and Middle Eastern Studies from Harvard University and is preparing her first book on the Ottoman conception of time. CREDITS Episode No. 572 Release Date: 24 October 2025 Recording location: West Hartford, CT and Amsterdam, Netherlands Sound production by Maryam Patton Music: "Easy Lemon" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons Bibliography and images courtesy of Richard Calis at https://www.ottomanhistorypodcast.com/2025/10/calis.html