Terror and Toleration
The Habsburg Empire Confronts Islam 1526-1850
Published on 1. September 2007
Book
Hardback
256 pages
978-1-86189-340-6 (ISBN)
Description
From the fourteenth to the eighteenth centuries the armies of the Ottoman empire brought terror, in the name of Islam, to much of the Christian world. Intermittently, but relentlessly, the Sultans' forces raided, then conquered the Danube Valley as far as Budapest and beyond. Their inexorable progress westward eventually brought them into conflict with the dynastic confederation created in central and eastern Europe by the Austrian Habsburgs. Repeatedly faced with virtual annihilation by superior Muslim forces, the ruling powers in Vienna fought to mobilise the minds as well as the military resources of their subjects in order to save both their faith and their soil. The propaganda developed by both government and church, particularly the Roman Catholic variant, created, then reinforced many of the negative stereotypes of Muslims that are still familiar to Europeans today.
Gradually, after the middle of the seventeenth century, Habsburg rulers and officials came to see that its political and military survival required solid information about the Muslim foe that prejudiced ideas did not supply. In Terror and Toleration, Paula Sutter Fichtner traces the story of this change of heart and mind in government and intellectual circles throughout the Habsburg empire. This episode shows, she argues, that it is possible to form and disseminate negative views of an enemy for political and strategic reasons, yet be able to reconfigure those views as circumstance and necessity dictates.
A highly original account of a fascinating historical and cultural encounter, this book gives readers a close view of how a Western empire not only survived Islamic aggression, but in the process learned how to consider and even work with Muslims positively and productively.
Gradually, after the middle of the seventeenth century, Habsburg rulers and officials came to see that its political and military survival required solid information about the Muslim foe that prejudiced ideas did not supply. In Terror and Toleration, Paula Sutter Fichtner traces the story of this change of heart and mind in government and intellectual circles throughout the Habsburg empire. This episode shows, she argues, that it is possible to form and disseminate negative views of an enemy for political and strategic reasons, yet be able to reconfigure those views as circumstance and necessity dictates.
A highly original account of a fascinating historical and cultural encounter, this book gives readers a close view of how a Western empire not only survived Islamic aggression, but in the process learned how to consider and even work with Muslims positively and productively.
Reviews / Votes
. . . provides a good survey of early modern Habsburg representations of the Turkish other and gives the reader a fascinating insight into Habsburg anti-Ottoman propaganda. * <i>Times Higher Education</i> * handled with great depth and ease of learning . . . Fichtner shows persuasively how constructions of the Ottomans changed and developed over the broad sweep of the centuries . . . empirically rich and admirably lucid * <i>The Historian</i> * Fichtner has produced a very interesting work on the Habsburg Empires interaction with Islam in the form of the Ottoman Empire. The author traces the changing political and military reality that existed between the two empires, while providing a close examination of the Habsburg understanding and portrayal of the Ottomans in literature, the arts, and various forms of propaganda . . . a very valuable addition to both Habsburg and Ottoman studies. * <i>Choice</i> * This is a truly scholarly book drawing out an important element of a very large subject: the wars between the Hapsburgs and the Ottomans . . . This is a historical subject with an amazing relevance to world affairs. * <i>Diplomat Magazine</i> * . . . impressive in scope and rich with new food for thought for those thinking about Habsburg conceptions of self-identity and Other. Readers will likely come away with an appreciation for the deftness with which Fichtner handles stereotypes as a field of inquiry and the ways she grounds floating Türkenbilder within the specific writings of those who perpetuated and challenged them. * <i>Austrian History Yearbook</i> * An excellent, well-researched work on the Habsburg-Ottoman rivalry. In addition to issues of politics and military strategy, this work examines the impact of culture and religion on this rivalry . . . will prove beneficial to experts in the field, scholars of world history, and students of international politics. * <i>Sixteenth Century Journal</i> * A sensitive book, enriched by wise scholarship. * <i>Journal of Islamic Studies</i> * [a] welcome contribution of a sensitive and flexible conceptual framework to explore east-west relations. * <i>Central European History</i> * [Fichners] elegant essay should interest not only scholars in the history of Muslim-Christian relations or early modern Central Europe, but also those interested in the roles scholarship can play in shaping our civic identities. * <i>Canadian Journal of History</i> *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Illustrations
20 illustrations
ISBN-13
978-1-86189-340-6 (9781861893406)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
E-Book
02/2008
Reaktion Books
€34.99
Available for download
Person
Paula Sutter Fichtner is Professor of History Emerita at Brooklyn College and Graduate Center, City University of New York. She is the author of many books including Protestantism and Primogeniture in Early Modern Germany (1997), Emperor Maximilian II (2001), and The Habsburg Monarchy 1490-1848: Attributes of Empire (2003) and Terror and Toleration: The Habsburg Empire Confronts Islam, 1526-1850 (Reaktion, 2008).