Among the big corpus of the commentaries over the Qur’an, one of the special developments was a genre of gloss (hāšiya). The study addresses main Ottoman glosses written to the Qur’anic commentaries, contextualizing it within the internal dimensions of the content transformations. It is argued that since the glosses were used as the textbooks in the Ottoman medrese, they could be considered as the “mainstream” Ottoman reading of the Qur’an. This reading was not merely one of the practices for approaching the Qur’an, but the kind of tradition with the related authorities and meaningful developments. The research covers these patterns of interpretations applied to the case of Āl ‘Imrān, 3: 7, showing the way of how the philology and theology interacted in the Ottoman tafsīr glosses.

In the chaotic situation following the British invasion of southern Palestine at the end of 1917, military officials faced several countervailing pressures. In addition to ongoing military priorities (including international norms pertaining to military occupations, such as the law of the ‘status quo’), pressing humanitarian concerns, and even the personal religious sentiments of individual officers, the British occupation administration was forced to take into account international pressures and interventions resulting from the overlapping and conflicting promises made during the war (inter alia, Sykes‑Picot agreement, Husayn‑McMahon correspondence, Balfour Declaration, and President Wilson’s 14 Points). This paper focuses on the land policy‑making process as a case study with which to weigh the various factors pressing upon the military occupation as it evolved during its first three years. Land ownership was a huge concern: a properly functioning land registry was seen as key to the improvement of economic and social conditions in the largely agricultural economy, and British interventions were followed closely by all interested parties. The land has also been at the centre of the ensuing century‑long conflict between Arabs and Jews. Thus, a close examination of land policies (and especially the 1920 land ordinance) offers an extremely important window on both the rule of law in the aftermath of the war and our understanding of the current, unending conflict in the land.

The article is an attempt to present and discuss – based on the struggle against Barbary pirates and corsairs waged in the Mediterranean Sea – dynamic and complex political and economic processes as well as diplomatic efforts that contributed to the French conquest of Algiers in 1830. The first three decades of the 19th century were among the most turbulent periods in the history of the French nation. Defeated and humiliated by the enemy coalition in 1815, France did not give up on her “imperial dream”, this time trying to make it come true in a non-distant Maghreb. The way to achieve this goal was, however, quite bumpy. At that time, the western part of the Mediterranean Sea was an arena of competition, mainly between the United States and Great Britain. After all, this turned out to be very favourable to France. Wishing to introduce an extra element into the game, eliminate rivals for overseas supremacy, as well as win Russia – that was gradually strengthening her influence in the eastern part of the Mediterranean Sea – as an ally, at the end of the 1820’s Great Britain became an advocate of her neighbour across the English Channel. Gradually regaining her economic potential and international importance, France reached for Algiers by entering the armed conflict. However, the French stronghold in Maghreb would soon pose a major challenge to the British colonialism in Africa. Expressing their major concern over the security of so-called “imperial route” leading via the Mediterranean sea, British politicians and statesmen adopted a new political stance toward the declining Ottoman Empire. Owing to their “independence and integrity” doctrine (formulated in 1830’s), the rich Ottoman heritage managed to “survive” by the outbreak of World War II.

The article discusses the matter of portraying Suleiman I the Magnificent in 16th century Croatian and Slovakian literature. The source material comprises three texts: Ferenc Črnko’s Croatian chronicle titled Podsjedanje i osvojenje Sigeta [The Siege and Capture of Siget], the Croatian epic tale Vazetje Sigeta grada [The Caputure of Siget Town] by Brne Karnarutić and the Slovakian anonymous historical song Píseň o Sigetském zámku [A Song about Siget Castle]. By looking at these texts the author hereof contemplates what image of the Turkish ruler has been recorded in Slavic literatures.

The student of Ottoman Empire always keeps a watchful eye open for the rare, sometimes unique record which has somehow survived from the heyday of Ottoman historiography or archival treasuries and illuminates an aspect of history otherwise unknown to us. One such records concerns is the Book VI of Hašt Bihišt, written by Idrīs Bidlīsī (1457–1520), who is undoubtedly one of the most original and important intellectual figures in the Ottoman-Iranian borderland in the sixteenth-century. This paper deals with critical edition and translation of an unpublished tahniyat-nāma, given in Hašt Bihišt VI, which Bidlīsī dedicated to the first marriage of Mehmed II.

This article marks the 400th anniversary of a series of bloody battles which were fought from 2 September until 9 October 1621 between the Polish-Lithuanian army and the invading Ottoman armies led by Sultan Osman II. Intent on defeating Poland and conquering all of Europe, the 17-year-old sultan gathered well over 100,000 troops, probably the largest fighting force ever assembled on one battlefield. The campaign culminated in the Battle of Chocim (Khotyn), in which the Turks lost approximately 40 thousand men (one third of the invasion force). As a result Osman II was compelled to back off and sign a peace treaty which brought to an end his plans of expansion. What turned the fortunes of war in favour of Poland was a conjunction of two factors, the indomitable fighting spirit of the soldiers in the field and, no less important, the use of modern defence tactics under the agile command of Hetman Jan Karol Chodkiewicz. While the victory at Chocim aroused great interest not just in Poland, nowhere was its significance given so much weight as in Rome. Pope Gregory XV issued a breve Victoriarum gloria and instituted a special thanksgiving service (officium gratiarum) to be celebrated in Catholic churches worldwide. The article looks again at these, better known reactions to the Polish-Ottoman war of 1620–1621 before exploring a raft of diaries and memoirs, in manuscript and printed, and various types of publications, including leaflets describing the battles, published in various languages in Poland and all over Europe. However, at the centre of this study is the poetic legacy of the war. The poems in which the war is remembered and celebrated focus their praise either on Hetman Chodkiewicz or Prince Władysław Waza (the future king of Poland), who was also present at Chocim. The article examines this duality primarily in the poems of Maciej Kazimierz Sarbiewski, Samuel Twardowski, Wacław Potocki, Ignacy Krasicki and the Croatian Baroque poet Ivan Gundulić.