A Lecture by Devrim Umit
Moderated by Richard Bulliet.
 
The lecture will elaborate on the encounter between the Ottoman officialdom and the American Board missionaries for the time period in question with a two-fold aim. First, it will address the activities of the American Board, mainly the schools, and the concerns and reactions of the Ottoman central and provincial authorities to American missionaries and their establishments. Second, it will discuss how the missionaries were instrumental in the orientation and articulation of American foreign policy towards the Ottoman Empire. The lecture will further shed light on the complex relationship between the Ottoman bureaucracy, American missionaries and government, and the local Ottoman communities, Muslim and non-Muslim alike.