Changing States: Ottoman Sufism, Orientalism, and German Politics, 1770-1825
Journal: eScholarship (California Digital Library)
Year: 2015

This dissertation shows how German diplomats imported texts related to tasawwuf (Sufism) from the Ottoman Empire, translated them into German, and published them to advocate for competing political visions following the French Revolution and Napoleonic Wars. Specifically, it traces the life of Heinrich von Diez (1751-1817), an Enlightenment thinker who served as the Prussian charg? dâaffaires in Istanbul from 1784-90, where he learned Ottoman, collected manuscripts, and established contact wit