A Mediterranean Episteme: Intellectual Networks and Interconnected Knowledge Production in the Eastern Mediterranean (1350-1500)

Abstract

This dissertation presents a fresh perspective on the intertwined intellectual histories of the broader Mediterranean, particularly its eastern half, during the transition from the late Middle Ages to early modernity. Shedding light on the scholarly traditions of often overlooked subregions like the Ottoman, Byzantine, and Mamluk domains, as well as Renaissance Italy, it reconstructs an epistemic unity of intellectual life in the Mediterranean. Employing a novel methodology, the dissertation explores the complex systems of mobility, interconnectedness, convergences, and divergences within the region's intellectual history. Using new data unearthed from neglected or unknown manuscripts in a plethora of languages, the dissertation investigates two types of networks: those of thinkers and those of ideas. These networks, traversing the same paths, underscore the entangled webs of knowledge production in the region. In doing so, the spotlight is projected onto three thinkers from the aforementioned understudied regions, selected for their apt representation of the Mediterranean-wide phenomena of interconnectedness as well as the richness and elasticity of their intellectual endeavors: Gemistos Pletho (d. 1454), a Byzantine philosopher, political reformist and the champion of Platonism in the fifteenth century; Bedreddin of Simavna (d. 1417), a prominent theoretician of philosophical Sufism, and the leader of a significant popular uprising against the Ottoman state; and Abd al-Rahman al-Bistami (d. ca. 1455), one of the foremost encyclopedists and occultists of the fifteenth century, originating from Mamluk Antioch. The first half of the dissertation reconstructs the intersecting personal networks of this trio, revealing the Mediterranean-wide connectivity of the nuts and bolts of knowledge production. The networks’ extension additionally brings to light the globalizing connections reaching as far as the Timurid cities in Persia and Central Asia. The second half focuses on specific themes of interconnected ideas and abstract entanglements, especially the proliferation of Platonic and Platonizing movements in the period under examination, from the discussions of multiple representations of truth to the attempts to reform political life with utopian visions. In the final analysis, this dissertation offers fresh data to nuance and enrich the intellectual histories of the broader Mediterranean. With its new findings, it demonstrates the unnoticed span and depth of the networks under exploration, the role of the courts, and patronage. It emphasizes that the ideas of Renaissance thinkers, Ottoman scholars, or Byzantine philosophers are better understood within the context of an interconnected world, with new material concerning the interplay between Platonism, Illuminationism, Sufism, the occult, and the ideas about the ancients. Based on this material, the dissertation offers new methodological strategies, challenging both Eurocentric approaches and the insularities of fields such as the Ottoman and Byzantine Studies in order to go beyond the false dichotomies of conflict and contact or unity and fragmentation. It not only situates the Mediterranean and its aforementioned understudied parts into a global perspective but also demonstrates that these parts allow us to better conceptualize the intellectual and cultural histories of the globe in a transformative period. Ultimately, A Mediterranean Episteme offers a novel approach to understanding a complex system.