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Astrologers at the Court of Bayezid II
Abstract
While it is not unknown that Bayezid II generously supported scholars and poets, and that he carefully commissioned first histories of the Ottoman house as part of his broader political and ideological agenda, the commensurable interest of him in patronizing “the science of stars” has not been acknowledged yet. This is not surprising, considering the marginalization of the history of astrology in Ottoman and/or Islamic studies. However the study of astrologers and their texts could open new vistas in the political, cultural, and intellectual history of the period. The courts of Eurasian rulers including Muslims almost always enjoyed accompaniment of astrologers, and Ottoman polity is not an exception. Nonetheless it is possible to argue especially in the case of Bayezid II that there is a persevering attempt to cultivate the science of stars, which would further result in the institutionalization of the office of court astrologer/astronomer. The underlying concern of this paper is to bring to the fore the astrologers/astronomers serving the court of Bayezid II. Based upon the gift and payment registers from the mid to the end of Bayezid II's reign and available astrological almanacs submitted to the palace, this study aims first to identify these craftsmen; secondly understand the nature of their relationship with the court, and finally suggest that the knowledge and discourse of 'future' produced by these astrologers were taken seriously in court circles in a politically and culturally contested age.
Discipline
History
Geographic Area
Ottoman Empire
Sub Area
13th-18th Centuries