“Rise of the Western Armenian Diaspora in the Early Modern Ottoman Empire” by Dr. Henry Shapiro

FRESNO — Dr. Henry Shapiro will give a presentation on “Rise of the Western Armenian Diaspora in the Early Modern Ottoman Empire” at 7:00PM on Thursday, January 26, 2023, in the University Business Center, Alice Peters Auditorium, on the Fresno State campus. The event is organized by the Armenian Studies Program at Fresno State.

The lecture is based on Dr. Shapiro’s new book, Rise of the Western Armenian Diaspora in the Early Modern Ottoman Empire, which traces how Armenian migrants changed the demographic and cultural landscape of Istanbul and Western Anatolia in the course of the 17th century. In subsequent centuries, Ottoman Armenian merchants, financiers (sarrafs), authors, musicians, translators, printers and bureaucrats would play key roles in Ottoman trade, art and even governance – that is, in most spheres of the empire’s economic and cultural life. Using both Ottoman Turkish and little-known Armenian sources, Shapiro provides the first systematic study of the Armenian population movements that resulted in the cosmopolitan remaking of Istanbul.

Henry R. Shapiro holds a Ph.D. in History from Princeton University and is currently a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Polonsky Academy for Advanced Study in the Humanities and Social Sciences. His research focuses on the place of non-Muslims in the early modern Islamic World. He works mainly on the Ottoman Empire, with a secondary interest in Safavid Iran. Previously he had earned degrees from Brown University (BA in Classics), Harvard University (Master of Divinity), and Sabancı University in Istanbul, Turkey (MA in History). In 2017, Shapiro was awarded the Porter Ogden Jacobus Fellowship, the Princeton Graduate School’s top honor.

The lecture is free and open to the public. Parking is available in Fresno State Lots P6 and P5, near the University Business Center, Fresno State. A free parking code can be obtained by contacting the Armenian Studies Program.

The presentation will also be live-streamed on YouTube at: https://bit.ly/armenianstudiesyoutube.

For information about upcoming Armenian Studies Program presentations, please follow us on our Facebook page, @ArmenianStudiesFresnoState or at the Program website, https://fresnostate.edu/armenianstudies.