If you’re interested in the 17th-century crisis within the Ottoman Empire, do it at Harvard

Some empires didn’t just shape history — they ran the show until they didn’t.

The Ottoman Empire ruled for over 600 years, stretching across Europe, Asia, and Africa, shaping everything from trade routes to political systems. It was at its height between the 16th and 17th centuries. But by the early years of the 20th century, things began to crack.

For Mehmet Durmaz, a Turkish student pursuing a Master’s in Middle Eastern Studies at Harvard University in the US, studying the empire’s peak is key to understanding how an ancient yet pre-modern world paved the way for globalisation through its political and economic history. 

It’s a vast topic to say the least, but for Durmaz, it’s also a personal one.

Before joining Harvard, Durmaz pursued economics and history at Boğaziçi University. Source: Doğa Çınar

Meet Mehmet Durmaz

Mehmet Durmaz is from Antalya — a sunny city on Turkey’s southern coast, better known for beaches than political theory. He lived there until he was 18, then headed to Istanbul to study economics at Boğaziçi University, ranked #5 in Turkey by the Times Higher Education World University Ranking.

At first, it made sense. Durmaz was curious about how societies evolve and how economies function. But something felt off.

“I liked the purely theoretical side of it,” Durmaz says. “But I felt like the human element was absent.”

So, naturally, he added history to the mix, and things clicked. Suddenly, it wasn’t just about numbers and models. It was about people, power, and how everything from sultans to capitalism came to be.

Durmaz graduated from Boğaziçi University with a BA in Economics and a BA in History. 

Dumaz alongside Teslime Yongacı and Prof. Ünal Zenginobuz at his graduation ceremony on July 2, 2024. Source: Mehmet Durmaz

Eventually, his curiosity about the past led him to Harvard University, where he’s now doing a Master’s in Middle Eastern Studies. 

But even his story at Harvard University has its own twist. 

“I actually came to Harvard with the idea that I would become a historian,” says Durmaz. “I applied to the Middle Eastern Studies, but along the way, I realised I like balancing between history and economics. Then, I found myself leaning towards the focus of political science and economics in the Middle East.”

That curiosity eventually led him to a very specific place — the Ottoman Empire — and a very specific moment in time: the 17th century, when things started to get complicated.

Durmaz at the Great Mosque of Kairouan, during the Harvard Arabic Summer School programme in Tunisia. Source: Mehmet Durmaz

What’s good about studying a 600-year-old empire from 325 years ago?

According to Durmaz, quite a lot. 

He was drawn to the 17th century because it marked a turning point, when the old, pre-modern world began to give way to something more familiar: global trade, capitalist structures, and the first signs of modern state institutions.

“Even people in Istanbul were drawing maps of the world,” Durmaz explains. “There was trade happening everywhere. A new political culture was forming. The Sultan’s power started to be challenged. Things were changing.”

To Durmaz, the 17th century isn’t just a historical footnote; it’s where some of the earliest shifts toward globalisation, modern economies, and even imperialism began to take root.

By zooming in on these “critical conjunctures,” as he calls them, he hopes to gain a deeper understanding of how societies transform and how the modern world came to be.

Sure, tracing today’s politics all the way back to the 1600s might sound like a stretch. 

“It would definitely be easier to start in the 19th century,” he admits. “But if we want to understand the roots — the deeper shifts — the 17th century is where things start to move.”

That kind of curiosity might sound niche to some, and to many, a degree in Middle Eastern Studies raises a familiar question: 

Drumaz with Paul Signac’s The Demolisher at Musée d’Orsay during his Erasmus+ research internship. Source: Doğa Çınar

Is a degree in Middle Eastern Studies actually useful?

In many families, choosing a degree like history or area studies can raise eyebrows. Why not become a doctor, an engineer, or someone who can “actually fix things”? 

Durmaz gets that, and he knows that historians won’t cure cancer anytime soon. But he’s also not convinced that usefulness should only be measured in lab results or job titles. 

“If history teaches us anything,” he says, “it’s that things change, and that they can change.”

For Durmaz, studying the Middle East’s past helps us better understand the present: how democracies rise and fall, how economies evolve, and how people across cultures have made sense of power, identity, and community. 

It may not be a degree that comes with a fixed salary path. Still, it offers something just as important: the ability to think critically, see the world through others’ eyes, and imagine alternative futures – tools that are essential in any society hoping to improve.

And when Durmaz decided to take that path, he knew he wanted to study it somewhere that took those questions seriously.

 

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If you want to pursue Middle Eastern Studies, Harvard University is the place to do it

Despite being from the region himself, Durmaz never seriously considered staying in the Middle East to continue his studies.

“I’d already done my bachelor’s in the region,” he explains, “and I was specifically drawn to the Ottoman Empire, so I looked for the best place to study that.”

That place turned out to be Harvard, but what really convinced him was the faculty: Cemal Kafadar, Gülru Necipoğlu, and Peter Hall. 

“I was especially drawn to Cemal Kafadar, who’s a fantastic historian of Ottoman social and economic life,” says Durmaz. “And he also focuses on the 17th century, just like me.”

He also highlights the work of Gülru Necipoğlu, an art historian whose research explores how Ottoman sultans projected imperial power through visual culture, both within the empire and across Europe.

“That kind of interdisciplinary work really appealed to me,” Durmaz explains. “It wasn’t just about archives and dates, it was about how empires thought about themselves and showed themselves to the world.”

Outside of his core interests, Harvard University also challenged him to think differently. He took a political science methodology course taught by Professor Peter Hall, a class typically designed for PhD students.

“It was tough,” Durmaz admits. “But I loved it. It made me think about how we actually make sense of the social world, how the frameworks we use, whether it’s class, religion, or ethnicity, shape what we see and what we miss.”

After his master’s, Mehmet is planning to stay on the academic path — with a PhD in Political Science in his sights.

It’s safe to say that it’s a natural next step for someone whose work sits right at the crossroads of history, political economy, and social theory.

For other students thinking about graduate study in the US, especially in fields like Middle Eastern Studies or political science, Durmaz has some straightforward advice:

“While it may not look like it, the US, especially Harvard University, is really open to international students, so if you’re thinking about applying, go for it,” he says. “Sometimes it’s hard to get funding, but reach out to departments directly. They might have extra support available, and you won’t know unless you ask.”