When thinking about the moments in European history
when contact with Islam took place, it becomes clear
that this contact occurred in different ways and under varying
circumstances, for example, through trading relations,
but also due to wars or through shared borders.
This diverse framework shaped a way
in which people of these two cultures would perceive each other,
deal with each other, and hence
how they would remember each other.
However, it has to be stressed out
that memory is always a construct.
On the one hand, it is linked to one's own perception
and is therefore subjective.
On the other hand, there are many different ways
in which memory comes into being as some are created, to serve
a certain agenda or even propagandistic intentions.
Other times memories might be altered over time.
Therefore, memory
can be considered fluid and multilayered.
However, memory is also linked to oblivion.
Certain markers of the past,
such as architecture or language, can be forcefully destroyed or
manipulated to make certain aspects of the past fall into oblivion.
Memory has to be understood
as a curated version of the past, similar to a photograph
which can always only express the view of the beholder.
An example for memories that were supposedly
shaped to correspond to a certain agenda are the so-called Türkendrucke,
which can loosely be translated
as prints about the Turks, but
it is meant Ottomans or sometimes even
Greeks and Muslims in general.
These written pamphlets were produced in the German
speaking world and circulated there during the 16th and 17th century.
Although these texts and also images declared to portray Ottomans,
of course, did not give a realistic image of them,
but rather take a negative point of view.
The intention here was to stimulate an aversion
against the Ottomans and foster fear within society.
As during this age, the Ottomans were political enemies, amongst others.
Following
these prints shaped the perception of the Turk, leading to certain
stereotypical ideas about him within the collective memory.
It becomes clear that one always has to ask
what is preserved from the past, how
it is passed on, and what is dismissed.
What was made unseen, or altered, and for what purpose?
Because it is important to understand that there is always
a certain agenda behind the narration of the past and by the selection
of what is told and kept and what is not.
Power over the narrative is created.
Moreover,
it is important to stress that memories always circulate
from one person to another, within a society
or even transnationally between different societies.
Memories can also be passed on from generation to generation
and hence travel through time, so to say.
At the same time, memory is always bound to a certain
materiality or medium.
Objects that were
inherited from the past are considered material heritage,
and hence they are by nature associated with memories of the past.
That is, for example, the case for Islamic weapons in collections
of noble families all over Europe and early modern times.
The objects were handed down as a treasure
that would commemorate the ancestors participation
in the wars against Muslims.
Or another example are Islamic buildings that were kept as heritage,
even under Christian rule due to their symbolic meanings.
Then there are also memorabilia which are objects
that were specifically made to materialize
certain memories or notions of the past.
A very fitting example here is a medallion
that was produced in Austria under the reign of Emperor Leopold I,
to commemorate the reconquest
of Belgrade in 1688 from Ottoman forces.
On the one side, decline shows the city, Belgrade,
together with an inscription
that refers to the capture of the city by the Ottomans.
On the other side, the coin shows a dog
together with an inscription
that makes clear that the animal represents the Ottomans
as they where, so to say, snapping for
Vienna and Hungary like a dog would for a bone.
But they failed and are now losing whole Hungary.
The purpose of this object is obvious. The medal links
a historic event with a negative and defamatory image of the Ottomans.
The simultaneous depiction of one's own victory
and the mocking of the enemy results in a memorabilia that aims to show
and preserve the Habsburg's power and
superiority over the Ottomans.
On the other side,
already existing objects or even landscapes and places
could also be charged with memories and would become Lieux de memoir.
Examples include flags or tents,
but that were captured from the enemy
and then used as trophies to symbolize one's own victory.
Moreover, immaterial
heritage is a substantial part of the culture of remembrance.
In this regard, especially, language can become a driving force
of memories,
in as language can be understood as a testimony of the past,
when, for example, certain words
are taken from other languages and hence work
as a memento of their own interaction with a foreign culture.
Also, in some cases, certain words
did survive from an alien language, and the own language
gives clues under ways in which the two cultures interacted
and can evoke memories of specific moments of contact.
For example, the Bosnian language includes multiple words
that have the roots in Ottoman Turkish, as today's region of Bosnia
and Herzegovina was for a long period under Ottoman rule.
Besides language also a storytelling or oral history
contributed to the creation and circulation of memories.
Most of the mentioned examples can as well be considered
on the aspect of shared heritage or shared memory.
This is the case when due to contact between Islamic and European
cultures, exchange, appropriation,
or even forms of merging took place.
When, for example, a war booty was captured by Europeans
after military encounters with the Ottomans,
including weapons, arms or other objects.,
these goods can be considered as having two natures.
On the one side they are Ottoman and served a certain
purpose within the culture of origin.
On the other side, in the hands of the new owners,
the same objects were perceived and used differently.
For example, as collectibles or trophies.
Hence for representational purposes.
Through to transfer to a different context
these objects happened to belong to two different cultural
spheres at the same time.
Additionally, there is also cultural hybridization
where elements of one culture merged with elements of another.
An example is the Mezquita-Cathedral of Cordoba.
The building was originally erected
by the Umayyad Caliphs as a mosque during the eighth century.
However, in the 13th century, after Cordoba was conquered
by the Spanish Christian Kings, the mosque was turned into a church
and a chapel was built inside the mosque.
One might ask why the mosque was not destroyed,
and the church built in its place instead.
On the one hand, the preservation of large parts of the mosque,
as well as the insertion insertion of a chapel into it,
allows to use the building the whole building
as a kind of trophy, symbolizing the takeover
of the caliphate of Cordoba by a Christian ruler.
If the building had been destroyed, the element of conquering
would not have been shown so strongly and thus due to its hybrid form,
it becomes a much more powerful commemorative symbol.
On the other
hand, by adapting the mosque in such a way,
it also becomes an expression of legacy due to the combination
of an older Islamic mosque and a newer Christian chapel.
The Christian ruler, in a figurative sense,
puts himself in line with the previous rulers.
He inscribed themselves into the cultural heritage
of the former ruler as to suggest a certain continuity.
Moreover, the splendor of the material heritage
of the Islamic culture is thereby taken over
into the Christian culture.
Hence, by creating this hybrid architecture,
certain associations that come with this building are fostered.
But other aspects, such as it is, as it actually
being an Islamic place of worship, are intended to fall into oblivion.
Moreover, cultural hybridity could also result from social exchange.
When people or
objects from Islamic cultures came to Europe
either due to conflicts, trade or migration,
different sorts of cultural mixing took place.
Thereby, elements of one culture were taken over to another.
It can be especially observed in the arts and crafts.
This is also how we happen to have, for example, weapons
that were produced in Transylvania in the 17th century,
but also in the 16th century, that would combine local
and ottoman stylistic and formal features.
In other cases, Ottoman objects were combined
with elements originating from the European cultural sphere.
For example, a blade of an Ottoman saber would be combined
with a German hilt resultin again in a hybrid object.
It can be concluded that memory, oblivion and heritage
are interdependent
and all play a role in the creation of the Islamic legacy of Europe.
They emerge under the influence of political
and social circumstances, as well as the intentions
of individuals such as rulers, nobles,
but also common people and even craftsmen.
Moreover, memories themselves are constantly manipulated
and altered, sometimes consciously and sometimes unconsciously,
and some aspects of them fall into oblivion.