Ottoman seas,shared decks: Inter-religious dynamics in eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century Ottoman shipping

Abstract

This article investigates the shared maritime world of Muslims and Christians in the Ottoman Empire during the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, focusing on the eastern Mediterranean and the Black Sea. Through case studies of Christian captains employed on Muslim-owned vessels, inter-religious commercial investments and religiously mixed crews, this study highlights two features that are underemphasized in existing scholarship: first, the significant yet often overlooked role of Muslim seafarers and entrepreneurs in Ottoman commerce and, second, the pervasive ‘grey zones’ of collaboration fostered by everyday coexistence. By foregrounding these integrative practices, the article argues for a fundamental historiographical shift away from perspectives that treat Ottoman navigation through rigid confessional divides towards a more nuanced understanding of its interconnected nature.