External Announcement:
An invitation to contributors
This call for papers invites expressions of interest from potential contributors to this Sourcebook, who are interested in providing examples of relevant primary sources along with short contextual commentaries. We are especially interested in previously unpublished sources in languages as varied as Ottoman Turkish, Arabic, Armenian, Greek, Syriac, Coptic, Italian, French, Spanish, Portuguese, and English. We want to explore the personal histories of Ottoman subjects and their mobility between the 1860s and the 1930s, examining not just the wider historical experience of migration and diaspora, but also its effect on individual and community belonging and identity. We are seeking contributions to the Sourcebook, therefore, of primary sources and archival documents that provide valuable insights into the reasons behind mobility, the mechanisms that facilitated movement, the individual experience of journeys, and the reflections of immigrants seeking to assimilate into new societies, whether internal or external to the Ottoman Empire. We are especially interested in sources related to mobility which complicate our understanding of belief and belonging at the level of both individuals and communities in this period. Structure, scope, and relevant sources It is envisaged that the Sourcebook will be organized into five main sections:
- ‘Ottoman Trajectories and the Motivations behind Mobility’. This section includes sources that reflect the constellation of historical imperatives that provided the impetus to the mobility of Ottoman subjects, internally and externally, in this period.
- ‘The Lived Experience of Mobility’. This section includes sources reflecting the infrastructure, practices, and regimes of control that facilitated the mobility of Ottoman subjects, for example modes of transport, sites of accommodation, experiences of transit, and the role played by institutions, bureaucracies, and markets.
- ‘Old Beliefs, New Belongings’. This section presents sources reflecting the experiences of Ottoman subjects who took up new lives outside of the Ottoman Empire, in a ‘global mahjar’ that spanned North and South America, Asia, Africa, Australia, and western Europe.
- ‘Moving Stories: Storytelling about Mobility’. This section showcases a wide assortment of sources in which contemporaries reflected—often in emotive and subjective ways—on the subject of mobility, whether through first-hand narratives, correspondence, and diaries, or literary and printed works on the subject.
- ‘Remembering Ottoman Mobility’. This section includes sources produced by the children and descendants of migrants, for example, sources emerging from oral histories, community memory, and family archives.
In terms of source material, an indicative list of the type of sources that will appear in the Sourcebook include the following (in no particular order):
- personal documents, preserved in private and family papers
- correspondence, within families and communities, as well as between Mashriq and Mahjar
- diaries, memoirs, and other unpublished first-person writings left behind by individuals
- local, community, and sectarian histories from across the continents
- printed works of autobiography, history, and fiction
- local printed publications circulated within a community, e.g., club newsletters or church events
- Newspaper articles, op-ed columns, and correspondence, both in the Mahjar and in the Middle East
- Records of local institutions active in the community, e.g., civic and religious groups, and literary societies
- Oral histories
- Maps, photographs, and visual images including bureaucratic documents
- Music transposed into the Mahjar
Deadline for initial expressions of interest: 16 January 2026
If it tells a “moving story”, it fits into the Sourcebook—so we are keen to encourage researchers interested in participating to propose a number of sources according to their own research and interests. We anticipate that a selection of around 100 sources will be published in the Sourcebook in English translation, each with a brief introduction of a few hundred words describing the author, mode of publication, and any relevant contextual information. Every source will be ascribed to an individual named contributor. The volume will be available to readers in printed form, with the possibility—pending decision from the publisher—of a selection of primary sources being hosted online in their original language and format. Participation is welcome from any historians who share our interests in compiling a capacious archive that reflects the full range of primary sources relevant to the study of Ottoman mobilities and identities in this period. We are especially interested in contributions from early career, mid-career, or senior scholars who have been conducting their own research on the themes of the sourcebook. If you are interested in participating, please complete the following brief expression of interest available by clicking the link below which will take you to Microsoft Forms: Click Here to Submit an Expression of Interest for the Moving Stories Sourcebook
The deadline for all expressions of interest is 16 January 2026. Any questions about this Call for Papers or any aspects of the Sourcebook should be directed to Dr Fergus Nicoll (University of Oxford) in the first instance: fergus.nicoll@history.ox.ac.uk.
