The history of Eastern Christianity has been distorted by several myths that have their origins in the fantasies of early modern Catholic missionaries. This lecture seeks to identify (and debunk) some of these myths through a close study of the first generation of Catholic missionaries who travelled to Aleppo, Diyarbakir, and Mosul in the seventeenth century. In doing so, it asks: how does the history of the Catholic Reformation change if we begin our enquiry not with ideas of ‘global’ reformation, but with the specific process of becoming Catholic as it was experienced in everyday life in the Ottoman Empire?
John-Paul Ghobrial is Professor of Modern and Global History at the University of Oxford, and Lucas Fellow and Tutor in History at Balliol College, Oxford. He has published extensively on a range of themes in Middle Eastern history including early modern mobility, Eastern Christianity, and the history of information, archives, and record-keeping.
This lecture will take place as a hybrid event at the GHIL and online via Zoom. In order to attend this event, please register via Eventbrite to take part in person or online.
5:30 pm