The image of the Ottomans in Hungarian historiography

Abstract

This short essay overviews the changing image of the Ottomans in Hungarian historiography from the late 19th century to the 1990s. It maintains that whereas the Ottoman Empire had received a generally negative treatment from the nationalist historiographies of the empire’s successor states in the Balkans and the Middle East, Hungarian historiography has been more divided and has offered a more diverse view with regard to the country’s Ottoman centuries. As in the case of the biased treatment of the new nation-states of the Balkans and the Middle East, the more balanced Hungarian attitude has its political and cultural-historiographical background, which is briefly addressed in the paper.