Starting from the Intellectual History's perspective, the objective was to identify the place of the Ottoman Empire, notably the Balkan portion of its territory, in the work of the German historian Leopold von Ranke (1795. Initially, a dialogue was established with Ranke's critical fortune in order to show how the issue thematic scope in his work is a point of debate among commentators who are divided between those who see Ranke as Eurocentric and those who see him as a researcher who has

more »

... with a worldwide geographic framework and has included several cultures in his extensive historiographical work. Then, it was understood that a panoramic perspective helps to show how the Ottoman Empire is a frequent theme in Ranke's work, which was brought through a survey guided by the lexical quantification of words linked to the Ottoman world in all of the historian's works. Having established the argument that there is a constant presence of the Ottoman Empire in Rankean writings, it came to be understood under what statutes and relations the Ottomans appearfirstly in the politicaldiplomatic context of the Eastern Question and secondly in the academicintellectual context of growing professionalization of Orientalist studies in Germany. In addition to these contexts, it was noticed that the Ottoman Empire in Ranke has a close relationship with a psychological element that dates back centuries, as the Ottoman presence participates in the Germanic imagination in an ambiguous way -evoking fear and mystery, repulsion and enchantment. Ranke takes part in this traditional intellectual, political, and sentimental evocation of the Ottoman world and also in his work the Ottoman Empire contributes to the formation of European identity by offering a perennial dialogue full of political, intellectual and emotional complexity.