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Introducing an Intricate Relationship
Journal
Islam and International Law
Date Issued
2013
Author(s)
Frick, Marie-Luisa
Müller, Andreas Thomas
Type
Resource Types::text::book::book part
Abstract
A book project on a subject like “Islam and International Law” is not sim-
ply born on a whim. Its genesis can be traced back to 2010 when the two
editors of the present volume started a research project at the University
of Innsbruck which is dedicated to exploring a special aspect of the
intricate relationship of Islam and international law.
From the 15th century on, the casa de Austria, i.e. the Habsburg dynasty,
established an empire with universal aspirations in a good part of Europe
as well as in the so-called “New World”. Its expansion in Eastern and
South Eastern Europe brought it into contact, and increasing conflict, with
another empire pursuing its aspirations no less ambitiously. Over the
course of the 14th and 15th centuries, the Ottoman dynasty turned the ter-
ritories under its control into the most powerful political entity under
Islamic rule at the time. In the wake of the conquest of Constantinople in
1453 and the investiture with the caliphate in the wake of the conquest of
Egypt and the fall of the Fatimid caliphate in 1517,1 the Ottoman Empire
represented—and would continue to represent for centuries to come—
the Islamic reference point par excellence for the European powers, par-
ticularly the Habsburg Empire.
ply born on a whim. Its genesis can be traced back to 2010 when the two
editors of the present volume started a research project at the University
of Innsbruck which is dedicated to exploring a special aspect of the
intricate relationship of Islam and international law.
From the 15th century on, the casa de Austria, i.e. the Habsburg dynasty,
established an empire with universal aspirations in a good part of Europe
as well as in the so-called “New World”. Its expansion in Eastern and
South Eastern Europe brought it into contact, and increasing conflict, with
another empire pursuing its aspirations no less ambitiously. Over the
course of the 14th and 15th centuries, the Ottoman dynasty turned the ter-
ritories under its control into the most powerful political entity under
Islamic rule at the time. In the wake of the conquest of Constantinople in
1453 and the investiture with the caliphate in the wake of the conquest of
Egypt and the fall of the Fatimid caliphate in 1517,1 the Ottoman Empire
represented—and would continue to represent for centuries to come—
the Islamic reference point par excellence for the European powers, par-
ticularly the Habsburg Empire.