Framing the other, framing oneself: LĀS/LĀZ and ṢIRF /SİRF in the early Ottoman (pseudo-) historical texts

The goal of this paper is to contribute to the broader question of how producers of the early Ottoman (pseudo-) historical texts processed and interpreted the diversity of the ethno-political entities that Ottomans encountered during their European expansion (beginning around 1350). It address this issue by focusing on the specific case of Serbia and the Serbs. An examination of the contexts of Slavic words in relevant Arabographic texts produced before 1500, which are in some way linked to Serbia, demonstrates that Lās/Lāz and Ṣırf/Sirf were among the key concepts for narrative structuring, and it is these that will be the focus of the analysis. Although noted by modern historians, these two terms have usually been mentioned only in passing, treated as synonyms, and no attempts at comparison with other ethno-political entities have been made. I argue, first, that the continuous engagement with these constructs within the examined discourse indicates the unique prominence of late medieval Serbia in the Ottoman historical memory of the time. Second, I aim to show that these two terms were subject to changing interpretations by Ottoman (pseudo-) historians. These interpretations, as might be expected, varied in response to shifting political realities, but may also have been shaped by the poorly understood forms of agency exercised by both known and anonymous members of the Serbian/South Slavic nobility, who mediated between pre-Ottoman and emerging Ottoman conceptual and ideological frameworks.