Ottoman relations with the Habsburg dynasty and Hungary started in the late fourteenth century and quickly entered into a military engagement period after the Hungarians and the Habsburgs sided with the Byzantine Empire in the crusades against the Ottoman Empire. The Ottoman-Hungarian struggle further intensified in the fifteenth century because of their disputes over Serbia.

After Suleiman the Magnificent brought a big part of Hungary under the Ottoman rule, the Habsburgs claimed the same lands and the two powers entered into a centuries-long rivalry. The Ottoman domination of Hungary until the second siege of Vienna in 1683 created long lasting effects on the cultural, political and economic history of Hungary. The Hungarian kings Thököly Imre (1657-1705), Rákóczi Frenc (1676-1735) and Lajos Kossuth (1802-1894) took refuge in the Ottoman Empire and added another dimention to Ottoman-Hungarian relations.

In the eighteenth century, the military rivalry between the Ottoman and the Habsburg empires entered into a new stage with the French Revolution. The emerging threat of separatist nationalism not only ended the ensuing Ottoman-Habsburg War in 1791 but also demonstrated that the two multi-ethnic empires had to cooperate to remain intact in the age nationalism.

Despite some Austrian interferences against the Ottomans, after the Congress of Vienna the relations between the Ottoman and the Austrian empires relied on mutual interests. The Austrian compromise to satisfy both monarchists and nationalists created the dual monarchy of Austria-Hungary in 1868 and delayed the disintegration of the empire until the end of World War I. Likewise, after dealing with separatist Balkan nationalisms and World War I, the Ottoman Empire shared the same destiny. Nation states emerged from the ashes of two empires.

The Ottoman Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent was one of the most influential figures in Ottoman, Hungarian and Habsburg relations. He died during the siege of Szigetwar in 1566. Prof. Dr. Pál Fudor and his crew from the Hungarian Academy of Sciences discovered the tomb of Suleiman I in 2015. On the 450th anniversary of his death, this symposium aims to shed light on Ottoman, Hungarian and Habsburg relations. The symposium will hold a special panel on Suleiman the Magnificent and his key role in the outcome of Ottoman relations with Hungary and Habsburgs.

Existing academic literature on the history of Ottoman relations with Hungary and the Habsburgs is insufficient to cover the multi-dimentional aspects of relations among these three powers. By attracting the works of scholars, this symposium aims to fill the gap in the field and pioneer more works on the political, economic, military, cultural and social relations among these countries.

Topics & Themes:
- Ottoman-Hungarian-Habsburg relations from beginning to 1918,
Ottoman-Hungarian-Habsburg relations in the Age of Suleiman the Magnificent,
- The last campaign of Suleiman the Magnificent and his death,
- Treaties between the Ottoman Empire and Hungarys,
- Treaties between the Ottoman Empire and the Habsburg Empire,
Diplomatic, economic and social and cultural relations between these powers,
- The first and second sieges of Vienna and their ramifications,
- The Congress of Vienna (1815) and its consequences,
- The Congress of Berlin (1878) and its impact on Ottoman-Austria/Hungary relations,
- Habsburg and Hungarian Influence on Ottoman modernization,
- Hungarian sources on Ottoman history,
- Ottoman sources on Hungarian history