12:00 hrs. Sala Sánchez Albornoz 2E Por Sonja Brentjes (Univ. de Sevilla) The notion of scholarly decline in the Ottoman Empire appeared first in writings of Italian envoys to the Sublime Porte and their doctors in the last years of the sixteenth century. It resulted from a complex mix of factors: historical theory, political confrontation, applications for positions, concepts of cultural superiority, lack of competence. The idea spread quickly across Catholic and Protestant Europe without, however, eliminating the older concept of scholarly vivacity in Arabic societies. Rather, the Ottomans...