That's a very important and valid point. I already have Arabic, Ottoman Turkish and a bit of Farsi. CEU has recently launched a center for teaching source languages which puts it at the top of my list. However, the advantage of Leiden and SOAS, for example, is their history in the field and obviously the name as well.
Thanks, for the suggestions. McGill's and Toronto's ME programs are surely among the strongest and most competitive in the field. However, one of the merits of European schools for an MA is their proximity to archives and the possibility to attend workshops and summer schools across the continent. At least that's my perspective on the things. And I listed only the schools above because I've already got accepted into some of them.
It seems that you have good knowledge of the field and its practitioners. Which subject are you doing?
Which one of these three courses is a better fit for an academic career in pre-modern Ottoman/European history?
- MA in History (SOAS)
- MPhil in Islamic Studies and History (Oxford)
- MA in History (Leiden)
- MA in History (Central European University)