The Terrible Turk : Anti-Ottoman Representations in the 19th Century Swedish Rural Press

Abstract: Islamophobia has been pack and parcel in the Western civilisation from the days of Charlemagne via the Crusades and the rise of Orientalism, as opposed to Occidentalism, to the modern day reporting of Islamic terrorist threat. Many were fascinated by the degree of civilisation and the exoticism of the Ottomans, especially the sexual virtues (or lack thereof) were of particular interest of the travellers into the Ottoman Empire. This image quickly came to change by the mid 19th century when clashes between the British Empire and the Ottomans were increasingly common, especially in India who were part of the British Empire with a large Muslim population whose loyalties were with the Sultan of Istanbul.   We have used a theoretical framework with the foundation in Edward Saïd’s orientalism as well as modern Islamic frame theory as published by Deepar Kumar, Ruth Wodak and J.R. Martins.   The broader aim of this thesis is, through the use of both theories used by media studies scholars as well as traditional historians to explore how the Swedish people viewed Muslims through the eyes of the rural press in the 19th century. In particular, which frames were used depicting the Ottomans and did the coverage of the Ottoman Empire change during the 19th century?