Dr. Christine Isom-Verhaaren loved history from her childhood, reading historical novels that her siblings left in the house. She was fascinated with the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, and the Middle East. She earned her BA at BYU in history and while an undergraduate she participated in Paris study abroad and traveled to the Middle East. However, it was not until she accompanied her archaeologist husband, Bruce Verhaaren, to south-eastern Turkey visiting Istanbul on their return journey that she found a way to combine these interests in a study of the Ottoman Empire. She began learning Turkish and returned to Turkey with her family while her husband completed a year in Ankara on a Fulbright grant. She then began graduate studies at the University of Chicago earning her MA and PhD while raising three children. Her dissertation adviser was Halil Inalcik, the foremost Ottoman historian of his generation.
Her first book, Allies with the Infidel, analyzes the alliance between the Ottomans and French during the reign of Süleyman, which culminated in the Ottoman fleet wintering at Toulon, France in 1543-44. This event brought forth Habsburg propaganda that overshadowed Ottoman and French sources, which as a revisionist historian she has explored to reveal a more accurate picture of this diplomatic relationship and the views of the Other that it elicited. This research led to an interest in Ottoman identity, the subject of her edited volume, Living in the Ottoman Realm, with Kent Schull, including an Introduction that explores the historical study of identity and a chapter on Mihrimah Sultan, the daughter of Süleyman, which analyzes the crucial role women played in the Ottoman Empire.
Her third book, The Sultan’s Fleet, is in press, and explores the role of the Ottoman navy in the creation of the empire from its earliest foundation, focusing on the men who rowed, sailed, and commanded the fleet. Her research has taken her to scenes of famous Ottoman naval adventures, including Rhodes and Malta, as well as traveling to Istanbul to use the Başbakanlık and Topkapı Palace Archives.
Her current project is a biography of Husam Bey and his son Ali Pasha, who greatly contributed to Ottoman naval success although they did not achieve the fame of such illustrious figures as Piri Reis and Hayreddin Pasha. They both served as governor of Rhodes, leading the squadron stationed there to protect the sea lanes of the empire.
She loves to share primary sources in teaching to explore a more accurate and fascinating view of the past. She is in the process of translating an account of Cem Sultan, an Ottoman prince, imprisoned by the Knights of St. John in France and then sold to the pope in Rome, finally dying with the army of Charles VIII of France near Naples in 1495.
She finds history absorbing because it is about people who are an endless source of fascination.