Literature Review ∵ Ottoman(ist)s and the Sea, Islands, and Space: An Overview of the State of the Field on the Occasion of a Recent Review Article Antonis Hadjikyriacou Teaching Fellow, Department of Political Science and History, Panteion University, Athens, Greece Affiliated Scholar, Center for Spatial and Textual Analysis, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA antonis.hadji@gmail.com On the occasion of reviewing my edited volume Islands of the Ottoman Empire, Gelina Harlaftis has taken the opportunity to write a review article on the rela- tionship between maritime history, Ottoman history, and the study of islands.1 In it, she has extended an invitation to engage in a scholarly debate on the over- laps between the above fields. I consider this to be a precious opportunity, for it allows participants to refine their ideas and sharpen their intellectual tools. It is important to open up this field of exchange because there is a lot of room for expansion on all grounds. The present article is a step towards continuing the dialogue that she has initiated. The parts of her critique that concern the need for more sustained interaction with maritime history and the integration of certain aspects thereof are valid. Specifically, I find the on-, around-, in-, because-of-, and about-the-sea scheme that she proposes is a useful conceptualisation of 1 Harlaftis, Gelina, “Ottoman history, Neohellenic history, and maritime history on the ‘dispersed city’ of the islands of the Ottoman Empire”, Turkish Historical Review, 11/1 (2020), 101–17. © koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2021 | doi:10.1163/18775462-01102003 Turkish Historical Review 11 (2020) 303-323