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Kategorie: Osmanisches Reich

“Modern Art Sometimes Gives Rise To…”

An article which appeared on Saturday 13 January 1962 in the Lebanese cultural newspaper L’Orient Littéraire , co-authored by the Syrians Chérif Khaznadar (1940 –), a poet and art critic, and the painter Louay Kayyali (1934 – 1978), presents us with a visual and logical conundrum. In the lead to the article, Khaznadar and Kayyali reported a thrilling artistic discovery they had made in Damascus: in the dark and cluttered shop of a merchant in the Bab al-Jabiyyah souq the two found a painting, “a marvellous specimen of ancient Damascene art”, which they were eager to study

Urban Parks in Late Ottoman Istanbul

By Mustafa Emir Küçük. People have used green spaces for recreational purposes throughout history, yet the concept of the park as a designed green space for people’s recreation in the middle of the city developed on an international scale in the nineteenth century. In Istanbul, the construction of urban parks was one of the many urban infrastructural projects in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Countdown to 9/11

27 August 2021 | Author: Maurus ReinkowskiI am sitting here at my desk that the Orient-Institut Istanbul has graciously provided me with for the month of August in an attempt to pursue a project of mine from olden times, that is, to make sense of the varying nature of “peripheries” in the Ottoman Empire. As an Ottomanist teaching also Islamic Studies at my home university in Basel, Switzerland, I am particularly grateful and impressed by the fact that I was assigned a room where one can find many classics of Islamic Studies on the shelves.

Imagining the Telegraph in the Ottoman Empire

By Pauline Lewis. By the 1880s, approximately 20,000 miles of telegraph wires and cables stretched across the Ottoman Empire, circulating more than three million electrical messages each year. As scholars have convincingly shown, the technology offered a powerful new tool for the Ottoman central government to exert direct control over distant populations and provinces.

Urban Agriculture in Pre-Modern Istanbul

By Ayşe Nur Akdal. Today, one can find it bizarre to come across a rural element in cities. However, historically, there was not a clear distinction between urban and rural. Agricultural and urban space existed together. Due to a lack of sufficient preservation and transportation technologies, easily perishable foods, such as dairy products and vegetables, were produced in urban areas. Istanbul was a good example with widespread and plentiful market gardens (2017; 11-18).

Missionary Anxiety Along Ottoman Istanbul’s Railways

By Gabriel Doyle. When new railway lines started to crisscross Ottoman territory at the end of the 19th century, the infrastructural change fuelled a missionary awakening. Catholic congregations, especially, were interested in the urban and rural areas around the Anatolian railway line, which started to be built in 1889 and intended to link Istanbul to Ankara.

Seasons of Capitalism: Human and Non-Human Nature in the Making of Lebanon’s Silk Industry

By Graham Auman Pitts. Capitalism had it seasons in late-Ottoman Mount Lebanon. Each spring, the families that tilled orchards of mulberries purchased the eggs they needed on c­­­­­redit. Mulberry leaves nourished the eggs, which hatched and began to spin their cocoons once the temperature was reliably above 16° Celsius.

The Fijeh Water Project and the Cholera Epidemic in 1903 Damascus

By Benan Grams. On June 30th, 1903 Sultan Abdulhamid II approved a project to bring potable water to Damascus from the Ein el-Fijeh spring. The project was presented to the central government by Nazim Pasha, the governor of Syria, during a persistent cholera epidemic that afflicted Damascus throughout that year.

Tracks of Change: Labor, Nature, and the Izmir-Aydın Railroad

By Onur İnal. On an October afternoon in 1857, a great crowd gathered at the Caravan Bridge in Izmir to witness an historic moment. Mustafa Pasha, the Governor of Izmir, the müftü, or chief jurist, of Izmir, the Greek and Armenian bishops, the chief rabbi of the Jews, Izmir-Aydın railway company officials, and elegantly dressed men and women were all at present.

A German-Ottoman Scramble for Objects in ar-Raqqa. Antiquities Trade, Archaeological Looting and Museum Rivalry in the Late Ottoman Empire

23 APRIL 2021 | Author: Sebastian Willert “Since I arrived at Halep [Aleppo] I have been seeing valuable antiquities in many houses. Telegrams I receive from Raqqa indicate that antiquity smuggling is pervasive.” In his telegram of 24 October 1910, Hüseyin Kâzım Kadrî (1870–1934) reported on the treatment of antique objects and ancient remains in the region which constituted Halep Vilâyeti (Vilâyet Aleppo).

Fighting under the same banner: Memories from the Ottoman theater of the Great War

26 March 2021 | Authors: Richard Wittmann & Yaşar Tolga CoraWhat did it mean to individuals of different ethnic and religious backgrounds to participate in World War I under the Ottoman crescent and star banner? Focusing on a wide array of autobiographical sources including memoirs, letters, diaries, and non-textual forms of life narrative left by the multi-ethnic and multilingual Ottoman soldiers and civilians who aided the war effort, we organized the conference “Fighting Under the Same Banner: Memories from the Ottoman Theater of the Great War” (Istanbul, September 6-8, 2019).