A Traveller in One’s Homeland: Local Interest in Archaeology and Travel Writing in the Ottoman Greek World in 19th Century Anatolia

Abstract

This article examines local scholarly interest in archaeology and travel writing in the Ottoman Empire in the 19th century. It concentrates on the work of an Ottoman Greek intellectual from the provinces, i.e. a travelogue entitled Periegesis eis tin Pamphylian (“Travels in Pamphylia”) written by Dimitri E. Danieloğlu, who belonged to one of the leading Greek families of Antalya in southern Anatolia. By examining this work and focusing on the profile of an Ottoman Greek writer in the provinces, this essay explores the practical meanings and outcomes of modernization, intertwined with a civilizational discourse and modes of local Orientalism. Particularly, the essay dwells on what was possibly local and Greek in this story and aims to situate Periegesis in a broader historical context. It discusses the connection of Periegesis to the European travelogue genre, the emergence of an investigative attention to ancient remains and contemporary society among the educated classes of the empire, and developments in the Ottoman Greek intellectual milieu in the 19th century.