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Abstract

This article takes a comparative approach, looking to two small cities in the Ottoman East – Mardin and Bitlis – and a group of mansions constructed by a new Armenian bourgeoisie in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Mardin and Bitlis were similar owing to the important position that Armenian merchants held in prosperous local markets that were booming in the period following the Tanzimat reforms. Members of this Armenian bourgeoisie were committed to their locality and showed this by playing an active role in new councils. However, they also displayed their commitment through the stylistic choices and symbolic vocabulary of their homes. This article shows how in both cities a rise in mansion-building took place in the aftermath of social turmoil and argues that this was a way for wealthy Armenians to reaffirm their presence. In Bitlis, this was in the 1880s in the wake of the Russo-Turkish War, amid problematic relations with missionaries and Russian-Armenian incursions. In Mardin, it was in the 1890s to 1900s following the (averted) Hamidian Massacres. At these crucial junctures, local decorative traditions were used as a show of support for authority and to reinforce a social alliance.