Fortress City Research Articles

SOCIAL AND UNIVERSAL CULTURAL ETYMONS AND DERIVATIVES OF THE CONCEPT «TOWN»-«CITY» IN THE LANGUAGES OF THE INDO-EUROPEAN FAMILY

The etymology of the words “місто, город, Stadt, town, burg, urbs, polis“ and “civitas“ is considered in the article. All of them, except last, have protoIndo-European etymological roots, which means “fence, enclosure, fortified settlement“, as well as “houses, courtyards, farm and family life in this settlement“ or “culture“ in general. Accordingly, cultural universalias are also reflected in the sense that were associated with the city. We may see the vital (life) universalia in the sense that fixed the economic and family life. Category «life» here was codified by the nutritional (alimentary) code as joint cooking, and by the reproductive (erotic) code as family life with mutual love. The mortal (death) cultural category is denied (tabooed) by the fortification walls of the city, which at the first time were considered such its main feature. Derivatives of some of these words (місто, город, burg) became the words, which were denoting the inhabitants of these fortress cities (місцянин, горожанин – «city dweller», burghers). With the development of the socio-political system, these words acquired a class meaning (ukr. міщанин as “urban social class“; rus. гражданин as “citizen, civilian, voter, іndividual“ or “a legal entity of the state“; bourgeoisie). So, at first the most important feature of the city wеre a defensive walls, then – that it is a closed place for dwelling, and later – that it is a communicative political community of citizens. In this way, words denoting a particular class became etymons for words that began to designate the city as a political communication system. In contrast, civitas was formed as semiotic term, originating from the naming of cives (citizen) of the physical city (urbs), who enjoyed the most political rights. In turn, the derivatives of these words were the words civilization, civil etc. Thus, in one case the word «citizen» was formed from the word «city», in the other case the word «city» was formed from the word «citizen». Thus, the study found that at first the key feature of the city was that it was a fortified settlement, and then that it was the center of the political and legal life of society with its leading role in the development of the state compared to the village in most cases. On the contrary, in the Ukrainian community, the center of legal regulation was concentrated in the village (common law), while the cities were populated mainly by colonialist. That is why ukr. «mіstsyanin» (city dweller) did not get the value of a citizen. An analogue of the word «citizen» has become the ukr. word «hromadjany“n» as a representative of a rural сommon (Hromada), community of Gemeinschaft type.

Fortification in the South-Eastern part of European Russia at the end of the XVI - beginning of the XVII centuries

The paper discusses the features of the Volga city fortresses (Samara, Saratov and Tsaritsyn) development at its initial stage in the second half of the 1580s by knyaz G.O.Zasekin. The task is to consider the process of their urban planning appearance and defensive structures development as well as the composition of the inhabitants at the end of the XVI beginning of the XVII centuries. The source base of the study is archival and published narrative, acts and other sources. A wide range of studies have been used, mainly in recent decades. It is concluded that until the end of the Time of Troubles, the population of the Volga fortress cities consisted of service people and members of their families. The settlements performed both military and commercial functions on the Volga route, but in fact, all of them were fortresses. Their garrisons were mainly supplied by the sovereign bread and money salary and were not able to provide themselves through fishing and other activities. The events of the Time of Troubles contributed to a deep crisis in the life of the Volga cities, the death of Saratov and Tsaritsyn. It was only after the end of the Time of Troubles when their restoration took place and a new system of fortifications was created.

Образы Севастополя в советской культурной памяти

Key images of Sevastopol typical for the Soviet epoch, motives and mechanisms of their formation were found out and analysed in the article. Based on studies of various types of histo­rical records, authors drew a conclusion that cultural memory of the Soviet society maintained several predominant images of Sevastopol. “Fortress city”, “hero city” and “holiday city” were the most common ones. These images carried several ideas such as a battle between light and darkness (the good and the bad) based on the Gospels or heroic, even selfless, service to the Motherland perceived as the supreme goodness of a citizen that is closely related to a formal discourse of pre-revolutionary imperial Russia. Also, a concept of imminent revolution and construction of a classic socialistic city appeared as late as in the Soviet epoch was presented. The Soviet historical policy affected most commemorative practices, memorial and historical works, fiction about Sevastopol, as well as the city images presented in the figurative art, music, the stage and screen played a key part in formation of these images. At the same time, memorial policy of public institutions and several city heads adjusted creation of Sevastopol images rammed through “from upstairs”. Despite the Soviets’ intentions to create predominantly heroic images of Sevastopol “flavoured” with communistic ideology, as a result, they were pretty diversified (including both patriotic origin and lyric component). It is revealing that most Soviet people considered Sevastopol not only as a “hero city” but also as a “holiday city” fulfilled dreams of the late Soviet society.

STAGES OF HISTORICAL AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT OF ORENBURG

The article aims to consider the development and preservation of the urban structure of the city as a result of historical transformations. As a result of the analysis, the authors propose, in addition to the existing system of periodization Of Russian urban planning (pre-Soviet, Soviet, post-Soviet periods), a system of division into stages associated with the peculiarities of the territorial development of the city of Orenburg against the background of the historical context. As a result of research 8 stages of historical development of Orenburg and the spatial transformations of planning structure of the city connected with them are allocated. Particular attention is paid to the description of the first stage - the laying and construction of the fortress city as a supporting Outpost of the Russian state. A brief description of the Russian urban ideology of the XVIII century as a General concept of spatial organization of cities of that time is given.

Fortress Cities of the Russian Black Earth Region in 1604–1618: Overcoming the Civil War

The article concerns the premises and the course of the Civil War (the Time of Troubles) in the Russian Black Earth Region. Fortress cities “na Pole” [in the field] were founded in the late 16th century. The major part of the regional population were service-class people who were not as wealthy as serviceclass people from central uyezds. Introducing a work-off servitude caused their defection to False Dimitry. Fortress cities “na Pole” supported the movement under I. Bolotnikov’s and False Dimitry II’s command. In 1611-1612 the Black Earth Region cities didn’t seem to recognize Vladislav as a Russian tsar. A holistic analysis of the events of 1604-1618 in the fortified cities “na Pole” was not undertaken. Methods and materials. The main sources for writing the article are the record keeping materials of Posolsky, Discharge, Local Prikazes, Voronezh Mandative House. The scientific principles on which the study is based include the principles of historicism and objectivity. The author uses general scientific methods of analysis, synthesis, the historical-genetic method, the systematic approach allowing to consider the events of political, economic, social history in their interrelation. Analysis and Results. The article deals with the facets of the Civil War overcoming in the area of the Russian Black Earth Region. In the context of interreign and new tsar’s reign people’s self-organization expressed in creating provincial (“guba”) administrations, signing “Consolidated Charta” (“Utverzhdennaya Gramota”) by Black Earth Region city representatives on the election of Mikhail Romanov was extremely significant. In the fight against I. Zarutsky’s detachments most service-class people supported Mikhail Romanov, but some representatives of local Cossaks acted for the ataman. After 1613, settling the Black Earth Region area and uezd formation continued. Just at the Time of Troubles voivodes were appointed in those uezds where they owned land that can be traced in Voronezh cadastres. At the Time of Troubles final stage in 1617-1618 there happened an aggravation of military struggle in the Black Earth Region that was connected with the attacks of Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth detachments. After 1618, social peacekeeping, restoring economy and defense system against Nogais and Crimean tribes were the main objectives for Black Earth Region authorities and society.

Slaughter at the Chapel: The Battle of Ezra Church, 1864 by Gary Ecelbarger, and: The Battle of Peach Tree Creek: Hood's First Effort to Save Atlanta by Earl J. Hess

Reviewed by: Slaughter at the Chapel: The Battle of Ezra Church, 1864 by Gary Ecelbarger, and: The Battle of Peach Tree Creek: Hood's First Effort to Save Atlanta by Earl J. Hess Christopher M. Rein Slaughter at the Chapel: The Battle of Ezra Church, 1864. Gary Ecelbarger. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2016. ISBN: 978-0-8061-5499-2, 275 pp., cloth, $26.95. The Battle of Peach Tree Creek: Hood's First Effort to Save Atlanta. Earl J. Hess. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2017. ISBN: 978-1-4696-3419-7, 344 pp., cloth, $37.50. Comparative reviews provide a unique challenge for the reviewer—in addition to discovering similarities in coverage and contrasting differences in approach, style, and content, the reviewer can find it difficult to avoid developing a preference for one work over the other and then using the review to justify that opinion. While Gary Ecelbarger's Slaughter at the Chapel and Earl Hess's The Battle of Peach Tree Creek continue both authors' investigations into the pivotal Atlanta campaign of 1864, providing detailed, traditional accounts of Confederate general John Bell Hood's series of wasteful, attritional assaults in the last weeks July 1864, which eventually cost the Confederacy control of the city, there are subtle differences in approach, argument, and conclusions. Both books could be described as traditional military history, but Hess includes detailed information on women soldiers in the battle (202), while Ecelbarger provides extensive descriptions of leaders on both sides and command arrangements and, more accurately, dysfunction that will appeal to military professionals and students, demonstrating that both scholars have their eyes on a scholarly, or, at least, professional, as well as a popular audience. Though both accounts are deeply grounded in solid academic research and both read exceptionally well, a comparative analysis reveals Hess's scholarly approach and highlights Ecelbarger's popular appeal, betraying their respective occupations as a distinguished professor of history and as a public historian and battlefield tour expert. One hopes that Earl Hess does not run out of energy before he runs out of Civil War topics to write about. An established dean of the military and social history of the conflict, the prolific author has contributed studies on tactics, battles, individual commanders, theaters of the war, soldiers, and campaigns, including his own work on the Battle of Ezra Church published in 2015, making possible a true "apples to apples" comparison. But his goal here is to set the stage for the later actions by exploring the incredible challenges Gen. William T. Sherman faced in tightening the noose around Hood's still dangerous forces coiled like a snake inside Atlanta's formidable defenses. To untrained observers, Civil War battles appear to be decided before they begin in favor of whichever side can marshal greater combat power on the field, but this ignores the incredible complexity that reveals Sherman's military genius. Hess details how the Union commander had to constantly maneuver his forces toward and around the fortress city and shows that doing so exposed portions of his command to a sortie by the Confederate garrison. [End Page 304] Hess focuses on Hood's first opportunity to inflict a potentially decisive blow on a portion of Sherman's command as it straggled across Peach Tree Creek, leaving parts of Gen. George Thomas's Army of the Cumberland isolated and beyond supporting distance from the other two Union armies under Sherman's command. Fortunately, Confederate errors in deployment and stalwart Union resistance frustrated Hood's elaborate plans on that day, holding the position and inflicting irreplaceable casualties on the Confederate commanders. Hess's narrative unfolds geographically, as the echeloned attack hit sections of the Union line sequentially, pushing some portions back but failing to roll it up in the decisive action that commanders on both sides sought but rarely achieved. Befitting his exhaustive knowledge of Civil War tactics, Hess highlights the Union's superiority in artillery, a testament to the attention paid to both technology and logistics, but Ecelbarger's detailing of the almost complete absence of Union artillery at Ezra Church reveals there was more to the Sherman's army than just superior technology and...

Роль строительства укрепленных линий и новых городов в формировании юго-восточных границ России в XVII–XVIII вв.

The study of the process of state territory expansion and the formation of state borders is a relevant problem of historical science. We set a goal: to show how this process went on in the Southeast of Russia in the 17th – 18th centuries. In the context of the regionalization of domestic historical science, frontier theory is an important methodological tool. It allows applying theoreti-cal and concrete historical scientists’ solutions to the study of the southeastern frontier of Russia obtained as a result of studying other border territories, in particular the southern and Volga fron-tier. The main results of this study define the southeast frontier and sets its geographic parameters, covering mainly the territory of Bashkiria, which has been part of Russia since the middle of the 16th century. We substantiate the role of fortress cities and fortified lines in the formation of the southeast frontier zone. We show the process of state borders formation in this region. We draw conclusion that, regardless of the construction motives, the fortress cities became a political tool for securing new lands within the Russian state, and contributed to the gradual transformation of the frontier territory into an internal region (county, governorate).

Creative Industries as an Urban Phenomenon: Opportunities and Prospects

The purpose of the article is to find out the possibilities of the influence of creative industries on the development of modern cities.Research methodology. The paper uses structural and functional analysis, which enabled to consider the organizational and activity component of creative industries.Results. The heterogeneous nature of creative industries, including culture, economy and urban studies, is highlighted. Conclusions are drawn that it is necessary to find possible ways to resolve contradictions between the cultural sphere and business, insufficient economic and marketing awareness of state cultural institutions, etc. The process of globalization erases the boundaries between countries and cultures and gives rise to a sense of loss of unity in the system of state formations. The national, historical and cultural appearance of cities faces a real threat of identity loss. This actualizes the need to fix local identity at the local and regional level, forcing to search for new territory symbols, cultural codes and models that form a sense of the uniqueness of a specific locality, its uniqueness and significance on a global scale. The most important means of solving the problems of both sides are the universalization and simultaneously individualization of the city. Creative industries become a special indicator of the level of development of states and regions, defining their territorial potential, contributing to the socio-cultural revival, the formation of a creative regional and urban environment. At the same time, competition between cities and urban development, as a result of the emergence of creative industries, should not be perceived as a closed fortress city; the dynamics of network relationships not only inside but also outside the city, at the interregional and international levels it is also a major factor of the development. A creative city is an association of creative abilities of individuals and communities for the formation, economically and socially well-off urban environment, including on the basis of cultural resources. Active self-realization of every citizen in this process is not only a goal, but also a means of cultural development, creating a favorable social climate and strengthening the economy.Novelty. An attempt is made to identify the features of functioning the creative industries and their role in the innovative development of territories.The practical significance. The results can be used to develop the programs of cultural and creative industries in cultural policy and in urban development strategies.Keywords: creative economy, creative industries, cultural industries, urban development.

Machiavelli and the Fortress City

This article examines Machiavelli’s writings on fortresses as a new starting point for a genealogy of urban fortification. In contrast to theorists of Machiavelli who approach fortresses as defensive structures that preserve the present political order, this article considers fortresses as weapons to privatize civic life. It explores the significance of fortresses for democratic readings of Machiavelli, suggesting that Machiavelli offers a careful analysis of the spatial organization of power and its implications for popular self-government. This reconsideration of fortresses in Machiavelli brings his political thought into conversation with contemporary urban theorists critical of the enclosure of public space. The article argues that Machiavelli seeks to resignify notions of fortification and replace the construction of fortresses with practices of fortifying publics. Such practices find ways to strengthen public spaces and envision durable democracy.

IMPROVING THE LAE-LAE ISLAND ENVIRONMENT AND SETTLEMENT QUALITY AS A MARINE TOURISM DESTINATION IN MAKASSAR CITY

Lae-Lae is an island in the city of Makassar, Indonesia. The island area of 0.04 sqkm, inhabited by 420 families or about 1780 inhabitants, is located 1.5 km from Makassar and accessible in 10 minutes with a fishing boat from the city of Kayu Bangkoa port. Lae-Lae island has excellent potential for tourist development of Makassar city, and a paradise for fans of sunset. In addition, there are also historical sites of war comprising an underground tunnel, which was said to connect to the fortress city of Makassar / Fort Rotterdam. Conditions of Lae-Lae island today feel less than comfortable because of the condition of the heat and lack of shade to enjoy the sunset. In addition, the attractions offered are also still very poor compared with its potential. Another thing deemed less supportive of Lae-Lae as a tourist destination in the past was the condition of facilities. To improve the quality of Lae-Lae island as a tourist destination, it would be necessary to arrange development of new tourist objects and improvement in the attractions that already exist. So the potential of the island as a travel destination can be optimized. The goal was to plan the arrangement of Lae-Lae island, both the environmental aspects and the settlement, so that Lae-Lae can be an optimal attraction for fans of nautical tourism, both locally and internationally. The method used was direct observation in the field through recordings, interviews, and of the conditions that exist today, which would then be linked to theories, concepts, and literature, also field trip to other tourist attractions that are more advanced. Results were in the form of settlement planning and Lae-Lae island environmental improvement that would be safe, comfortable and of tourism value.

Rachel Chrastil. The Siege of Strasbourg.

The siege of Strasbourg in 1870 was a traditional affair. It was a fortress city. Its peacetime garrison of 8,000 (a tenth of the population) rose to 17,000 as the siege began. The siege lasted seven weeks, during which time 861 French soldiers were killed, compared to 933 besieging Germans. About 340 civilians died violent deaths. The Prussian commander August von Werder deliberately bombarded the city center hoping that a demoralized citizenry would pressure Jean-Jacques-Alexis Uhrich into a quick surrender. This was not a new tactic, although modern artillery made it much more destructive. It did not work, so trenches and parallels were built allowing German artillery close enough to pound the city's walls. By September 27 a passable breach had been made: an assault, and with it the possibility of unrestrained violence against defenders and civilians, was imminent. Although custom and French regulations stipulated that a city should suffer at least one assault before surrender, this expectation was seldom observed. Without hope of relief, Uhrich believed honor was satisfied (an official inquiry after the war disagreed). The municipal authorities supported his decision to surrender.

Venice: the geometry of the origins

In Venice it is possible to observe a great Pythagorean triangle whose vertices are marked by the city’s oldest bell towers. This covers the city with precise Roman measurements: a particular kind of centuriation. The bell towers can also be grouped into particular visual circuits. The perfectly measurable topographical polygons provide a means of identifying and describing parts of the original layout of Venice. Further, in a city that is a labyrinth, the targeted locations of the cells of the bell towers satisfy the vital need for communication, visually and in an ordered way, between various points of Venice. Each structure was thus programmed to minimize the effort to control movement, making it possible to gather information, coordinate decisions, and plan the most suitable interventions essential for a true fortress city.

The legacy of Ladislau Steiner (1920–2013): the neurosurgeon who won the heart of the world

There are not many things one can say when the tragic moment of losing a friend and a mentor comes. Professor Ladislau Steiner was, first of all, more than just a friend and a mentor. He was a man fromwhich all of us, those who knew him, had a lot to learn both professionally and in what regards life conceptions, appreciating true value, simply talking to a patient, holding a speech, and so on. As time passed, Professor Steiner became our role model; he became a symbol of virtue and commitment to medicine. Like all great neurosurgeons, although he is no longer physically amongst us, his spirit is above, watching (Image 1). Born on the 26th of August 1920 in one of Transylvania’s iconic fortress cities—the city of Fagaras (Image 2)— Professor Ladislau Steiner was part of the team that invented and promoted Gamma Knife Radiosurgery. He lived his talelike childhood not far from the famous monastery of Sambata which was erected by the martyr Constantin Brancoveanu as a symbol of Orthodox Christianity in Transylvania. His proper upbringing and education made him stand out as a bright and hard-working student ever since his admission in high school which he graduated top of his class. Soon after high school, the future doctor L. Steiner gets admitted at the King Ferdinand University, Medical School in Cluj-Napoca. At the time, the medical school was renowned for the elite group of professors which were active in all the fields of medicine. For example, the chair of anatomy was Professor Victor Papilian (1888–1956), at histology was Professor A.Miskolcy (1894–1978), at internal medicine was Professor Iuliu Hatieganu (1885–1959) (after which the university was later baptized), and last but not the least, the chair of surgery was Professor Iacob Iacobovici (1879–1959), one of the most famous surgeons in Eastern Europe at the time. Using the advantages such an exquisite academic environment had to offer, the young Ladislau Steiner manages to publish a few studies concerning conditional reflexes during experimental traumatic brain injuries and the modifications of the CSF during schizophrenia and epilepsy. His early works proved that the young medical student had a special set of skills needed for research and deep understanding of neurosurgery. His early certified neurosurgical activity arrived during the pioneering age of the Cluj-Napoca clinic of neurosurgery, at the time of which there still were countries in Europe that did not have an autonomous neurosurgical unit. His first mentor, Prof. Stefan T. Iacob (1920–1975), managed to keep young Ladislau interested in neurosurgery, while at the same time helping him get the bigger picture in international medicine. It was in Cluj where Ladislau learned that success is obtained only through commitment and hard work. Eager for knowledge, Ladislau gets admitted to a short stage of neurosurgery in the clinic of Prof. Constantin Arseni (1912–1994) in Bucharest in 1960 and soon afterwards leaves together with his wife Melita for a short period of time to Prof. Friedrich Weickmann’s clinic in Berlin Buch. Through a fortunate twist of events, Ladislau and his wife Melita manage to leave the Soviet Bloc through checkpoint D. A. Nica Department of Neurosurgery, St. Pantelimon Emergency University Hospital, Bucharest, Romania

WAGING WAR IN LATE ANTIQUITY

This paper identifies the decisive factors in the course and outcome of wars in Late Antiquity. While many of these factors are also significant to war in other periods, it is argued that an unprecedented level of fortification work, carried out by successive regimes, was the distinctive characteristic of late antique warfare. Rather than a negative, solely defensive measure, fortress cities, forts, watchtowers and cross walls gave the Romans a platform for aggressive campaigning within and beyond the frontiers of the empire. These defences enabled the Romans to control intelligence, supplies, manpower, and local hearts and minds within campaign arenas.

FORTIFICATION AND THE LATE ROMAN EAST: FROM URBAN WALLS TO LONG WALLS

Fortifications are major surviving structures from the late antique world. This article demonstrates the great range of defences constructed across the East Roman Empire, beginning with a case study of the walls of Antioch based on late 18th c. engravings and revealing the scale of a major imperial 5th c. project now largely lost. The survey then reviews evidence from Asia Minor, where there is more limited evidence for new defences. On the eastern frontier, the great fortress cities are well known, but attention is drawn to fortified settlements within the frontier zone in both Roman Mesopotamia and the Balkan provinces. In the Balkan regions, however, a more elaborate response to security was the construction of a number of internal barrier walls, including the Anastasian Wall in Thrace and the newly discovered Haemus Gates. The conclusion assesses the role of fortification in the late antique world and considers the importance of providing multivocal interpretations across the frontiers of the East Roman Empire, engaging both the rich archaeological and textual sources.

Review: Cities at War in Early Modern Europe, by Martha D. Pollak

Martha D. Pollak. Cities at War in Early Modern Europe . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010, 370 pp., 223 b/w illus. $95, ISBN 9780521113441. The cities in Martha Pollak’s new book are not really at war. They are preparing for war and commemorating war, but the actual warfare is left out of the picture. Though most of the cities she discusses experienced one or more sieges, the military operations themselves are not the focus of her study. Likewise, Pollak does not examine fortifications as such, but rather their multifarious effect on the conception and representation of the city—what she calls “military urbanism”: “an international style of urban design characterized by uniformity, geometrical clarity, architectural economy, and unadorned monumentality” (i). The ambitious aim of Cities at War in Early Modern Europe is to demonstrate that the military component was of central importance in the history of urbanism between 1550 and 1700. Of course, the gripping conjunction between cities and war has been explored before; a fine example is La ville et la guerre , edited by Antoine Picon, oddly never cited by Pollak.1 But overall historians of urban design have hitherto downplayed military considerations. A notable exception is Enrico Guidoni and Angela Marino’s two-volume Storia dell’urbanistica , to which Pollak is evidently indebted.2 Pollak’s subject matter—urban design and military culture—remains that of her earlier book, Turin, 1564–1680 (1991), but she now expands her survey to the whole of Europe, and offers not a chronological narrative but a thematically organized study.3 She splendidly succeeds in rectifying the familiar picture by showing how well-known manifestations of baroque city planning were generated by military urbanism. The pan-European approach is particularly praiseworthy, for although war was the most international of phenomena, most modern studies of military architecture and urbanism remain confined within present-day national frontiers. Pollak’s comparative survey ranges from Valletta to Stockholm and from Naples to London. Her attention goes mainly to the leading and …

The Fall of Hitler's Fortress City: The Battle for Königsberg, 1945

The Fall of Hitler's Fortress City: The Battle for Königsberg, 1945

‘BASTARD MONGREL ARMY ON THE MOVE, URDU’

The Enchantress of Florence essays a modernist and postmodern account of Mughal roots of Urdu that steers clear of uncritical nostalgia for the Mughal empire on the one hand, and avoids the satiric mode of anti-Urdu polemic on the other. Abjuring these novelistic and essayistic conventions, Salman Rushdie's novel constructs a global map of the Renaissance within which Florentine humanism, sensuality, political thought and love poetry has its eastern counterpart in the humanist, syncretic and proto-modern elements in Akbar's court in Sikri. The compound word at the heart of Rushdie's cartographic fiction is an older term for the Urdu language – zubān- e-urdu –e- mŭallā – that literally means the neighbourhood or royal court where Urdu is spoken. Disconnected facts of Urdu's early linguistic history are strung together in the novel into a haunting love story between a European stranger, an exquisite fortress city to which he travelled and wished to live, and a visionary emperor who had the imagination to conceive of the cosmopolite city and adopt the cosmopolite vernacular but who betrayed his own best self and violated the principle of fraternal affection. The stranger who is first welcomed in Sikri and Florence and then repudiated by city dwellers embodies the spirit of Urdu and its potential resources for creating the enchantress city where foreigner turns into beloved, the wholly Other into the dearly familiar. Through its linguistic openness Urdu functions for Rushdie as rallying point for other Third World vernaculars. How can the English novel mediate and make visible the secular and modern sympathies of Urdu and heal the Hindi–Urdu divide? These are the lines of enquiry that Rushdie's novel makes possible.

The Fortification of Gaul and the Economy of the Third and Fourth Centuries

An effort is made here to cast light on three areas related to converting the open urbs of Bordeaux into a fortress city during the later third and early fourth centuries. First, some tentative estimates are offered regarding various aspects of the expenditure of human, animal, and material resources that were involved in this project. Secondly, using Bordeaux as a guide, some even more tentative suggestions are made regarding the overall costs of the strategic initiatives that resulted in the fortification of some one hundred cites. Finally, some suggestions are made regarding whether this type of exercise can be of some value, if perhaps only heuristically, in helping us to understand the economic and demographic nature of the "Crisis of the Third Century" in light of its aftermath.

Splintering Spheres of Security: Peter Sloterdijk and the Contemporary Fortress City

The paper brings together Peter Sloterdijk's ‘theory of spheres' with urban studies literature on the forms and effects of the contemporary urban security agenda, in order to investigate the relationships between the material and (atmo)spherical dimensions of the splintering spaces of security in the contemporary fortress city. The paper hence seeks to conceptualise securitisation strategies not only as spatially articulated measures of surveillance and separation but also as sphere-creating forces in their own right. In this view the paper places particular emphasis on Sloterdijk's conceptualisation of ‘foam’, thus elucidating the contemporary fortress city as a highly fragmented, polyspherical patchwork of more or less hermetically enclosed and purified security spheres. These spheres are bound together by relations of cofragility and reciprocal implications, and are to different degrees oriented towards the more or less economically motivated collection and management of co-isolated individuals.