This study provides an overview of the history and characteristics of Islamic and Ottoman epigraphy on tombstones, tracing their origins back to the earliest inscriptions on the rocks of Medina. The kufi script was widely used for writing epitaphs, while during the Ottoman period, rika was more commonly used and nesih was less commonly used. A brief overview of the constituent elements of the epitaph during the Ottoman period is given, which includes time data, specific month-specific pseudonyms and short biographies of the deceased. The decorations and shapes of the heads of the stones reflect gender, profession or affiliation to certain religious orders. In the second part of the paper, transcriptions in the Latin alphabet and translations into Albanian are given from eight epitaphs found in the cemeteries of the village of GurguricA in Tetovo.

ABSTRACT The article examines the position of Yemenite Jews under Ottoman rule between 1872 and 1914 through three interconnected themes: relations, networks, and migration. Drawing primarily on underutilized Ottoman archival sources, the analysis examines changes in the social, legal and political conditions of the Jewish community following the re-establishment of Ottoman authority in Yemen. The present study places particular emphasis on the analysis of Ottoman correspondence, with a view to exploring interactions with Zaydi Muslim communities and provincial authorities, as well as contacts with European Jewish organizations. The text further explores the phenomenon of migration to Palestine, contextualizing it within the broader geopolitical landscape, marked by instances of political instability, economic hardship, and prevailing security concerns.

Abstract This article examines how the Banū Fahd of Mecca successfully established and maintained a scholarly dynasty specialising in hadith transmission across multiple generations during the Mamluk and early Ottoman periods (eighth/fourteenth–eleventh/seventeenth centuries). Drawing on social reproduction theory, the study analyses the deliberate strategies through which this family transformed itself from judge-merchants into ‘the hadith transmitters of the Hijaz’. The analysis focuses on Taqī al-Dīn Muḥammad (d. 871/1466) as the pivotal figure who systematically forged the family’s scholarly identity through multiple interconnected strategies: intensive early education of children and relatives, strategic exploitation of Mecca’s position as a pilgrimage centre to build networks with visiting scholars, creation of a family library that became a regional resource, development of sophisticated information management tools (indexes, notebooks, summaries), cultivation of excellence in manuscript copying, and elaboration of genealogical claims linking the family to ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib. These practices were consciously transmitted across several generations, creating a cumulative effect that sustained the family’s reputation into the early eleventh/seventeenth century. The study demonstrates that this scholarly dynasty succeeded not through passive inheritance but through active, systematic cultivation of multiple forms of capital—economic, social, cultural, and symbolic—deployed strategically to reproduce elite status across generations.

ABSTRACT This study presents the first systematic bibliography of English language teaching materials for Turkish learners (1848–1928), spanning from the earliest known text produced for readers of the Ottoman Turkish script to the final publications preceding the 1928 script reform. This previously undocumented corpus of textbooks sheds light on the full scope and development of English instruction during the critical transition from the Ottoman to early Republican educational systems. Positioned at the intersection of educational history and cultural heritage, these materials are curricular artefacts reflecting broader shifts in language policy, pedagogy, and cultural transmission. Additionally, through archival and bibliographic research, this study categorises the textbooks according to their pedagogical focus, ranging from self-learning to spoken instruction. Treating textbooks as historical sources, the article contributes to understanding the material culture of education and to preserving the historical significance of these rare works, ensuring they are not lost to future scholarship.

ABSTRACT This study explores the role of education, emotion, and social memory in shaping student experiences during the transition from the late Ottoman Empire to the early Republican period in Turkey through the lens of farewell texts. Drawing on 12 + 105 farewell notes preserved in the archives of Hoca İlyas School in Bursa, dating from 1919–1921 (Late Ottoman Era) and 1928–1929 (Early Republican Era), the study employs qualitative document analysis and thematic interpretation to examine how students remembered their teachers, peers, and schooling. The analysis identifies five dominant themes in the Ottoman writings: gratitude to teachers, moral and religious formation, education as liberation from ignorance, patriotic loyalty, and nostalgic attachment, while the Republican-era texts reconfigured these sentiments around civic appreciation for teachers, schooling as preparation for future success, patriotic service, peer solidarity, and collective memory. These shifts reflect broader transformations in the aims of education: from cultivating morally upright and religiously grounded imperial subjects to producing secular, national, and modern citizens of the Republic. By treating farewell texts as “emotional archives”, the study highlights the interplay of pedagogy, affect, and ideology, demonstrating how schools not only transmitted knowledge but also inscribed state ideals into students’ emotional and cultural memories.

ABSTRACT In the 1893 Gaiety Theater incident in London, a burlesque featured a lecherous caricature of Sultan Abdülhamid II, immediately leading to a protest from the Ottoman ambassador and a rapid intervention by British authorities. Drawing on previously unexamined Ottoman archival documents, European press coverage, and the post-censorship publicity photograph of the fictionalized Sultan figure published in a London society magazine, this article provides the first sustained analysis of the episode. It situates this controversy within the Western tradition of depicting Ottoman rulers as the “lustful Turk,” and argues that the incident cannot be reduced to a trivial theatrical dispute. Rather, it exposes the resilient Orientalist stereotypes represented in the Victorian theater, and shows that the Ottoman state, despite its declining geopolitical power, actively resisted a sexualized comic representation that compromised imperial dignity. Although the Sultan’s name was removed under pressure from the Ottoman Embassy, the visual messages linked to the “lustful Turk” persisted, revealing both the effectiveness and the limits of Ottoman efforts to challenge the Orientalist norms of Victorian popular culture.

This study examines the economic institutions that governed tax-farming contracts in the Ottoman Empire between 1550 and 1800. Utilizing institutional and game-theoretic frameworks, it analyzes the strategic interactions between the state and its agents under conditions of weak commitment and asymmetric information. In contrast to Western Europe, where corporate fiscal entities and long-term partnerships ensured credible commitment, the Ottoman system depended on individualized short-term contracts that lacked organizational continuity. Although this arrangement generated short-term revenue, it discouraged investment in administrative capacity and sustained cooperation, resulting in a low efficiency equilibrium. The study further addresses a central paradox in business history: whether the absence of corporate fiscal organization in the Ottoman context was due to enduring Islamic commercial traditions such as mudaraba, or the restrictive institutional design of tax-farming contracts. By elucidating this paradox, this study clarifies how institutional rigidity and monopolized fiscal authority impeded the emergence of long-lived business organizations.

ABSTRACT At the outset of World War I, the Nestorians rebelled against the Ottoman Empire in pursuit of independence and aligned themselves with Russia. However, when their expectations were not met, they abandoned their homeland in Hakkâri, migrating first to Iran in mid-1915 and later, in July 1918, to Iraq under British administration. The termination of the British mandate in Iraq in 1932 -without allocating an independent settlement area or granting the right to self-government- deeply disappointed the Nestorians and led them to turn against their former patrons. In addition to this opposition, French propaganda -driven by its struggle for regional influence against Britain- and the uncompromising stance of the inexperienced Nestorian leader, Patriarch Mar Shamoun Isai, who at the time, was in his mid-twenties, paved the way for the Nestorian uprising in mid-1933. Various studies in foreign literature address this rebellion launched by the Nestorians against the Iraqi government. However, despite the Turkish Foreign Ministry’s close monitoring of the events, research based on Turkish archival records remains quite limited. This study seeks to address that gap by examining the issue through Turkish Diplomatic Archive records. Thus, it aims to offer a more objective and alternative perspective on the subject.

<i>The Order and Disorder of Communication: Pamphlets and Polemics in the Seventeenth-Century Ottoman Empire</i>

ABSTRACT This article examines how the late Ottoman Empire attempted to regulate prostitution through mechanisms of spatial control, surveillance, and public order. Drawing on Ottoman archival documents, published sharia court records, and contemporary writings, the study argues that prostitution in the Ottoman world was understood not merely as commercial sex but as a broader category of moral and social deviance (fuhşiyyat). Ottoman official discourse often blurred the boundaries between prostitution, adultery, immoral entertainment, and other forms of illicit sexuality. The article demonstrates that, particularly during the modernization period, the Ottoman state increasingly sought to render prostitution visible, traceable, and governable through brothel districts, medical inspections, zoning regulations, and police surveillance. However, prostitution continuously adapted itself to hidden and semi-regulated spaces such as inns, lodging rooms, cemeteries, coffeehouses, ruins, hotels, and private residences. These spaces became key sites where the limits of Ottoman spatial governance were tested and negotiated. Rather than presenting a complete geography of prostitution, the study reconstructs a geography of surveillance, scandal, and intervention, revealing how prostitution became intertwined with concerns over morality, public health, urban order, and state authority in the late Ottoman Empire.

The legal regulation of relations with non-Muslims in the Otto­man Empire was implemented through specific legal acts, as well as thr­ough legal institutions, special taxes, and other regulatory mecha­nisms. This paper examines the principal legal acts governing relations between Muslims and non-Muslims, as well as relations among non-Muslim communities themselves. Particular attention is given to the role of the Medina Charter in laying the foundations for the estab­lishment of an ethnically and religiously pluralistic state. The study no­tes that classical sources of Islamic law demonstrate a relatively tolerant approach toward non-Muslim subjects. It further analyzes the Gülhane Hatt-ı Şerif and the Hatt-ı Hümayun as documents that leg­ally reinforced the autonomy of non-Muslim religious com­mu­nities and established the obligation of the state to protect the life, honor, and property of all subjects of the Ottoman Empire, as well as their equality before the law regardless of religion. The Constitution of the Ottoman Empire of 1876 is examined in the context of attitudes tow­ard non-Muslims and as a manifestation of legal and political com­pro­mise. The study also reviews the taxes “Jizya” and “Isfenci”, as well as the practice of “Devshirme”, as elements of the fiscal and admin­istrat­ive system applied to non-Muslim populations, together with certain regulations concerning their dress and lifestyle. The paper demo­nstr­ates that, despite the declared goals contained in the afor­ementioned legal acts, these measures primarily served to stren­gthen the authority of the Ottoman state and often placed non-Muslims in an unequal position compared with Muslims, which was reflected in the religious, political, social, and economic spheres.

ABSTRACT During the late Ottoman period, Mardin experienced an increase in residential construction characterized by remarkable stone-carved decorations. Within the broader corpus of residential decoration, a particular group of portals on the southern facade and grand niches in the reception room (başoda) feature a unique iconographic schema that incorporates Christian symbols. These decorations, which contextualize the Christian narrative within residences, represent a rare and exceptional phenomenon in a predominantly Muslim city within the larger geography of the Ottoman Empire. This article aims to explore the religious meaning conveyed through the symbolic imagery present in Christian dwellings. Furthermore, it will analyse the intricate multidenominational Christian identity strategies, considering the relevant political, economic, and socio-religious situations of the period. It employs a research methodology that combines iconographic analysis with comparative evaluations of the altar decoration from the mid-twentieth century in regional churches. This comparative analysis confirms our inference about the theme of salvation, represented through the metaphor of the gate of paradise, underscoring the theme’s sustainability characteristics that span centuries in terms of form and meaning. The article clarifies our comprehension of the intricate relationship between decorative art, faith, and the socio-religious landscape of late Ottoman Mardin.

This study focuses on the place of Sunnism in the political vision of Sultan Abdulhamid II. It also examines how Sunni identity was positioned within his broader Pan-Islamist policies. While Pan-Islamism is often discussed as a response to Western imperialism, the internal religious dimension remains insufficiently addressed in the literature. Sunni identity, a core element of Ottoman identity, gained renewed significance during Sultan Abdulhamid’s reign. The Sultan promoted Sunnism to strengthen state authority and foster unity among Muslims. His efforts included both institutional reforms and societal initiatives. Drawing on primary sources from the Ottoman state archives, the study offers a historically grounded analysis of Sunnism during Abdulhamid’s rule. By situating this analysis at the intersection of religion, society and politics, it contributes to a deeper understanding of late Ottoman governance and provides a valuable contribution to the literature in religious studies, political science and Ottoman history.

In the 1870s, the United States and the Ottoman Empire engaged in a substantial small arms trade as the Empire pursued modernization, and the American industry sought overseas markets. This article examines the American-Ottoman arms business at its inception, from intergovernmental transactions to private enterprises, such as the Winchester Repeating Arms Company and the Providence Tool Company. By analyzing the motivations and challenges faced by each actor, and foregrounding the roles of diplomats, intermediaries, and arms manufacturers, the study reconstructs the competitive dynamics for the first major contracts. Drawing on US diplomatic correspondence, corporate archives, Ottoman Archives, and the previously unexplored William de Saint-Laurent Papers, the article shows how an initially low-profile trade partnership gained significance. It particularly emphasizes the roles of official and unofficial intermediaries in navigating public-private boundaries, contributing to debates on informal business networks and infrastructures that supported global capitalism in the nineteenth century.

This article examines the circulation and reception of Chinoiserie in Cyprus from the Ottoman period through the mid-20th century, focusing on its integration into domestic material culture rather than its ideological or aesthetic significance in Europe. While Chinoiserie emerged in 17th- and 18th-century Europe as a symbol of cosmopolitan refinement, global trade, and fascination with the East, its adoption in Cyprus occurred within the island’s specific socio-economic and colonial contexts. During Ottoman rule, wealthy urban families acquired Chinese and European porcelain, often through Mediterranean trade networks, as markers of status. Under British colonial rule, access to global markets and exposure to European cultural norms further embedded Chinoiserie into the domestic interiors of the emerging Cypriot bourgeoisie. By the mid-20th century, porcelain tea sets, often Japanese or European imitations of Chinese designs, became standard wedding gifts, reflecting patterns of consumption, gift-giving traditions, and participation in global consumer culture rather than engagement with Asian culture. Unlike in Britain, where Chinoiserie carried ideological and cultural connotations, in Cyprus these objects were valued primarily as domestic commodities and symbols of social aspiration. Over time, they transitioned from markers of cosmopolitan taste to nostalgic family heirlooms, illustrating the localised trajectories of global decorative trends within a peripheral colonial context

The aim of this study is to reveal the course of encephalitis lethargica, a disease that emerged in Europe during the First World War and refers to a type of central nervous system disorder occurring in the brain caused by infection, in the Ottoman Empire after the war. First appearing as an epidemic in Austria in 1916, the disease was first diagnosed by Dr Economo and spread throughout Europe and even the American continent within a few years. With the end of the war, particularly from the beginning of 1920 onwards, the disease manifested itself in many cities in Anatolia, especially Istanbul, and caused a great stir among the public. Many Turkish psychiatrists of the period, particularly the Health Directorate, attempted to identify and understand the disease and developed various treatment methods for the identified cases. As in other countries at the time, adequate solutions for treatment could not be found, and the disease continued to have devastating effects for many years. This study attempts to scientifically present the cases of encephalitis lethargica in Türkiye between 1920 and 1927, the case and mortality statistics, and the course of the disease, drawing primarily on periodicals of the time.

This article reconceptualizes the 1877–1882 Batum–Akçaabat (Trabzon) migration not merely as a humanitarian emergency but as a political and spatial project that reshaped late Ottoman governance. Drawing on Ottoman archival sources and British diplomatic reports, the study shows that refugee resettlement operated through two interlinked dynamics: spatial governance and refugee participation in administrative processes. Land records reveal that wealthier Batum households received larger and more fertile plots, indicating that the Ottoman state reproduced existing social hierarchies even as it reorganized provincial space. Petitionary evidence further shows that refugees were not passive recipients of state assistance but active claim-making actors who negotiated land, protection and legal recognition. The cases of Halime Hatun, a widowed migrant who contested the reassignment of her inherited land, and Nokta Hanım, who directly petitioned provincial authorities for legal protection, highlight gendered patterns of participation that complicate male-centred narratives in Ottoman migration historiography. Local resistance, fiscal constraints, and Russian diplomatic intervention reveal a triangular arena shaped by imperial priorities, provincial power struggles, and cross-border pressures. By conceptualizing forced migration as a relational and negotiated process, this micro-historical and empirically grounded analysis offers new insights into refugeedom and late Ottoman governance within global forced migration debates.

ABSTRACT This study examines the Hejaz Railway as a multifunctional planning apparatus that organised movement, resources, and populations in the late Ottoman Empire. Rather than analysing stations as isolated architectural objects, the study conceptualises them as multi-component ‘railway campuses’ shaped by distinct planning rationalities. Based on a comparative analysis of recurring spatial components along the Damascus–Medina corridor, the research identifies four categories: terminal (RC–T), regional (RC–R), operational (RC–O), and minimal (RC–M) campus types. These categories are defined not by architectural typology, but by dominant planning priorities, including mobility regulation, infrastructural continuity, resource management, and security. The study argues that the railway corridor functioned as a governing apparatus that calibrated the rhythm, intensity, and direction of sacred mobility. Water infrastructure, open operational spaces, healthcare facilities, and security units transformed railway campuses into spatial nodes of control. In particular, the regulation of pilgrimage through distributed hygiene and sanitary practices reveals the railway as a spatialised biopolitical regime rather than a purely transport infrastructure. By foregrounding infrastructural planning beyond urban centres, the study offers a revised interpretation of Ottoman planning as a multi-scalar, mobility-based governance practice embedded in imperial sovereignty.

Abstract This article provides a genealogy of attempts by Mamluk and Ottoman rulers and governors to regulate, seize and liquidate awqāf from the fourteenth to the nineteenth century in Egypt. While studies on siyāsa sharʿiyya have shown how rulers could intervene in waqf regulation under claims of istibdāl , this article explores the relationship between siyāsa and awqāf . It elucidates a certain limit to rulers’ attempts to regulate awqāf by looking at how nineteenth-century jurists cited fourteenth-century jurisprudential precedents in a bid to resist encroachments by the ruler in their domain. Before the nineteenth century, rulers encountered obstacles when interfering in endowments, evincing a limit to the siyāsa prerogative of the ruler to legislate new jurisprudential norms. But after the nineteenth century, istibdāl became a norm much to the chagrin of jurists and judges, making the ruler’s ability to seize awqāf , and intervene in its norms, unencumbered.

Spolia, defined as reused architectural elements in constructions, constitute a diachronic practice extending from antiquity to modern times, mostly denoting war trophies. Their application was related to multiple parameters including technical, economic, aesthetic, symbolic, and cultural aspects. In all cases, the reuse of high-quality, processed materials could be associated with the diachronic principles of sustainability. Therefore, spolia can be characterized as precursors of the contemporary circular resource management strategies adopted in the constructional sector. In the present paper, the spolia identified in nine monuments in Thessaloniki, dated throughout a wide period of 1.5 millenniums (from the Roman to the Ottoman era), were studied. Analysis results, regarding their location, functional use, type, origin, geometric characteristics, and technology, were statistically processed and concluding remarks were assessed. Their application was classified into three principal categories related to structural, functional, and symbolic usage, rendering spolia material mediators between successive historic periods, through which memory, cultural identity, and architectural continuity can be foreseen in the city of Thessaloniki.