Ottoman Heritage Research Articles

The Antiquities Threshold: Gaza’s Ruins and the Mandatory Muting of Ottoman Heritage

The Antiquities Threshold:Gaza's Ruins and the Mandatory Muting of Ottoman Heritage Dotan Halevy (bio) KEYWORDS Antiquities law, preservation, Gaza, heritage, waqf In May 1922, a junior inspector of the Palestine Department of Antiquities was sent to conduct an archeological survey in the city of Gaza. Following his visit, he embarked upon a series of articles, documenting the Arabic inscriptions that he found.1 The inspector, Leo A. Mayer, would soon gain fame as a prominent orientalist. His series of articles on Gaza became a milestone in the study of Palestine under Islamic rule. But as an antiquities inspector, Mayer's quest for Arabic inscriptions also had a rather instrumental function. In his survey report, Mayer concluded that "eighteen of [the inscriptions] are historical," yet the others "are of the date later than 1700."2 By identifying the inscribed dates, Mayer sorted the historic buildings in Gaza into those older than the year 1700 and those newer. That was not his personal preference, but the definition of the mandatory Antiquities Ordinance, which took antiquities to be "any object of construction made by human agency earlier than 1700."3 Only these buildings were protected by the law against modification or destruction, and were registered by Mayer as historic monuments. Neither British law nor the Ottoman antiquities laws going back to 1869 defined antiquities according to their age. According to both, any artifact from the past could have been considered a protected antiquity.4 This novel definition for antiquities in the mandate territories was first suggested during the [End Page 387] Click for larger view View full resolution Figure 1. Leo A. Mayer next to an Arabic inscription in Gaza, 1922. Sourced from Leo A. Mayer, "Arabic inscriptions of Gaza," Journal of the Palestine Oriental Society 11 (1931), 150–151. 1919 Paris Peace Conference. It was part of a much broader effort to internationalize the postwar administration of antiquities and archeological work in the Near East and Asia Minor. The Ottoman Empire had lost sovereignty over these lands, and the Allied governments opted to establish an "open door" policy between European powers, to allow mutual access to archeological sites, and most importantly, to regulate the division of artifacts between the local museums and archeological expeditions. These policies were meant to reverse the former Ottoman laws that had supposedly made excavation work unnecessarily complicated and exporting antiquities illegal.5 Under British and French control, then, each of the League of Nations "A" mandates in the former Ottoman territories were obliged to enact a new law of antiquities, in line with the new international regulations. Among other things, this law redefined antiquities as those sites older than 1700.6 Excluding from protection anything from 1700 onwards attests to a broader British bias against the heritage of the last Ottoman centuries: the [End Page 388] antiquities law that the British enacted in Cyprus in 1905, for example, defined antiquities as objects only "up to the Turkish conquest of the Island;"7 and British military governors in the occupied Ottoman territories during WWI, by no means archeology specialists, similarly defined antiquities as "antecedent to the year 1600" in Palestine, and "before 1500" in Mesopotamia.8 No justification was given for these specific years, and none was given either when a civil ordinance later set the threshold to 1700. Indeed, the specific year was not the point, so much as the assumption that some periods lay outside historical significance. How did this policy work in practice? The British, after all, could not just ignore monumental buildings newer than 1700. Upon encountering these, then, they had to reinterpret the land's history in order to include them within the scope of the law. In his report from Gaza, for instance, Mayer had mentioned the discernable ruins of a caravanserai named Khan al-Zayt, that had been disfigured during WWI when the Ottoman governor of Syria, Cemal Pasha, paved a boulevard across it.9 Having no inscription or other indicative signs to rely on, Mayer could not date the structure and thus did not define it as an antiquity.10 In 1934, more than a decade after Mayer's report, a former shopkeeper in the khan appealed to...

Venetian and Ottoman Heritage in the Aegean: The Bailo House in Chalcis, Greece, edited by Nikos D. Kontogiannis and Stefania S. Skartsis

Venetian and Ottoman Heritage in the Aegean: The Bailo House in Chalcis, Greece, edited by Nikos D. Kontogiannis and Stefania S. Skartsis

The Changing Meanings of Neighborhood in Modern Istanbul

Departing from the Ottoman-Turkish concept of mahalle (neighborhood) and its transformation, this article endeavors to discuss how the local people react to the socio-economic changes that came along the revitalization processes in İstanbul in the last 10 years. The study departs from a field work that has been conducted in Rasimpaşa neighborhood in Kadıköy, located at the Asian part of Istanbul, where there seems to be an ongoing process of revitalization, which started in 2010 with the partnership of The Foundation for the Protection and Promotion of the Environment and Cultural Heritage [ÇEKÜL] and Kadıköy Municipality. Rasimpaşa neighborhood constitutes a good example for old mahalle tradition since it preserved the Ottoman heritage and it is officially under the urban protection. Today it seems to preserve the characteristics of the “mahalle culture” that is embraced by the migrant families who came to İstanbul from Anatolian cities and who got localized here in time. Moreover, Rasimpaşa accommodates newcomers such as university students, international visitors (Erasmus students, upper middle-class artists, musicians, travelers). The question of the research has a simple focus: How do the local shopkeepers perceive the recent changes in the neighborhood and what are their reactions regarding the past present and future of neighborhood. it is assumed that the locals in Rasimpaşa would wel-come the revitalization process that would increase the visitors/tourists/customers. According the findings of the field work most of the local shopkeepers perceive the process in a negative way due to the decay of traditional values as well as decay of old neighborhood lifestyle. Hence this study tries to address the social implications of the revitalization process by demonstrating how and why local people respond to this transformation.

“Each race in its proper sphere”: understanding Ottoman nation, race, and class in the travel narratives of Demetra Vaka Brown (1877–1946) and Leila Ahmed (1940–)

ABSTRACT This article examines the lives and travel writings of two post-Ottoman women writers, Demetra Vaka Brown (1877–1946), a former Ottoman Greek who immigrated to the United States in the late nineteenth century, and Leila Ahmed (1940–), an Egyptian-American scholar whose family was of Turko-Circassian origins. While Vaka Brown's The Unveiled Ladies of Stamboul (1923) is a post-World War I memoir that nostalgically reminisces on the Ottoman era, Ahmed's A Border Passage (1999) examines the political twists and turns in twentieth-century Egypt, and their implications for Ahmed's family. Both women grapple with their Ottoman heritage, exploring constructions of gender as they intersect with Ottoman religious beliefs, class strata, and post-Ottoman nationalisms.

Ottoman heritage: Strategies, topoi and agents

In the first part of the introductory text, I present a theoretical framework that places the attitude towards the Ottoman heritage in a broader socio-cultural context. I distinguish between the two basic strategies in relation to the Ottoman heritage in the Balkan modern societies, and they are: de-Ottomanization (neglecting of Ottoman influences) and internalization. Furthermore, I point out that both strategies were created under the direct influence of the discursive practice of Orientalism, with which they share rhetoric and internal logic. Furthermore, I show, based on several examples of linguistic and cultural practices, how both strategies have been implemented in Serbia. In the second part, I present the papers in this thematic issue and identify the topics presented in it, namely: interreligious dialogue, negotiation of ethnic and religious affiliation in everyday life, religious conversion, inherited institutions of the Ottoman society and attitude towards them, (re)presentation of historical figures and events in literary narratives, Muslim religious organizations in the past and present. The thematic issue aims to contribute to academic dialogue in domestic and international context, in which strategies, topoi and actors related to the Ottoman heritage, Muslims and Islam are very current.

Between Scillas of the European Revolution and Haribdes of the First World War: the Policy of Soviet Russia and Great Britain in the East in 1918

The article considers the key aspects of relations between Soviet Russia and Great Britain in the south-eastern and southern outskirts of the former Russian Empire during the final stage of the First World War. The main attention is paid to the activities of the so called Eastern Committee — a special interdepartmental governmental body molded by the creators of the English foreign policy in spring 1918. As the author demonstrates, during the final year of World War this institution played a major role in the generation of projects of cardinal reorganization of the Near and Middle East, striving to get ahead of the competing great powers in the struggle for the “Ottoman heritage”, and at the same time to prevent the spread of Bolshevism, as the alternative of Western liberal democracy paradigm of values, in the East. The conclusion of the researcher about triplicity of Soviet foreign policy from the period of its formation, substantiated by materials of archival and other sources, allows to make significant corrections in appreciating dynamics of international relations for the first half of the 20th century.

A bloodthirsty tyrant or a righteous landlord? Smail-aga Cengic in literature and oral tradition

The 1840 murder of a notable 19th century Bosnian dignitary Smail-aga Cengic immediately inspired strong artistic production in the South Slav literature and oral tradition. These narratives, comprising newspaper articles, oral epic songs, and particularly Ivan Mazuranic?s literary epics written in the manner of oral folk epic, presented and codified Smail-aga as a bloodthirsty tyrant whose ultimate aim was to terrorize and extinct his Christian subjects. In distinction, some marginalized local narratives and oral folk tradition, which will be examined in this article, remembered Smail-aga as a righteous and merciful lord, protector of his flock and a brave warrior. Thus, when we scrutinize several versions of oral songs about the death of Smail-aga recorded between 1845 and 1860, as well as later collected anecdotes from his native Herzegovina, it appears that his hostile portrayal in written literature was rather the contribution of the Serbian and Croatian Romantic nationalists around the mid- 19th-century than an actual popular perception of him among local people in the region that he lived with. In conclusion, the article advocates for a wider consideration of the overall polyphonic narrative tradition and the revitalization of traditional narratives that glorify values which transcend strict religious, ethnic and national divisions as a way of reimagining and revaluating relationship of the South Slavs towards the Ottoman heritage.

Neo-Ottoman Nostalgia in Contemporary Turkey

The article examines the phenomenon of neo-Ottoman nostalgia in the context of attempts to shape a new post-Kemalist civil identity. Today, neo-Ottomanism is making itself heard in various spheres of life in Turkish society: in culture, cinema and literature, politics and elsewhere. The new Turkey is making every effort to tie together individual parts of its fragmentary identity. This being said, an ambivalent approach to the Ottoman heritage is widespread amongst various strata of Turkish society. Most of the founding fathers of the secular republic took a negative view of the Ottoman past and blamed the empire for a string of failures that beset it at the dawn of its new existence – extensive territorial losses and numerous military defeats. The Kemalist nation building project gave rise to a modern Turkish nation which was supposed to become part of the Western world. At the same time, the appeal to Ottoman narratives reemerged after the transition to a multiparty system in the 1950s; admiration for the Ottoman past increased noticeably in the 1980s and has now reached its peak under the Justice and Development Party (JDP). The party leaders are striving to create a new identity for contemporary Turkey, construing and interpreting history in their own way. It should also be taken into account that the growing interest in Ottoman history in contemporary Turkey reflects changes in both the state’s political discourse and popular culture. This nostalgia for the past reinterprets and decontextualizes previously clearly formulated and enshrined symbols, ideas and historical facts.

Principi evropeizacije u administraciji i arhitekturi srpske države druge polovine 19. veka - primer načelstva Okruga pirotskog

The aim of this paper is to briefly present the origin and organization of the state administration in the Pirot region and of the Municipality of the Pirot County after the annexation to Serbia in 1878, and the erection of the Municipality building and its place in the visual culture of Pirot in the second half of the 19th century. The end of the Serbian-Turkish wars of 1876-1878, and the acquisition of international recognition of the Principality of Serbia at the Berlin Congress in 1878, represents the beginning of a new period of legal, political and cultural development. It was necessary to harmonize the legal and political organization of the new parts of Serbia with the same in the Principality of Serbia, which was a complex and difficult process. The unification of the organization of new regions with the organization of the rest of Serbia meant the transformation of the political and legal order on the model of the European one. Namely, in the time of the rule of the constitutionalists, and the laws related to local government at that time were valid for a long period, the system of local government resembled the French system of centralization, which was founded by Napoleon. The basis of the French local government was the prefect, with the sub-prefect (manager of the arrondissement, county), and the counterpart of that in Serbia was the county chief with the chief of lower administrative unit, named srez. In the later period, taking into account the basis of the mechanism of work of the county self-government, the local government in Serbia maintained similarity with the French, which reformed its self-government in 1871. The county chief in Serbia remained a counterpart to the French prefect, who was subordinated to the central government and supervised the local assembly. The Municipality of the Pirot County developed in accordance with the process of annexing the new parts of Serbia, after 1878, which was a painstaking process of unifying the state administration in those areas with the same in the rest of the Principality and, later, the Kingdom of Serbia. In essence, it is a process of Europeanization of public administration, which, through a series of reforms throughout the 19th century, starting from the time of the constitutionalists, was reflected in respecting the role models in modern European countries (especially the French model), but also in searching for indigenous solutions, the most suitable with the Serbian society, which was in constant development, as well as state institutions. In that sense, it was not a matter of merely transmitting European norms, but of seeking one's own path, following the example of organized modern states. In the same direction, we notice the process of modernization and transformation of Pirot into a modern, European city, and the abandonment of Ottoman heritage and the principles of organization of cities of the Ottoman period. New urban plans were being created and public buildings of national importance were being built, all within the development of the new national identity and the needs of Serbian society and the state. There was a need for the break with the Ottoman period and for accelerated Europeanization, based on laying new foundations in line with modern trends in Southeast Europe, in times when new nations, nation-states and modern societies emerged, resurrected with liberation from centuries of Ottoman rule.

Contribution to an archaeology of the Ottoman Heritage in Romania: The muslim cemetery in Lanurile (Dobruja).

Despite recent increasing interest in the Ottoman materiality in Romania, local archaeological research continues to ignore its long biography, artificially separating the sites and objects from the present. No less problematic is the fact that heritage policies focus solely on the more “famous” Ottoman monuments built by the elites, while ignoring the “modest” architecture found, for example, in rural areas. In order to redress these shortcomings, this study looks at the long biography (from the Ottoman period up to the present day) of the Muslim cemetery in Lanurile in rural Dobruja (Bărăganu commune, Constanţa County), analysing it in relation to other material elements from the neighbouring village of Bărăganu. Ottoman documents mention these two villages by the names Osman-Facı and Ebeköyü, both being inhabited by Turks and Tatars and both part of the kaza of Mangalia. The two villages were renamed Bărăganu and Lanurile, respectively, after the inclusion of Dobruja in the Romanian state in 1878. Gradually – in particular during the 1970s and, increasingly, after 1990 – the inhabitants of these villages (Romanians and Turks/Tatars) began to migrate to nearby towns and cities (Basarabi, Medgidia and Constanţa) or to Turkey (in the case of Turks and Tatars). According to local testimony, this migration occurred simultaneously with the settlement in Bărăganu and Lanurile of many families from the Moldavia region. As a result of this massive depopulation, the Muslim cemeteries are the only remaining material legacy of the villages’ Ottoman past. Lanurile cemetery in particular reflects a genealogical depth (through the extensive and dense distribution of funerary monuments), an aspiration to enduring memory (through the monumentality and durability of the funerary stelae) and an image of eternity (through the monotony of the stones planted in the ground). This funerary space is at one and the same time a monument to a disappeared community, a necropolis in the process of becoming an archaeological site and still-functioning cemetery with a long biography. The present study thus seeks to examine the relationships between the materiality of the Ottoman heritage, the material memory of the Turkish and Tatar communities, local commemorative practices, and the social effects of modernity.

Protectionism and rapprochement in Turkish higher music education: An analysis of the mission and vision statements of conservatoires and university music departments in the republic of Turkey

Music education institutions have played a prominent role in mediating national identity in the Republic of Turkey since its founding in 1923. Initially tasked with suppressing Ottoman heritage, their nature and status changed with the ascendance of political Islam, when interest in Turkey’s Ottoman past grew and the Western aesthetics of the founding elite were increasingly contested. While music education continues to be a site of national identity construction in Turkey, no studies focus on the ideological climate of music education in the era of the Justice and Development Party, who have heralded a ‘New Turkey’ rooted in conservative Islam. We explore the discursive terrain of Turkish music education by analysing the mission and vision statements and other website texts of 71 conservatoires and music departments. Our findings reveal protectionist attitudes towards repertoires and traditions associated with competing nationalist visions, but also an emergent, reconciliatory structure of feeling and advocacy for pluralism.

In the midst of the global and the local: Neo-Ottoman detectives of Filinta

This article intends to understand the significance of depicting the Ottoman past in Turkish TV dramas by focusing on Filinta [Flintlock] (2014–2016) , a hybrid of historical drama and police procedural that is set in the second half of the 19th century in the Ottoman Empire. On the one hand, the article examines the influence of the Ottoman heritage in localising the police procedural genre in Filinta by exploring various kinds of local, cultural and historical connections. On the other hand, it investigates the appeal of using the Ottoman markers in increasing the popularity of the series in the global television market.

A Participatory Approach to the Sustainable Development of an Historic Landscape; Management Plan Proposal for Hisar District, Bursa/Turkey

ABSTRACT Hisar District is located within the borders of Osmangazi County. Hisar has a rich historical and cultural heritage and is a valuable historic landscape which carries not only the physical and spatial traces of this heritage but also preserves social and cultural features. With these features, Hisar District should be conserved for a sustainable future. Bursa Metropolitan Municipality considered the Hisar (Citadel) District as an Ottoman and World Heritage site and a research team from Bursa Uludag University has been given the task of preparing a management plan as a project in order to achieve conservation of the site with a sustainable approach. Led by the author of this paper, Dr Çahantimur, Bursa Uludag University Project Team prepared the plan with a place-specific and participatory approach. This study presents both the significance of Hisar heritage site and the participatory process of the site management plan. It also presents a critical review of the actions undertaken by the municipality since then.

Mid–Century Modern Furniture Representing Modern Ideals in the Grand National Assembly of Turkey

This study focuses on how the modern furniture designed for Turkey's third parliament building, the Grand National Assembly of Turkey, represented the country's new modern ideals by breaking with its Ottoman heritage. While the architecture of this building has been studied, there are no assessments of its interiors and furniture as integral elements. This study uses archival research and interviews with interior designers who worked on the project. The findings shed light on how modernization was brought to life through the spaces and furniture in this powerful, symbolic building.

ÖCÜ GEÇMİŞ, YÜCELTİLEN BUGÜN VE UMUTLU GELECEK: TÜRK KADIN YOLU DERGİSİ’NDE SİYASİ SÖYLEM

Cumhuriyetin ilanı ve beraberinde gelen dönem; olağanüstü değişimlerin görüldüğü, yeni rejimin yerleşebilmesi ve kendini kabul ettirebilmesi için geçmişinden, özellikle Osmanlı mirasından kopması gerektiğinin düşünüldüğü bir dönemdir. Kemalist milliyetçiliğin inşa süreci olarak adlandırılan bu dönemde Osmanlı mirası bazen tamamen bazen de yer yer reddedilerek Türklerin Orta Asya kökenlerine kadar inen bir Türk milliyetçiliği ön plana çıkarılmıştır. 1925-1927 yıllarıarasında Türk Kadınlar Birliği’nin yayın organı olarak yayımlanan Türk Kadın Yolu Dergisi’nde de bu reddi mirasın izlerine rastlanır. Bu çalışmada Türk Kadın Yolu Dergisi’ndeki siyasi söylem incelenmiştir. Dergi içeriğindeki yazılar irdelendiğinde; geçmişin, o günün ve geleceğin, bir sac ayağı gibi üç şekilde algılandığı ve bu algıların da derginin siyasi söylemini oluşturduğu sonucuna varılmıştır. Bu siyasi söylem öcü geçmiş, yüceltilen bugün ve umutlu gelecek olarak özetlenebilir. Çünkü, Osmanlı’dan kopuşun ve bu geçmişe yapılan eleştirilerin odağında Tük Kadın Yolu Dergisi’nde geçmişin adeta öcü olarak görüldüğünü söylemek yanlış olmaz. Öte yandan, kazanılan bağımsızlık savaşı sonrasında yeni bir rejim kurmanın, başarılan inkılapların ve yaşanılan toplumsal dönüşümün yarattığı haklı gururla, içerisinde bulunulan dönem oldukça yüceltilmiştir. Öcü geçmişi silip atan kurtarıcı kahraman olarak, yüceltilen günün temel simgesi ise Mustafa Kemal Paşa ve yarattığı başkent Ankara’dır. İnkılapların yarattığı dönüşüm rüzgârı ise duyulan gururun sebebi ve geleceğe dair beslenen umutların temeli olarak siyasi söylemde kendine yer bulur.

The Ambivalence of Turkey’s Soft Power in Southeast Europe

Although Turkey is lost in the shuffle in global academic discussions evoking the concept of soft power, it occupies centre stage in soft power debates in the context of Southeastern Europe and beyond, among Turkey originated and regional experts. Since the beginning of the second decade of the new millennium, a divergence of ideas and even facts regarding Turkey’s soft power position in Southeast Europe have been occupying both academic and topical discussions. Taking all the various approaches into account, it might fairly be argued that Turkey is not a purely effective and unarguable soft power in Southeast Europe, according to Nye’s coining of the term. Yet, considering the transnational state apparatuses, such as the Diyanet, Yunus Emre Institutes and others, that the country runs and the image that it carries among the Muslim populations of the region, it may also be fairly claimed that Turkey displays strong elements of soft power. Therefore, I argue that while Turkey has many soft power tools and much soft power potential, it has also many weak points within its current circumstances. Challenging the previous discussions on whether Turkey is a soft power or there is a discursive level of transformation into the Turkish soft power, within the paper, I claim that Turkey is an ambivalent soft power particularly in the context of Southeast Europe. According to Nye, soft power is the ability of a state to persuade others to do what it wants without sanctions, force or coercion. Countries’ skills in digital diplomacy, cultural outputs, economic models, commitments to basic freedoms, human rights and democracy are also the other aspects of the soft power. Under these circumstances, roughly between 2002-2013, Turkey’s AKP initiated a pro-democratic agenda alongside its unofficial coalition partner the Gulen Movement, a shift that positioned Turkey externally as an influential rising soft power player focused on democracy and humanitarian aid, in the region. However, I underlined that Turkey has not managed to establish itself regional as a permanent, solid and indisputable soft power player because 2010 the AKP has been shifting in the direction of authoritarianism, shrinking economic environment disproportionate use of Islamist discourse and policies at home and abroad, particularly into the countries of Southeast Europe. This new-born religion-based and repressive policy of Turkey, it seems, can not simply be regarded as an element of soft power. It creates, however, different effects on different actors in the region: some groups (mostly Muslims) are rather happy with Turkey’s religiously fuelled approach, while some others are seriously concerned. This one of the reasons of why I prefer to define Turkey as an ambiguous actor which has not been instrumentalising its soft power resources efficiently. Yet, Turkey can still increase its capacity. In order to do so, it should increase its democratic credentials and strengthen the constitutional institutions, and thereby boost the EU process. It should declare that it will not use its religious influence to provide guardianship for Muslims in a hegemonic way. On the contrary, it should promote religious freedom and peaceful coexistence both domestically and in the region. Supporting a specific religious group would harm Southeast Europe that has suffered greatly from religious divisions and conflicts. Bringing its sui generis secular culture to the fore would differentiate Turkey from Wahhabi and Salafist powers that are also trying to exercise influence on the region. Turkey should also be careful in its emphasis on the common Ottoman heritage with the countries of the region, because this does not necessarily imply a peaceful and harmonious past, as envisaged by the AKP elite. Lastly, Turkey should not view the region as a single entity and should avoid implementing wholesale policies for the region. Rather, it should tailor specific policies for each country considering the sensitivity of historical, cultural, sociological and political dynamics in each context.

Islam, the individual, and communities of practice in Serbia: Agents of change, conflict, and cooperation

The text introduces basic theoretical concepts that are important for understanding the conception of the thematic issue, namely transdisciplinarity, cultural heritage, dialogical memory, as well analytical categories of individual and community of practice. The approach to Islam as a subject of study is further explained. The text then refers on the research of Islam, Muslim communities and Ottoman heritage in the Balkans, with the focus on Serbia. The second part presents the papers in this thematic issue.

Centennial Displays of Ottoman Heritage in the Baroque Art of Western Hungary

Centennial Displays of Ottoman Heritage in the Baroque Art of Western Hungary

The Ruins of Others: Cases from the Ottoman Heritage of Konitsa (NW Greece)

The Ruins of Others: Cases from the Ottoman Heritage of Konitsa (NW Greece)

The Socio-Cultural Attractions Between Turkish Pluralism Society and Algerian Pluralism Society ''Manuel Castell's Approach of Network Society''

Turkey goes to deepen it's existence by computations and steady steps in North Africa, especially towards Algeria, that it represents a strategic depth in the continent of Africa, in addition, there are a cultural reference and the Ottoman heritage in Algeria. Which led to deepen the intensity of contacts and interactions between community actors because of attractions rectifiers between the Turkish and Algerian society, such as cultural, religious and civilizational. Therefore, the study will work to drop the approach of Emmanuel Castel's of Network Society on the Algerian pluralism society and the Turkish pluralism society