Western Travelers Research Articles

The Western Travellers of the Sixteenth Century and the Ancient Monuments Situated along the Route of Via Diagonalis

The paper presents an analysis of the accounts provided by Western travellers from the 16th century regarding the ancient monuments situated along the route of Via Diagonalis, which traverses the Balkans from Belgrade to Istanbul. The ancient Roman road was primarily utilised by Habsburg envoys to the Sublime Porte, although it was also employed by diplomats from Venice and, on occasion, from France. The travelogues provide insight into the condition of the ancient road and the ruins in Nis, Sofia, Plovdiv and Edirne. It is of particular interest to note the remains of the gate in Trajan’s Pass. The information provided by travellers is often limited in scope and lacks sufficient detail. The reasons for this are primarily the lack of time and the suspicious attitude of the Muslims who accompanied the travellers. Nevertheless, travelogues from the 16th century contain invaluable information about monuments and inscriptions that have been destroyed, thereby enhancing our understanding of the history and culture of the Roman provinces of Thrace and Upper Moesia. Furthermore, travellers provide insight into the attitude of the local population towards antiquities. In contrast to Renaissance Europe, where the study and preservation of Antiquity was a prominent aspect of the educated elite’s culture, travellers indicate a lack of interest in these matters among the local population.

The View of Christian Authors on the Practice of Devshirme in the 16th Century Ottoman Empire

The paper examines how various 16th century Christian sources (the vitae of the Balkan martyrs and the notes of Western travelers) reflect one of the cruelest practices of the Ottoman Empire: It is the so-called devshirme or «blood tax» – a system of forced recruitment of Christian boys for their conversion to Islam, upbringing in Turkish culture and subsequent transformation into faithful servants of sultan – soldiers of the Janissary corps or civil servants. Author of the South Slavic vitae of St. George the New of Sophia warns his Christian readers against the dangers of devshirme, as the main character of the vitae even had to leave his native home in order not to become a janissary and to keep his faith. The South Slavic scribe is echoed by the author of the Russian vitae of St. George the New: he conveys a frightening description of devshirme as the most terrible atrocity of the «Hagaren tsars» – for the sake of the sultan’s «honors» Christian children forget their faith and turn into faithful servants of a foreign religion. More detailed descriptions of devshirme are found in the writings left by Western travelers and diplomats who visited the Ottoman empire in the 16th century. They also talk about the horrors of the «blood tax», but more focus on how the Christians of the Ottoman Empire tried to avoid this heavy levy, as well as on the fact that some Christians themselves were ready to give their children to the Ottoman sultans in order to provide them with better social standing in the future. Western authors do not ignore some of the abuses of the Ottoman authorities in collecting the «blood tax» in the second half of the 16th century, that can be explained by negative trends in the development of the Ottoman state in this period. Despite all of this, many European travelers and diplomats talk about the meritocratic approach of the Ottoman authorities to the formation of the state elite, which is partly expressed in devshirme. The Western authors find this approach as one of the main reasons for the success of the 16th-century Ottoman expansion.

Elite culture of Early Modern Crimean Khanate: Western Travellers' Perceptions

The statehood of the Crimean Tatars indigenous people of Crimea is little known worldwide. In the era of the Crimean Khanate, the Crimean Tatars cultivated elite culture characterised by a synthesis of European customs and Islamic religious traditions. The term "elite culture" refers specifically to the cultural society of the established aristocracy, the educated upper class, political influencers, and individuals active in fields such as education, art, literature, architecture, philosophy and the military. Elite culture in the Crimean Khanate can be described as the confluence of various influences leading to a distinctive fusion of artistic, intellectual and social elements. This study looks at elite culture from the perspective of Western travellers from France, Germany, Poland and England visiting Crimea in 16th-19th centuries, in particular, Martin Bronowski, Baron de Tott, Claude-Charles de Peyssonnel and others. The research contends that the travelogues portrayed a harmonious blend of culture and politics, showcasing how certain Crimean khans, who were also skilled writers and musicians, contributed to this vision. The leaders of the Crimean Tatar Giray dynasty aspired to establish an advanced state, characterized by a military and a thriving intellectual heritage, deeply intertwined with the Ottoman Empire.

An Orientalist Discovery Effort During the 19th Century through the Eyes of Some European Travelers in Ankara

Ankara, located in the center of Asia Minor and founded on an important crossroads, has always been an attraction center for travelers of various religious and national backgrounds. More importantly, it was located on the King’s Road which extended from Mesopotamia to Western Anatolia. Undoubtedly, these characteristic features of the city were noticed by Western travelers. The city was first visited by a Western traveler in the 16th century. The number and frequency of these trips increased over time. The 19th century is considered as the peak point in this regard. Correspondingly this article focused on the opinions of five different Western travelers who visited Ankara during the 19th century and whose names came into prominence. Before that, the period from the 16th to the 19th century was examined. In some cases, Ottoman archival documents were used to check the data provided by the travelers’ resources.

Пятая колонна? Национальные и религиозные меньшинства в Бухаре до и после установления российского протектората

Article devoted to analysis of Russian and Western travelers, who visited the Emirate of Bukhara, on national and religious minorities. The evolution of their legal status before and after the establishing of the Russian protectorate, attitude toward authorities of the Emirate and the Empire, place in the social system of the state, professions they occupied (had right to occupy).

The trope of the Native American in nineteenth-century British and American accounts of South East Asia

ABSTRACT The nineteenth century witnessed the expansion of Western colonial power and influence across both mainland and maritime South East Asia, along with the publication of a growing number of books about the region and its peoples by Western scholars, travellers and colonial administrators. This was also a time when pseudo-scientific theories of racial difference were rife and deemed respectable in Western academic and political circles. This article looks at how some British and American authors were inclined to examine South East Asians through the lens of racial theory, and how in the course of doing so were also inclined to compare some South East Asian ethnic groups to the natives of America. In the course of doing so, Native Americans were invariably seen and cast as a homogenous racial group that was then located at the bottom of a hierarchy that differentiated between superior and inferior races. The repeated deployment of the trope of the Native American, as the embodiment of inferiority and savagery, was an instance of racial stereotypes being instrumentalized at a global level as part of a new pan-Atlantic Anglo-American discourse of race and racial difference.

Western Travellers Arriving in Turkestan in The Period before Russian Occupation and Their Travel Books as Sources for The History of Turkestan

Western Travellers Arriving in Turkestan in The Period before Russian Occupation and Their Travel Books as Sources for The History of Turkestan

Sir John Gardner Wilkinson (1797–1875) in Turkish Dress, at Thebes: The Self-Fashioning of an Antiquarian Egyptologist

Abstract In recent years, there has been considerable interest in the eighteenth- and nineteenth-century cultural practice of Britons wearing indigenous dress, as well as debate as to what motivated people to re-fashion their identity in such radical ways. Typically, these practices have been viewed either as acts of cultural appropriation, or occasionally as acts of solidarity with other cultures. This article focuses on one individual, the antiquarian Egyptologist Sir John Gardner Wilkinson (1797–1875), who wore Turkish dress whilst in Egypt, and was depicted wearing the same dress by the portrait artist Henry Wyndham Phillips, in 1843/44. Despite being reproduced in countless histories of Egyptology, archaeology and beyond, there currently exists no sustained critical analysis of Wilkinson’s relationship with this costume. I contend that Wilkinson’s choice of Turkish dress and his engagement with such clothing was both sustained and complicated. It reflected simple practicalities, but also an awareness of socio-political conditions in Egypt which were inadequately understood at an official level, due to high-handed expectations about how Britons should and should not behave, to bolster Britain’s national image abroad. At the same time, the same clothing could be interpreted differently by other audiences, and Phillips’s painting of Wilkinson – the components of which are identified for the first time – emerges as an attempt at self-fashioning on Wilkinson’s part, to cement his recently acquired status as a recognized authority about ancient Egypt. These concerns are applicable to other western scholars and travellers active in the Near East in the early nineteenth century.

Souvenir Photography in Japan: Between Stereotype and Art

Abstract Japanese photo albums were a popular souvenir of Western travellers from Japan at the end of the 19th century. Using the photo collection of the Übersee-Museum Bremen, it will be shown, that not only were the photos elaborately hand-coloured by masters of woodblock printing, but also the motives and the staging of the depicted scenes were influenced by this genre. Although many of the photographs recreated the everyday life of the pre-modern Edo period (1600‒1868), they were seen in the West as an up-to-date, realistic depiction of conditions in contemporary Japan. Yet, Japan had been transitioning into a modern nation that sought symbols for its emerging national identity. These included samurai, cherry blossoms, and the geisha. This is reflected in the photographs, which stand in a tension between self-perception and the perception of the other. In the West they have shaped the romanticized, clichéd ideas about Japan, just as the woodblock prints did before them.

Greene’s Quest for Seediness in Journey Without Maps

This paper examines Graham Greene’s travel text, Journey Without Maps (1936/2010), so as to discover why Greene makes a quest for seediness, especially a primitive one. The study is drawn by Greene’s paradoxical fascination to the seediness, which literally suggests the squalor or ugliness. But why does he like it? This is the major concern of the study. Using the concept, primitivism, that was frequently used by the Western travel writers to depict the non-Western peoples and their societies during the colonial era, the study analyzes and interprets the text, and claims that Greene’s journey to the interior of Liberia is the journey of his escape from the contemporary seediness of civilization that he experiences in Britain into the seediness of primitivism that he supposes to find in Liberia where the civilization has comparatively a weaker grip upon human being. After the textual analysis, the study expects to add a new perspective to the critical reading of the Western texts written about the non-Western societies representing them as the primitive and uncivilized others.

Anticipatory historical geographies of violence: Imagining, mapping, and integrating Dersim into the Ottoman Empire and the Turkish state, 1866–1939

Any understanding of the transformation from indirect imperial to centralized nation-state rule must consider the complex interplay between knowledge production, sovereignty, and power, as well as the historical geographies that shape them. As such, this article focuses on Middle Eastern modern-state formation through the case of Dersim, a region in contemporary Turkey's Eastern Anatolia, in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It delves deeply into Dersim's intricate dynamics to examine the changing relationship between state and territory through the perspective of government authorities, Western travelers, and local inhabitants. The article argues that the Turkish state's violent transformation of nonstate Dersim in 1937–38 marked a peak in the process of creating a flattened, homogeneous territory where sovereignty would be implemented effectively and, ideally, equally. This process began in Dersim, and the larger region around it, with the implementation of the Ottoman Tanzimat Reforms in the early nineteenth century, gained momentum with the 1877–78 Russo-Turkish War, and reached its culmination with genocidal operations in Dersim in the late 1930s. The state elites' instrumentalization of modern cartography, among other technological advancements, for military purposes allowed them to envision, define, and reshape Dersim as an integral part of their imagined national homeland.

Prospective Aspect of Topography: The Example of The Grand Bazaar (Kapalı Çarşı) in Istanbul

The Grand Bazaar was constructed, there have been significant changes in shopping practices. Particularly the spread of Global trade boosted the opening of new shopping centres, high-street department stores and shopping malls. Despite all these changes in shopping habits, the Grand Bazaar still continues to be an actively used shopping area; it has never lost its customer interest and its socially vivid atmosphere. This research explores the reasons why the Grand Bazaar has not been lost its social dynamism over the course of time? This question has various answers, but this research argues that one of them is particularly related to its peculiar spatial formation that encourages social interactions. In this account; this research methodologically focuses on two main components, these are: how the Grand Bazaar was spatially constructed and how it was experienced by users. These purposes will be accomplished by the analyses of the writings and drawings of the important Western travellers. It is revealed that articulated in topographical account, the Grand Bazaar eliminates the boundaries between the spaces and thus between the people. This continually enhances the mutual relationships between inside and outside. This study focuses on the main interest of the topographic approach which is not much the representative qualities; re-expression of the exterior appearance of the building in shape and profile or any stylistic display, but it is more to create an open venue or a stage which enhances the spatial and social connectivity between interior and exterior worlds, ergo between individual and collective lives. As a result, the study demonstrates how the Grand Bazaar's topographical attitude lends a 'formative' aspect to an architectural context. The Grand Bazaar tries to abolish borders by emphasizing topographical aspects such as permeability, spatiality, and delay in order to create an in-between environment, and also a common social ground.

UNUTULMUŞ BİR ÇÖMLEKÇİLİK GELENEĞİNİN ARDINDAN: TRABZON ÇÖMLEKÇİ MAHALLESİ ÖRNEĞİ

The study of Ottoman pottery centres has lately become a growing field of interest within Ottoman archaeology. Two types of pottery centers could be identified for the Ottoman era, one producing for intra- and interregional markets and the other only for intra-regional trade and consumption. The Çömlekçi Quarter in Trabzon is one of the most common examples of the latter. However, our archaeological information on the potters’ workshops at Çömlekçi is completely lacking. This work examines the aspects of pottery production that once flourished in the Quarter of Çömlekçi in the light of Ottoman written sources and the narratives of Western travellers who visited the city during the 19th century. Available historiographical records help us to shed light on several aspects of pottery making at the Çömlekçi workshops, including the scale of production, the types of pots, how the pots were used, the architectural features of a potter’s workshop, the identity of potters, and the distribution of finished products.

A Study on the Sociocultural Life of the Balkan Peoples as Depicted in Mary Adelaide Walker’s Travel Book "Through Macedonia to the Albanian Lakes"

Throughout history, the Balkans forming part of the Ottoman Empire have been the focus of attention of many Western travelers as a region inhabited by nations of different ethnic and sectarian backgrounds. In this study, based on Mary Adelaide Walker’s 19th-century book titled "Through Macedonia to the Albanian Lakes", the way of life and sociocultural structure of the societies living in the Balkans, as seen through the eyes of a female traveler, will be discussed. In the conclusion, apart from a general summary, the article will shed light on the changing sociocultural life in the Balkans during the time when the traveler was in Macedonia.

Alterations in faecal microbiome and resistome in Chinese international travellers: a metagenomic analysis.

International travel increases the risk of acquisition of antibiotic-resistant bacteria and antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs). Previous studies have characterized the changes in the gut microbiome and resistome of Western travellers; however, information on non-Western populations and the effects of travel-related risk factors on the gut microbiome and resistome remains limited. We conducted a prospective observational study on a cohort of 90 healthy Chinese adult residents of Hong Kong. We characterized the microbiome and resistome in stools collected from the subjects before and after travelling to diverse international locations using shotgun metagenomic sequencing and examined their associations with travel-related variables. Our results showed that travel neither significantly changed the taxonomic composition of the faecal microbiota nor altered the alpha (Shannon) or beta diversity of the faecal microbiome or resistome. However, travel significantly increased the number of ARGs. Ten ARGs, including aadA, TEM, mgrB, mphA, qnrS9 and tetR, were significantly enriched in relative abundance after travel, eight of which were detected in metagenomic bins belonging to Escherichia/Shigella flexneri in the post-trip samples. In sum, 30 ARGs significantly increased in prevalence after travel, with the largest changes observed in tetD and a few qnrS variants (qnrS9, qnrS and qnrS8). We found that travel to low- or middle-income countries, or Africa or Southeast Asia, increased the number of ARG subtypes, whereas travel to low- or middle-income countries and the use of alcohol-based hand sanitizer (ABHS) or doxycycline as antimalarial prophylaxis during travel resulted in increased changes in the beta diversity of the faecal resistome. Our study highlights travel to low- or middle-income countries, Africa or Southeast Asia, a long travel duration, or the use of ABHS or doxycycline as antimalarial prophylaxis as important risk factors for the acquisition/enrichment of ARGs during international travel.

Vikram Seth’s From Heaven Lake as a Counter-Orientalist Travel Narrative

This study reads Vikram Seth’s From Heaven Lake: Travels through Sinkiang and Tibet (1983) as a counter-orientalist travel narrative that destabilizes the conventions of Western travel writing genre. Conventional Western travel writing, as postcolonial scholars such as Edward Said, Homi K. Bhabha and others claim, functioned mostly as a colonial or orientalist discourse by being involved in producing knowledge about the Orient for Western domination and control. It created a binary between the West and the Orient and treated the latter in negative and derogatory terms. The residues of colonial discourse, as critics such as Debbie Lisle, Mary Louise Pratt and others argue, persist in the postcolonial travel writing as well. This paper examines Seth’s travelogue and claims that the travelogue counters the orientalist discourse primarily in two ways. One, it renders differences upon the peoples and their cultures in positive terms, and another, it avoids the conventional home-away-home trajectory of journey. For the analytic purpose, the study engages both available critical responses and theoretical insights from scholars in travel writing and postcolonial theories such as Carl Thompson, Debbie Lisle, Tim Youngs, Edward Said and so on. Finally, the study expects to open up a new approach in the study of post-empire travel narratives, especially written by non-Western writers.

Perspective of Travellers' Diseases: A Review

Traveler's disease is any illness that develops as a direct result of traveling. There are several illnesses that are regarded as Traveler's diseases, with diarrhea, malaria, tuberculosis, typhoid fever, and yellow fever being some of the most dreaded. And although some may only have minor or no symptoms, others, if unchecked, can be fatal. The sources of Traveler's disease differ due to the great variety of illnesses that are related to travel. Typical sources of illnesses brought on by travel include: being bitten by a mosquito, tick, or other creature that is infected, ingesting improperly prepared meals and beverages, such as unpasteurized dairy products, raw or undercooked meats, fruit or vegetable peels, well or tap water, or filthy salad, exposure to disease-infected people, improper use of drugs intended to prevent particular disorders, inadequate hygiene and not obtaining the necessary immunizations. Particularly individuals who have visited regions of the world where specific infectious diseases are common may get sick when they return home. Traveler's disease can cause a variety of symptoms, such as fever, rashes, diarrhea, vomiting, and muscle aches. Destinations that were previously solely accessible to soldiers, missionaries, and explorers became popular with regular western travelers. The rise in this kind of travel exposes people to health hazards that are largely unheard of in the west. Numerous illnesses are connected to travel.

JEAN-LOUIS CARRA AND THE ROMANIANS

One of the Western travellers that went through the Romanian area during the second half of the 18th century was the French Jean-Louis Carra (1742-1793). Originary of Burgundy (France), he travelled in Europe on several occasions. He reached Moldavia as well in the year 1775, when he came to serve the Reigning Prince Grigore III Ghica (whom he had met in Russia), as a teacher of his sons and as a secretary for the French correspondence. He remained here for a year (1775-1776), and during this period he seems to have travelled to Wallachia as well. In the spring of the year 1776, Carra left Moldavia heading to Poland. A year later, in 1777, there appeared in Buillon, not in Iaşi, as it is written on the title page, Histoire de la Moldavie et la Valachie (History of Moldavia and Wallachia), a work that was to be published in the same year in Paris as well and then in its second edition in Neuchatel, in the year 1781. Our paper aims to bring into focus Carra’s works together with all the controversies it triggered in the course of time in the Romanian historiography.

Topic modeling of the quality of guest’s experience using latent Dirichlet allocation: western versus eastern perspectives

PurposeThis study aims to understand the satisfaction and needs of eastern and western travelers as hotel guest, based on their experiences as seen in guest reviews and review topics.Design/methodology/approachConsidering 2,965 and 1,035 western and eastern traveler reviews, respectively, from 47 countries, obtained from TripAdvisor listed-hotel in Phnom Penh and Siem Reap city in Cambodia, this study investigates the differences in hotel guest satisfaction and needs by using topic modeling (i.e. latent Dirichlet allocation [LDA]).FindingsThe results reveal differences in the online preferences, experiences, expectations and behaviors of hotel guests from different cultural backgrounds. Though western and eastern travelers appear to place similar emphasis on service, location, room and destination. The westerners more likely focus on meal and online reservation, whereas the easterners focus on hotel facility.Research limitations/implicationsReviews were obtained from only two cities in Cambodia, which is not an adequate representation of the diverse travelers visiting the country.Practical implicationsThe comparison highlighting the similarities and dissimilarities between western and eastern traveler perspectives enable hoteliers to understand guests’ preferences and their hidden changes in (dis)satisfaction and leverage it to improve hotel service quality, increase occupancy and, thereby, maximize profits.Originality/valueThis study contributes to the literature on hotel guests’ experiences by presenting the difference in perceptions of service experience of western and eastern travelers, through topic modeling.

America’s First Interstate: The National Road, 1806–1853

America’s First Interstate: The National Road, 1806–1853