We kindly inform you that, as long as the subject affiliation of our 300.000+ articles is in progress, you might get unsufficient or no results on your third level or second level search. In this case, please broaden your search criteria.
The article focuses on the small Oriental texts published in Piotr Czyżewski’s Polish anti-Muslim pamphlet Alfurkan tatarski (Wilno, 1616/1617) directed against the local Tatars of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. These texts consist of a small Arabic-Turkish prayer and the well-known Ottoman prophecy about “The Red Apple” and the expected victory of Christians over the Turks. The author argues that they go back to the Latin-language editions of the Croatian writer Bartul Đurđević/Bartolomej Georgijević (c. 1506 – c. 1566), who, after his return from a long Ottoman captivity, published several books on the Turkish subjects that were translated into many national European languages and disseminated in different editions throughout Western and Central Europe. These editions often contained samples of Ottoman texts accompanied by a parallel Latin translation and Latin-language interpretations of them, as well as small bilingual dictionaries, thus introducing Islam and the Turkish language to Europe. The article demonstrates the widespread prevalence of both Oriental texts (the Arabic-Turkish prayer and the Ottoman prophecy) in the European printed tradition and the presence of interest in them in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, evidenced by a manuscript copy of the Ottoman prophecy (late 17th century) and the Polish translation of both texts published in 1548 and 1615.
More...
Foreign schools had the opportunity to open as a result of the fact that the Europeans were given commercial privileges in the Ottoman state and these privileges became permanent over time. Foreign schools operating in the Ottoman lands were first opened by the French and then the British. Metin Ünver, with the study titled "The establishment of the English Boys' High School in Istanbul in the context of the debates on the decline of British Commerce in the Ottoman State against Germany", was previously related to the Istanbul British Boys' High School. He evaluated it in the context of schools opened as a means of competition for foreign states to have economic influence on the Ottoman lands. In this study, in the context of the Ottoman document titled "Zükura Mahsus Ġngiliz Mektebi", which is the original of the study called Nişantaşı English Boys School, which forms the basis of our subject, information such as the opening of the school, student admission conditions, structure, school organization and the lessons taught, the course contents were tried to be evaluated. This information was supported by archive documents related to the subject in the Ottoman archive of the Prime Ministry. With this study, it is aimed to contribute to the studies in the field of education history.
More...
Due to a number of factors during the era of the Bulgarian National Revival, Istanbul/Constantinople gradually became the informal “capital” of the Bulgarians. It is for this reason that the issue of the everyday life during weekdays and holidays of the Bulgarian settlers in the first and most populous city in the Ottoman Empire has its place in the bigger topic of the everyday life in the Empires. The topic of the present study is interesting primarily in that it provides an opportunity to trace over a long period of time how the transition from a medieval, traditional and patriarchal society to an early modern, more dynamic and open society is carried out in the everyday life of the numerous Bulgarian settlers near the Bosphorus and the Golden Horn. Based on sources and literature of different origins and nature, the dynamics of the initial phase of change in the everyday life is presented both in regards to the representatives of the community elite, as well as to the wider strata of the people. In the exhibition, the social processes that are the focus of attention, are traced in terms of the broad historical background of the events taking place in different ethnic and religious communities and in different spheres in the life of the Ottoman capital in the 18th and 19th centuries. Special emphasis in the study is put on the way of formation, number and structure of the Bulgarian colony in Constantinople, as well as on the changes that are taking place in it with the upcoming modernization of the Bulgarian society and the Ottoman Empire as a whole. While in the 18th century voynuks, drovers, carters and gardeners were the majority among the Bulgarians near the Bosphorus, after the second quarter of the 19th century the variety of professions expanded considerably and merchants, craftsmen and intellectuals took the main place. Particular attention is paid to the clash between the old and the new in the daily life, in the clothing and in the manners of the Bulgarians of Constantinople. While the majority of small traders, craftsmen and peasants retain more of the features of the patriarchal way of life, the wealthier merchants, bankers, employees in offices, as well as intellectuals, who have better financial opportunities are mainly the bearers of the new, modern and fashionable. Mutual assistance between the individual members and groups in the Bulgarian colony, the organization of work and the traditional holiday rituals are also important elements that complement, without being the main focus of the general picture of the everyday life presented in the study. From Constantinople start many modern trends in clothing, architecture, furniture, food, manners and customs, which changed the lives of people in the Bulgarian lands during the 19th century.
More...
The study is based on an abundance of sources – travelogues, articles in the National Revival press and in the Russian periodicals, personal correspondence, official documents and statistics, chronicles of Sofia’s churches and municipalities, memoirs etc. In the Introduction, entitled “A few preliminary words”, the author defines the topics, problems, concepts and the chronological framework of her research. The text is structured in several parts. The first is entitled “Sofia in the first half and the middle of the 19th century – a look from outside and inside” and it summarizes interesting information about the urban planning, architecture, life and population of Sofia, which is provided by travelers who came through the city in the first half of the 19th century. This data is presented in a synchronous narrative with the testimonies of people from the middle of the 19th century about the current state of the city. In order to make interesting analogies for the development of Sofia throughout the 19th century, eyewitness accounts from the end of the century are used. The second part “Moments from the life of the Sofia people in the middle of the 19th century” focuses on those natural and climatic factors that more or less determined the life and livelihood of the Bulgarians from Sofia. Among the natural cataclysms earthquakes, spring-summer storms and hail stood out, whose power affected the harvest and with it the nutrition and the daily life of the Sofia people. The information from the press about the holiday system of the Bulgarians in Sofia, which followed the agricultural production cycle and the Christian holiday calendar, is also interesting. The third part, entitled “The Municipality”, examines the structure and the main activities of the municipal institution in Sofia before and after its national reorganization, which took place in the mid-1860s and was provoked by the Bulgarian Easter in Constantinople on April 3, 1860. The focus is on the social conflicts in the city and on the several initiatives that most engaged the attention of the Sofia municipality during the period in question. “The School” was one of them. Unlike the traditional interpretations of the educational affairs of the Bulgarians in the 19th century, here the author has tried to present the school not as an educational institution, but as a social phenomenon that inspires the care and efforts of an ever growing group of people. A special attention is paid to the difficult awakening of the Sofia people to the need for women education, for the donation gestures for education, etc. In the last part “The Temple” the main moments from the construction of the Metropolitan Church “Holy King” (“St. Stephen” or “St. Nedelya”) are marked. The renovation took place during this period and was in the care of and a responsibility of the Sofia municipality. The processes of secularization of the public consciousness and the more and more clearly expressed nationalistic motives in the public behavior of the Sofia people in the late 50s and early 60s of the 19th century are noted. In regards to the problematic of the study, in all the outlined thematic fields, the author seeks evidence of the relationship between people in power and their subjects at a time when the idea of ‘merging nations’ became a basic doctrine of the Ottoman ruling elite.
More...
Based on a wide variety of archival sources and studies, which analyze the economic development of the Bulgarian lands before 1878, the study seeks to outline some aspects of the merchants’ everyday life. It gives an idea about the merchants’ profession, the characteristics and the skills necessary for it. It also emphasizes the merchants’ opportunity to communicate with people of different cultures. The study pays attention to the road network and vehicles, to the novelties related to the Balkan’s everyday life of the 1850s – 1870s. It discusses the trading process, the risks and the obstacles that slow it down or totally prevent it.
More...
The article is dedicated to one of the most important factors in everyday life - the language, in which people communicate and carry out their business. Based on an analysis of the stored commercial documentation, business correspondence, etc. archival documents, an attempt was made to analyze the language of the economic everyday life of the Bulgarians in the XIX century, used in the formation of partnerships, in sales, in relations with business partners, customers and the Ottoman administration. Central to the article is the presentation of several interesting documents on the formation of partnerships for the collection of taxes, which are composed of a mixture of Bulgarian and Ottoman Turkish and written in Cyrillic. The content of the documents and their place in the process of building the economic and legal terminology of the Bulgarian economic life during the National Revival are also analyzed in the article.
More...
In the 1860s – 1870s thousands of Crimean and Circassian refugees were settled down in Northwestern Bulgaria. The article sheds light on the settlement network and its fate after the Russo-Ottoman war of 1877-1878. It explores the positive and negative factors in the restart of the everyday life, the family structure, the land supply and their economic activities. It regards as untenable the view that the Crimean refugees progressed significantly in comparison with the Circassians. The article bases on documents held at the Oriental Department by the National Library “Sts. Cyril and Methodius”, the Central State Archive and the library of the Turkish History Society.
More...
Using mainly the books authored by Fanny Janet Blunt (1838/39–1926), wife of a prominent long-serving British consul on the Balkans in the second half of the 19th century, as well as other published and unpublished sources, this article tries to examine Mrs. Blunt’s everyday life as a diplomat’s spouse in the Ottoman Empire. The study reveals her domestic and family preoccupations, servants’ management, travel experiences, her leisure, political and intellectual activities etc., and, most importantly, her role as a go-between for her husband, helping him strengthen and expand his connections in both diplomatic and local circles. It is claimed that being not only a consul’s wife but also a consul’s daughter born and raised in the Ottoman domains, thanks to her independent character, deep understanding of local customs and her linguistic abilities, lead a dynamic life that matters. Her life contrasted sharply with the “angel in the house” Victorian paradigm of womanhood.
More...
Trabzon, which is open to both land and sea transportation and trade due to being one of the Silk Road's ancient stops and having ports, is one of the cities that has retained its significance throughout history. The town of Araklı dating back to the history of the historical city and being 33 kilometers from the city center is significant because it has a harbor and the city's highways opening to the east since ancient times. With the conquest of the Ottoman Empire in 1461, the district, which had retained its significance since the Roman period, took on Islamic identity, and its population mobility and architectural structures changed its identity in this direction. Although they are few in number, monuments of late Ottoman art can be found in Araklı. The present article focuses on the four mihrabs that reflect those traces and are located in Central Küçük (Hacı Hasan) Mosque (1859-60), Konakönü Quarter Mosque (1884), Central Grand Mosque (1907-08) and Kalecik Quarter Mosque (1910). It was aimed that the findings of the present study, in which the mihrabs are explained in chronological-catalog order and the text is accompanied by drawings and photographs, would contribute to the current literature. While the examined mihrabs share some typological similarities, they differ in terms of the return of Western styles and the decoration program incorporating local elements unique to the Eastern Black Sea Region in a mixed order. These mihrabs, which have reached the present day and inspired intellectual readings about the provincial practices of late Ottoman art, are among the rare works that have taken their place in Turkish cultural memory as precious works of art shaped on the basis of material and spiritual necessity.
More...
The oldest known religious beliefs of Circassians, an ancient Caucasian people, are natural religions. From the 6th century, Christianity also spread in Circassia and continued its influence until the 15th century. The spread of Islam continued in the region in the 13th century under the influence of the Golden Horde. After conquest of Istanbul in 1453 by the Ottomans, this spreading process accelerated due to the region’s isolation from the source of Christianity. However, until the risk arose that Circassia could fall into the hands of the Russians in the 18th century, the Ottoman government concentrated mainly on its economic and political interests in the region and did not pursue a planned and systematic policy to spread Islam there. The Ottoman government, which wanted to win over the Circassians because of the increasing Russian danger, tried to achieve this goal mainly by strengthening Islam among them. Ferah Ali Pasha, who was sent to the region for this purpose in 1780, achieved great success by respecting the customs and lifestyle of Circassians, offering them rich gifts and building kinship ties through marriages. As a result of the successful policy of the Ottomans to spread Islam, which continued in the 19th century until the region was conquered by the Russians, Islam became the most common religion among Circassians.
More...
The presence of women in Ottoman social life, which is expressed with different interpretations by different historians, is a subject that is heavily debated even today. In this study, which is based on the existing discussions, it is aimed to find an artistic approach to the issue of women in Ottoman social life in terms of the discipline of art history through the light of the visual artworks made by the painters. It is known that the Ottoman Empire was a civilization covering a very long period of 600 years and that the empire had very variable periods. However, the period between the 16th and 19th centuries is a similar process from the point of view of women, and in this study, the works of artists who depicted Ottoman women with different aspects of social life during the period between the mentioned centuries were discussed. The artists of the works included in the scope of the study are foreign artists who lived for certain periods in the Ottoman lands personally and Ottoman citizens residing in the Ottoman Empire. Memories of travelogues written by travelers who came to the Ottoman lands and state archive documents, which deal with this subject and whose originals are preserved in various world libraries today, are also data that will shed light on the subject. For this reason, scanning and examining the literary data describing the period and synthesizing the scenes seen in the visual documents of the painter artists with the data at hand have been the method of the study. With this study, in which visual works belonging to artists and literary sources belonging to historians and travelers are evaluated together. It is concluded that Ottoman women were quite limited in some conditions of the social life which is divided into sub-titles, and in some conditions, they had a relatively free life period.
More...
The strict control – or in other words, censorship – placed upon periodical alongside printing (press) activities during the reign of Sultan Abdülhamid II paved the way for poets and writers to turn to their inner worlds and produce works by putting art into the service of art itself. Numerous Turkish novels hailing from the Second Constitutional Period – which had given way to proclamation of the Second Constitutional Monarchy – reveal the richness of Turkish culture and literature in terms of diversification of subject variety and the linguistic richness. For example, Moralızade Vassaf Kadri’s novel Çarşamba Karısı offers us important data about language studies. In it, he frequently uses slang, alongside local idioms and dialect words – many of which are not included in the Derleme Sözlüğü. The book also contains various examples of aberrations from the standard language – including the accumulation and removal of affixes, the addition of morphemes to stereotyped language items, and polite language. This study will present both a biography of Moralızade Vassaf Kadri, as well as discuss – with examples – how he uses non-standard language in his novel Çarşamba Karısı.
More...
The Ottomans and Hungarians share a long history together. Beyond historical kinship ties between the Turks and the Huns, their relationship had reached its peak when the Russians dared to threaten both in 19th century as a result of their desire to expand their territory. Alas, the Hungarian’s lost the War of Freedom to the Russians, and the pioneers of the struggle took refuge in the Ottoman Empire. During the 93 [Day] War, the Ottomans – who had fought against Russia many times in the 19th century – fell into difficult situation on all fronts; the Hungarians came to their rescue. Their support was monumental: they sent both medical and financial aid to the ever-weakening army. They organized demonstrations in various countries to inform the European public about what was going on, and they wrote motivational poetry and songs in order to boost Ottoman soldiers’ morale. Some Hungarians had even offered join the Ottoman military. All of this rapprochement played a major role both sides building a common future together (Turanism).
More...
After the Long Campaign (1443-1444), the Crusade of Varna (1444) and the Crusade at Kossovopolje, both Hungary and the Ottoman Empire were exhausted. Moreover, already by 1451 dynastic struggles ensued in both realms, as the ascensions of both Ladislaus the Posthumous and Mehmed II were contested. The latter was as an ambitious young sultan that planned for the conquest of Constantinople and, in order to achieve his goal, needed peace at the Hungarian-Ottoman border. The three-year truce concluded between Sultan Mehmed II and John Hunyadi, as lord governor of Hungary, was negotiated by Despot George Branković of Serbia. The peace treaty, issued by the sultan in Adrianople, on the 20th of November 1451, also comprised the maritime Republic of Ragusa, the Kingdom of Bosnia, the Serbian Despotate and the Voivodeship of Wallachia. Despite some military skirmishes in the Balkans, the Hungarian-Ottoman truce remained valid for almost the entire period settled by the treaty. Meanwhile, both John Hunyadi and Mehmed II gathered their forces for a final and decisive battle, which occurred at Belgrade, in the summer of 1456. Thus, the 1451 Treaty of Adrianople provides a genuine „radiography” of south-eastern Europe in the eve of the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople. In addition, it represents one of the main documentary sources on the career of John Hunyadi. The text was published for the first time 120 years ago, by Nicolae Iorga, whose edition was later included in Documenta Romaniae Historica, series D. Relations between the Romanian Principalities (1222-1456).This important source was edited along with hundreds of other medieval documents, without any comments or historical explanations. This study includes a new, critical edition of the 1451 Treaty of Adrianople, supplemented by an extensive historical commentary of the text, based on a high-resolution digital copy of the sole extant version, preserved in the miscellanea manuscript BSB Clm 19542, at the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek in Munich.
More...
During the period when the Ottoman Empire remained at the periphery of the capitalist world system, İzmir assumed the identity of a colonial port city which the Levantines, who transferred the rich products of Western Anatolia to the West, and their local collaborators made the center of the commercial diaspora. While İzmir, which lived through its brightest period from the 17th century to the beginning of the 20th century, had the appearance of an ordinary “slightly bigger than a village” town of the Aegean at the western end of the Anatolian plateau, it begins to be seen as the “Pearl of the Levant” with its port, quay, municipal organization, railways, trams, banks, factories, modern schools, casinos, clubs, theaters and coffee houses. In the aforementioned period, İzmir became one of the early modern period cities of the Ottoman Empire with the changes and transformations it went through. This article tries to convey the episodes of the economic, social, and ideological structural transformations in the background of this positive leap that the city had experienced.
More...
The Ottoman city architecture was created by sultans, pashas, gentlemen, military and wealthy people, and especially, by the top governmental personnel. This architecture consisted of structures that served the public such as inns, baths, caravanserais, bridges, fountains, soup kitchens, mosques, masjids, walls, castles, etc. The maintenance of these spatial structures, which were created with the status of foundations, depended on the support with uninterrupted revenue. In this study, the foundation that was built on the banks of the Danube River during the short reign of Osman II was introduced. The most important building in the Sultan Osman Han Foundation is undoubtedly the castle. This military base, which encountered attacks from the north of the Danube River, also facilitates the defense of Dobruja. Nevertheless, there is also a mosque, which is a socialization area in Ottoman culture besides its quality of being a place of worship. Although the presence of the bathhouse, which is one of the most important structures of Turkish architecture, and the school, which provides information about education, are known, the castle and the mosque were emphasized more. With this study, which was prepared based on the archival sources, the geography, employees, and socioeconomic dimension of the foundation were investigated.
More...
Adapazari, where many nations from different ethnic origins live, has become even more confused with the immigrants coming to the region. In this region, which resembles a ball of problems, the main security problem that stands out is theft. It is seen that especially immigrants usurped the wealth of the rich people living in Adapazari. Those who resisted and tried to resist were battered, even killed. It is clear that the miserable situation of the refugees laid the groundwork for these crimes. These people, who came to Adapazari leaving all their assets from distant geographies, have been involved in such crimes. This chaotic situation has further increased the unrest in Adapazari and its surroundings. The danger of encountering a bandit or gang group at any moment has worried the people of the region. The studies conducted by states such as England and America on Armenians also disturbed the public order in the region. It is seen that Armenians living in Adapazari were greatly influenced by these missionary activities. Armenians, who took action with the dream of independence, caused some problems in the region. One of the public order problems in Adapazari emerged with the drying of the marshes that were not suitable for housing. Various public order problems have arisen due to the claims on the dried lands. The measures taken by the Ottoman Empire alleviated the problems to a certain extent, but could not end. Kidnapping, threats, assault, extortion, injury and murder are among the most common and almost ordinary public order problems in the region.
More...
The Fatwā-house, which was within the body of Meshihat in the Ottoman Empire, gave answers to the questions posed to it by focusing on the Hanafi sect and the preferred fatwās of this sect for centuries. These questions and answers were also duly recorded. In this study, based on The Record for the Legal Responses of the Supreme Fatwā Office, which is registered at records numbered 378 in the Meshihat Archive of the Istanbul Mufti, one of the records containing the answers given by the institution. It is an attempt to create an imagination about the scope and sphere of influence of the fatwā activity in the last period of the Ottoman Empire. Accordingly, in the last thirteen years of the state, Fatwā-house has been the addressee of questions from individuals, state and private institution directors, societies, ministries and the Grand Vizier. While some of these questions came from the provinces within the Ottoman borders or from the countries that had an administrative ties with the Ottoman Empire, some of them were submitted to the Fatwā-house by the Muslims of other states from the lost lands or simply because the caliphate center was the official fatwā organ. At the records, there is also a record of the questions coming from muslims who are Ottoman citizens but residing in other countries. Looking at the subjects, it was determined that most of the questions were asked about foundations. In addition, the permissibility of obtaining interest by bank facility or depositing money in the bank, the establishment of modern schools and whether the ways to create resources for these schools are permissible, whether teaching in Latin letters is possible, the provision of life insurance, the importance of cleanliness in the fight against cholera, the fight against innovations (bidʻas) in mosques. It is seen that questions on different issues, from issues such as whether the wife of the lost (mafqud) can be separated by the judge or not; to the issues of whether the fulfillment of judgment can be regarded as the end of the judgment or not. As it is mentioned in some fatwā records at the record book, it is obligatory to decide on fatwā and its fulfillment in the Ottoman Empire with the most authentic and preferred view of the Hanafi sect. The last two fatwā questions mentioned above are handled as examples of giving up the act with the will of the head of state, with the preferred fatwâs discussed in this article. It is only possible with the will of the head of state to make a decision with an opinion other than preferred fatwâ or an other opinion out of the sect. According to the first example, some of those of the citizens of other states outside the Ottoman Empire came to the Ottoman lands for reasons like trade etc. and married to Muslim women there and then left them suffering. This was also true for the wives of men who went to wars and did not return. Although the drawbacks of the Hanafi sect's preferred view, that one should wait until the age of ninety, one hundred, one hundred and twenty, or until the death of their peers, were resolved by appointing a regent from other sects, continuity could not be ensured in this practice either, finding people has not always been possible. For this reason, in the time of Shaykh al-Islam Hayri Efendi, a statement of change was prepared and submitted to the will of the sultan. In the issue of whether the signature of the head of state can be counted as the end of the judgment, another subject in which the will of the head of state is applied, the stages of abandoning the preferred view can be followed much more clearly. In the case of the dismissal of the judge or the expiration of the term of office before the execution of the judgment, especially in the distant provinces of the state, in the case of the judge's dismissal or the expiration of his term, according to the preferred view of the sect, which was based on juristic discretion, the closure of the cases took many years. It is seen that the judgment reached by analogy was submitted to the will of the sultan, with an article added to the script regarding the prepared procedure of reasoning, although there is no preferred view since it is the most suitable opinion for the interests of the people and the necessities of the century due to the increase in complaints. Effective from the time it was approved by the head of state, the execution of the sentence is no longer a requirement for the trial to be completed. The changes in the provisions of these matters also show that, although it was important for the Ottoman State to comply with the preferred view of the Hanafi sect - as in the previous Shaykh al-Islams' fatwās in the form of ma'ruzat - it was considered more necessary to look after the interests of the Muslims and different opinions were enacted and put into practice.
More...