Central Islamic Lands

Author(s):  
Bethany J. Walker

The following text serves as an introduction to the chapters focused on the “central lands” of the Islamic world: the “Arab heartland,” Persia, and the territories of the Ottoman Empire. Long associated with the Holy Land, this region attracted the attention of archaeologists, geographers, antiquarians, and scholars of religion early on, with missions sent to explore and map the ruins of places associated with Biblical and extra-Biblical texts with greater frequency from the 19th century. Largely born out of Biblical and Classical archaeology, Islamic archaeology thus got an early start here, gradually shifting since the 1970s from the study of changes to the Late Antique city in the post-conquest era to that of larger landscapes and the rural sphere. Interest in the process and timing of Islamization has been a driving force in archaeological research in this region.

2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (3) ◽  
pp. 115-134
Author(s):  
Hieronim Kaczmarek

The objective of the article is to summarize the efforts made so far by Polish researchers of pilgrimages to the Holy Land, traveling around Egypt and the Levant. The academic interest in visits of Poles in this part of the Ottoman Empire is relatively fresh, because the first publications on this issue appeared sporadically at the beginning of the 19th century. For several decades, a book by Jan Stanisław Bystroń was the main source of knowledge about the pres­ence of Poles in Egypt and the Levant. Scholarly interest in this topic grew in the second half of the 20th century. Despite an abundance of publications, our knowledge of the Polish presence in the Arab part of the Ottoman state is still incomplete. This is mainly due to the limited source materials and the lack of a broad search for archival and museum resources. The rising number of researchers on this subject may change this situation in the long run.


Author(s):  
D.R. Zhantiev

Аннотация В статье рассматривается роль и место Сирии (включая Ливан и Палестину) в системе османских владений на протяжении нескольких веков от османского завоевания до периода правления султана Абдул-Хамида II. В течение четырех столетий османского владычества территория исторической Сирии (Билад аш-Шам) была одним из важнейших компонентов османской системы и играла роль связующего звена между Анатолией, Египтом, Ираком и Хиджазом. Необходимость ежегодной организации хаджа с символами султанской власти и покровительства над святынями Мекки и Медины определяла особую стратегическую важность сирийских провинций Османской империи. Несмотря на ряд серьезных угроз во время общего кризиса османской государственности (конец XVI начало XIX вв.), имперскому центру удалось сохранить контроль над Сирией путем создания сдержек и противовесов между местными элитами. В XIX в. и особенно в период правления Абдул- Хамида II (18761909 гг.), сохранение Сирии под османским контролем стало вопросом существования Османской империи, которая перед лицом растущего европейского давления и интервенции потеряла большую часть своих владений на Балканах и в Северной Африке. Задача укрепления связей между имперским центром и периферией в сирийских вилайетах в последней четверти XIX в. была в целом успешно решена. К началу XX в. Сирия была одним из наиболее политически спокойных и прочно связанных со Стамбулом регионов Османской империи. Этому в значительной степени способствовали довольно высокий уровень общественной безопасности, развитие внешней торговли, рост образования и постепенная интеграция местных элит (как мусульман, так и христиан) в османские государственные и социальные механизмы. Положение Сирии в системе османских владений показало, что процесс ослабления и территориальной дезинтеграции Османской империи в эпоху реформ не был линейным и наряду с потерей владений и влияния на Балканах, в азиатской части империи в течение XIX и начала XX вв. происходил параллельный процесс имперской консолидации.Abstract The article examines the role and place of Greater Syria (including Lebanon and Palestine) in the system of Ottoman possessions over several centuries from the Ottoman conquest to the period of the reign of Abdul Hamid II. For four centuries of Ottoman domination, the territory of historical Syria (Bilad al-Sham) was one of the most important components in the Ottoman system and played the role of a link between Anatolia, Egypt, Iraq and Hijaz. The need to ensure the Hajj with symbols of Sultan power and patronage over the shrines of Mecca and Medina each year determined the special strategic importance of the Syrian provinces of the Ottoman Empire. Despite a number of serious threats during the general crisis of the Ottoman state system (late 16th early 19th centuries), the imperial center managed to maintain control over Syria by creating checks and balances between local elites. In the 19th century. And especially during the reign of Abdul Hamid II (18761909), keeping Syria under Ottoman control became a matter of existence for the Ottoman Empire, which, in the face of increasing European pressure and intervention, lost most of its possessions in the Balkans and North Africa. The task of strengthening ties between the imperial center and the periphery in Syrian vilayets in the last quarter of the 19th century was generally successfully resolved. By the beginning of the 20th century, Syria was one of the most politically calm and firmly connected with Istanbul regions of the Ottoman Empire. This was greatly facilitated by a fairly high level of public safety, the development of foreign trade, the growth of education and the gradual integration of local elites (both Muslims and Christians) into Ottoman state and social mechanisms. Syrias position in the system of Ottoman possessions clearly showed that the process of weakening and territorial disintegration of the Ottoman Empire during the era of reform was not linear, and along with the loss of possessions and influence in the Balkans, in the Asian part of the empire during the 19th and early 20th centuries there was a parallel process of imperial consolidation.


2021 ◽  
Vol 27 (41) ◽  
pp. 31-48
Author(s):  
Munir Drkić ◽  
Ahmed Zildžić

This paper aims to examine the work entitled Taʻlīm-i fārisī in the context of the Ottoman tradition of the grammatical study of the Persian language. Taʻlīm-i fārisī, most likely penned by Kemal-pasha, is a short yet exceedingly significant primer for Persian language students dated in the middle of the 19th century. After a brief overview of the Persian grammar studies in the Ottoman Empire, the authors present the work and its author and conduct an analysis of the content of Taʻlīm-i fārisī. In terms of its underlying methodology, this work stands halfway between two principal tendencies: one is the traditional approach to studying the Persian language in the Ottoman Empire; another is a new approach developed under the influence of grammatical description of European languages. This paradigm shift in the Persian language's grammatical description within the Ottoman Empire is readily observable in the primer under review.


2008 ◽  
Vol 40 (4) ◽  
pp. 547-549
Author(s):  
V. Necla Geyikdagi

“Jack of all trades” Ahmed Midhat Efendi, one of the most famous and popular Ottoman writers of the 19th century, ranged widely in his subject matter, which included economics. Although he was criticized for not having a proper education in the field, his independent thinking made him the most important critic of the laissez-faire system that prevailed in the Ottoman Empire. He disapproved of the liberalism transferred from the West in a normative framework.


Μνήμων ◽  
2004 ◽  
Vol 26 ◽  
pp. 63
Author(s):  
ΝΙΚΟΣ ΑΝΔΡΙΩΤΗΣ

<p>Nikos Andriotis, Christians and Muslims in Crete 1821-1924. A Century of Continuous Confrontation in and out of the Battlefield</p><p>This article refers to the strained relations between Christians and Muslims of Crete during the last century of their cohabitation in the island. First, it deals with the frequent upheavals of Christians against Ottoman sovereignty during the 19th century, with an emphasis to the consequences on the population breakdown and the dwelling network of Crete. Among the Muslims who were living far away from the urban centers, a large number moved towards the cities of the island or in other areas of the Ottoman Empire. This phenomenon was an overwhelming characteristic of the last decade of the 19th century. During the same decade the decrease of the Muslim population was significant and the Muslim presence in the countryside was almost annihilated. At the same time Christians, arriving from neighboring or remote areas, colonized the abandoned Muslim dwellings. The Muslims continued to live in a ambiance of insecurity until their mandatory flight in 1923-1924 during the period of the Autonomy (1898-1912) and by the annexation of Crete to Greece, in the exception of the period of time during which there was a relative calmness in the relations of the two communities. The different national aspirations of Christians and Muslims cannot exclusively interpret the violent collision of the two communities. This confrontation is from the early times characterized by economical aspiration of the Christians, mainly through the attempt of acquiring ownership of Muslim estates by legal or illegal means. This occurred mostlyi n the area of Iraklio, where the changes regarding the acquisition of urban and agriculture real estates, through transactions or encroachment, largely took place.</p>


Author(s):  
Ahmet Hadrovic

The Dzider familyʹs house in the Crnoc village near Kakanj is located on the flat terrain of a steep slope with southwestern insolation (Figure 1). It is one of a large number of relatively preserved bosnian chardaklia houses in the area of Kakanj, in the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina where the most developed types of Bosnian chardaklia house were built (Figure 2). The house was built during the reign of the Ottoman Empire (before the 19th century), but to date it has undergone a number of reconstructions and renovations[1]. It belongs to the type of two-tracts bosnian chardaklija house. One of the most valuable features of this house (except for its age) is the fact that it was erected on a living water source, which is still in the basement of the house today.


Author(s):  
Elena P. Kudryavtseva ◽  

The study is devoted to the activities of the Asian Department of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs that served as a curator of the Russia-Balkans relations in the first half of the 19th century. The Asian Department (set up in 1819) was in charge of the diplomatic, economic, cultural and church relations of Russia with the countries of the «East», and, above all, with the Ottoman Empire. Relations with the Orthodox Balkan nations - Serbs, Bulgarians and Montenegrins – remained traditionally close. This department supervised the policies related to the Balkan region, developed instructions for Russian envoys in Constantinople and Athens, stored consular reports from all over the Balkan region, and, as a result, elaborated approach of the Russian government in relations with Turkey.


2021 ◽  
Vol 27 (41) ◽  
pp. 31-48
Author(s):  
Munir Drkić ◽  
Ahmed Zildžić

This paper aims to examine the work entitled Taʻlīm-i fārisī in the context of the Ottoman tradition of the grammatical study of the Persian language. Taʻlīm-i fārisī, most likely penned by Kemal-pasha, is a short yet exceedingly significant primer for Persian language students dated in the middle of the 19th century. After a brief overview of the Persian grammar studies in the Ottoman Empire, the authors present the work and its author and conduct an analysis of the content of Taʻlīm-i fārisī. In terms of its underlying methodology, this work stands halfway between two principal tendencies: one is the traditional approach to studying the Persian language in the Ottoman Empire; another is a new approach developed under the influence of grammatical description of European languages. This paradigm shift in the Persian language's grammatical description within the Ottoman Empire is readily observable in the primer under review.


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