The “German Fountain” in Istanbul: Object of Transfer in the Age of Historicism and Diplomacy

Der Islam ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 95 (2) ◽  
pp. 549-595
Author(s):  
Lorenz Korn

Abstract The “German Fountain” on the Hippodrome in Istanbul, commissioned by the German Emperor Wilhelm II, has been perceived (and sometimes ridiculed) as a marginal by-product of imperialism and historicism. However, the history of its origins, construction and inauguration highlights significant aspects of German-Ottoman relations in the Hamidian period. The fountain is an example of the role that art and architecture played in these relations. The history of its planning indicates in which way the urban history of Istanbul was perceived and how a new monument was inserted, under the particular conditions of patronage by a foreign monarch. For the present article, German archival sources have been utilized to reconstruct the events and to interpret underlying attitudes. These sources elucidate the process of veritable trans-cultural negotiations, in which numerous partners with differing agendas participated. Besides, an art historical glance at the design of the fountain permits conclusions on choices that were made by the patron and the architect, significant for the understanding of the monument by its contemporaries. The particular conditions of the Ottoman Empire struggling for survival vis à vis European powers, and German foreign politics, become visible in the location and style of the fountain as well as in the protocol of its inauguration.

Arabica ◽  
2004 ◽  
Vol 51 (4) ◽  
pp. 401-418 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Philipp

AbstractHistorical periods are the attempt of the historian to shape the endless flow of events in time into meaningful, coherent entities. Periods are often bracketed by "decisive" events and comprise one or more dominant features which give "unity" to the period so chosen. The periodization of history must by necessity remain a work in progress. It is always an attempt of interpretation and giving meaning and, hence, always open to revision. Ottoman rule over the Arab provinces was always considered as such a period, defined by the conquest and the disintegration of the Ottoman Empire. The present article tries to probe in how far these events are indeed meaningful for the periodization of the history of Bilad al-Sham, the geographical Syria.


Author(s):  
Ashraf Azimi Shooshtari

The history of the tendency of the people of Basra to the Ottoman Empire and the situation of Basra and the people of Basra and their beliefs, from the time of the founding of the city of Basra to the Battle of Jamal, is one of the important historical issues that no one has addressed so far. The purpose of this issue is to provide a general understanding of the Ottoman thought and beliefs and the people of Basra. This study seeks to answer the question of how and when the people of Basra became Ottoman. The present article has been written in a descriptive historical method, using historical sources with the method of collecting library information. The Ottomans were originally a political sect that, after the assassination of the Ottomans under the pretext of bloodshed, waged a war of attrition around Basra led by Talha, Zubair and Aisha. According to historians, most of the people of Basra broke their allegiance to Imam Ali (as) and collaborated with him. The Ottoman ideology, which was hidden from most of the people of Basra before the Battle of Jamal, emerged after that. As a result, the majority of the people of Basra turned to the Ottoman Empire from the time of the Camel War, which is the finding of this article.


Author(s):  
D.R. Kołodziejczyk ◽  
M.A. Kaczka

Abstract In August 1739, Hotin was captured by Russian troops during the war fought by the Ottoman Empire simultaneously against Russia and Austria. The fortress commander, Ilyas Kolchak Pasha, a Muslim convert from Bosnia, was imprisoned in St. Petersburg while the entire provincial archive was transported to Russia. Today it is held in Moscow and contains almost three thousand documents in Ottoman-Turkish and in Polish, while its small section has also been discovered in Chernihiv. Since the eighteenth century, many other Ottoman documents have been incorporated into the so-called Kolchak Pasha archive in Moscow, including documents from Azov and Perekop, from the archives of Ukrainian Cossack hetmans, and even from the archive of Russian tsars, including two original oath-letters (artnames) sent by the Crimean khans in 1634 and 1646. Needless to say, most of the documents origin from Hotin, from the time when the post of its governor was occupied by Kolchak Pasha. The present article traces the history of this collection, its composition, and offers some glimpses into everyday life of the sancak of Hotin in the 1730s. Its final part is devoted to the Polish language section of the archive and to the network of Kolchaks correspondents in Poland-Lithuania, mostly consisting of opponents to August III, brought to the Polish throne in 1733 with the armed support of Russia. Apart from mutually providing information, both sides exchanged gifts and small favors, while Polish nobles sent their wives to go shopping in Ottoman Hotin, thus rendering the border between Christianity and Islam much more transparent than it has often been assumed.Аннотация В августе 1739 г. Хотин был захвачен российскими войсками в ходе войны, которую Османская империя вела одновременно против России и Австрии. Комендант крепости, Ильяс Колчак-паша, обращенный в ислам боснийец, был пленен и отправлен в Санкт-Петербург, в то время как весь провинциальный архив был перевезен в Россию. В настоящее время он находится в Москве и содержит более трех тысяч документов на османско-турецком и польском языках, одновременно небольшая его часть также была обнаружена в Чернигове. Начиная с XVIII в. множество других документов были также включены в состав так называемого архива Колчак-паши в Москве, включая документы из Азова и Перекопа, из архивов украинских казацких гетманов и даже из российских царских архивов, включая шертные грамоты (artname), отправленные крымскими ханами в 1634 и 1646 гг. Излишне говорить, что большинство документов имеют хотинское происхождение в период, когда пост наместника занимал Колчак-паша. Представленная статья обрисовывает историю этой коллекции, ее структуру и дает некоторое представление о повседневной жизни Хотинского санджака в 1730-е гг. ее заключительная часть посвящена польскоязычной секции архива и сети агентов Колчака в Речи Посполитой, в основной состоявшей из противников Августа III, возведенного на польский трон в 1733 г., благодаря вооруженной российской поддержке. Помимо двусторонней поставки информации, обе стороны обменивались подарками и небольшими взаимными услугами. При этом польские дворяне и их жены выезжали за покупками в османский Хотин, делая тем самым границы между христианским и исламским мирами более прозрачной, чем часто принято считать.


2021 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Chandrani Chatterjee

Nineteenth-century Calcutta has been widely researched to understand its role in the making of a ‘modern’ India. However, the ‘translational’ culture of this period has not received enough attention. The present article traces what it terms Calcutta’s ‘translational culture’ by examining a palimpsest of languages and genres through the mediating role of translation. Nineteenth-century was a time when several languages were competing for space in the making of modern Bengali prose. Most of the writers of the time were negotiating a plural and multilingual domain and experimenting withnew styles of prose and poetry writing. Two such examples can be seen in the works of Michael Madhusudan Dutt (1824 –1873), and Kaliprassana Singha (1841 -1870). These writers were instrumental in the making of new genres and were negotiating multiple languages and linguistic registers that included –Sanskrit, Bengali with its different elite and colloquial registers, English,and several European languages and literatures. In juxtaposing Dutt and Singha, the present article attempts to point towards a parallel history of the nineteenth-century Calcutta traced through moments of transactions, translations,and negotiations among languages, ideas,and world views. Languages and literary genres in this case become a testimony to the rich texture of social and cultural negotiations that went into the making of the modernist Bengali prose and indicative of its palimpsestic and translational nature.


2015 ◽  
Vol 42 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 163-180
Author(s):  
Meltem Özkan Altınöz

This article demonstrates how architecture and politics concomitantly reflect Jewish history in the Ottoman Empire. Jewish architecture shows concrete cultural entities that may afford us with opportunities to broaden social inquiry and our understanding of history. The study traces Galata Jewry under the Ottoman Empire and deciphers their role in the formation of Galata’s urban texture and ethnic outlook. Additionally, it investigates the Ottoman administrative system and the active role of Galata Jewry in this system, whereby Jews contributed to the urban and economic development of the Empire.


2003 ◽  
Vol 82 (2) ◽  
pp. 300-301
Author(s):  
Elizabeth Gemmill
Keyword(s):  

2010 ◽  
Vol 4 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 37-73
Author(s):  
Paul R. Powers

The ideas of an “Islamic Reformation” and a “Muslim Luther” have been much discussed, especially since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. This “Reformation” rhetoric, however, displays little consistency, encompassing moderate, liberalizing trends as well as their putative opposite, Islamist “fundamentalism.” The rhetoric and the diverse phenomena to which it refers have provoked both enthusiastic endorsement and vigorous rejection. After briefly surveying the history of “Islamic Reformation” rhetoric, the present article argues for a four-part typology to account for most recent instances of such rhetoric. The analysis reveals that few who employ the terminology of an “Islamic Reformation” consider the specific details of its implicit analogy to the Protestant Reformation, but rather use this language to add emotional weight to various prescriptive agendas. However, some examples demonstrate the potential power of the analogy to illuminate important aspects of religious, social, and political change in the modern Islamic world.


Author(s):  
Larisa V. Kolenko

The present article is concerned with the research results of the chronicles of N. Krupskaya Astrakhan Regional Research Library, representing history of the largest regional library of the Volga region in the context of development of the country librarianship as well as regional culture.


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