Phanariot Tongues: The Mavrocordatos Family and the Power of the Turkish Language in the Eighteenth-Century Ottoman Empire

The Phanariots — Grecophone Christian elites who ruled the Danubian principalities in the eighteenth century — were the only non-Muslims in the Ottoman Empire who claimed power by virtue of their command of the Turkish language. Why were they the rare exception and what does their story reveal about the ways in which power and language were intertwined in the early modern Ottoman Empire? The implicit power relations embedded in the Turkish language are rendered visible in a unique text written in 1731 in which Constantine Mavrocordatos, a Phanariot prince, attempted to school his younger brother in Turkish through a series of twelve, play-like dialogues. The dialogues did not aim to teach the formal grammar of Turkish but to demonstrate the power of speech by familiarizing the reader with the eloquent and witty repartee of Ottoman bureaucrats. Through an analysis of the text — which includes reestablishing its authorship and date of composition — the article examines the Phanariots’ liminal position in Ottoman governance, especially in the newly ascendant imperial bureaucracy, through the prism of language. In doing so, it also rewrites the place of the Mavrocordatos family in the story of the Enlightenment in the Ottoman Empire.

Online Conferences: A New Paradigm for Periodical Studies?

In spring 2020, during the cataclysmic first wave of COVID-19, academic conferences across the world were postponed or cancelled. A rare exception was in the field of periodical studies: an asynchronous online conference, Future States: Modernity and National Identity in Popular Magazines, 1890–1945, co-directed by Andrew Thacker (NTU) and Tim Satterthwaite, which opened on schedule and ran for three weeks (30 March–17 April 2020). A selection of five papers from the conference forms the body of this special issue of the Journal of European Periodical Studies, and these are introduced below. Given the spate of online academic events that have followed, this introduction first offers some general thoughts on the Future States conference model, in the hope that its pioneering approach may be of interest.

In memoriam: Izzaddin Mustafa Rasul (1934-2019), Iraqi Kurdish man of letters and Soviet-trained scholar

The literary scholar Izzaddin Mustafa Rasul (1934-2019) was one of the greatest Iraqi Kurdish scholars trained in the Soviet Union. He was one of a cohort of Iraqi students who received scholarships for study in the USSR in the wake of the 1958 coup that overthrew the Iraqi monarchy, and his time in the USSR coincided with the period of flourishing of Kurdish studies there. Rasul’s PhD dissertation analyzed the development of Kurdish literature within a schematic Marxist-Leninist developmental framework. In his major work, however, which focused on Ahmed Khani and his Mem û Zîn, he went well beyond the standard Soviet treatment of literary works and focused especially on the dimensions of Sufi theosophy and other Islamic content in the work. In this respect, Rasul’s work stands out as a rare exception in Soviet Oriental studies. It remains one of the most ambitious studies of the early modern Kurdish poet Khani.

The Lower Carboniferous blastoid Astrocrinus tetragonus Austin and Austin from Grassington, Yorkshire, and the validity of Astrocrinus benniei Etheridge

Despite surviving longer than any other blastozoans, blastoids were exceptionally conservative in their morphology and usually symmetrically pentaradiate. Astrocrinus is a rare exception that lacked a stem and some thecal plates, although differing interpretations of its morphology and taxonomy have been published. Astrocrinus had a flattened, tetralobate theca covered in minute spines, and with a plane of symmetry through the AB interray and the D ray. Four ambulacra are long, thin, and curved down deep sinuses between the thecal lobes to reach the basal surface. The D ambulacrum is short, broad and horizontal. Astrocrinus tetragonus was first described from the Carboniferous Limestone of Settle, Yorkshire. Here it is recorded for the first time from the Brigantian, near Grassington. The new specimens confirm that A. tetragonus had a single basal plate which is kite- shaped, entirely surrounded by four radials and separated from the D ray radial. Astrocrinus benniei was described from the Scottish Brigantian and its basal plate is elongate pentagonal with a short common suture with the D ray radial. Astrocrinus occurs in the Irish Asbian and Brigantian. To date, only A. tetragonus can be confirmed from Ireland.

A Tribute to the Late Dr. Sulayman Shehu Nyang

It was Fall 1998, here I was, at Howard University, the mecca. Walking thehistoric grounds of the campus, I was tracing the footsteps of luminariesand intellectual giants, scientists and activists, who gave birth to inventionsand social movements, and who were of African, Afro-Caribbean and AfricanAmerican descent, among others. Before enrolling in the doctoralprogram in the School of Social Work, I had known of Dr. Nyang but onlyinteracted with him in passing at a few programs. All over the world, fornearly four decades, among Muslims, Howard University was synonymouswith Dr. Sulayman Shehu Nyang. This proud and brilliant son of Africa wasknown for his Gambian roots, his prolific scholarship, his contagious smile,his wit, his insights, his at once profound brilliance and his down to earthdemeanor, and his steady hand as Chair of the African Studies departmentat Howard University. I can count with rare exception the number of timesI introduced myself as being a doctoral student, an administrator, a facultymember and now a department chair at Howard University, and the almostinstant reaction among Muslims – Oh yeah, Dr. Nyang is at Howard.I have never met anyone like him. That was my first reaction when Ifinally got to spend time with Dr. Nyang on the campus of Howard Univer-Altaf Husain serves as Associate Professor and Chair of the Community, Administrationand Policy Practice Concentration at the School of Social Work, HowardUniversity ...

Baron, Dvora (1887-1956)

Dvora Baron, a major writer of the Modern Hebrew Renaissance, or the Tehiyah, was one of the only woman writers to gain recognition in the Hebrew literary canon of the period. Born on December 4, 1887 to the town rabbi of Ouzda, on the outskirts of Minsk, Baron was educated by her father and her elder brother in ways that were highly unusual for girls of her geographical, historical, and religious milieu at the turn of the twentieth century. Women and girls, not systematically educated in Hebrew texts, were largely unable to bring their Hebrew textual skills to bear in the creation of a modern Hebrew literary idiom. Baron was a rare exception and much of the scholarship on Baron’s literary corpus focuses on her unusual achievement as a woman in the Modern Hebrew literary arena.

Varieties of Intra-Party Democracy

This chapter introduces a new, two-dimensional way of measuring intra-party democracy (IPD). It is argued that assembly-based IPD and plebiscitary IPD are two theoretically different modes of intra-party decision-making. Assembly-based IPD means that discussion and decision over a certain topic takes place at the same time. Plebiscitary IPD disconnects the act of voting from the discussion over the alternatives that are put to a vote. In addition, some parties have opened up plebiscitary decision-making to non-members which is captured by the concept of open plebiscitary IPD. Based on the Political Party Database Project (PPDB) dataset, indices are developed for the three variants of IPD. The empirical analyses here show that assembly-based and plebiscitary IPD are combined by political parties in different ways while open party plebiscites are currently a rare exception.

Examining the Role and Diversity of Fiscal Sponsors in the Nonprofit Sector

This study discusses and documents the role and diversity of fiscal sponsors within the nonprofit sector. Fiscal sponsors provide critical support to nascent nonprofits, yet relatively little is known about which nonprofits elect to become fiscal sponsors, which type of projects and/or organizations do they choose to sponsor, and what costs are associated with sponsorship. We find that Arts and Philanthropic/Grantmaking subsectors are the most frequent home for fiscal sponsors; however, most subsectors house fiscal sponsors. Interestingly, with rare exception, fiscal sponsors charge a non-trivial fee based on revenues raised by the sponsored organization in exchange for administrative support services. The administrative support services provided cluster around financial management (bookkeeping, tax, bill paying). Overall, this study sheds light on an important support function for nascent nonprofits. The study concludes with future research streams that can further our collective understanding of a growing and critical support function for early stage nonprofits.