KEYNOTE SPEAKERS
Prof. Dr. Dimitris Stamatopoulos
University of Macedonia, Thessaloniki/ Freiburg Institute for Advanced Studies
Power and Hegemony in the Rum Millet (18th -20th c.): Power networks and interest groups in the Ecumenical Patriarchate during the Late Ottoman period
The period of the history of the Ecumenical Patriarchate from the middle of 18th to the beginning of the 20th c. was characterized by a transition from the old Phanatiot families to what we call "Neo-phanariots" of the post-revolutionary period. However its extremely interesting that the Orthodox clergy achieved to preserve not only its privileges but also its hegemonic role in the administration of the Patriarchate and generally of the Rum millet. The lecture will focus on the construction of mixed laic-clerical interest groups as well as on transformation of the power networks trying to re-interpret and unify different "stories" of the Ecumenical Patriarchate's life which have been narrated separately by the traditional Greek and Balkan historiography like for example the Privileges issue, the Monastery issue, the Bulgarian Schism.
University of Macedonia, Thessaloniki/ Freiburg Institute for Advanced Studies
Power and Hegemony in the Rum Millet (18th -20th c.): Power networks and interest groups in the Ecumenical Patriarchate during the Late Ottoman period
The period of the history of the Ecumenical Patriarchate from the middle of 18th to the beginning of the 20th c. was characterized by a transition from the old Phanatiot families to what we call "Neo-phanariots" of the post-revolutionary period. However its extremely interesting that the Orthodox clergy achieved to preserve not only its privileges but also its hegemonic role in the administration of the Patriarchate and generally of the Rum millet. The lecture will focus on the construction of mixed laic-clerical interest groups as well as on transformation of the power networks trying to re-interpret and unify different "stories" of the Ecumenical Patriarchate's life which have been narrated separately by the traditional Greek and Balkan historiography like for example the Privileges issue, the Monastery issue, the Bulgarian Schism.
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Dobrinka Parusheva
Bulgarian Academy of Sciences/ Plovdiv University “Paisii Hilendarski”
Society, Technology and Culture, or How the Balkans Meet Modernity
The way the Balkans meet Modernity is quite similar to the one of the other European countries; the difference refers mainly to the timing of the first contact. By contact I mean here a process which took place during several decades rather than one single act – we have to deal with a series of “meetings” between the Balkans and Modernity, and the length of this process has an impact on the understanding of Modernization.
The aim of this lecture is – after a brief introduction dealing with the basics (that is, terminology) – to offer a “train ride”. Our train will call at three stations: Society, Technology, and Culture. Drawing upon the social structure and economic development in the Balkan states during the long 19th century, the ways Balkan peoples faced new technologies will be discussed as well as the influence of the culture (understood as a type of behavior). The lens of the everyday/ness will be used following the conviction that it can provide us with a diversified picture of the way/s the Balkans meet Modernity.
When reaching the last stop of the train some comparisons between the Balkan states (Bulgaria, Greece, Serbia, and Romania) can be drawn, from the point of view of the intertwining the technology and culture in society. In addition, the question about what is specific about the Balkans meeting Modernity can be addressed and whether their meeting differs from the other “peripheral” cases (and if yes, in which way).
Bulgarian Academy of Sciences/ Plovdiv University “Paisii Hilendarski”
Society, Technology and Culture, or How the Balkans Meet Modernity
The way the Balkans meet Modernity is quite similar to the one of the other European countries; the difference refers mainly to the timing of the first contact. By contact I mean here a process which took place during several decades rather than one single act – we have to deal with a series of “meetings” between the Balkans and Modernity, and the length of this process has an impact on the understanding of Modernization.
The aim of this lecture is – after a brief introduction dealing with the basics (that is, terminology) – to offer a “train ride”. Our train will call at three stations: Society, Technology, and Culture. Drawing upon the social structure and economic development in the Balkan states during the long 19th century, the ways Balkan peoples faced new technologies will be discussed as well as the influence of the culture (understood as a type of behavior). The lens of the everyday/ness will be used following the conviction that it can provide us with a diversified picture of the way/s the Balkans meet Modernity.
When reaching the last stop of the train some comparisons between the Balkan states (Bulgaria, Greece, Serbia, and Romania) can be drawn, from the point of view of the intertwining the technology and culture in society. In addition, the question about what is specific about the Balkans meeting Modernity can be addressed and whether their meeting differs from the other “peripheral” cases (and if yes, in which way).
Prof. Dr. Edhem Eldem
Boğaziçi University, Istanbul/Collège de France, Paris
A Thwarted Modernity? Ottoman Princes in the Nineteenth Century
The seven decades consisting of the Tanzimat reforms (1839-1876) and of the reign of Abdülhamid II (1876-1909) are generally associated with the modernization of the Ottoman political system, however uneven this process may have been between the relatively liberal tendencies of the former and the autocratic character of the latter. Most of our knowledge and understanding of this political modernization stems from sources emanating either from Western observers, or from the most prominent Ottoman actors engaged in this process, be they members of the ruling elite and bureaucracy, or of a number of opposition movements, from the Young Ottomans to the Young Turks.
Not surprisingly, then, scholarship has tended to concentrate on the “usual suspects,” from Mustafa Reşid Pasha to Midhat Pasha, from Sultan Mahmud to Sultan Abdülhamid, from Fuad Pasha to Cevdet Pasha, from Namık Kemal to Ali Suavi… While there is undoubtedly still much work to be done by focusing on some minor figures and by adopting a more critical approach, a real void can be felt with respect to less prominent and visible and their take on modernity. The common of mortals have generally been associated with more mundane aspects of the question, especially with material culture and consumption, while artists and architects have been assigned a central role in understanding the cultural dimension of modernity and westernization.
This presentation will try to innovate by focusing on a very particular category of individuals who stand in an awkward limbo between prominence and anonymity, namely the princes of the Ottoman dynasty. Close to the center of power, yet secluded from public space; symbols of tradition, yet eager to espouse modernity; exposed to the impact of change, yet lacking proper education; these men constitute a fascinating sample of “innocent” witnesses of a modernity they yearn for, yet often fail to understand. Ironically, in some ways, these very exceptional characters come closest to the mundane anonymity of a mass of individuals left aside by the scholarship on political modernization.
Boğaziçi University, Istanbul/Collège de France, Paris
A Thwarted Modernity? Ottoman Princes in the Nineteenth Century
The seven decades consisting of the Tanzimat reforms (1839-1876) and of the reign of Abdülhamid II (1876-1909) are generally associated with the modernization of the Ottoman political system, however uneven this process may have been between the relatively liberal tendencies of the former and the autocratic character of the latter. Most of our knowledge and understanding of this political modernization stems from sources emanating either from Western observers, or from the most prominent Ottoman actors engaged in this process, be they members of the ruling elite and bureaucracy, or of a number of opposition movements, from the Young Ottomans to the Young Turks.
Not surprisingly, then, scholarship has tended to concentrate on the “usual suspects,” from Mustafa Reşid Pasha to Midhat Pasha, from Sultan Mahmud to Sultan Abdülhamid, from Fuad Pasha to Cevdet Pasha, from Namık Kemal to Ali Suavi… While there is undoubtedly still much work to be done by focusing on some minor figures and by adopting a more critical approach, a real void can be felt with respect to less prominent and visible and their take on modernity. The common of mortals have generally been associated with more mundane aspects of the question, especially with material culture and consumption, while artists and architects have been assigned a central role in understanding the cultural dimension of modernity and westernization.
This presentation will try to innovate by focusing on a very particular category of individuals who stand in an awkward limbo between prominence and anonymity, namely the princes of the Ottoman dynasty. Close to the center of power, yet secluded from public space; symbols of tradition, yet eager to espouse modernity; exposed to the impact of change, yet lacking proper education; these men constitute a fascinating sample of “innocent” witnesses of a modernity they yearn for, yet often fail to understand. Ironically, in some ways, these very exceptional characters come closest to the mundane anonymity of a mass of individuals left aside by the scholarship on political modernization.
PARTICIPANTS
Aleksandar Zlatanov, PhD student
Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski”
Michal Czajkowski–Sadyk Pasha and his Ottoman Cossack Regiment as agents of modernization
The activities of the Polish writer, political agent, general, renegade and émigré Michal Czajkowski – Sadyk Pasha (1804-1886), leave an interesting and bright trail in the historical context during the long 19th century, especially in South East Europe. Czajkowski’s political activity in the Ottoman Empire began in 1840 when he headed the so called “Eastern Agency”, created by the Polish government in exile “Hotel Lambert”, residing in Paris and managed by Prince Adam Czartoryski (1770-1861). Later, Czajkowski found a shelter as a subject to the Sultan, converted to Islam, accepting the name Mehmed Sadyk Pasha and joined the Ottoman army where he created his Ottoman Cossack Regiment (Kazak Alay) at the beginning of the Crimean War. The Kazak Alay is the very first official military unit within the Ottoman Empire until that moment, which is composed almost entirely by Christians. The official Christian character of those Ottoman military units makes them an unique instrument of the modernization processes since until then, with some special exceptions, the Christian population was forbidden to carry weapons and be part of the Ottoman army. In the Kazak Alay were enlisted volunteers from more than eight nationalities – mainly Poles and Bulgarians, but also Cossacks (Old Believers), Serbians, Russians, Albanians, Jews, Gypsies etc.
The following text will present several concrete examples, based on original unpublished documents and sources from Bulgaria, Poland and Russia, which will manifest the different layers and dimensions of Sadyk Pasha’s and his Ottoman Cossack Regiment’s actions as transmitters and agents of modernization in the political, social and military sphere within the Ottoman Empire after the Crimean War.
Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski”
Michal Czajkowski–Sadyk Pasha and his Ottoman Cossack Regiment as agents of modernization
The activities of the Polish writer, political agent, general, renegade and émigré Michal Czajkowski – Sadyk Pasha (1804-1886), leave an interesting and bright trail in the historical context during the long 19th century, especially in South East Europe. Czajkowski’s political activity in the Ottoman Empire began in 1840 when he headed the so called “Eastern Agency”, created by the Polish government in exile “Hotel Lambert”, residing in Paris and managed by Prince Adam Czartoryski (1770-1861). Later, Czajkowski found a shelter as a subject to the Sultan, converted to Islam, accepting the name Mehmed Sadyk Pasha and joined the Ottoman army where he created his Ottoman Cossack Regiment (Kazak Alay) at the beginning of the Crimean War. The Kazak Alay is the very first official military unit within the Ottoman Empire until that moment, which is composed almost entirely by Christians. The official Christian character of those Ottoman military units makes them an unique instrument of the modernization processes since until then, with some special exceptions, the Christian population was forbidden to carry weapons and be part of the Ottoman army. In the Kazak Alay were enlisted volunteers from more than eight nationalities – mainly Poles and Bulgarians, but also Cossacks (Old Believers), Serbians, Russians, Albanians, Jews, Gypsies etc.
The following text will present several concrete examples, based on original unpublished documents and sources from Bulgaria, Poland and Russia, which will manifest the different layers and dimensions of Sadyk Pasha’s and his Ottoman Cossack Regiment’s actions as transmitters and agents of modernization in the political, social and military sphere within the Ottoman Empire after the Crimean War.
Assist. Prof. Dr. Boriana Antonova–Goleva
University of Economics – Varna/ Comenius University, Bratislava
The Ruse–Varna railway project: a case study of technology transfer and modernization in the Late Ottoman Balkans
The Ottoman railway development began in the second half of the 19th century and was closely bounded to the modernization of the Empire during the Tanzimat. One of the earliest railway projects of the central government during that period was the Ruse–Varna railway. This track was of a great importance for the Sublime Porte mainly due to military and strategical reasons. Furthermore, it was intended to link the Black Sea with the Danube River and thus to play a major role in the grain trade in the Black Sea region. For this reason it also attracted the interest of the so called ‘concession hunters’, i.e. the foreign entrepreneurs who started to seek opportunities for accumulation of capitals in the Post-Crimean Ottoman Empire. Thus, the Ruse–Varna railway became an important modernization project in which various interests were entangled.
During this early period of the Ottoman railway development, a local group, headed by a couple of Bulgarian merchants from Shumen, also took part in the struggles for this concession. Their enterprise started in 1857 and represented one of the earliest attempts of Ottoman subjects to undertake a railway concession.
Actually this project was not solely initiative of the local group but also was incited by the grand vizier Mustafa Reshid Pasha. While the desire of the local Ottoman subjects to construct Ruse–Varna railway was caused by economic reasons, the high Ottoman official aimed at using the undertaking as a political tool for strengthening the Porte’s positions in negotiations for concessions with foreign capitalists.
The present paper will discuss how the above mentioned undertaking was organized and to what extent it represented a modern entrepreneurial initiative. Furthermore, the role of the main actors in the projects as “agents of modernization” will be analyzed.
University of Economics – Varna/ Comenius University, Bratislava
The Ruse–Varna railway project: a case study of technology transfer and modernization in the Late Ottoman Balkans
The Ottoman railway development began in the second half of the 19th century and was closely bounded to the modernization of the Empire during the Tanzimat. One of the earliest railway projects of the central government during that period was the Ruse–Varna railway. This track was of a great importance for the Sublime Porte mainly due to military and strategical reasons. Furthermore, it was intended to link the Black Sea with the Danube River and thus to play a major role in the grain trade in the Black Sea region. For this reason it also attracted the interest of the so called ‘concession hunters’, i.e. the foreign entrepreneurs who started to seek opportunities for accumulation of capitals in the Post-Crimean Ottoman Empire. Thus, the Ruse–Varna railway became an important modernization project in which various interests were entangled.
During this early period of the Ottoman railway development, a local group, headed by a couple of Bulgarian merchants from Shumen, also took part in the struggles for this concession. Their enterprise started in 1857 and represented one of the earliest attempts of Ottoman subjects to undertake a railway concession.
Actually this project was not solely initiative of the local group but also was incited by the grand vizier Mustafa Reshid Pasha. While the desire of the local Ottoman subjects to construct Ruse–Varna railway was caused by economic reasons, the high Ottoman official aimed at using the undertaking as a political tool for strengthening the Porte’s positions in negotiations for concessions with foreign capitalists.
The present paper will discuss how the above mentioned undertaking was organized and to what extent it represented a modern entrepreneurial initiative. Furthermore, the role of the main actors in the projects as “agents of modernization” will be analyzed.
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Eyal Ginio
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
The Unlikely Exponents of Modernization: Ottoman POWs writing on the Balkan states during the Balkan Wars
The defeat in the Balkan Wars (1912-13) created a vast literature reflecting on the military rout’s causes and ramifications. The unprecedented dimensions of the defeat and the following human catastrophe triggered Ottoman journalists, veterans, authors and others to reflect on the wars in various publications that formed a distinct Ottoman "culture of defeat". The memories written by Ottoman POW officers while held in captivity represent a specific niche in the Ottoman literature of the Balkan Wars. In my presentation I analyze the POWs’ writing produced during the Balkan Wars against the context of the Ottoman public debate on the defeat, its causes and on the possible paths to secure a rejuvenation of the Ottoman nation and its modernization. Witnessing the ordeals and the humiliation of the defeat, their memories provide personal and even intimate reflections of the military route. In addition, their particular flexible conditions of detention rendered these officers also keen observers of the social, cultural and economic shifts in Balkan societies. Being literate and equipped with ample free time, knowledge of European languages and well immersed in the contemporary debates of modernization, and its meanings they were able to assess the differences and similarities between the Balkan urban societies and Ottoman society. While these officers condemned the Balkan states for being bigot and cruel, they were nevertheless impressed by the Balkan states' swift and efficient shift to modernity. For those Ottoman officers, this was an important lesson that they wished to share with their readers. By comparing the texts written by ex-POWs with the writing of other Ottoman authors, I will examine the particularities of their points of view and gazes and the POWs’ specific contribution to the Ottoman public debate on the Balkan Wars and on the need to modernize Ottoman society.
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
The Unlikely Exponents of Modernization: Ottoman POWs writing on the Balkan states during the Balkan Wars
The defeat in the Balkan Wars (1912-13) created a vast literature reflecting on the military rout’s causes and ramifications. The unprecedented dimensions of the defeat and the following human catastrophe triggered Ottoman journalists, veterans, authors and others to reflect on the wars in various publications that formed a distinct Ottoman "culture of defeat". The memories written by Ottoman POW officers while held in captivity represent a specific niche in the Ottoman literature of the Balkan Wars. In my presentation I analyze the POWs’ writing produced during the Balkan Wars against the context of the Ottoman public debate on the defeat, its causes and on the possible paths to secure a rejuvenation of the Ottoman nation and its modernization. Witnessing the ordeals and the humiliation of the defeat, their memories provide personal and even intimate reflections of the military route. In addition, their particular flexible conditions of detention rendered these officers also keen observers of the social, cultural and economic shifts in Balkan societies. Being literate and equipped with ample free time, knowledge of European languages and well immersed in the contemporary debates of modernization, and its meanings they were able to assess the differences and similarities between the Balkan urban societies and Ottoman society. While these officers condemned the Balkan states for being bigot and cruel, they were nevertheless impressed by the Balkan states' swift and efficient shift to modernity. For those Ottoman officers, this was an important lesson that they wished to share with their readers. By comparing the texts written by ex-POWs with the writing of other Ottoman authors, I will examine the particularities of their points of view and gazes and the POWs’ specific contribution to the Ottoman public debate on the Balkan Wars and on the need to modernize Ottoman society.
Assist. Prof. Hristiyan Atanasov
University of Library Studies and Information Technologies, Sofia
Midhat Pasha and the Credit Agricultural Funds as Institution of Modernit
It is quite difficult to point a study on Ottoman modernity, the Tanzimat (as a period of great changes) and the Late Bulgarian Revival, in which the personality of Mithad Pasha is not present. The great reformer, the creator of the First Ottoman Constitution and Parliament. Here we will present another of his creations – the so-called agricultural or common benefit funds (umumiye menafi sandığı) which were called for life to provide cheap credit to farmers.
They were among the first credit institutions in Europe to lend to farmers. In this sense, undoubtedly the common benefit funds were an important marker for the aspirations of the Ottoman rulers to build a more modern empire that can compete successfully with Western powers.
The first common benefit funds were created in the territory of modern Serbia (Pirot or Leskovac) in 1863/64. They were inspired by Midhat Pasha and were the first state, not voluntary but obligatory, credit cooperatives. Their capital was collected through a special tax imposed by the state, and finally by a profit from the interest. The institutions proved to be extremely useful and after the liberation of Bulgaria in 1878, the Bulgarian Agricultural Bank was established on the basis of them. In the Republic of Turkey, they have been transformed into the currently functioning Ziraat Bankası (Agricultural Bank).
University of Library Studies and Information Technologies, Sofia
Midhat Pasha and the Credit Agricultural Funds as Institution of Modernit
It is quite difficult to point a study on Ottoman modernity, the Tanzimat (as a period of great changes) and the Late Bulgarian Revival, in which the personality of Mithad Pasha is not present. The great reformer, the creator of the First Ottoman Constitution and Parliament. Here we will present another of his creations – the so-called agricultural or common benefit funds (umumiye menafi sandığı) which were called for life to provide cheap credit to farmers.
They were among the first credit institutions in Europe to lend to farmers. In this sense, undoubtedly the common benefit funds were an important marker for the aspirations of the Ottoman rulers to build a more modern empire that can compete successfully with Western powers.
The first common benefit funds were created in the territory of modern Serbia (Pirot or Leskovac) in 1863/64. They were inspired by Midhat Pasha and were the first state, not voluntary but obligatory, credit cooperatives. Their capital was collected through a special tax imposed by the state, and finally by a profit from the interest. The institutions proved to be extremely useful and after the liberation of Bulgaria in 1878, the Bulgarian Agricultural Bank was established on the basis of them. In the Republic of Turkey, they have been transformed into the currently functioning Ziraat Bankası (Agricultural Bank).
Assist. Prof. Dr. Ivaylo Nachev
Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Sofia
Konstantin Jireček and the establishment of institutions in the modern Bulgarian state
More recent historical analyses of the modernization of societies in South Eastern Europe tend to put their emphasis on abstract matters, on processes at the expense of individual contributions which could be seen through exploration of a traditional historiographical object such as the person and the personal impact on wider developments. That is why the invitation to slightly shift the perspective and view the person and the personalities as agents of modernization is very welcome. The presented paper will focus on a well-known figure in Bulgarian studies, namely Czech scholar Konstantin Jireček, a person who held various high administrative positions during the first several years after the establishment of the Bulgarian state in 1878. Being part of the Bulgarian political elite during the turbulent formative phase of state building, Jireček took part, not just as a spectator of historical processes, but thanks to his abilities and vision, as an active participant in the creation of the fundaments of various institutions – Ministry of Education, schools, the predecessor of the academy of sciences, national statistical services and others. The paper will examine both well-known and neglected initiatives of Jireček trying to look at their long-term impact. It will also elaborate on the role of literacy, education and knowledge in the modernization of southeast European societies.
Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Sofia
Konstantin Jireček and the establishment of institutions in the modern Bulgarian state
More recent historical analyses of the modernization of societies in South Eastern Europe tend to put their emphasis on abstract matters, on processes at the expense of individual contributions which could be seen through exploration of a traditional historiographical object such as the person and the personal impact on wider developments. That is why the invitation to slightly shift the perspective and view the person and the personalities as agents of modernization is very welcome. The presented paper will focus on a well-known figure in Bulgarian studies, namely Czech scholar Konstantin Jireček, a person who held various high administrative positions during the first several years after the establishment of the Bulgarian state in 1878. Being part of the Bulgarian political elite during the turbulent formative phase of state building, Jireček took part, not just as a spectator of historical processes, but thanks to his abilities and vision, as an active participant in the creation of the fundaments of various institutions – Ministry of Education, schools, the predecessor of the academy of sciences, national statistical services and others. The paper will examine both well-known and neglected initiatives of Jireček trying to look at their long-term impact. It will also elaborate on the role of literacy, education and knowledge in the modernization of southeast European societies.
Dr. Ivelina Masheva
Freelancer
Top to Bottom and Bottom to Top: Patterns of Commercial Law Modernization in the Ottoman Balkans during the Tanzimat
In 19th century Ottoman Empire underwent a legal transition in the field of commercial law by switching from Islamic law to the French Commercial Code. The aim of the paper is to identify some of the factors and actors who influenced and promoted the modernization of the Ottoman commercial legal framework.
Reforms in the Ottoman Empire during the Tanzimat are usually described by both contemporaries and modern researchers as reforms “from top to bottom”, i.e. measures conceived by the Ottoman bureaucratic elite (often under foreign diplomatic pressure) and forced upon a rather conservative society who actively or passively opposed their application. While this is certainly true for many of the reforms (some of which failed as a result), it does not fit the case of commercial law reforms. In addition to the above mentioned actors of modernization – the Ottoman elite and the foreign diplomats, in this particular case we should add a third one - the business community. Both foreign and domestic merchants, operating in the Ottoman Empire were active on all stage of implementing the reforms: using the new legislation even before it was officially promulgated, pushing for its application in the official legal institutions, requesting the establishment of new commercial courts and serving in them as judges. The support and participation of this key stakeholder makes this particular modernizing process not a typical "top-to-bottom" reform. Along with the reform efforts of the central Ottoman authorities and the foreign powers, the trade community itself was also pushing for new regulatory mechanism correspond better to the new realities of domestic and international trade.
Freelancer
Top to Bottom and Bottom to Top: Patterns of Commercial Law Modernization in the Ottoman Balkans during the Tanzimat
In 19th century Ottoman Empire underwent a legal transition in the field of commercial law by switching from Islamic law to the French Commercial Code. The aim of the paper is to identify some of the factors and actors who influenced and promoted the modernization of the Ottoman commercial legal framework.
Reforms in the Ottoman Empire during the Tanzimat are usually described by both contemporaries and modern researchers as reforms “from top to bottom”, i.e. measures conceived by the Ottoman bureaucratic elite (often under foreign diplomatic pressure) and forced upon a rather conservative society who actively or passively opposed their application. While this is certainly true for many of the reforms (some of which failed as a result), it does not fit the case of commercial law reforms. In addition to the above mentioned actors of modernization – the Ottoman elite and the foreign diplomats, in this particular case we should add a third one - the business community. Both foreign and domestic merchants, operating in the Ottoman Empire were active on all stage of implementing the reforms: using the new legislation even before it was officially promulgated, pushing for its application in the official legal institutions, requesting the establishment of new commercial courts and serving in them as judges. The support and participation of this key stakeholder makes this particular modernizing process not a typical "top-to-bottom" reform. Along with the reform efforts of the central Ottoman authorities and the foreign powers, the trade community itself was also pushing for new regulatory mechanism correspond better to the new realities of domestic and international trade.
Dr. Nevila Pahumi
University College London
Global goes Local: Christian Workers, Gender and Cultural Translation in the Late Ottoman Balkans
Christian workers were by definition a professional category in the hierarchy of the global nineteenth century American Protestant missionary enterprise. They were adjutants to fledgling missions, and important contacts for both local communities and missionary organizations. But where missionary sources address them as “Christian workers,” local sources have perhaps even more narrowly labelled them as “patriots”.
Between these two frameworks, how can we ground the nature of these cosmopolitan religious-nationalist go-betweens? Moreover, what is at stake in embedding them in the revisionist narratives about the socio-political transformations of the late Ottoman Balkans? In this talk I would like to address the contributions that Christian workers made to Balkan nationalisms and spiritual life in the 19th and 20th centuries, but more specifically, to novel concepts of gender and their place in the public sphere. In this, they borrowed extensively from an American female educational ethos and translated locally through schools for women.
University College London
Global goes Local: Christian Workers, Gender and Cultural Translation in the Late Ottoman Balkans
Christian workers were by definition a professional category in the hierarchy of the global nineteenth century American Protestant missionary enterprise. They were adjutants to fledgling missions, and important contacts for both local communities and missionary organizations. But where missionary sources address them as “Christian workers,” local sources have perhaps even more narrowly labelled them as “patriots”.
Between these two frameworks, how can we ground the nature of these cosmopolitan religious-nationalist go-betweens? Moreover, what is at stake in embedding them in the revisionist narratives about the socio-political transformations of the late Ottoman Balkans? In this talk I would like to address the contributions that Christian workers made to Balkan nationalisms and spiritual life in the 19th and 20th centuries, but more specifically, to novel concepts of gender and their place in the public sphere. In this, they borrowed extensively from an American female educational ethos and translated locally through schools for women.
Tobias Völker, PhD student
University of Hamburg
From Hanseatic diplomat to Ottoman civil servant - Andreas David Mordtmann (1811-1879) as contributor to and critic of late Ottoman modernization
The German orientalist Andreas David Mordtmann who lived in Istanbul from 1846 up to his death in 1879 was a first-hand witness to almost the entire Tanzimat reform period - first as a diplomatic representative of some small independent Northern German states, the Hanseatic Cities; then, after 1860, as an Ottoman state official working at one of the newly established commercial courts and as a member of several reform commissions; and finally as the editor of the political newspaper Phare du Bosphore and lecturer at the high school for administrative officials Mekteb-i Mülkiye.
The presentation will trace Mordtmann´s various activities, his involvement in the intellectual and political circles in Istanbul and the impact his engagement – as an avowed member of the German Protestant congregation participating in the late Ottoman reform process – had in the late Ottoman context. The presentation will then contrast this involvement in Ottoman affairs with the extremely critical but at the same time highly ambiguous stance Mordtman took when writing about Ottoman modernization – as a journalist, as a diplomat, and as an academic scholar. Such contrasting analysis of Mordtmann´s activities and writings offers an interesting case study of the role some (Western) Europeans played in the Ottoman reform process, their scope of action, their conflicting loyalties, and the particular perspective they developed as a result of their cultural and political “in-between” position.
University of Hamburg
From Hanseatic diplomat to Ottoman civil servant - Andreas David Mordtmann (1811-1879) as contributor to and critic of late Ottoman modernization
The German orientalist Andreas David Mordtmann who lived in Istanbul from 1846 up to his death in 1879 was a first-hand witness to almost the entire Tanzimat reform period - first as a diplomatic representative of some small independent Northern German states, the Hanseatic Cities; then, after 1860, as an Ottoman state official working at one of the newly established commercial courts and as a member of several reform commissions; and finally as the editor of the political newspaper Phare du Bosphore and lecturer at the high school for administrative officials Mekteb-i Mülkiye.
The presentation will trace Mordtmann´s various activities, his involvement in the intellectual and political circles in Istanbul and the impact his engagement – as an avowed member of the German Protestant congregation participating in the late Ottoman reform process – had in the late Ottoman context. The presentation will then contrast this involvement in Ottoman affairs with the extremely critical but at the same time highly ambiguous stance Mordtman took when writing about Ottoman modernization – as a journalist, as a diplomat, and as an academic scholar. Such contrasting analysis of Mordtmann´s activities and writings offers an interesting case study of the role some (Western) Europeans played in the Ottoman reform process, their scope of action, their conflicting loyalties, and the particular perspective they developed as a result of their cultural and political “in-between” position.
Prof. Dr. Yavuz Köse
University of Hamburg
Prusyalı Emin Efendi (1813-1892) – the founding director of the first modern law school (mekteb-i hukuk) in the Ottoman Empire
Prusyalı Emin Efendi (1813-1892) was quite a famous man in his time, yet still a figure with uncertain origin. Despite various stories about his place of origin, he was considered an expert in Western as well as Islamic law and highly esteemed for that. Formerly known as Joachim Christian Franz Schulz, he joined in 1851 the Ottoman civil service and converted to Islam. Until his death in 1892 he lived and worked in Istanbul. He held various positions in the Ottoman bureaucracy, but he is mostly remembered as the founding director of the mekteb-i hukuk – the first modern law school in the Ottoman Empire. Consequently, Emin Efendi was not only witness of the modernization beginning with the Tanzimat period but also an active participant of this process. Emin Efendi was well connected to Ottoman high officials, but at the same time he maintained close contact to the German community based in Istanbul as well as to his family in Hamburg. By using among others estate records, diplomatic correspondences as well as private letters the presentation will reconstruct live and work of Emin Efendi.
University of Hamburg
Prusyalı Emin Efendi (1813-1892) – the founding director of the first modern law school (mekteb-i hukuk) in the Ottoman Empire
Prusyalı Emin Efendi (1813-1892) was quite a famous man in his time, yet still a figure with uncertain origin. Despite various stories about his place of origin, he was considered an expert in Western as well as Islamic law and highly esteemed for that. Formerly known as Joachim Christian Franz Schulz, he joined in 1851 the Ottoman civil service and converted to Islam. Until his death in 1892 he lived and worked in Istanbul. He held various positions in the Ottoman bureaucracy, but he is mostly remembered as the founding director of the mekteb-i hukuk – the first modern law school in the Ottoman Empire. Consequently, Emin Efendi was not only witness of the modernization beginning with the Tanzimat period but also an active participant of this process. Emin Efendi was well connected to Ottoman high officials, but at the same time he maintained close contact to the German community based in Istanbul as well as to his family in Hamburg. By using among others estate records, diplomatic correspondences as well as private letters the presentation will reconstruct live and work of Emin Efendi.
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Yura Konstantinova
Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Sofia
The modern influences in health care and hygiene and the traditional Bulgarian society in Thessaloniki
The era of the Tanzimat, which commenced in the Ottoman Empire after 1839, brought about the first attempts at modernization in Thessaloniki. In the second half of the 19th century they were manifested in the exterior, town-planning aspects of the city - the fortified wall was demolished, new wide streets were built to access it from the seashore, the urban water and dirt were collected in underground sewers. These rudiments of modernization were gradually changing the city and this became increasingly tangible at the end of the century when the city was entirely transformed.
Part of the modernization process was the process of improving hygiene and health care. Where in these processes was the place of the Bulgarians? What were their health problems and what was their health culture? Who were the agents of the modern health tendencies and by what means did they strive to influence people? These are the main questions that I am going to raise in the presentation. Special attention will be paid to the health care in the Bulgarian high schools in the city. In my work I mainly rely on documents from the Bulgarian archives, publications in the Thessaloniki newspapers and memoirs.
Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Sofia
The modern influences in health care and hygiene and the traditional Bulgarian society in Thessaloniki
The era of the Tanzimat, which commenced in the Ottoman Empire after 1839, brought about the first attempts at modernization in Thessaloniki. In the second half of the 19th century they were manifested in the exterior, town-planning aspects of the city - the fortified wall was demolished, new wide streets were built to access it from the seashore, the urban water and dirt were collected in underground sewers. These rudiments of modernization were gradually changing the city and this became increasingly tangible at the end of the century when the city was entirely transformed.
Part of the modernization process was the process of improving hygiene and health care. Where in these processes was the place of the Bulgarians? What were their health problems and what was their health culture? Who were the agents of the modern health tendencies and by what means did they strive to influence people? These are the main questions that I am going to raise in the presentation. Special attention will be paid to the health care in the Bulgarian high schools in the city. In my work I mainly rely on documents from the Bulgarian archives, publications in the Thessaloniki newspapers and memoirs.