On the construction and practice of "ordinary" Islam through the lens of one eighteenth century Ottoman traveler and his encounter with a rather unusual saint's shrine in Homs:

Fascinating. Liked this detail:

この論文知らなかった。マルタン・ゲールの帰還の逆。奴隷として何回も売られてダマスカスに至ったアイシェが、アダナ知事の死んだはずの妻ファトマと勘違いされて生地のアダナに連れ帰され、知事のもとへ。そこにアイシェの母親が現れて Işık Tamdoğan, "La fille du meunier et l’épouse du gouverneur d’Adana: L’histoire d’un cas d’imposture au début du xviiie siècle," Remmm 127 (2010). journals.openedition.org/remmm/6692#f...

❓How did the Ottoman state organize unfree labor - among others: captives, enslaved people, and convicts - to power its early modern navy? I explore this question in my “Between Two Spaces: Enslavement and Labor in the Early Modern Ottoman Navy.” 1/2 #MaritimeHistory #NavalHistory #OpenAccess

They got me!

Tolga U. Esmer - Economies of Banditry in the Late Ottoman Empire À paraître en février aux Oxford UP

When copying the #Mahabharata in #Persian in 18th-century #India, did one praise Allah or Rama? Sometimes, the copyist praised both. More Hindus read the epics in Persian (versus Sanskrit) in this period. Images courtesy of Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin

My first peer-reviewed article, based on my BA thesis at FU Berlin, has just been published (OA). It traces Palestinian libraries from the late Ottoman period in the so-called Abandoned Property Collection (NLI). Thank you to everyone who supported! doi.org/10.1353/mns.... @sims-mss.bsky.social

On our blog, a new post Dr Yorgos Moraitis introduces his new book on Robert Hart: visualisingchina.net/blog/2025/10...

Problem solved! This is a kef copied by an (almost) illiterate person. On the left, you can see the fish, symbol of the 25th bölük of the janissaries.

This is my second book: Making Sense of History: Narrativity and Literariness in the Ottoman Chronicle of Naʿīmā (Leiden: Brill, 2022), 390 pp. 🔗 brill.com/display/titl... #history #earlymodern #OttomanHistory #historiography #chronicle #historian #blueskybooks

Could it be a ج for "cema'at"?

This is a 18th-c. ceramic from Çanakkale, I'm told. Does anyone recognize the shape above the number 25? (or is it 35, manuscript-like?)

📅 Σήμερα 🕢 στις 19.30, 📌 στην αίθουσα διαλέξεων του Institute for Mediterranean Studies - FORTH και 💻 διαδικτυακά: www.youtube.com/watch?v=JsW-... Μια πρώιμη βιομηχανική πόλη στο Αιγαίο, H Ερμούπολη Σύρου, την περίοδο 1823-1940, σκιαγραφείται μέσα από το 📖 βιβλίο της Χριστίνας Αγριαντώνη

#Incredible ! There is good evidence that Greek literacy was relatively widespread among the ancient Arabs east of Ḥawrān. Here, our #Safaitic author partially writes out the Safaitic letters in the Greek order, omitting vowels! Find more on #OCIANA: ociana.osu.edu/inscriptions...

From "Machiel Kiel: A Memoir" #MachielKiel

A crime story (Faroqhi, Surviving Istanbul, p. 225-226)

My latest book, on open access! Ottomans and the Supernatural: Nature and the Limits of Knowledge in the Early Modern Ottoman Empire url: academic.oup.com/book/61617

My latest book, on open access! Ottomans and the Supernatural: Nature and the Limits of Knowledge in the Early Modern Ottoman Empire url: academic.oup.com/book/61617

The #1 lesson from yesterday’s blowout: Humanities majors killed on the job market 1) Mamdani- Africana Studies 2) Spanberger -French 3) Sherill - Global History

Didn't know Bruce McGowan has authored a novel on 17th-c. Ottomans!

Attend: Byzantine Learning in Ottoman Service: Manuscripts, Scholars, and Ideology (1450–1500), lecture by Samet Budak (Princeton University), Princeton University, November 10, 2025, 4:30–6:00 pm maryjahariscenter.org/blog/byzanti...

Suraiya Faroqhi, Surviving Istanbul, Istanbul: Koç University Press 2023, p. 141

📢 New Open Access Issue! The latest Diyâr: Journal of Ottoman, Turkish & Middle Eastern Studies (Vol. 6, No. 2, 2025) is out! Special issue on heritage practices, guest edited by Roxana Coman (NIAS). Read online 👉 www.nomos-elibrary.de/de/document/...

"Επικινδυνότητες από φυσικά φαινόμενα για την πολιτιστική κληρονομιά του Ρεθύμνου": Ομιλία στο Ινστιτούτο Μεσογειακών Σπουδών

So these are the pencik varakaları mentioned by Hakan Erdem (Slavery in the Ottoman Empire and Its Demise, pp. 19-20). (h/t @will-smiley.bsky.social)

Has anyone seen the like of these? They seem to be documents accompanying a slave; perhaps the equivalent of title deeds, perhaps submitted to the slave market or the customs ("resm-i gümrük" bottom right?), and probably transferred to the buyer.

#efaevents 📅 03-04/11/25 🇫🇷 50 ans EHESS 📍 Université d’Athènes, Panepistimiou 30, Amphithéâtre Alkis Argyriadis 🎫 Entrée libre | Traduction simultanée ---------- 🇬🇷 50 χρόνια EHESS 📍 ΕΚΠΑ, Προπύλαια, Αμφιθεάτρο ’Aλκης Αργυριάδης 🎫 Ελεύθερη είσοδος | Tαυτόχρονη μετάφραση 👉 www.efa.gr/events/50-an...

One hour from now!

論文　想像する共同体：物語を聞くことと民衆政治（イスタンブルとダマスカスのイェニチェリ） Avner Wishnitzer, "Imagining Communities: Story Listening and Popular Politics in Ottoman Urban Centers, ∼1780–1830," Journal of Social History, 2025;, shaf092 otmn doi.org/10.1093/jsh/...

𝗦𝘆𝗺𝗽𝗼𝘀𝗶𝘂𝗺 – 𝗪𝗵𝗲𝗻 𝗩𝗶𝗹𝗹𝗮𝗶𝗻𝘀 𝘄𝗿𝗶𝘁𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗶𝗿 𝗵𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘆 𝗣𝗼𝗹𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹 𝗕𝗮𝗻𝗱𝗶𝘁𝗿𝘆 𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗕𝗮𝗹𝗸𝗮𝗻𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗔𝘀𝗶𝗮 𝗠𝗶𝗻𝗼𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗿𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵 𝗘𝗴𝗼-𝗱𝗼𝗰𝘂𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘀 𝟰𝘀𝘁 𝗠𝗲𝗲𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴: 𝗢𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗧𝘂𝗿𝗸𝗶𝘀𝗵 𝗪𝗮𝗿 𝗼𝗳 𝗜𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗽𝗲𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲 📅 27-28/10/2025, 9:30-16:30 📍 Orient-Institut, Istanbul ➡️ Info, program and to register (𝗯𝗲𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝟮𝟲/𝟭𝟬, 𝟭𝗽𝗺): bit.ly/4hqn4Ez

Book panel, Histories of Political Thought in the Ottoman World (Oxford University Press, 2024). Zoom Registration Link: mcgill.zoom.us/meeting/regi... For more information on the book, please: global.oup.com/academic/pro...

Headlines still cannot tell Napoleon I from Napoleon III

🌍 Επικινδυνότητες από φυσικά φαινόμενα για την Πολιτιστική Κληρονομιά του Ρεθύμνου 🗓️ Ημερομηνία Εκδήλωσης: 3 Νοεμβρίου 2025 🕖 Ώρα: 19:00 (ώρα Ελλάδας) www.ims.forth.gr/el/news-item... #Ρέθυμνο #ΠολιτιστικήΚληρονομιά #Ανθεκτικότητα #ΚλιματικήΑλλαγή #Γεωπληροφορική #Γεωφυσική #GIS #Καινοτομία

Οι πρώτες σελίδες από τη συνεισφορά μου στον εξαιρετικό τόμο "Η Ελληνική Επανάσταση ως οθωμανική κρίση" που επιμελήθηκε η Ελένη Γκαρά. www.academia.edu/144537862/%C...

We invite you to the lecture by Ümit Fırat Açıkgöz (American University of Beyrut) on «Contested Heritages: Byzantine and Ottoman Monuments in Early Republican Istanbul (1923-1949)» at the Institute for Mediterranean Studies, Tuesday 20:30

We are delighted to present the latest Atlas-Blog contribution. Atlas is a platform for scholarly discussions on Armeno-Turkish manuscripts and prints. "Reading Persian Advice Literature in Armeno-Turkish: Some Notes on the ‘Pearl-Adorned Pendnāme’" by Tobias Sick atlas.univie.ac.at?p=488

Preparing a presentation on Ottoman Turkish today, I decided to Google "features of Ottoman Turkish" and this is what Google's AI summary gives me.

Book panel, Histories of Political Thought in the Ottoman World (Oxford University Press, 2024). Zoom Registration Link: mcgill.zoom.us/meeting/regi... For more information on the book, please: global.oup.com/academic/pro...

Livestreaming: www.youtube.com/watch?v=EloP...

Livestreaming: www.youtube.com/watch?v=EloP...

Διάλεξη του Olivier Zeller με τίτλο "18th Century Announcement Papers as a source for social history. The example of Lyon" στο Ινστιτούτο Μεσογειακών Σπουδών, σήμερα στις 7:30μμ. www.ims.forth.gr/en/news-item...

Oh, man. After reading the article, what it actually says is that an historian did a lot of archival work and spatial research to determine the site of a killing and then the family of the likely perpetrator stepped forward with photographs to confirm identity. www.theguardian.com/world/2025/o...

New essay, my attempt to think about early modernity from a North American vantage point, in dialogue with the history of the wider early modern world, plus a reading of fossil fuel modernity as it relates to (imposes itself upon) the same landscape: jonathanparkesallen.substack.com/p/tracing-th...

Greece has yet to pay its share of the EMBO Installation Grants for 2025, leaving two awardees unable to form teams or begin projects nine months into the year. www.ekathimerini.com/economy/1282...

Ο συναρπαστικός κόσμος της επιστήμης και της έρευνας στο Ινστιτούτο Μεσογειακών Σπουδών www.goodnet.gr/news-item/o-...

These images should live forever to sum up our era. It'll illustrate dozens of academic articles. Every single catch phrase and obsession of the DC-Dubai elite is there. You would think it's a parody by a leftist academic if you didn't know better.

The Summer 2025 issue of Keshif, Vol. 3, No. 3, has just been published. Worth taking a look! journals.univie.ac.at/index.php/ke...

👏👏👏#ΒραδιάΤουΕρευνητή χθες στο Institute for Mediterranean Studies - FORTH!!

Honored to see the GHOST project featuring so prominently in this discussion of A. Tunç Şen's (a member of our research team) magnificent book on astrology: New Book Forgotten Experts and Grant-Funded Project "GHOST" iserp.columbia.edu/news/new-boo...