UCLA UCLA Electronic Theses and Dissertations Title Strengthening Male Bodies and Building Robust Communities: Physical Culture in the Late Ottoman Empire Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/4mw253hf Author Yildiz, Murat Cihan Publication Date 2015 Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Los Angeles Strengthening Male Bodies and Building Robust Communities: Physical Culture in the Late Ottoman Empire A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in History by Murat Cihan Yıldız 2015 © Copyright by Murat Cihan Yıldız 2015 ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION Strengthening Male Bodies and Building Robust Communities: Physical Culture in the Late Ottoman Empire by Murat Cihan Yıldız Doctor of Philosophy in History University of California, Los Angeles, 2015 Professor James L. Gelvin, Chair This dissertation examines the making of modernity in the late Ottoman Empire by tracing the connections between sports, the body, male subject formation, nation building, and communal and imperial identity. It focuses on the development of a shared Ottoman physical culture amongst upper and middle-class Muslim, Christian, and Jewish men of Istanbul from the 1870s until World War I. My research draws from a diverse array of archives and primary sources written in Ottoman-Turkish, Armenian, Armeno- Turkish, French, English, German, and Greek, such as government reports and documents, school and association records, private correspondence, periodicals, books, and pamphlets, as well as vernacular photographs, in order to present an alternative understanding of cultural transformations and the historical linkages between different ethno-religious communities of the late Ottoman Empire. The central argument of this ii dissertation is that Muslims, Christians, and Jews of Istanbul engaged sports as a shared civic activity that offered benefits for the individual, community, and empire. This study investigates how Ottoman physical culture was underpinned by novel understandings of the body and implicated in larger debates and processes concerning the self, gender, ethno-religious communal identity, and the nation by pursuing three principle areas of inquiry. The first area of focus is the institutionalization of Ottoman physical culture in schools, voluntary associations, and government ministries. The study begins by exploring the development of athleticism as an educational ideology in a government lycée, Mekteb-i Sultani, and a foreign missionary school, Robert College. It demonstrates that many of the leading physical culture enthusiasts first encountered discussions about the educational significance of exercise and corporeal development as students in these two schools, and went on to establish voluntary athletic associations, as private spaces, in which young men formed, negotiated, and performed novel male subjectivities and identities. Ottoman government officials in the Ministry of Public Education recognized the success of these institutions in popularizing physical culture and sought to harness its potential in order to create strong and healthy Ottoman young men. In order to achieve this, the Ottoman government created the Physical Training Inspectorate and the position of Inspector to teach physical training to Ottoman teachers and oversee the integration of physical training classes in all state schools throughout the imperial domains. The second area of inquiry is Istanbul’s multilingual physical culture press, which consisted of illustrated magazines, daily newspapers, and sports periodicals. These experimental publications constituted a public forum that offered an aspiring middle-class textual and visual instructions on how to cultivate a modern male subject iii and community on the soccer field, in the gymnasium, and at the sports club. The final area of inquiry is the public display of sports in newly constructed urban spaces. Two spaces in particular, theatres and stadiums, served as the venues in which schools, athletic associations, and the state exhibited physical dexterity, celebrated sports as civilized activities, and redefined communal divisions separating Muslims, Christians, and Jews during the period. iv This dissertation of Murat Cihan Yıldız is approved. Sarah A. Stein Susan Slyomovics Lynn A. Hunt James L. Gelvin, Committee Chair University of California, Los Angeles 2015 v TABLE OF CONTENTS Copyright Notice Page i Abstract of the Dissertation ii Dissertation Approval Page v Note on Transliteration and Translation vii List of Figures viii List of Abbreviations xii Acknowledgements viii Vita xix Introduction 1 Chapter 1 Turning Boys into Men: the Culture of Athleticism at Mekteb-i Sultani and Robert College 30 Chapter 2 Centers of Male Sociability, Training, and Fun: Voluntary Athletic Associations 69 Chapter 3 Educators, Trainers, and Inspectors: the Ottoman Government and Physical Training 119 Chapter 4 Ottoman Connections, Strong Communities, and Robust Bodies: Istanbul’s Multilingual Physical Culture Press 156 Chapter 5 Performing and Competing in Istanbul’s Newly Constructed Spaces 210 Conclusion 262 Bibliography 271 vi NOTE ON TRANSLITERATION AND TRANSLATION In transliterating Ottoman Turkish terms, I have used a modified version of the style of the International Journal of Middle East Studies. For Armenian sources, I have utilized the transliteration system of the Library of Congress. All foreign words have been italicized save for those that are proper nouns. For the most part, Armenian proper names have been transliterated according to Western Armenian pronunciation and not the transliteration system of the Library of Congress; for example, Krikor versus Grigor. I have used the modern Turkish equivalent for Ottoman Turkish names; for example, Murat versus Murad. vii LIST OF FIGURES 0.1 Map of the various ferry, tram, and train lines in early-twentieth-century Istanbul. Personal collection of the author, not dated 9 0.2 Students of the Imperial Naval Academy, not dated 20 0.3 Physical exercises in an Ottoman-Turkish gymnastics manual that was published by the Ottoman Imperial Military Academy, 1895 21 1.1 Fourth grade students exercising during the morning in the courtyard of the Imperial School, undated 35 1.2 Visual instruction of how young men should perform gymnastics and lift weights, 1890 40 1.3 Visual instruction of how young men should perform gymnastics and lift weights, 1890 40 1.4 Ali Faik and students from the Imperial School posing for a group photograph in athletic attire and surrounded by gymnastic equipment, undated 43 1.5 Ali Faik and students inside of the Imperial School’s gymnasium, 1918 45 1.6 Ali Faik and students during a gymnastic exhibition, undated 49 1.7 Photograph of Robert College’s sports club, 1912 58 1.8 Photograph of Robert College’s mixed Baseball team, 1900 59 1.9 Students performing physical exercises in the Dodge Gymnasium, undated 60 1.10 Robert College’s annual field day festivities, undated 63 1.11 Robert College students performing a human pyramid during the school’s annual field day celebrations, undated 63 2.1 The founding members of the Jewish Gymnastics Club of Constantinople posing for a group photograph, 1895 76 2.2 Members of The Jewish Gymnastics Club of Constantinople posing in club attire, 1905 79 2.3 J. Kornfeld, L. Shoenmass, Albert Ziffer of the Jewish Gymnastics Club of Constantinople posing in club attire, 1907 82 viii 2.4 Members of the Jewish Gymnastics Club of Constantinople taking a group photo, c. 1908 82 2.5 Maccabi's new club symbol during the Second Constitutional era, undated 84 2.6 Postcard of the Jewish Gymnastics Society, Maccabi and its sections: Pera, Hasköy, Ortaköy, Balat, and Sirkeci, 1910 86 2.7 Group photograph of the Hercules Gymnastics Association, undated 89 2.8 An athletic exhibition inside of the Hercules Gymnastics Association’s gymnasium, undated 91 2.9 I. Makropoulos, a member of the Hercules Gymnastics Association, 1915 92 2.10 An unknown member, 1906 92 2.11 Members of the Kadikeui Club, 1903 97 2.12 Ali Sami of the Galatasaray Physical Training Club, undated 102 2.13 An unnamed member of the Galatasaray Physical Training Club, undated 102 2.14 Members of the Galatasaray Physical Physical Training Club posing for a group photograph in Adnan Bey’s garden in Paşabahçe, 1913 106 2.15 Members traveling up the Bosphorus on a ferry to Paşabahçe, 1913 106 2.16 Photograph of Vahram Papazian, 1911 111 2.17 Photograph of Yetvart Shahnazar, 1911 111 3.1 Photograph of Selim Sırrı, 1908 119 3.2 Selim Sırrı and his students in the Physical Training School, 1909 123 3.3 Description of the proper positions that students need to be in when performing physical exercises at school, 1911 133 3.4 Selim Sırrı instructing religious students during a gymnastics course, 1914 140 3.5 Core body exercises, 1911 145 4.1 Portrait photograph of Talat Bey, 1914 166 4.2 Portrait photograph of Selim Sırrı Bey, 1914 166 ix 4.3 “Selim Sırrı and his friends who devote themselves to spreading and circulating Swedish style [gymnastics] in our country,” 1912 168 4.4 Signed photograph of Selim Sırrı, 1911 170 4.5 Selim Sırrı and his friends, 1912 170 4.6 Image of Muslim religious teachers performing gymnastics, 1912 185 4.7 “Now that we are compelled, sports is necessary for us,” 1911 187 4.8 Instructions on how to perform Swedish gymnastics in Marmnamarz, 1912 191 4.9 Instructions on how to perform