Istanbul - Kushta - Constantinople: Narratives of Identity in the Ottoman Capital, 1830-1930

H-Turk Istanbul - Kushta - Constantinople: Narratives of Identity in the Ottoman Capital, 1830-1930

Discussion published by N. Ipek Huner Cora on Thursday, December 20, 2018 Dear colleagues, Please note the recent publication of the following edited volume Istanbul – Kushta – Constantinople. Narratives of Identity in the Ottoman Capital, 1830-1930, eds. Christoph Herzog & Richard Wittmann, (Abingdon, Oxon ; New York : Routledge, 2018), as a part of the series Life Narratives of the Ottoman Realm: Individual and Empire in the Near East. The book introduces the reader to the wealth of narrative sources on late Ottoman Istanbul’s diverse population by drawing on the voices of its permanent residents and foreign visitors. It juxtaposes a selection of unpublished and/or neglected life narratives to the prevailing national historiographies and creates a tapestry of diverse perceptions of life in the Ottoman capital formed from various angles, gender perspectives and social backgrounds. As a broad category of personal writing that goes beyond the traditional confines of the autobiography, life narratives range from memoirs, letters, reports, travelogues and descriptions of daily life in the city and its different neighborhoods.

TABLE OF CONTENTS: Christoph Herzog & Richard Wittmann: Introduction PART I: EUROPEAN AND OTTOMAN WOMEN IN THE EMPIRE Gudrun Wedel: The memories of German-speaking women of Constantinople Malte Fuhrmann: Wanderlust, follies and self-inflicted misfortunes: the memoirs of Anna Forneris and her thirty years in Constantinople and the Levant Börte Sagaster: The Imperial Harem network in Istanbul, 1850s–1922 PART II: OUTSIDE OBSERVERS OF ISTANBUL Kent Schull: Amalgamated observations: assessing American impressions of nineteenth- century Constantinople and its peoples Malek Sharif: Istanbul and the formation of an Arab teenager’s identity: recollections of a cadet in the Ottoman army in 1914 and 1916–1917 Pablo Asuero: Hispanic observers of Istanbul PART III: JEWISH COMMUNITIES David Bunis: The autobiographical writings of the Constantinople Judezmo journalist David Fresco as a clue toward his attitude to language Yaron Ben Naeh: Istanbul’s Jewish community through the eyes of a European Jew: Ludwig A. Frankl in his Nach Jerusalem PART IV: ARMENIAN AND BULGARIAN CHRISTIAN COMMUNITIES Rachel Goshgarian: A Stroll through the Quarters of Constantinople: sketches of the city as seen through the eyes of the great satirist Hagop Baronian Aylin Koçunyan: From short stories to social topography: Misak Koçunyan’s Life Landscapes

Citation: N. Ipek Huner Cora. Istanbul - Kushta - Constantinople: Narratives of Identity in the Ottoman Capital, 1830-1930. H-Turk. 12-20-2018. https://networks.h-net.org/node/11419/discussions/3403989/istanbul-kushta-constantinople-narratives-identity-ottoman Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. 1 H-Turk

Darin Stephanov: “Bulgar Milleti Nedir?”: syncretic forms of belonging in mid-nineteenth- century Istanbul Johann Strauss: Twenty years in the Ottoman capital: the memoirs of Dr. Hristo Tanev Stambolski of Kazanlik (1843–1932) from an Ottoman point of view

Ipek Huner Cora, PhD