Physical Culture in the Late Nineteenth Century and the Greek Philological Society of Constantinople Followed Suit in the Early Twentieth Century
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.
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