THE LEVANT and EUROPE: SHIPPING and TRADE Networks of People and Knowledge

THE LEVANT AND EUROPE: SHIPPING AND TRADE Networks of People and Knowledge

The Levantine Heritage Foundation 2nd International Conference | London | 2-4.11.2016

PROGRAMME & PARTICIPANT INFORMATION Follow us at #LevantineHF

www.levantineheritage.com [email protected]

Cover image View of Constantinople, Konstantinos Kaldis, 1851

The Levantine Heritage Foundation Advancing research, preservation and education in the heritage, arts and culture of communities in the Levant region The Levantine Heritage Foundation, 71-75 Shelton Street, Covent Garden, London WC2H 9JQ, UK The Levantine Heritage Foundation is a non-profit association with a constitution pre- pared and adopted according to the guidelines of The Charity Commission for England and Wales. www.levantineheritage.com/ Trustees: Quentin Compton-Bishop, Philip Mansel FRHS, Jonathan Beard, Axel Çorlu, Kalliopi Amygdalou, Zeynep Cebeci Suvari, Nuri Çolakoğlu. General Secretary: Craig Encer 2 Contents

Welcome Note by the Chairman of 5 the LHF

Organizers 7 Practical Information 11 LHF Travel Awards 11 Venues and Maps 13

Programme 17 Abstracts & Speakers’ Biographies 23

3 4 Welcome to the I would like to take the opportunity to revisit the objectives of the Second International Levantine Heritage Foundation LHF Conference (LHF). The LHF was set up in 2010 in London with the aims of promoting education and research in the history and cultural heritage of the Levantine communities, preserving that herit- Welcome to the second interna- age and making it accessible for tional conference organised by the future generations worldwide. Levantine Heritage Foundation. The definition of who should be The first three-day conference “The considered as “Levantines” is usu- Levantines: Commerce and Diplo- ally a subject of debate at such macy”, held in Istanbul in 2014, conferences. In the context of the proved a great success. Over 200 LHF’s mission, the Levantines were delegates attended to hear more people, some of European origin, than 30 papers. Networking events whose long-term domicile was in and tours of sites of Levantine in- the Eastern Mediterranean within terest in Istanbul added to the mix. the former boundaries of the Ot- Much was learned, distant cousins toman Empire. Many came to the discovered and new friends made. Levant to seek their livelihoods in various ways, as traders, build- This second conference, which we ers, farmers, miners and even as hope will become a biennial se- soldiers and government officials of ries, highlights trade as the central the Ottoman Empire. Some came dynamic in the creation of a Levan- as refugees from troubled parts of tine world, with complex economic Europe. Others came as diplomats networks giving rise to equally and shipping agents, bridging the complex social, cultural, political interfaces between the major trad- and material interactions. ing nations of the world and the cities of the Levant. Although the Levant has been part of Eurasian trade networks for mil- Our research is on every aspect of lennia, it played an increasingly their culture and heritage, includ- central role during the creation of ing genealogy, economic employ- the modern world. The expan- ment, architecture, cuisine, the arts sion of capitalism, accompanied by and society. Cities were the great imperialism, nationalism and the epicentres of Levantine life and movement of people through the business – Salonika, Alexandria, Levant helped shape the world as Beirut, Jaffa, Aleppo, Smyrna and we know it. The essential “engine of Constantinople, as they were then. history” in most of these historical London was a hub for the Levantine dynamics was trade, providing the trade with Europe and so it is fitting material exchanges and networks, that this second conference shifts which in turn generated an array of the aspect of our studies and takes social and cultural interactions. The place in London. programme covers many topics, which I hope you find interesting. The LHF carries out its charitable 5 mission by bringing together oversubscribed. researchers, both professional academics and amateurs, to share None of this would be possible with- their research on these historic out the contributions in their dif- communities, and by making it ferent ways of the LHF’s members, accessible. Indeed, the LHF was supporters, trustees and volun- founded on the back of the suc- teers. Our major financial sup- cess of the remarkable collection of porters are listed in this programme Levantine family testimonials put and I wish to thank them here. together by our General Secretary, Please take note of them and if you Craig Encer, and preserved on the meet them thank them again. My website www.levantineheritage. thanks also to the many individuals com. We continue to be very grate- who have helped us in the devel- ful to Craig for his huge contribu- opment and delivery of our objec- tion to the website and for facilitat- tives over the past two years and in ing the interactions between our preparing for this conference. network around the world. Finally, I would also like to highlight We are also extremely grateful for the generosity of our hosts, Europe the contributions of papers and House and the Hellenic Centre, who family archive material made by have provided their splendid facili- colleagues and family researchers. ties and the support of their teams Without this collaborative effort, for this conference. the LHF’s contribution to knowledge would be severely limited. Our We plan to highlight the Greek ambition is to continue to build on connection with the Levant in 2018 this reserve of material, providing when this conference will be held in a safe home for it electronically in Athens. the near-term and one day, funds and owners permitting, enabling I hope you enjoy the conference researcher and public access to and I look forward to meeting as original records. If you would like many of you as possible. to support us in this mission in any way, please contact me or Craig or Quentin Compton-Bishop one of our Trustees. Chairman The Levantine Heritage Foundation Between conferences we have been busy with other events. In Sep- tember, I was delighted to attend the excellent conference organised by the LHF’s Istanbul Group. It was supported enthusiastically by the Beyoğlu Municipality, which covers the districts known to Levantines as Pera and Galata in Istanbul, and took place in the Italian Institute of Culture (one of our hosts also in 2014). It attracted a large audience and the tours on the third day were 6 Organizers Conference venues

LHF Board Quentin Compton-Bishop (Chair- man) Craig Encer (General Secretary) Philip Mansel (Trustee) Jonathan Beard (Trustee) Axel Çorlu (Trustee) 2016 Conference sponsors Kalliopi Amygdalou (Trustee) Zeynep Cebeci Suvari (Trustee) John and Aylin McCarthy (sponsors of the Nuri Çolakoğlu (Trustee) opening reception at the Oriental Club) Web design & Digital Archive Craig Encer (Trustee) Consolidated International Agencies Quentin Compton-Bishop is a former diplomat, Middle East Quentin Compton-Bishop specialist, entrepreneur and now CEO of Warwick Ventures, which commercialises research from the General LHF sponsors University of Warwick. Researching his Levantine family background, which includes Izmir and Beirut, led him to the Levantine Heritage interest group and its many dedicated academic and amateur researchers, We thank also a number of donors who and into the history of the Levant wish to remain anonymous region. This led him to become one of the founding Trustees and the first Chairman of the Levantine Her- itage Foundation with its charitable Past sponsors mission to promote education and research in the history and cultural heritage of the Levant and to support its preservation for the benefit of future generations.

Craig Encer lived and worked in Turkey most of his life and in doing so was often reminded of the ves- tiges of the rich multicultural past, evident in diverse aspects of life there, from architecture to cuisine, to stories told to him by old people in the back-streets of Beyoğlu. 7 Official history, as in most coun- Ottoman Empire and the powers tries, has always ignored that of Europe; and the political impor- mixture to provide a nation-based tance of cities. He has lived in Paris, narrative that led to widespread Istanbul and Beirut, lectures in misconceptions of the contribu- the UK and abroad. He is currently tions of minorities, not least the writing a life of Louis XIV. His latest Levantines. This desire by Craig to book is Aleppo: the Rise and Fall of go deeper into the stories of the Syria’s Great Merchant City (2016). past led to a personal research In 2012 he won the London Library that stretched from local libraries Life in Literature award. He is a to cemeteries, to chatty descend- Fellow of the Institute of Historical ants and the then often overlooked Research, London, and a founding academic researchers, over the trustee of the Levantine Heritage late 1990s. The website was born Foundation. For further information initially in 2004, merely to share see www. philipmansel.com the findings on Levantines, pos- sibly the most misunderstood of the minorities of the Levant. As this Jonathan Beard was born in Bei- website created slowly but surely rut, Lebanon, of a Levantine family its own followers, who subsequently of British extraction. He received became contributors, the wheel of his education in England and Swit- creating an accessible database for zerland where he developed his reference and inspiration began to love for winter sports and moun- turn. With the encouragement of taineering. friends, the idea of bringing togeth- After university he joined the Ca- er contributors, academics, commu- toni group, a shipping and trading nity members and the general pub- enterprise. He was elected to the lic grew, and the first Symposium board in 1990 and has served as took place in Izmir, in November chairman since 2004. He has held 2010. Craig is currently the General numerous positions in business and Secretary of the Levantine Heritage other associations. Foundation. He is currently researching “The impact of Levantines on Liquorice root, cotton and tobacco trade.” Dr Philip Mansel FRHS is a Jonathan Beard lives in Istanbul historian of France and the Middle and London. East, particularly interested in the Levant. His books include Sultans in Splendour: Monarchs of the Middle Born in Izmir, Turkey, to a Levan- East 1869-1945, Constantinople: tine (Italian/Greek/French/Arme- city of the World’s Desire (1995), nian) family, Dr. Axel Corlu has a Paris between Empires (2001) and B.A. in Political Science and Public Levant: Splendour and Catastrophe Administration from Bilkent Univer- on the Mediterranean (2010), the sity, an M.A. in History from Bilkent first history in English of Smyrna, University, and a Ph.D. in History Alexandria and Beirut in the mod- from Binghamton University (State ern age. Its themes include coexist- University of New York). Since ence between Muslims, Christians 2002, he has taught history courses and Jews; relations between the at Binghamton University (SUNY), 8 SUNY-Cortland, University of Mary and by the Foundation for Educa- Washington, and Georgia Gwinnett tion and European Culture (IPEP, College, on the U.S., the Ottoman 2010-2011). She currently teaches Empire, the Byzantine Empire, and at Izmir Institute of Technology, the Middle East, as well as thematic School of Architecture. courses such as History of War- fare and History of Food. Dr. Corlu After obtaining a master’s degree currently teaches history at Geor- from the Pontifical Gregorian Uni- gia Gwinnett College, as Assistant versity in Rome, Zeynep Cebeci Professor of History. Suvari attended Bosphorus Univer- His current research into the history sity’s history department. Mrs. Su- and sociology of food is shaping up vari has been working on her Ph.D. into an article titled “Going to War thesis on the Italian community of over Baklava and Cheese?: Food as Istanbul in the late Ottoman period. Identity in the Eastern Mediterra- She previously taught in Ca Foscari nean, 1912-Present”, while another University of Venice and Bosphorus article in military history is on its University in Istanbul. Mrs. Suvari way, titled “An Elaborate Fiction: lived in Damascus in 1999-2000 the Myth of the ‘Western Way of and studied Arabic. War’ in the Context of Byzantine and Ottoman Warfare”. His academic profiles can be found at usg. Nuri M. Çolakoğlu has been work- academia.edu/AxelCorlu and www. ing as a journalist & broadcaster ggc.edu/about-ggc/directory//axel- and media executive since 1969. corlu. Born in Izmir in 1943, he graduated Dr. Corlu lived in upstate New York from Robert College and took his BA from 1999 to 2012, and after a in International Relations from the 2-year stint in Virginia, now resides school of Political Sciences, Ankara. in Atlanta, Georgia. He has held positions in Turkey and abroad. Starting with TRT, the Turk- ish public broadcaster, he went on Born in Chios, Greece, Dr Kalliopi to work for German news agency Amygdalou holds a Diploma in Ar- DPA, Swedish TV, German radio chitecture from the National Techni- WDR, daily Aydınlık, BBC World cal University of Athens (2009), a Service, and Daily Milliyet. Upon his masters degree from the London return to Turkey he was appointed School of Economics (MSc in Cul- as the news editor of Milliyet, and ture and Society, 2010) and a PhD then moved to become the Deputy in Architectural History and Theory General Manager of TRT. Since 1991 from the Bartlett School of Archi- he has been involved in launching a tecture, University College London number of private TV channels such (2014). as Show TV, Cine 5, news channel Her doctoral research, titled ‘A tale NTV, business news channel CNBC- of two cities in search of a new e, Kanal D in Romania and Fener- identity: The politics of heritage and bahce TV. He launched a total of ten modernisation in early 20th-century TV stations. He served as President Izmir and Thessaloniki’ was funded and CEO of CNN Turk. For a while by the Alexander S. Onassis Public he served on the board of Dogan Benefit Foundation (2011-2014) Media Group, managed their 9 production company ANS and later became the President of Dogan Media International working as coordinator for print media and TVs and external relations. He is now working as a media consultant with his own company, New Media Com- pany, working in the field of corporate communication and producing content for various internet sites. He is involved in a number of NGOs – currently serving as board member at TAIK (Turkish American Business Council), TUSIAD (Turk- ish Businessmen and Industrialists’ Association), the Istanbul Arts & Culture Foundation, the Istanbul Modern Arts Museum and Con- temporary Istanbul. He is a Board Member of the International Council of Paley Media Center, New York, Advisory Board Member of The Performance Theatre, London, and Chief Strategy Officer for Turkey of the World Economy Forum, Geneva. He has three children and two grandchildren.

10 Practical Information LHF Travel Awards

Registration True to its aims to promote re- Registered participants will receive search on the Levant, the Levantine their badge and conference booklet Heritage Foundation is very proud at the Registration Desk. to be able to dedicate part of the donations it has received to sup- Membership Information porting young researchers. This The Levantine Heritage Founda- year two £500 travel awards were tion is a non-profit membership granted to two PhD candidates in association. If you wish to support order to faciliate their attendance to our ongoing work, please consider the conference. becoming a member or making a donation. Members are kept in- The Awards ceremony will take formed of future events and re- place on Thursday 3 November at ceive discounts on tickets and LHF 10.00am publications. Payment can be taken online through this page: http:// www.levantineheritage.com/join-us. html Insurance Registration does not cover insurance. Please arrange your own travel and personal insurance. The organizers will not be liable for ac- cidents, theft and property damage, or for delays and/or modification of the program due to unforseen circumstances. Photographs / Videos The LHF will take photographs and videos during the Second Interna- tional Conference and reproduce them in the LHF news materials whether in print, electronic, or other media, including LHF website. By participating in the Second International LHF Conference you grant the LHF the right to use your name, photograph and biography for such purposes. Photographing, audio recording and videotaping a presentation or speaker is prohib- ited without the presenter’s prior written consent. You will be asked to fill such a form at Registration in order to allow us to videotape or audio record your presentation. 11 12 Venues and Maps Wednesday, Nov. 2nd | RECEPTION THE ORIENTAL CLUB Stratford House, Stratford Place, Wednesday, Nov. 2nd & London W1C 1ES Thursday, Nov. 3rd Tube: Bond Street EUROPE HOUSE 32 Smith Square, Westminster, A reference point in literature London SW1P 3EU throughout the 19th and into the Tube: St James Park / Westminster 20th century, The Oriental Club has / Victoria a rich history. It was founded by re- turning officers from India and the Europe House has been the shared East. Its current home is Stratford home of the European Parliament house, a building constructed in the Information Office and the Euro- 1770s for Edward Stratford, later pean Commission Representation the second Earl of Aldborough. It in the UK since 2010. Apart from has a rich Library and an extensive hosting regular conferences and art collection. meetings with a European focus it also houses the 12 Star Gallery Please note dress code: Jacket and which shows work which celebrates tie and tailored trousers for gentle- the creativity and cultural diversity men and equivalent smart formal that is the hallmark of the Euro- dress for ladies is required. pean Union.

Friday Nov. 4th Thursday, Nov. 3rd | DINNER THE HELLENIC CENTRE THE VINCENT ROOMS 16-18 Paddington Street, London The Victoria Centre, Vincent Square, W1U 5AS London SW1P 2PD Tube: Baker Street Tube: St James Park / Westminster / Victoria The Hellenic Centre is a vibrant cultural organisation founded in 1994 as a charity, with the aims of providing a focus for the Hellenic community, promoting an aware- ness of Hellenic culture in the UK and nurturing the unique relationship between Britain and the Hel- lenic world. The Centre offers a rich programme of lectures, exhibitions, concerts, social events and Greek language courses.

The Centre’s elegant building dates from the early 1900s and has been sympathetically refurbished to provide a number of meeting and exhibition rooms, the most impres- sive of which is the Great Hall. 13 14

EUROPE HOUSE (SW1P 3EU) and THE VINCENT ROOMS (SW1P 2PD) THE HELLENIC CENTRE (W1U 5AS)

THE ORIENTAL CLUB (W1C 1ES)

15 16 Programme

WEDNESDAY 2 NOVEMBER | Europe House

09.00 Registration (tea & coffee provided)

09.20 Opening remarks by Philip Mansel (Institute of His- torical Research, London)

09.30 - 10.30 Keynote speech: The International College of Smyrna: An Educational Enterprise at the Nexus of Business and Missionary Networks Sibel Zandi-Sayek, Associate Professor, Department of Art and Art History, The College of William and Mary

10.30 - 11.50 Session 1: Cities and Companies in Finance and Trade in the Levant Panel Chair: Jason C White (Appalachian State Uni- versity) 10.30 The 1895 Stock Market Crisis in Constantinople Funda Soysal (Boğaziçi University) 10.50 Trading with the Ottomans; the Levant Company in the Middle East Despina Vlami (Research Centre for Medieval and Modern Hellenism, Academy of Athens) 11.10 Building Economic and Cultural Networks: the Oriental Railways Company Andreas Bouroutis (Aristotle University of Thessa- loniki) 11.30 Q&A

11.50 Coffee Break

17 12.10 - 14.00 Session 2: Exploring Trade in the Levant through the Histories of Goods Panel Chair: Malcolm Billings (Malcolm Billings and Associates) 12.10 Illicit Latin Trade in the Levant during the Later Mid- dle Ages Mike Carr (University of Edinburgh) 12.30 Fruits of Empire: Figs, Raisins, and the Transfor- mation of Western Anatolia in the Late Nineteenth Century Onur Inal (Independent Researcher, Hamburg) 12.50 Trader/smuggler: Levantine Commerce in Opium in the Eastern Mediterranean, 1900-1940 Daniel-Joseph MacArthur-Seal (British Institute at Ankara) 13.10 Drinking (Beer) from the Sea of Gaza; Late Ottoman Palestine nomads, the Victorian Beer Culture and “Gaza Barley” Trade Dotan Halevy (Columbia University) 13.30 Q&A

14.00 Lunch Break

15.00- 17.10 Session 3: Networks and Ideologies Panel Chair: Axel Çorlu (Georgia Gwinnett College)

15.00 The Levant Company and the Early Modern Origins of Capitalism, State, and Empire Jason C White (Appalachian State University) 15.20 Levantine Labour Networks before the First World War Anthony Gorman (University of Edinburgh) 15.40 Anarchy in the Empire: Levantines and Minorities as ‘Enemies of the State’, 1850-1917 Axel Çorlu (Georgia Gwinnett College) 16.00 The Italian Trade Network in Turkey in the Years 1923-1939 Francesco Pongiluppi (Sapienza University of Rome) 16.20 Living in the Nineteenth-Century Ottoman Capital: Bulgarian Merchants Between Parochialism and Cos- mopolitanism Evguenia Davidova (Portland State University) 16.40 Q&A

18 18.30 Drinks reception at the Oriental Club Please note dress code: Jacket and tie and tailored trousers for gentlemen and equivalent smart formal dress for ladies is required

THURSDAY 3 NOVEMBER | Europe House

09.30 Registration (tea & coffee provided) 10.00 - 10.30 Awards Ceremony: Two travel awards presented to participating doctorate students

10.30 - 11.50 Session 4: Print and Image Culture between Europe and the Levant Panel Chair: Nicolas Pitsos (Center of European-Eur- asian Studies at the Institute of Oriental Languages and Civilizations (INALCO), Paris) 10.30 Viewing Istanbul through Western Brushstrokes: Nineteenth-Century Levantine Artists

Belgin Demirsar Arlı (Istanbul University) – Selva Su- man (Istanbul Technical University)

10.50 Istanbul and the Nineteenth Century Transnational Trade of Print Products: the Leipzig Network Alberto Gabriele (Tel Aviv University) 11.10 The Levantines and their Legacy in the Ottoman Newspaper Press: a Case Study about William Nos- worthy Churchill Birten Çelik (Middle East Technical University) 11.30 Q&A

11.50 Coffee Break

12.10 - 14.00 Session 5: Cities & Infrastructure Panel Chair: Kalliopi Amygdalou (Izmir Institute of Technology) 12.10 Early Modern Levantine Commerce Revisited: The Commerce of Izmir (1580 – 1780) Mehmet Kuru (University of Toronto) 12.30 Construction of Quays as a Catalyser of Urban Change: Smyrna and Salonica (1860-1900) İrem Gençer (Yıldız Technical University)

19 12.50 Demeter and Poseidon: the “Ottoman Railway from Smyrna to Aidin” and the Historical Relations between the Levantine Port-City of Smyrna and the Aegean Valleys Giulia Tacchini (Politecnico di Milano) 13.10 The Long-lived Egyptian Okelle; Extraterritorial Micro- cosms and Long-Distance Trade Cristina Pallini (Politecnico di Milano), Manar El Gam- mal (Politecnico di Milano) and Silvia Boca (Independ- ent Researcher) 13.30 Q&A

14.00 Lunch Break

15.00 17.10 Session 6: The European Commercial World and the Levant: Maritime Trade between Middle and Modern Ages Panel Chair: Salvatore Bottari (Università degli Studi di Messina) 15.00 The Levant and Sicily: Trade, Merchants and Mer- chandise between the XII and XV Centuries Elisa Vermiglio (Università per Stranieri di Reggio Calabria “Dante Alighieri”) 15.20 Levantine Merchants from Constantinople in the Late Sixteenth Century International Maritime Trade in North-Western Black Sea and Lower Danube Areas Cristian Luca (Lower Danube University of Galaţi) 15.40 Gate to the Levant: Malta and the Maritime Trade between the Eastern and Western Mediterranean (1740-1750) Salvatore Bottari (Università degli Studi di Messina) 16.00 Trade Exchanges between the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies and the Countries of the Baltic Sea and the Black Sea (1734-1861) Maria Sirago (Liceo Jacopo Sannazzaro, Napoli) and Franca Pirolo (University of Catania) 16.20 Trade in the Levant in the Neapolitan Diplomatic Cor- respondence in Constantinople (1803-1804) Mirella Vera Mafrici (University of Salerno) 16.40 Q&A

19.00 Conference Dinner at The Vincent Rooms

20 FRIDAY 4 NOVEMBER | The Hellenic Centre

09.00 Registration (tea & coffee provided)

09.30 - 10.30 Keynote Speech: Was Aleppo a Levantine City? Philip Mansel (Institute of Historical Research, London) 10.30 11.50 Session 7: Consumption and Taste in the Le- vantine World Panel Chair: James Whidden (Acadia University) 10.30 Accounting for Taste: Florentine Cloth and its Otto- man Consumers in the 16th century Ingrid Houssaye Michienzi (The Harvard University Center for Italian Renaissance Studies)

10.50 Sublime Purveyor of Levantine Trade and Taste: The David van Lennep Family Portrait Caroline Mesrobian Hickman (Independent Art and Architectural Historian) 11.10 Towards the Creation of a Shared Levantine-Euro- pean Consumer Space at the Turning of the 20th century: the Role of Press Advertisements Nicolas Pitsos (Center of European-Eurasian Studies at the Institute of Oriental Languages and Civiliza- tions (INALCO), Paris) 11.30 Q&A

11.50 Coffee Break

12.10 - 14.00 Session 8: Families and Identities between Europe and the Levant Panel Chair: Philip Mansel (Institute of Historical Research, London) 12.10 A Levantine Family: The Barkers of Alexandria James Whidden (Acadia University) 12.30 The Death of David Altaras: Levantine Identity in Early Modern Aleppo Mary Momdjian (University of California, Los Ange- les) 12.50 The Life and Death of Samson Rowlie, alias Hassan Agha Daniel Bamford (Independent Researcher)

21 13.10 An Agent of Mediation and Modernity in a Commer- cial Levantine City: The French Consul in Nineteenth Century Ottoman Larnaca. Michalis N. Michael (University of Cyprus) 13.30 Q&A

14.00 Lunch Break

15.00 - 16.50 Session 9: Communities between Europe and the Levant Panel Chair: Evguenia Davidova (Portland State University)

15.00 Trading Health: Venetian Medicine and Diplomacy in the Early Modern Levant Valentina Pugliano (University of Cambridge) 15.20 From Surat to Izmir, Aleppo and Venice: Family Networks of Armenian Gem Merchants in early Mod- ern Global Trade of Diamonds Sona Tajiryan (University of California, Los Angeles)

15.40 Greeks from the Pelion Region in Egypt: a Case of Levantine Diaspora, 1825-1950 Vilma Hastaoglou-Martinidis (Aristotle University of Thessaloniki) 16.00 The Zantiot Community in Eighteenth Century Cy- prus Theoharis Stavrides (University of Cyprus) 16.20 Q&A

16.50 Closing remarks by Axel Çorlu (Georgia Gwinnett College)

17.10 Closing of the conference by Quentin Compton- Bishop, Chairman of the Levantine Heritage Founda- tion

22 Abstracts & Bios tapped into Izmir’s commercial cir- cles for financial and administrative support and turned the school into a prominent institution fully embed- Keynote Speeches ded in its locality. Secondly, the Col- lege’s ability to navigate effectively The International College of the local property regime and draw Smyrna: support from an unusual mix of lo- An Educational Enterprise at the cal patrons, overseas donors, and Nexus of Business and Mission- Ottoman authorities proved central ary Networks to the institution’s continuous physi- Sibel Zandi-Sayek cal expansion, and eventually to the building of its state-of-the-art cam- Lauded as one of the American pus in Buca. Finally, a rich and di- Board of Missionary’s seven cita- versified College curriculum, adapt- dels of higher learning in Anatolia, ed to the needs and aspirations of the International College of Smyrna a plural business community, drew also offers valuable insights into the students from a variety of religious entrepreneurial spirit that character- backgrounds helping sustain a ro- ized late Ottoman Izmir. Originally bust enrollment. I argue that focus- established in 1879 in rented, inner- ing on the College as a simple mis- city premises, the small American sionary outpost in the Near East or Boys’ School rapidly grew to become a bit player in US diplomatic history a prestigious collegiate institution, in the region—as has generally been boasting by 1913 its own, purpose- done—obscures our ability to appre- built suburban campus. Accredited ciate this institution in its own right, by the Commonwealth of Massachu- as a unique enclave, representative setts, the College continued operat- of and contributing to reproducing ing through the turbulent transition Izmir’s rich entrepreneurial culture. of the Ottoman Empire to a national Turkish state until 1934 when increasingly drastic government re- Sibel Zandi-Sayek, Associate strictions forced it to relocate to Bei- Professor in the department of Art rut. and Art History at the College of This paper situates the International William and Mary, holds profes- College—specifically, its institutional sional degrees in architecture and organization, physical facilities, and city planning from the University curriculum— at the nexus of mis- of Pennsylvania, and a Ph.D. in ar- sionary and commercial ambitions, chitectural history from the Uni- foregrounding how these designs versity of California, Berkeley. Her intersected and reinforced one an- research and teaching focuses on other in building a highly resilient comparative and transnational his- educational enterprise. To begin tories of modern architecture and with, attempts at setting up a last- planning, and the material dimen- ing missionary school had been un- sion of cross-cultural exchange. successful until the arrival of Rev- She is the author of Ottoman Izmir: erend Alexander MacLachlan in the The Rise of a Cosmopolitan Port, 1890s, who, looking outside the 1840-1880 (University of Minnesota usual constraints of the mission, Press, 2012), awarded the M. Fuat 23 Köprülü award for best book in Ot- communal riot was in 1850. Aleppo, toman and Turkish Studies. Her which had been visited by Suley- published work includes articles on man 'the Magnificent' and Murad the cosmopolitan geographies of the IV during their Persian campaigns, Eastern Mediterranean; the mod- remained more pro–Ottoman than ernization of urban space in the Mid- many other Arab-speaking cities. dle East and North Africa; and the The creation of modern Syria after politics of space and identity in the 1920 cut it off from traditional mar- late Ottoman Empire. Her research kets. The current civil war has de- has been supported by the Nation- stroyed what was, in some ways the al Endowment for the Humanities, last Levantine city in the Middle East the Aga Khan Program for Islamic – proof that even the most peace- Architecture, and the Fulbright In- ful city can switch from tolerance to stitute for International Education. terrorism. Her current project investigates the For Philip Mansel’s biographical history of nineteenth-century indus- note please see p.8. trialization through entrepreneurial networks forged by architects, engi- neers and investors in Western Eu- Session 1: Cities and Compa- rope and the Ottoman Empire. nies in Finance and Trade in the Levant

For Jason C White’s biographical Was Aleppo a Levantine City? note please see p.33 Philip Mansel The 1895 Stock Market Crisis in After the Ottoman conquest in 1516 Constantinople Aleppo had an economic boom. Sit- Funda Soysal uated at the end of the Silk Road, on the edge of the Mediterranean, Sir Edgar Vincent (later 1st Viscount the Arabian desert and many trade D’Abernon)’s tenure as the Direc- routes, it had a favourable geo- tor General of the Imperial Ottoman graphical situation. It attracted peo- Bank (IOB) in Constantinople be- ple of so many different nationalities tween 1889-1897 leaves historians that it was called, by the English rather perplexed. On the one hand, chaplain in 1628, 'an epitome of many studies credit him for the ex- the whole world'. Lacking major re- panding the mercantile life within ligious shrines, it developed a com- the Empire (Eldem, Toksöz). Under mercial ethos. A man from Aleppo, it his management, the Bank is even was said, could sell you a dead don- considered to have become a multi- key skin. One Aleppo proverb was: national bank (Clay). Yet, historians 'if you do business with a dog, kindly also note how Vincent entangled the call him Sir. ' Aleppo was said to do once respectable Bank in the notori- more trade - it specialised in selling ous South African gold-mining spec- silk, textiles and horses - in a week ulation, which crashed spectacularly than Cairo in a month. Christians in late 1895 and caused a run on the and Jews flourished in this majority Bank that almost halved the quote Muslim city,and often used Muslim price of its shares in London (Eldem, law-courts. The only major inter- Davenport-Haines, Autherlonie). 24 Although the impact of this crisis bul's Bosphorus University Atatürk on the Ottoman Bank has been as- Institute for Modern Turkish History sessed (Authemann, Eldem), the in 2001. She is currently working on local context of this story has been her PhD at the BU History Depart- remarkably understudied, and nei- ment as an advisee of Prof. Edhem ther has it been linked properly with Eldem. In 2010-11 she took part the developments in South Africa. in the two workshops of the "The This cosmopolitan financial milieu Making of Southern Africa 1867- escaped the attention of Turkish his- 1899: Local and Global Perspec- torians who did not consider them tives," a AHRC project led by Prof. local enough, and remained too em- Ian Phimister currently of University bedded in the Ottoman context to of Free State, Bloemfontein, South attract the attention of this specu- Africa. Her primary research interest lation’s Western observers and his- is to study late Ottoman history as a torians. My analysis first sets this synchronous part of global history. speculation in the context of the fluid state of Ottoman regulation and the structuring of Constantinople’s financial establishment on the basis of archival research on issues like Trading with the Ottomans; the stamp duty and foreign limited lia- Levant Company in the Middle bility companies. I then focus on the East unravelling of the speculation in the Despina Vlami context of the diplomatic crisis that reached a climax in the aftermath The Levant Company, commonly of the September 30 Armenian dem- known, as the Turkey Company, was onstration in Constantinople. The in- a corporation of English merchants terrelation of the political and finan- who, under a royal charter granted cial crises raises questions that will by Elizabeth I in 1581, enjoyed the go beyond the scope of this paper. trading monopoly with the Ottoman Nonetheless, by analysing the per- Empire. The company’s representa- formance of the share prices of the tive to the Ottoman Porte was given so-called Local Securities in 1894-5 diplomatic authority as an ambassa- and studying the IOB’s records of dor. Subsequently, the company or- the identity of investors’ accounts, I ganized offices or “factories” at stra- will try to assess the impact of the tegic trading outposts in the eastern crisis on Constantinople’s financial Mediterranean such as Aleppo, milieu, which comprised primarily of Smyrna, Patras, Cairo, Algiers, Larn- Levantines. It looks that just as the aca and Salonica. Consuls, members events of 1895 left a long shadow of the company, were dispatched to over the Armenian question in the defend the capitulation agreements Empire, the financial crisis of 1895 signed between England and the Ot- severed irrevocably Constantino- toman Empire from 1580, to enforce ple’s integration to global financial the company’s ordinances through- networks. out the Levant, to maintain law and order, to levy consulage on imports Graduated from Grinnell College, IA and exports and to adjudicate in in 1996 with a BA in History, Funda disputes. The company’s London- Soysal completed her MA at Istan- based governing body represented 25 the company before the English level. I will also examine how this state authorities, while the ambas- process was related to the evolution sador and the consuls defended the of commercial enterprises and the property, business interests and persistent demands of part of Brit- personal security of English subjects ish society for the emancipation of before the Ottoman authorities. To British trade. support its administration, factories and employees financially, the Despina Vlami was born in Athens. company imposed taxes on English She has received a B.A. in Political trade, levying consulage duties in Sciences (Law School, University London and the Levant; it was also of Athens) and a Ph.D. in History partially financed by the English and Civilization from the European state. With my presentation I intend University Institute in Florence. In to position the Levant Company in 2003, she was admitted as a junior the long process of the evolution of researcher (4th grade) in the pres- the modern commercial enterprise tigious institution of the Academy from the sixteen to the nineteenth of Athens. She currently works as a centuries. To do so, I will follow the senior researcher (2nd grade) in the company’s contribution to the de- Research Center for Medieval and velopment of modern corporate and Modern Greek Studies of the Acad- individual business organization and emy of Athens where she directs two techniques during a period of transi- research programs: a) Trade and Di- tion by examining its organization, plomacy in Eastern Mediterranean, strategy and performance in the last 17th-19th centuries and b) Family 30 years of its history, from the out- Entrepreneurship and Entrepreneur- break of war against France in 1793 ial Family. The case of the merchant until the abdication of the compa- Michail Vassiliou as depicted in his ny’s authority to the British state in personal and business archive (18th 1825. This was a period of crisis and -19th centuries). Vlami is the author change, contemplation and matu- of a book published recently on the rity for the company and – in com- history of the English Levant Com- parison to previous years – a period pany (Trading with the Ottomans. of profit augmentation. A series of The Levant Company in the Middle wars and conflicts created conditions East, London: I.B. Tauris, 2015). of permanent insecurity in transport In 2000 her book on the history of and commercial trade, augmented the Greek merchant community in the risk of engaging in international Leghorn, was published in Athens business and favoured speculation. (The Florin, the Grain and Via del Successive crises put merchants Giardino. Greek Merchants in Leg- under strain and required flexible horn, 1750-1868, Athens: Theme- strategies and innovative spirit. New lio Pb, 2000). Vlami has published trade routes were traced and oppor- many articles in Greek and Europe- tunities for quick profits increased. an journals and has participated in In my presentation I will show how conferences in Greece and abroad. the Levant Company and its mem- Her research interests comprise the bers performed in these new condi- study of entrepreneurship and busi- tions, and how its business identity, ness history, the merchant diaspora organization and strategy were af- and Mediterranean trade in the 18th fected at a corporate and individual and 19th centuries. 26 Building Economic and Cultural (Deutsche Schule) of Thessaloniki, Networks: the Oriental Railways which operated under the presiden- Company cy of the highest ranking executive Andreas Bouroutis of the CO in the city, is an excellent example of the coexistence of stu- The development of steam ship dents from all ethnic groups. navigation during the 19th century The paper will also focus in the lives greatly benefited the Levant ports of the new “Franks”. The Oriental but few things originally had been Railways managers, such as Ema- done to improve trade in the interior. nuel Steiner, Operations Director, This situation completely changed acted as the new Levantines in the when railways, the “greatest inven- Ottoman cities. Steiner lived and tion” of the Industrial Revolution, prospered in Thessaloniki for almost came into a being in the Ottoman 40 years. A German with an oriental territories. The biggest enterprise identity. in the Balkan Peninsula was the Ori- The aim of the paper is to present ental Railways Company (Chemin a different form of building net- de fer Orientaux – CO) which con- works. The CO successfully oper- nected Constantinople with Europe. ated not only a railway network Salonica with three railway lines but also a school one. This diver- greatly benefited by this develop- sity expanded the influence of the ment. Two out of the three lines company and gave it a competitive (Salonica – Skopje – Europe and advantage. Furthermore, the CO Salonica – Monastir) were controlled executives lived and prospered as by the CO company.The most inter- new Levantines in cities like Saloni- esting part in the operation of a big ca and supported the coexistence of European capital company in the Ot- the different communities. For a big toman Empire was not only the de- enterprise like the Oriental Railways velopment of the trade network and company, this was extremely impor- the profits created but also its suc- tant for the smooth operation of the cessful involvement in other fields business and the essential promo- like the cultural one. That gave the tion of the corporate image. opportunity to the company to ex- pand its influence to a greater scale. The opening of schools, the so- Dr. Andreas Bouroutis is an econ- called Eisehnbahnen Schule, by the omist with a postgraduate degree company in the cities where the Ori- in Political Analysis. He recently de- ental Railways operated (Salonica, fended his doctoral thesis on “Eu- Philipopel, Adrianople, Haidar Pas- ropean school institutions in Thes- cha- Constantinople, Eskisehir), was saloniki (1888-1943), cultural and a new type of ascendancy. Originally social breakthrough on a late empire built in the beginning to educate the city” at the Department Political Sci- children of the railways employees’, ences, Aristotle University of Thes- soon they expanded to the bour- saloniki. He has been a scholar for geoisie class of the cities and had a the education exchange program be- major success. Furthermore, these tween Greece and Germany (DAAD) new schools allowed for the min- in 2013, a scholar for the John Latsis gling of children from the various Public Foundation in 2014, member communities. The German School of the scientific project: “People of 27 the Underworld: Ideologies and poli- terracotta Warriors at Xian in China. cies of discrimination, exclusion and Malcolm, along with BBC Producer prosecution in modern world” and a Christopher Stone, and Dr Jessica bursary of the Italian State in 2016. Rawson, Keeper of the Department He has participated in several con- of Oriental antiquities at the Brit- ferences in Greece and abroad and ish Museum, recorded the first -au has published articles in collective thorative feature for BBC Radio in books. He is now working on a book July 1980. Malcolm’s contribution to about the Holocaust of the Jews of archaeology on the BBC World Ser- Thessaloniki and the activities of the vice includes the long running series Italian consulate in Thessaloniki to “Heritage”. Its brief was also world- save the Italian Jews of the city. His wide and included programmes re- research interests include urban his- corded in Thailand, India, Sri Lan- tory and multicultural societies (Le- ka, Ireland, Australia, Mexico and vant ports), Jewish communities in the excavation of James Town - the Greece (19th-20th centuries) and first successful English settlement nationalism and refugee flows in the in Virginia. “Heritage”, produced by Balkans. He is currently working as a Brigid O’Hara and presented by Mal- Deputy Director in the Greek Council colm Billings and Dr Geoffrey King for Refugees. of SOAS, traced the history of the Pilgrim Hejaz railway from Damas- cus to Medina in Saudi Arabia, and was one of the last archaeological radio feature programmes recorded Session 2: Exploring Trade in on location before war broke out the the Levant through the Histo- Near East. Malcolm Billings’s books ries of Goods on archaeology and History include The Cross and the Crescent; The Malcolm Billings did not reach the Crusades; Archaeology of London; study of archaeology by a conven- and History of the English. tional route. Although he was interested in the subject at his school in Melbourne, Australia, his career in Illicit Latin Trade in the Levant London at the BBC was centred on during the Later Middle Ages Current Affairs. During the 1960s Mike Carr and 1970s, he was a reporter and presenter on the R4 TODAY PRO- This paper will provide an insight GRAMME. He moved aside in Broad- into “illicit” trade in the eastern casting House in to take up a new Mediterranean during the period role as presenter of the series “ORI- from roughly the fall of Acre in 1291 GINS” in July 1977. The programme until the Ottoman conquest of Con- quickly became established as an im- stantinople in 1453. This was a pe- portant source of archaeological in- riod which witnessed increasing formation and proof that radio could commercial contacts between the create archaeological “pictures” as European maritime states and the sharp as any TV series dealing with Islamic powers, but also one which the subject. One memorable and witnessed growing attempts by the “ground breaking” feature was the papacy to control and restrict the excavation and conservation of the activities of Latin merchants in the 28 region. The paper will focus primari- Mike Carr is a Leverhulme Early ly on Venetian and Genoese contacts Career Research Fellow at the Uni- with the Mamluk empire, the Anato- versity of Edinburgh. His project, co- lian beyliks and the Mongol Golden funded by the Leverhulme Trust and Horde, but it will also cover the ac- the University of Edinburgh, is titled tivities of other European merchants ‘Managing Otherness: Papal Permis- such as Catalans, Provencals and sions for Trade with the “Infidel”, Hospitallers. It will begin by explor- 1342-1394’ and will run from 2016- ing what trade was deemed to be 19. His research focuses on the his- “illicit” and why, such as the sale of tory of the Mediterranean during the war materials by Latin merchants to period 1000-1500, especially the in- Islamic states, and their participa- teractions between Latin, Greek and tion in the slave trade. It will then Islamic cultures. He is particularly provide an overview of the ways in interested in the role which mer- which the papacy aimed to regulate chants played in crossing cultural commerce in the Levant through boundaries in the Mediterranean trade embargos, and the ways in and their participation in crusades, which Latin merchants attempted both to the Holy Land, and also in to overcome these restrictions, such the later period against the Byzan- as through trading illegally and by tine and Ottoman empires. He re- gaining papal commercial exemp- ceived his PhD from Royal Holloway, tions. University of London, in 2011 and Because illicit trade took place on has held postdoctoral fellowships at the fringes of legality it does not the Institute of Historical Research often show up in sources typical of and the British School at Rome. He medieval Mediterranean trade. Nev- has published on his main interests, ertheless, research on the topic in which include relations between Lat- recent years (e.g. by Georg Christ, ins, Greeks and Turks in the eastern Stefan Stantchev and Arnold Esch) Mediterranean, the crusades, mari- has uncovered significant amounts time history and the papacy. His first of new information regarding the monograph is Merchant Crusaders trade in illicit goods during this pe- in the Aegean, 1291–1352 (Boydell riod, namely through the explora- and Brewer, 2015) and he is also the tion of previously overlooked sourc- co-editor of the volume Contact and es such as papal trade licences and Conflict in Frankish Greece and the absolutions for illegal trade found in Aegean, 1204–1453, with Nikolaos the Vatican archives. The overarch- Chrissis (Ashgate, 2014). ing aim of this paper is therefore to utilise this new material in order Fruits of Empire: Figs, Rai- to demonstrate how illicit trade fits sins, and the Transformation into our broader understanding of of Western Anatolia in the Late Levantine commerce in the period, Nineteenth Century such as its influence on trade -net Onur Inal works and shipping, on movements of peoples and goods, on notions of In the second half of the nineteenth illegality and maritime law, and on century, demographic, economic, Latin perceptions of the Levant and and technological changes in West- of the peoples it was deemed legal ern Anatolia brought about major or illegal to trade with. urban and rural transformations and 29 ended the economic and ecological eign capital investment and technol- separation of Izmir from its immedi- ogy, promoted trade, and stimulated ate countryside. In this period, Izmir the movement of people across the surpassed its rivals, and attained region. The expansion of fig and preeminence as a “gateway city,” grape cultivation created seasonal which conveyed the natural wealth employment for thousands of men of Western Anatolian river valleys to and women in the city and country- European markets. As a major av- side. In short, fig and grape growing enue between the Ottoman Empire across Western Anatolia had a pro- and the global markets, the city con- found impact on the region’s human nected distinct economic and eco- and natural landscape. With cere- logical zones and regions. It served als, cotton, olives, and other crops, as the main link between agricultur- figs and raisins transformed valleys, al producers in Western Anatolia and marshlands, and hilltops into the their markets in Europe. physical basis for Izmir’s growth and My paper will discuss the role of fig development in the second half of and grape trade in the development the nineteenth century. of Izmir into the first gateway city of the Ottoman Empire from the per- Onur Inal was born in Izmir, Tur- spective of environmental history. key in 1979. He completed his un- From the 1870s on, figs and raisins dergraduate studies in the Political were together a dynamic force pro- Science and International Relations moting the opening up of hitherto Department of Yeditepe University unexploited areas of Western Anato- in Istanbul. He received his M.A de- lia to commercial agriculture. What gree from Koç University's Anatolian the banana meant for tropical lands Civilizations and Cultural Heritage was for Western Anatolia the fig and Management program with a the- grape. Fig trees and vines were com- sis entitled “Levantine Heritage in mercially grown almost everywhere Izmir”. He finished his Ph.D. in the in the region, from the edge of the History Department of the Univer- waters of the Mediterranean to the sity of Arizona in 2015. His disser- hilltops. Rural residents reclaimed tation, “A Port and Its Hinterland: large tracts of wasteland for plant- An Environmental History of Izmir in ing figs and vines, while the quantity the Late-Ottoman Period” deals with of figs and raisins annually exported the urban and environmental his- amounted to thousands of tons as tory of Ottoman Izmir and Western the introduction of railroads, forma- Anatolia. Inal has written a number tion of commercial networks, and of academic articles on the history development of processing, packing, of consumption, trade, and tourism and shipment operations facilitated in the Ottoman Empire. Currently, their production and trade. he works as a freelance author and The expansion of fig and grape grow- translator in Hamburg. He is also an ing was an integral part of the pro- affiliate researcher at the Türkei- cess of Western Anatolia’s integra- Europa Zentrum of the University of tion into the market economy and Hamburg. is demonstrated by the railroads, stations, warehouses, and packing units found in Izmir and its hinterland. Figs and grapes attracted for- 30 Trader/smuggler: Levantine across commonly exaggerated re- Commerce in Opium in the East- ligious and communal divides in ern Mediterranean, 1900-1940 basements, farmhouses, and incon- Daniel-Joseph MacArthur-Seal spicuous apartment buildings in and around Istanbul and on the ships, Levantine family firms, such as the trains, planes, camels, donkeys and British Whittal Co., Austrian F Fidao automobiles that transported their & Co, and Dutch Keun and Lavino wares not only to nearby european Companies, dominated the Otto- and middle eastern neighbours but man opium trade, buying Anatolian- as far as the Americas and East Asia. grown poppy crops and exporting I investigate smuggling and its at- raw opium from Izmir and Istanbul tempted suppression both as a motif for refinement in Europe. The year and method of the division of former 1925 marked a turning point in this Ottoman territories in the Mediter- profitable trade, however. That year ranean, and as both a source of sus- the implementation of an interna- tenance for diasporic minorities and tional treaty restricting opium re- a rhetorical tool, through an instru- finement across Europe trade left mentialised association with corrup- Turkey a relative safe haven. While tive influences, in their persecution. this opportunity was capitalised on by Levantine families like the Taran- Daniel-Joseph MacArthur-Seal to brothers, who opened the largest received his Ph.D from the Univer- of the three new opium refinement sity of Cambridge in 2014. His the- factories that substituted European sis, titled ‘Britain’s Levantine em- refinement capacity in Istanbul, pire, 1914-1923', compared the others withdrew from an increas- principle cities of the eastern Medi- ingly stigmatised business under terranean’s experience of Allied oc- the pressure of their respective con- cupation during and after the First suls. Into the 1930s, Levantines in World War. His research interests in- this area of the economy, like many clude smuggling, prostitution, urban others, came under pressure from planning and governance, nightlife, a state nationalisation campaign, cosmopolitanism, migration, impe- which resulted in the monopolisation rialism and internationalism in the of opium growing and export from early twentieth century Ottoman 1931 onwards. But in an ongoing and post-Ottoman Mediterranean. tale of adaptation that speaks to the His current research project on resilience of marginalised minori- 'Smuggling and the remaking of the ties, Levantine residents of Turkey eastern Mediterranean, 1912-1940’ were quick to use their international examines the impact of the rise of connections to develop a fast blos- national and international restric- soming illegal trade in both opium tions on the trade and consumption and its refined forms such as heroin. of narcotics on the social history of Working from Turkish state papers, Istanbul and other port cities. local newspaper reports, League of Nations documentation and the consular papers of Britain, France, and the United States my paper reveals the extent of this clandestine trade that brought together individuals 31 Drinking (Beer) from the Sea of mainstay. As the tribes turned from Gaza; Late Ottoman Palestine nomadic to seminomadic and even nomads, the Victorian Beer Cul- sometimes to urbanized state, ture and “Gaza Barley” Trade they managed to accumulate great Dotan Halevy surpluses of this “cash crop” and traded it in the markets of nearby For a little more than half a cen- Gaza. Concurrently in Britain, new tury prior to the First World War, systems of taxation opened up the Gaza- a meager and provincial town brewing industry and the sale of in southern Palestine came to take beer to private retailers, thus creat- part in a global system of maritime ing a surge in demand for the bev- trade. It was the barley exported erage. Technological innovations from Gaza’s shore, a commodity of introduced at the same time in the specified qualities for beer - brew breweries such as coalfueled ovens ing, which situated the town on this and refrigeration gave rise to new modern map of merchants, steam- flavors, colors and textures of beer ers and political interests. Alongside that largely shifted the experience the development of the barley trade of its consumption. In the search for and the “Gaza Barley” trademark large quantities of the perfect raw during the latter half of the nine- material for modern brewing, “Gaza teenth century, Gaza’s geographic Barley” was imported to Britain. The sphere of influence and its - eco same steamers that retired Gaza nomic role within it were fully trans- from its centuries-old occupation of formed. The town has abandoned its a pilgrimage way station, by carry- traditional position as a supplier of ing pilgrims by sea to the Islamic foodstuff and logistics to caravans shrine cities in Arabia, became the travelling along the Hajj routes in instruments by which the city’s new Transjordan and Sinai, and became, source of income was transported to almost solely, an exporter of barley Europe. Following a few decades of originating in the much more lim- a “Barley Boom,” however, a series ited locality of the northern Negev of droughts proved this monoculture desert. Following the emergence financial backbone as highly unreli- of this commerce and the ways by able for Gaza. From a longue durée which it was conducted, my lecture perspective it can be even argued will demonstrate how modernization that the barley trade prevented processes that took place at the Ot- Gaza from fully evolving into a port toman desert frontiers and in paral- city, thus situating it on a different lel in the urban industries and cul- path into the twentieth century than ture in Victorian Britain, entangled its neighboring coastal cities along to create supply, demand and a set the Mediterranean shore. of connectors between them. In es- sence, Ottoman ongoing efforts to “civilize” the Bedouin tribes of south- Dotan Halevy is a Ph.D student ern Palestine by forced settlement in the history department in Co- and pacification of violent struggles lumbia University in New York. His have enabled these nomad societies research project focuses on the to increasingly rely on cultivation of history of the city of Gaza in the barley - the most suitable species transition between the Late Otto- of grain for desert farming, as their man and British mandate periods. 32 Session 3: Networks and Ide- and taxation. Many Levant mer- ologies chants invested their capital in other enterprises, such as the East India For Axel Çorlu’s biographical note Company, or, in the case of the Wil- please see p.8. liams family, who were prominent Levant traders, trans-Atlantic ventures such as sugar plantations in The Levant Company and the Barbados. The English state, still Early Modern Origins of Capital- quite weak in the seventeenth cen- ism, State, and Empire tury, came to depend on the cus- Jason C White toms duties supplied by the Levant merchants to fund the government, This paper will argue that the Eng- but, perhaps more importantly, the lish Levant Company, as an insti- company acted as its own mini- tution, influenced the formation of state and controlled almost all Eng- important aspects of modern Brit- lish contact with the near east. The ain, namely capitalism, the state, Company was responsible for paying and the empire. The Levant Com- for ambassadors and consuls, col- pany, first chartered in 1581, was lecting taxes, supplying clergy, and one of the most successful English protecting its trade routes from pi- overseas ventures of the early mod- rates and others – all of these were ern period. While early attempts at state-like functions the company laid colonization and trade either disap- down that the British state and em- peared (the lost Roanoke colony), pire would take over in the modern faced major disasters such as star- period. Finally, as Alison Games has vation and massacre (Jamestown), shown, English activity in the Le- failed outright (the Munster Planta- vant was a crucial building-block of tion in Ireland), or languished be- empire. For Games the Levant was hind international competitors (the where “cosmopolitanism” came to English East India Company did not be a feature of English interactions surpass its Dutch counterpart until with the wider-world creating a kind the end of the 17th century), the of wanderlust amongst English over- Levant Company built a profitable seas adventurers. However, while and extensive trade network with many individual English travelers the wealthy markets of the eastern and merchants could be described Mediterranean. As one contempo- as “cosmopolitan” the Levant Com- rary described it in 1638, the Levant pany as an institution had a much Company was “the most flourishing more complicated relationship with and most beneficial company to the it. Indeed, the Company’s insistence commonwealth of any in England.” that Englishmen abroad remained As a trading venture, the merchants essentially English should not be un- of the company found markets for derestimated. English goods such as cloth, tin, and pig iron and brought back valuable commodities such as silk, spices, Jason White is an assistant profes- and currants. This trade was highly sor of history at Appalachian State profitable and it meant that the Le- University in Boone, North Caro- vant merchants eventually became lina. He earned his PhD from Brown important sources of both capital University in 2008 and is currently 33 working on a book on the Levant Dr Anthony Gorman is Senior Lec- Company in the seventeenth cen- turer in Islamic and Middle Eastern tury. Studies at the University of Edin- burgh. He has taught at universities in Australia, Egypt and Britain and is the author of Historians, State and Politics in Twentieth Century Egypt: Levantine Labour Networks be- Contesting the Nation (Routledge- fore the First World War Curzon, 2003) as well as a number Anthony Gorman of articles on the activities of the resident foreign presence in modern From the middle of the nineteenth Egypt. He is co-editor (with Marilyn century until the outbreak of the Booth) of The Long 1890s in Egypt: First World War, large numbers of Colonial Quiescence, Subterranean workers from Italy, Greece and other Resistance (Edinburgh University European countries migrated to the Press, 2014) and (with Sossie Kas- Eastern Mediterranean. Attracted on barian) co-editor of Diasporas of the one hand by employment oppor- the Modern Middle East: Contextu- tunities opening up during a period alising Community (Edinburgh Uni- of expanding trade and early local versity Press, 2015) where he has industrialisation and on the other contributed a chapter on the Ital- by the safe haven from political op- ians of Egypt. He is currently edit- pression, this movement of people ing (with Didier Monciaud) a book on was facilitated and sustained by in- the press in the Middle East before creasing transport and communica- independence and is completing a tion links operating between Europe monograph on a history of the pris- and the East. In time these work- on in the Middle East titled, Prison, ing communities established them- Punishment and Society 1800-1950. selves across the region, particularly in Egypt, Palestine Syria, forming local societies and educational institutions, publishing newspapers and periodicals, and establishing politi- Anarchy in the Empire: Levan- cal associations influenced by some tines and Minorities as ‘Enemies of the radical socialist ideas of the of the State’, 1850-1917 time. Axel Çorlu This paper will explore the emergence of these international labour Anarchism has left deep marks as networks over this period focusing a formative influence upon numer- particularly on the Italian, Greek ous social movements, as well as and Jewish working communities, influencing state formation and- re exploring the character of their sponse to political violence around presence in the Eastern Mediterra- the world. The truly transnational nean and examining their interac- character of the movement itself re- tion with their host societies and quires an equally transnational ap- especially with indigenous working proach to understand the adherents communities in promoting ideas of of this idea beyond geo-cultural, or radical social and economic reform nation-state boundaries, and invites in the region. a new and comparative approach. 34 Levantines, as well as minorities Ottoman Empire, at the turn of the such as Armenians, Greeks, and century. others in the Ottoman Empire re- Finally, the study also reveals for sponded to the call of political move- the very first time, the narrative ments that swept the world in the of a singular Levantine individual, late 19th-early 20th centuries; an- whose path covered intersections of archism was no exception, and it political idealism, adventure on the found fertile ground in the cosmo- high seas, assassination of a king, politan cities of the Eastern Mediter- and conversion to Islam for mar- ranean. One cannot fully understand riage, in a geography that included these people, or the response of the the United States, the U.K., France, states they flowed through in a vac- Italy, Malta, South Africa, Zanzibar, uum; they were enemies locked in a Egypt, Greece, and ended mysteri- struggle, and had a dialectical rela- ously somewhere between Smyrna tionship, defining each other. (Izmir) and Constantinople (Istan- Whether they were Levantines, Ar- bul). menians, or Greeks, anarchists in the empire were not terrorists, or For Axel Çorlu’s biographical note bloodthirsty madmen; they had a please see p.8. sophisticated understanding of power and conflict, and their methods and ideas reflected their response to empower themselves given the limi- tations of their context. The multiple The Italian Trade Network in states that responded to their activi- Turkey in the Years 1923-1939 ties, while in very different circum- Francesco Pongiluppi stances, and with very different priorities otherwise, used remarkably Since the Middle Age, Italian mer- similar strategies and priorities in chants had established their colo- “dealing with” the “anarchist threat.” nies in the Levant in order to devel- This study draws from archives in op the trade between the West and the United States, the Netherlands, East. As a result of their presence, Switzerland, Italy, and Turkey, utiliz- Italians were able to enlarge their ing primary sources in five languag- networks during the Ottoman pe- es, to present an overview of how riod which enabled them to have a anarchists formulated their ideas, main role in the circulation of goods, connected them to their material ideas and culture in the Levantine reality, and interacted with existing cities. Through out of the 19th cen- structures of power on their own tury, thanks to the foundation of the terms. At the same time, using gov- Kingdom of Italy in 1861, the Ital- ernment surveillance reports, police ians of the Levant took advantage records, and diplomatic correspond- of the new institutions created by ence from state archives in the U.S., the Italian state. Consequently, this Italy, and Turkey, it provides never- gave them a stronger link to their before-seen statistical analysis in motherland. In this regard, the es- this field, and develops the existing tablishment of an Italian Chamber of theories of causation as they apply Commerce in the Ottoman capital in to state responses to anarchists, 1885, was the first step towards the in the United States, Italy, and the development of an Italian-Ottoman 35 economical relationship. This body, and the society of Istanbul and the Italian Chamber of Commerce, Izmir between the late Ottoman was behind the publication of a com- Empire period and the first years of mercial bulletin, the Rassegna Itali- the Republic of Turkey. He has con- ana - Organo degl’Interessi Italiani ducted his studies and researches in in Oriente, which supported and in- Italy, Middle East, France and United formed people about the Levantine States. He has authored numerous trade. The aim of this paper is to in- articles on the Italian presence in vestigate the Italian trade network the Levant and has just published a in Turkey after the establishment of volume about the historical Bulletin the Turkish Republic. This study will of the Italian Chamber of Commerce deeply examine the Italian presence of Istanbul: La Rassegna Italiana- in the new Turkish market thorough Organo degli Interessi Italiani in Ori- a research on the Italian institu- ente (Edizioni Isis, Istanbul, 2015, tions, Consular Agencies and other pp. 218). In Italy, he is a contributor entities that functioned during the for several journals. interwar period. The main questions of this work will be focused on how Italy kept her predominant position Living in the Nineteenth-Centu- in Turkish regions during the past ry Ottoman Capital: Bulgarian Ottoman period and how her Levan- Merchants Between Parochial- tine appendix reacted in the face of ism and Cosmopolitanism the changed political environment. Evguenia Davidova The sources of this paper will be the records of the Italian Chamber This paper will focus on the Bulgar- of Commerce in Istanbul, the mate- ian merchants who lived in Istanbul rial published by the Rassegna Itali- and their economic and social inter- ana, the archival documents coming actions in the Ottoman capital and from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs other European cities. Through the in Rome and other information avail- examination of case studies, I will able in several private institutions. A interpret the geographic and social bibliography on this subject in Ital- fluidity of the multiple networks they ian, English, French and Turkish will constructed and the intersection of further buttress and strengthen this personal and business contacts, sta- research. tus, and political preferences. Many small and medium-size merchants brought their parochial mentality into the polis, living and working Francesco Pongiluppi is a PhD amongst their fellow Bulgarians, Candidate in History of Europe at usually from the same locality and the department of Political Science their local and regional identities at La Sapienza University of Rome. were thereby reproduced within His Research Project focuses on the the backdrop of multicultural urban organization of the Italian National complexities. A few rich traders cum Fascist Party in Turkey between tax farmers became part of the Con- the the two world wars. In order to stantinople’s multiethnic commer- achieve the goals of his research, he cial milieu and maintained contacts studied the Italian communities of in various European trade centers, Turkey, their multicultural identities such as Marseilles, London, Odessa, 36 and Vienna. Thus, the dynamics Session 4: Print and Image within such networks, the fluid- Culture between Europe and the ity of local, regional, interregional, Levant and international configurations, and the complex competition be- For Nikolas Pitsos’s biographical tween nationalist and economic in- note please see p.54 terests gave rise to a broad range of strategies and practices. Traders did not simply occupy an array of Viewing Istanbul through West- social spaces; they also created as- ern Brushstrokes: Nineteenth- sortments of cultural exchanges by Century Levantine Artists navigating diverse commercial net- Belgin Demirsar Arlı – Selva Suman works, the Ottoman bureaucracy, European banks, manufacturers, The nineteenth century witnessed and educational institutions. This a series of reforms in the Ottoman paper draws on a variety of primary Empire and it is through these resources: commercial correspond- forms and privileges granted to ence, ledgers, newspapers, and diverse ethnic groups that Latins memoirs. started migrating to Istanbul in masses. Hence, we can say that the Levantine community in the capi- Evguenia Davidova is an Associ- tal city reached its apogee around ate Professor in the Department of 1850’s. These people, mostly Italian, International and Global Studies at French, and English were populated Portland State University. Her re- around Pera and Galata making this search interests focus on the late area the most European district of Ottoman and post-Ottoman Bal- the city. Although they were mostly kans: commerce, nationalism, trav- involved in business and trade, there el, and medical practices. Davidova were also architects and artists who is the author of Balkan Transitions came to the “Levant” to settle. to Modernity and Nation-States. Some of them were born here and Through the Eyes of Three Genera- some came from different European tions of Merchants (1780s-1890s) countries to capture the beauties (Brill, 2013) and the editor of Wealth of the city on their canvases. Jean in the Ottoman and post-Ottoman Brindesi (1826-1888) was an Istan- Balkans: A Socio-Economic History bul-born watercolor artist, an ori- (I.B. Tauris, 2016). entalist who depicted the daily lives and sartorial patterns of contemporary Ottomans. Leonardo de Mango (1843-1930), another orientalist painter, was born in Italy but lived in Istanbul for more than 40 years and he died here. Among other artists we can cite names such as, Amadeo Preziosi, Sydney La Fontaine, and Fausto Zonaro. In our presentation, we are going to talk about these artists mostly focusing on their works, their iden- 37 tity, their families, and their patterns Ottoman art and architecture dur- of living. We will be discussing how ing the XVIII to early XX centuries, and why they came to Istanbul and multi-cultural interactions, westerni- how they lived. We are going to pre- zation, and artistic styles in late Ot- sent a number of visuals from their toman Istanbul. selected works and lifestyles. Some She has published several articles, of them died in Istanbul and were book reviews, and has written book buried in various Catholic cemeter- chapters. Her article “Questioning an ies of the city; we shall also be look- Icon of Change: The Nuruosmaniye ing at their graves expounding on Complex and the Writing of Ottoman the funerary art and artistic styles of Architectural History” based on her their tombs. MA thesis was published in the Jour- nal of Faculty of Architecture, METU (2011). Belgin Demirsar Arlı graduated She has recently presented her pa- from the Istanbul University, De- per “Reading Tomb Structures as Fu- partment of History of Art in 1984. nerary Art: The Latin Catholic Ceme- Her MA thesis was completed in tery in Feriköy, Istanbul” at the 15th 1987 and titled “The Connection with International Congress of Turkish Reality in the Paintings of Osman Art organized in Naples, Italy, Sep- Hamdi Bey”. She received her PhD tember 16-18, 2015. in 1996 with her thesis entitled “The She is currently a lecturer at Evaluation of Figurative Ceramics Bahçeşehir University, Istanbul. Found in Iznik Tile Kiln Excavations” and became Ass. Prof. in 1999. She is currently pursuing her academic Istanbul and the Nineteenth studies at the same department at Century Transnational Trade of Istanbul University. Print Products: the Leipzig Net- Since 2007, she is the head of the work Iznik Tile Kiln Excavations that she Alberto Gabriele has continuously participated from 1982 onwards. She also presided The research for this paper is part the research project entitled “Otto- of a major project that discusses man Period Architecture and Tiles in the transnational, transmedial and Jerusalem” during 1999 and 2000, plurilinguistic network of distribution sponsored by the Research Fund of of print products (books, periodicals Istanbul University. Her main re- and photographs) in the 1860s-80s search field is the art of ceramic in by highlighting the business ac- Anatolia from the Byzantine period tivities of a group of publishers and until Republican era. booksellers that were agents of the London-based publisher of Irish de- Selva Suman received her MA at scent John Maxwell. The paper, more the History Department of Boğaziçi specifically, will focus on the activi- University in Istanbul, majoring ties of the Istanbul bookseller that on the History of Art and Archi- was Maxwell’s business partner. His tecture program. She is currently activities will be placed in a larger a PhD candidate at the History of network of continental distribution Art Department of Istanbul Techni- that linked several capitals and had cal University. Her studies focus on a connected center of distribution 38 in Leipzig. The flow of print products continued his research for his fourth emanating from Leipzig expanded book on the global networks of dis- south-eastward in several direc- tribution of Victorian print culture in tions, including Italy, Greece and the the 1860s-70s. Ottoman Empire. Before the establishment of the transnational publishing empires that conflated the The Levantines and their lega- activities of several mediators of cy in the Ottoman Newspaper the transfer of knowledge, a differ- Press: a Case Study about Wil- ent business model appears in the liam Nosworthy Churchill period discussed, one of transitional Birten Çelik collaboration, which was in place before the passing of copyright leg- The Levantines living in the Otto- islation, and the entrenchment of man Empire played a pioneering nationalist interests that came with role in the foundation of a newspa- it, contributed to the restructuring of per press. Some of the Levantine the book trade. merchants published the first private newspapers either in French Alberto Gabriele, a graduate of or in English to provide commercial New York University’s Comparative and other related news mainly for Literature Department is the author the foreigners like them living and of Reading Popular Culture in Victo- doing business in the empire. Some rian Print: Belgravia and Sensation- transformed this into a family busi- alism (2009). He has been visiting ness as in the example of William scholar at at the School of Cultural Nosworthy Churchill who published Texts and Records, Jadavpur Univer- the first Turkish private newspaper sity, Kolkata, and visiting fellow at called Ceride-i Havadis (News Pa- The University of New South Wales per) in Istanbul with the financial at ADFA, Canberra, the University of support given by the Ottoman gov- Sydney, and Women’s College within ernment. Churchill was known as a the University of Sydney. He has re- wood merchant and an interpreter cently completed two monographs at the US Consulate in Istanbul. His on Precinema and the Literary Im- new business as a newspaper pro- agination. Volume I: The Emergence prietor started in fact as a kind of of Precinema is in production, and compensation for his detention in Volume II: The Nineteenth Centu- prison by the Ottoman authorities ry Novel is forthcoming. He is also after leaving a Turkish boy injured the editor of a collection of essays, in an area where Churchill should Sensationalism and the Genealogy not have entered without permis- of Modernity: a Global Nineteenth sion. His detention caused a diplo- Century Perspective, in produc- matic crisis between the Ottoman tion. He has been awarded a three- Empire and Great Britain in addition year grant to complete the project to a crisis that occurred among Ot- on Leipzig as one of the capitals of toman statesmen. Shortly after this continental book publishing and dis- crisis W.N. Churchill was awarded tribution in the course of the nine- with a decoration by the Ottoman teenth century. During his recent sultan with the privileges to pub- residency at the University of Mel- lish a newspaper and to make in- bourne as a Macgeorge fellow he has vestments. Churchill published the 39 newspaper as Ceride-i Havadis on and reference book entries on Otto- 31 July 1840 with the technical sup- man social and political history, the port given by the Ottoman Imperial Gallipoli Campaigns and press, Otto- Printing House. However its publi- man labor and women history, and cation was suspended in 1842 yet most of these publications have ap- started to be republished in the fol- peared in internationally-renowned lowing year. books and academic journals. William N. Churchill kept on publishing this paper until his death in 1846, and then his son Alfred Black Churchill continued this fam- Session 5: Cities & Infrastruc- ily business until his death in 1870. ture Following him, his son William Syd- ney Churchill ran the business until For Kalliopi Amygdalou’s bio- 1887. The Churchill family in these graphical note please see p.9 years introduced new experiences in the field of journalism to the - Turk ish press as well. For example, Al- Early Modern Levantine Com- fred B. Churchill published a daily merce Revisited: The Commerce supplement called Ruzname dur- of Izmir (1580 – 1780) ing the Crimean War (1853-56). He Mehmet Kuru even went to Sevastopol in 1854 to report from the war zone. The The commercial history of Izmir, as Churchill family was able to con- the prominent port-city of Levant, tinue to publish their newspaper has been examined by numerous re- with name changes like Ruzname-i searchers in different contexts for a Ceride-i Havadis (Ceride with Daily long time. However, in these works, Supplement) until 1887. The Otto- the focus was generally on the mer- man authorities favored them, and cantile groups and their economic even provided financial support to activities rather than the market the family members whenever they itself. Especially, the economic in- were in need. dicators were mainly provided from This paper, in the light of the Otto- European archives and the current man archival materials, newspaper scholarship has traced the commer- copies and relevant academic sourc- cial activities operated by specific es examines the Levantine Churchill mercantile groups through the port family and their legacy in the history of Izmir. These works undoubtedly of the Turkish press. have made significant contributions in order to shed light on the commercial networks growing through- Birten Çelik is an Associate Profes- out the Mediterranean. However, sor at the Department of History at they could not provide us with a ho- Middle East Technical University in listic viewpoint on the commerce of Ankara, Turkey where she currently Izmir for the early modern period. teaches Ottoman Modernization, Ot- In this paper, the commercial growth toman Labor History, and the history of Izmir observed during the pre- of the Turkish press as well as the modern period will be revisited un- history of women in Turkey. Çelik der the light of new archival data is the author of number of articles compiled from Ottoman archives. 40 Based on these new evidences on His dissertation title is “Locating an total custom revenues for the port Ottoman port city in early modern of Izmir, I argue that commercial Mediterranean world: Izmir 1580- “explosion” of Izmir/western Ana- 1780” and his supervisor is Natalie tolia reached its limits in about two Rothman. In his research, he mainly decades between the 1580s and aims to reveal long term economic, 1600s. After this transitional phase, demographic, migratory and urban commercial growth became depend- patterns of Izmir observed during ent on the development of Ottoman the early modern period and sug- markets. Consequently, it is difficult gests a relocation of this port-city to insist on an ongoing integration within the early modern Ottoman process between the markets of and Mediterranean history/histori- Europe and Western Anatolia from ography. Apart from his dissertation the late 16th to the 19th centuries; project, his research interests in- rather it is more accurate to mention clude early modern cultural history, a long-term commercial stability, or interactions among ethno-religious more precisely, co-movement with groups and “go-betweens”. the fluctuation of Ottoman markets. Furthermore, by comparing the sta- tistics on Izmir commerce with the custom revenues of the eastern Construction of Quays as a Cat- Anatolian trade gate, customs of alyser of Urban Change: Smyrna Erzurum, I also suggest that “early and Salonica (1860-1900) incorporation” was not limited to the Ceylan İrem Gençer emergent commercial ties between the Ottoman Empire and European Starting from 1840s, Levantine port markets as the Eurocentric modern- cities witnessed dramatic changes ist view tends to focus on but Ot- due to Ottoman reforms, the boom toman markets also engaged with in foreign trade and technological eastern economies, largely Iranian advancements, which reflected on markets, through caravan trade si- the transformation of the traditional multaneously on the same degree urban realm. Smyrna and Salonica, as a result of economic transfor- the busiest trade hubs in their re- mation of the Ottoman Empire ob- gion, were the foremost towns in served during the late 16th century. the Ottoman State to experience the urban novelties, such as the implementation of large-scale infrastructure projects. Construction of quays in both cities can be considered as Mehmet Kuru is a senior PhD can- the core project which acted as a didate in the department of History catalyst of urban change. This paper at the University of Toronto. He got aims to present a comparative study his M.A. degree in history at Sabancı of the quay construction process in University/Istanbul in 2009, and his Smyrna and Salonica and thus con- B.A. at Galatasaray University/Is- tribute to the common historiogra- tanbul in 2007. He also spent a year phy of these cities through this pro- in Leiden University/Netherlands cess between 1860-1900. as a guest student during his M.A. In the 19th century, the ports of years. Smyrna and Salonica carried out the 41 highest import-export activities in and Salonica at the turn of the nine- the Ottoman Empire. Their geo- teenth century. All these factors graphic position, rich hinterlands enhanced the common history of with various agricultural goods and trade-oriented port cities in the Le- mines, as well as intermingling cos- vantine world. mopolitan societies were the factors that boosted their commercial Architect Irem Gençer is an As- life. Albeit their prestigious position sistant Professor at Yıldız Technical in international trade, both cities University Architecture Faculty, Res- lacked modern embankment and toration Department. She completed port facilities until 1870s. Although her doctorate degree with the dis- in Smyrna the construction of a port sertation “Urban and architectural in Alsancak was discussed along the transformation in Izmir and Thessa- construction of the railways, it was loniki between 1840-1912” in Resto- not realised. Later, the State initiat- ration Program in Istanbul Technical ed the construction of a quay on the University in 2012. She has partici- shore of the Frank Quarter to control pated in several international work- the smuggling of goods and regulate shops, field studies and conferences the disorganised seafront piled up on heritage preservation. Her field with buildings and small piers. On of research includes urban preser- the other hand, in Salonica the State vation, vernacular architecture in aimed to open up the congested in- Anatolian settlements and planning tramural city by demolishing the sea history in Mediterranean towns. walls. In addition, the customs and harbour facilities outside the walls were found inadequate, therefore the debris of the sea walls were used Demeter and Poseidon : the to fill in the sea shore and create a “Ottoman Railway from Smyrna new customs zone. to Aidin” and the Historical Even though initiated with different Relations between the Levan- motives, the construction history of tine Port-City of Smyrna and the quays in Smyrna and Salonica bears Aegean Valleys a lot of similarities. The same British Giulia Tacchini entrepreneurs applied for the con- cession of the quay construction in The story of any Levantine port-city both cities, first in Smyrna (1863), is certainly connected with the his- then in Salonica (1867). The gov- tory of its harbor, but it does not re- ernor of Smyrna, responsible for solve simply in it, as the Mediterra- finalising negotiations between the nean can be approached both from State and the contractors, was then the sea and from the river valleys appointed to Salonica for the imple- that feed into the sea, providing the mentation of the quay project. More- goods commerced in its ports. In- over, the architect responsible for terest in Smyrna (Izmir) as a case the Salonica Quay was from Smyr- study lies in the geographical and na. This paper will analyse the con- structural connection between the struction process of quays through port-city and its region. Investigat- these mutual relations which help ing the relations between geography us provide a broader perspective on and long-term history, the present the urban transformation of Smyrna research focuses on the changes 42 generated by the Smyrna-Aidin rail- with the construction of the harbor, road (1856) in the urban and rural Les Quais des Smyrna- drew the at- landscapes of the Aegean region. tention of British merchants to the Towards this aim, the crystallization agricultural resources of the region. of the commercial net, which devel- Shaped by commercial relations, oped around Smyrna, will be framed this flow of people and goods into the larger Mediterranean and changed the built form of urban Anatolian context, and described spaces, and left a marked impact on through its main historical steps: its the regional territorial organization making in the seventeenth-eight- and rural landscape. Wherever we eenth centuries, its “manufactur- go in this contemporary landscape ing” in the nineteenth, and its “dis- we run across a series of signs. Of- mantling”, during the reorganization ten there is little but ruins to see. of Anatolia as Turkish territory. Here, like a manuscript of which Set in the centre of an unrivaled most of the words are rubbed away, history of communications, where Smyrna's peculiar history, otherwise the main land roads meet the Ae- mostly non-existent, is written in gean easy-navigable waters, the the landscape. Observing the sur- region owed its prominence as an viving architectural heritage; the ru- emporium to the wealth of its terri- ins of bridges, roads, watercourses, tory and to its strategic location. In cisterns and mills; the very names the multi-ethnic Ottoman western of the cities, villages, quarters and Anatolia, the symbiotic coexistence streets; the terraces where olive of different territorial organizations trees grow, we will point out how the drew, on the slopes and in the plains Aegean landscape mainly reflects of the Aegean valleys, a landscape the long-term effects of ethnic, reli- historically characterized by agricul- gious and linguistic relations on Ot- tural exploitation in the floor and on toman lands, as well as the mark left the foothills, integrated with higher by the loss of this dialogue. altitude pasture and with commercial activities leaded by the port-cities. Starting from the XVII century, Architect and researcher, Giulia when -lead by the British- the world Tacchini’s main interests focus on market demand for cash-crops in- the historical development of the creased, Smyrna confirmed itself as Mediterranean landscapes, seen in a port exporting agricultural prod- an geographical, architectural and ucts and raw materials produced in anthropological perspective. In June these fertile valleys. These valley- 2016 she received her PhD (with harbor relations took their main in- honors) in Architectural Composition frastructural form with the construc- at the Department of Architecture, tion, promoted by British capital, of Built Environment and Construction the Smyrna-Aidin railroad (1856- Engineering, Politecnico di Milano, 66), the first railroad on the - Ana with the thesis "Demeter and Posei- tolian lands. Following closely the don, Architecture and trade in the old caravan trails, the railroad, by metamorphoses of the Ionian land- efficiently and cheaply connecting scape" (Thesis supervisor: Cristina Smyrna with its fertile hinterland, Pallini). From 2011 to 2014, she stimulated the production of export- was teaching assistant in Architec- able cropland, and -supplemented tural Composition Studio led by Prof. 43 C.Pallini and M.Meriggi, and was in- Sea. volved in the researched titled ‘Port While arguing that the Egyptian Cities in the Mediterranean’ and car- okelle is a ‘functional’ building type ried out by the Macro-urban Plan- whose resilience has been tested ning Laboratory. She is a graduate over the long period, this paper will in Architecture from Politecnico di consider its evolution and adapt- Milano in 2011, with a project for ability to different geographical and a new railway connection between urban contexts. The discussion will Burgos and the Port of Bilbao, which also focus on the revival of the okelle was published in November 2012 in in 19th-century Alexandria. Here “Port-Cities, QAP 3 Landscape Note- many okelles were adapted to house book”. the European consuls, the first collections of antiquities, and even the first theatres. The Long-lived Egyptian Okelle; The Italian engineer Francesco Man- Extraterritorial Microcosms and cini fully understood the potentiali- Long-Distance Trade ties and adaptability of this age-old Cristina Pallini, Manar El Gammal building type, particularly in Alex- and Silvia Boca andria a city which was being re- settled by a series of ethno-religious The Arab word okelle means ‘agen- enclaves. In Mancini’s interpretation cy’ and, in Egypt, also defines an the okelle embodied principles of old type of commercial structure symmetry, spatial fluidity and regu- including warehouses and accom- larity of the external facades. His modation for the dealers. Somehow simplified neoclassical style became similar to the fondouks of the Mid- a sort of lingua franca. The real inno- dle-Ages (so popular throughout the vation however lied in the fact that Levant) okelles were generally com- Mancini lined up a number of okelles pact buildings with an arcaded inner to form the main square of the Eu- courtyard and a single entrance from ropean Town: Place the Consuls. The the street. They were to be found in finest okelle along the square was transit points of long-distance trade later to become the Bourse of Alex- routes, fulfilling the function of ‘ex- andria. tra-territorial islands’. Some okelles The continuity of this building type were built for merchants from as a symbol of the past but also of the same origins, others instead modern Egypt is proved by the fact grouped the same kind of goods. that an okelle was rebuilt in Paris for Trade was carried on in the main the 1867 Universal Exhibition: “The courtyard, the warehouses laying okelle is built round a large court- behind the arcade; a glance upward yard with shops facing onto it …, but revealed the sleeping quarters, tem- it is also a hotel, a bazaar, a ware- porary accommodation for the mer- house, a workshop and even a stock chants as well as for the residents. exchange and may be summed up At the time of Napoleon Expedi- as a large public building where a tion, many old okelles were still to people pursue their industrious ac- be found at Bulaq, the river port of tivity.” (Ch. Edmond, L’Egypte à Cairo, in the Mediterranean ports l’exposition universelle de 1867, of Alexandria, Rashid, and Dumyat, Paris: E. Dentu, 1867, pp.19 e 215). but also in the ports along the Red 44 Cristina Pallini - Milan, 1964; MA di Milano. She holds a Masters from in Architecture, Politecnico di Milano Catania University in Economics (1990); PhD in Architectural Com- and Valorisation of Cultural Herit- position, IUAV Venice (2001) - is a age (with Honours). She was Teach- senior researcher at Department ing Assistant at Cairo University and ABC, member of the Scientific Com- 6th October University. She is For- mittee and of the PhD programme mer Consultant Architect for Al Aga teaching board. Khan in their programme about His- From February to July 2016, she toric cities, Former Board member in was visiting fellow at SALP, Newcas- the Egyptian Engineering Syndicate tle University. In 2015, she taught (2012-14) and Head of the Sustain- at the School of Urban Design, Wu- ability and Urban Development com- han University and at the Faculty of mittee. Urban and Regional Planning, Peking University. Her research on architectural de- Architect with a Master Degree with sign, settlement dynamics and ur- honors in “Architecture” obtained in ban change has been funded by 2013 at Politecnico di Milano, Sil- Italian and foreign institutions, in- via Boca will attend Phd Program cluding AKPIA @ MIT (2004) and at ABC Department of Politecnico di the Onassis Foundation (2006). Milano from November 2016. Until She has collaborated in EU-funded now her research has focused on research (ARCHING –- EU Culture architecture and the rural-urban as- Programme 2010-2012; DeMuCiv - pects in Egypt. Designing the Museum of the City of Volos - THALES program, European Social Fund 2007-2010), PI in PU- MAH Planning, Urban Management and Heritage (FP7 Marie Curie IRS- ES, 2012-2016) and MODSCAPES (Modernist reinventions of the rural landscape), HERA call “Uses of the past”, 2016-2019). Among her key publications are: ‘Alexandria's Waterfronts. Form, Identity and Ar- chitecture of a Port City’, in Water- fronts Revisited, eds H. Porfyriou, M. Sepe, 2016; Smouha, Pallini & Bruwier, The Smouha City Venture, 2014; Geographic Theatres, Port Landscapes and Architecture in the Eastern Mediterranean: Salonica, Alexandria, Izmir, in Cities of the Mediterranean, eds M. Toksoz, B. Kolluoğlu Kirli, 2010.

Manar Ahmed El Gammal is a Vis- iting Scholar at UC Berkeley Univer- sity and a PhD scholar at Politecnico 45 Session 6: The European Com- factors of the Sicilian history that mercial World and the Levant: have conditioned the trade in east- Maritime Trade between Middle ern Mediterranean sea. and Modern Ages

For Salvatore Bottari’s biographi- Elisa Vermiglio is Assistant Profes- cal note please see p.48 sor in Medieval History at the Uni- versity for Foreigners Dante Alighieri of Reggio Calabria. She taught also The Levant and Sicily: Trade, at the University of Messina (degree Merchants and Merchandise be- course in Modern Literature). tween the XII and XV Centuries Graduate in Modern Humanities Elisa Vermiglio from the University of Messina (110/110 cum laude), in 2006 she During the Middle Ages, Sicily was was awarded her PhD in Medieval an important base in the Mediter- History at Palermo’s University ranean sea and its relationship with (XVII doctoral course); from 2006 to the Levantine area is documented in 2010 she gained a postdoctoral fel- various sources. This research will lowship in the Department of History focus on the trade between Sicily and Social Sciences of the University and the Levant in the Middle Ages of Messina. and in particular on the role of the She has worked in the international port of Messina between XII- XV project @ SMM - Historical Archive centuries. Multimedia Mediterranean. She par- Due to its particular geographical ticipated in several Prin projects location between the eastern and and international congresses and western Mediterranean Sea, Sic- has published studies on the socio- ily assumed a strategic relevance economic situation in Sicily and on in mercantile business and its ports trade in the Mediterranean. Her in- were an important market for the terests focus on the socio-economic import and export of goods in food analysis of Southern Italy, history of trade and luxury commerce. trade, migration and integration of The objective of the present re- cultures in the late Middle Ages in search is a close examination of the Mediterranean area with particu- Levantine trade from a specific con- lar reference to area of the Strait of text in the Southern Italy - eastern Messina, as a place of identity and Sicily - by means of historiography integrated economy system. and archival documents dating back Among her recent pubblications to the late Middle Ages. Through are: “L’Islam e il Mediterraneo: dal- the port of Messina, oriental silk, la Sicilia araba al modello della Si- spices, African skins and gold ar- cilia normanna”, in Temi e rifles- rived to the island from the east- sioni sul diritto nella prospettiva ern Mediterranean. The aim of this culturale dell’Islam, ed.by H. Ezzat, article is to examine the ways in A. Monorchio, D. Siclari, Reggio which local merchants intruded into Calabria, Laruffa Editore, 2015, and Levantine commerce, and the role “«Ad bonam fortunam et risicum dei of foreign merchants in develop- maris et gentium». Scambi e coming these peculiar nodes of contact, merci nel Quattrocento messinese”, focusing on political and economic in Medioevo per Enrico Pispisa, 46 ed.by L.Catalioto, P. Corsi, E.Cuozzo, merchants from Pera who chose the G. Sangermano, S.Tramontana, B. business environment, unlike many Vetere, Centro Internazionale di of the Levantine families who con- Studi Umanistici, Messina 2014, pp. tinued to serve the Western diplo- 395-408. matic embassies in Constantinople.

Levantine Merchants from Constantinople in the Late Six- Cristian Luca attended the Univer- teenth Century International sity of Bucharest, where he com- Maritime Trade in North-West- pleted a B.A. in Medieval History in ern Black Sea and Lower Dan- 1999, an M.A. in Eastern European ube Areas Medieval and Early Modern History Cristian Luca in 2001 and a Ph.D. degree magna cum laude in Early Modern European The Levantine merchants from Con- History in 2006. He was awarded stantinople, often referred to in the «Nicolae Iorga» National Fellow- contemporary sources as “Perotti”, ship for Research and Postgraduate were involved in various profes- Specialization in Venice from 2002 sional fields. They are well known as to 2004, and was Andrew W. Mellon interpreters and clerks working for Postdoctoral Fellow to the Nether- the Western embassies in the Otto- lands Institute for Advanced Study in man capital, but also as merchants the Humanities and Social Sciences engaged in international maritime from September 2008 to February ventures. They enjoyed an easier 2009, and was also awarded other access to the Black Sea, as sub- grants and stipends for research and jects of the Porte, they were associ- specialist training in Italy. Professor ated with Muslim merchants or used of Late Medieval and Early Modern the commercial vessels of Ottoman History at the Lower Danube Univer- ship-owners in order to reach the sity of Galati (Romania), he teaches ports of the maritime Danube, tran- Late Mediaeval and Early Modern sit centres for goods sent for sale history of Eastern Europe and the to the Polish market. The Venetian Romanian Principalities. He is cur- merchants were bound, by mutual rently the Deputy Director of the economic interests, with the Levan- Romanian Institute of Culture and tine Constantinopolitan traders, and Humanities Research in Venice (It- were often associated with them in aly). His research interests include transactions with raw materials or maritime trade in the north–west- with Cretan wine exported to the ern Black Sea from the sixteenth to Polish markets. The Levantine mer- the late eighteenth centuries, West- chants Pietro Panzani and Piero/Pi- ern diplomacy and embassy staff in etro Galante were among the most Constantinople during the sixteenth important merchants who controlled and seventeenth centuries, and the the maritime trade routes between social and economic history of the Constantinople and the ports of Romanian Principalities in the Early the mouths of the Danube in the Modern period. second half of the sixteenth century. This paper will highlight their professional activity, as they were part of the community of Levantine 47 Gate to the Levant: Malta and Among his last publications are: the Maritime Trade between the Messina tra Umanesimo e Rinas- Eastern and Western Mediterra- cimento. Il “caso” Antonello, la nean (1740-1750) cultura, le élites politiche, le attività Salvatore Bottari produttive (Soveria Mannelli 2010); Nel Mediterraneo dal Mare del Nord: Malta served as a gate to the Levant la presenza commerciale inglese for the western merchants who were nella Sicilia del Settecento (Rome permitted to conduct business with 2012); “Per sollievo e beneficio di the Ottoman Empire. This was due questo Regno”: Carlo di Borbone e to its geographical position as well as il governo economico della Sicilia the Lazaretto, the Quarantine Sta- (1734-1759)”, in J. Martínez Millán, tion located on Manoel Island (Mar- C. Camarero Bullón, M. Luzzi Tra- samxett Harbour). The proposed ficante (eds.), La Corte de los Bor- paper will analyze some aspects of bones: crisis del modelo cortesano the maritime trade and commercial (Madrid 2013); “Trade and Politics networks between the eastern and between Naples, Sicily and the Otto- western Mediterranean choosing man Empire during the Kingdom of Malta as a point of reference in the Charles of Bourbon (1734-1759)”, in 1740s, a period in which the plague Halil Ersin Avci (ed.), Türk Den¡zc¡lik that affected Messina (1743-1745) Tar¡h¡ B¡ld¡r¡ler, Proceedings of the increased the importance of the is- International Symposium of Piri Reis land’s location as a midpoint in the and Turkish Maritime History (Prime ‘great sea’ trade routes. The sources Minister Ottoman Archives in Istan- comprise documents kept in British, bul, 26-29 settembre 2013), (Anka- French, Italian and, above all, Mal- ra 2014), “Lotte politiche nel Parla- tese libraries and archives. mento siciliano dopo la Costituzione del 1812”, in Giuseppe Bottaro e Vittoria Calabrò (eds.), Democra- Salvatore Bottari is Associate Pro- zia e sistema bicamerale. Teoria fessor at the ‘Dipartimento di Scien- politica, profili storici e prospettive ze Politiche e Giuridiche” (University costituzionali (Palermo 2015); “The of Messina, IT), where he teaches Accademia della Fucina: Culture Early Modern History. He is on the and Politics in Seventeenth-Century Editorial Board of Journal of Maltese Messina”, in Jane E. Everson, Denis History, member of the Executive V. Reidy and Lisa Sampson (eds.), Committee of the Istituto di Studi The Italian Academies 1525-1700: Storici ‘Gaetano Salvemini’ of Messi- Networks of Culture, Innovation and na, member of the Scientific Com- Dissent, (Oxford 2016). mittee of the ‘Laboratorio di Storia Marittima e Navale’ (University of Genova, IT), secretary of the Soci- Trade Exchanges between the età Messinese di Storia Patria and Kingdom of the Two Sicilies and fellow of a number of international the Countries of the Baltic Sea historical associations. His interests and the Black Sea (1734-1861) embrace the social, cultural and po- Maria Sirago and Franca Pirolo litical history of the Mediterranean lands, especially Southern Italy and When Charles of Bourbon occupied Sicily, in the early modern age. the kingdom of Naples, in 1734, the 48 situation was quite critical because system, on Southern Italy Navy in it lacked infrastructure, the fleet had Spanish, Austrian and Bourbon pe- been destroyed, the harbours were riods, on merchant ships, on mari- in disuse and its trade was in crisis. time insurances, on trade, on naval Around 1750, some very big ships, schools and on fishing systems. As a called “polacche” (polacres), were result of these studies, she has pub- built: they were also equipped with lished various essays and six mono- guns, and they took part in the trade graphic studies. Her latest publica- between England and the (Ameri- tions include “Il consolato napoletano can) colonies. During the regency nel Mar Nero e lo sviluppo di Odessa of Bernardo Tanucci (1759-1767), tra la fine del ‘700 e la prima metà mainmasts for the new fleet were dell’800”, in M. Mafrici L. Mascilli sent from Sweden and Denmark, Migliorini ed., Convegno Mediterra- with whom the Bourbons had al- neo e/è Mar Nero. Due mari tra età ready stipulated some trade agree- moderna e contemporanea, Napoli, ments (in 1742 and 1748). Trade ex- ESI, 2012; ‘The shipbuilding indus- panded both in the Baltic and in the try and trade exchanges between Black Seas after a further agreement the kingdom of the Two Sicilies and made with Russia in 1787. Actu- the countries of the Baltic and the ally, these trading routes developed Black Sea (1734 -1861)’, in “Medi- only after the congress of Vienna, in terranean Review”, IMS,vol.5 n. 2, 1815, when trade steadily increased dec.2012, pp.81-107 (ISSN 1229- between the two seas thanks to 7542) and ‘The development of the the barques, the new type of sail- new steamships and the history of ing ships which were built in Piano the shipping industry in the King- and Meta di Sorrento. The purpose dom of Two Sicilies (1816-1861)’, of this paper is to establish a frame- in R.PISANO, ed., A Bridge between work of the trade routes between Conceptual Frameworks, Sciences, the Kingdom of Naples and the new Society and Technology Studies, emporia in the Black Sea and in the Springer ed, Amsterdam, 2015, pp. Baltic Sea. To this end, an examina- 495 - 511. tion of customs documents used in foreign trade during the Kingdom Franca Pirolo holds a Bachelor’s of the Two Sicilies kept in the State Degree in Economics (University of Archives of Naples will be the main Salerno), and a PhD in the History concern of the paper. A survey of of Italian Industry and Sociology of the legislation related to the trade mass media. Currently she is work- policy of the Kingdom, including the ing as a Professor of History of Eco- agreements made with foreign pow- nomic Thought and as researcher of ers, will supplement the research. Economic History at the University of Catania, Department of Econom- ics and Business. She won several Maria Sirago is permanent state scholarships (including for doctor- teacher of literary subjects at “Liceo al studies and for a Concentration Classico Jacopo Sannazaro” in Na- study at the Istituto Internazionale ples since 1987 . She has been stud- di Storia Economica “F. Datini” in ying maritime history in its different Prato); she was also a post-doctoral aspects, carrying out, in particular, fellow and a Didactic Manager for studies on the Southern Italy port the degree courses of the Faculty 49 of Economics for the project “Cam- that arrived in Constantinople: the pus Campania”. She is a member Turkish prohibition (1803) of grain of the Società Italiana degli Storici trade from the Black Sea nullified dell’Economia and of Società Saler- the agreements between Naples nitana di Storia Patria. Her latest and Constantinople. The chancellor publication is titled ‘Peace treaties was able to obtain safe-conducts to and trade between the Kingdom of ensure the trade to the Neapolitan Naples and Tripoli in the eighteenth ships also from attacks by Barbary. century’, Mediterranean Studies As- But trade in Levant was complicat- sociation, 19th Annual International ed by Russia’s decision to declare Congress, maggio 2016, Palermo. the port of Sevastopol a war port, prohibiting the landing of ships and the settlement of consuls and merchants. Trade in the Levant in the Nea- politan Diplomatic Correspond- Mirella Vera Mafrici is Contract ence in Constantinople (1803- Professor at the “Dipartimento di 1804) Studi Umanistici” (University of Mirella Vera Mafrici Salerno, IT), where he teaches Mod- ern History. She is on the Editorial The paper intends to examine the Board of “Rivista Storica Calabrese”, diplomatic correspondence of the member of the Scientific Committee Neapolitan chancellor in Constantin- of the Mediterranean Maritime His- ople between years 1803 and 1804. tory Network, member of the Ex- During this period the ambassador ecutive Board of the Deputazione di Guglielmo Costantino Ludolf was Storia Patria per la Calabria, mem- leaving the Οttoman capital put- ber of the Societé Internationale des ting the regency of the Neapolitan Historiens de la Méditerranée and legation in the hands of the royal fellow of a number of international chancellor, Giacomo de Marini. The historical associations. chancellor reported at the Neapoli- Her researches on Mediterranean tan government on what was hap- Europe include institutions, econo- pening in the Ottoman Dominion, on my, society, diplomatic and dynastic the sultan’s decision to remain un- history in the modern age. Current- related to the wars that were tear- ly, she is researching the Mediter- ing to pieces the Napoleonic Europe. ranean history as based on the dip- The sultan declared his neutrality lomatic and commercial relations in the conflict between France and among Kingdom of Naples, Russian England in an official note at the del- Empire and Turkish Empire (XVIII- egates of the European Courts. But XIX centuries). the conflict between the two States Among her latest publications are: had big impacts in the Mediterrane- «Felipe de Borbóm, el ducado de an area, especially with regards to Parma y la corte de Madrid», in J. commercial exchanges. The chan- Martinez Millán, C. Camarero Bullón, cellor provided exhaustive informa- M. Luzzi Traficante (eds.), La Corte tion on trade hoping for the open- de los Borbones: la crisis del mod- ing of the Straits of the Dardanelles elo cortesano (Madrid 2013); «The to commercial shipping. His intent Kingdom of Naples and the Ottoman was to assist the Neapolitan ships Empire during the Napoleonic era: 50 diplomatic and trade relations”, in in the major cities of the Ottoman D. Couto, F. Gunergun, M. P. Pedani Empire that were reporting to their (eds.), Seapower, technology and commercial partners in Florence trade. Studies in Turkish Maritime on the sales of silk and wool cloth. History (Istanbul 2014); «The Turks These agents played an intermedi- in the Mediterranean: the expedi- ary role between the consumers and tion of Hayreddin Barbarossa (1543- the producers, and therefore influ- 1544)» in Uluslararasy Piri Reis ve enced the ways in which the cloth Turk Denizcilik Tahiri Sempozyumu was woven and dyed to conform to (Istanbul 2014); «Il Codice Romano the clothing desires of their Otto- Carratelli nel sistema difensivo del man consumers. Similarly, account Regno di Napoli» in F. Martorano books from textile workshops and (ed.), Progettare la difesa, rappre- commercial companies in Florence, sentare il territorio. Il Codice Roma- where the cloths were manufactured no Carratelli e la fortificazione nel and shipped out to the Ottoman Em- Mediterraneo secoli XVI-XVII (Reg- pire, contain lists of bales of differ- gio Calabria 2015). She has been ent types of wool and silk cloth sent the editor of multiple volumes. to the Ottoman markets, in which not only the quality but the colour of each piece of cloth is mentioned. Session 7: Consumption and This mass of information gives pre- Taste in the Levantine World cious insights into the colour tastes of the Ottoman buyers at the time. For James Whidden’s biographical By crossing registers, letters, and note please see p.55 the extant old cloths preserved in textile collections and in iconog- Accounting for Taste: Florentine raphy, I will identify the Ottoman Cloth and its Ottoman Consum- consumers of Florentine textiles ers in the 16th century and their different tastes according Ingrid Houssaye Michienzi to their social status. Some textiles were manufactured in Florence for Early modern Florentine business re- specific consumers, for example, cords, comprising of account books the Ottoman court; others were of and copious correspondence, offer a different qualities and sold mainly to privileged source for the study of Eu- shopkeepers in the Bedesten of Con- ropean and Mediterranean trade and stantinople and to drapers in Bursa. culture. In this paper, I will use these I will examine the impact of the Ot- extraordinary sources to investigate toman tastes on Florentine produc- the material tastes and fashion pref- tion structures, as almost 30 to 40% erences of Ottoman Empire buyers of the Florentine woollens produc- of Florentine silk and wool cloths in tion was exported to the Ottoman the sixteenth century, and reflect on markets. what impact these preferences had on production. Ingrid Houssaye Michienzi is a This paper will use sources pro- permanent researcher at the French duced in Florence and in the Otto- National Center for Scientific Re- man Empire to study how taste and search (CNRS, Orient & Méditer- fashion shaped production. Floren- ranée UMR 8167). She earned her tine business companies had agents PhD in History and Civilization from 51 the European University Institute d’Anton. As Philip Mansel has re- (Florence, 2010). She is the author marked, the painting is “an icon of of Datini, Majorque et le Maghreb Smyrna’s cosmopolitan past.” (14e-15e siècles). Réseaux, espaces This paper will interpret the portrait méditerranées et stratégies march- in a broad socio-economic and cul- andes (Brill, 2013). She has recently tural context, drawing on histories been a part of a collective research of the van Lennep family, chang- project named ENPrESA (Entreprise, ing concepts of familial social or- négoce et production en Europe: der informed by the Enlightenment, les compagnies Salviati, XIVe-XVIe as well as studies on turquerie and siècles). Her interests encompass the dynamics of 18th century Eu- the Mediterranean commercial re- ropean group portraiture. What do lationships in the Later Middle Ages members of this important Levan- with a particular focus on interreli- tine family reveal about the long- gious trade, merchant networks and standing commercial interaction strategies, commercial methods and between the Netherlands and the practices, Florentine trade compa- Ottoman Empire and their specific nies, and the articulation between roles in its advancement? What do economy and social relationships. these self-fashioning actors convey For more details see: https://cnrs. about individual, familial, and geo- academia.edu/IngridHoussayeM- graphic identities? How are accultur- ichienzi ated Ottoman and European gender roles of late 18th century affirmed Sublime Purveyor of Levantine and subverted? Trade and Taste: The David van This paper will argue that the por- Lennep Family Portrait trait negotiates between the per- Caroline Mesrobian Hickman ceived exoticism of the “East” and restrained etiquette of the “West,” a Recent publications concerning 18th visual feast of intertwined trade, cul- century Dutch and Ottoman trade ture, and customs. The van Lennep’s and the Levant include a reproduc- trading interests and decades of tion and brief descriptive summary residence in Smyrna move the por- of the David van Lennep Family portrait beyond 18th century European trait, thus introducing the striking turquerie, as seen in other works by image to an academic and general de Favray as well as those by Jean- audience. The monumental group Étienne Liotard. Ottoman dress is portrait, attributed to Antoine de both an emblem of their mercantile Favray, ca. 1771 (fig. 1), depicts activities and representative of the the sizable Dutch Levantine fam- luxury goods they wore. More than ily of Smyrna confidently facing the overt displays of wealth, social sta- viewer, richly clothed in colorful Ot- tus, and socially appropriate behav- toman and European dress. Present ior, the clothing, ornament, and oth- are the prominent Dutch trading er material attributes authentically merchant David George van Lennep encode the sitters’ professional, so- (1712-1797); his wife Anna Maria cial, and familial gendered roles. (1734-1802); their seven surviv- The actors’ positions within the ing children; Anna’s father Justinus group and postures appear to docu- Leytstar, a fur trader in Ankara and ment shifts in social practice or ide- Smyrna; and the family tutor M. ology concerning familial authority 52 as well as relationships between sional and personal connections to generations. Anna van Lennep’s Istanbul and Smyrna/Izmir, among dominant position suggests a shift them diplôme from the Imperial from patriarchic to matricentric fam- Academy of Fine Arts in Istanbul, ily. The eldest sons’ dress and other municipal architect and designer in material attributes suggest aspira- Smyrna/Izmir, and assistant to chief tions for an upwardly mobile transi- palace architect Vedat on the resto- tion from merchant social standing ration of the Dolmabahçe Palace. to gentry. The posture, position, and costume of Elisabeth Clara, the eld- Towards the Creation of a est daughter, demonstrate her read- Shared Levantine-European iness to assume van Lennep’s Le- Consumer Space at the Turning vantine trade interests, subverting of the 20th century : the Role of gender-specific norms regarding the Press Advertisements mercantile profession. Indeed, such Nicolas Pitsos cultural and generational gendered differences intersect in her figure, The end of the 19th and the begin- an amalgam of “East” and “West,” ning of the 20th century was ac- professional gender categorization companied by a flourishing Press and enlightened thought regarding industry and a widepsread circual- the role of women in society. tion of newspapers within European metropoles as well as in the urban Caroline Mesrobian Hickman is and maritime centers of Eastern an independent art and architectural Mediterranean sea. Among many historian in Washington, DC., who factors, such as literacy advances, acts as a researcher, exhibition cura- technological achievements in the tor, writer, and editor. She received production and diffusion process, her B.A in anthropology from Duke notably the progress in printing University, M.A. in art history from methods or transportation means, Tulane University, and Ph.D. in art the ‘colonisation’ of media space history from the University of North by advertisements, was another Carolina at Chapel Hill. Her areas of major explanation of such a trend. interest include 18th - 20th century On the one hand, these adverstise- American painting, graphic art, and ments sustained newspapers’ read- architecture, particularly American ing democratisation process, allow- colonial portraiture and Washington, ing people of various socioeconomic D.C., historic buildings. Her most backgrounds to buy them. On the recent publication concerns the art, other hand, they both announced architecture, and early diplomatic and participated in the advent of history of the palatial Turkish Am- mass consumption society and cul- bassador’s Residence located on ture. This paper aims at studying Washington’s “Embassy Row.” how advertisements became agents Dr. Hickman is working on a book for weaving commercial ties and for and exhibition about the architectur- shaping common consumption pat- al career of her grandfather Mihran terns between the Levantine and Mesrobian (1889-1975), who had a the European space.Which are the prolific career in Washington during products, the brands, crossing the the 1920s, 30s, and 40s. The Otto- sea in both directions? And which man Armenian had strong profes- are the Orientalist/Occidentalist 53 representations and imageries that versitaires François-Rabelais, 2013, followed them in their journey? pp.257-275. Through the consultation of newspapers edited on the one hand, in French, English, or Greek, in cos- Session 8: Families and Identi- mopolitan cities such as Alexandria, ties between Europe and the Smyrna, Salonica or Istanbul/Con- Levant stantinople, and on the other hand in these languages in Paris, London For Philip Mansel’s biographical or Athens, this study wishes to start note please see p.8 piecing together fragments of a consumer’s culture fresco at the turning of the 20th century. A Levantine Family: The Barkers of Alexandria After a Master degree on social and James Whidden cultural history at the University of Sorbonne, Nicolas Pitsos obtained James Mather has shown that there his PhD at the INALCO, French In- was a high degree of cultural toler- stitute for Oriental languages and ance exhibited by British merchants civilizations. He is currently teaching toward the Ottoman inhabitants of history of the Byzantine, Ottoman the Levant in the pre-1800 era. In- empires and history of the East- dividuals adapted their lifestyles to ern question at the ICES (Institut the requirements of trade. Arguably, Catholique d’Études Supérieures). the post-1800 period reversed this At the same time, he is member of trend. Economic histories highlight Transfopress, a transnational net- the insularity of the British and sug- work for the study of foreign lan- gest that the Capitulations estab- guage press, whereas, he is pursu- lished the political dominance of the ing his researches on French and foreigners. The contradictory inter- Greek-speaking newspapers, history pretations can at least partly be ex- of advertisements and consump- plained by method. Mather describes tion, as well as French perceptions individuals and their everyday lives of Southeastern Europe, during the within a Levantine milieu, whereas 19th-20th centuries. Among his re- economic historians analyze larger cent publications are «Fighting Bal- structures over the long-term and, kan Wars along the Grands Boule- obviously with hindsight, the pro- vards: Antagonistic media narratives cess afoot amounted to the eventual in French public space », in Mustafa domination of the Europeans. Phillip Türkeş, The Centenary of the Bal- Mansell’s study of the Levant offers a kan Wars (1912-1913): contested synthesis of these differing interpre- stances, Ankara, Türk Tarih Kurumu, tations. While recognizing that the 2014, pp.759-771; «De Paris à Is- imperial state in Europe shaped un- tanbul: représentations d’un ailleurs equal social relations between Euro- sensoriel sur les rives du Bosphore, peans and Ottoman subjects, Man- au temps de la Question d’Orient», sell has also said that the ‘cities of in Robert Beck, Ulrike Krampl, Em- the Levant were protagonists in the manuelle Retaillaud-Bajac, (dir.), dialogues between cities and states, Les Cinq sens de la ville, du Moyen ports and hinterlands, as well as Age à nos jours, Tours, Presses Uni- between East and West’. From this 54 perspective, the ‘Levant’ represent- Islam and Neo-colonialism between ed ‘interstices’ or ‘bridgeheads’ and the Wars (2013). thus a Levantine ‘mentality’ could survive the Byzantine, Ottoman and British Empires. Mansell’s insights The Death of David Altaras: Le- can be compared to the descriptions vantine Identity in Early Modern of colonial space in works on Brit- Aleppo ish imperial history by John Darwin, Mary Momdjian David Lambert or Alan Lester, which have also focused on biographical In a letter to the Cinque Savii, (the treatments. These methods can be Venetian board of trade), written on applied to the case of the Barker April 15th 1774, the Venetian Con- family of Alexandria, a preeminent sul in Aleppo informs the members British commercial family in the Le- of the death of David Altaras, the vant from the eighteenth to twen- head of the Aleppine Jewish Altaras tieth century. In many ways, the clan, and the strange circumstances family narrative reconstructed from that followed his death. Directly af- the archive at Exeter University cor- ter the passing of Altaras, both the responds to elements of a Levantine Venetian consul and the Ottoman identity; most notably that the fam- Qadi (judge) turned up at the house ily’s cultural and social connections to place a seal on the door, claiming to Alexandria outlasted the fam- the deceased as one of their own. ily’s financial and commercial - con This tug of war between the two nections and, at decisive moments sides dragged on for a long time, in the family’s centuries-long resi- while the body was left to decom- dence, the social and cultural con- pose in a sealed house. It wasn’t un- nections trumped economic interest. til after four European consuls, in a The family portrait that emerges rare show of solidarity, came togeth- from reading the memoirs (a series er to petition, that the Qadi gave of files of notes taken from diaries, way under pressure and allowed the letters, and memorabilia, and thus body to be buried without paying the not a cohesive narrative) supports a required taxes. highly localized identity, not insular, The Altaras clan exemplify the Le- nor inscribed with political privilege. vantine families who straddled the In the proposed paper the particular divide between the Ottoman and history of the Barker family is re- European worlds, and rose to com- counted, based on the archive, while mercial power in the second half placing that history in the larger and of the eighteenth century as a re- long-term structures, as described sult of a change in commerce and by imperial and economic historians. market patterns. Identity in the Ottoman Empire in the early modern period was fairly fluid and - op James Whidden is Professor of His- portunistic. Members of the Levan- tory at Acadia University, Canada. tine community were long-standing He holds a PhD in History from the inhabitants of the empire who had School of Oriental and African Stud- lived there over an extended peri- ies (SOAS), University of London. od of time, and as such, considered His works include the book, Monar themselves subjects of the sultan. chy and Modernity in Egypt: Politics, However, many of them simulta- 55 neously retained their European loyalties. She is scheduled to com- identities, which was Venetian in plete her dissertation in December the case of the Altaras. By thenine- 2016. teenth century, the Levantine iden- Her research interests include Syr- tity meant being part of a growing ia, the Ottoman Empire, Levantine commercial bourgeoisie, cultural merchant communities, minority go-betweens, dragomans, and even communities in the Ottoman Em- consuls or representatives of Euro- pire, the history of the Armenians pean nations. in Aleppo, and social History in the By examining the letter announcing early modern period. the death of Altaras and other such Her pedagogical interests are com- correspondence from the Venetian prised of Ottoman history, Levan- state archives, this paper will dem- tine communities, social history, and onstrate the ambivalent approach Middle Eastern and Mediterranean the Levantines took towards their studies. hybridity using their dual identities Publications: “Halabis and foreign- to leverage trade and further their ers in Aleppo's Mediterranean trade: ambitions. This paper will argue The role of the Halabi merchant in that they were able to do this by 19th Century trade networks.” Req- availing themselves of the dual legal uiem for Ottoman Aleppo/ Alep à systems provided to them by both L’epoque Ottomane, un requiem, the Europeans and the Ottoman ed. Stefan Winter (forthcoming). authorities and using them both to their advantage. The Life and Death of Samson Mary Momdjian is currently a Rowlie, alias Hassan Agha Ph.D. candidate in Ottoman History Daniel Bamford in the department of History at the University of California Los Angeles. There is only very limited evidence Her dissertation is entitled “The Mer- for the life of the sixteenth century chant consuls of Aleppo”, which con- English renegade and eunuch slave, centrates on the social and cultural Hassan Agha, whose birth name aspects of Levantine/European mer- was Samson Rowlie. Until now, he chants in Ottoman Aleppo during has been known from a single let- the 18th and 19th centuries. More ter written in 1586, supplemented specifically her work examines the by a striking watercolour portrait characteristics of the European Le- from 1588. However, new research vantine merchant communities that on early English diplomatic relations settled in Aleppo, their complicated with the Ottomans has uncovered kinship ties, their identity and their further evidence of Hassan Agha’s pivotal role in the formation and de- later life and continued contacts velopment of East West relations. with his fellow Englishmen. This pre- She also examines their “mirror so- viously unstudied evidence includes ciety” which was comprised of the a report of Hassan Agha’s premature local Christian and Armenian mer- death in sinister circumstances, pre- chants and how, due the influx and sumed murdered. influence of the Levantines, they This paper will present these origi- were compelled to re-examine and nal research findings in the context redefine their group identities and of England’s early diplomatic and 56 commercial relations with the Ot- Larnaca, the port city of Cyprus, dur- toman Levant. Particular attention ing the first half of the 19th century. will be paid to the position of eu- The fact that Larnaca was home to nuch slaves within Ottoman govern- the main commercial port of Cyprus, ment and society, as well as ques- the consulates of other states and a tions of personal identity and loyalty significant number of Levantines led amongst renegade ministers and the city to adopt a more “urban” im- officials. This will address the- pro age, contrary to the “traditional Ot- posed conference topics of ‘consular, toman” image of Nicosia. In 1809, diplomatic and commercial interac- the traveller Coransez points out that tions’ and ‘individual or family his- many Europeans reside in Larnaca, tories that reveal aspects of the Le- and “thus there are many opportu- vantine world’. nities for social life and for someone to reacquire European habits”. In Daniel Bamford (MA Hons. 2001, 1816, the traveller Otto von Richter MLitt. 2004) is a graduate of the notes in his texts that “For the Eu- University of St. Andrews. From ropean who returns from Asia, the 2005 to 2008 he was an AHRC doc- particular charm that Larnaca has or toral student at the University of offers are the traces of Europeanism Birmingham, researching the career that he sees in its image and first of the English diplomat Edward Bar- of all the hat that has set aside the ton in relation to the Long Turkish turban”. Later, in 1845, the French War (1593 – 1606). He was unable consul, in his description of the capi- to submit a thesis by the final dead- tal Nicosia, notes that it was a “city line and has subsequently taught with medieval ideas without any Eu- English for Academic Purposes. Fol- ropeans”, contrary to Larnaca, the lowing a drastic restructuring of the people of which he characterizes as text, he will now be able to complete educated, stating that “if the seat of his thesis and submit it for examina- the government was transferred to tion back at Birmingham. In 2014, Larnaca, the implementation of new he was awarded the Sir John Neale decrees would have been easier”. Prize in Tudor History by the Insti- Various sources give a great amount tute of Historical Research (London). of information regarding the consul’s He has also written book reviews for role on different occasions, such as the Revue des études sud-est eu- the revolts of 1804 and 1833, the ropéennes (Bucharest) and Rosetta events of 1821, and the effort of the (Birmingham). For more details, Sublime Porte to implement the Tan- please visit http://st-andrews.aca- zimat reforms on the island shortly demia.edu/DanielBamford after the proclamation of the Hatt-i Şerif. These sources are the docu- An Agent of Mediation and Mo- ments of the French consulate in Cy- dernity in a Commercial Levan- prus, Ottoman documents regarding tine City: The French Consul in the abovementioned events and Nineteenth Century Ottoman some Greek documents from the ar- Larnaca chive of the Church of Cyprus. Michalis N. Michael What is easily understood from the content of these documents is that the The aim of this paper is to analyze French consul was perhaps the most the role of the French consul in influential European representative 57 on the island. He very often acted of History and Archaeology), and his as an agent of mediation between PhD (2004) from the University of the local population and the Otto- Cyprus (Department of Turkish and man authorities. For example, in Middle Eastern Studies). He is the the 1804 revolt, according to all author of the books: The Church of accounts known to us, the media- Cyprus during the Ottoman period: tion of French consul Regnault was The Gradual Formation of an In- requested from all sides, the re- stitution of Political Power (Cyprus bels, the Ottoman administration Research Centre, Nicosia 2005, in and the local population. During the Greek). Revolts as a Field of Power three parallel revolts on the island in Negotiation. Ottoman Cyprus, 1804- 1833, his mediation was once again 1841 (Alexandreia, Athens 2016, in asked from all sides in the conflict. Greek) and the co-editor of Ottoman His meetings and negotiations with Cyprus. A Collection of Studies on the Ottoman administration officials History and Culture (Harrassovitz were the turning point, since the Ot- Verlag, Wiesbaden 2009), The Arch- toman administration cancelled a bishop’s of Cyprus in the Modern certain degree and the first revolt Age: The Changing Role of the Arch- of that year ended without any loss. bishop-Ethnarch, their Identities and During the events of 1821 in Cy- Politics (Cambridge Scholars Pub- prus, the French consulate becomes lishing, London 2013) and the editor the target of some soldiers, but the of the Special Issue on Cyprus of the consul manages to avoid further Archivum Ottomanicum, 32 (2015). conflicts. In 1840, when a newly ap- He has published articles in Archi- pointed muhassil on the island tries vum Ottomanicum (2009, 2012, to apply the reform measures in 2015), Chronos (2010, 2014), Social the framework of the Tanzimat, the Compass (2009), Religions (2010), French consul becomes his constant Historica (2005, 2007, 2009), Turk- advisor, and all the documents verify ish Historical Review (2011), Inter- his role as an agent of modernity. It national Review of Turkish Studies is obvious that the main roles ful- (2013), Osmanlı Tarihi Araştırma ve filled by the French consul’s activity Uygulama Merkezi Dergisi (2013), during the first half of the 19th cen- The Cyprus Review (2015), and has tury in Cyprus can be characterized chapters in several books includ- as the following two: mediator being Nationalism in the Troubled Tri- tween conflicting sides on the island angle: Cyprus, Greece and Turkey and agent of modernity, supporting (Palgrave Macmillan, London 2010), the Tanzimat reforms, advising the Cries and Whispers in Karamanlidi- newly appointed muhassil and ex- ka Books (Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden pressing the mentality of a modern 2010), Histories of Ottoman Larn- type of administration. aca (National Research Foundation, Athens 2012). He is an Assistant Professor of Ottoman History at the Michalis N. Michael obtained a BA Department of Turkish and Middle in Turkish Studies (1996) from the Eastern Studies in the University of University of Cyprus (Department Cyprus. of Turkish and Middle Eastern Stud- ies). He received his MA (1998) from the University of Crete (Department 58 Session 9: Communities be- actors, an array of Christian, Jewish tween Europe and the Levant and converso practitioners enlisted from across the Mediterranean. For Evguenia Davidova’s bio- Drawing on the notes of Bianchi graphical note please see p.37 and his contemporaries, this paper will introduce this medical network for the sixteenth century. It will ex- Trading Health: Venetian Medi- plore how the role of its practition- cine and Diplomacy in the Early ers, also known as medici condotti, Modern Levant went in fact beyond medical prac- Valentina Pugliano tice and branched into the domain of politics and intellectual exchange. In 1547, the physician Cornelio Bi- As medicine opened more doors anchi returned to Venice after spend- than diplomacy, these practitioners ing four years between Damascus often became key factors in ensur- and Tripoli of Syria in the service ing that trade and political relations of the Venetian consuls Nicolo’ Bon ran smoothly between Venice and its and Domenico Da Molin. Along with counterparts in the Levant, acquiring small gifts for his extended family, sensitive information as well as col- Bianchi brought back two journals lecting favours through their prom- filled with accounts and observa- ise of cure to Ottoman neighbours tions, one of which has survived. and notables. At the same time, as Far from being an occasional travel- I will show, these practitioners took ler to the Ottoman Empire, Bianchi advantage of their contacts with lo- was part of a little-known network cal scholars and healers to further of medical provision set up by the their own intellectual interests. Thus Venetian Republic across the east- they made of this medical infra- ern Mediterranean and wider Levant structure a major circuit for mobi- to take care of the health of its diplo- lizing antiquarian, natural historical mats and merchants. From the late and Islamic medical knowledge in fourteenth century, Venice began to the service of European scholars in- appoint physicians, surgeons and creasingly interested in the objects, apothecaries to the administrative languages and intellectual traditions outposts in its maritime dominion of the Near East. as to those key Levantine entrepôts where it had commercial interests Valentina Pugliano is a Wellcome and thus consular bases, notably in Trust Research Fellow at the Depart- Egypt, Syria, and Constantinople. ment of History and Philosophy of Mapping onto a pre- existing trad- Science, Univ. of Cambridge. ing and diplomatic network, this system of medical appointments is still in need of exploration. Yet it From Surat to Izmir, Aleppo promises to offer valuable insights and Venice: Family Networks into the movement of people, ideas, of Armenian Gem Merchants in and commodities across the region. early Modern Global Trade of This is not least because of its lon- Diamonds gevity, surviving into the eighteenth Sona Tajiryan century; its reach across the Le- vant; and the heterogeneity of its A brown leather-bound book kept 59 under the number P.D. 66.c in Museo history of this Armenian family firm Civico e Raccolta Correr di Venezia, and their most significant agent. It is an unpublished accounting ledg- will treat Agha di Matus as broadly er, which belongs to the commenda representative of a group of other agent of Minasian family firm, Agha Armenian merchants involved in di Matus (1644 - 1709). This unique the diamond and gem trade of the ledger contains information about early modern period. Based on the the cities in which he traded be- above-mentioned accounting ledger tween 1679 and late 1680s and has and around a four dozen mercan- not been published or closely scru- tile letters from four different ar- tinized before. The consignments, chives it will explore the various described in the accounting ledger, ways in which Agha di Matus and contained diamonds and rubies, other agents of the Minasian fam- pearls, turquoise, lazurite, etc, all ily network traded with gemstones shipped or brought to Agha di Ma- on the caravan trade routes of Sa- tus personally in Venice by different favid Iran and the Levant, followed agents of the Minasian family firm by the maritime routes stretching trading from Surat in India to Izmir, from Izmir to Venice and Livorno. By Aleppo, Constantinople, Baghdad in exploring the details of participation the Levant and Venice, Livorno, Am- of Julfan diamond merchants in the sterdam, Marseille and London in commodity trade between India and Europe. Europe, this paper seeks to fill in the Diamonds and gems formed some of gap in the existing scholarship of the the most lucrative global commodi- early modern diamond trade and the ties of the early modern period and involvement of Armenian merchants provided an important link between in it. the production or mining centers in the Mughal Empire and the con- Sona Tajiryan is a PhD Candidate sumption centers in Europe. This at the University of California, Los trade was largely conducted by Ar- Angeles, Department of History, menian merchants from New Julfa Chair in Modern Armenian History. as well as their counterparts from She took her Bachelor’s and Mas- the Sephardic trade diaspora in Eu- ter’s degrees in Middle Eastern and rope, and the various chartered East Arabic Studies from Yerevan State India companies of Europe. Like University, Department of Orien- other Asian mercantile communi- tal Studies (Armenia) in 2009 and ties of the period, the Julfans organ- 2011 respectively. She is mainly in- ized their business ventures around terested in the early modern history the economic institution known as of diamond and gemstone trade in the “family firm.” Julfans did so by general, as well as the role of Ar- combining the archaic structure of menian merchants in this trade be- the patriarchal family with modern tween India and the Mediterranean techniques of investment and credit (from roughly 1600s up to 1730s). transactions. She is currently in the process of My paper will investigate Agha di writing her dissertation under the Matus’s life as a diamond merchant supervision of Dr. Sebouh Aslanian. and the history of the Minasian Fam- ily firm, thus shedding light on the important yet largely neglected 60 Greeks from the Pelion Region way of various business premises in Egypt: a Case of Levantine (factories, shops, cotton farms etc.) Diaspora, 1825-1950 they established, and community Vilma Hastaoglu- Martinidis amenities they founded (schools, hospitals, orphanages, churches The paper will present a research etc). Rich illustration material will account on the settlement of peo- be used to depict the above. ple from Pelion (Thessaly, Greece) in Lastly, a particular aspect of the Egypt, after 1825. The migration of Pelion Diaspora will be addressed, Pelion people to Egypt followed the that concerns the bonds they main- broader pattern of the Greek Dias- tained with their homeland and their pora in the Mediterranean and the contribution to its development in Black Sea that started at around manpower, enterprising ideas, cos- 1815. In Egypt, the Greeks’ settle- mopolitan culture and material sup- ment followed the invitation by the port, through important donations Khedive Muhammad Ali and a grow- for innovative institutions and man- ing immigration flow was developed, ufacturing ventures that fostered its involving people from the mountain- commercial and industrial evolution. ous regions of Epirus and Pelion, and the Aegean islands. The decline of traditional handcrafting and trade in the formerly prosperous Pelion vil- Vilma Hastaoglou-Martinidis is lages prompted many inhabitants to Professor Emerita of the School of immigrate to Egypt. Over 160 family Architecture, Aristotle University of names have been identified so far, Thessaloniki, Greece. She studied originated mostly of four larger Peli- Architecture in Thessaloniki and Ur- on villages. Initially they settled in banism and Urban Sociology in Par- Alexandria before moving to interior is. She is presently teaching at the towns and places in the fertile Delta Postgraduate Program on Conserva- area. tion and Restoration of Monuments, The paper intends to bring into light of the Aristotle University of Thes- research material for roughly thirty saloniki. She has lectured in vari- family cases; each case presents the ous universities in Europe, USA, and family’s migration trajectory, biogra- Istanbul. phy, entrepreneurial activity and in- She is the author of numerous books volvement in local affaires at large, and articles on the Greek and East- as well as the physical evidence of ern Mediterranean cities in the nine- their presence in Egypt. teenth and the twentieth centuries. The majority of the Pelion Diaspora Her research focuses on planning excelled in three sectors: 1. Cot- history, urban modernization and ton plantation, manufacturing and heritage preservation, and has been trade, 2. Tobacco manufacturing sponsored by Greek and EU funds. and trade, 3. Trade, stock exchange Currently she is involved in “The As- and banking. sessment Project for the Conserva- Pelion people were a dynamic com- tion of Architectural Heritage Built ponent of the Greek Diaspora in by Non-Muslim Communities”, con- Egypt. They decisively contributed ducted by Association for the Pro- to the take-off of cosmopolitan- tection of Cultural Heritage (Kültürel ism, and they left tangible traces by Mirası Koruma Derneği), Istanbul. 61 The Zantiot Community in Eight- only the impact of this community eenth Century Cyprus on the island’s society, but also the Theoharis Stavrides influence of the local environment on them. Moreover, using a com- In the middle of the eighteenth cen- parative perspective, there will be tury, a group of Venetian subjects an attempt to evaluate the extent to from the Ionian Islands began set- which an analysis of this community tling in the port of Larnaca, in Ot- may reveal aspects and trends that toman Cyprus. As the members concern the broader Levantine world of this group were predominantly in this period. Greek speakers and belonged to the Greek Orthodox faith, they formed a distinct community that had much Theoharis Stavrides is an Associ- closer contacts with the local Greek ate Professor in the Department of Orthodox population than had been Turkish and Middle Eastern Studies hitherto customary for foreign mer- of the University of Cyprus. He holds chants. In this way, they became the a BA in History from Amherst College main intermediaries between the lo- and an MA and a PhD in History from cal population and European culture Harvard University. His research in- and ideology. Under the aegis of the terests focus mainly on the study of Venetian Consulate in Larnaca, some the history of the early Ottoman Em- members of this community thrived pire and the history of Cyprus during in the second half of the eighteenth the Ottoman period. He has written century, becoming the island’s most several articles and books, including successful and prominent mer- The Sultan of Vezirs: The Life and chants, dominating local society and Times of the Ottoman Grand Vezir economy well into the nineteenth Mahmud Pasha Angelović (1453- century. It is characteristic that, in 1474) (Leiden, Boston, Köln: Brill, the course of the late eighteenth 2001), Studies on the History of and early nineteenth century, mem- Cyprus under Ottoman Rule (Istan- bers of this community became Con- bul: Isis Press, 2012) and Ottoman suls, not only of Venice, but also of Documents from the Archives of the other important powers, like Britain Venetian Consulate of Cyprus 1671- and Russia. 1765 (Nicosia: Cyprus Research Based on a variety of Italian, Greek Centre, 2016). and Ottoman sources, drawn mainly from the State Archives of Venice, this paper aims to examine, through individual cases, the formation and nature of the Zantiot community of Ottoman Cyprus in the eighteenth century. Topics to be discussed will be their financial and social interactions with locals, their Levantine and European trading network, the evolution of their social status within the island, as well as their political ideology and cultural world. There will be an attempt to gauge not 62 Notes