16th Century Eastern Mediterranean

This present essay focuses on the information that Hispanic spies collected in the Levant during the sixteenth-century. Based on archival and literary sources, the study is built around the typical structure of a lyric opera to show the worth of the secret correspondence such as archetype of European perception about the Ottoman Empire and, more generally, about all the Islam.
KEY WORDS: Intelligence; Secret information; Ottoman Empire; Hispanic Monarchy; Eastern Mediterranean; Otherness.

Comment vivre au quotidien avec cet Autre que représente l'Étranger ? Par l'étude des " Turcs " musulmans installés à Venise au XVIe siècle, ce mémoire de recherche analyse l'histoire d'une rencontre, celle du citoyen de la République et du sujet de l'Empire... à moins que ce ne soit celle du Chrétien et du Musulman ? Entre échanges et heurts, fascination et peur, la cohabitation semble loin d'être évidente. Et pourtant, elle existe !

How to live everyday with this Other than represents the Foreigner ? By the study of the Muslim " Turks " settled in Venice in the Cinquecento, this Master 2 thesis analyzes the history of a meeting, that of the citizen of the Republic and the subject of the Empire ... unless it is the one among Christian and Muslim ? Between exchanges and conflicts, fascination and fear, the cohabitation seems far from being obvious. And yet, it exists !

Η εικόνα από το μητροπολιτικό ναό της Χαλκίδας στην Εύβοια παρουσιάζει μια διαχρονικά σπάνια επιλογή για την απεικόνιση του Θεολόγου, αυτή της μετωπικής προσωπογραφίας. Την κεντρική μορφή συμπληρώνουν σε μικρογραφική κλίμακα η καθήμενη μορφή του  Προχόρου στα αριστερά του ευαγγελιστή και στην πάνω δεξιά γωνία της εικόνας το τεταρτοκύκλιο του ουρανού με ακτίνες. Τα εικονογραφικά και τεχνοτροπικά του έργου υποδεικνύουν ως πιθανή χρονολόγηση τις τελευταίες δεκαετίες του 16ου αιώνα. Το έργο, ερμηνεύοντας τα στοιχεία που διαθέτει, δύναται να προσγραφεί στον κύκλο των αποδιδόμενων καλλιτεχνημάτων του Θωμά Μπαθά.
A painted panel from the cathedral of Chalkida presents a diachronically rare choice in the depiction of Saint  John the Theologian, that of the frontal portrait. The central figure is accompanied on the left by the seated figure of Prochoros in a miniature scale and on the right corner of the panel by the radiating quadrant of the sky. The iconography as well as the style of the work suggests as a probable date the last decades of the 16th century. The icon, interpreting its visual evidence, is to be ascribed to the cycle of the attributed artworks of Thomas Bathas

Despite its undoubted importance, there has never been a volume dedicated entirely to studies of the historic city of Famagusta in the years which followed the siege of 1571. City of Empires: Ottoman and British Famagusta takes an important first step in redressing this imbalance. The four centuries which followed the conflict, as the contributions gathered here demonstrate, are rich research seams for scholars of history, urban design, photography, art history, literature, drama, military history and the post-war mandates. City of Empires also places emphasis on the tangible heritage of Famagusta – twice listed as endangered by World Monuments Fund and now the recipient of an increasing number of international efforts to protect it.

Yazar, Doğu Akdeniz Bölgesi’ne, klasik jeopolitik kavramlar ve düşüncelerin iki boyutlu ve sınırlayıcı çerçevesinden ayrılıp değişik bir bakışla, bölgeyi üç boyutlu bir mekânsal ortamda çeşitli ideolojik yaklaşımların ve bunlarla bağlantılı çıkarlara dayalı siyasi süreçlerin bir bakıma kesiştiği her yönüyle küresel bir bütünün çok boyutlu bir parçası olarak ele almaktadır.

Böyle bir yaklaşımla klasik kalıplaşmış açıklamalardan uzaklaşarak söz konusu bölgeye konulara, etkileşim çeşit ve şekillerine göre günümüz gerçekleri doğrultusunda devamlı haraketlilik ve değişimler gösteren bir mekânsal kavram çerçevesinde bakmaktadır.

Bu doğrultudaki analizleri, zaman içinde yerleşmiş açıklamalara farklı bir boyut kazandırmakta ve “jeopolitik” kavramının sosyoekonomik ve sosyopolitik olgular var olduğu sürece anlam ifade etmeye devam edeceğini vurgulamaktadır.

Prof. Dr. Cengiz OKMAN

From the mid-sixteenth century the Venetians were facing increasing competition in shipping and trade in the eastern Mediterranean, both from the Ottomans and from those Western Europeans (French, English and Dutch) who had acquired capitulations from the Sublime Porte permitting them to trade on favourable terms. The intense competition in commerce, combined with other factors such as the frequent conflicts in which the Venetian State was embroiled, inevitably reduced the profitability of their shipping enterprises. From this time on, many members of the Venetian nobility, for whom seafaring and trade in the Levant were not just economic mainstays but also the precondition for a political career, began to diversify their investments, turning to land and the Italian peninsula. Agriculture gave landowners income without personal effort, but also grand residences in the city and countryside, and underpinned a lifestyle oriented towards the ostentatious display of wealth and social status; it was practised in parallel with participation in shipping enterprises, which were managed with increasing frequency from ashore.
This paper examines whether the adoption of this process by the Venetian nobility led to any detectable analogous cases or impact upon the Most Serene Republic’s Ionian subjects, for whom the fashion was to imitate the lifestyle of their overlords. The cases discussed here concern Corfu in the last third of the sixteenth century and the early years of the seventeenth, based upon documents pertaining to the legal dispute between members of the Corfiot Pandis family and the Communità of the island.

Osmanlı İmparatorluğu ile Avrupa devletleri arasındaki diplomatik ilişkilerin yakınlaşıp, geliştiği dönem 16. yüzyılın ilk yarısına rastlamakta idi. Bu  hususun önem kazanmasında etkili olan isimler ise Osmanlı Sultanı I. Süleyman ve Fransız kralı I. François  idi. Biri Müslüman ve diğeri Hıristiyan iki ülkenin müşterek menfaatleri,Türk-Fransız müzakerelerinin uzun soluklu işbirliğine dönüşmesinde temel noktayı teşkil ediyordu. Fransız-Türk ittifakı, Akdeniz’deki ticari sebeplerin öncelikli olması nedeni ile Fransız dış politikasının değerli bir parçası haline gelmişti. Doğu Akdeniz ticaretine katılma konusunda birçok Avrupa ülkesi hevesli iken, Fransa, başarılı Türk diplomasisi sayesinde, diğerlerine kıyasla daha fazla ticari hak ve imtiyaz elde edebildi.
 
                                                     

The period, in which the diplomatic relations between the Ottoman empire and the European nations were developed and became close, was the first half of the sixteenth century. The leading roles in this regard were played by the Ottoman sultan, Suleiman “The Magnificent“ and the French king, Francis I.The common interests of two countries, one Muslim and the other Christian, formed the groundwork of Turkish-French negotiations for a long-term cooperation. The French-Turkish alliance had become a valuable part of French foreign policy, primarily for commercial reasons in the Mediterranean. While many of the European nations were desirous to participate in the commerce of the Levant, France obtained more trading rights and privileges, in comparison to the others, through the success of its Turkish diplomacy.