Levant

For over two centuries (1532-1737), the Medici, as dukes of Florence and grand dukes of Tuscany, ruled over a western Mediterranean state whose geopolitical sphere of influence was centered in Europe. The transformation of the House of Medici from republican “primi inter pares” of Quattrocento Florence to dynastic rulers occurred at the same moment when the Ottoman Empire emerged as an early modern superpower, polarizing Mediterranean politics. The Italian Peninsula became the stage where the cultural forces of the eastern and western Mediterranean converged. As a result, from the early days of their rule, the Medici grand dukes became enmeshed in a power dynamic that encompassed war, religion, diplomacy as well as economic interests and cultural exchange. This collection of essays sheds new light on key aspects of the complex relations between the Medici grand dukes and the Levant.

This book investigates how ecology and politics meet in the Middle East and how those interactions connect to the global political economy. Through region-wide analyses and case studies from the Arabian Peninsula, the Gulf of Aden, the Levant and North Africa, the volume highlights the intimate connections of environmental activism, energy infrastructure and illicit commodity trading with the political economies of Central Asia, the Horn of Africa and the Indian subcontinent. The book’s nine chapters analyse how the exploitation and representation of the environment have shaped the history of the region—and determined its place in global politics. It argues that how the ecological is understood, instrumentalised and intervened upon is the product of political struggle: deconstructing ideas and practices of environmental change means unravelling claims of authority and legitimacy. This is particularly important in a region frequently seen through the prism of environmental determinism, where ruling elites have imposed authoritarian control as the corollary of ‘environmental crisis’. This unique and urgent collection will question much of what we think we know about this pressing issue.

In recent years the central Ottoman archive in Istanbul has been gradually releasing and
computerizing thousands of maps stored in its collections. Our study introduces 137 maps already available to researchers that focus either directly or indirectly as part of broader presentations of imperial domains on the Ottoman Empire’s Arab provinces. These maps, which all date to between the middle of the nineteenth century and the First World War, differ widely in character, content and function. The maps are briefly
described according to their content and set in their historical context.

M. Stachowski and R. Woodhouse: The discussion of the origin of the Turkish city name İstanbul that began well over a century ago has divided scholars into two groups: those who accept the Greek phrase εἰς τὴν πόλιν (or similar) as the source of the name, vs. those who try to trace it back directly to Greek Κωνσταντινούπολις ~ Κωνσταντινόπολις. The writings of both parties are encumbered by poor Turcology, inaccurate attention to early records and an overly narrow view of medieval Anatolian Greek phonetics. More scrupulous examination of all three types of evidence has revealed a more interesting picture than has previously been suggested.

Öz: Sanayi Devrimi ile meydana gelen teknolojik gelişmeler her alanda olduğu gibi ulaşımın da gelişmesine ve çeşitlenmesine neden olmuştur. Yüksek basınçlı buhar motoruyla çalışan gemilerin inşası ulaşım ve taşımacılığa adeta yeni bir soluk getirmiş; buharlı gemilerle yolcu, yük ve posta taşımacılığı yapan şirketlerin kurulmasına zemin oluşturmuştur. Bu şirketlerin en yoğun faaliyet gösterdiği bölgelerden birisi de Karadeniz olmuştur. 20. yüzyıl başlarında Karadeniz’de çoğunluğu Batılı ülkelere ait 12 şirket faaliyet göstermiştir. 1878’de bağımsızlığını kazanan Romanya diğer pek çok alanda olduğu gibi ulaşım ve taşımacılık alanında milli bir girişim olarak Romanya Sürat Vapurları (Serviciul Maritim Român-SMR) işletmesini kurmuştur. Romanya Sürat Vapurları (SMR), Orient Ekspres ve Ostende Ekspres’le Avrupa şehirlerinden gelen yolcuları, Köstence Limanı’ndan İstanbul, İzmir, Beyrut ve İskenderiye gibi doğudaki limanlara taşıma amacıyla oluşturulmuş bir denizcilik işletmesidir. Orient Ekspres ve Ostende Ekspres’le Batı Avrupa şehirlerinden doğuya lüks tren yolculuklarının yapılması planlanmıştı. Faaliyet gösterdiği dönemde Karadeniz’in Beyaz Kuğuları olarak anılan Romanya Sürat Vapurları (SMR) ise tren yollarında sağlanan bu lüks yolculuğu denizde de devam ettirmek amacını taşıyordu. Bu çalışma Romanya Sürat Vapurları (SMR) İşletmesine ait bir broşür üzerinden 20. yüzyıl başlarında Karadeniz ile Doğu Akdeniz limanları arasında vapurla yolculuğun ayrıntılarını ortaya koymak ve aynı şirkete ait bir vapurla İstanbul’dan Romanya’ya gerçekleştirilmesi planlanan bir seyahatin programını incelemek amacıyla hazırlanmıştır.
Abstract:The technological developments brought about by the Industrial Revolution caused developments and diversification in transporting as in many other areas. Transportation sector had a new breathe by building of ships with steam engines powered by high pressure and it paved the way for establishing of companies that transport passenger, cargo and mail with steamboats. Black Sea was one of the regions where these companies acted the most intensively. At the beginning of 20th century, twelve companies -mostly belonging to Western countries- were active in Black Sea. Having gained its independence in 1878, Romania established the Romanian Maritime Service (SMR-Serviciul Maritim Român) as a national enterprise in the sector of transportation, as in many other areas. Serviciul Maritim Român (SMR) is a maritime company established to transport passengers arriving from European cities by means of Orient Express and Ostende Express from the port of Constanța to the ports of the Orient such as İstanbul, İzmir, Beirut and Alexandria. Luxury train journeys from Western European cities to the east were planned with the Orient Express and Ostende Express. Romanian Speedboats (SMR), known as the White Swans of the Black Sea during their operating period, aimed to continue these luxurious railway voyages also on the sea. This study was prepared to show the details of a voyage by speedboat between the Black Sea and the Eastern Mediterranean ports at the beginning of the 20th century through a brochure belonging to the Serviciul Maritime Român (SMR) and to examine the schedule of a trip planned to be made from Istanbul to Romania with a speedboat belonging to the same company.

Nihil est in intellectu quod non sit prius in sensu – “There is nothing in the intellect that is not first in the senses.” So wrote Thomas Aquinas. The senses are the lens through which we come to understand our world; they are the pillars on which all our knowledge rests.

Although we often treat the senses as though they are immutable – fundamental properties of our physiology that provide each of us with a comparable perspective on our surroundings – the way we parse our sensory experiences is dictated by our cultural context. Societies in different times and places have differed vastly in their beliefs about the nature and number of the senses, about where to draw the boundaries between different sensory categories, and about how best to represent sensory phenomena in literature, art, and architecture.

Distant Impressions is the first volume to explore the social aspects of sensation in the ancient Near East. The book is divided into two parts, the first focusing on the Neo-Assyrian period of Mesopotamian history. With its monumental architecture, bas-reliefs, and abundance of tablets, the Neo-Assyrian period is one of the richest milieus for investigating the senses and their cultural values in the ancient Near East. Contributions examine representations of the senses in the written record and analyze the sensory dimensions of two hubs of Neo-Assyrian cultural activity: the temple and the palace.

The second section picks up on the themes of the first, exploring sensory dimensions of the built environment and textual representations of sensation in other times and places in the ancient Near East, such as Neolithic northern Mesopotamia and Hittite Anatolia.

The book approaches the question of sensory experience in ancient Near Eastern societies from philological, literary, art historical, and archeological perspectives; it addresses the means of sense perception (such as vision, hearing, and smell) and the objects of perception (such as light, noise, and odor); and it examines the senses within religious, political, and social frameworks.

Ultimately, the volume paints a portrait of the social life of the senses in these ancient civilizations. The reader is invited to hear the sound of the drum, feel the light of the sun, and smell the scent of the incense as we examine the sensations and sensory codes that underpinned ancient Near Eastern society.