Tuesday, October 15, 2024

İstanbul Ansiklopedisi: Reşad Ekrem Koçu


"A joint project initiated by Salt and Kadir Has University in 2018, istanbulansiklopedisi.org offers access to the printed volumes of Reşad Ekrem Koçu’s Istanbul Encyclopedia and thousands of related documents. It brings together over 40,000 digitized documents, incorporating published encyclopedia articles and a body of archival material that forms the basis for subsequent volumes. Enabling an in-depth analysis of the archive, the online platform provides a basis to trace and explore the visual and textual connections between various sources. 

Blending common facts with unusual accounts, the Istanbul Encyclopedia —and the relevance of the knowledge it entails— is worthy of further scrutiny."

URLhttps://istanbulansiklopedisi.org/  

Wednesday, October 9, 2024

Accountability Archive

 


"The Accountability Archive is a crowdsourced record of journalists, politicians, and public figures endorsing or encouraging the ethnic cleansing of Gaza and/or defaming pro-Palestinian activists.
We have a vision of a public resource to be used by future historians, and researchers, helping understand how power holders attempted to manufacture consent for the genocidal aggression towards the Palestinian people. We hope this resource will serve to hold them to account."

Wednesday, August 21, 2024

Open Access Book: Early Civilization and the American Modern : Images of Middle Eastern origins in the United States, 1893–1939




Author: Eva Miller
Published: UCL Press, 2024
Series: Modern Americas

ISBN: 9781800087200

"In the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, a particular story about the United States’ role in the long history of world civilization was constructed in public spaces, through public art and popular histories. This narrative posited that civilization and its benefits – science, law, writing, art and architecture – began in Egypt and Mesopotamia before passing ever further westward, towards a triumphant culmination on the American continent.

Early Civilization and the American Modern explores how this teleological story answered anxieties about the United States’ unique role in the long march of progress. Eva Miller focuses on important figures who collaborated on the creation of a visual, progressive narrative in key institutions, world’s fairs and popular media: Orientalist and public intellectual James Henry Breasted, astronomer George Ellery Hale, architect Bertram Grosvenor Goodhue, and decorative artists Lee Lawrie and Hildreth Meière. At a time when new information about the ancient Middle East was emerging through archaeological excavation, ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia appeared simultaneously old and new. This same period was crucial to the development of public space and civic life across the United States, as a shared sense of historical consciousness was actively pursued by politicians, philanthropists, intellectuals, architects and artists."


Open Access Book: Aspects of Ottoman Economy and Culture


Title: Aspects of Ottoman Economy and Culture: Papers presented at the 24th Symposium of the Comité International des Études Pré-Ottomanes et Ottomanes (CIÉPO)

Editors: Phokion Kotzageorgis & Dimitris Papastamatiou
Published: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, School of History and Archaeology, Thessaloniki 2024
195 pages.

ISBΝ: 9786185649555

CONTENTS

Preface

PART 1: ECONOMY
Stratis Anagnostou: The Transaction of the Foreign Trade between Lesvos and France and the Collection of Customs Taxes in the Island during the 18th Century, According to Relevant French Archives

Yasar Tolga Cora: "It is Contraction not Crisis": the Panic in the Ottoman Markets in 1906-1908

Melina Grammatikopoulou: European Perceptions of Ottoman Labour

Phokion P. Kotzageorgis: Taking the Baton from J.C. Alexander: the Great Meteoron Monastery in the Early Ottoman Period (15th-16th centuries)

Sevinç Kiiçiikoglu: Financial Supervision in Ottoman Provinces During the era ofSelim III: Emerging Actors

Fatma Öncel: Visualising Confiscation Records of Early-nineteenth Century Ottoman Greece

Dimitris Papastamatiou: Conversing with the Sublime Porte: a Moreot Magnate's Political Interplay with the Ottoman Authority

Onur Usta: What do Gristmills Tell us about the Social and Economic History of Ottoman Anatolia in the Early Seventeenth Century? Rethinking the Wrath of Nature: the Case of Urfa (Ruha), 1629-1631

PART 2: CULTURE

Antonis G. Katsarakis: The ‘‘Yali Camii” in Crete, Greece. An Interpetation of its Layout and Distinctive Dome

Seda Kula: Ottoman Imperial School of Fine Arts’ Role in Architectural Heritage Related Studies and Practices in Late Ottoman Era

Dr. Melpomeni S. Perdikopoulou: The Double Hamam of Ottoman Zichna; an Effort to Interpret an Unknown Bath

Georgios Salakidis: An 18th Century Greek Translation of Mehmed b. Pіr Ali Birgivi’s Vasiyetname

Monday, August 5, 2024

New OA Journal: The Olive Tree: An international collection of art protesting the ongoing genocide of Palestinians.

 The Olive Tree: An international collection of art protesting the ongoing genocide of Palestinians.


"The Olive Tree

This publication is a direct response to the war in Gaza, the ongoing genocide and ethnic cleansing campaign, and the illegal settlements and apartheid system that Palestinians are subject to.

 

We are a group of students who believe in the power of art to make a change to this suffering. Where political rhetoric has failed, where news reporting agencies have faltered in delivering truth, we believe that art has a massive potential to capture and convey the plight of the Palestinian people to those who seem otherwise unbothered. As foreign observers of this conflict, ones whose tax dollars are used to fund the bombs being dropped indiscriminately, we feel we must do something.

 

This publication is the result of that feeling. We aim to use the power of art to address the nuance of the situation, to build empathy for the Palestinian struggle, and to shine a light onto the situation with the hopes of bringing these emotions into the public conversation and affecting change. Most importantly, we aim to use the power of art to protest and convey the unconditional immorality of this situation. If you have strong feelings about the war in Gaza or have produced artwork that grapples with this subject, then this publication is for you. Furthermore, we want to emphasize our commitment to elevating Palestinian voices in this collection. This collection seeks to center the art and writing of Palestinian artists and bolster their voices with the art of other communities and allies who stand with them in protest."

The Olive Tree: https://theolivetreecollection.wordpress.com/   


Sunday, July 28, 2024

Arabic and Persian Seals and Amulets in the British Museum

Porter, Venetia

This catalogue is the first on the outstanding collection of Arabic and Persian seals and amulets in the British Museum, by a specialist in the field. The first part focuses on the 638 Arabic, Persian and Indian seals covering material from the 8th to the 20th century. The introduction covers seal practice in different periods and levels of society; the role of the seal and the "alama" or motto, the use of figural representation on the seals, seal engravers, the forgery of seals and the importance of the stones used are described. The features of the seals themselves, in particular the palaeography and dating of early Islamic seals, some grammatical features of the inscriptions, and the range of designs present on the seals are analysed. The types and form of Islamic names, the range of phrases that commonly appear and the characteristics of later seals are also discussed. The second part focuses on 170 amulets in the collection preceded by an introduction to the subject. Research into the engraving techniques is presented with analysis of the stones used. This publication will be a standard work of reference for years to come.

 

Tuesday, July 23, 2024

Open Access Book: نهج البلاغة = Nahj al-balāghah : the wisdom and eloquence of ʻAlī

Nahj al-balāghah : the wisdom and eloquence of ʻAlī : a parallel English-Arabic text / compiled by al-Sharīf al-Raḍī (d. 406/1015)., et al. 

نهج البلاغة : من كلام امير المؤمنين علي بن أبي طالب صلوات الله عليه. 

Translated by Tahera Qutbuddin.

Published: Brill, Leiden, 2024

ISBN: 9789004682603, 9004682600