Urban historiography of the global south has so far been largely confined to the analysis of the colonial, national, and communal agendas in the making of modern cities. However, the growing interest in the dynamics of the real estate market and the commodification of land has recently offered a more complex and nuanced picture. During the past decade, a number of studies have enriched the literature on British India and China (Chung, 2019; Bhattacharyya, 2018; Rao, 2013; Tomoko, 2011), but the case of the Ottoman Empire remains largely untapped. This is particularly true when it comes to the urban history of late Ottoman Istanbul. While comprehensive monographs on late Ottoman Izmir (Sayek, 2012) and Beirut (Hanssen, 2005) demonstrated how the dynamics of global capitalism shaped urban forms, historians of late Ottoman Istanbul are yet to make their due contribution. Situating itself within this scholarly niche, this project aims to explore the role of the Armenian community in the capitalistic urbanization of late Ottoman Istanbul. The project will lead to the publication of a special dossier in YILLIK: Annual of Istanbul Studies.
We call for article proposals by scholars who work on any aspect of urbanization, urban modernization, and dynamics of urban property in late Ottoman Istanbul within the framework of Armenian agencies, broadly defined. Selected proposals will join an already existing group of four contributors, whose research examine the dynamics of the creation and transformation of urban space within the context of Ottoman modernization. The present contributors focus on diverse districts and neighborhoods of late Ottoman Istanbul such as Kadıköy, İcadiye, Büyükdere, and Makriköy. Their research shifts the emphasis from the state and wealthy patrons to a broader spectrum of actors from different walks of life that partook in the making of late Ottoman Istanbul such as master builders (kalfas) and real estate speculators.
The project aims to make two main contributions. First, it will demonstrate how the commodification of land shaped the trajectory of Istanbul’s urban modernization, integrating the case of the Ottoman capital to the burgeoning literature on the capitalistic urban modernization of the global south. The second and more specific contribution of the project will be to offer new directions for the scholarly literature on Armenian agency in the urban modernization of late Ottoman Istanbul, which has so far remained largely confined to the analysis of the contributions of the Balyan family of architects and wealthy Armenian bankers (Wharton, 2015).
We would like to enrich and diversify our project by engaging scholars who work on the role of the Armenian community in shaping late Ottoman Istanbul within the context of the imperial and global transformations of the long nineteenth century. Upon the selection of article proposals, we plan to organize a workshop to bring contributors together with scholars from different backgrounds and interests. The workshop will serve as a catalyst for the final output of the project, the special dossier in the fourth volume of YILLIK: Annual of Istanbul Studies, which is planned to be published in December 2022. YILLIK: Annual of Istanbul Studies is indexed by SCOPUS and the MLA International Bibliography.
Please submit a 400-500 words abstract with a short bibliography and a CV by March 1, 2022.
The workshop is planned to take place in June 2022. Participation will be both online and in person (COVID-19 situation permitting).
Target date for the special dossier is December 2022.
List of References
Bhattacharyya, Debjani. Empire and Ecology in the Bengal Delta. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2018.
Chung, Stephanie Po-yin. Chung, “Floating in Mud to Reach the Skies: Victor Sassoon and the Real Estate Boom in Shanghai, 1920s–1930s.” International Journal of Asian Studies (2019), 16 (2019): 1–31.
Hanssen, Jens. Fin de Siècle Beirut: The Making of an Ottoman Provincial Capital. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005.
Rao, Nikhil. House, But No Garden: Apartment Living in Bombay’s Suburbs, 1898–1964. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2013.
Tomoko, Shiroyama. Tomoko, “The Shanghai Real Estate Market and Capital Investment, 1860–1936.,” in The Treaty Port Economy in Modern China: Empirical Studies of Institutional Change and Economic Performance, Billy So and Ramon H. Myers eds., pp. 47–74. Berkeley, CA: Institute of East Asian Studies, 2011.
Wharton, Alyson. Wharton. The Architects of Ottoman Constantinople: the Balyan Family and the History of Ottoman Architecture. New York: I.B. Tauris, 2015.
Zandi-Sayek, Sibel. Ottoman Izmir: The Rise of a Cosmopolitan Port, 1840-1880. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2012.