Ottoman Tulips, Ottoman Coffee

Preface, Note on Transliteration and Acknowledgements

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the present volume is a result of a conference, “rethinking culture in the Ottoman eighteenthcentury”, which took place in princetown on 15-16 January 2005. although a very large number of excellent proposals were submitted in response to the call for papers, all things being equal, priority of participation was given to junior/graduate students and international scholars. After the conclusion of the conference, a committee of five senior and junior scholars was formed for the purpose of selecting the conference papers to be published. Once chosen, the papes were sent out for anonymous peer review and subsequently revise by the authors. Thus, this volume is the end result of a long process that could not have been completed without the work and dedication of number of colleagues.

Given the multilinguistic legacy of the Ottoman Empire, however, no attempt has been made to privilege any one of the relevant Middle Eastern languages in terms of transliteration, especially with regard to shared terms between Arabic, Persian and Ottoman. Similarly, the choice of rendering titles and names into ENglish or Turkish has been left to the individual authors.

I offer my first consignment of gratitude to Michael Cook, who invited me “to organize a conference on the eighteenth century”. To that end, he entrusted me with some of his Mellon Foundation grant funds with no strings attached. He interfered in neither conceptualization nor logistics, however, he always came through whenever his support was needed. In short, he proved to be the ideal patron.

At Princeton, Sukru Hanioglu generously offered funds froms the M.Munir Ertegun Foundation to cover some outstanding expenses. Kathy O’Neil gave her indispensible administrative hel and Kim Hegelbach enthusiastically shared her Knowledge of the nooks and crannies of the university campus and bureaycracy.  Relief from constant organizing and busy deliberation was provided by the tradition of Tuesday dinners with the Happy company of shahab Ahmed, Yossi Rappoport and Golat Levy.

Through the duration of the conference and beyond, i benefited from the advice and support of various scholars. I thank Norman Itzkowitz and Rifa’at Abou-El-Haj for sharing their wisdon, and after. Immense gratitude is due to Madeline Zilfi for so kindly investing in this project time and work well beyond the call of duty. For their work behind the scenes, i am grateful of Heghnar Watenpaugh, Baki Tezcan, Selim Kuru and Shahab Ahmed.

I also thank the individual contributors to this volume for being patient with a particulary demanding editor, and for taking the risk of participating in a project composed entirely of young scholars

Dana Sjadi

2007

Berlin


 

Contents

  1. Decline, its Discontents and Ottoman Cultural History : By Way of Introduction – Dana Sajdi
  2. The Perception of Saadabad : The “Tulip Age” and Ottoman-Safavid Rivalry – Can Erimtan
  3. The First Ottoman Turkish Printing Enterprise : Success or Failure ? -Orlin Sabev (Orham Salih)
  4. Nahils, Circumcision Rituals and the Theatre State – Babak Rahimi
  5. Janissary Coffee Houses in Late Eighteenth – Century Istanbul – Ali Caksu
  6. The Heart’s Desire : Gender, Urban Space and The Ottoman Coffee House – Allan Mikhail

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