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 With Norig Neveu, Karène Sanchez Summerer, and Annalaura Turiano hosted by Andreas Guidi for a joint release with Ottoman History Podcast   Since the 19th century, different forms of missionary activities and preaching have been shaping the role of religion within the societies of the Middle East and North Africa. Not only Christian congregations, … Continue reading An Interconfessional History of Missions in the Middle East and North Africa

  With Milena Methodieva hosted by Andreas Guidi and Jovo Miladinovic for a joint release with Ottoman History Podcast   The Aladja Mosque in Plovdiv, early 20th century (Wikimedia Commons)   In 1878, following the Congress of Berlin, Bulgaria became a de facto independent principality. Not anymore under Ottoman rule, the Muslims of Bulgaria navigated … Continue reading Bulgarian Muslims between Empire and Nation

  With Nadège Ragaru Marco Behar: “Their Last Way” (from the Series “Past”, detail, 1958), Courtesy of the Bulgarian National Gallery, Sofia.   Since the immediate aftermath of the end of World War II, a narrative concerning the rescue of the Bulgarian Jews from deportation and genocide has nurtured the self-representation of the governments in … Continue reading A History of Knowledge about the Holocaust in Bulgaria

With Ümit Kurt Hosted by Zeynep Ertuğrul and Andreas Guidi   A prominent Armenian family deported and perished in 1915. Source: Mihran Minassian Private Collection.   The Armenian community of Aintab, nowadays Gaziantep, was among the most flourishing of Ottoman Anatolia. The Armenian Genocide not only brought an end to the community’s coexistence with the … Continue reading The Armenian Genocide and Property Usurpation in Aintab

With Gaëlle Fisher At the crossroad of Bukovinans Street and Radauti Street, Stuttgart. Courtesy of Gaelle Fisher.   Before World War II, Bukovina was a region marked by multiconfessional coexistence and ruled by the Habsburg Empire (1774-1918) and then by Romania (1918-1940). Two among Bukovina’s population groups, the “ethnic” Germans and the Askhenazi Jews, left … Continue reading #038 – German Resettlers and Jewish Survivors from Bukovina after 1945

with Paolo Fonzi A 1941 cartoon from the newspaper “The Manchester Dispatch”, mocking Mussolini’s dependency on Hitler to defeat Greece   In the spring of 1941, after a brief war ending in an embarrassing retreat for Italy one year earlier, Mussolini’s troops supported by Nazi Germany occupied various regions of Greece. In Fascist Italy’s vision … Continue reading #037 – Hunger and War during the Italian Occupation of Greece

with Christine Philliou hosted by Zeynep Ertugrul and Jovo Miladinovic   Portrait of Refik Halit Karay in Aleppo (1928). Courtesy of the Taha Toros Archive Refik Halid Karay was a satirical writer whose life can help us rethink the transition from the Ottoman Empire to the Republic of Turkey. After 1908, Refik Halid opposed the … Continue reading #036 – Political Opposition from the Ottoman Empire to Republican Turkey

with Malte Fuhrmann hosted by Andreas Guidi and Zeynep Ertugrul for a joint release with Ottoman History Podcast (Steamers, row and sailing boats on the Istanbul Golden Horn, ca. 1890. Courtesy of the Deutsches Archäologisches Institut Istanbul)   At the turn of the twentieth century, Ottoman port cities of the Eastern Mediterranean were sites of … Continue reading #035 – Ottoman Port Cities of the Modern Mediterranean

with Martin Rempe A military band from Germany, 1913 (Wikimedia Commons) A few countries can boast a musical heritage comparable to Germany’s. Yet, this tradition was made possible by rank-and-file musicians, whose position in society was far from stable and acknowledged. In this episode, we discuss a history of music in Germany “from below”. Applying … Continue reading #034 – Being a Musician in Germany, 1850-1960

with Alan Mikhail Sultan Selim I and Piri Reis’s world map (1513) – collage based on Wikimedia commons   The Ottoman Empire was a key force in the making of the early modern world. Growing from a regional to a global player and to the most powerful Muslim empire at the turn of the 16th … Continue reading #033 – How the Ottomans shaped the Modern World

with Jasmin Daam, Esther Möller, Cyrus Schayegh, and Selim Deringil a joint release with Ottoman History Podcast Swimming at the Corniche of Beirut, in the background: the Hôtel Saint-Georges, 1930s. © Fonds photographique René Zuber. Modern Mediterranean history and Middle Eastern history rarely dialogue with each other. Whereas European ideas and practices of and in … Continue reading #032 – The Mediterranean viewed from the Southern Shore

with Leon Saltiel Transport of Jews from the Ghetto in the Eastern part of Thessaloniki to the Baron Hirsch transit camp, via Egnatia street, April 9, 1943. The Jews can be seen in between two columns of onlookers who were watching the scene. The photo was taken from a balcony, where one can also see … Continue reading #031 – History and memory of the Holocaust in Thessaloniki

with Sina Steglich J. W. M. Turner, Rain, steam, and speed (1844, Wikimedia Commons) In the 19th century, technological innovations brought about new conceptions of time. The idea of modernity redefined the contemporaries’ relationship with the past. State institutions began a systematic reorganization of their archives, which started to function as the main repository of … Continue reading #030 – Archives and Temporality in the 19th century

with Nathalie Clayer, Fabio Giomi, and Emmanuel Szurek   SPECIAL EPISODE IN COOPERATION WITH “OTTOMAN HISTORY PODCAST”

  Gabriel Doyle is a Ph.D. student in History at the Cetobac / EHESS in Paris. His research focuses on the spatial and material implications of diplomatic, missionary and philanthropic activity in late Ottoman Istanbul. His wider interests include global history, urban studies and social anthropology. Born in Paris from Australian parents, he likes to … Continue reading Jean-François Pérouse: Istanbul Planète

with M’hamed Oualdi & Hayri Gökşin Özkoray   SPECIAL EPISODE IN COOPERATION WITH “OTTOMAN HISTORY PODCAST”  Joseph taken out of the well by Madianite merchants before getting sold into slavery.  Ḳalender Paşa (compilator), Fālnāme, Topkapı Sarayı Müzesi Kütüphanesi [TSMK], Hazine, ms. n° 1703 (detail). The Ottoman Mediterranean represented a space in which slave trade flourished. This phenomenon developed from … Continue reading #028 – Slavery and servitude in the Ottoman Mediterranean

with Dennis Dierks   The first header of the magazine Bosanska Vila, 1885 The process of nation building inside and outside the Balkans is one of the most studied phenomena of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. In this episode, we discuss the case of Bosnia and Herzegovina during Habsburg rule (1878-1918) with a particular focus … Continue reading #027 – Nationalism, Folk Culture and History in Habsburg Bosnia and Herzegovina

  Agustín Cosovschi is a Ph.D. candidate at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (Paris) and the University of San Martín (Buenos Aires). His interests include Eastern European history and culture, intellectual history and political theory. @cosovschi       Masha Gessen Where the Jews Aren’t: The Sad and Absurd Story of Birobidzhan, Russia’s Jewish Autonomous … Continue reading Masha Gessen: “Where the Jews aren’t”

With Marie Bossaert   Portrait of an old Turk. Photograph by the Italian geographer Lamberto Vannutelli, 1904. (source Società Geografica Italiana)   In this episode, we discuss the emergence and the development of Oriental and Turkish studies in post-unification Italy. Studying this process requires a reflection on State and nation-building through the construction of the infrastructure necessary for the production … Continue reading #026 – The Making of Orientalism and Turkish Studies in Italy 1861-1911

with Klaus Buchenau   The building of the Ministry of Justice, Terazije Square, Belgrade (source Wikimedia commons) Historians can offer a perspective on corruption that goes beyond a normative and simplistic dimension. Approaching past discourses and events related to corruption allows to underline the transformation of its connotation through different periods and different socio-political systems. … Continue reading #025 – Discussing Corruption in Yugoslavia, 1918-2000