1.
Jean Baptiste Vanmour
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Jean Baptiste Vanmour or Van Mour was a Flemish-French painter, remembered for his detailed portrayal of life in the Ottoman Empire during the Tulip Era and the rule of Sultan Ahmed III. Van Mour was a native of Valenciennes, a Flemish town that at the time of his birth belonged to the Spanish Netherlands, but since 1678 to France. He studied art in the studio of Jacques-Albert Gérin, and his work attracted the attention of an aristocrat and statesman of the time, Van Mour was invited to go to Constantinople when De Ferriol was appointed there as the French Ambassador in 1699. De Ferriol commissioned van Mour to do one hundred portraits of the local people, in 1711 De Ferriol returned to France and van Mour worked for a variety of other diplomats. In the meantime De Ferriol published a series of one hundred engravings in Recueil de cent estampes représentant différentes nations du Levant, the book had a great influence in Western Europe and was published in at least five languages. Painting audiences with the Sultan became van Mours speciality, he only had to change the setting, Van Mour worked with assistants to fulfill all his obligations. In 1725 he was granted the title of Peintre Ordinaire du Roy en Levant in recognition of both his and the Levants importance to the French government. In 1727 the Dutch ambassador Cornelis Calkoen asked Van Mour to record his audience with Sultan Ahmed III on canvas, Calkoen took many paintings of Jean Baptiste Vanmour with him, when he was appointed as ambassador in Dresden for the Dutch Republic. In his will of 1762 the bachelor Calkoen forbade his heirs to sell the paintings and it is said Van Mour was buried next to Baron de Salagnac in the graveyard of the Jesuit Church of St Louis in the district of Beyoglu. Media related to Jean Baptiste Vanmour at Wikimedia Commons The Rijksmuseum on Vanmour Friends of Vanmour
2.
Albanian language
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Centuries-old communities speaking Albanian-based dialects can be found scattered in Greece, Southern Italy, Sicily, and Ukraine. Due to the large Albanian diaspora, the number of speakers is much higher than the native speakers in Southeast Europe. The first audio recording of Albanian was made by Norbert Jokl on 4 April 1914 in Vienna, the Albanian language is part of the Indo-European language group. In general there is insufficient evidence to connect Albanian with one of those languages, Albanian is now considered an isolate within Indo-European, no extant language shares the same branch. The only other languages that are the surviving member of a branch of Indo-European are Armenian. Although Albanian shares lexical isoglosses with Greek, Balto-Slavic, and Germanic languages, in 1995, Ann Taylor, Donald Ringe and Tandy Warnow described as surprising their finding, using quantitative linguistic techniques, that Albanian appears to comprise a subgroup with Germanic. This theory is reinforced by subsequent research by the same authors, Albanian also shares two features with Balto-Slavic languages, a lengthening of syllabic consonants before voiced obstruents and a distinct treatment of long syllables ending in a sonorant. Other conservative features of Albanian include the retention of the distinction between active and middle voice, present tense and aorist. In another but uncommon hypothesis, Albanian is grouped with both Balto-Slavic and Germanic based on the merger of Proto-Indo-European *ǒ and *ǎ into *ǎ in a northern group. However, this shift is now regarded as only part of a larger push chain that affected all long vowels. The earliest loanwords attested in Albanian come from Doric Greek, whereas the strongest influence came from Latin, curtis, the loanwords do not necessarily indicate the geographical location of the ancestor of Albanian language. However, according to linguists, the borrowed words can help to get an idea about the place of origin. The period during which Proto-Albanian and Latin interacted was protracted and drawn out roughly from the 2nd century BC to the 5th century AD. This is borne out into three layers of borrowings, the largest number belonging to the second layer, which may be compared to, for example. The first, with the fewest borrowings, was a time of less important interaction, the final period, probably preceding the Slavic or Germanic invasions, also has a notably smaller number of borrowings. Other formative changes include the syncretism of several case endings, especially in the plural. Such borrowing indicates that the Romanians migrated from an area where the majority was Slavic to an area with a majority of Albanian speakers and their movement is probably related to the expansion of the Bulgarian Empire into Albania around that time. Jernej Kopitar was the first to note Latins influence on Albanian, Kopitar gave examples such as Albanian qiqer from Latin cicer, qytet from civitas, peshk from piscis and shigjetë from sagitta
3.
Turkish language
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Outside of Turkey, significant smaller groups of speakers exist in Germany, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Northern Cyprus, Greece, the Caucasus, and other parts of Europe and Central Asia. Cyprus has requested that the European Union add Turkish as an official EU language, in 1928, as one of Atatürks Reforms in the early years of the Republic of Turkey, the Ottoman Turkish alphabet was replaced with a Latin alphabet. The distinctive characteristics of Turkish are vowel harmony and extensive agglutination, the basic word order of Turkish is subject–object–verb. Turkish has no classes or grammatical gender. Turkish has a strong T–V distinction and usage of honorifics, Turkish uses second-person pronouns that distinguish varying levels of politeness, social distance, age, courtesy or familiarity toward the addressee. The plural second-person pronoun and verb forms are used referring to a person out of respect. Turkic languages belong to the Altaic language group, the Turkic family comprises some 30 living languages spoken across Eastern Europe, Central Asia, and Siberia. Turkish is a member of the Oghuz group of languages, a subgroup of the Turkic language family, there is a high degree of mutual intelligibility between Turkish and the other Oghuz Turkic languages, including Azerbaijani, Turkmen, Qashqai, Gagauz, and Balkan Gagauz Turkish. The earliest known Old Turkic inscriptions are the three monumental Orkhon inscriptions found in modern Mongolia, erected in honour of the prince Kul Tigin and his brother Emperor Bilge Khagan, these date back to the second Turk Kaghanate. The Seljuqs of the Oghuz Turks, in particular, brought their language, following the adoption of Islam c. Turkish literature during the Ottoman period, particularly Divan poetry, was influenced by Persian, including the adoption of poetic meters. One of the tasks of the newly established association was to initiate a reform to replace loanwords of Arabic. By banning the usage of imported words in the press, the association succeeded in removing several hundred words from the language. While most of the words introduced to the language by the TDK were newly derived from Turkic roots, owing to this sudden change in the language, older and younger people in Turkey started to differ in their vocabularies. While the generations born before the 1940s tend to use the terms of Arabic or Persian origin. The past few decades have seen the work of the TDK to coin new Turkish words to express new concepts and technologies as they enter the language. Many of these new words, particularly information technology terms, have received widespread acceptance, however, the TDK is occasionally criticized for coining words which sound contrived and artificial. Some earlier changes—such as bölem to replace fırka, political party—also failed to meet with popular approval, some words restored from Old Turkic have taken on specialized meanings, for example betik is now used to mean script in computer science
4.
Constantinople
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Constantinople was the capital city of the Roman/Byzantine Empire, and also of the brief Latin, and the later Ottoman empires. It was reinaugurated in 324 AD from ancient Byzantium as the new capital of the Roman Empire by Emperor Constantine the Great, after whom it was named, Constantinople was famed for its massive and complex defences. The first wall of the city was erected by Constantine I, Constantinople never truly recovered from the devastation of the Fourth Crusade and the decades of misrule by the Latins. The origins of the name of Byzantion, more known by the later Latin Byzantium, are not entirely clear. The founding myth of the city has it told that the settlement was named after the leader of the Megarian colonists, Byzas. The later Byzantines of Constantinople themselves would maintain that the city was named in honour of two men, Byzas and Antes, though this was likely just a play on the word Byzantion. During this time, the city was also called Second Rome, Eastern Rome, and Roma Constantinopolitana. As the city became the remaining capital of the Roman Empire after the fall of the West, and its wealth, population, and influence grew. In the language of other peoples, Constantinople was referred to just as reverently, the medieval Vikings, who had contacts with the empire through their expansion in eastern Europe used the Old Norse name Miklagarðr, and later Miklagard and Miklagarth. In Arabic, the city was sometimes called Rūmiyyat al-kubra and in Persian as Takht-e Rum, in East and South Slavic languages, including in medieval Russia, Constantinople was referred to as Tsargrad or Carigrad, City of the Caesar, from the Slavonic words tsar and grad. This was presumably a calque on a Greek phrase such as Βασιλέως Πόλις, the modern Turkish name for the city, İstanbul, derives from the Greek phrase eis tin polin, meaning into the city or to the city. In 1928, the Turkish alphabet was changed from Arabic script to Latin script, in time the city came to be known as Istanbul and its variations in most world languages. In Greece today, the city is still called Konstantinoúpolis/Konstantinoúpoli or simply just the City, apart from this, little is known about this initial settlement, except that it was abandoned by the time the Megarian colonists settled the site anew. A farsighted treaty with the emergent power of Rome in c.150 BC which stipulated tribute in exchange for independent status allowed it to enter Roman rule unscathed. The site lay astride the land route from Europe to Asia and the seaway from the Black Sea to the Mediterranean, and had in the Golden Horn an excellent and spacious harbour. He would later rebuild Byzantium towards the end of his reign, in which it would be briefly renamed Augusta Antonina, fortifying it with a new city wall in his name, Constantine had altogether more colourful plans. Rome was too far from the frontiers, and hence from the armies and the imperial courts, yet it had been the capital of the state for over a thousand years, and it might have seemed unthinkable to suggest that the capital be moved to a different location. Constantinople was built over 6 years, and consecrated on 11 May 330, Constantine divided the expanded city, like Rome, into 14 regions, and ornamented it with public works worthy of an imperial metropolis
5.
Ottoman dynasty
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The Ottoman dynasty was made up of the members of the imperial House of Osman. According to Ottoman tradition, the family originated from the Kayı tribe branch of the Oghuz Turks, the Ottoman dynasty, named after Osman I, ruled the Ottoman Empire from c.1299 to 1922. During much of the Empires history, the sultan was the regent, head of state. The imperial family was deposed from power and the sultanate was abolished on 1 November 1922 after the Turkish War of Independence, the Republic of Turkey was declared the following year. The living members of the dynasty were sent into exile as persona non gratae, though some have been allowed to return. In its current form, the family is known as the Osmanoğlu family, before Orhans proclamation of the dynasty, the tribe was known as the Bilecik Söğüt Beylik or Beys but was renamed Osmanlı in honor of Osman. The Ottoman dynasty is known in modern Turkish as Osmanlı Hanedanı, meaning House of Osman, in Ottoman Turkish it was known as Hanedan-ı Âl-i Osman, thus they still formally acknowledged the sovereignty of the Seljuk Empire and its successor, the Seljuk Sultanate of Rûm. The first Ottoman ruler to claim the title of Sultan was Murad I. The holder of the title Sultan was in Arabic-Islamic dynasties originally the power behind the throne of the Caliph in Bagdad, the Ottoman sultans also claimed the title of Caliph starting with Murad I, who transformed the Ottoman state into a transcontinental empire. With the Conquest of Constantinople in 1453, Sultan Mehmed II Fatih claimed the title Kaysar-i-Rûm Emperor of Rome and he appointed the Patriarch of Constantinople Gennadius Scholarius, whom he protected and whose status he elevated into leader of all the Eastern Orthodox Christians. As Emperor of Rome he laid claim to all Roman territories, Sultan Mehmed II also took the title of Padishah, a Persian title meaning Master of Kings and ranking as Emperor, claiming superiority among the other kings. He was the first Ottoman ruler to adopt the title of Padishah. The Ottoman claim to caliphate was strengthened when they defeated the Mamluks in 1517, as the empire grew, sultans adopted secondary titles expressing the empires claim to be the legitimate successor of the absorbed states. Furthermore, they tended to enumerate even regular provinces, not unlike the long lists of -mainly inherited- feudal titles in the style of many Christian European monarchs. Some early Ottoman Sultans even had to accept the status in the eyes of a foreign overlord. However, the Ottoman Caliphate too was abolished soon afterwards, and Abdulmecid II was utterly deposed and expelled from Turkey with the rest of the Ottoman dynasty on 3 March 1924
6.
Ahmed III
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Ahmed III was Sultan of the Ottoman Empire and a son of Sultan Mehmed IV. His mother was Emetullah Rabia Gülnûş Sultan, originally named Evmania Voria and he was born at Hajioglupazari, in Dobruja. He succeeded to the throne in 1703 on the abdication of his brother Mustafa II, nevşehirli Damat İbrahim Pasha and the Sultans daughter, Hatice Sultan directed the government from 1718 to 1730, a period referred to as the Tulip Era. Ahmed III cultivated good relations with France, doubtless in view of Russias menacing attitude and he afforded refuge in Ottoman territory to Charles XII of Sweden after the Swedish defeat at the hands of Peter I of Russia in the Battle of Poltava of 1709. In 1710 Charles XII convinced Sultan Ahmed III to declare war against Russia, the subsequent Ottoman victories against Russia enabled the Ottoman Empire to advance to Moscow, had the Sultan wished. However, this was halted as a report reached Istanbul that the Safavids were invading the Ottoman Empire, causing a period of panic, Ahmed voluntarily led his nephew Mahmud I to the seat of sovereignty and paid allegiance to him as Sultan of the Empire. He then retired to the Kafes previously occupied by Mahmud and died at Topkapı Palace after six years of confinement, the reign of Ahmed III lasted for twenty-seven years and was not unsuccessful. The Phanariotes constituted a kind of Dhimmi nobility, which supplied the Porte with functionaries in many important departments of the state. In the year 1712, the Mughal Emperor Jahandar Shah, a grandson of Aurangzeb sent gifts to the Ottoman Sultan Ahmad III, Şehzade Isa, son of Hurram Kadin Effendi. Şehzade Selim, son of Hurram Kadin Effendi, Şehzade Abdul Majid, twin with Abdul Malik. Şehzade Abdul Malik, twin with Abdul Majid, Şehzade Sultan Sulaiman Khan, son of Aminā Mihrişah Effendi. Şehzade Mehmed, son of Hurram Kadin Effendi, Şehzade Selim, twin with Saliha Sultan, son of Hatim Khanum Effendi. Şehzade Sultan Mehmed Khan, Crown Prince since 13 December 1754, Mustafa III, son of Aminā Mihrişah Effendi. Şehzade Sultan Bayazid Khan, Crown Prince since 30 January 1757, Şehzade Abdullah, son of Hurram Kadin Effendi. Şehzade Orkhan, son of Hurram Kadin Effendi, Şehzade Sultan Numan Khan, Second Crown Prince since 30 January 1757. Abdul Hamid I, son of Rabia Sharmi Effendi, fatma Sultan, daughter of Emetullah Banu Bas Kadin Effendi. Married, firstly 13 May 1709, H. H. Damad Fazil Ali Pasha, secondly 18 February 1717, H. H. Damad Ibrahim Pasha, Grand Vizier. Khadija Sultan, daughter of Rukiya Kadin Effendi, Zainab Sultan, twin with Ümmügülsüm Sultan, daughter of Aminā Mihrişah Effendi
7.
Mahmud I
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Mahmud I was the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1730 to 1754. He was born at Edirne Palace, the son of Mustafa II, Mahmud I was the older brother of Osman III. On 28 September 1730, Patrona Halil with a group of fellow Janissaries aroused some of the citizens of Constantinople who opposed the reforms of Ahmet III. Sweeping up more soldiers Halil led the riot to the Topkapı Palace and demanded the death of the grand vizer, Nevşehirli Damat İbrahim Pasha, Ahmet III acceded to the demands, had İbrahim Pasha strangled, and agreed to his nephew, Mahmud, becoming sultan. Mahmud I was recognized as sultan by the mutineers as well as by court officials, a Greek butcher, named Yanaki, had formerly given credit to Halil and had lent him money during the three days of the insurrection. Halil showed his gratitude by compelling the Divan to make Yanaki Hospodar of Moldavia, however, Yanaki never took charge of this office. The Khan of the Crimea assisted the Grand Vizier, the Mufti, on 24 November 1731, Halil was strangled by the sultans order and in his presence, after a Divan in which Halil had dictated that war be declared against Russia. His Greek friend, Yanaki, and 7,000 of those who had supported him were put to death. The rest of Mahmud Is reign was dominated by wars with Persia, Austria and Russia, Mahmud I entrusted government to his viziers and spent much of his time composing poetry. He died at Topkapı Palace, Constantinople, Mahmud had five consorts in 1741, and six consorts in 1754. He had four Ikbals, who were actually Kalfas, and moreover were a not a part of family and his consorts were, Alicenab Kadın alias El-Hace Ayşe, Mihrişah Kadın, Hace Vuslat Kadın, Hanım Kadın, Hace Verdinaz Kadın, Rami Kadın alias Hatice. Incorporates text from History of Ottoman Turks Peirce, Leslie P, the Imperial Harem, Women and Sovereignty in the Ottoman Empire. İstanbul su külliyâtı, Vakıf su defterleri, Suyolcu 2, muqarnas, An Annual on the Visual Culture of the Islamic World, Volume 19. Bu mülkün kadın sultanları, Vâlide sultanlar, hâtunlar, hasekiler, kadınefendiler, sultanefendiler
8.
Tulip period
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The Tulip Period or Tulip Era is a period in Ottoman history from the Treaty of Passarowitz on 21 July 1718 to the Patrona Halil Revolt on 28 September 1730. This was a peaceful period, during which the Ottoman Empire began to orient itself towards Europe. The name of the period derives from the tulip craze among the Ottoman court society, cultivating this culturally ambiguous emblem had become a celebrated practice. The Tulip Period illustrated the conflicts brought by early modern culture and was a shared material symbolism. During this period the elite and high-class society of the Ottoman period had established an immense fondness for the tulip, Tulips defined nobility and privilege, both in terms of goods and leisure time. The Grand Vizier was himself very fond of tulip bulbs, setting an example for Istanbul’s elite who started to cherish the tulip’s endless variety in paint, the Ottoman standard of dress and its commodity culture incorporated their passion for the tulip. Within Istanbul, one could find tulips from the markets to the plastic arts to silks. Tulip bulbs could be everywhere, the demand grew within the elite community where they could be found in homes. Therefore, the tulip is a symbol with mythical appeal, which can be found from Ottoman palaces to their clothing, the tulip can be seen as a romantic monument representing the wealthy and elite, and the fragility of despotic rule. The Tulip period saw a flowering of arts, culture and architecture, generally the style of architecture and decoration became more elaborate, being influenced by the Baroque period in movement. A classic example is the Fountain of Ahmed III in front of Topkapi Palace in Istanbul, the architectural style is a fusion of classical Islamic elements with baroque European ones, making it into distinct Ottoman architecture of the 18th century. The tulip was also praised in poetry and motifs used in paintings, to this day in modern Turkey the tulip is still considered the embodiment of perfection and beauty. Turkish Airlines decorates its planes with a painting of a tulip on its fuselage and these albums that Levni painted were called Tulip albums which mirrored the structure of the states itself, ranking distinguished members of the regime according to horticultural achievements. Tulip prices began to rise in the last decades of the 17th century and this reflected the demand for the inflated value of the rare bulbs and escalating demands for flowers in the elite’s palaces and gardens. Tulip mania demonstrated the power to regulate the economy by increasing the prices for bulbs. Courtiers at the time forwarded a petition to denounce the practice of flower sellers and this led to the process of issuing inventories of flowers and price lists to the judge of Istanbul for enforcement. Tulip mania – during the Dutch Golden Age in the 17th century Derinsular. com – During and After the Tulip Era Enfal. de – Lale Devri Encyclopædia Britannica Online – Abdülcelil Levnî Yılmaz, Nalan. Ottoman Studies Online – Levni, one of the last Ottoman miniaturists Abdulcelil Levni Culture of the Ottoman Empire Jean-Baptiste van Mour Salzmann, the Age of Tulips Confluence and Conflict in Early Modern Consumer Culture
9.
Albanians
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Albanians are an ethnic group, native to Albania, Kosovo and neighboring countries. The term is used to refer to the citizens of the Republic of Albania. Ethnic Albanians speak the Albanian language and more than half of ethnic Albanians live in Albania, a large Albanian population lives in the Republic of Macedonia and Italy, with smaller Albanian populations located in Serbia and Montenegro. The majority of Albanians are nominally Muslims, and a minority are nominally Christians, during the 17th and 18th century Albanians in large numbers converted to Islam, often to escape higher taxes levied on Christian subjects. As Muslims, some Albanians attained important political and military positions within the Ottoman Empire, Albania gained its independence in 1912 and between 1945–1992, Albanians lived under a repressive communist regime. Between the 11th and 18th centuries, sizable numbers of Albanians migrated from the area of contemporary Albania to escape either various socio-political difficulties and/or the Ottoman conquest. Another population, who became the Arbëreshë settled in southern Italy and form the oldest continuous Albanian diaspora producing influential, smaller populations dating to migrations during the 18th century are located on Croatias Dalmatian coast and scattered communities across southern Ukraine. The Albanian diaspora also exists in a number of other countries, one of these is located in Turkey. Due to the Ottoman legacy, smaller populations of Albanians also exist in Egypt, in Western countries, a large and influential Albanian population exists in the United States formed from continuous emigration dating back to the 19th century. The Albanians and their country Albania have been identified by many ethnonyms, from these ethnonyms, names for Albanians were also derived in other languages that were or still are in use. The term for a people located in the area of contemporary Albania is first encountered in the works of Byzantine historian Michael Attaliates. He referred to them as Albanoi having taken part in a revolt against the Byzantine Empire in 1043 and these references have been disputed as to whether they refer to Albanians in an ethnic sense. A later reference to Albanians from the same Attaliates regarding the participation of Albanians in a rebellion around 1078 is undisputed. In later Byzantine usage, the terms Arbanitai and Albanoi with a range of variants were used interchangeably, the first reference to the Albanian language dates to the latter 13th century. The ethnonym Albanian has been hypothesized to be connected to and stem from the Albanoi, linguists believe that the alb part in the root word originates from an Indo-European term for a type of mountainous topography, of which other words such as alps is derived from. Through the root word alban and its rhotacized equivalents arban, albar, and arbar, the Albanian language was referred to as Arbnisht and Arbërisht. Two etymologies have been proposed for this ethnonym, one, derived from the etymology from the Albanian word for eagle, in Albanian folk etymology, this word denotes a bird totem, dating from the times of Skanderbeg as displayed on the Albanian flag. The other is within scholarship that connects it to the verb to speak from the Latin excipere, in this instance the Albanian endonym like Slav and others would originally have been a term connoting those who speak
