Tunisian writer, Salih Suwaysi covered a number of literary conventions—-poetry, the novel, historical geography, among others—-in writings that reveal a deep social consciousness and a heightened sense of place and love for his home city. With little formal education, Suwaysi offers a glimpse into life in Tunisia about mid-way through France’s colonial rule over the country, while also revealing a strong sense of identification with Qayrawan. While not all of his writings focus on that city, what does allows for an examination of thinking on place and urbanism in the Arab-Islamic world during the colonial period. Considered the fourth holiest city in Islam, Qayrawan played a central role in the construction of Suwaysi’s character and his understanding of belonging to a particular place, suggesting a proto-nationalist sentiment at a time of entrenched French colonial rule in Tunisia. Suwaysi’s writings also place him within larger regional intellectual trends that spanned the Arab east and west, to be examined in this paper; he describes himself in autobiographical statements that introduce most of his published works as having read the writings of leading thinkers from the east, especially Egypt, in particular those of 19th Islamic reformers, Jamal al-Din al-Afghani and Muhammad Abdu. Having recently collected Suwaysi’s writings in Tunisia, I aim to bring the ideas and writings of Salih Suwaysi, in particular those that emphasize his sense of urban identity and urban history with regard to his birthplace, into comparative historical perspective. Urban studies in the Arab world and the Middle East has been developing considerably among scholars of architecture, art history, geography, and other fields. This study will analyze various types of Suwaysi’s writings for evidence of the role of urban space in identity formation, set in the historical context of early 20th century French colonial Tunisia, while also considering the historiographical genre of khitat (historical topography) literature. Having only recently returned from conducting research in the North African country, my work in this paper marks the onset of a larger project that will focus on a particular city, Qayrawan, but will situate its history and the history of its monuments and their restorations in larger historical processes, by considering an indigenous 19th c. literary voice within the cultural and historical context of the French Protectorate over Tunisia with a later comparison of how the city became part of the national project following the country’s mid-20th c. independence from France.

In order to dispel the misperception that the rural landscape exhibits less change than urban centers, specific evidence is presented from part of a larger architectural and ethnographic survey. The focus, here, is on the physical needs and personal desires of two related households in one village. The author of this paper had a rare opportunity to follow in the footsteps of a geographer and ethnographer who worked as part of a central Anatolian archaeological excavation between 1927-29 and 1930-32. John Morrison eventually developed his studies based on the adjacent village, Alisar, and focused on one prominent family within. His dissertation was published in 1939, and in the 1960’s he returned to meet the descendants of the family and to reconsider the constancies and changes. I worked as architect and photographer on the same excavation site newly reopened in 1993 and commenced my own architectural and ethnographic study from 1998-2008 including Alisar and other nearby settlements. Still prominent are the descendants of the Alisar Aga, who are the focus of this paper. This work takes place in Yozgat province, a portion of Anatolia often overlooked today. There, I am able to gauge change as a result of how regional economic and personal needs are affected by infrastructure modernization and global issues, rather than touristic or other national developmental pressures. A certain constancy of form and use still exists yet there has been rapid change in the last decade. The families featured, live on and around the same original parcel but have compartmentalized and redeveloped it to allow for a multitude of private as well as more public uses. Part of the original Aga homestead documented in the ‘30’s existed until seven years ago. Visual slide overlays or drawings, augmented by photographs and interviews will show how the land and domestic life has been transformed. With these I compare and judge the rate of change over time and highlight the push and pull between remaining socio-cultural customs and norms and the shapes, forms and spaces they take place in. I ask how these changes have not only marked the landscape but also altered the identities of the people. The nature and prevalence of architectural discontinuity can now be described as a heterogeneous condition. This “hybridized” existence suggests a new dynamic vernacular seen and felt though the various built assemblages.

Abdizade Huseyin Husameddin Yasar (d.1939) is one of the pioneers of modern Turkish urban historiography. Although he was not an historian by profession, he produced a colossal twelve volume history of his native city, Amasya in central Anatolia. This paper aims to situate Huseyin Husameddin and his history in the context of late Ottoman and early Republican period with special emphasis on his treatment of fifteenth century Anatolian history. Huseyin Husameddin draws parallels between Amasya’s respective roles during the Ottoman interregnum (1402-1413) and the Turkish War of Independence (1919-1922). He concludes that the city of Amasya played its due role in the political unification of Turkish elements in Anatolia during both periods. His work in general is imbued with nationalistic tones. And the overarching motive in his narrative is that of continuity. The secondary aim of this paper is to examine the reception of Huseyin Husameddin and his work by some contemporary and recent authors. As a proud Amasyan, Huseyin Husameddin locates his city and its natives at the heart of many critical events in the history of Anatolia and its environs. He also has a tendency to present numerous significant historical figures as native of Amasya without mentioning his sources. Still, it is hard to ignore his work completely and discard it as a product of unprofessional history writing. Huseyin Husameddin had access to remarkable source of documentation, since he worked as a translator in the archives of the Ministry of Pious Endowments. Moreover he utilized a variety of other sources such as epigraphs, manuscripts and chronicles. However he failed to make exact references to this pool of sources. Due to this habit of his, modern historians treat him with hesitant suspicion, yet do not withhold themselves from citing him in their works. This paper will conclude that this idiosyncratic urban historian and his colossal work are revealing examples of how intellectuals of the late Ottoman Empire dealt with the transition period following the collapse of an empire. These intellectuals highlighted the continuity between different political entities that ruled in Anatolia by putting emphasis on the historical agency of Anatolian cities. When treated in this manner, the History of Amasya does tell more than it promises and provide insights about the early development of urban historiography in Turkey.