Ottoman Historiography in the Late Empire: Teaching and Writing HISTOIRES UNIVERSELLES in Ottoman Turkish Ottoman historical writing have long been used as primary source. But this paper attempts to contextualize history writings in the late empire as narratives in their own right and analyze the ways in which they defined the study of the past. We already know of a powerful motif of transformation in late Ottoman history writing toward the standards of objective and documented historicism. Late Ottoman historiography has been discussed as a refashioning along European lines within the context of the Tanzimat era. Similarly, this late Ottoman historicism has been viewed as the result of mere translation, which in turn pointed to an understanding of Ottoman modernization only as a linear development of positivistic Westernization, without any input of its own. This paper is an attempt to visit the world of universal history texts as part of an analysis of the much complicated intellectual, historiographical and educational legacy of the last era of the Ottoman Empire in a combined framework. The first step is the analysis of scholarly historical production outside the better-known genre of chronicle writing, i.e. 'universal histories' by intellectuals based on European sources. This genre paralleled the new need for texts of Ottoman history again outside the chronicles and chroniclers. Indeed, historical works produced outside chronicle writing allow us to study a variety of practices and forms of historical knowledge, particularly after the opening of higher education institutions in the Ottoman Empire. Indeed the late Empire signified the prevalence of such texts for the curricula in the specialized schools such as Mekteb-i M-lkiye. One of these histoires universelles, that of Mehmed Murad written in the 1870s in 6 volumes (Tarih-i Umumi) was not a translation, but an original writing with a distinctly 'modern' character. I believe this and other universal histories embody what I will -for now- call a new genre reflects simultaneously Ottomanism, historicism and public education; signaling perhaps, a multiplicity of Ottoman historical/intellectual/academic genres, independent from other intellectual currents of the day such as Ottomanism, from contemporary European historical visions, from state-service oriented higher education policies, and finally from community-oriented ethno-histories. Indeed, that of Mehmed Murad at least is a fully developed historical construct aiming to place Ottoman history within general histories. Teaching his oeuvre at Mekteb-i Mulkiye "he made world history an Ottoman discipline" says Yahya Kemal.

This paper focuses on sculpture in Turkey as a particularly useful way of examining how the Turkish artists chose to communicate their views, particularly on national identity in the face of prolonged contact with Europe. Without doubt, from the early twentieth century onward, the search for national identity in the creation of contemporary art was a widespread goal in Turkey. Ataturk and those who administered policy believed in the didactic power of visual arts: paintings and sculptures of the right kind could help educate the citizen. From the Kemalist perspective, the German refugees could play an important role in the modernization of visual arts and art education, as they did in music education. Notwithstanding the intervention of the state, Turkish visual arts developed along two distinct paths, each with its own subject matter, style, and mindset. While a majority of artists imitated the Western style of visual arts, some were critical of westernization and stayed loyal to the traditional Ottoman genre. The first part of this paper illuminates the changing role of state actors regarding the construction of national identity, and shows where the state and society stands in the battle between modern and traditional art in Turkey. The second part particularly focuses on the arrival of Rudolf Belling to Turkey and shows his critical role in the reconstruction of the Department of Sculpture in the Academy of Fine Arts, the major institution that produces art school graduates to this day in Turkey. Looking at Belling's work and its reception in Turkey and Germany, this paper aims to highlight the transnational encounters between Turkey and Germany to better understand the dialogue between the state elites and artists as decision makers and agents of change respectively. Unfortunately, Belling's experiences in Turkey turned out to be different from a majority of the German mmigr? scholars. Perceived as the "foreigner inside" by his colleagues at the Academy, Belling was enforced to leave the Department of Sculpture at the Academy that he strived to establish on the grounds that he was a "foreigner."

The present paper is an attempt to cut a vertical shaft into the mass of material on the late nineteenth century "West," placing special focus on politics and archaeology. The discussion shall be confined to the specific case of British archaeological networks regarding excavations in Ottoman Crete. My aim is to examine, in this manner, an example of the diverse ways in which western Europe was linked to Crete, suggesting that the gradual conceptual 'hellenization' of Crete, which had led to the eventual fall of the Ottoman regime on the island, was a complex process in which the agents of the "West" participated directly. This specific example captures the parallel transformations of the Ottoman empire and western Europe after the Crimean War that had led to the stimulation of new cultural crossroads--as well as breaks-- between the two. While the Ottomans remained one of the last European regimes trying to survive as a dynasty, the fall of the Empire in France, the unification of Germany and of Italy, and the rise of the Liberals in Great Britain marked the rapid (and often violent) shift in European ideals, away from the old networks of dynastic alliances and towards a rising community of people. Through the spectrum of relevant developments, European narratives about the past changed direction. Sociopolitical transformations allowed for the rising communities of people to legitimize their demands for democracy and liberalism through references to a glorified antiquity. In an ironic way, therefore, the ideals of antiquity, which had previously attracted the admiration of dynastic Europe, became an inspiration for movements that summoned political change and revolution. At the same time, the limited Muslim-Ottoman interest in antiquity had little to do with perceiving their ancient past as the linear history of the Ottoman people. Thus, while western thought started to aggressively claim the ancient civilizations of eastern Mediterranean in the name of the abstract history of the 'European nation,' Muslim-Ottoman narratives about their origins remained restricted to the House of Osman and to Islam. Late nineteenth century Ottoman Crete, for instance, was proclaimed to have been European since the Bronze Age by western intellectuals, who found perfect reason in appropriating the origins of Cretan civilization. The Ottomans, at the same time, were very hesitant in claiming the past of the island in the name of the 'Ottoman nation.' And yet, Crete was still one of their territories.