Ebru Boyar

Borders, Boundaries and Belonging in Post-Ottoman Space in the Interwar Period, 2023

Focusing on new nation states and mandates in post-Ottoman territories, Borders, Boundaries and B... more Focusing on new nation states and mandates in post-Ottoman territories, Borders, Boundaries and Belonging in Post-Ottoman Space in the Interwar Period examines how people negotiated, imagined or ignored new state borders and how they conceived of or constructed belonging. Through investigations of border crossing, population transfer, exile and emigration, this book explores the intricacies of survival within and beyond newly imposed state borders, the exploitation of opportunities and the human cost of political partition.

Contributors are Toufoul Abou-Hodeib, Leyla Amzi-Erdogdular, Amit Bein, Ebru Boyar, Kate Fleet, Onur İşçi, Liat Kozma, Brian McLaren, Nikola Minov, Eli Osheroff, Ramazan Hakkı Öztan, Michael Provence, Jordi Tejel and Peter Wien.

Making a Living in Ottoman Anatolia (Leiden: Brill, 2021)

Making a Living in Ottoman Anatolia, 2021

Centred on the socioeconomic life of Ottoman Anatolia, this volume examines aspects of production... more Centred on the socioeconomic life of Ottoman Anatolia, this volume examines aspects of production, local and international trade, consumption and the role of the state, both at a local and a central level. Based on a wide array of data and adopting a variety of approaches, chapters range from the macro to the micro, from the overview of Anatolian economic resources to the in-depth examination of the petition language of provincial economic actors. Making a Living in Ottoman Anatolia thus offers the reader an entrée into the rich and varied socioeconomic life of a central region of the Ottoman empire.

Entertainment Among the Ottomans (Leiden: Brill, 2019)

Approaching Ottoman social history through the lens of entertainment, this volume considers the m... more Approaching Ottoman social history through the lens of entertainment, this volume considers the multi-faceted roles of entertainment within society. At its most basic level entertainment could be all about pleasure, leisure and fun. But it also played a role in socialisation, gender divisions, social stratification and the establishment of moral norms, political loyalties and social, ethnic or religious identities. By addressing the ways in which entertainment was employed and enjoyed in Ottoman society, Entertainment Among the Ottomans introduces the reader to a new way of understanding the Ottoman world.

Contributors are: Antonis Anastasopoulos, Tülay Artan, Ebru Boyar, Palmira Brummett, Kate Fleet, James Grehan, Svetla Ianeva, Yavuz Köse, William Kynan-Wilson, Milena Methodieva and Yücel Yanıkdağ.

伊斯坦布尔: 面纱下的七丘之城 [Yisitanbuer: Miansha xia de qiqiu zhi cheng], trans. Yu Guokuan and Gong Yongmei (Shanghai: Shanghai wenyi chubanshe, 2018)

Middle Eastern and North African Societies in the Interwar Period (Leiden: Brill, 2018)

Chinese translation of A Social History of Ottoman Istanbul (Cambridge: Cambridge University Pres... more

Ottoman Women in Public Space (Leiden: Brill, 2016)

Taking society as its central focus, Middle Eastern and North African Societies in the Interwar P... more Taking society as its central focus, Middle Eastern and North African Societies in the Interwar Period approaches the region as one of connectivities and fluidity and investigates networks and interregional relations, stratagems adopted to shape society and social resistance to or absorption of change. From tourism to health propaganda, marriage to beauty contest, mass communication to music, this book offers a vibrant and dynamic picture of the region which goes beyond state borders.

Contributors are Diana Abbani, Amit Bein, Ebru Boyar, Elizabeth Brownson, Nazan Çiçek, Kate Fleet, Ulrike Freitag, Liat Kozma, Brian L. McLaren and Emilio Spadola.

Osmanlı İstanbul'unun Toplumsal Tarihi

Examining women as economic and political actors, prostitutes, flirts and slaves, Ottoman Women i... more

Ottomans, Turks and the Balkans: Empire Lost, Relations Altered

İstanbul, en parlak devrinde sınırları Fas'tan Ukrayna'ya, İran kıyılarından Macaristan'a uzanan ... more İstanbul, en parlak devrinde sınırları Fas'tan Ukrayna'ya, İran kıyılarından Macaristan'a uzanan Osmanlı İmparatorluğu'na 470 yıl boyunca başkentlik etti. Payitaht, Osmanlı coğrafyasının sanat ve düşün merkezi olduğu gibi, dünyanın dört bir yanından tüccarları kendine çeken bir ticaret üssü ve imparatorluğun siyasi motoruydu. Şehrin sakinleri, güç ve gösterişin ihtişamı içinde, bu başkentin şiddetiyle kuşatılmış olarak ve imparatorluğun çok çeşitli kaynaklarının aktığı Dersaadet'in devasa refah ağlarına yaslanmak suretiyle hayatlarını sürdürüyorlardı. Değerli iki Osmanlı tarihçisi Ebru Boyar ve Kate Fleet'in birlikte kaleme aldıkları Osmanlı İstanbul'unun Toplumsal Tarihi, bu uzun süreç boyunca canlı, şiddet dolu, dinamik ve kozmopolit imparatorluk başkentinin toplumsal bir portresini sunuyor.
(Tanıtım Bülteninden)

A Social History of Ottoman Istanbul

2 - Nations and Nationalisms in the Late Ottoman Empire

Using a wealth of contemporary Ottoman sources, this book recreates the social history of Istanbu... more Using a wealth of contemporary Ottoman sources, this book recreates the social history of Istanbul, a huge, cosmopolitan metropolis and imperial capital of the Ottoman Empire. Seat of the Sultan and an opulent international emporium, Istanbul was also a city of violence shaken regularly by natural disasters and by the turmoil of sultanic politics and violent revolt. Its inhabitants, entertained by imperial festivities and cared for by the great pious foundations which touched every aspect of their lives, also amused themselves in the numerous pleasure gardens and the many public baths of the city. While the book is focused on Istanbul, it presents a broad picture of Ottoman society, how it was structured and how it developed and transformed across four centuries. As such, the book offers an exciting alternative to the more traditional histories of the Ottoman Empire.

Book Chapters by Ebru Boyar

The Cambridge History of Nationhood and Nationalism, ed. Cathie Carmichael , Matthew D'Auria and Aviel Roshwald, 2023

Chapter 5 Yüzellilikler: the League of Nations’s First and Only Muslim Refugees

Borders, Boundaries and Belonging in Post-Ottoman Space in the Interwar Period, eds. Ebru Boyar and Kate Fleet, 2023

Chapter 8 The Draw of the Lottery: Piyango, Profit and Politics in Early Twentieth-Century İzmir

Making a Living in Ottoman Anatolia, eds. Ebru Boyar and Kate Fleet, 2021

The consuming city

A Social History of Ottoman Istanbul, 2009

The palace and the populace

Cities of the Ottoman empire

A Social History of Ottoman Istanbul, 2009

Oxford Bibliographies, 2020

Conquest

A Social History of Ottoman Istanbul, 2009

Fear and death

A Social History of Ottoman Istanbul, 2009

Welfare

A Social History of Ottoman Istanbul, 2009

Outings and excursions

A Social History of Ottoman Istanbul, 2009

The hamam

Borders, Boundaries and Belonging in Post-Ottoman Space in the Interwar Period (Leiden: Brill, 2023)

A Social History of Ottoman Istanbul, 2009

Borders, Boundaries and Belonging in Post-Ottoman Space in the Interwar Period, 2023

Making a Living in Ottoman Anatolia (Leiden: Brill, 2021)

Making a Living in Ottoman Anatolia, 2021

Entertainment Among the Ottomans (Leiden: Brill, 2019)

伊斯坦布尔: 面纱下的七丘之城 [Yisitanbuer: Miansha xia de qiqiu zhi cheng], trans. Yu Guokuan and Gong Yongmei (Shanghai: Shanghai wenyi chubanshe, 2018)

Middle Eastern and North African Societies in the Interwar Period (Leiden: Brill, 2018)

Chinese translation of A Social History of Ottoman Istanbul (Cambridge: Cambridge University Pres... more

Ottoman Women in Public Space (Leiden: Brill, 2016)

Osmanlı İstanbul'unun Toplumsal Tarihi

Examining women as economic and political actors, prostitutes, flirts and slaves, Ottoman Women i... more

Ottomans, Turks and the Balkans: Empire Lost, Relations Altered

A Social History of Ottoman Istanbul

2 - Nations and Nationalisms in the Late Ottoman Empire

The Cambridge History of Nationhood and Nationalism, ed. Cathie Carmichael , Matthew D'Auria and Aviel Roshwald, 2023

Chapter 5 Yüzellilikler: the League of Nations’s First and Only Muslim Refugees

Borders, Boundaries and Belonging in Post-Ottoman Space in the Interwar Period, eds. Ebru Boyar and Kate Fleet, 2023

Chapter 8 The Draw of the Lottery: Piyango, Profit and Politics in Early Twentieth-Century İzmir

Making a Living in Ottoman Anatolia, eds. Ebru Boyar and Kate Fleet, 2021

The consuming city

A Social History of Ottoman Istanbul, 2009

The palace and the populace

Cities of the Ottoman empire

A Social History of Ottoman Istanbul, 2009

Oxford Bibliographies, 2020

Conquest

A Social History of Ottoman Istanbul, 2009

Fear and death

A Social History of Ottoman Istanbul, 2009

Welfare

A Social History of Ottoman Istanbul, 2009

Outings and excursions

A Social History of Ottoman Istanbul, 2009

The hamam

A Social History of Ottoman Istanbul, 2009

The nineteenth century

A Social History of Ottoman Istanbul, 2009

Beyond the city

Ottoman society through the lens of entertainment

A Social History of Ottoman Istanbul, 2009

The late Ottoman brothel in Istanbul: a heterosexual social space for homosocial entertainment?

Entertainment Among the Ottomans, eds. Ebru Boyar and Kate Fleet (Leiden: Brill, 2019), 1-21

Entertainment Among the Ottomans, eds. Ebru Boyar and Kate Fleet (Leiden: Brill, 2019), 160-182

Taking health to the village: Early Turkish republican health propaganda in the countryside

in Middle Eastern and North African Societies in the Interwar Period, eds. Ebru Boyar and Kate Fleet (Leiden: Brill, 2018), 164-211

Approaching societies in the interwar Middle East and North Africa

The public presence and political visibility of Ottoman women

Middle Eastern and North African Societies in the Interwar Period, eds. Ebru Boyar and Kate Fleet (Leiden: Brill, 2018), 1-26

in Ottoman Women in Public Space, Ebru Boyar and Kate Fleet (eds.), Jun 2016

An imagined moral community: Ottoman female public presence, honour and marginality

Ottoman Women in Public Space, ed. Ebru Boyar and Kate Fleet , Jun 2016

Doğu’da Osmanlı Genişlemesi

The League of Nations and Turkish political refugees in Greece in the early 1930s (Open Access)

Middle Eastern Studies, 2023

With the signing of the Ankara Agreement in 1930 between Turkey and Greece, the Greek government ... more With the signing of the Ankara Agreement in 1930 between Turkey and Greece, the Greek government withdrew its open support for Turkish political opponents of the Kemalist government and expelled such figures from Western Thrace. Among them were some Yüzellilikler, the 150 people proscribed by the Turkish government under the Protocol of the Lausanne Treaty of 1923. The Yüzellilikler, who had gained the status of refugees under the protection of the League of Nations as a result of the 1928 Arrangement, now turned to the League for support. Focusing on the cases of the ex-şeyhülislam Mustafa Sabri and former Ottoman police officer Namık Hilmi, this article discusses the role of the Athens Office of the Nansen International Office for Refugees of the League of Nations in supporting and strengthening the position of the Turkish political opposition to the Kemalist regime in Turkey in the early 1930s.

Türk-İngiliz İlişkilerinde Prestij Faktörü (1923-1938)

Belleten, 2014

Bu makalede 1923-1939 yılları arasındaki Türk-İngiliz ilişkileri prestij faktörü çerçevesinde inc... more Bu makalede 1923-1939 yılları arasındaki Türk-İngiliz ilişkileri prestij faktörü çerçevesinde incelenmiştir. Buna göre, prestiji kendi uluslararası etkisini korumak ve arttırmak için yaşamsal gören İngiltere'nin, Türkiye, Cumhuriyet rejimi ve onun sembolü haline gelen Mustafa Kemal Atatürk'ün uluslararası saygınlığının artmasını engellemeye ve Türkiye'nin etkisini uluslararası alanda sınırlı tutmaya yönelik çabalarına rağmen Türkiye yaptığı devrimler, uluslararası ilişkilerdeki yapıcı ve barışçıl tutumu ve bağımsız tavrı ile prestijini bütün dünyada özelde de İngiliz sömürgelerinde arttırmıştır. Bunu da İngiltere'nin Türkiye'yi yalnızlaştırıcı ve dışlayıcı siyasetini değiştirmek için etkili bir şekilde kullanmayı başarmıştır.

Public Good and Private Exploitation: Criticism of the Tobacco Régie in 1909

Oriente Moderno

The Ottomans and Wealth: A Comparative Perspective Introduction

Great Britain and ‘a small and poor peasant state’: Turkey, Britain and the 1930 Anglo-Turkish Treaty of Commerce and Navigation

Oriens, 2009

Medicine in practice: European influences on the Ottoman medical habitat

Middle Eastern Studies (republished in From Enemies to Allies Turkey and Britain, 1918–1960, ed. Daniel-Joseph MacArthur-Seal, Dilek Barlas and William Hale (London: Routledge, 2023), 2021

Taking the Anglo-Turkish Trade and Navigation Treaty, concluded in March 1930, as its focal point... more Taking the Anglo-Turkish Trade and Navigation Treaty, concluded in March 1930, as its focal point, this article investigates the relations between Turkey and Britain after the signing of the Treaty of Lausanne and suggests that the failure of the British government to understand the fundamental importance of economic independence for the governing elite of the new Turkish republic, combined with its conviction that the Turkish economy was failing, undermined Britain’s ability to assess developments in the country and to position itself accordingly.

Turkish Historical Review, 2018

This article considers the transfer of medical knowledge from Europe to the Ottoman empire and ar... more This article considers the transfer of medical knowledge from Europe to the Ottoman empire and argues that what was significant in such transfer was medical practice rather than textual transfer, that the Ottomans were open to adopting medical knowledge from the non-Islamic world, the deciding factor being not the origin but the successful nature of the treatment, and that if there was a border which medical knowledge did not traverse, it was one created by everyday custom not by any Muslim/Christian divide or rejection of knowledge from outside.

Engelhardt from censorship to icon: The use of a European diplomat’s history in Ottoman and Turkish historiography on the Tanzimat

Eurasian Studies, 3/1, pp. 81-88., 2004

Türk-İngiliz İlişkilerinde Prestij Faktörü (1923-1938)

Belleten, 78/283, 1158-1194, 2014

A Dangerous Axis: The ‘Bulgarian Müftü’, the Turkish Opposition and the Ankara Government, 1928–36

‘“Making Turkey and the Turkish revolution known to foreign nations without any expense”: Propaganda films in the early Turkish Republic”

Middle Eastern Studies, 44/5, pp. 775-89., 2008

Oriente Moderno, 24 (85)/1, 117-132, 2005

British archaeological travellers in nineteenth-century Anatolia: Anatolia ‘without' Turks

Eurasian Studies, 1/1, pp. 97-113., 2002

Profitable prostitution: state use of immoral earnings for social benefit in the late Ottoman empire, Bulgarian Historical Review, 1-2 (2009), 143-157.

Savaş ve Basın: Türk Ulusal Kurtuluş Savaşı ve İngiliz The Times Gazetesi (1919-1922) (War and Press: Turkish National Liberation War and the British The Times Newspaper (1919-1922))

METU Studies in Development; ODTÜ Gelişme Dergisi

1919-1922 döneminde, İngiltere’nin elindeki en güçlü propaganda araçlarından biri The Times gazet... more 1919-1922 döneminde, İngiltere’nin elindeki en güçlü propaganda araçlarından biri The Times gazetesidir. Bunun farkında olan İstanbul ve Ankara hükümetleri bu dönemde The Times gazetesinde lehlerinde yayın yaptırarak İngiliz kamuoyunu etkilemek için çaba sarf etmişlerdir. Ama bu çabaları sonuçsuz kalmış, sonunda gazetenin Türk tarafına yaklaşımındaki değişiklik, İstanbul ve Ankara hükümetlerinin gazeteye sızma faaliyetlerinden değil, Türk Ulusal Kurtuluş Savaşı’nda Kemalist güçlerin zaferleriyle gelen siyasi koşulların değişimi ile mümkün olabilmiştir.

“An inconsequential boil” or a “terrible disease”? Social perceptions of and state responses to syphilis in the late Ottoman empire

Turkish Historical Review

From the last quarter of the nineteenth century, the Ottoman state started to perceive syphilis a... more From the last quarter of the nineteenth century, the Ottoman state started to perceive syphilis as a dangerous menace threatening the security of the state and the welfare of society. It therefore began to undertake measures to contain the disease and prevent it spreading. In particular the province of Kastamonu became the hub of the campaign against syphilis and the central government set up an invasive system of enforced pre-nuptial health checks, regular controls of the hamams and barber shops there, as well as imposing restrictions on the mobility of local residents, controls which had a direct impact on the everyday lives of the population. Among these measures the effective application of pre-nuptial health checks, directed at both male and female subjects of the province, was hampered by the resistance of the population, who did not perceive syphilis as dangerous, and in consequence the local and central governments and their agents, such as the medical personnel, who were responsible for the imposition of such measures, were forced to modify some measures and ignore others in order to avoid a confrontation with the local population.

The impact of the Balkan Wars on Ottoman history writing: searching for a soul

Middle East Critique, 2014

Based on histories, accounts and articles published after the Balkan Wars, this article argues th... more Based on histories, accounts and articles published after the Balkan Wars, this article argues that, contrary to the commonly accepted thesis, the Balkan Wars did not mark the point at which Turkism became the dominant state ideology. There was in fact no clear-cut and definite shift toward Turkism at this point. Instead there was an increasing awareness of the need for a ‘common soul’ that would unite the population of the empire in the face of dramatic challenges such as the Balkan Wars.1

The press and the palace: the two-way relationship between Abdülhamid II and the press, 1876–1908

Bulletin of The School of Oriental and African Studies, 2006

While Abdülhamid is usually represented as an extreme example of a ‘censorship sultan’, this arti... more While Abdülhamid is usually represented as an extreme example of a ‘censorship sultan’, this article seeks to redress the balance and to present a more nuanced picture of Abdülhamid's relationship with the press. Based largely on archival material from Istanbul, the article investigates how press magnates sought to use their relationship with the palace in order to ensure their survival and to gain the concessions they wanted, and how, in turn, the sultan manipulated the press and used it to cultivate his own image and to present the empire and his sultanate in the way he wished, both to his own subjects and to other states outside the Ottoman frontier.

Europe’s Balkan Muslims. A New History. By Nathalie Clayer and Xavier Bougarel. Translated by Andrew Kirby

Journal of Social History

Review article: Ottoman history in a comparative perspective

Journal of Early Modern History, 2004

Kent F. Schull, Prisons in the Late Ottoman Empire: Microcosms of Modernity

Journal of Islamic Studies, 2016

İpek Yosmaoğlu. Blood Ties: Religion, Violence, and the Politics of Nationhood in Ottoman Macedonia, 1878–1908

The American Historical Review, 2015

A Social History of Late Ottoman Women: New Perspectives, edited by Duygu Köksal and Anastasia Falierou

Turkish Historical Review

Fuat Dündar, İttihat ve Terakki'nin Müslümanları İskân Politikası, 1913-1918 (İstanbul: İletişim Yayınları, 2001)

Eurasian Studies, 1/1, pp. 147-149, 2002

Christine M. Philliou, Biography of an Empire: Governing Ottomans in an Age of Revolution (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2011)

The American Historical Review, 2012

Mustafa Aksakal , The Ottoman Road to War in 1914: The Ottoman Empire and the First World War. (Cambridge Military Histories

The American Historical Review, 2009

Jens Hanssen, Fin de Siecle Beirut. The Making of An Ottoman Provincial Capital

Journal of Islamic Studies, 2007

... Fin de siècle beirut the making of an ottoman provincial capital. Auteur(s) : HANSSEN Jens Da... more

Baki Tezcan, The Second Ottoman Empire. Political and Social Transformation in the Early Modern Europe

Journal of Islamic Studies

Nasıl Olunur Podcast 166. Bölüm - Ebru Boyar

Storytel- Nasıl Olunur- Nilay Örnek, 2022

"Osmanlı'nın torunlarıyız", çok yaygın bir söylem. Ancak biraz zahmetsiz ecdad sahibi olmuş olabi... more "Osmanlı'nın torunlarıyız", çok yaygın bir söylem. Ancak biraz zahmetsiz ecdad sahibi olmuş olabilir miyiz? Padişahlar, seferler, sınırlar, saraylar bir yana Osmanlı İmparatorluğu'ndaki toplumsal yaşam hakkında ne kadar bilgi sahibiyiz?

Bu bölümde konu Osmanlı, Osmanlı İstanbul'unda toplumsal yaşam ve konuğum ODTÜ Uluslararası İlişkiler Bölümü bölüm başkanı, öğretim üyesi ve yazar Prof. Dr. Ebru Boyar.

#EbruBoyar'la Samsun Anadolu Lisesi'yle başlayan, ODTÜ ve Cambridge'le devam eden eğitim hayatından, önce diplomat sonra akademisyen olmak isterken tarihçiliğe uzanan yaşamından konuştuk.
Ama daha çok Osmanlı İstanbul'unda toplumsal yaşamdan söz açtık...
"Osmanlı İstanbul'unda... Padişah ile halkın ilişkisi nasıldı?
İstanbul'un sınırları neresiydi, doğası, evleri nasıldı?
Halk nasıl eğlenir, ne yer ne içer, nasıl giyinir, neler seyrederdi?
Kadın, erkek, çocuk ve hayvanların konumları neydi?
Padişahlar nelerden çekinirdi? Değişimler nasıl olurdu? Osmanlı uzun yıllar kendini nasıl bu kadar sürdürebildi?"

Osmanlı'da Gündelik Hayat

Storytel- Nereden Başlasam, 2022

Nereden Başlasam'ın bu bölümünde konu Osmanlı’da Gündelik Hayat. Mirgün Cabas ve Can Kozanoğlu'nu... more

Istanbul in the Ottoman Golden Age

BBC- You're Dead to Me, 2022

Greg Jenner is joined by Prof Ebru Boyar and special guest Sue Perkins as they travel back 500 ye... more Greg Jenner is joined by Prof Ebru Boyar and special guest Sue Perkins as they travel back 500 years to explore the Ottoman Empire. They take a look at the cultural richness and diversity of Istanbul through the ages, from law and order to what your sartorial choices said about you. Why was physical proximity to the throne vital for a son of a sultan and what surprising activity used to be enjoyed by the fearsome Ottoman Soldiers? They’ll even take you to a Grand Circumcision Festival!

You’re Dead To Me is a production by The Athletic for BBC Radio 4.

Research by Claudia Treacher and Genevieve Johnson-Smith
Written and produced by Emma Nagouse and Greg Jenner
Assistant Producer: Emmie Rose Price-Goodfellow
Project Management: Siefe Miyo and Isla Matthews
Audio Producer: Abi Paterson

Social Histories of Ottoman Istanbul