HIST PhD Uygar Aydemir & Marloes Cornelissen's conference participation

History PhD candidates Uygar Aydemir and Marloes Cornelissen attended the 14th Annual Postgraduate Colloquium of the Centre for Byzantine, Ottoman and Modern Greek Studies at the University of Birmingham on May 25, 2013. Marloes presented her paper entitled “Material Culture at the Ottoman Court: Jacobus Colyer, A Debt Ridden Ambassador in Early Modern Istanbul”. Uygar’s paper title was “From Artistic Subjectivity to Political Collectivism: Namık Kemal among the Young Ottomans”.

Uygar Aydemir's Abstract:

The Young Ottomans were a secret community (est. 1865) that consisted of men of literature, journalists and activists, and aimed at transforming the Ottoman Empire into a liberal constitutional monarchy by establishing a parliament. They struggled for the creation of public space through publishing newspapers and literary works, since they saw the public space as the basis of a democratic society. Although they were united in their demand for a parliament, they differed to a great extent in their approach to how to realise it, because they had different social backgrounds and political opinions. Thanks to the great amount of works they produced, such as letters, articles, memories, political poems, theatre plays, we are now able to discern their individualities and the differences in how they conceptualized their community and Ottoman society.

Namık Kemal had the most consistent and developed ideology among the Young Ottomans, thus his ideas were the most influential ones during and after his time. He chose newspapers as the primary arena to influence, change, create or reaffirm certain social values, varying from political to personal, such as Ottomanism and citizenship to parenthood and family values. In my paper, I will analyse Namık Kemal's newspaper articles in order to show how he was able to put forward his individuality in a political community. I will also compare his personal letters and his son's memories with his artistic production in order to distinguish between his personality and his intellectual identity. This way, I hope to exemplify the personal motivations behind the actions of an author in a politically active group.

Marloes Cornelissen's Abstract:

Ambassador Jacobus Colyer (1657-1725) for the Dutch Republic in Ottoman Istanbul between the late 17th and early 18th century left this world in considerable debt. As a result, his entire household was drawn up and auctioned. Room by room the furniture, carpets, and clothes within the ambassadorial mansion and summerhouse are described in the probate inventory, still kept in the National Archives in The Hague, in a mixture of Dutch-Ottoman language.

By looking at this source of material culture, I will discuss what could be learned

about the persona of ambassador Colyer and his place in society of 17th and 18th century Istanbul. Colyer formed an elaborate network of inter-cultural and international relations, family ties and mercantile connections, which manifest themselves in his inheritance.