Producing Pera: A Levantine Family and the Remaking of Istanbul

[View of Pera and Galata, circa 1870-1910. Photo by Guillaume Berggren via US Library of Congress] [View of Pera and Galata, circa 1870-1910. Photo by Guillaume Berggren via US Library of Congress]

Producing Pera: A Levantine Family and the Remaking of Istanbul

By : Chris Gratien

In recent years, urban space has emerged as a critical point of political contention in Turkey. However, this is by no means a new phenomenon. The politics of urban transformation in Istanbul—Turkey’s largest city and the capital of the former Ottoman Empire—have offered a visible representation of the dominant ideology of the times since the city’s conquest in 1453. As Ottoman sultans and statesmen sought to consciously reorient towards Europe during the nineteenth century, the largely non-Muslim neighborhood of Pera, opposite the historical peninsula on the northern side of the Golden Horn, became a site of particular meaning. During the nineteenth century, this region underwent tremendous growth and rapid architectural transformation, shaping what today has become the center of Istanbul—represented by Taksim Square and the surrounding area.

In conjunction with the launch of Jadaliyya’s Turkey Page, Ottoman History Podcast rereleases Episode 90, entitled “Producing Pera,” featuring the research of Nilay Özlü, who through the study of a Levantine family offers a generational approach to the transformation of Istanbul as an architectural and cultural space. During the late nineteenth century, an Ottoman Levantine named Alexander Vallaury became one of the foremost Ottoman architects of his day, designing many important buildings in modern-day Istanbul, such as the Ottoman Imperial Bank, and lecturing at the newly-established Academy of Fine Arts. His architectural works were part of a larger assertion of a new modern self-identification by the Ottoman elite, which itself was heavily influenced by trends in Europe. This meant that Vallaury played a pivotal role in how modernization was to be displayed in urban space.

The prestige that Vallaury garnered was certainly greater than that of his grandfather, who had come to the Ottoman capital as a pastry chef in the employ of the French embassy. The rise in the Vallaury family’s stock was in part facilitated by a general rise in the influence of the Levantine community, whose links to Europe made them a critical component of what was meant to be a “more European” Istanbul. Alexander Vallaury’s access to a French education offered him the opportunity to participate in the transformation and rise of his native neighborhood of Pera.

This podcast deals with the transformation of Pera through the story of three generations of the Vallaury family. It includes a discussion of the architectural works designed by Alexander Vallaury, many of which can still be found in Istanbul today. Alongside this discussion, there are several historical and contemporary photographs of these buildings available on the Ottoman History Podcast website.

Ottoman History Podcast is a weekly internet radio program, recorded in English and Turkish, that features academic discussion of emerging topics in the study of the Ottoman Empire and the modern Middle East. Guests include scholars and researchers from a number of disciplines who discuss particular topics in a conversational interview format. Ottoman History Podcast can be followed through its blog as well as an active Facebook group that also posts pictures and links of interest for students of history and casual audiences alike.


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Summer Readings from NEWTON

The New Texts Out Now (NEWTON) page has greatly expanded over the past year, in large part thanks to the recommendations and contributions from many of Jadaliyya’s readers. We would like to provide you with ample summer reading material by reminding you of several new texts that we have featured in recent months. This compilation of works spans a wide range of topics and disciplines by prominent authors in the field of Middle East studies.

We hope this list will be pedagogically useful for readers preparing syllabi for the fall semester, as well as those hoping to learn about new and unique perspectives on the region. To stay up to date with ongoing discussions by scholars and instructors in the field, check out Jadaliyya’s sister organization, Tadween Publishing.

Highlights

NEWTON in Focus: Thinking Through Gender and Sex

NEWTON in Focus: Egypt

NEWTON Author Nergis Ertürk Receives MLA First Book Prize

NEWTON 2012 in Review

This Year’s NEWTONs

New Texts Out Now: Mark Fathi Massoud, Law`s Fragile State: Colonial, Authoritarian, and Humanitarian Legacies in Sudan

New Texts Out Now: Ayça Çubukçu, The Responsibility to Protect: Libya and the Problem of Transnational Solidarity

New Texts Out Now: Louise Cainkar, Global Arab World Migrations and Diasporas

New Texts Out Now: Maya Mikdashi, What is Settler Colonialism? and Sherene Seikaly, Return to the Present

New Texts Out Now: Joel Beinin, Mixing, Separation, and Violence in Urban Spaces and the Rural Frontier in Palestine

New Texts Out Now: Wendy Pearlman, Emigration and the Resilience of Politics in Lebanon

New Texts Out Now: Simon Jackson, Diaspora Politics and Developmental Empire: The Syro-Lebanese at the League of Nations

New Texts Out Now: Charles Tripp, The Power and the People: Paths of Resistance in the Middle East

New Texts Out Now: Chouki El Hamel, Black Morocco: A History of Slavery, Race, and Islam

New Texts Out Now: Adel Iskandar and Bassam Haddad, Mediating the Arab Uprisings

New Texts Out Now: David McMurray and Amanda Ufheil-Somers, The Arab Revolts

New Texts Out Now: Esam Al-Amin, The Arab Awakening Unveiled

New Texts Out Now: Rashid Khalidi, Brokers of Deceit: How the US Has Undermined Peace in the Middle East

New Texts Out Now: Vijay Prashad, The Poorer Nations: A Possible History of the Global South

New Texts Out Now: Paul Aarts and Francesco Cavatorta, Civil Society in Syria and Iran

New Texts Out Now: Amr Adly, State Reform and Development in the Middle East: Turkey and Egypt in the Post-Liberalization Era

New Texts Out Now: Rachel Beckles Willson, Orientalism and Musical Mission: Palestine and the West

New Texts Out Now: Ilana Feldman, The Challenge of Categories: UNRWA and the Definition of a "Palestine Refugee"

New Texts Out Now: Jeannie Sowers, Environmental Politics in Egypt: Activists, Experts, and the State

New Texts Out Now: Dina Rizk Khoury, Iraq in Wartime: Soldiering, Martyrdom, and Remembrance

New Texts Out Now: Na`eem Jeenah, Pretending Democracy: Israel, An Ethnocratic State

New Texts Out Now: Sally K. Gallagher, Making Do in Damascus

New Texts Out Now: Natalya Vince, Saintly Grandmothers: Youth Reception and Reinterpretation of the National Past in Contemporary Algeria

New Texts Out Now: January 2013 Back to School Edition

New Texts Out Now: John M. Willis, Unmaking North and South: Cartographies of the Yemeni Past, 1857-1934

New Texts Out Now: Paolo Gerbaudo, Tweets and the Streets: Social Media and Contemporary Activism

New Texts Out Now: Madawi Al-Rasheed, A Most Masculine State: Gender, Politics, and Religion in Saudi Arabia

New Texts Out Now: Noga Efrati, Women in Iraq: Past Meets Present

New Texts Out Now: Nicola Pratt, The Gender Logics of Resistance to the "War on Terror"

New Texts Out Now: Lisa Hajjar, Torture: A Sociology of Violence and Human Rights

New Texts Out Now: Orit Bashkin, New Babylonians: A History of Jews in Modern Iraq

New Texts Out Now: Marwan M. Kraidy, The Revolutionary Body Politic