Chapter 6 Urban Reforms in Pera and other Ottoman Ports in the Aftermath of Fires in the Nineteenth Century

In: Transforming Empire: The Ottomans from the Mediterranean to the Indian Ocean
Author:
Fariba Zarinebaf
Search for other papers by Fariba Zarinebaf in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
Close

Purchase instant access (PDF download and unlimited online access):

$40.00

Abstract

The chapter examines the impact t of Great Fires that began in the seventeenth century on the urban transformation of Galata and Pera. I argue that these fires opened the way for the reconstruction of European Embassies in neo-classical style, as well as municipal building codes and reforms in Istanbul (Galata-Pera), Izmir (Frank Street) and Cairo (Abkhaziyya quarter). I examine the role of European and Levantine architects and financiers as well as municipal councils in the transformation of urban fabric and the building of modern harbors, bridges, railways, and street plans in hybrid style. The Crimean war led to a large influx of Europeans into the city and the growing role of European embassies, communities and architects in municipal affairs and the rebuilding of the Sixth District. However, due to limited funds and the bankruptcy of the government, the private funds of bankers and real estate developers like the Camondo family with a wide network in Europe played a key role in the commercialization of Karakoy and Voyvoda Street that acquired a French appearance (Marseille). These reforms were followed by the creation of modern policing and greater surveillance of Pera.

  • Collapse
  • Expand
  • Başbakanlık Osmanlı Arşivi, Istanbul (BOA).

  • Cevdet Zaptiye (CZ) 3199, 3365.

  • BBA, Cevdet Muallim, vol. 3 (1885 survey).

  • BBA, Cevdet İktisat (C.IKTS) 3/484.

  • Tapu Tahrir İstanbul 889 (1848–50).

  • NFS.D (Nüfus Defteri) 14 & 20.

  • Akın, Nur. 19 Yüzyılın İkinci Yarısında Galata ve Pera. Istanbul: Literatür Yayınları, 2011.

  • Behar, Cem. A Neighborhood in Ottoman Istanbul: Fruit Vendors and Civil Servants in the Kasap İlyas Mahalle. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2003.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation
  • Çadırcı, Musa. Tanzimat Döneminde Anadolu Kentleri’nin Sosyal ve Ekonomik Yapıları. Ankara: Türk Tarih Kurumu, 1991.

  • Çelik, Zeynep. The Remaking of Istanbul: Portrait of an Ottoman City in the Nineteenth Century. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1986.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation
  • Çelik, Zeynep. “Urban Preservation as Theme Park, the Case of Soğuk Çeşme Street.” In Streets, Critical Perspective on Public Space, edited by Zeynep Çelik, Diane Favro, and Richard Ingersoll, 8394. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1994.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation
  • Çelik, Zeynep. Displaying the Orient, Architecture of Islam at Nineteenth-Century World’s Fairs. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1992.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation
  • Çelik, Zeynep, Diane Favro, and Richard IngersollStreets and the Urban Process, A Tribute to Spiro Kostoff.” In Streets, Critical Perspective on Public Space, edited by Zeynep Çelik, Diane Favro, and Richard Ingersoll, 18. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1994.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation
  • Clancy-Smith, Julia A. Mediterraneans: North Africa and Europe in an Age of Migration, c. 1800–1900. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2012.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation
  • Duben, Alan, and Cem Behar. Istanbul Households: Marriage, Family and Fertility, 1880–1940. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation
  • Eldem, Edhem, Daniel Goffman, and Bruce Masters, The Ottoman City between East and West, Aleppo, Izmir, and Istanbul. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation
  • Eldem, Edhem. “Istanbul as a Cosmopolitan City, Myths and Realities.” In A Companion to Diaspora and Transnationalism, edited by Ato Quayson and Girish Daswani, 212230. London: Blackwell Publishing, 2013.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation
  • Eldem, Edhem. Bankalar Caddesi, Osmanlı’dan Günümüıze Voyvoda Caddesi. Istanbul: Osmanlı Bankası, 2000.

  • Erbahar, Aksel. “Camondo (Kamondo) Family.” In Encyclopedia of Jews in the Islamic World, edited by Norman A. Sillman. Brill online, 2015.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation
  • Ergin, Osman Nuri. Mecelle-i Umur-ı Belediyye. Vol. 6. Istanbul: Büyükşehir Belediyesi, 1995.

  • Ergüder, Başak. Galata Hanları (1868–1945) – Paranın Serüveni. Istanbul: SAV, 2011.

  • Ersoy, Ahmet. “Architecture and the Search for Ottoman origins in the Tanzimat Period.” Muqarnas 24 (2017): 116139.

  • Girardelli, Paolo. “Architecture, Identity and Liminality: On the Use of Catholic Spaces in Late Ottoman Istanbul,” Muqarnas 22 (2005): 233264.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation
  • Girardelli, Paolo. “Italian Architects in an Ottoman Context: Perspectives and Assessments,” Istanbul Araştırmaları Yıllığı, No. 1 (2011), 101122.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation
  • Göçek, Fatma Müge. Rise of the Bourgeoisie, Demise of Empire, Ottoman Westernization and Social Change. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation
  • Gül, Murat. The Emergence of Modern Istanbul, Transformation and Modernization of a City. London: I.B. Tauris, 2012.

  • Hamadeh, Shirine. “Ottoman Expression of Early Modernity and the ‘Inevitable’ Question of Westernization.” Journal of Society of Architectural Historians 63, no. 1 (March 2004): 3251.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation
  • Hanssen, Jens. Fin de Siècle Beirut: The Making of an Ottoman Provincial Capital. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005.

  • İpek, Nurhan. Selanik ve İstanbul’da Yahudi Bankerler. Istanbul: Yeditepe, 2011.

  • Jordan, David P. Transforming Paris: The Life and Labors of Baron Haussman. New York: The Free Press, 1995.

  • Kettering, Sharon. “State Control and Municipal Authority in France.” In Edo & Paris, Urban Life and the State in Early Modern Era, edited by James L. McLain, John M. Merriman, and Ugawa Kaoru, 8697. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1994.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation
  • Keyder, Çağlar, ed. Istanbul Between the Global and the Local. Lanham, Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, 1999.

  • Kuban, Doğan. Istanbul: An Urban History, Byzantion, Constantinopolis, Istanbul. Istanbul: The Economic and Social Foundation of Turkey, 1996.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation
  • Levy-Aksu, Noémi. Ordre et désordres dans l’Istanbul ottoman (1879–1909). Paris: Éditions Karthala, 2013.

  • Ortaylı, İlber. İstanbul’dan Sayfalar. Istanbul: Kronik, 2021.

  • Müller-Wiener, Wolfgang. Bizans’tan Osmanlı’ya İstanbul Limanları, trans. by Erol Özbek. Ankara: Tarih Vakfı Yurt Yayınları, 1998.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation
  • Raymond, Andre. Cairo, translated by Willard Wood. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2000.

  • Rodrigue, Aron. “Abraham de Camondo of Istanbul: The Transformation of Jewish Philanthropy.” In Profiles in Diversity: Jews in a Changing Europe, 1750–1870, edited by Frances Milano and David J. Sorkin, 45–56. Detroit, Wayne State University Press, 1998.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation
  • Rosenthal, Steven. “Foreigners and Municipal Reform in Galata, 1866–1865.” International Journal of Middle East Studies 11, no. 2 (1980): 227245.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation
  • Salzmann, Ariel. “Islamopolis, Cosmopolis: Ottoman Urbanity Between Myth and Postmodernity.” In Cosmopolitanisms in Muslim Countries: Perspectives from the Past, edited by D.N. MacLean and S.K. Ahmed, 6891. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2013.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation
  • Şeni, Nora. “The Camondos and their Imprint on 19th-century Istanbul.” International Journal of Middle East Studies 26, no. 4 (Nov. 1994): 664675.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation
  • Shaw, Stanford J.The Population of Istanbul in the Nineteenth Century.” International Journal of Middle East Studies 10, no. 2 (May 1979): 265277.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation
  • Smyrnelis, Marie-Carmen, ed. Izmir, 1830–1930, Unutulmuş Bir Kent Mi? Istanbul: İletişim, 2008.

  • Tekeli, İlhan. “Nineteenth Century Transformation of Istanbul Metropolitan Area.” In Villes Ottomans a la fin de L’empire, edited by Paul Dumont and François Georgeon, 3345. Paris, Editions L’Harmattan, 1990.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation
  • Webb, Nigel and Caroline, The Earl and his Butler in Constantinople, The Secret Diary of and English Servant among the Ottomans. London: I.B. Tauris, 2006.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation
  • Yılmaz, Fikret. İzmir’de 400 Yıl. Izmir: İzmir Ticaret Odası, 2012.

  • Zandi-Sayek, Sibel. Ottoman Izmir, the Rise of a Cosmopolitan Port, 1840–1880. Minneapolis: The University of Minnesota Press, 2012.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation
  • Zarinebaf, Fariba. Mediterranean Encounters, Trade and Pluralism in Galata in Early Modern Galata. Berkeley: University of California Press.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

Metrics

All Time Past 365 days Past 30 Days
Abstract Views 126 126 21
Full Text Views 1 1 0
PDF Views & Downloads 8 8 1