Dedication and Acknowledgement
Just a few days before Robert G. Ousterhout passed away, he wrote to me: “I’m gratified that my last publication(s) return to the Chora, where everything began.”
With Bob we lose a highly respected scholar of Byzantine studies and the leading expert on Chora Church, who always opened up new frontiers and whose efficient and precise way of working set a great example for all of us. We are struck with profound sadness, but also with an incredible sense of gratitude. This book is dedicated to a great scholar and, above all, to a dear friend. And although Bob was not privileged to hold the printed version in his hands, we will always think of him when we hold this book.
In August 2020, following the November 2019 order by the Turkish Council of State, the status of the Kariye Museum in Istanbul was reverted to that of a mosque. The former monastic church of Saint Saviour in Chora thus entered a new phase of its long history. This book considers the Chora from a transcultural perspective by retracing its continuous transformations in form and function from Late Antiquity to the present day. Rather than looking at monuments as living remnants of a lost world, the main goal is to develop approaches for analysing more deeply the dynamics through which historical landmarks are repeatedly reshaped and thereby gradually invested with new meanings.
I offer my warmest thanks to Michele Bacci and Alessandra Ricci, with whom I was fortunate to organize the virtual conference “Biography of a Landmark. The Chora Monastery and Kariye Camii from Late Antiquity to the 21st Century” in Fribourg (27–28 April 2021). This volume would not have been possible without the committed participation of the speakers and, ultimately, the contributors, to whom I extend my warmest thanks. I wish to thank also Julia Oswald for her excellent copyediting of the texts, the Mediterranean Art Histories [MAH] editors, Hannah Baader, Michele Bacci, and Gerhard Wolf, for including this volume in the series, as well as Teddi Dols, the Brill Editor/Editor Middle East and Islamic Studies in charge of the series, and Anita Opdam, Production Editor. Moreover, I express my gratitude to the Swiss National Science Foundation for its generous financial support for this publication.
Manuela Studer-Karlen