Ottoman Izmir
The Rise of a Cosmopolitan Port, 1840-1880
A revelatory examination of the multiple constructions of urban modernization
Ottoman Izmir examines how urban space, institutional structures, and everyday practices shaped one another in the thriving Eastern Mediterranean seaport of Izmir between 1840 and 1880. Sibel Zandi-Sayek investigates local populations who were actively engaged in restructuring the city and shows how Izmir’s various stakeholders contested its built environment, offering a new view of the dynamics of urban modernization.
Late Ottoman Izmir provides a fascinating case study for Sibel Zandi-Sayek’s book. Her analysis of the physical settings and her use of architecture and urban forms as primary documents to understand the social fabric make her approach particularly intriguing.
Zeynep Celik, Distinguished Professor, New Jersey Institute of Technology
Between 1840 and 1880, the Eastern Mediterranean port of Izmir (Smyrna) underwent unprecedented change. A modern harbor that welcomed international steamships and new railway lines that transported a cornucopia of products transformed the physical city. Migrants, seasonal workers, and transient sailors thronged into an already diverse metropolis, helping to double the population to 200,000. Simultaneously, Ottoman officials and enterprising citizens vied to control and reform the city’s administrative and legal institutions.
Ottoman Izmir examines how urban space, institutional structures, and everyday practices shaped one another in the thriving seaport of Izmir during a volatile period of growth. Sibel Zandi-Sayek investigates a variety of urban actors—Muslims and non-Muslims, Ottomans and Europeans, newcomers and native residents, merchants, investors, civil servants, and press reporters—who were actively engaged in restructuring the city. Concentrating on the workings of urban committees and on laws and policies that were written, rewritten, but never fully implemented, Zandi-Sayek exposes how modern interventions sought to impose clear-cut concepts of public and private, safety and danger, and hygiene on a city that previously had a wide range of customary regulations.
Ottoman Izmir shows how Izmir’s various stakeholders contested its built environment. In so doing, it offers a new view of the dynamics of urban modernization.
Late Ottoman Izmir provides a fascinating case study for Sibel Zandi-Sayek’s book. Her analysis of the physical settings and her use of architecture and urban forms as primary documents to understand the social fabric make her approach particularly intriguing.
Zeynep Celik, Distinguished Professor, New Jersey Institute of Technology
Contents
Author’s Note
Introduction: A World in Flux
1. Defining Citizenship: Property, Taxation, and Sovereignty
2. Ordering the Streets: Public Space and Urban Governance
3. Shaping the Waterfront: Public Works and the Public Good
4. Performing Community: Rituals and Identity
Epilogue: The View from Izmir
Acknowledgments
Notes
Bibliography
Index
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