What Makes a Mosque, Pt. 2: Suleyman the Magnificent Builds A Mosque

Commissioning a mosque was both an act of piety and a political statement in the Ottoman empire. Surrounded by building complexes that provided social services ranging from a public fountain to a caravanserai, mosques anchored new neighborhoods in old cities. Who commissioned what was carefully linked to social status. Small officials commissioned small mosques. Grand…

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There Was and There Was Not

As I’ve mentioned in the past, historical subjects sometimes track me down, screaming “learn more about me, dagnabbit!” Over the last few years, the Armenian genocide *–and the controversies surrounding the existence of that genocide in modern Turkey–has been tracking me down in an on-again off-again way.   I first became aware of the genocide,…

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Who made the map of the modern Middle East?

The simple answer is:  Great Britain.  You want the long version? In The Makers of the Modern Middle East   historians T.G. Fraser, Andrew Mango, and Robert McNamara tell the story of how today’s Middle East was created from the remains of the Ottoman Empire during the peace negotiations at the end of the First World…

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