In Search of the Phanariot Abode: Aspects of Domestic Culture, Residential Architecture, and Court Life 1: Early Phanar: Mid-Fifteenth to Late Seventeenth Century

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Etkinlik Kategorisi: Çalıştay Organizasyonu

Etkinlik Türü: Çalıştay

Etkinlik Organizasyonu Yılı: 2023

Katılımcı Sayısı: 50

Özet:

This international workshop series pertains to the material and social history of the Phanariots, the Greek-Orthodox Christian notables of Ottoman Istanbul, with a special focus on residential architecture and urbanism. The Phanariot “network of power” may be viewed through the lens of a specific spatial framework: starting from their residences on the Phanar waterfront at the northwest part of the walled city, the quarter after which they have been named, and, extending far and beyond, to their political, religious, intellectual, and economic network spanning the Mediterranean, the Danubian principalities and other major urban centers. The vast geographical reach and rapid social mobility of the Phanariots call for an appropriate research focus, one that requires close collaboration across a variety of disciplines, intellectual spheres, and national historiographies. The workshop series aims to facilitate discussion on Phanariot materialities amongst these disciplines and domains with a particular focus on houses, households, communalities, neighborhoods, domesticity, etiquette, and performativity. In this light, Phanar can be approached not only as an urban neighborhood or ecclesiastical center, but also as the heart of a spatial network extending far beyond Istanbul, and even beyond the former Ottoman territories.  

Consisting of three stages, each corresponding to a specific period of Phanariot activity, the workshop series will serve as preliminary, in-house gatherings in preparation for an international symposium (28–30 June 2024, Istanbul) and an exhibition (Fall 2025, Istanbul and 2026 other cities, to be decided together with institutional partners). The participants of the workshops will present the current status of their research and their responses to the themes, topics, and questions that are iterated by the workshop frameworks. Following brainstorming sessions during the workshops, they will be encouraged to further their research on themes of their interest, to be presented in the symposium and eventually published in its proceedings. The main aim of these workshops is to develop a new network of scholars within the field of “Phanariot studies” and pave the ground for new collaborative and interactive research.

About the workshop 1:

This first workshop focuses chronologically on the early days of Phanar, from the late Byzantine period, the takeover of the city by the Ottomans until the rise of the neighborhood after the relocation of the Patriarchate to its final seat in Petrion and the rise of Phanariots to high positions in the Ottoman administration, culminating with their hospodariats in Moldo-Wallachia. 

Through its particular focus on the transformation of the shoreline from a string of fishermen’s houses to narrow perpendicular adjacent plots, and the emergence of a tight urban texture on the seaside, the underlying aim is to understand the reasons behind the changes of the urban ground in the walled city as well.

The trajectory of the patriarchate and the power core that surrounded it, the Moldo-Wallachian voivodes and boyars, including the likes of Dimitri Cantemir, and their residences and urban culture, will constitute the focus of this first workshop. The intricate connections with the Danubian territories, the already established networks, and their resonances on both ends are also pertinent topics.

Program:
18:00–21:00 (EEST/UTC+3) - East Europe & East Mediterranean
11:00–14:00 (EST/UTC-4) - USA East Coast

08:00–11:00 (PST/UTC-7) - USA West Coast