Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2000. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 266-288).

Thesis (doctoral), Universität, Frankfurt (Main), 1999. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 240-249).

This study examines the dynamics of German Turks' practices and life-styles and their relationship with Turkey in the context of the possibilities brought into their lives by their particular type of dislocation. Turkish migrants' "culture" and life-styles are explored in the context of their complex social space, rather than within a framework encapsulated in a reified ethnicity and/or immutable "Turkish culture". / Chapter I discusses concepts of ethnicity, culture and identity and presents a critical account of the literature on German Turks in this respect. Chapter II focuses on the ambiguities and insecurities of German Turks' legal, political and social status in both Turkey and Germany, and traces the consequences of these conditions on Turkish migrants' complex sense of place. The discussion of German Turks' "myths of return" in the context of their liminality and the impact these have on their self-image and their visions about their lives constitute the focus of chapters III and IV respectively. Chapter V explores the changing nature of Turkish migrants' interpersonal relationships. Chapter VI concentrates on the anomalies of the social space occupied by German Turks in German society and discusses their life-styles, practices and emergent cultural forms in the context of social mobility.

Idris Bidlisi's Heşt Behişt is a history of the Ottoman empire written in Persian at the beginning of the sixteenth century. Although considered one of the most important historical works of its time, the work remains to date unedited and scarcely studied. The present work aims to make at least a part of Heşt Behişt available to modern scholarship, with particular focus on the times of the author's patron, the Ottoman sultan Bayezid II (1481-1512). The summarised translation (chapter Vll) of the eighth 'Book' of Heşt Behişt, devoted to Bayezid II's reign, provides the basis for further discussions on several issues relating to the period, including an investigation of the author's personal approach to his subject. The thesis begins with an outline of the historical background of the reign of Bayezid II (chapter I), followed by a brief account of the development of Ottoman historiography up to the appearance of Heşt Behişt (chapter II). The author, Idris Bidlisi, and Heşt Behişt itself are then introduced (chapters Ill and IV). The focus is subsequently turned to the reign of Bayezid II, with particular attention to two major issues of the period. The first relates to the civil strife between the new sultan and his brother Cem over succession to the throne, a series of events which marked the first two years of Bayezid II's reign and had a significant effect on the Ottoman empire's domestic and international politics for the next thirteen years until Cem's death in 1495 (chapter V). The second analytical chapter investigates the phenomenon of the Ottoman navy in the times of Bayezid II, under whose care the empire's naval forces were significantly expanded and upgraded, for the first time in Ottoman history achieving predominance in sea over their Christian counterparts (chapter VI). In the study of both these themes information and the results of modern scholarship are juxtaposed to the material found in Heşt Behişt, in an attempt to look into the historical knowledge of the period and disclose the chronicle's usefulness and contribution to modem research.

The proposed thesis deals with Beirut's urban development from a maritime town to a provincial capital in the 19. and early 20. centuries. It does so in the context of physical, politico-administrative and socio-cultural inscriptions on the city by a centralizing Ottoman state. The center-periphery relations in the Ottoman Empire are examined in terms of the forces of political integration and social cohesion as well as challenges to them. The empire-city nexus that is maintained throughout this thesis posits Beirut both as the site of Ottoman imperial discourses and practices and as the site of local appropriation of- and resistance to - them. Local power was articulated in arenas of negotiation between Istanbul and Beirut (e.g. municipal councils, bureaucratic and personal networks, production of space, practices of urban management). At the same time, the quality of the city's growth and wealth created discontent and resistance among these sectors of society that were excluded from, or threatened by, Beirut's development as a port city and provincial capital (e.g. strikes, boycotts, demonstrations, riots). The condition of Beirut at the turn of the century was commented and reflected upon in contemporary Arabic journal editorials, newspaper articles, poems and speeches whose transformative power, it will be argued, affected the very physical form of Beirut's urban fabric.

This thesis proposes an anti-Orientalist reading of the portrait of the Ottoman Sultan Mehmed the Conqueror (r. 1451-1481) by Gentile Bellini. The artist's work is analysed in the context of the Venetian Renaissance and the status of the visual arts in the Ottoman Empire. Mehmed's patronage of Italian artists, who created medallic and pictorial portraits of the sovereign, is considered together with the local translation of conventions enabled by early modern cross-cultural encounters. The Western political and intellectual climate following the conquest of Constantinople by Mehmed in 1453 is examined and, in particular, the secularising crusade literature produced by humanist scholars. Covert efforts to incorporate the Turks within the boundaries of civilised society coexisted with the conventional derogatory anti-Turkish propaganda. Bellini's portrait is seen as an attempt to portray the sultan as a member of the Venetian aristocracy. The historiographical record of modern academic scholarship in the disciplines of history and art history exploring these cross-cultural exchanges is set in a framework that explores the role of Edward Said's Orientalism in light of recent developments.

In 1492, the Catholic Monarchs Isabel and Ferdinand conquered Granada, the last Muslim Kingdom in Spain, issued the edict of expulsion of Jews and charged Christopher Columbus to find out a western route to Indies who by coincidence discovered America. These three momentous events led to construction of Spanish national unity and of the Spanish world empire. In this study, what we are looking for is the impact of the first two events, the conquest of Granada and the expulsion of the Jews, on the formation of the Spanish national unity and the Spanish nationhood vis-&agrave / -vis Jews and Muslims in its historical context. In this study, the concept of nation-building would be employed not in economic but in political, religious and cultural terms. This study, by using the historical analysis method, found that centuries-long Muslim and Jewish presence in Spain and the Spaniards&rsquo / fight for exterminating this religious, cultural and political pluralism led to the formation of unitary Catholic state and society in Spain in the period under consideration.

This thesis analyzes the Greek minority policy of Western Thrace by dwelling on the history of the Muslim Turkish minority of Western Thrace from the beginning of 1920s until today. Until the early 1990s, changes in the Greek policy of Western Thrace had not been observed. However, the year 1991 marks a turning point both in the attitude of Greece towards the Muslim Turkish minority and in the history of the Western Thracian minority. As a result of the change in the Greek minority policy of Western Thrace there has been developments in the living conditions of the Minority. It is the aim of this thesis to explore to what extent there has been occurring changes and to what extent problems continue to affect the members of the Minority. Moreover, this thesis aims to analyze the actors that played a quite significant role in the Western Thracian policy change of the Greek state. After evaluating the situation in Western Thrace in the pre-1990 and post-1990 period this thesis argues that while on the one hand it is the economic and social domains that changes have been observed, on the other hand continuities in the Greek policy of the Muslim Turkish minority regarding the political and educational issues keep on affecting the members of this Minority. The aim of this thesis is to show that as a result of such a &lsquo / partial change&rsquo / today&rsquo / s situation in Western Thrace is better than that of pre-1990s but some significant problems of the Minority still remain unresolved due to the unaltered stance of the Greek state towards some issues of the Western Thracian Minority.

Thesis (M.A.) - Carleton University, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 125-135). Also available in electronic format on the Internet.

Thesis (master's)--Universität Hamburg, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 102-104).