Marmaray dig reveals Byzantine and Ottoman glasswork

Glasswork from the Roman, Byzantine and Ottoman empires has been discovered during the Marmaray excavations in Istanbul. Experts previously believed Ottomans did not develop a unique glasswork style.

Archaeologists have discovered unique glasswork from the Ottoman Empire for the first time in the Marmaray excavations Istanbul’s Sirkeci neighborhood, as well as 2,000 year-old glasswork from the Romans and Byzantines.

Speaking to Anatolia news agency, Doğuş University Industrial Designs Department Chairman Üzlifat Özgümüş said the excavations, which have gone on since 2007, were the world’s largest and the most important excavations.

Click here to read this article from Hurriyet Daily News

New book on Battle of Kosovo stirs debate

A new book on the 14th century Battle of Kosovo is igniting angry remarks over its contention that an Albanian knight, not a Serbian knight, was responsible for the assassination of the Ottoman Sultan Murat I.

The Battle of Kosovo 1389: An Albanian Epic, by Anna Di Lellio, offers eight translations of Albanian stories about the battle, which claim that the Serbian knight Milos Obilic, who is credited with killing the Sultan on the battlefield, was really an Albanian named Millosh Kopiliq.

Di Lellio, a sociologist, journalist, and university professor with extensive experience in Kosovo, found these sources from poems sung by Albanian preservers of a centuries-old oral tradition, about legendary events grounded in the historical battle outside Pristina in 1389.

She presents these poems, in facing pages of Albanian and English, “to rescue them from marginalization as folklore, or from turning them into a new prison for collective memory,” managed by “memory entrepreneurs” with axes to grind. Given the complexities of Balkan history, the second is probably, and unfortunately, impossible, since many Serb commentators “have reduced Serbian history and politics to a story” in which facts must give way to “uninterrupted remembrance.”

The complementary Serbian and Albanian poetic narratives pose many contradictions, most obviously the name and nationality of the hero who killed Murat even as the Ottoman forces were victorious on the field of battle. No historical authority seems to support either side. In Serbian epics, he is a Serb called Milos Obilic and early in the last century and during and after the battles following the dissolution of Yugoslavia he “evoked a medieval past of national greatness.” In Albanian, the hero is named Millosh Kopiliq, an Albanian who was for centuries a local folk hero who became part of the national narrative during the Kosovan struggle for independence in the 1990s.

“I have only collected poems sang by Kosovo Albanians and translated them into English so that the world can see the other view on the Kosovo myth which has a strong influence on Balkan countries,“ di Lellio told the Belgrade newspaper Vecernje novosti.

Serbian reaction to this book has been negative, with one historian calling it part of "the usurpation of Serbian history." Some have pointed out that Di Lellio, who worked in Kosovo for the United Nations, has also written several articles and edited a book that supports the independence of Kosovo.

The Battle of Kosovo was an important victory for the Ottoman Empire, but was marred by death of Murad I - according to some sources he was killed in battle, while in others he was assassinated in his tent by an enemy knight who was pretending to switch sides. The death of the sultan was only a temporary setback in the Ottomans gaining control over a large portion of southeastern Europe.

For more information, please go to our page on the book.

Behind the Scenes of Warfare: Ottoman-Mamluk Relations

A University of Texas at Dallas professor studying ties between two important groups in Medieval Islamic history will pursue her research in Turkey under a fellowship from Koc University's Research Center for Anatolian Civilizations (RCAC).

Dr. Cihan Yuksel Muslu, assistant professor of arts and humanities, was awarded the full-time, nine-month fellowship to study Ottoman-Mamluk relations this fall.

"I am very excited, and have already begun planning my work," said Muslu. "It is such an honor to be awarded this fellowship, which is popular and prestigious in my field."

Muslu will devote full-time attention to writing and research of her topic, "Behind the Scenes of Warfare: Ottoman-Mamluk Relations," which was the subject of her doctoral dissertation.

The Mamluks were slave soldiers who converted to Islam and served the Muslim caliphs and the Ayyubid sultans from the 9th to the 16th centuries.

Muslu will present her work-in-progress in the form of an in-house talk during fall 2009, and participate in one of the public mini-symposia in the spring 2010 semester.

The fellowship consists of travel and relocation reimbursements, a research budget and partial living expenses for Muslu and her family, as well as a monthly stipend. Travel expenses for the presentation of papers at academic conferences during the period of Muslu's appointment are also covered.

"We'll miss Cihan's exemplary devotion to teaching, but we are fully confident that she will return to UT Dallas with a new wealth of knowledge to share with her students," said Dennis Kratz, dean of the School of Arts and Humanities.

Muslu wholeheartedly agrees that the experience will enhance her teaching.

"I am a strong believer that teaching and research are closely connected," said Muslu. "As I grow intellectually, thanks in part to this fellowship, I will become a better historian and hence a better teacher.

"The vibrant intellectual environment in the RCAC will contribute to this process. I will be surrounded by experts who are specializing in diverse aspects and periods of Anatolian/Middle Eastern studies, from history to archeology and art history. This interactive and interdisciplinary atmosphere will definitely enhance my understanding of and my teaching on the region."

Muslu's fellowship begins in mid-September. RCAC is located in the center of Beyoglu, a neighborhood of Istanbul, Turkey. Founded in 1993, Koc University is a private university in Turkey with a strong emphasis on research.