TAM ROUNDTABLE MEETINGS

Everday Life, Status Groups and the Sayfiye Culture in Kadıköy During the Second Constitunional Period

Havva Yılmaz

Thursday, September 27, 2018 5:00 PM Salon: ŞAKİR KOCABAŞ SALONU

On September 27th 2018, Center for Turkish Studies will host Havva Yılmaz* under the discussions theses-articles. Yılmaz will deliver a speech about “Everday Life, Status Groups and the Sayfiye Culture in Kadıköy During the Second Constitunional Period” based on his thesis.**

 

“Kadıköy and sayfiye culture are two prominent themes that can be examined to

explain and elucidate the meaning of social change in late Ottoman society. The

transformational process from a grand and cosmopolitian empire to a modern

nation state certainly encompasses a long and tumultuous period of time. However,

it may be said that the most critical phase of this process was realized at the outset

of twentieth century in the sense of social change, and due to the importance of

Istanbul as the capital city, that is, as both transporter and witness of this change

process. As for Kadıköy, it was a developing suburb district of Istanbul at that time.

But with the advent of the second half of the nineteenth century, and with the

commencement of ferry service (1850), and the building of the Haydarpaşa‐İzmit

railway (1873), the structure of the city started to change, and in so doing, turned a

favorite sayfiye place from a humble village, to a thriving hub. While this

transformation was of interest to Ottoman courtiers and bureaucrats, Levantines,

foreign merchants, and diplomats on the one side; it also involved Jews, Greeks,

those who escaped from the Kuzguncuk fire, Crimean War migrants, and transient

workers. In this sense, Kadıköy achieves a unique blend of being a tranquil

settlement distanced from the luxurious living of Boğaziçi, and, yet takes a special

place amongst pioneers of social change by internalizing new cultural components

on a ground of social control to a lesser degree. In this study, the change that the

Kadikoy district, experienced as both actor and witness within this period, will be

elaborated by means of various memoirs.”

 

* The speech will be conducted in Turkish.

**MA Thesis, Istanbul Sehir University, 2017

İLGİLİ YUVARLAKMASALAR

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