Activities

A Centre for History and Culture

Since its foundation in 1997, the Ottoman Bank Archives and Research Centre has endeavored to bring its work to the wider public, both academic and lay, through various activities.

Lectures

The Voyvoda Street Lectures
Beginning with the academic year 2000-2001, the Voyvoda Street Lecture series, organized by the Centre in Turkish in a Wednesday of every month, have provided academics, students and members of the wider community with an avenue to discuss issues regarding economic history, culture and other relevant topics. The lectures are continued and expanded in scope every new academic year.

The Voyvoda Street Lectures 2000-2001 Program
The Voyvoda Street Lectures 2002-2003 Program
The Voyvoda Street Lectures 2003-2004 Program
The Voyvoda Street Lectures 2004-2005 Program
The Voyvoda Street Lectures 2005-2006 Program
The Voyvoda Street Lectures 2006-2007 Program
The Voyvoda Street Lectures 2007-2008 Program

The Making of Modern Turkey Seminars

Third Saturday of each month 2:30-5:00 p.m.

In association with Bogaziçi University on the topic, "Continuity and Disruption in Republican Turkey".

The theme of the 2003-2004 Seminars was the transition from empire to nation-state, and the legal, individual and economic variables of this process. In the 2004-2005 Seminars, the focus was on the population exchange between Greece and Turkey within the context of the "Turkifikation" of the economy. The focus of the 2005-2006 seminars was put on the positive or negative effects on Turkey of the various ideologies, which left their mark on the 20th century.

The Making of Modern Turkey Seminars 2003-2004 Program
The Making of Modern Turkey Seminars 2004-2005 Program
The Making of Modern Turkey Seminars 2005-2006 Program
The Making of Modern Turkey Seminars 2006-2007 Program
The Making of Modern Turkey Seminars 2007-2008 Program

Both Shores of the Aegean

Third Friday of each month at 5:00 p.m.

This season, The Ottoman Bank Museum is hosting a series of monthly seminars entitled "Economy and Society on Both Shores of the Aegean", organized in collaboration with Alpha Bank and the History Department at Bogaziçi University.

Focusing on the Greek-Orthodox populations during the late Ottoman period and the first decades of the Republic, the seminars will address issues concerning ethnic and civic identity, inter-communal relations, urban culture, educational policies, commercial activities, social networks, the exchange of populations, and the Patriarchate. Seminar speakers will provide comprehensive information on these topics with special emphasis on the historical past of the region.

Admission to the seminars, which will be held in English, is free.

Please click here for the 2004-2005 program.
Please click here for the 2005-2006 program.
Please click here for the 2006-2007 program.

Enlightenment and Law Symposium

From November 30 through December 1, the Ottoman Bank Museum (OBM) is a hosting a two-day symposium entitled Enlightenment and Modern Law: Contemporary Legal Issues and Law in Turkey. The event represents a continuation of last May’s symposium about the past and present impact of Enlightenment philosophy on Turkey. Prof. Levent Köker, from the Department of International Relations at Gazi University curates the event and Prof. Çağlar Keyder, from the Department of Sociology at Boğaziçi University, will give the opening address. 

Taking as its focal point Turkey, who is going through its own particular historical experience in creating and setting up a modern system of law, the symposium aims to examine both the basic principles and institutions of modern law – arrived at through the contributions of Enlightenment philosophy – and the critiques they have drawn. Over these two days, leading Turkish academics will consider critiques of the positive (or state) law component in modern law, the link between law and democratic legitimacy, and legal issues in Turkey, especially where freedom of opinion is concerned.

Admission to the symposium is open to the public and free of charge but reservations are required.

Please click for the program.

Enlightenment Symposium
At The Ottoman Bank Museum

In association with the Department of Political Science and International Relations at Boğaziçi University, the Ottoman Bank Museum is organizing a symposium on May 11 and 12, to examine the past and present impact of Enlightenment philosophy on Turkey. During the symposium, a select team of scholars will address various aspects of the Enlightenment: its role in shaping political thought and art in Turkey from the Tanzimat to the present; the postmodern critique of Enlightenment philosophy; and the divergence between Enlightenment philosophy and multiculturalism and identity politics. With this critical analysis of the Enlightenment – Europe’s common cultural denominator – the symposium aims to provide a theoretical framework for a discussion of the benefits and problems it brought about in Turkey.

Please click for the program.

Panel on the examination of the book, Ottoman Finance: Institutions and Budgets

Prof. Edhem Eldem, Assoc. Prof. Erol Özvar, Prof. Şevket Pamuk and Mehmet Genç will examine Mehmet Genç and Erol Özvar’s book Ottoman Finance: Institutions and Budgets in a panel discussion to be held at the Ottoman Bank Museum on Tuesday, January 9, at 6:00 p.m.

Panel participants will address the making of the book, which exposes never before published Ottoman budgets and reveals the Ottoman’s state’s financial expertise, and discuss its contributions to financial history studies. 

The first tome of the book, made up of two volumes and a CD, comprises informative articles that provide an overview of the Ottoman financial institution in general, and detailed studies of the budgets published in the second tome. The second tome presents, to the scrutiny of readers and researchers, one of the most important sources of data on Ottoman finance, the budgets found in the Ottoman Archive. Concerning their objective in writing the book the authors said, “Ottoman finance symbolizes the tradition of rapid adaptation to changing circumstances that a state spread out over three continents demonstrated over the centuries. At the back of this financial structure lie the institution’s strong bureaucratic memory, flexibility, common sense and foresight. Through the publication of these budgets, most of which were never available in print before, we aimed to arrive at fresh information and data on the Ottoman Empire’s financial competence."

Modernism, City, and Empire

Within the framework of a program designed by the Ottoman Bank Museum to bring Turkish academics working abroad before Istanbul audiences, Prof. Zeynep Çelik will be giving a presentation entitled "Modernism, City and Empire", addressing the process of urban change and the concept of modernism in an Ottoman context. The lecture is scheduled for Tuesday, October 19, at 5:30 p.m.

In her lecture, Zeynep Çelik will provide a comparative analysis of the urban changes occurring in the second half of the 19th century, in the Arab provinces of the Ottoman Empire, and those taking place in the French colonies in Northern Africa. She will also investigate the transformation and modernization of public spaces in provincial capitals of the Empire such as Damascus, Beirut, Tripoli (Libya), Algiers, and Tunis.

Please click for the text of the lecture...

Library Week Events

The Ministry of Education has declared the week beginning with the last Monday of March national library week. Throughout the week, there will be talks on various topics including the role of libraries in society, the difficulties libraries face, the impact that advances in information technology have had on libraries, and library collections. Founded in 1997, the Library of the Ottoman Bank Archives and Research Center, has participated in these activities since 2004.

40th Library Week Events
41th Library Week Events
42th Library Week Events

International Conferences

Colloquium: East Meets West: Banking, Commerce and Investment

Organised in 1999, in collaboration with the European Association of Banking and Financial History e.V. (EABH) and with the participation of the History Foundation (Tarih Vakfi), the East Meets West: Banking, Commerce and Investment Colloquium provided an opportunity for Turkish and foreign bankers and academics to discuss commerce, monetarization, public debt and foreign investments in the 19 th century Ottoman economy.

Workshop: Archives and IT Solutions

The Centre hosted the workshop Archives and IT Solutions organized by European Association of Banking and Financial History e.V. (EABH) and held in Istanbul, from October 24 to October 25, 2002. The academic organization committee was constituted of Luís Felipe de Abreu Nunes (Banco de Portugal), Maria Guercio (Universitá degli Studi di Urbino) and Anders Perlinge (Foundation for Economic History Research).

World-Leading Economic Historians at the Ottoman Bank Museum: 6 th European Historical Economics Society Conference

From September 9 - 10, the Ottoman Bank Museum will be hosting the European Historical Economics Society Conference, organized by the European Historical Economics Society. Aproximately 150 economic historians - among them several Turks - are expected to participate in the conference, which will be moderated by the current president of the society, Prof. Sevket Pamuk. The two-day conference, at which a total of 100 individual papers will be submitted and the results of the doctoral dissertation competition announced, will be held in 6 sessions.

Among the academics, attending the 6 th European Historical Economics Society Conference, are such internationally renowned economic historians as, Robert Allen (Oxford University), Jeffrey Williamson (Harvard University), Daron Acemoglu (MIT), Patrick O'Brien (London School of Economics), Marc Flandreau (Paris), Giovani Federico (Florence) and Leandro Prados de la Escosura (Madrid). These international conferences are held once every two years, at different locations. The conference has previously been held in Spain, the United Kingdom, and Portugal.

By encouraging research in European economics and economic history, the European Historical Economics Society aims to promote education in European economic history and make it more accessible. The society's goals include the organization of conferences and summer schools and the publication of periodicals to further study and research on the topic.

Infomation about the program, the papers to be presented and other details concerning the conference, can be obtained at the following link: http://www.ata.boun.edu.tr/ehes/ehes_frame.htm

Melcom conference...

Bibliothèque nationale de France Oriental manuscripts (Persian), 1525 Reference RC-A-36038

From June 19 to June 21 2006, the Ottoman Bank Archives and Research Center library will be hosting the annual Melcom (European Association of Middle East Librarians) conference.
In its earliest form, it was founded in the UK, in the 1970s. Over time, Melcom’s mission became to secure cooperation between individuals and institutions interested in librarianship, book collecting, selling, and publishing, in Europe, North America, and the Middle East. With the aim of advancing Middle Eastern librarianship in Europe, Melcom International organizes its yearly conferences around five main axes: the digital transfer of Middle Eastern book collections, research on manuscripts, valuable and rare book collections, purchasing policies and cooperation among libraries.

Please click for the scientific program.

Commemorative Conferences

The Activities of the Ottoman Bank Museum for the Commemoration of the Camondo Family

The Camondo family played an important role in the emancipation of the Jewish community as well as in the modernization of the Ottoman Empire during the 19th century. Escaping the Inquisition, the Camondos first sojourned in Venice and then settled in Istanbul in the 17th century. The last members of the family died in the concentration camps during the Second World War. Called after the Rothschild of the Orient, they took initiatives in every sphere of the social life , from the formation of the first municipal movement to the modernization of the urban infrastructure, from the foundation of modern banking institutions to the establishment of new schools.

Please click here for the commemorative activities of the Ottoman Bank Museum.

Commemorating Stefanos Yerasimos at the Ottoman Bank Museum

The Ottoman Bank Museum is organizing a commemorative event for Prof. Stefanos Yerasimos, with a panel comprising his colleagues and students, who will recount projects jointly accomplished or still unfinished. The event is scheduled for Monday, October 17, at 5:30 p.m. In addition, the Bezmârâ Ensemble - a group specializing in Ottoman music prior to the 19 th century, played with the original period instruments - founded by Fikret Karakaya with the support of Yerasimos, will perform 7 early Ottoman pieces.

The untimely death of Stefanos Yerasimos leaves a number of his ongoing projects unfinished. An architect by profession and a scholar of vast erudition, his works in diverse areas have paved the way for countless researchers. Perhaps the most dominant trait of his personality, and the one that set him apart from other intellectuals, was his tendency to value interrogation over affirmation, and not take offense when a question remained unanswered. The questions he never stopped asking have inspired many a colleague and opened up new horizons for his many students.

Panel
Moderator: Prof. Edhem Eldem, Bogaziçi University, Istanbul
Opening address: Pierre Chuvin, dir. of the French Institute for Anatolian Studies, Istanbul
Participants: Prof. Pierre Pinon, CNRS, Paris
Asst. Prof. Derin Öncel, Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University, Istanbul
Asst. Prof. Cana Bilsel, Middle East Technical University, Ankara
Prof. Nicolas Vatin, CNRS, Paris

Prize Competition for Research on the History of Banking and Finance

In order to encourage academic research in the field of Turkish banking and financial history, the Centre has held a prize competition in collaboration with the European Association for Banking History and the History Foundation, (Tarih Vakfi), since 2000.

Click here for past competitions.
Prize Competition 2000
Prize Competition 2002
Prize Competition 2004
Prize Competition 2006

All prize-winning papers in the separate categories are published by the Centre.

Publications of the 2000 Prize Competition

Exhibitions

Voyvoda Street from Ottoman Times to Today
Paper Money from the Ottoman Period to the Present
Glimpses from the Past in the Ottoman Bank Archives
Pride and Privilege
Galata through the Ages
Death in Istanbul: Death and Its Rituals in Ottoman-Islamic Culture
The person you have called cannot be reached at the moment...
A Floating Exhibit of Turkey and Projecting the Nation
Turgut Cansever: Architect and Thinker
Consuming the Orient