Food is one of the most fundamental aspects of human life, which of course means that historians rarely talk about it, but an exciting new web project called the Ottoman Food Map (ottomanfoodmap.com) is intent on changing all that. On this episode of the

Zazaki (also known Kirmançki, Kirdki and Dimli) is a language spoken by a large community mostly residing in Southeastern Anatolia in modern Turkey. Though Zazas have historically inhabited the mountainous regions of Dersim (Tünceli), Bingöl and Sivere

From 1516 to 1918, most of Greater Syria (also known as Bilad al-Sham, the Levant), which includes modern-day Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, Israel and Jordan, was under Ottoman rule. However, this rule took many forms throughout those four centuries as the E

Folk traditions in the early modern world were fluid and passed easily from one culture to another. Thus, it is common to find links between old songs or stories throughout wide regions and diverse communities; however, recent intercommunal tensions assoc

The urban history of Istanbul has long been a favorite topic of Ottoman historians, but more recently the history of neighborhoods has emerged as a way of understanding social change in ways that can challenge or confirm larger narratives. In this podcast

Istanbul has a long recorded history of large earthquakes, and unfortunately, many of the buildings constructed during the city's recent expansion are not equipped to withstand a large quake. Thus, the issue of retrofitting buildings to survive earthquake

When considering the nineteenth-century history of the United States, it is rare to mention the influence of the Ottoman Empire and its subjects on the emerging centralized state. However, there were indeed many connections between the two empires, one of

Much of the scholarship on missionary movements in the Ottoman Empire during the nineteenth century regards missionaries as agents of imperialism and a destabilizing force that contributed to the polarization of the Empire's different religious communitie

Only recently have scholars begun to examine the role of diet in history. Yogurt (also yoghurt/Turkish yoÄŸurt), which has been present in pastoralist societies throughout Central Asia, the Middle East and Eastern Europe for centuries, is perhaps one of t

29. Ottoman Sources in Israel/Palestine Though Israel/Palestine encompasses a small geographical area of the former Ottoman Empire, it is home to a variety of valuable sources that can be used by Ottoman historians, including court records and Zionist