This is an in-depth study of the dynamics of change in the Ottoman port town of İzmir in the mid-nineteenth century. Sibel Zandi-Sayek is an associate professor of art and art history in the college of William and Mary in Virginia and her area of expertise is architecture, urbanism and city planning. Here, her competence in using historical records is demonstrated as documents from Turkish, French, English and American archives are an integral part of her study.
The book is divided into four chapters with an extended introduction. Major themes addressed in Sayek's study include the impact of Ottoman bureaucratic modernization on Ottoman cities and urban dynamics resulting from the expansion of trade with industrializing Europe. The issues common to all modernizing cities, such as the creation of a modern public, new forms of civic engagement in urban affairs and emerging citizenship patterns, emerge as main points of discussion. Those major transformative forces redefined the status of polyglot elites in the Levant and created newly emerging governance, business and consumption practices. Sayek makes good use of the growing literature on nineteenth-century eastern Mediterranean cities and studies İzmir as a case within this framework.
The first chapter analyses the issue of citizenship through the interconnections between categories of property, taxation and law. The non-Muslim population of the city increased substantially in the nineteenth century and foreigners among them held over one third of the taxable property in the mid-1850s. However, Ottoman legal mechanisms at the time did not allow foreign subjects to hold property in their own name. In this chapter, Sayek carefully examines the methods of bypassing the legal complications caused by contemporary legal frameworks. In her analysis, she underlines the presence of a permeable legal regime made possible by the Capitulations that were granted by the Ottoman government. This created a grey area in which identities were negotiated and reconfigured. Immunities acquired through diverse mechanisms, such as consular protections and marriage ties, enabled large groups of non-Muslims to enjoy personal freedoms and legal exemptions and helped to secure themselves from the requirements of the Ottoman laws. As taxation was one of the top priorities of the Ottoman state, legal immunity from it caused alarm in government circles. Ownership rights were another contested area and it was considered as an act of sovereignty by a modern state over its internationally recognized territories. Sayek presents the historical milestones of this conflict on sovereignty and state-formation in the case of nineteenth-century İzmir.
The second chapter of the book focuses on the issues of security and order. The mid-nineteenth century witnessed increasing efforts by the newly emerging centralized municipal authority, in cleaning, paving, lighting and policing of the streets. Sayek meticulously examines the historical development of expanding municipal control over urban affairs on issues such as the topographic reorganization of urban space after natural disasters (epidemics or fires) or the establishment of a permanent police force in the city. She points to analogies with other cities of the Ottoman empire and underlines the overall effects of bureaucratic modernization in the nineteenth century. Rather than visualizing the Tanzimat reforms as a conflict between traditional versus western ways of life, she emphasizes the socio-economic pressures created by demands from urban groups in modifying urban institutional frameworks. Such disputes reveal the contradictory, competitive and expanding outlook of the commercial society of nineteenth-century Ottoman İzmir.
The third chapter is a detailed analysis of the transformation of İzmir's bay front in the nineteenth century. It was an effort which resulted in the creation of a modern public space that would become a meeting place and promenade for the city's newly emerging commercial elites. This was a professional long-term venture which involved both private and public sectors including foreign states that provided some of the necessary capital. Sayek focuses on the urban politics where former holders of the shorefront lots were replaced by new venturing entrepreneurs. These tensions divided the city's urban elites and invoked a public debate on the impact of the creation of new port area on public good and welfare. Accompanied by the state's security and taxation concerns about the new enterprise, this venture occupied the urban agenda for a considerable time.
The fourth chapter examines the communal practices in nineteenth-century İzmir. Sayek examines the issue of communal self-definition through festivities, clubs and national holidays. It was in those events that the social and communal boundaries were defined. Sayek provides a micro-study of the 1842 Corpus Christi procession, where the leadership of the Latin Catholic Church of İzmir over the empire's Catholic population was consolidated. These ‘invented traditions’ also provided opportunities for foreign powers to make their appearance as guardians of non-Muslim groups in the Ottoman empire. Sayek compares these practices with similar Ottoman ones as new tools of nineteenth-century diplomacy and draws attention to the fact that Ottoman state ceremonials now included the non-Muslim groups in the empire. This practice targeted the facilitation of integration, social harmony and remoulding the Ottoman constitutional system in a modern framework.
There are two points that, I believe, will complement the author's future studies. The use of local courts registers of İzmir (kadı or şeriyye sicilleri), which cover the period between 1851 and 1910 and contain 93 registers, will further enhance the researcher's grasp of the internal dynamics of the city. Another point worthy of further development is the global perspective that, although acknowledged, is not fully reflected in this study. In any case, the book will be of significant interest to scholars of modern Middle East history and urban studies.
