Acknowledgements and work of post graduate students supported by The Gibb Scholarships

Francesca Biancani

On the 20th of June 2008, I was generously awarded by the Board of Trustees of the Charity in memory of E J W Gibb the 2008 annual scholarship for the 2008-09 Academic Year as a support to my doctoral project about the political economy of prostitution in Colonial Cairo, from 1882 to 1952. (see my research profile and interests at www.lse.ac.uk/government/whosWho/researchStudents/fbiancani@lseacuk/Home.aspx)

I am writing to provide you with a brief report about the progression of my research. After conclusion of primary research in the Dar al Watha’iq (the National Archives) and in the Dar al Kutub (National Library) in Cairo in 2007-8 (at the time of application I was based in Cairo in fact), I moved back to Europe where I started working on the third archival strand of my research – the first being the colonial one- National Archives, Kew and Women’s Library, London covered in 2006-07 - the second the local one on Egyptian sources). This third strand on foreign communities resident in Cairo, among which the Italian one has been chosen as a case-study by virtue of its peculiar linkage with the sex-work milieu in Cairo, entailed the surveying of a sample of Consular Court Cases from the Italian Consulate of Cairo (1915-1935) related to prostitution in the Historical and Diplomatic Archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Rome and extensive research on Interpol papers kept at the National Archives in Rome, essential for the reconstruction of the dynamics of feminized migration dynamics across the Mediterranean area. In this respect, the grant effectively supported me in covering my living expenses in Rome for two months. I recently had my end of the year review panel at the London School of Economics and I am now registered for my 4th and final year. I now plan to write the last chapter of the dissertation and start revising and editing the whole thesis, in order to submit the final work in September 2010. In providing you with this brief report, I take the chance to express again my deepest gratitude for the interest showed in my work.

Amina Elbendary
Faculty of Oriental Studies, University of Cambridge

As a PhD candidate at the Faculty of Oriental Studies, University of Cambridge for the past four years, I was fortunate to be awarded a Gibb Centenary Scholarship by the Gibb Trust in 2006-2007. The title of my dissertation is Faces in the Crowd: Urban Protest in Late Medieval Egypt and Syria. It focuses on incidents of urban protest against state authority as reported in contemporary historical literature. Late medieval historical literature is remarkable and for the depth of detail it provides on life in cities like Damascus and Cairo. This broad scope allows the common people to enter the historical scene. One type of activity that ensured common people of the cities a mention in historical literature is incidents of popular protest.

Urban protest took a variety of forms including complaints and petitions, rioting, direct physical attacks on officials, and market strikes. Different motives spurred these protests, including fluctuations in the grain market or recurrent debasing of the currency or perceived injustice by government officials. However, all reported protests had a legitimizing justification. Reports of protest bring to light the different roles played by various social groups in medieval Egypt and Syria. Rather than paint a picture of pre-modern Arab- Muslim societies as neatly divided between autocratic exploitative governments and disempowered exploited subjects, an analysis of protest offers a more dynamic portrayal that brings out the roles of merchants, craftsmen, tradesmen, scholars of various standing, pious men, Bedouin, government officials and military officers. During a time of economic crises and recurring plagues, this portrayal shows that far from silently and stoically enduring the hardships of the times, the common people of Egypt and Syria were actively protesting, voicing their demands and manipulating the political, social and economic system to better their living conditions. This further complicates modern historiographical paradigms such as Oriental Despotism and the political quietism of Sunni Muslim political thought.

The Gibb Scholarship partially supported my last year of study in Cambridge, allowing me to focus on writing up the dissertation. It also enabled me to acquire more sources for my research, namely Syrian sources that were not available in Cambridge. The funding was greatly appreciated especially as the Gibb Trust is one of the few funding bodies that favour students of Arab and Ottoman history in the late stages of their research, when other sources of funding typically run out. Thanks in part to the support of the Gibb Trust I was able to submit my dissertation on time.

Murat Cem Menguc
Faculty of Oriental Studies, University of Cambridge

While a PhD candidate at the Faculty of Oriental Studies, University of Cambridge, I was awarded the Gibb Centenary Scholarship for 2006-2007 by the Gibb Memorial Trust. At the time, the award came as a very important contribution, as I was coming close to completing my dissertation. My work focused on 15th-century Ottoman historiography. The earliest evidence for a comprehensive Ottoman history book dates to the 1410's and it remains the only example of its kind until the 1450's. Between 1450 and the 1480's, further Ottoman histories emerge. Thus, the second half of 15th century is described as the period in which Ottoman historiography came into existence. My thesis argued that our understanding of this phenomenon was in need of re-evaluation. Contrary to the suggestions of modern scholars, throughout the century Ottoman historiography was not a homogenous phenomenon. Similarly, the Ottoman palace was far from successfully dictating an established Ottoman ideology through comprehensive Ottoman history books. Even though rulers may have wished to see a single type of Ottoman history, they were exposed to more than one kind of Ottoman past. In fact, during the second half of the 15th century, there were at least three versions of Ottoman histories that were known among the literary elite.

During the second half of the century, Ottoman historiography was marked by a debate that took shape in the hands of the literary elite who discussed the content of all types of Ottoman histories with which they were familiar. In this debate, the anonymous Ottoman histories became quintessential texts. These texts neither represented the Ottoman palace nor its elite servants. They were texts meant for the general Turkish- speaking community written by unknown and less educated scribes. They had an inclusive discourse, a populist style, a genuine concern about the well-being of the common people and advocated the disgruntled subjects of the empire who considered themselves alienated by a centralized state. Also, a number of historians who came from educated backgrounds and wrote in Turkish integrated the content of these anonymous texts into their own work, thus initiating a transition to a new period of historiography. A transformation occurred in Ottoman historiography during the late 15th century, not as a result of an ideological shift in the palace as is argued by modern scholarship, but from an internal debate which took place among the historians themselves.

At the time I received the Gibb Scholarship, my thesis was a mixture of notes and ideas waiting to be penned down as a coherent argument. I have appreciated the support of the Gibb Trust because it helped me to focus on writing up the dissertation, acquire at least two further primary sources from the European manuscript collections and partially paid for my living expenses. Since I received the award towards the end of my studies, I remember it as a much-needed fresh breath of air before submitting my work.

Georgios C. Liakopoulos
The Hellenic Institute, History Department of Royal Holloway, University of London

I am pleased to report on the progress of my doctoral thesis, entitled 'A study of the early Ottoman Peloponnese in the light of an annotated editio princeps of the TT10-1/14662 Ottoman taxation cadastre (ca. 1460-1463)', conducted under the supervision of the late Julian Chrysostomides at The Hellenic Institute, History Department of Royal Holloway, University of London. You will be pleased to know that my thesis passed subject to minor amendments.

The thesis explores geographic, economic and demographic aspects of the Peloponnese in the first years of the Ottoman conquest (1460), on the basis of an annotated editio princeps of the first Ottoman taxation cadastre of the province of the Peloponnese (Defter-i Liv?'-? Mora), compiled sometime between ca. 1460-1463. So far, no complete edition of the text has appeared. Numbering 284 pages this cadastre was split into two parts in the recent past, and is now preserved in Istanbul (TT10, Prime Ministry Ottoman Archives) and Sofia (1/14662, St. Cyril & Methodius National Library of Bulgaria).

The study comprises two Parts (I-II), in two volumes respectively. Part I contains an Introduction, three Chapters (1-3) and a Conclusion. The Introduction presents the aims, scope and methodology adopted, followed by a survey of previous scholarship conducted on the subject, and a brief historical examination of the late Byzantine Peloponnese and its conquest by the Ottomans. It concludes with a brief codicological and palaeographical description of the cadastre. Chapter 1 is devoted to the historical geography of the Peloponnese. All place-names mentioned in the cadastre are listed in the sequence they appear therein, accompanied by topographic and linguistic notes. This is followed by a set of digital maps of the Early Ottoman Peloponnese using GIS (Geographical Information Systems). Chapter 2 is a demographical investigation of the cadastre, including the settlement patterns, the density of population and its categorisation into urban/rural, sedentary/nomadic, concentrating in particular on the influx and settlement of the second largest ethnic group in the peninsula after the Greeks, namely the Albanians. Chapter 3 explores the economy and administration of the province concentrating on the Ottoman t?m?r system and the economic mechanisms. A detailed presentation of the level of agricultural production, types of crops, livestock, fishing, commerce, industrial development, etc. is illustrated with tables and charts. The Conclusion summarises the findings of the research and suggests areas for further investigation. Part II comprises a diplomatic edition of the transliterated Ottoman text, preceded by a note on the principles and conventions adopted in the edition. The thesis closes with a full bibliography followed by selected samples of facsimiles of the cadastre.

I would like to express once more my deep gratitude to the Gibb Memorial Trust for the grant I was awarded, which enabled me to proceed and complete my research in this unexplored area. Your support has been fully acknowledged in the Preface to my thesis, and will also be acknowledged to any relevant publication in the future.