Once thought lost, a small bronze fifteenth century medallion portraying Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II (1432-1481) is up for auction at Bonhams in May. It has been valued at between £1.5 million and £2 million by the auction house. Commissioned by Sultan Mehmed II before his 1453 conquest of Constantinople to wear as a lucky charm […]
Could Kosovo become a top travel hotspot for British Turks looking for a weekend away? With direct flights between London Luton Airport and the Kosovan capital Prishtina taking a little over 3 hours, this is now a real possibility. Europe’s youngest country has plenty that may be familiar to a person with Turkish roots, connections […]
Monday marked the centenary of the Treaty of Lausanne, a vital international agreement that not only determined the borders of modern-day Turkiye, but also had far-reaching implications for neighbouring states and nations. As the name of suggests, the Treaty of Lausanne was signed at the Palace of Lausanne in the Swiss city by Lake Geneva. […]
The 1st of November 2022 marked exactly one hundred years since the Ottoman Empire officially ended. In existence for over 600 years, and widely regarded as one of the greatest ever empires, the Ottomans left an indelible mark on our lives. Now a new book by Diane Darke, The Ottomans: A Cultural Legacy, re-examines the impact […]
Historian and author Giancarlo Casale will be an online talk about Osman Agha of Timişoara, or Osman Ağa of Temeşvar as Turks would say. Hosted by the Anglo-Turkish Society (ATS), Professor Casale puts the spotlight on this fascinating Ottoman military officer from the seventeenth century. In 1688, in the tumultuous aftermath of the failed Ottoman […]
Turkish broadcaster TRT’s new epic period drama Barbaros: Sword of the Mediterranean (Barbaroslar: Akdeniz’in Kılıcı), about a sixteenth century corsair who went on to become admiral of the Ottoman fleet, has piqued major interest in corsairs of that era. It’s fitting, therefore, that the Anglo-Turkish Society’s next talk will be on ‘Piracy and law in […]
Hit television series Kuruluş: Osman returned for its second season tonight with an exciting new name added to the cast, Cüneyt Arkın. Arkın’s new role is the head of ‘Aksakallılar’ – meaning ‘the white beards’, or wise male elders of the Turkish tribes of Anatolia. The octogenarian is seen giving advice to Osman, played by Burak […]
On Friday, 24 July, thousands flocked to Istanbul’s historic Hagia Sophia, known in Turkish as Ayasofya, to hear Friday prayers. It was a momentous occasion for the country’s pious Muslims, who have for years been calling for the building to be changed back into an Islamic house of worship. For the past 86 years, Hagia […]
Kuruluş: Osman, the eagerly awaited follow-up to blockbuster period drama Diriliş: Ertuğrul [‘Resurrection: Ertugrul’] is set to hit Turkish TV screens on Wednesday evening, 20 November. Starring Burak Özçivit (pictured top), the new series about the life of Osman I, the founder of Ottoman Empire, will be broadcast weekly on ATV. The makers of Diriliş: […]
Turkey is no stranger to martial law. Its roots are steeped in the late Ottoman Empire, when İdare-i örfiyye first appeared as a neologism in the 1876 Ottoman constitution. While the term referred to the sultan’s authority in the Ottoman-Islamic legal tradition, its definition was inspired from the French “état de siège” in the 19th century. […]
