Workshop 1 – Early Phanar: Mid-Fifteenth to Late Seventeenth Century
Date: 5 May 2023
Time: 18:00-21:00 (Turkey local time, GMT+3)
As part of a planned three-year research event-series under the overarching project title “Phanariot Materialities,” scientifically led by Namık Günay Erkal, Firuzan Melike Sümertaş, and Haris Theodorelis-Rigas, we are organizing a workshop series entitled, “In Search of the Phanariot Abode: Aspects of Domestic Culture, Residential Architecture and Court Life.” Consisting of three workshops, each corresponding to a specific period of Phanariot activity, the workshop series will serve as preliminary, in-house gatherings in preparation of an international symposium (28–30 June 2024, Istanbul). We also aim to publish a volume resulting from the symposium and to organize an exhibition (Istanbul, 2025) on the same subject. The main aim of these workshops is to develop a new network of scholars within the field of “Phanariot studies” and pave the ground for new collaborative and interactive research.
This first workshop titled “Early Phanar: Mid-Fifteenth to Late Seventeenth Century,” focuses chronologically on the early days of Phanar, from the late Byzantine period, the takeover of the city by the Ottomans until the rise of the neighborhood after the relocation of the Patriarchate to its final seat in Petrion and the rise of Phanariots to high positions in the Ottoman administration, culminating with their hospodariats in Moldo-Wallachia.
Through its particular focus on the transformation of the shoreline from a string of fishermen’s houses to narrow perpendicular adjacent plots, and the emergence of a tight urban texture on the seaside, the underlying aim is to understand the reasons behind the changes of the urban ground in the walled city as well.
The trajectory of the patriarchate and the power core that surrounded it, the Moldo-Wallachian voivodes and boyars, including the likes of Dimitri Cantemir, and their residences and urban culture, will constitute the focus of this first workshop. The intricate connections with the Danubian territories, the already established networks, and their resonances on both ends are also pertinent topics.
For the first workshop’s program click here.
Phanariot Materialities is institutionally initiated and led by Koç University’s Research Center for Anatolian Civilizations (ANAMED), Istanbul. The present institutional partners of the project include the Istanbul Research Institute (IAE) , and Sismanoglio Megaro. Collaboration with the Gennadios Library, Benaki Museum, and Centre for Asia Minor Studies in Greece and Romanian institutions is also developing.