Vincent

⚠️ Ce soir je devrais être dans l'avion vers Jérusalem ✈️, pour une semaine de séminaires et rencontres avec des Palestiniens et des Israéliens 🇵🇸🇮🇱, collègues, lycéens, étudiants. Le gouvernement israélien a décidé de me boycotter et de m'interdire d'embarquer. www.haaretz.com/israel-news/...

(1/5) Eine der spannendsten Initiativen des Jahres: Eine Gruppe von Abiturienten der Walter-Gropius-Schule in Berlin-Neukölln hat im Laufe von 2025 einen beeindruckenden Podcast zu Israel und Palästina auf die Beine gestellt. 51 Episoden an Interviews mit international renommierten

Update: In a statement, Bonn University confirms the renaming of the Otto Spies Memorial Series because of the archival material I quoted in my blogpost. In the meantime, the local newspaper Bonner General-Anzeiger published an article on the issue as well.
www.ioa.uni-bonn.de/isl/de/nachr...

We published version 5.0 of the Audition Certificate Platform today. It now includes 5560 annotated certificates: www.audition-certificates-platform.org

It is difficult to know how to go about explaining to students that this series was named—in 2015!—for a member of the Nazi Party who was writing things like: 2/3

This is really startling! I have found that Bonn's memorial lecture series and publication provides accessible introductions to topics at the forefront of research in Ottoman studies. For Monday I had even assigned Faroqhi's contribution on Ottoman slavery to an intro course I am teaching. 1/3

Trotz NS-Vergangenheit: Universität Bonn ehrt Otto Spies Seit 2015 trägt eine Vorlesungs- und Publikationsreihe an der Universität Bonn den Namen des Orientalisten Otto Spies – obwohl seine Nähe zum Nationalsozialismus dokumentiert ist. Neue Forschungsergeb...

I wrote a blog post explaining why I consider an honour for the orientalist Otto Spies (1901-1981) problematic, based on correspondence I examined in Berlin this summer:
disorient.de/magazin/trot...

At the Tomb of Bābā 'Amr in Homs A Glimpse at Early Modern Ottoman Islam

On the construction and practice of "ordinary" Islam through the lens of one eighteenth century Ottoman traveler and his encounter with a rather unusual saint's shrine in Homs:

Library studies at its best!

Thank you for your comment!

Thank you Anwar!

Thank you Marinos!

My first peer-reviewed article, based on my BA thesis at FU Berlin, has just been published (OA). It traces Palestinian libraries from the late Ottoman period in the so-called Abandoned Property Collection (NLI). Thank you to everyone who supported! doi.org/10.1353/mns.... @sims-mss.bsky.social

View of the Bosphorus, German War Cemetery Tarabya

Georg Kolbe Monument, Memorial Day 2025

In Memoriam Hellmut Ritter (1892-1971) نقل فؤادك حيث شئت من الهوى ما الحب الا الحبيب الاول "Turn your heart wherever you will in passion;
There is no love except for the Beloved" (Abu Tammam)

To the discoverer and preserver, founder and creator

To the world-renowned orientalist

To the exemplary teacher and guide into the future

The Hellmut Ritter memorial stone, situated above the German military cemetery in Tarabya. Created in 1986 by Bern Pielemeier at the initiative of Traugott Fuchs. Today, the once open view of the Bosphorus has become overgrown (as the stone itself will be overgrown soon).

Academics in Assyria in the 7th c BC complain that admin is preventing them from doing research and teaching

One of the best archival experiences for me so far has been the Archive of the Turkish Historical Society in Ankara (Türk Tarih Kurumu Arşivi). After my request, they send me within in 24 hours all documents related to my research as pdf and jpg file for free via fileshare.

Jan Schmidt, Turkish mss in the Netherlands, vol. 4, p. 438-9

I always wondered how the Ottoman budget for the year 1904-5 found it's way to the Leiden Special collection. Turns out it might be from the library of Sultan Murad V. "formally bought by Cense [former head of the NIT Istanbul] personally to avoid problems with Turkish customs authorities" in 1962:

It is intriguing to note that parts of these manuscripts were lost to the flames during the destruction of the Leuven library in 1940. One can’t help but wonder what the collectors who transferred antiquities to Europe, often self-identified "saviours", would have to say about it.

Hier noch eine gute Anekdote zu den inventories aus einer Essaysammlung von Witkam

digitalcollections.universiteitleiden.nl/view/item/36...

And the twentieth century adds some additional interesting layers (Witkam, Inventory vol. 15, 95):

Klaus Kreiser, Istanbul - ein historischer Stadtführer, 2013.

Another wonderful book by Kreiser is his introduction to Istanbul based on Ottoman sources:

Klaus Kreiser, Der Osmanische Staat 1300-1922 (Oldenbourg, 2001)

Still a very nice introduction to get a sense of what has been done in languages other than english before 2000:

I'm feeling a new love for a clumsy sentence or a misspelled word. I imagine a human on the other end. Doing their own typing, like the old days.

I'm thinking about styles of writing that might emerge from this-- analogues to a guacamole I once saw advertised as "hand hacked" at a fancy restaurant.

The Arab World’s First Indie Record Label A Lebanese family’s global brand reflects the story of 20th-century Europe — and its relationship with the Middle East

“The Lebanese label produced hundreds, if not thousands, of recordings in Berlin up until the eve of World War II.”

Anna-Theresa Bachmann and Hannah El-Hitami explore the history of Baidaphon for @newlinesmag.bsky.social

My word autocorrection on the state of German Ottoman scholarship:

May he rest in peace. His great scholarship, especially the catalogues, will have a lasting impact. www.universiteitleiden.nl/en/news/2025...

Jan Schmidt on his work as a cataloguer of the Turkish manuscripts at John Rylands University Library, Manchester:

Important thread on the smuggle of Papyrus bilinguis 1, currently still in the holdings of @stabihh.bsky.social Why is there no public debate in Hamburg about ethical responsibilities today? @juergenzimmerer.bsky.social @spiegel.de @zeit.de @recherche.ndr.de @ndr.de