Port Cities of the Eastern Mediterranean: Urban Culture in the Late Ottoman Empire

Includes bibliographical references and index.

"The book builds on discussions about nineteenth century port city society in late Ottoman urban and cultural history, but approaches them from a more European and Mediterranean perspective. Revisiting leisure practises, the formation of class, gender, and national identities, it also offers an alternative view on the relationship of the Islamic World to Europe. While the nineteenth century Eastern Mediterranean became a zone of influence for the Great Powers, port city residents seized on what they perceived to be the European Dream, hoping to integrate into a wider world and revolutionize urban culture. They adapted European forms, but modified them according to local needs, as was the case for the new quays, streets, and buildings. Entertainment became a marker of a Europeanized way of life. The opera was a possibility for participating in a global civilizing mission. Consuming beer celebrated innovation, cosmopolitanism, and mixed gender sociability. Much like elsewhere in Europe, port city inhabitants were men and women "without qualities" when it came to identity: the possibilities to style the self overburdened many of them. Moreover, the respective nationalist discourses of the era sought to rein in free development. In the years prior to World War I, the pro-European mood was eclipsed by a more xenophobic atmosphere"-- Provided by publisher.