Synopsis
The twenty-six chapters of this volume have their origins in a three-day seminar organised by the Association for the Study of Travel in Egypt and the Near East (ASTENE) in conjunction with the Faculty of Islamic Studies, University of Sarajevo, with additional support from Cornucopia magazine. This multi-disciplinary event attracted a wide range of participants from around the world, including Europe, the United States of America, the Balkans, Turkiye and other parts of the Middle East. This volume has a special focus on the Balkans and Anatolia, as seen and described by travellers from both within and outside the region. Much still remains to be learned about travellers in the Ottoman Balkans, who can shed valuable light on the topics of Christian-Muslim and East-West relations, and the transition from the Ottoman Empire to successor nation-states in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The chapters cover a variety of subjects, with sections on landscapes; religion and travel; European travellers from merchants to kings; fantasies, images and folktales; and imperial discourse, the rise of nations, and reportage. Contributors to the book are specialists from a range of academic disciplines, who draw on a wide selection of theoretical perspectives and research methodologies.
About the Author
Dr Ines Asceric-Todd is a Senior Lecturer in Arabic and Middle Eastern Cultures, and Head of the Department of Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Edinburgh, UK She has special interests in Middle Eastern, and particularly Ottoman, cultural and religious history, especially Sufism and Ottoman dervish orders, conversions to Islam, and interfaith relations in the Ottoman Empire and Ottoman Europe. Dr Aid Smajic is a professor of psychology at the Faculty of Islamic Studies, University of Sarajevo. He graduated in Psychology (2002) and Islamic Studies (2001); obtained his master's degree at the International Islamic University in Malaysia, and received his PhD in 2010 at the Department of Psychology at the University of Sarajevo. Dr Janet Starkey formerly worked at KISR, Kuwait, and elsewhere in the Middle East; at the British Museum, London and the Oriental Museum, Durham; and as a lecturer in anthropology and Middle Eastern studies at Durham University, UK. Following her retirement from Durham, she lectures for the u3a in the Scottish Borders. Professor Paul Starkey is Emeritus Professor at Durham University, UK and was the first Chair of ASTENE. A specialist on Arabic literature and culture, he is Chairman of the Banipal Trust for Arab Literature and until 2018 was Vice-President of the British Society for Middle Eastern Studies (BRISMES). In summer 2021 he was the recipient of the BRISMES Award for Services to Middle Eastern Studies.
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