Tulips and coffee are defining cultural products of the Ottoman eighteenth century, along with their related institutions of palace and coffeehouse. These cultural products hold multiple meanings in the history and historiography of the period. For example, scholars argue that the janissary coffee house was used variously for such diverse means as headquarters for rebellion, a Sufi lodge, police station and racketeering office. 'Ottoman Tulips, Ottoman Coffee' offers a critical exploration of a range of definitive cultural phenomena of the Ottoman 18th century, including the coffee house, print culture, imperial architecture, royal pageantry and festivals. Chapters explore previously untouched subjects such as the changing forms of imperial ritual in Ottoman public circumcision celebrations as well as unravelling the historiography of the so-called 'Tulip Period'. This has traditionally been characterised by the construction and eventual destruction of the famed palace of Saadabad and the reputedly failed project of the first Ottoman printing press. The book reassesses these failures as reflective of the general ill-preparedness of the Ottoman public for enlightened reform. Most importantly this book rejects the prevailing view that the 18th century was in political and cultural decline, and argues in fact it was a period of cultural dynamism and change. 'Ottoman Tulips' breaks free of the twin teleologies of Ottoman decline and Western-induced change, reassessing the impact of Westernization and modernization in the 18th century and revealing comparisons and interactions between the Ottoman court and its Safavid counterpart.

Tulips and coffee are defining cultural products of the Ottoman eighteenth century, along with their related institutions of palace and coffeehouse. These cultural products hold multiple meanings in the history and historiography of the period. For example, scholars argue that the janissary coffee house was used variously for such diverse means as headquarters for rebellion, a Sufi lodge, police station and racketeering office. 'Ottoman Tulips, Ottoman Coffee' offers a critical exploration of a range of definitive cultural phenomena of the Ottoman 18th century, including the coffee house, print culture, imperial architecture, royal pageantry and festivals. Chapters explore previously untouched subjects such as the changing forms of imperial ritual in Ottoman public circumcision celebrations as well as unravelling the historiography of the so-called 'Tulip Period'. This has traditionally been characterised by the construction and eventual destruction of the famed palace of Saadabad and the reputedly failed project of the first Ottoman printing press. The book reassesses these failures as reflective of the general ill-preparedness of the Ottoman public for enlightened reform. Most importantly this book rejects the prevailing view that the 18th century was in political and cultural decline, and argues in fact it was a period of cultural dynamism and change. 'Ottoman Tulips' breaks free of the twin teleologies of Ottoman decline and Western-induced change, reassessing the impact of Westernization and modernization in the 18th century and revealing comparisons and interactions between the Ottoman court and its Safavid counterpart.

This book is about a barber, Shihab al-Din Ahmad Ibn Budayr, who shaved and coiffed, and probably circumcised and healed, in Damascus in the 18th century. The barber may have been a "nobody," but he wrote a history book, a record of the events that took place in his city during his lifetime. Dana Sajdi investigates the significance of this book, and in examining the life and work of Ibn Budayr, uncovers the emergence of a larger trend of history writing by unusual authors—people outside the learned establishment—and a new phenomenon: nouveau literacy. The Barber of Damascus offers the first full-length microhistory of an individual commoner in Ottoman and Islamic history. Contributing to Ottoman popular history, Arabic historiography, and the little-studied cultural history of the 18th century Levant, the volume also examines the reception of the barber's book a century later to explore connections between the 18th and the late 19th centuries and illuminates new paths leading to the Nahda, the Arab Renaissance.

Standing at the crossroads of many cultures, Ottoman style is spiced with influences from Chinese and Indian to French and Italian. In this spectacular volume, Istanbul-born interior designer Serdar Gülgün narrates a tour of his beautiful home, a historic mansion on the Asian side of the Bosporus. Constantly inspired by the atmosphere of his ancient city, Gülgün believes a successful interior design is a place of experience in which authentic elements of culture fuse and achieve alchemy, awakening all the senses and transporting its inhabitants to a place of fantasy.

This multi-disciplinary volume reflects the wealth of recent scholarship devoted to early modern Istanbul. It embraces manifold perspectives on the city through new subjects and questions, while offering fresh approaches to older debates, crisscrossing the socioeconomic, political, cultural, environmental, and spatial.

Approaching Ottoman social history through the lens of entertainment, this volume considers the multi-faceted roles of entertainment within society. At its most basic level entertainment could be all about pleasure, leisure and fun. But it also played a role in socialisation, gender divisions, social stratification and the establishment of moral norms, political loyalties and social, ethnic or religious identities. By addressing the ways in which entertainment was employed and enjoyed in Ottoman society, Entertainment Among the Ottomans introduces the reader to a new way of understanding the Ottoman world. Contributors are: Antonis Anastasopoulos, Tülay Artan, Ebru Boyar, Palmira Brummett, Kate Fleet, James Grehan, Svetla Ianeva, Yavuz Köse, William Kynan-Wilson, Milena Methodieva and Yücel Yanıkdağ.