Five more sections of Topkapı Palace have been restored and opened to the public: the Department of Holy Relics (Mukaddes Emanetler Dairesi), the Conqueror’s Pavilion (Fatih Köşkü), the Pages’ Barracks (Seferli Koğuşu), the Dormitory of the Treasury (Hazine Koğuşu) and Mecidiye Pavilion (Mecidiye Köşkü). President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and First Lady, Emine Erdoğan, attended an […]
The 1st of November 2022 marked exactly one hundred years since the Ottoman Empire officially ended. In existence for over 600 years, and widely regarded as one of the greatest ever empires, the Ottomans left an indelible mark on our lives. Now a new book by Diane Darke, The Ottomans: A Cultural Legacy, re-examines the impact […]
Historian and author Giancarlo Casale will be an online talk about Osman Agha of Timişoara, or Osman Ağa of Temeşvar as Turks would say. Hosted by the Anglo-Turkish Society (ATS), Professor Casale puts the spotlight on this fascinating Ottoman military officer from the seventeenth century. In 1688, in the tumultuous aftermath of the failed Ottoman […]
“Here we are, on July 11th 1995, in Serbian Srebrenica, on the eve of a great Serb holiday, we present to the Serb nation this town. And finally, the moment has come that, after Uprising against Dahijas (Ottoman janissaries), we take revenge against Turks in these lands.” These were the words of Rakto Mladic, a […]
This major exhibition in the British Museum charts the fascinating history of cultural and artistic interactions between East and West from the 15th century onwards, and explores the impact of the Islamic world on Western heritage. A diverse selection of objects has been sourced worldwide including a portrait of Ottoman Sultan Bayezid (pictured above) and […]
The Greek government is preventing Turkey from restoring some 20,000 monuments in Greece dating back to the days of the Ottoman Empire, it has been claimed. Neval Konuk Halaçoğlu, a lecturer at Marmara University in Istanbul and an expert on Ottoman architecture in the Balkans, said Greece has “never allowed” Turkey to restore any of […]
A rare work by Turkish painter Osman Hamdi Bey has sold for £6,315,000, setting a new world record price for the artist at auction. The picture of a young woman reading the Qur’an fetched the record-breaking fee at an auction of 19thcentury European, Victorian and British Impressionist art at the Bonhams auction house on New […]
On Friday evening, food historian Priscilla Mary Işın will give a talk at the Yunus Emre Institute based on her book, Bountiful Empire: A History of Ottoman Cuisine, in which she explores the rich culinary traditions of the Ottoman Empire. Published last year, the book examines in detail the production and consumption of food by […]
MACFEST is a ground-breaking new 10-day festival in Manchester celebrating the diversity and richness of Muslim heritage through art, literature, music and culture. It kicked off at the weekend, with the festival aiming to engage people of all ages and denominations, including school, college and university students and local communities. Some 50 events are taking […]
A Turkish organisation has started to renovate five Ottoman-era Islamic sites including four mosques and one Sufi or dervish lodge in Albania this month. The restoration works, which are expected to last two years, are part of the Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency’s efforts to preserve cultural and historical assets shared by both Turks and […]
