Explaining historical identities through the values of the present can lead to misleading judgments. The Turkish terms Yunan and Rum, the name Hellene, and the English designation Greek are sometimes treated as interchangeable as a result of such judgments. Yet each of these words bears the traces of historical relationships that emerged during different periods in the Aegean, Anatolia, North Africa, and the Eastern Mediterranean. In Modern Greek, a Greek calls himself Έλληνα

Introduction Few cities in world history have been claimed with such persistence, intensity, and moral conviction as Constantinople. Across centuries, the city has stood at the intersection of empire, religion, and civilizational identity. It has been imagined not merely as a strategic location, but as a symbolic center whose possession confers historical legitimacy. These symbolic meanings did not remain abstract. They were repeatedly translated into political claims. In the

This article examines the political, cultural, and linguistic contrasts between the Ottoman Empire and the Karamanid principality, two major Anatolian powers of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. By evaluating their respective administrative structures, social compositions, and identity formations, it identifies the distinct trajectories of these two polities. The article also surveys the ethnic and religious groups living under both systems and analyzes the sürgün (forc