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

On the shores of the Aegean’s deep blue waters lies a peninsula where time flows slowly: Bodrum. For centuries, Bodrum Castle has stood as the symbol of this peninsula, illuminating a history where East meets West, and the Middle Ages converge with the modern era. The foundations of Bodrum Castle were laid in 1406, and it was expanded throughout the 15th century with the addition of towers built by different nations of the Knights of St. John. The process  of construction and

The Intersection of Morality and Politics Turkey of the 1920s experienced a process of reconstruction in the smallest areas of everyday life. The new state’s aim was not merely to achieve political independence but also to create a new model of human being. This model had to be industrious, moderate, disciplined, and above all, “moral.” The Law on the Prohibition of Alcoholic Beverages ( Men-i Müskirat Kanunu )   enacted on 14 September 1920 was a part of this transformation.

The First Scientist-Explorer Pytheas of Massalia  (fl. late 4th century BCE) stands as one of antiquity’s most enigmatic figures, an explorer, astronomer, and geographer whose reach extended far beyond the intellectual and geographic boundaries of his time. At a moment when most Greek thinkers conceived of the Earth as a narrow, temperate band of civilization surrounded by impassable extremes, Pytheas undertook a voyage  that radically expanded the Greek worldview. Sailing  f

Introduction Natural disasters, while acts of nature, often unmask the failures of human governance. Earthquakes’ impact is rarely equal....

Folk literature and music represent one side of the Ottoman society’s cultural life. The daily life of the rural population, its poverty,...

In the early years of the 19th century, as Napoleon's armies swept across Europe  and the old feudal order crumbled , two young German...

A Life Between Freedom and Fire Born in Heraklion in 1883, under Ottoman rule, Nikos Kazantzakis emerged from a land under the conditions...

Why did Greek mythology and tragedies influence Western philosophy? There are many answers to this question. However, since I have...

Stefan Zweig, in his work Decisive Moments in History , describes the telegraph cable connecting the two sides of the Atlantic as one of...

From Creative Destruction to Destructive Innovation Joseph Schumpeter’s concept of creative destruction  described capitalism as a...

In 2015, a group of scientists, technology visionaries, and artificial intelligence researchers signed a letter expressing their concerns...

A Journey of Thought Beginning in a Bookstore It was a day in 1993. I was walking from Taksim Square towards Gümüşsuyu. At the top of the...

I wrote the article, The Contradictory Paths of Civilization , when I was 22, just after graduating from university. The books and...

Introduction Understanding philosophers within their historical context is essential for accurately interpreting their ideas. Without...

Introduction This article explores how key early modern thinkers, especially Hobbes and Machiavelli, conceptualized human nature and...

Introduction Baruch Spinoza, in his Political Treatise , presents a political framework aimed at ensuring the state's durability by...

There is a never-ending issue in the Middle East. It is a millennia-old problem that has plunged people and generations into pain and...

In the shadowed taverns and smoky tekédes of early 20th-century Greece, a sound emerged that would come to define an era of displacement, sorrow, defiance, and deep communal memory. This sound was Rebetiko, a form of Greek urban music born from exile, war, poverty, and cultural hybridity. It was the voice of the marginalized, the music of the mángas and aláni , whose lives unfolded outside the boundaries of respectability, yet within the rich and unruly heart of a reshaped

Introduction Baruch Spinoza’s   Political Treatise (Tractatus Politicus) , though unfinished at his death in 1677, stands as a seminal...