National History as a Contested Site: The Conquest of Istanbul and Islamist Negotiations of the Nation

Abstract

On May 29, 1996, travelers visiting Istanbul witnessed a rather peculiar celebration. A group of burly men dressed in Ottoman military clothing, some wearing false moustaches, were dragging a decorated sailboat along the asphalt road toward the central Taksim Square. Although it was no easy task to drag the sailboat uphill under the hot sun and the curious gaze of tourists on this summer day, the laboring men nevertheless displayed a solemn attitude of resolve and austerity, as if to remind the observing public of the grave significance of the historical event they were commemorating. Tourists were not the only people who turned a curious gaze toward this peculiar parade: some inhabitants of Istanbul were also equally puzzled, since May 29 was not an official holiday in Turkey. But others knew: this parade was a celebration of the Conquest of Istanbul Day, commemorating May 29, 1453, when the Ottoman ruler Fatih Sultan Mehmet (Mehmet II, the Conqueror) conquered Constantinople, bringing the Byzantine Empire to an end. Born to a Christian mother, Mehmet II was 21 years old when he led the Ottoman army that seized control of Constantinople after a successful military campaign, which won recognition for the young Sultan as a military genius. Realizing that the city was very well protected on the sides facing Bosphorus Strait and the Marmara Sea, Mehmet II had seventy ships of the Ottoman fleet moved on land, rolling them over oiled logs from a deeper point on the Strait (Beşiktaş), over the hill around Taksim, down to the Haliç Bay (the Golden Horn), and thereby gaining access to the unprotected northern walls of the city. This strategy won Mehmet II not only a definite victory, but also the title Fatih (Conqueror) and recognition as one of the most successful of Ottoman rulers. It was this conquest that the men with false moustaches were celebrating as they dragged the decorated boat through the city some 550 years later.

Geographies of Knowledge and Power

“…Re-examining the ongoing transformations of the Ottoman Empire from the nineteenth century to the present facilitates a better grasp of the possibilities for change in the contemporary Muslim-majority world (see, e.g., Çinar, 2001 ;Frierson, 2004 ;Meeker, 2002 ). Re-examining the ongoing transformations of the Ottoman Empire from the nineteenth century to the present facilitates a better grasp of the possibilities for change in the contemporary Muslim-majority world (see, e.g., Çinar, 2001 ;Frierson, 2004 ;Meeker, 2002 ).…”

Nationalism and Islam in Cold War Turkey, 1944–69

“…44 Another unmistakeable sign of Islamization was the elevation of Ayasofya into a symbol of Turkish nationalism. 45 The Church of Hagia Sophia was consecrated in the sixth century AD as the seat of the Orthodox patriarch of Constantinople and remained so until the Ottoman conquest in 1453, after which it was converted into Muslim use and came to be known as the Ayasofya Mosque. In 1935, Atat€ urk reconverted the building into a museum, thereby stirring a controversy that goes on to this day.…”

Ottomanism vs. Kemalism: Collective memory and cultural pluralism in 1990s Turkey

“…Alternative commemorations, countering official ones, were launched to reformulate the past to 'construct an alternative national identity, evoked as an Ottoman-Islamic civilization as opposed to the secular, modern Turkish Republic'. 39 By 1994 the WP mayor of Istanbul began effectively to launch a set of activities commemorating the Istanbul of Ottoman times. 40 Among them was the commemoration of the myth of the Conqueror (Sultan Mehmed II), whose Istanbul was a place of Islam.…”