Istanbul's Pleasures Revealed

Shirine Hamadeh

A delightful aspect of eighteenth-century Istanbul was vividly outlined in the lecture organized by the Center for Arab and Middle Eastern Studies (CAMES) that was held at AUB's West Hall on December 17 by Assistant Professor Shirine Hamadeh of Rice University.

The talk, illustrated by informative slides, expounded on the historical notion of public space, with special reference to the streets of Istanbul in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. In describing her book on Istanbul, The City's Pleasures: Istanbul in the 18th Century, Hamadeh elaborated on the larger context of urban life during that era, including the social order and its effect on the scope and nature of public life.

Departing from the "westernization" image as expressing the loss in Ottoman self-confidence following the empire's decline, Hamadeh argued that the eighteenth century architectural developments "were fueled, first and foremost, by internal circumstances, namely transformations in the social order." As discussed in her book, Hamadeh explained how urban form and architecture became involved in the construction and the representation of that change in social order, marking what is known as the early modern period.

Throughout the lecture, Hamadeh described how decorative forms and novel architectural patterns uncovered and enhanced the "internal dynamics between a society in great flux, an urban middle class growing in vigor, and a state anxious to reassert its visible presence and authority in the capital."

Hamadeh, who was an undergraduate student at AUB in architecture, completed her PHD at MIT in 1999. She has published in Muqarnas, the journal of the Society of Architectural Historians and received several awards (including the 1999 Malcolm Kerr Best Dissertation Award), two fellowships, and a Getty Foundation postdoctoral research grant in 2005-06. She is currently working on a new book on the streets and urban life of early Istanbul.