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A Historical and Economic Geography of Ottoman Greece
by Fariba Zarinebaf, John Bennet, and Jack L. Davis
Hesperia Supplement 34
310 pp, 93 figs, 19 tables
Paper, ISBN: 978-0-87661-534-8
Publication Date: Nov 2005
Retail Price $75
This innovative study of the southwestern Peloponnese or Morea combines the study of unpublished Ottoman documents, other historical sources, and the results of archaeological fieldwork to explore the historical and economic geography of a particular region of Greece in the early 18th century, the period immediately following the Ottoman reconquest of this region from Venice. Central to the book is a translation of the section of an Ottoman cadastral survey (defter) listing in great detail properties in the district (kaza) of Anavarin (Navarino, modern Pylos). An introductory chapter outlines the history and methodology of the research project, while the translation is followed by chapters that provide a broader context, drawing on other sources for the information contained in the document and the principles behind its composition. A final chapter summarizes the conclusions drawn from the research, and a series of appendixes offer additional detail, including concordances of the personal- and place-names, an index of properties described, narrative histories of the two fortresses in the region, and a new English translation of the Anavarin section of the 17th-century Turkish traveler Evliya Celebi's Travel Book (Seyahatname). A facsimile of the document itself and color versions of all illustrations are provided as online supplements. (Originally published in 2005, reprinted in 2018)
About the Author: Fariba Zarinebaf teaches Middle Eastern and Balkan history at Northwestern University and has published extensively on the social and economic histories of the Ottoman Empire and Iran. John Bennet is Professor of Aegean Archaeology in the Department of Archaeology at the University of Sheffield. Jack L. Davis is the Carl W. Blegen Professor of Greek Archaeology at the University of Cincinnati.
"The volume is an important example of the potential of intensive archaeological investigations of the recent past, with lessons for archaeologists of the more distant past and for historians interested in communities 'without history.' For scholars intrigued and committed to expanding archaeology to include the recent past, whether to continue the archaeological analysis to the doorstep of the present or as part of the archaeology of modernity, Zarinebaf, Bennet, and Davis provide an important case study that fills gaps in the narrative for Ottoman Greece and is an important incentive for studies of other regions of the Ottoman realm. Those interested in the developments of Ottoman archaeology will be rewarded with the historic details and the rich possibilities indicated by this research." Uzi Baram, AJA 111 (2007), p. 388.