Levantine Heritage Foundation

Research - Education - Preservation

It is the past that tells us who we are. Without it, we lose our identity - Prof Stephen Hawking
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The Levantine Heritage Foundation (LHF) promotes the research, preservation and education of the heritage, arts and culture of the communities of the Levant region encompassed by the former Ottoman Empire between the 17th and 20th centuries.

The peoples and communities who traded and settled in the area were diverse in origin and faiths, including Venetians, Genoese, Greeks, Turks, Persians, Armenians, Jews, French, Italians, British, many other Europeans and Americans. With the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire in 1923, many of the cosmopolitan communities of the Levant region scattered around the globe. The Levantine Heritage Foundation is piecing together these communities’ histories and legacies for future generations to study and build on.

Based in the UK, the LHF has a world-wide network of members and associates. They are a complementary mix of descendants of those communities, who hold family histories, and academic researchers specialising in Ottoman and European politics, trade and social interactions. The private records of families reveal much about the wider history and heritage of the cosmopolitan cities, communities and networks of the Levant.

The LHF brings together descendants and independent and academic researchers through online talks, international conferences and networking events. It has organised and contributed to conferences and symposia in Izmir, Istanbul, London, Athens, Turin, Genoa and Washington DC. Its freely-accessible website provides a rich source of descendants’ testimonials, interviews, genealogies and images, as well as recordings of events and databases of publications and other information.

The Levantine Heritage Foundation is run by volunteers and is funded mainly by member subscriptions, donations and sponsorship. Members gain priority access to LHF events and to support for their research.

Upcoming Events - LHF

1 April 2025, 6 pm (UK time)

Online presentation: ‘“A Permanent Danger to All Her Neighbours”: Persia and the Cultural Politics of Cholera’, Erik Blackthorne-O’Barr - flyer: - registration:

15 April 2025, 6 pm (UK time)

Online presentation: ‘Pera/Galata: Neighbourhoods, Residents and Churches of a Late Medieval Genoese Enclave (1267-1453)’, Selma Somer - flyer: - registration:

External Events

9-12 April 2025

Conference: Travellers in Ottoman Lands, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences of Sabancı University, ASTENE, NIT (the Netherlands Institute in Turkey), and Cornucopia - Istanbul

until 4 May 2025

Exhibition: Venice and the Ottoman Empire - Jepson Centre, Telfair Museums, Savannah, Georgia, USA

Featured video

Our trustee Philip Mansel endorsement of our Foundation, filmed August 2024


Featured campaign

The Levantine Heritage Library & Archive

One of the three main aims of the LHF is to preserve Levantine heritage in its diverse forms (the other two being to promote research and education in Levantine studies). This includes family histories, images, databases, academic research – all of which can be found on our website. Our goal is also to collect and keep certain physical items such as books, family papers and photographs, recipes and cookbooks and any other item which can have a heritage or research value. Our ambition is one day to have a place, perhaps a Levantine house itself in need of preservation, where our library and collection can be preserved and made accessible. >>read more: - intro video: