Levantine Heritage
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The purpose of this page is to provide links to web sites that directly or indirectly concern achievements of the Levantines. 
Web sites / Publications
Books - in date (publication) chronological order
  •  Constantinople and the scenery of the seven churches of Asia Minor – Rev. Robert Walsh LL.D. chaplain to the British Embassy at the Ottoman Porte - London - 1838 - segment -
  •  The Beauties of the Bosphorus - Miss Julia Pardoe (London 1839)
  •  Notes on a Journey from Cornhill to Grand Cairo, by William Makepeace Thackeray (1811-1863) - ebook
  •  Railways in Turkey: Remarks upon the Practicability and Advantage of Railway Communication in European and Asiatic Turkey - Sir MacDonald Stephenson, 1859
  • Travels and Discoveries in the Levant” - C.T. Newton, M.A. - Day & Son Ltd., London 1865
  •  Travels in little known parts of Asia Minor, with illustrations of Biblical literature and researches in archaeology - Henry John van Lennep - London, 1870 - lithograph
  •  Among the Turks - Cyrus Hamlin - Boğaziçi - (Cyrus Hamlin’s reminiscences of 35 years in Turkey, beginning in January, 1839. Originally published in 1878 by Robert Carter and Brothers, New York)
  • Pen and Pencil in Asia Minor, or notes from the Levant - William Cochran - London, 1887- segment -
  •  Early voyages and travels in the Levant - Thomas Dallam; John Covel; J Theodore Bent - London: Printed for the Hakluyt Society, 1893 (later re-print: New York, B. Franklin [1964?])
  •  In the Levant – Charles Dudley Warner – Atlantic Monthly Library of Travel, volume six, 1907 (a travelogue covering the year 1875) - segment -
  •  The Latins in the Levant: A History of Frankish Greece, 1204-1566 - William Miller (1908, reprinted 1979)
  •  Saint Polycarpe et son tombeau – le Pere Jean-Baptist, Capucin (1911)
  •  Forty Years in Constantinople Sir Edwin Pears 1873-1915 - New York: D. Appleton & Company - 1916 - segment -
  •  Under the Turk in Constantinople – a record of Sir John Finch’s embassy 1674-1681, by G.F. Abbott - London 1920 - segment -
  •  A consul in the East - A.C. Wratislaw C.B., C.M.G., C.B.E. – William Blackwood and sons - 1924 - segment
  •  ‘Family Records - A record of the origin of Whittall families of Turkey and a short history of the La Fontaine family by James La Fontaine’ - Edmund H. Giraud - 1934 (unavailable) - segment -
  •  Les Anciennes Familles Italiennes de Turquie – Willy Sperco - Istanbul - translated segment -
  •  The Last of the Dragomans - Sir Andrew Ryan K.B.E. C.M.G.- London: Geoffrey Bles - 1951 - segment -
  •  Anglican Church life in Smyrna and its neighbourhood 1636-1952 Donald H. Simpson, F.L.A. Honorary Research Librarian, Diocese of Gibraltar -1952 (unavailable) - segment -
  •  Bournovas - Nikos Kararas, 1955, Athens - translated segment -
  •  And Unto Smyrna - The Story of a Church in Asia Minor S.W.H. Bird (Anglican chaplain of Izmir 1949-1958) (unavailable)
  •  Boutzas: the flower village of Smyrni - Nikos Kararas, pub. Association of Smyrnians, 1962 - translated segment -
  •  To Sevdikioi - Nikos Kararas, 1964, pub. Association of Smyrnians - translated segment -
  •  A history of the Levant company, Alfred Cecil Wood, New York, Barnes and Noble, 1964
  • Allepo & Devonshire square, English traders in the Levant in the eighteenth century [with plates] - pp 258. Macmillan, London, 1967 - Ralph Davis, professor of economic history at the university of Leicester (BML X.519/4645)
  •  Early history of the Levant company - Mortimer Epstein - New York - A.M.Kelly - 1968
  •  The English Levant company, its foundation and history to 1640 - Mortimer Epstein - New York - B.Franklin - 1968
  •  Perfidious Albion – The origins of Anglo-French rivalry in the Levant 1763-1841 – John Marlowe – Elek books, London – 1971 - segment -
  •  Kordelio - Nikos Kararas, 1971, pub. Association of Smyrnians - translated segment -
  •  The Whittalls of Turkey 1809-1973 – Hugh Whittall (unavailable) - segment -
  •  The British in the Middle East - Sarah Searight - Published by East- West, London, 1979 - segment -
  •  Gateways to the Past - Houses and gardens of Old Bornova Evelyn Lyle Kalças – 1983 - segment -
  •  The Journal of Christophe Aubin: A report on the Levant trade in 1812 - A.B. Cunningham, 1983.
  •  Catholics and Sultans: the Church and the Ottoman Empire, 1453-1923 - Charles A. Frazee - London, New York: Cambridge University Press, 1983 - 388 p., ISBN: 0521246768.
  •  Embassy to Constantinople, The travels of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu – Introduced by Devla Murphy – 1987. As the wife of the British Ambassador to the Sultan’s court, she spent the years 1716-18 in Turkey and these travel letters full of observation were originally published a year after her death (she is credited with introducing to the west, innoculation and the ‘secret language of flowers’).
  •  Scrap book 1809-1922 - Ray Turrell -1987 (memoirs of her life in Bornova) - segment -
  •  An English consul in Turkey - Paul Rycaut at Smyrna 1667-1678 - Sonia P. Anderson - 1989
  •  Izmir and the Levantine World, 1550-1650 - Daniel Goffman - 1990 - segment -
  •  [Bir Levantenin Beyoğlu anıları] – The Beyoğlu [Pera] memories of a Levantine - Giovanni Scognamillo - 1991, and republished in expanded form in 2002 - Bilge Karınca yayınları - Istanbul
  •  XIX Century Beyoğlu - Mustafa Cezar - Akbank 1991 - English summary -
  •  The Commerce of Smyrna in the eighteenth century (1700-1820), Elena Frangakis-Syrett - Centre for Asia Minor Studies, Athens, 1992, 375 p. - review -
  •  Anglo-Ottoman Encounters in the Age of Revolution, Vol. 1 - Allan Cunningham - Taylor & Francis, Inc. 1992 - google sample -
  •  Aegean Masquearade - A Royal Air Force Odyssey - Stanley J. Beavan - Brewin books - 1994 - segment -
  •  Constantinople - City of world’s desire 1453-1924 - Philip Mansel - Penguin books 1995 - segment -
  •  The Franks in the Aegean, 1204-1500 - Peter Lock - author. Publisher: Pearson UK - London - 1995
  •  The geneaology of the Whittall family of Turkey - Betty Ann McKernan - 1996
  •  Britons in the Ottoman Empire - Daniel Goffman - 1998 - review
  •  English Merchants in Seventeenth-Century Italy - Gigliola Pagano de Divitiis, Stephen Parkin (Translator) - Cambridge University Press 1998 - google sample
  •  An Isle of Greece - The Noels of Euboea - Barbro Noel-Baker -1999 - Procopi, Greece
  •  European and Islamic Trade in the Early Ottoman State: The Merchants of Genoa and Turkey - Kate Fleet - New York: Cambridge University Press, 1999
  •  The Ottoman City between East and West: Aleppo, Izmir, and Istanbul - Edhem Eldem, Daniel Goffman, and Bruce Masters. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999. - google sample -
  •  French Trade in Istanbul in the Eighteenth Century - Edhem Eldem - Leiden, Boston, Cologne: Brill, 1999 - google segment - review
  •  The Swedish Palace in Istanbul: İstanbul’da Bir İsveç Sarayı - Sture Theolin - Yapı Kredi - 2000 - review -
  •  The bank, the money lenders, the money changers, the usurers and the jewellers of Pera and Beyoğlu - Behzat Üskiden - Creative Yayıncılık ve Tanıtım Ltd. Şti, Creative publishing 2000 - segment -
  •  Smyrna - Metropolis of Asia Minor Greeks - Ephesus publishing - Greece 2001
  •  Travellers in the Levant: voyagers and visionaries - Sarah Searight and Malcolm Wagstaff and Association for the Study of Travel in Egypt and the Near East - 2001
  •  Palais de Hollande in Istanbul: The Embassy and Envoys of the Netherlands since 1612 - Marlies Hoenkamp-Mazgon - Yapı Kredi - 2002 - review
  •  Constantinople - City of cities - Ephesus publishing - Greece 2002
  •  Pera - The crossroads of Constantinople - Akylas Millas - Militos editions - Athens 2002?
  •  Merchant adventurers in the Levant - Two British families of privateers, consuls and traders 1700-1950 - Tom Rees - 2003 - Talbot pub. - segment -
  •  The Mediterranean in History - edited by David Abulafia - 2003 Thames and Hudson ltd - London - segment
  •  Merchants and Revolution: Commercial Change, Political Conflict, and London’s Overseas Traders, 1550-1653 - Robert Brenner - 2003 - review
  •  Smyrne - Evocation d’une Echelle du Levant XIXe-XXe siècles - Laurence Abensur-Hazan (Collection Passé Simple, Editions ALAN SUTTON) - 2004 - France
  •  Mes familles - Nos mémoires de l’empire ottoman à nos jours - Guy de Lusignan - Les editions universelles - 2004
  •  Pancaldi - Quartier Levantin du XIXe Siecle - Rinaldo Marmara - Isis yayınları - Istanbul 2004 (also a Turkish version [Pangaltı - 19. yüzyılın Levanten semti] available, published by the council of Şişli).
  •  From Babel to Dragomans: Interpreting the Middle East - Bernard Lewis - Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 2004 - review & interview
  •  Latin Catholic Buildings in Istanbul: A Historical Perspective (1839-1923) - Sezim Sezer Darnault. Translation: Çelen Birkan. The Isis Press, Istanbul 2004, English, 259 pages, approx. 100 b&w photos and drawings. Paperback, 30 EUR, ISBN 975-428-275-7 - info
  •  Levantiner. Lebenswelten und Identitäten einer ethnokonfessionellen Gruppe im osmanischen Reich im “langen 19. Jahrhundert” [Levantines. Life-worlds and identities of an ethno-confessional group in the Ottoman Empire during the “long 19th century”] - Oliver Jens Schmitt - Munich 2005. 515 pp., 65 EUR, ISBN 3-486-57713-1 - alternative review
    French language version: “Les Levantins - Cahiers du Bosphore, XLVII - Les Éditions Isis, Istanbul, 2008” - review by translator, Jean François de Andria - table of contents and names index
  •  Smyrne et l’Occident: L’histoire intégrale d’une ville Levantine [Smyrna and the West: An intergral history of a Levantine city]- Léon Kontenté - Yvelinedition, 2005, France - segment & review
  •  Hanseatenkreuz und Halbmond. Die hanseatischen Konsulate in der Levante im 19. Jahrhundert [Hanseatic Cross and Crescent. The Hanseatic Consulates in the Levant in the 19th Century]- Eva Susanne Fiebig, (Marburg: Tectum, 2005. Pp. 334. € 29,90. ISBN: 978-3-8288-8923-1) - book review
  •  Une société hors de soi: identités et relations sociales à Smyrne aux XVIIIe et XIXe siècles [A company out of oneself, identities and social relations in Smyrna during the XVIIIth and XIXth centuries] - Marie Carmen Smyrnelis - Peeters, 2005.
  •  Smyrne, la ville oubliée? 1830-1930 Mémoires d’un grand port Ottoman [Smyrna, the forgotten city? Recollections from a great Ottoman port 1830-1930] - Marie Carmen Smyrnelis - 2006, ISBN : 2746708019 - pdf info -
  •  Der Traum vom deutschen Orient. Zwei deutsche Kolonien im Osmanischen Reich 1851-1918 [The dream of the German Orient. Two German colonies in the Ottoman realm 1851-1918] - Malte Fuhrmann - Campus Verlag - 419pp. - ISBN: 3593380056 - 2006 - image
  •  Avrupalı mı, Levanten mi? [Europeans or Levantines?] – Editors, Arus Yumul, Fahri Dikkaya- Bağlam – 2006 – Istanbul (ISBN: 975-8803-56-5) - translated segment -
  •  Bizans İmparatorluğu’ndan Günümüze İstanbul Latin Cemaati ve Kilisesi [The Istanbul Latin Community and its Church since the age of the Byzantine Empire to the Present] - Rinaldo Marmara - Istanbul: Kitap Publishers, 2006 - review -
  •  Venetians in Constantinople; nation, identity, and coexistence in the early modern Mediterranean - Eric R. Dursteler, Johns Hopkins U. Press, 2006, 312 pages - review -
  •  Looking East: English Writing and the Ottoman Empire Before 1800 - Gerald Maclean - Palgrave Macmillan, 2007 - sample - segment
  •  Multicultural Urban Fabric and Types in the South and Eastern Mediterranean - Maurice Cerasi, Attilio Petruccioli, Adriana Sarro, Stefan Weber (eds.) - Beiruter Texte und Studien (BTS) 102, 2007. 269 pages - review
  •  Paradise Lost, Smyrna 1922: The Destruction of Islam’s City of Tolerance - Giles Milton - Hodder & Stoughton Ltd., London, 2008. 426 pages - image
  •  Tilkidom and the Ottoman Empire: The Letters of Gerald Fitzmaurice to George Lloyd, 1906-15 (The Isis Press: Istanbul, 2008)
  •  Three Camels to Smyrna: Times of War and Peace in Turkey, Persia, India, Afghanistan & Nepal 1907-1986, The Story of the Oriental Carpet Manufacturers Company - Antony Wynn - 288 pages, 2008 - segment
  •  Nassif Mallouf - Dragoman and Orientalist - (1823-1865) - Charles Malouf Samaha, 2009 - index - summary.
  •  Pashas: Traders and Travellers in the Islamic World - James Mather, 2009, Yale University Press, ISBN: 0300126395.
  •  Levant: Splendour and Catastrphe on the Mediterranean - to be published later in 2010, Philip Mansel (publisher: John Murray) - preview


In addition there has been a whelter of books published in Turkey, dealing directly or indirectly with the subject of the Levantines, but almost all within the past 10 years. This has happened under the auspices of the Izmir city municipality, a reflection of the civic pride in that town. The listing is available on the web, together with an old images of the city gallery.
Some of these books I have referred to as well as others, listing:

There are a few archived web newspaper articles in worthy of note here, some of the Turkish ones with translation provided here. In order of date of publication:

  •  Izmir’s Past Revisited through the Old Bornova Houses - Denise Braggiotti, Turkish Daily News, 1 August 1999
  •  İki şehrin levantenleri [Levantines of two cities] - Sibel Arna - Hürriyet 12 July 2003 - translation
  •  Eddie geçmişini İstanbul’da arıyor [Eddie is looking for his past in Istanbul] - Aslı Ulusoy Pannuti - Hürriyet 24/1/2004 - translation
  •  Hatıra defteri sahibini buldu [The diary has found its owner] - Tuba Akyol - Milliyet 12/5/2004
  •  Geçmişten Günümüze Esintiler: Milas Levanten Evleri [Traces of the past today: The Levantine houses of Milas] - Nevzat Çağlar Tüfekçi (Press and public relations officer of the council of Milas) - Bodrum haber 26/10/2004 - translation & photos
  •  Kiliseler ve İzmir [The Churches and Izmir] - Sabri Yetkin (vice deacon of the history department in the 9th September University in Izmir) - Milliyet 19/12/2004
  •  İzmir ve Levanten dünya [Izmir and the Levantine world] - A blog site summarising Daniel Goffman’s book.
  •  Doğu Akdeniz’de liman kentleri (1800-1914) [Port cities of the Eastern Meditterenean] - Ayşen Anadol - blog site reviewing book.
  •  Kordon’da bir gece [A night on the Smyrna seafront] - a historical tale of nostalgia, using many real names of Levantines past.
  •  1729 Sokak, St. Helen Kilisesi [The Roman Catholic church of St. Helena in Karşıyaka, Izmir]
  •  O şimdi emekli [He, Hendrich Dutilh, is now retired] - Milliyet 9/8/2005
  •  Bornova’daki Maltass evini restore edip ailesiyle taşındı - Kocaoğlu’na tarihi ev [Izmir Municipal head, Aziz Kocaoğlu restored the historic Maltass house in Bornova, and has moved in with his family] - Yeni Asır 20 August 2005
  •  Bazıları onlara Levanten diyor [Some call them Levantines] - Sabah 2-10-2005 [contains some incorrect assertions]
  •  Arkaslar bu yıl da ailece rekortmen [The Arkas family are again this year (2006) top tax payers of Izmir, Lucien Arkas the highest, his son Bernard 6th, and daughter Claire 7th] - Milliyet 4 April 2007



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