PAST SEMINARS
Click the PDF icon below to view and download the Seminar Booklet with the full programme and abstracts of the presentations.
Travellers in Ottoman Lands: The Botanical Legacy (TIOL1)
The seminar was hosted by the Royal Botanical Garden Edinburgh in conjunction and with support, financial and other, from the Turkish Consulate General in Edinburgh,
the magazine Cornucopia and ASTENE.
Following welcomes from Dr Sabina Knees on behalf of the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, from Semih Lütfü Turgut, Turkish Consul General in Edinburgh, and from ASTENE’s Professor Paul Starkey, Chairman of the seminar organising committee, we were given an overview of the history of the Ottoman Empire by Dr Ines Aščerić-Todd, from its foundation in the fourteenth century, through its ever-fluctuating territorial expansion to its fall at the start of the twentieth century.
With thirty-five papers presented and more than eighty-four participants, it proved a busy two days and if anyone thought the title of the conference might restrict the tenor of the topics examined, they would have been wrong. The papers were as diverse as the interests and expertise of the speakers. These ranged from botanists to historians of gardens, of textiles, of art, to archaeologists and conservationists.
Participants came from many different parts of the world , including several from Turkey but also from Qatar, Israel, Algeria, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, Great Britain, Australia and America.
The travellers theme covered botanists travelling to the Ottoman area and plants travelling back to gardens and herbarium collections, Ottoman influences in art, garden design, food/drink and dress/textiles travelling throughout Europe and recently an Ottoman influenced garden in the United States of America.
Several exhibitions had been mounted: a ‘scentscape’ of Anatolian fragrances, Iznik inspired artworks, Turkish embroidered textiles, a display of posters selected from the pages of the Nezahat Gökyiğit Botanic Gardens book Gardens and Flowers of Istanbul and a poster of the personal diary and photographs of Helen Tomlinson.
Saturday night saw a reception hosted by the Turkish Consul General with a delicious array of Turkish dishes. It was obvious from the animated hum of conversation at the reception and between sessions that the seminar was a success and interest was by no means sated, with suggestions of a repeat occasion.
Paul Starkey, June 2017
Travellers in Ottoman Lands: The Balkans, Anatolia and Beyond (TIOL2)
We are delighted to publish a brief account of the highly successful Seminar on Travellers in Ottoman Lands: The Balkans, Anatolia and Beyond, which was organised by ASTENE in Sarajevo in conjunction with the Faculty of Islamic Sciences (FIN) of the University of Sarajevo on 24–26 August 2022.
The Seminar brought together around fifty scholars from over a dozen countries, including Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Serbia, Austria, Italy, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Great Britain, Turkey, Iraq, and the United States of America.
The keynote speakers were the historian and novelist Jason Goodwin, who described how his life changed after he walked from Gdansk to Istanbul thirty-two years ago, and Dr Dženita Karić, postdoctoral fellow at the Berlin Institute for Islamic Theology, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin and a specialist on Bosnian Hajj literature, who spoke on ‘Sensory Experiences of the Longest Journey: Ottoman Bosnians on the Hajj’.
In his opening address, local organiser Professor Aid Smajić drew attention to the significance of the journey in Islamic spirituality and in the lives of Muslims in Bosnia and the area more generally, and expressed his delight at cooperating with ASTENE in the context of the present Seminar.
Two Turkish films, ‘Araf’ and ‘Disturbed Earth’ by the artist Didem Pekün, were also shown as part of the Seminar, generously sponsored by Cornucopia magazine. Several delegates also enjoyed an optional excursion to the city of Mostar, with its famous bridge, on Saturday 27 August.
A selection of peer-reviewed papers presented at the Seminar will be published in the near future. In the meantime, thanks to all who contributed to the delightful atmosphere, and especially to Aid and his team in Sarajevo for their hospitality and impeccable organisation.
Paul Starkey, September 2022
Click the PDF icon below to view and download the Seminar Booklet with the full programme and abstracts of the presentations.