Ottoman Lakes and Fluid Landscapes

Environing, Wetlands and Conservation in the Marmara Lake Basin, Circa 1550–1900

Datos Bibliográficos

ID22952499
AutoresSemih Çelik (0000-0002-8228-4056, Department of History University of Exeter Exeter EX4 4RJ, UK, autor de correspondencia), Carmen Luke (0000-0003-0979-2510, Department of Archaeology and History of Art Koç University Sarıyer, Istanbul, Turkey), Christina Luke (Department of Archaeology and History of Art Koç University Sarıyer, Istanbul, Turkey), Christopher H Roosevelt (0000-0002-4302-4788, Department of Archaeology and History of Art Koç University Sarıyer, Istanbul, Turkey)
Año2024
Volumen30
Número1
Páginas53-76
Fecha de publicación2024-02-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessNo
TipoARTICLE
RevistaEnvironment and History (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0967-3407 • E-ISSN: 1752-7023
EditorialLiverpool University Press (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.3197/096734022x16470180631460
OpenAlexW4285191109
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas5

The study of Ottoman lakes and wetlands from the perspective of management and conservation is an emerging field. Scholars have explored Ottoman strategies for managing agricultural and extractive landscapes, yet detailed investigation of socio-political responses to dynamic wetlands, particularly during periods of drastic climate shifts, requires deeper investigation. Our research on wetlands and lakes moves from the purview of waqf s (pious foundations) to the emergence of the Ottoman Public Debt Administration (OPDA). By examining the shifting perspectives of institutional authority and community responses to it from the early modern period to the nineteenth century, we discuss the complexities of wetland management in the Marmara Lake Basin within the sancak of Saruhan (contemporary Manisa) in western Anatolia. We argue that intimate knowledge of this specific ecosystem played a critical role in mitigating attempts at reclamation and land grabbing and ultimately in developing legal structures of and policies for Ottoman conservation strategies. We situate our discussion within the paradigm of environing made possible by detailed longue-durée archival narratives; these micro-histories afford a dynamic perspective into non-linear responses to ecological and political changes and provide a local lens into the scalar impacts of human agency.

Archaeology · Environmental ethics · Geography · Political science · Politics · Structural basin · Wetland · Ecology · Eurasian Exchange Networks · Geology · Islamic Studies and History · Law · Ottoman Empire History and Society