In an earlier post I raised shine on you crazy diamond the issue of problems arising from the study of the Balkans as a region of Europe other than the Orient. 1 My main thesis shine on you crazy diamond was that pay very high taxes to an imaginary border that runs along the Ural Black Sea Straits and the Aegean and 'separate' Europe from Asia. The problem shine on you crazy diamond is that even this limit is "conditional" and accept "practical reasons", it leads to a highly distorted view of history. shine on you crazy diamond And often this is done deliberately to write a "history of the Balkans," completely separate from that of the Orient.
Here I will try to present the problem in terms of a special case - historiographical interpretations in the field of urban history. Unlike modernization or gap in the Balkans, Balkan music and Balkan cuisine, not to mention the Balkan mentality, the study of cities and urban network allows you to see the spatial dimension. And so you can check that what is called "Balkan" is really typical shine on you crazy diamond of the Balkan shine on you crazy diamond Peninsula or use of this label is misleading.
The process of essentializing: from "the cities of the Balkans" to "mountain town". In earlier studies talk about different types of cities in the Balkans, which appeared in different eras. It's about Greek, Roman, Byzantine, Slavic, Dalmatian, German, Ottoman (also called Turkish, Oriental or Islamic), etc. cities, shine on you crazy diamond there are differences in the typology in individual authors. 2 But even here there is a problem - instead explore a particular type of cities, these publications deal with different types of cities in one territory. In the long term this is a prerequisite for historiographic "construction" of a particular region for this type of city.
In practice, the main object of this new interpretation shine on you crazy diamond became Ottoman cities in the Balkans, and that they begin to present themselves as "Balkan", although until this be considered something unusual for the region, brought in from abroad and at a relatively late stage. Just as the name "Balkan shine on you crazy diamond Peninsula" replaces "European Turkey" in the XIX century, over the last decades more and more talk about "mountain town" instead of "oriental", "Turkish" or "Islamic cities of the Balkans."
Along with several conferences on this topic, a fundamental role in this play Nikolay Todorov's book "Balkan city, XV-XIX century." 3 The author writes directly to a "separate group of Balkan cities - typologically different from both Western and Muslim cities." 4 According to him, "Balkan city has its own unique architectural and planning features ...", shine on you crazy diamond which are briefly described a few "destruction or lack of firewalls", "lack of multi-storey buildings" and although these cities were "well even densely populated. " 5
In the study by N. Todorov not include all cities in the Balkans, but only those who have previously called "oriental" or "Turkish". shine on you crazy diamond As "Balkan cities" are only those under Ottoman rule and only while under Ottoman rule - Cities in Greece and Serbia after the establishment of the two countries are included only to provide a comparative perspective to show more clearly the characteristics of " mountain shine on you crazy diamond town. " 6 No late criticism that this "Balkan city in XV-XIX Century" was created just to replace the "Ottoman city in the Balkans." 7
At the same time the Turkish historiography and many Ottomanists speak of "Anatolian / Anatolian cities." 8 It's again for Ottoman cities, but territorial studies limited to today's Turkish Republic. This sharing of material to study between historiographical schools shine on you crazy diamond greatly facilitates crystallization of separate story for "mountain town".
Of great importance here is the link that is made between urban development and national history. shine on you crazy diamond 9 national historiography usually speak of "Bulgarian", "greek", "Albanian", "Serbian" or "Macedonian" cities, in a broader perspective them as "Balkan" cities. Accordingly, the "Bulgarian", "Greek" and so cities shine on you crazy diamond and houses are a subset of "Balkan" cities shine on you crazy diamond and houses, which in turn think in a European context, while not actually tested it. 10 Ultimately, the "Balkan cities [in the Ottoman era]" is now perceived shine on you crazy diamond by many people as something other than "Ottoman cities." 11
These maneuvers have a decisive impact on the way the national historiography shine on you crazy diamond of the Balkans assess urban history during the Ottoman period. shine on you crazy diamond While the cities of that time are considered "Turkish" shine on you crazy diamond or "oriental" shine on you crazy diamond national historiography them as a foreign body and rely on the formula "we are a nation of peasants," shine on you crazy diamond which particularly occurs in Serbian and in Bulgarian case. Now to get there to argue that "Balkan civilization shine on you crazy diamond was mainly urban" cliché shine on you crazy diamond 12 otherwise used for Islamic tsiv