Travel Writing

Robert G. Morrison’s Merchants of Knowledge: Intellectual Exchange in the Ottoman Empire and Renaissance Europe is an exciting and timely contribution to the growing scholarship on cross-cultural intellectual interactions between the Ottoman Empire and early modern Europe. Ottoman science, as we now know thanks to previous studies, was eclectic and deeply shaped by a wide array of intermediaries. His study focuses on one particularly important group: Jewish scholarly intermediaries connected to Candia. These individuals – whom Morrison terms “merchants of knowledge” – moved between the Venetian Republic and the Ottoman Empire through the transregional ties of merchant-scholar families between 1450 and 1550.

This analytical study is dedicated to a comprehensive examination of the mural and material heritage of the structure at Dura-Europos, conventionally identified as a "synagogue." Within the scope of this research, a series of newly discovered facts and historical realities are brought to light, allowing for a fundamental revision of the entrenched scholarly perceptions regarding the ethno-cultural affiliation of the monument. In this publication, selected sections of the work are presented. The complete material can be found in the book of the same title. It is currently available in digital format on the Amazon Kindle platform.

The core objective of this work is the reinterpretation of previously established theses and the scientific reconstruction of the iconographic material of Dura-Europos as a unique pictorial narrative reflecting the process of the Christianization of the Armenian people. The study substantiates that the symbolic and narrative layers of the monument serve as documentary evidence of Armenian identity and theological developments during the Early Christian period.

Ceyhun Arslan’s monograph, “The Ottoman Canon and the Construction of Turkish and Arabic Literatures” (Edinburgh University Press, 2025) is a comparative overview of how Ottoman Turkish and Arabic texts contribute to the body of work that can be described as the “Ottoman canon” or the “Ottoman literary reservoir.” The book utilizes the practice of close textual reading of Ottoman Turkish and Arabic primary sources within the Tanzimat in the Ottoman context, and the nahda in the Arab context. Arslan analyzes these texts through their common themes and “afterlives,” independent from geographical location, literary movements, or historical time period, and in conversation with each other. In showing how the Turkish and Arabic texts engaged with each other, and with the larger Ottoman canon, Arslan exposes the literary and cultural domains that do not necessarily align with political power hierarchies. He then calls for rewriting literary history by moving beyond nationalist and disciplinary divisions (such as classical vs. modern or Arabic vs. Turkish) and by recognizing the multilingual, imperial, and translational character of the Ottoman canon.

Il “Turismo Esperienziale” è oggi un termine ampiamente diffuso, ma non sempre utilizzato in modo corretto. Troppo spesso viene impiegato come semplice etichetta commerciale, applicata genericamente a offerte turistiche che, nella pratica, non possiedono le reali caratteristiche di un’autentica esperienza.
Diventa quindi fondamentale comprendere quali elementi distinguano una vera proposta esperienziale da una semplice attività turistica presentata come tale. Questa esigenza riguarda sia i turisti, chiamati a orientarsi tra numerose offerte, sia gli operatori del settore che desiderano progettare esperienze autentiche, coinvolgenti e di qualità.
Di conseguenza, emerge la necessità, applicando la metodologia del Quality Management, di fornire una risposta chiara alle seguenti domande:
• Che cos’è il Turismo Esperienziale?
• Quali caratteristiche definiscono le esperienze?
• A quali attività possono essere applicati i principi esperienziali?
• Come valutare la qualità delle offerte esperienziali?
• Quali sono le competenze professionali necessarie?
Il volume, giunto alla sua seconda edizione, ampliata e aggiornata, mira a fornire risposte concrete alle cinque questioni fondamentali qui formulate.

arasında haftalık haber dergisi Yeni Gündem'de gazetecilik yaptı. 1988'den beri İletişim Yayınları'nda araştırma-inceleme dizisi editörüdür. O zamandan beri kitap çevirmenliğiyle de meşguldür. 1993'ten 2014'e kadar üç aylık sosyal bilimler dergisi Toplum ve Bilim'in yayın yönetmenliğini yaptı. 1989'dan beri düzenli yazdığı aylık sosyalist kültür dergisi Birikim'in 2012'de yayın koordinatörlüğünü üstlendi. Ağırlıklı çalışma alanları, Türkiye'de siyasal düşünceler, özellikle sağ ideoloji ve milliyetçiliktir. AYLİN ÖZMAN Lisans eğitimini Orta Doğu Teknik Üniversitesi, Siyaset Bilimi ve Kamu Yönetimi Bölümü'nde tamamladı. Bilkent Üniversitesi, Siyaset Bilimi Bölümü'nde yüksek lisans ve doktora derecelerini aldı. 1997-2012 yılları arasında çalışmalarını Hacettepe Üniversitesi, Siyaset Bilimi ve Kamu Yönetimi Bölümü, Siyaset ve Sosyal Bilimler Ana Bilim Dalı'nda öğretim üyesi olarak sürdürdü. Halen TED Üniversitesi, Siyaset Bilimi ve Uluslararası İlişkiler Bölümü'nde öğretim üyesidir. Türk siyasal hayatı, Türkiye'de siyasal düşünce, siyaset kuramı ve toplumsal cinsiyet konularında çalışmakta olan yazarın, bu alanlarda çeşitli kitap ve dergilerde yayımlanmış makaleleri bulunmaktadır. İletişim'den daha önce Milliyetçilik ve Toplumsal Cinsiyet (Simten Coşar'la birlikte, 2015) ve "Biz Erkekler" (Selin Akyüz ve Gülşen Seven'le birlikte, 2025) başlıklı derlemeleri yayımlandı. KADİR DEDE 1983 Değirmendere doğumlu. Lisans derecesini Kocaeli Üniversitesi, yüksek lisans ve doktora derecelerini Hacettepe Üniversitesi'nden aldı. Gent Üniversitesi ve Amsterdam Üniversitesi'nde misafir araştırmacı ve doktora sonrası araştırmacı olarak bulundu. Akademik ilgi alanlarını milliyetçilik, edebiyat, gündelik hayat ve popüler kültür konuları oluşturmakta. Çeşitli dergi ve derlemelerde yer alan çalışmalarına ek olarak Edebiyatın Ulusu, Ulusun Edebiyatı isimli bir kitabı (2021) ve editörlüğünü Aksu Bora ile birlikte üstlendiği Ütopyalar -Politikayla Arzunun Kesiştiği Yer (2018) başlıklı derlemeleri yayımlandı. Halen Hacettepe Üniversitesi Siyaset Bilimi ve Kamu Yönetimi Bölümü'nde öğretim üyesi olarak çalışmakta.

Описание «другого» через его пищу, внешность, образ жизни, непохожие на то, что наблюдатель считает нормой, выступает устойчивой парадигмой древнейших космографий, а также рассказов о путешествиях, подлинных или скомпилированных из уже опубликованных. Коренные народы Русского Севера и Сибири не составляют исключения. В нашу задачу входит анализ текстов, русских и иностранных, созданных с конца XV до конца XVIII в. Тексты эти относятся к самым разным жанрам-от летописи и хорографии, отчетов о путешествиях до научных академических описаний. Если летописи были написаны на русском языке, то значительная часть научных или донаучных описаний принадлежит перу иностранцев, прибывших в Россию с дипломатической или торговой миссией (часто эти задачи были неразделимы) или приглашенных Академией наук для изучения новоприсоединенных территорий. Почти все они-выходцы из германских стран: Англии, Голландии, Швеции, германских княжеств. Первая типология самоедов Хорографическое сочинение «О человѣцѣхъ незнаемых в/ на восточной странѣ и о языцѣх розных» представляет собой

The prière d'insérer that precedes The Three Rings of Rumeli applies equally to this essay. The same principles govern the translation: fidelity without naturalization, preservation of syntax and rhythm, minimal supplementation of proper names, and full credit to DeepSeek. The essay itself examines Yirmisekiz Çelebi Mehmed's Sefaretname (1720-1721) through archival records, newspaper reports, and unpublished French correspondence. It traces the ambassador's journey from Toulon to Paris, and the gradual transformation of an unwanted visitor into an object of curiosity. A concluding reflection situates the Sefaretname within recent debates on the Tulip Age. The post scriptum engages critically with recent studies, and announces a forthcoming critical edition based on the earliest manuscript witnesses. The Sefaretname emerges as a collaborative text — a conversation between an Ottoman ambassador, his French guides, and the reform-minded court that awaited his report. The essay was originally published in Turkish in Doğu Batı, 85 (2018).

This article examines the Risâle-i Fevâ'idi'l-Mülûk (Treatise on the Benefits of Kings), an early 18th-century Ottoman dialogue in which a Janissary recounts his experiences in France. Although structured as a dialogue, the text centers on the protagonist's firsthand account, using his voice not for personal confession but as a vehicle for political critique and cross-cultural reflection. His eyewitness testimony exposes Ottoman shortcomings through comparison with French institutions, blending autobiographical elements with strategic persuasion. By analyzing its dialogic structure and cultural context, this study highlights how the Risâle transforms individual testimony into a broader commentary on governance and reform, revealing a complex interplay between self-representation and political argument. To be published in a volume edited by Selim Karahasanoğlu on Ottoman self-narratives.

This article examines Christian therapeutic pilgrimage as a historical form of healing grounded in experiential processes later studied by aesthetics. Drawing on sources from late antiquity to the late Middle Ages, it identifies four intertwined mechanisms—sensory-embodied, ludic-enactive, affective-participative, and narrative-imaginative—through which pilgrimage produced therapeutic effects. Sensory engagement fostered psychophysical balance; distance and penitential practices enabled self-transformation; collective rituals channelled passions into communal attunement; and imagination and narration allowed the reworking of suffering into meaning. Together, these mechanisms articulate a proto-aesthetic model of care in which embodiment, emotion, and imagination converge. The article concludes by suggesting that this framework can illuminate contemporary practices in art therapy and videotherapy, where the interplay of sensory experience, enactive participation, and narrative imagination reactivates the ancient synergy between external representation and inner transformation.

The present study focuses on emotion discourses in early modern travel books. It attempts a close textual, intertextual, and contextual analysis of several embedded narratives on emotions in three late sixteenth-and seventeenth-century travel books: Kitāb Nāṣir al-Dīn Õala ‛l-Qawm al-Kāfirīn: Mukhtaṣar Riḥlat al-Shihāb ‛ila Liqā« al-Aḥbāb by Andalusian traveller Ahmed bin Qāsim al-Ḥajarī (1570-c.1641), The Diary of Master Thomas Dallam by an English craftsman, Thomas Dallam (1575-1630), and Seyah‰tn‰me (The Book of Travels) by Ottoman traveller Evliya ‚elebi (1611-1685). In these travel books, al-Ḥajarī, Dallam, and Evliya narrate their journeys as emotionally protean experiences. They associate emotions with the contexts of their journeys, their volition to travel, and their authorial motives to write about their journeys. They display their emotions in their dreams, humour, and other subjective experiences. Their narratives yield uncommon notions of emotions, namely the emotions of encounter. A love story between a Muslim traveller and a Catholic girl, an English craftsmanÕs anxiety at the court of an Ottoman Sultan, a disgusting meal in a foreign land, are just a few examples of emotionally freighted situations which are unlikely to be found in any genre but a travel book. The close textual analysis aims to identify the role of the writersÕ cultures in shaping and regulating their discourses on emotions. The intertextual and contextual analysis of these narratives reveals that the meaning and function of these displayed emotions revolve around the travellerÕs community affiliation, religion, ideology, and other culture-specific discourses and practices such as Sufism, folk medicine, myths, folk traditions, natural and geographical phenomena, cultural scripts, social norms, and power relations. In a nutshell, reading the travellersÕ discourses on emotions means reading many cultural and historical aspects of the early modern world. To approach discourses on emotions in texts of the past, the present study draws on the theory of culture-construction of emotions. It uses three analytical notions from the fields of language, anthropology and history of emotions: Ôemotional communitiesÕ, Ôemotional stylesÕ and Ôemotional self-fashioningÕ. The present study uses a theoretical framework defined by a recent wave of studies on self-narratives as sources for the history and cultural diversity of emotions in the medieval and early modern periods. Within this approach, travel writing is seen as a self-narrative, a communicative act, and a social practice. This approach to emotion discourses in Rihla, travel journals and Seyahat genres allows us to project the transcultural and entangled history of the early modern Mediterranean, which as much it was a contested frontier between Islam and Christianity, was also a space of religious conversion and hybrid identities, the articulation of diplomacy and cultural exchange, mysticism and religious pluralism. This approach also pinpoints the diverse forms of cosmopolitanism, or rather cosmopolitanisms, in the plural.

This thesis sets out to examine how American travelers to the Russian Empire perceived and presented it in published travel narratives from the year of the publication of George Kennan’s iconic two-volume Siberia and the Exile System (1891) until the First World War. Putting a special emphasis on setting the selected American travelers and their narratives into a historical context, it analyses the major topics covered in travel accounts, matching them against one another as well as against Kennan’s published writings. The social background of the authors, their knowledge of Russian or native languages of the empire, preparations for the journey, and special circumstances are factored into the evaluation. My thesis also explains how American visitors to the empire reflected their own culture by writing about Russia, utilizing theoretical concepts by Edward Said (Orientalism), Jackson Lears (American anti-modernist sentiment), and Larry Wolff (the image of Eastern Europe in Western eyes). The analysis of American travel writing published after Kennan’s exposé of the exile system proposes to reevaluate the scholarly consensus that this was Kennan’s key text that had a considerable negative impact on the American perception of Russia. While Kennan did have a substantial influence upon the perceptions of later visitors, this thesis argues that not only his exile system study but another, rather overlooked but continuously popular travelogue, Tent Life in Siberia (1870, with a revised and extended edition in 1910), had a profound influence on how Americans saw the empire. Kennan contributed to the “dual vision” of Russia – based on “civilization” discourse, comparisons with both the U.S. and Western Europe (with the U.S.-Europe-Russia triangulation), and repeated projections of American historical experience onto the empire, in many instances with exaggerations or misinterpretations of Russian historical developments. The dissertation first examines Kennan’s three travel accounts because of their significant influence on the published impressions of subsequent travelers, then analyses American visitors’ accounts in response to two major events in late Russian imperial history, the 1891–1892 famine and the 1905 Revolution, and concludes with assessments of journey accounts to three non-European areas of the empire – Siberia via the Trans-Siberian Railway, Russian Turkestan, and the Northern Pacific. It shows that compared with earlier discourses about the Russian Empire (from conventional descriptions of cities and villages to opinions about different estates of the country and the monarchy) new topics emerged, including non-European natives, Russian policy in its borderlands, and foreign affairs, especially in Asia. Yet the “dual vision” remained. The relief commissioners who arrived in Russia to administer aid to famished areas and those who witnessed and reported on the social-political instability during the 1905 Revolution tended to represent the empire through a triangulation with Western Europe and the United States and came to negative conclusions. Traveling primarily within European Russia, these visitors presented the empire as an outsider to the developed Western civilization, similarly to Kennan’s perceptions in his study of the exile system. Their conclusions were counterbalanced by the impressions of a new wave of travelers to non-European regions, especially Siberia. They evaluated Russia vis-à-vis their own history, especially the settlement of the American West, rather than by triangulation with Europe. In contrast to visitors during the famine and the revolution, they saw the Russian presence in these areas as that of a creative power akin to America and categorized the empire as part of the developed Western world. Their more positive representation of Russia echoed Kennan’s Tent Life. The dissertation also demonstrates that the American vision of the empire had both secular and religious roots. Some visitors, confident in their country’s power and influenced by the Protestant creed, entertained the ideas of economic and even religious transformation of Russia. Others, however, revealed deep concerns about their own place and the authority of the white, Protestant middle and upper class in a rapidly changing American society. They showed deep anti-modernist sentiments and anxieties about the way America was developing, and for them Russia provided a space where they could find something resembling the old ways that were rapidly vanishing at home and a potential source for personal and national rejuvenation.

Through historical demographic studies, it becomes possible
not only to quantify and clarify the human losses resulting from the
Armenian Genocide, but also to examine the broader impact of the
socio-economic, national, religious, and political mechanisms
employed by the Ottoman authorities during the pre-genocide
period. These mechanisms significantly influenced the internal and
external movements of the Armenian population, the demographic
shifts in Armenian-populated settlements, and the broader process of
106
depopulation.
This article explores the internal and external movements of
Western Armenians, with a particular focus on identifying the
primary causes. Key factors contributing to these movements –
including labor migration to Constantinople, various central regions
of the Ottoman Empire, the Caucasus, the United States, and other
countries – were closely linked to national, religious, and especially
economic policies of dispossession targeting Armenians. Among the
other factors facilitating internal movements and emigration were
the
Ottoman policy of resettling Muslim immigrants in Western
Armenia and, subsequently, the Hamidian massacres and their
consequences.

This thesis considers the multiple and complex ways in which Arab and Middle Eastern women have been conceived in literature written by both Western and Arab male and female authors. It covers almost a millennium of literature, beginning with the eleventh century Crusades which represent the earliest encounters between the West and the East. From there, the discussion moves to examine representations of Middle Eastern women in Western literature and the influences that helped forge that image, such as the biblical stories of Salomé, The Arabian Nights, the Mu'allaquat or the Seven Arabian Poems, Al-Firdausi's poetic epic, The Shahname, and the travelogues of British explorers who travelled the Middle East. Finally, the thesis turns to the work of Arab authors writing about their own culture and identity. The analysis of this material is structured chronologically and undertaken in three parts. The first part examines historical and contextual material to establish the ways in which Oriental images, narratives and landscape became imbedded in the Western psyche and influenced Western literature and how Near Eastern men and women were imagined. The second stage analyses late nineteenth and early twentieth century British texts which engage directly with or are influenced by Oriental themes and ideas. The third stage considers English translations of Arabic texts written by men and women and their depiction of Arab women, in addition to a comparison between Western views of the East and Arabic perceptions of the West. The discussion concludes with a discussion of diasporic literature written by Arab women which forms a dialogue and a bridge between the two cultures. The diverse range of literary forms discussed in the thesis include: travelogues; epistolary writing; poetry; drama; novel; memoirs; biographies; social criticism; and art. All the material discussed here is available in English with the exception of two or three poems and some critical works.

Koninklijke Brill NV reserves the right to protect the publication against unauthorized use and to authorize dissemination by means of offprints, legitimate photocopies, microform editions, reprints, translations, and secondary information sources, such as abstracting and indexing services including databases. Requests for commercial re-use, use of parts of the publication, and/or translations must be addressed to Koninklijke Brill NV. This book is printed on acid-free paper and produced in a sustainable manner.

Recuperando le riflessioni presentate nel corso del convegno di Roma "Patrimoni missionari, doni diplomatici e spoliazioni coloniali. Pratiche, ricerche e approcci a confronto tra nuovi archivi digitali e collezioni museali" del 16 aprile 2025, lo studio intende proporre una rilettura relativa alle esperienze di due missionari, il francese Thomas Arbousset (1810-1877) e lo svizzero Paul Berthoud (1847-1930), che hanno ricoperto ruoli di rilevanza in termini di evangelizzazione e raccolta di dati territoriali, operando in due distinte fasi storiche dell’attività missionaria europea in Africa australe e iniziando i loro percorsi tramite la Société des missions évangéliques de Paris (SMEP) (Jousse, 1889; Boegner, 1912; Zorn, 1993). Come molti altri loro colleghi di varie nazionalità, il recupero e la problematizzazione di relazioni e corrispondenze attorno alle esperienze di viaggio costituisce un passaggio necessario per innestare − sulla scia degli approcci postcoloniali e decoloniali applicati in geografia così come in storia (Rossinelli e Lévy, 2023) − nuove interpretazioni sull’organizzazione geografica della conoscenza e sullo sfruttamento economico del subcontinente meridionale africano all’epoca degli imperi.

The key new ingredients were fellow travelers/inmates of November 18. Henry joining Tara was signaled in the teaser at the end of Volume II, and before Volume III is over, the two are joined by Olga and Ralf, and a new teaser at the end alerts us to more people who live over and over in November 18.

“Korea at the Crossroads of Times”. The full text of a Russian travelogue book in which the author, a professional Korean scholar, recounts Korea and Koreans as she got to know them while studying and working in the country from 1993 to 1996—shortly after the establishment of diplomatic relations between the Republic of Korea (ROK) and the USSR (Russia) on September 30, 1990. Based on diary entries, materials from South Korean newspapers of the time, Korean studies literature, and, most importantly, on the author’s experience of constant, lively communication with Koreans, among whom she found good friends. Concluded with a selection of photographs of that time Korea, which as they say, no longer exists. Is it so? The author discusses this topic in the added in the end her article “Is Korea Still Standing 'at the Crossroads of Times'?" in the "Russian Koreans" newspaper, No. 101, March 2008.

This article examines Guido Gustavo Gozzano's travelogue Verso la cuna del mondo: Lettere dall' India (1917) [Towards the Cradle of the World: Letters from India], a series of reflections on India written during his journey to India. Unlike many European travel writers, Gozzano was neither a colonizer nor a professional ethnographer, but an Italian poet associated with the Crepuscolari movement. His observations offer a distinctive Italian perspective on British India, blending direct impressions with heavy reliance on European literary sources. The article analyzes his Eurocentric gaze, his ambivalent view of colonialism, and the tension between imagination and lived experience in his depiction of India. Ultimately, Gozzano's travelogue exemplifies the way early twentieth-century Italian writing both reproduced Orientalist stereotypes and contributed to the literary construction of India in Europe.

Review by Paul Levinson Time loop stories-about a recurrent, involuntary, often daily trip to the past-have been well represented in movies like Groundhog Day, Source Code, and Palm Springs. This subset of time travel in science fiction and fantasy has been less represented in novels, which would make Solvej Balle's seven-volume On the Calculation of Volume series (!) (translated into English by Barbara J. Haveland) welcome in any case. But it has additional treats for the mind. My friend Dirk Vom Lehn told me about this series yesterday. I bought the first volume, finished reading it in the wee hours of the morning, and bought the other three (vols II, III, and IV) that are now available in English. I'm going to review each volume as soon as I finish reading it.

Reaching the throne of the Shah. The role of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth
in the Holy See’s diplomatic relations with Persia during the reign of Shah Abbas I/

The article presents issues related to the journey and stay in Poland of two groups
of envoys from the Holy See to Shah Abbas I. The first mission in 1601 was conducted by Diego de Miranda and Francisco da Costa; the second in 1604 was entrusted to three fathers of the Discalced Carmelite Order. The route leading through the Polish-Lithuanian state gave the Holy See a guarantee of efficient and safe reaching not only the eastern borders of the state, but all the way to Moscow. Both the king and his officials, as well as the nuncio and the Polish clergy, were involved in organizing the trip through the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. The route created the best communication conditions for maintaining correspondence contact between Rome and the diplomats and collecting information on the course of the mission. This was reflected in a relatively large number of diverse sources during the travel time. Both diplomatic missions were of great political and religious importance for the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. They took place at a time of intense efforts by European rulers to build a broad anti-Turkish coalition with Persia. Diplomatic journeys through the Polish-Lithuanian state strengthened its position as an ally not only at the courts of Europe, but also at the Persian court. They coincided with the period when Boris Godunow, in cooperation with Emperor Rudolf ii, consistently tried to stop Sigismund III’s contacts with Abbas I. In the religious dimension, the diplomatic missions included the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in the missionary plans of the Holy See in Asia.

Introduction …………………………..…………………………………………… 1. Kazantzakis as a reader of Modern Greek literature …………………………… 2. The integration of the folk and literary tradition in The Life and Times of Alexis Zorbas …..………………………………………………………………. 3. Intertextuality as recurrence: Christ Recrucified ……………………………… 115 4. Quotations and narrative allusions in O Kapetan Michalis …………………….

This article examines how exhibitions can function as pedagogical and historiographical interventions through a case study of "Occupied City: Politics and Daily Life in Istanbul, 1918-1923". It argues that curatorial practices--object selection, visual design, and multilingual, multivocal sourcing--can foreground the social and cultural dimensions of occupation often marginalized in nationalist narratives. By reflecting on exhibition-making as a mode of historical inquiry, the article demonstrates how public history can generate new approaches to teaching the late Ottoman Empire and its contested legacies.

The author reflects on the influence of Tibet on early Theosophy, particularly through the works of H.P. Blavatsky. The author recounts H.P.B.’s attempts to reach Tibet and learn from the Masters, highlighting the significance of Tibet’s highlands as a center of spiritual wisdom. The author also notes the connection between the early Theosophical Society and Tibetan Lamaism, particularly the Gelug-pa sect.

H.P. Blavatsky’s works, particularly “The Voice of the Silence” and “The Secret Doctrine,” demonstrate her deep connection to Tibetan Buddhism and Lamaistic teachings. These works, influenced by the Tibetan Books of Dzyan and Kiu-te, reveal her intimate knowledge of esoteric wisdom. The review also highlights the works of Alexandra David-Neel, a French explorer who lived in Tibet for fifteen years, immersing herself in its culture and spiritual practices.

A new book on Tibet by an Oxford scholar, Dr. Evans-Wentz, explores the esoteric teachings of Tibetan Lamaism. The book, “Tibetan Yoga and Secret Doctrines,” acknowledges the influence of the Brotherhood of Adepts, a central concept in Theosophy. The author expresses hope for a spiritual connection between the East and West, emphasizing the potential for the West to embrace the wisdom of Eastern Adepts.

"The strength of Arslan’s monograph lies in the way he utilizes late nineteenth and early twentieth century Ottoman historical and literary sources to present a critique of nationalist and rigid literary frameworks that treat Arabic, Turkish, Persian, Armenian, and Greek literatures as separate, fixed traditions tied to specific ethnic or religious communities. [...]  Such a comprehensive view  of  the  Ottoman  reservoir  undoubtedly  creates  productive  discussions  and  inspiration  for further studies exploring the hitherto less commonly studied minority languages/literatures of the Ottoman canon through comparative lenses." Esra Taşdelen, Nesir: Journal of Literary Studies

https://nesirdergisi.com/index.php/nesir/article/view/334

The paper examines a bronze artifact discovered in the 19th century at Montagna dei Cavalli, which was subsequently lost. Previously interpreted as a caduceus based on its inscription, the object is reassessed through typological analysis, leading to its reidentification as a sauroter. Finally, the artifact is contextualized within the historical and archaeological framework of the site.

In this article, we present and annotate a translation of an anonymous manuscript written in Dutch entitled Een kort verhael (A Short history) dated 1662/3. It was retrieved from the collection of Roland Bonaparte in Paris and relates the situation in early Suriname. It provides new insights on the political situation of this English colony and gives a general description of the country.

The Forgotten Staircase: Ottoman–Dutch Relations and the Missed Opportunity of an Exhibition
Dutch history is often told as an autonomous success story of rebellion, trade, and progress. Less visible, but historically highly significant, is the role of the Ottoman Empire in this development. It is precisely this underexposed dimension that could have taken center stage in the exhibition on the “Great Staircase” at Paleis Het Loo. Although the palace has taken a valuable initiative by restoring Ottoman-inspired paintings, the exhibition remains cautious in its content and misses an important opportunity to present history in a more inclusive and honest way.

Hilary Mantel è uno dei pochi scrittori inglesi ad aver vinto il prestigioso Booker Prize per ben due volte: nel 2009 con Wolf Hall e nel 2012 con Bring Up the Bodies. Il suo primo romanzo storico risale al 1992, A Place of Greater Safety, ma la Mantel era una giovane scrittrice alle prime armi e non sapeva ancora bene cosa stesse facendo. Soltanto quando un editore decide di pubblicarlo si rende conto di ciò che aveva scritto. Dopo aver scritto altri romanzi di genere completamente differenti, ritorna al romanzo storico. Questa volta decide di scrivere una trilogia, di cui fanno parte Wolf Hall e Bring Up the Bodies, l'ultimo capitolo uscirà nel 2015. Il protagonista della storia è Thomas Cromwell, l'uomo che da figlio di un fabbro è riuscito a diventare il braccio destro di Enrico VIII e a ricevere il titolo di Barone. La Mantel racconta gli anni difficili dell'Inghilterra, attraverso gli occhi di Cromwell, e mostrando ai lettori aspetti della sua vita finora sconosciuti

Il conte de Forbin nel suo viaggio in Sicilia con approcci anche in Calabria è stato sicuramente uno dei più seri e veritieri espositori della realtà delle terre del sud. Peraltro, aveva già all'attivo un ottimo lavoro consacrato a quelle del Levante. Scrittore e disegnatore, nonché appassionato di studi sull'antichità, è nato nel 1777 a Roque d'Anteron ed è morto a Parigi nel 1841. Apparteneva a una famiglia che durante la Rivoluzione francese aveva sofferto parecchio. Ha partecipato quale ufficiale a varie campagne napoleoniche ed è stato più che un amico per la principessa Paolina Bonaparte. Luigi XVIII lo ha nominato conservatore del Louvre e al suo attivo si deve anche la fondazione di vari musei. È autore d'interessanti disegni relativi anche all'Italia e di qualche romanzo 1. Nel 1820 ha compiuto la sua escursione nell'isola, che ha documentato in "Souvenirs de La Sicile", pubblicato nel 1823 a Parigi dall'Imprimerie Royale. È alquanto interessante l'avvertenza, di cui diamo qualche eloquente squarcio: «Non sarebbe mai imbarazzante dire perché s'intraprende un viaggio come quello che mi accingo a intraprendere in Sicilia. Oltre il desiderio di soddisfare una legittima curiosità, la ragione più naturale potrebbe trovarsi nello stato attuale della società. Questo stato è sfortunatamente ostile, la vita diventa ogni giorno più spinosa; è un lavoro duro quello di vivere in mezzo agli uomini: è dunque permesso considerare un viaggio come una tregua particolare conclusa con essi». Il nostro conte si è imbarcato a Tolone mirando a Palermo il 10 febbraio del 1820, ma è mal capitato perché il mare e i venti l'hanno fatta da padrone, per cui la navicella si è diretta a Porto Longone, nell'isola d'Elba, onde trovare un rifugio. Ripartita, è stata costretta dalla violenza del vento a riparare a Civitavecchia. Alla fine, quegli, stanco di attendere una sorte migliore, ha deciso di portarsi a terra e proseguire fino a Napoli. Ne ha approfittato per visitare Roma, Gaeta, Napoli, Pompei, il Vesuvio e Baia. Il 24 aprile, alle 4 del pomeriggio, finalmente prendeva posto sul battello "Il Tartaro" in compagnia di due illustri personaggi: M. Clérian, un giovane pittore paesaggista e M. Van Clémputte, un architetto che a Roma era pensionante della scuola di Francia, la famosa École Française. Il Tartaro faceva la rotta per la Sicilia unitamente a un convoglio di 7 navi che trasportavano truppe ed erano guidate dal "Capri", un bastimento dotato di 74 cannoni. Il vento però non voleva saperne di smetterla e ha messo tutti alla deriva. Soltanto tre giorni dopo si riusciva a prendere terra nel golfo di Olivieri, presso Mazara 2. Da qui ha preso l'inizio della marcia per la visita all'isola.

Bush lives is a rich account of life and leisure in the Tasmanian back country. Myth, romance and bush lifestyles that have mostly ceased to be mix it with 'townies' taking the airs and speculators in scrip. Chance encounters with Tasmanian tigers (thylacines), the post-Christmas dash for the bush, tough lives in hunting camps and the everyday aspirations of ordinary people in remote places all flavour this book.

L'humanisme, en redéfinissant l’histoire, invente la notion de « Moyen Âge » et valorise un retour à l’Antiquité, ce qui suscite un intérêt nouveau pour les œuvres anciennes, notamment en Italie. Progressivement, cette valorisation conduit à la naissance de l’idée de patrimoine et à des pratiques de conservation et de collection. En France, ce mouvement se diffuse grâce aux voyages en Italie, qui évoluent du simple déplacement utilitaire vers une démarche culturelle et artistique. Entre le XVIe et le XVIIe siècle, les voyageurs développent un regard plus informé sur l’art, notamment la peinture, et deviennent progressivement des « connaisseurs ». Enfin, ces récits de voyage participent à l’élaboration d’un vocabulaire artistique et témoignent d’une transformation durable du rapport à l’art et au patrimoine en Europe.

In this article, I analyze Goethe’s Italienische Reise, Dickens’ Pictures from Italy, and Kang Youwei’s Yidali youji, three travelogues about Italy published by a German, an Englishman, and a Chinese within the span of less than a century, even if they reflect journeys made in the late 18th, mid-19th, and early 20th centuries respectively. In particular, I focus on the perceptions and constructions of Italian Catholicism found in all works, analyzing common observations while also being attentive to important differences. I argue that, despite moments of sympathy displayed towards Catholicism that are grounded in each authors’ idiosyncratic religiosity, all agree that Catholicism bears responsibility for Italy’s material underdevelopment and hinders the advancement of crucial modern values. While all believe that pre-modern religious values should continue to inspire the modern age, they agree in their ultimately negative assessment of Catholicism’s ability to offer a religiosity suited for the modern era.

Book Title (Inventory) Book Title (Identified) Identification Number Author (Surname) Language Location of Publication Printer Date No. of Copies Subject Bookseller ID In primis iij dosan of messe bookes bound and unbound (STC) 16161? (or many Paris editions)

While discussing travelers’ accounts related to Indian medical knowledge, especially anatomy and surgery, we need to take in to account very briefly the salient features of medicine in India. By the time it was predominantly expressed through Āyurveda. In their own models of explanations, Āyurveda and other systems of healing in India like Unani and Siddha deal with organs inside the body and their activities inside the body which can be termed from modern vocabulary as physiological ones. These, taken together led to the origin and causation of diseases, the development and course of diseases inside the body (termed as prognosis) and treatment
following these processes. Unlike European medicine, Āyurveda represented Indian subjectivity to a great extent. As keenly observed
by Zimmermann, bereft of knowledge of modern and actual anatomy and physiology, ecology formed an integral part of the diagnosis of disease without having any idea of the organ localization of the disease as a result of which, as observed by Zimmermann, a biogeography was absorbed into therapeutics, and a discourse on the world (equivalent to natural history) was contained within a discourse on man (which connotes medicine).
In the accounts of travelers and other persons of various interests from other countries, there are abundant descriptions of medical science, as they observed it during the period they in this country, and such impressions, if properly compiled, may provide “unbiased” testimony to the progress of the scientific crafts at the time. Travelers’ accounts are a good source mainly for two reasons – (1) to underscore the trajectory of Indian medical knowledge or Āyurveda across the ages, and (2) to gain some insight related to the decline and marginalization of surgical practice to the sects of the people belonging to the lower castes. It also becomes a moot question how to reconcile the fact of utter lack of anatomical knowledge with surgical excellence in some branches of surgery like rhinoplasty, lithotomy, couching cataract etc. It should be noted that the post-16th century travellers came at a period when post-Vesalian anatomical knowledge and post-Harverian physiology began to be firmly entrenched in European medical education and universities.

Whereas Jewish writers who grew up in a Hellenized environment, such as Philo of Alexandria, Paul, and Flavius Josephus, describe their sea journeys across the Mediterranean and encounters abroad, travel narratives in Palestinian rabbinic literature almost exclusively deal with land journeys of a much shorter duration within the Land of Israel itself and, in only a few cases, further afield to the adjacent regions of Egypt and Syria and onwards to Babylonia. While the reasons may have been pragmatic, namely, that most Palestinian rabbis lacked sufficient purposes to travel overseas, this also raises the question whether and to what extent they perceived geographical space differently from their more Hellenized Jewish coreligionists. To what extent were certain spaces and regions considered "foreign" in the sense of being potentially dangerous and idolatrous? Did certain objects, inhabitants, or practices render a space "strange"? At least to some extent, rabbis' perception of otherness is likely to have varied. It would have depended on their respective urban or rural background and social status as well as their travel experiences and practices.

This article explores the reciprocal influences of travel literature between Korea and the West from the late 19th to the mid-20th century, a transformative period marked by Korea's opening to global exchange and its subsequent colonization. It investigates how Korean envoys, reformers, and intellectuals used their travel experiences in the United States and Europe to articulate visions for national modernization, gender reform, and cultural renewal. Their writings functioned as blueprints for Enlightenment-inspired reform and laid intellectual groundwork for movements like the Independence Club and the New Woman movement. In parallel, the travel narratives of Western visitors to Korea shaped Western public opinion and diplomatic postures toward the Korean peninsula. These narratives often oscillated between admiration for Korean traditions and orientalist assumptions about cultural stagnation, and in the colonial period, increasingly echoed or resisted Japanese imperial propaganda. This article examines how travel literature served as a vehicle for intercultural exchange, the transmission of ideologies, and the reimagining of national identities.