The press as a (trans-)local space of communication. Istanbul’s Arabic press, 1860s-1920s
Final Report Abstract
As a result of the project “The press as a (trans-)local space of communication. Istanbul’s Arabic Press, 1860s-1920s” a systematic survey of the city’s Arabic press during the period under consideration was compiled. The corpus comprises 29 periodicals. Comprehensive information on the periodicals themselves, their actors, addressees, and contexts were researched and gathered. The survey may serve as a reference and basis for further studies, including those of the Principal Investigator. The results will be made available to the public in different formats. Furthermore, the corpus itself already produced insights and confirmed prior assumptions: The Arabic periodicals and their actors are closely connected to the city of Istanbul: professionally, spatially and content wise. At the same time, they show many other connections on the personal and textual level. Those connections extend into wider geographic and linguistic spaces. It would be fundamental to further explore the influence and impact of those connections in relation to each other as well as on contents and operating modes of the periodicals. Consequently, it is important to continue thinking about how to analyse the press within the urban, political, and linguistic spaces, including with respect to spatial interactions. Such an endeavour should be undertaken in wider research contexts of historical, cultural and media studies in collaboration with the current research on the Near Eastern press.
