This workshop, convened by Nicola Verderame (University of Naples “L'Orientale”), will bring together scholars who study water supply in Ottoman cities from the angle of pious foundations. Water supply, with its ideological scaffolding based in Islamic philanthropy, had offered the Ottoman ruling elite the opportunity to showcase their care for the well-being of the subjects, and had crystallized the hierarchies of power within the court. The workshop will explore the social impact of water-related pious foundations not only as an economic and institutional tool, but also as a mechanism of display of Islamic piety and generosity.

You may read the abstracts and speakers' bios here.

Programme: 

15:00-15:15 Opening remarks

15:15-15:45 Nicola Verderame (University of Naples “L'Orientale”)

"Less means, but no less meaning”: Water-related waqfs in the Hamidian period

15:45-16:15 Alexander Wielemaker (Leiden University)

Construction of the Taksim aqueduct, 1730-32.
Infrastructures of power? Legitimation of the Ottoman dynasty during the early 18th century.

16:15-16:35 Break

16:35-17:05 Antonis Anastasopoulos (University of Crete & Institute for Mediterranean Studies/FO.R.T.H.)

Water-related waqfs in Ottoman Kandiye (17th-18th centuries)

17:05-17:35 Discussant remarks by Shirine Hamadeh (Koç University)

17:35-18:00 Discussion