Excavating the English-Language Press in the Ottoman Empire (1841–1923) Editors, State Actors, Readers

Abstract

AbstractThe English-language press in the Ottoman Empire was long thought near inexistent. While this article acknowledges that most English-language press titles in that country were few compared to the French-Ottoman press and resorted to French at one moment or another in their history, it investigates a body of English-Ottoman serials that proclaimed some connection to Britain or the US over the period 1841–1923 in order to expose the complex and multidirectional power relationships between British/American Levantine editors, British/American diplomatic actors, the Ottoman State, and readers (both in the Ottoman Empire and beyond). What did it mean to publish an English-Ottoman serial? Considering language as a social practice that helps reconcile the local and the global in the context of the foreign language press, this article seeks to understand motivations behind English-language serial publishing in the Ottoman Empire and how a mix of local/global constraints shaped titles like The Levant Herald (1856–1914).KEYWORDS: English-foreign-language pressFlexi-language pressOttoman censorshipThe Levant Heraldcapitulationsentangled history Disclosure StatementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Notes1 A sign of this interest was a discussion on H-Turk in January 2011, launched Prof. Wayne H. Bowen’s post. https://lists.h-net.org/cgi-bin/logbrowse.pl?trx=vx&list=h-turk&month=1101&week=d&msg=Q6QhKzxXroJk/IWDCSrwqw&user=&pw = (Last consulted 30 November 2021).2 Latour, “The Powers of Association,” 277.3 Groc and Çağlar, La Presse française de Turquie, 6–8.4 The Smyrna Mail lasted less than two years (1862–1864), but remains a key testimony for the development of railway in that port city and the presence of European commercial networks.5 L’Impartial, Journal de Smyrne (1841–1915?), edited by Anthony Edwards, was the first newspaper published partly in English, before rapidly switching to French. The few surviving paper copies are spread between American libraries (Yale and The Library of Congress for 1841–1843) and the Bibliothèque nationale de France (1848–1852; 1889–1890). (Incomplete) English-language Ottoman press paper collections were retroceded to Center for Islamic Studies (Istanbul) under the British Library’s restitution programme (1996–8), with the latter retaining microfilms.6 The Manifest of Vessels provided news of shipping movements in Smyrna in the 1880s–1890s, but is only documented through indirect mentions. “The Americano-English Continental Printed Press”, The Newsman (New York), January 1891, 7–8.7 The Orient, 20 April 1910: 1.8 Tanatar Baruh, “Francophone Press”.9 “Turkey – The Levant Herald”, London and China Herald, 9 October 1868: 23.10 Çağlar, Anglophone Press in Constantinople, 76.11 “Journaux français”, Annuaire oriental du commerce, de l'industrie, de l'administration et de la magistrature, Constantinople, 1891: 529.12 The change in proprietors at The Levant Herald and Eastern Express to the Maltese Stambouliot lawyer Lewis Mizzi in the early 1900s led to an increase of French in the weekly edition for abroad.13 French original quoted in Zuccolo, La Stampa Francofona, 56.14 Koloğlu, “La Formation des intellectuels,”140.15 Öndeş, “The Story of The Orient News Newspaper”.16 Turkey. Further Correspondence. Part VI, October-December 1923, Foreign Office Papers, National Archives, Kew, London, FO 424/259: 2-4; Eastern Affairs. Further Correspondence Part II, 1919, FO 406/41: 296–297.17 Stratford Canning to Viscount Palmerston, 19 July and 15 August 1849, FO 83/1109.18 Urgandokur, “The Story of Ceride-i Havadis”.19 Twain, Innocents Abroad, 374.20 Çağlar, Anglophone Press in Constantinople, 53.21 “Turkey”, Armagh Guardian, 28 October 1859: 6.22 Acceptance form, 16 September, 1861, FO 78/3197:20-21.23 Âli Pasha to the British Embassy, 18 January 1865, FO 78/3197: 15-18.24 Ottoman Ministerial Decree, Suspension decision of 16 January 1867, FO 78/3197: 40; “Notification officielle”, La Turquie, 12 March 1867, FO 78/3197: 163.25 Lord Lyons to FO, 29 January 1867, FO 78/3197: 34; Lyons to McCoan, 2 March 1867, FO 78/3197: 140.26 McCoan to FO, 25 July 1872, FO 78/3197: 229-233.27 “To Our Readers”, The Levant Times and Shipping Gazette, vol. 1, n°1, 16 November 1868: 1; Elliot to McCoan, 26 May 1872, FO 78/3197: 213.28 “Cour suprême britannique”, The Levant Times and Shipping Gazette, 19 July 1870, 768.29 “Edgar Whitaker”, Journal de Salonique, 31 August 1903, 2.30 Bulletin of the Levant Times, 10 August 1874, Enclosure, FO 78/3197: 277.31 Elliot to Derby, 10 September 1874, FO 78/3197: 316.32 Case brief to FO, Hanly’s letters of 26–27 November 1874 to Elliot, FO 78/3197: 281-282.33 Elliot to Derby, 22 November 1874, FO 78/3197: 330-333.34 Hitzel, “Un parcours inattendu,” 211.35 Groc and Çağlar, La Presse française de Turquie, 479.36 Yosmaoğlu, “Chasing the Printed Word,” 18.37 “British Post Office at Constantinople”, Hansard, HC Debate, 2 July 1896, § 537; Curzon to Salisbury, PS by Lord Salisbury to FO, 17 July 1896, FO 78/5259.38 Des Godins de Souhesmes, Au Pays des Osmanlis, 375.39 Çağlar, “Turmoil in the Capital,” 134.40 Pears, Forty Years in Constantinople: 151.41 Çağlar, Anglophone Press in Constantinople, 36–78.42 Georgeon, Des Ottomans aux Turcs, 188; Whittall to Currie, 11 February 1896, FO 78/5259.43 Giraud, “Livres et Journaux,” 318.44 ‘Avis’, The Levant Herald and Eastern Express, 22 June 1895, 5.45 Godins de Souhesmes, Au Pays des Osmanlis: 380, 385.46 Whittall to Currie, 11 February 1896, FO 78/5259.47 Currie to Salisbury, 24 December 1896, FO 78/5259.48 For circulation figures, see Giraud, “Livres et Journaux,” 337–8.49 “The Americano-English Continental Printed Press”, The Newsman (New York), January 1891, 7–8.50 Giraud, “Livres et Journaux,” 365.51 Janssens, “Towards a Multilingual Franca Approach,” 623.52 Cf. Cooper-Richet, “The English-Language Press in Continental Europe,” 221–40.53 Dupont and Türesay, “L’actualité internationale à l’échelle d’un empire,” 100.Additional informationNotes on contributorsStéphanie PrévostStéphanie Prévost, Institut universitaire de France, Université Paris Cité, LARCA (CNRS-UMR 8225), France; Email: stephanie.prevost@u-paris.fr