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An Historical Geographic Information System for Ottoman Studies: The c. 1907 Ottoman Census and Armenian Settlement in Istanbul

Ohanian, Daniel; Başkurt, Z. Mehmet, and Kabadayı, M. Erdem · 2020

Announces the publication of a partial transcription of the c. 1907 Ottoman census covering 24,000 Apostolic Armenian Istanbulites, together with a historical geographic information system, an interactive map, showing where those individuals lived. The authors first argue that an unidentified, microfilmed population register held in New York is the most substantial portion of this census currently available to researchers. They then introduce historical GIS as a tool for the digital humanities and describe the process of building one. The piece is simultaneously a source-critical study and a methodological guide for spatial history in Ottoman studies.

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Published in
Turcica. Revue d'études turques, Vol. 51, pp. 255–283 (Peeters); DOI 10.2143/TURC.51.0.3288390
Year
2020
Language
English
DOI
10.2143/TURC.51.0.3288390

Citation

Ohanian, Daniel; Başkurt, Z. Mehmet, and Kabadayı, M. Erdem 2020. An Historical Geographic Information System for Ottoman Studies: The c. 1907 Ottoman Census and Armenian Settlement in Istanbul. Turcica. Revue d'études turques, Vol. 51, pp. 255–283 (Peeters); DOI 10.2143/TURC.51.0.3288390. https://doi.org/10.2143/TURC.51.0.3288390

What this offers a reader

For students

How you turn a hundred-year-old census into a map you can actually click through.

For academics

Methodological centrepiece of his digital/spatial history work; co-authored with Ottoman quantitative historians.

For the community

Twenty-four thousand Armenians of Istanbul, located street by street.

For a general reader

Mapping where the Armenians of Ottoman Istanbul actually lived.

Topics

historical GISOttoman censusArmenian settlement Istanbuldigital humanitiesspatial historypopulation registers

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