The Image Of An Ottoman City

The active, dynamic engagement between the center and the periphery of the Ottoman Empire--between the imperial elite based in Istanbul and the societies in the territories they conquered--as expressed through architecture and urbanism, lies at the heart of Watenpaugh's study of the Syrian city. After placing the city of the 16th and 17th centuries in the context both of the contemporary empire and of its own previous history, he explores the construction of a monumental corridor in the great complexes of the 16th century, the decentering of patronage through Dervish lodges and endowments of the 17th century, the Ottomanization of the past, and the image of the city in texts produced in Aleppo and at the imperial capital. Annotation c2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Heghnar Zeitlian Watenpaugh, Ph.D. (1999) in Art History, University of California Los Angeles, is Associate Professor of Art History at the University of California, Davis. She has published on the urban and architectural history of Islamic societies.