Travellers in Ottoman Lands: The Botanical Legacy

2020

Travellers in Ottoman Lands: The Botanical Legacy This book focuses on the botanical legacy of many parts of the former Ottoman Empire including present-day Turkey, the Levant, Egypt, the Balkans, and the Arabian Peninsula as seen and demonstrated by travellers both from within and from outside the region. The papers cover a wide variety of subjects, including Ottoman garden design and architecture; the flora of the area, notably bulbs and their cultural influence; literary, pictorial and photographic depictions of the botany and horticulture of the Ottoman lands; floral and related motifs in Ottoman art; culinary and medicinal aspects of the botanical heritage; and efforts related to conservation.​ Edited by Ines Aščerić-Todd, Sabina Knees, Janet Starkey, and Paul Starkey Archaeopress, 2018. ISBN: 978-1784919153 Reviewed by: Dr Özde Çeliktemel-Thomen Post-doctoral Fellow at Middle East Technical University, Department of History 13 May 2020 https://researchcentre.trtworld.com/publications/book-reviews/books-reviewed/books-reviewed/travellers-in-ottoman-lands-the-botanical-legacy

ISIS (FOCUS: NARRATIVES OF SEEDS IN THE HISTORY OF SCIENCE), 2022

In the seventeenth century, new varieties of flowers were created in Istanbul's many agricultural spaces. At the same time, new literary genres related to flower breeding appeared: technical "how-to" manuals, which derived from an earlier tradition of agricultural treatises; encyclopedias of the flower varieties created in Istanbul; and biographical dictionaries of Istanbul's flower breeders. Such texts, which typically bear the designation Ş ükufe-name (Books on Flowers), attempt to prescribe note-taking habits, agricultural timelines, and observational techniques. Varieties of flowers with various shapes, sizes, and colors are attributed to the work of individual local breeders. This essay explores the role of seeds in this rich textual production in Istanbul. As things that are mobile yet can take root, seeds became objects of study during what was an era of heightened exchange and mobility in seventeenth-century Ottoman Istanbul. In contrast to the view holding that the history of flower seeds unfolded primarily in Ottoman exchanges with Western Europe, the case of Şükufe-name works shows that seeds were technological objects with local histories.

Konstantinos Giakoumis (ed), Flora in Arts and Crafts of the Korça Region (12th Century BC to 19th Century AD). Bimësia në Arte dhe Artefakte të Rajonit të Korçës (Shek. XII para Kr. – Shek. XX p.Kr.) (Tirana: Pegi)., 2018

This paper addresses the issue of how the Ottomans perceived and interacted with the natural environment, pursuing an increasing scale from the private garden to parks and then on to rural and forest areas. Throughout their history, the Ottomans conceived the natural environment in a rather pragmatic manner. Being a common topos in the pre-industrial era, the environment’s foremost use had been to sustain the basic needs of the agricultural society. When it comes to aesthetics, the Ottoman Turks seem to be fond of naturalism, which in the 18th century reached a level of adoration of nature in visual arts. Finally, in the last century of the Ottoman empire the environment was approached also as a scientific subject.

Bolu Girls' Village Institute Herbarium (Bolu Kız Köy Enstitüsü Herbaryumu) was founded in 1953 by Muhittin Fehmi Özgen. It is one of the earliest herbaria of the Turkish Republic. The herbarium was part of the natural history collections of the school which also included insects, minerals, and fossils. The herbarium initially contained around 2500 specimens within 72 cardboard boxes. Additionally, specimens from this herbarium were sent to İstanbul University Department of Biology Herbarium (ISTF) and around 600 specimens to the herbarium of Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (E). In 2006, we received 567 plant specimens in five boxes. The plants were mainly collected from Bolu and neighboring provinces between 1953 and 1958. The herbarium collection contains one bryophyte specimen and three seedless vascular plants. The remaining taxa belong to gymnosperms and angiosperms. The herbarium labels were prepared both in Latin and Turkish. Majority of the specimens have identification up to family and genus level and a small number of them up to species level. This herbarium remained largely unknown to Turkish botanists. Therefore, we think it is valuable to provide detailed information about the history and the content of the herbarium. The information given here not only will contribute to our knowledge about the natural history collections of Turkey but also to the education history of the Turkish Republic.

From documents in the Ottoman Archives of Office of the Prime Minister it has been determined that many European researchers made scientific examinations of plants in the Ottoman Lands of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. There, many important archival documents belonging to these researchers and related fields have been examined. Those to be discussed in this paper were researchers who worked extensively on the flora in the Balkans. The paper will focus on their botanical studies in Crete, Ioannina, Albania, Salonica, Kosovo and Bitola. The focus of this study will be on the travels of an Italian, Antonia Baldacci, a lecturer at the University of Bologna, who made a study of plants in the Balkans between 1892 and 1905; and on the Austrian botanist, Edward Formanik, who appears to have undertaken research on the flora of the regions of Salonica, Bitola and Kosovo between the years 1895 and 1899.

Curtis's Botanical Magazine, 2000

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This research's aim is to describe concepts of botanical illustration which is one of illustration and its sub-branches, to examine relation between illustration and botanical illustration in a historical analysis, to reflect combination of illustration and botanical illustration together in social structure, and to comment using techniques of botanical illustration and illustration in Turkey. In the study, literature review has been conducted. Botanical illustration has an important effect to constitute identity of plant. Botanical and illustration have a connection each other since the beginning of human history, and botanical illustration is improved to contribute to science in Turkey like in other countries. However, the conclusions of the research are mentioned that; there are not enough illustrators.

2021

Turkiye’de, Bati Asagi Kafkasya Koridorunda yer alan Artvin ili, Yusufeli Ilcesi, Kilickaya civarinda yayilis gosteren iletim demetli bitkiler 2014 ve 2015 yillari arasinda arastirilmistir. Incelenen alanda, 89 familya ve 334 cinse ait toplam 511 bitki taksonu belirlenmistir. Bu bitki taksonlarindan, 18’i Pteridophyta ve 492’si Magnoliophyta subesine aittir. Magnoliophyta’nin 7’si Pinophytina ve 485’i Magnoliophytina alt subesindendir. Calisma alanindan belirlenen en fazla ture sahip familyalar Poaceae (12.13%), Asteraceae (11.15%), Rosaceae (5.87%), Fabaceae (5.47%), Lamiaceae (5.08%) ve en fazla ture sahip cinsler Poa, Trifolium, Geranium, Veronica, Epilobium ve Salix’dir. Endemizm orani % 5.47 (28 takson)’dir. IUCN Kirmizi Liste siniflarina gore 50 taksonun tehlike kategorileri degerlendirilmistir.

Anatolian journal of botany, 2022

This study was carried out between 2014-2016 to investigate the plant cover of seven localities (Ağyatan, Tuzla and Yumurtalık Lagoons, Yer Köprü Natural Formation, Akyatan Lagoon, Şekerpınar, Tatarlı Village Ancient Period Ruins) having cultural and natural site within the borders of Adana province in Eastern Mediterranean Region (Turkiye). As a result 219 taxa belong to 70 families and 180 genera were identified. Among them, 18 were determined in Ağyatan Lagoon, 41 in Tuzla Lagoon, 83 in Yumurtalık Lagoon, 13 in Akyatan Lagoon, 55 in Yer Köprü Natural Formation, 56 in Şekerpınar and 48 in Tatarlı Village Ancient Period Ruins. Eight of these taxa are endemic, and seven are in the critical species category.