The Islands of the Eastern Mediterranean: A History of Cross-Cultural Encounters

Description

The Mediterranean, or 'Middle Sea', has long been regarded as the symbolic centre of European civilization. The binding water between Turkey, the Middle East, the trading communities of North Africa, and the European powerhouses Italy, France and Greece, a history of this sea is a new and vital way of understanding the history of the societies which have flourished in the region. The Islands of the Eastern Mediterranean charts the story of the water as both connector and border, and analyses the islands role in world history. Covering Mehmed II's efforts to conquer the old Roman Empire, through to the claims of Rhodes and the role of the Aegean Islands in Ottoman international relations, to the British in Cyprus and the present-day tensions, this book's interconnected essays from leading scholars form a tapestry of knowledge. Together, they represent a new frontier in the way in which we look at sea histories. This will become essential reading for scholars of History, International Relations, Trade and Migration. Front cover Author biography Title page Copyright Contents List of Contributors Acknowledgements 1. Introduction 2. The Ottoman Caesar: Mehmed II’s Strategies of Possession, 1453–81 3. Security or Glory? Some Sixteenth-Century Views on the Necessity of Conquering Rhodes 4. The Clash of ‘Rum’ and ‘Frenk’: Orthodox–Catholic Interactions on the Aegean Islands in the Mid-Seventeenth to Mid-Eighteenth Centuries and their Impact in the Ottoman Capital 5. Challenging Authority and Transforming Politics: A New Perspective on the Muslim and Non-Muslim Experiences in Ottoman Crete, 1896–97 6. The Minoans, the Ottomans and the British: The Eastern Mediterranean as an Imperial Space 7. ‘The Wonderful Adventures of the Swedish Cyprus Expedition’: Einar Gjerstad, Erik Sjöqvist, the Swedish Institute in Rome and the Cyprus Expedition 8. Looting and Losing the Archaeological Heritage of Cyprus 9. The Sea that Binds Us: the EU’s Problematic Normative Capacity and the Union for the Mediterranean Index Back cover