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CSMC
CSMCCentre for the Study of Manuscript Cultures

Photo: BLUENIKA I Veronika Krebs

Balat-Miletus: Written Artefacts and the Islamic City

A view from the southeast of the fortress towering atop the ruins of the theatre and the hilltop of Kaltepe. Image: Miletgrabung UHH

7–12 April 2026

Outline

The 2026 Spring School Balat-Miletus offers students of Ottoman history and related fields the opportunity to gain hands-on experience working with written stone artefacts of the Emirates and Ottoman periods in an interdisciplinary setting at archaeological excavation sites and museums in Miletus, Balat, and Izmir.

The focus is on documenting, contextualizing, and interpreting Ottoman gravestones. The programme is taught by Christof Berns (Archaeology, UHH), Mustafa Tupev (DAI Cairo), Ann Lauren Osthof (Ancient History, HU Berlin) and Barbara Henning (Turkish Studies, UHH) and combines methods of history and Ottoman studies with approaches from archaeology, epigraphy, and art history.

Background

Miletus or – as it is called in Turkish sources – Balat is a paradigmatic site to study the long-term history of urban nuclei in Anatolia (Niewöhner 2016). While first traces of the settlement date back as far as the 4th millennium BCE, it has been an influential ancient Greek city state in the first millennium BCE and a major port of the Turkish Emirate of Menteşe from the 13th to 15th century CE, with connections to the whole Mediterranean world (Steinmann 2022).

Though Balat experienced a certain decline in the Ottoman period, it still existed as a rural settlement in the ruins of the once-famous city until 1955, when it was relocated to a place nearby in the aftermath of a severe earthquake. Written artefacts are an important group of sources on Islamic Miletus, among them the inscriptions of the local Ilyas Bey Mosque as well as tombstones from different periods. Some of these stones are still standing in place in the remains of old Balat’s graveyards, while others have been collected in the garden of the Miletus Museum.

So far, the written artefacts of Balat have been published only in a volume on Islamic Miletus in the classical form of inscription corpora (Wulzinger-Sarre-Wittek 1935, 89-127), i.e. primarily with regard to their text messages. A study of their object qualities and spatial relations is missing, as is an evaluation of social relations of the persons referred to in these inscriptions. Such study would result in a better understanding of how families used written artefacts as a medium of representation in the Ottoman period.

Bibliography

  • www.miletgrabung.uni-hamburg.de
  • Ph. Niewöhner, Milet / Balat: Städtebau und Monumente von archaischer bis in türkische Zeit. Ein Führer (İstanbul 2016).
  • L. Steinmann, „‚Eine zerstörte Burg, die aus Marmor erbaut ist‘. Der lange Schatten der ‚Perle Ioniens‘ und das Nachleben Milets im Mittelalter“, Antike Welt 6/2, 2022, 68-76.
  • K. Wulzinger – F. Sarre – P. Wittek, Das islamische Milet (Berlin 1935).

Learning objectives

In the spring school, we will use this material as a case study for on-site studies of written artefacts from Islamic cities. Participating students will develop interdisciplinary awareness and build competencies at the intersection of Ottoman studies, art history and archaeology, including:

  • critically analysing and contextualizing source material within the frameworks of (pre-)Ottoman history and Islamic funerary culture
  • correlating textual sources with material and epigraphic evidence
  • documenting and interpreting processes of appropriation, reuse, and recontextualization of written artefacts (including spolia)
  • recording and deciphering epigraphic evidence in situ
  • applying methods and tools of site documentation, spatial mapping and 3D measurement
  • Reflecting on excavation, conservation and musealization practices

Study trips to two related sites in the region and period, Beçin Kalesi (the capital of the Menteşe Emirate) and İzmir, will be part of the programme to set the case study of Balat in relation to other important centres.

Target Audience

  • Advanced students in Turkish Studies (at BA or MA level), or related subjects.

Knowledge of (Ottoman) Turkish is helpful, but not a requirement.

Application and Deadline

Applicants are asked to submit a CV and letter of motivation by the 1st of March 2026 to Prof. Dr. Barbara Henning at barbara.henning"AT"uni-hamburg.de