Formare alle professioni. Sacerdoti, principi, educatori (Storia delleducazione) (Italian Edition)

Brown affirms that the Christian bishops invented the poor. They acted and claim for power in the name of the needs of the poor. The care of poor was a social construction in which also new patterns of power were shaped. The Christian Church gave a new meaning to the old demos. It designated the marginal groups that had always pressed in upon the city as the poor. It should be noted, however, that in the IVth and Vth century in the Jewish and Catholic tradition and in the framework of a society which was not marked by clear-cut cleavages, the poor were people vulnerable to impoverishment rather than individual leaving in deep desperate poverty.

In the Jewish tradition it is expressed in the concept of Zedaka. What early Christians took for granted as part of an inherited conglomerate of notions shared with Judaism, was that they were responsible for the care of the poor of their communities. The Islamic tradition incorporated this vision and practices by implementing it with the principle of supporting the community with material goods delivered and administrated by the Waqf — fountains, schools, orphelinats, but also markets, as S.

Faroqhi shows in her contribution to this book — with their benefits to be shared by the community. The triangulation among religion philanthropy and the economic aspects of social life of communities is a relevant subject that needs to be developed by scholarly research.

It is an important chapter in this field of study since at present we need to understand the genealogy —that is the historical and theoretical framework — of an emerging approach in philanthropy which combines giving and business practices in the practical and theoretical framework of venture philanthropy and social return on investment.

At the end of the III Century — as an example — a silent revolution starts to emerge in the framework In some circles — as Peter Brown observes — even private almsgiving was discouraged: This was also the framework in which the claim for tax exemptions emerged in the name of the care of poor. The institutionalization of religion is — to many extents- a relevant factor if the institutionalization of philanthropy in which the role of tax exemption is still a crucial factor but not necessary an engine of giving. Looking to more recent time one should consider the increasing divide between the dimension of giving in the framework of religious institutions and its role as a voluntary phenomenon related to faith-based associations and organizations.

As I have previously mentioned in Europe, where Catholicism is largely diffused, giving to religion is lower if compared with the US. In recent times however it appears to be a growing phenomenon. In Italy the main attractor and engine of giving is, not surprisingly, volunteering. The practice of giving is less related to donations than to the creation of services, to support of communities. The evolution of Catholicism, however, observed from the long- term perspective reveals that there are several traditions in which charity and philanthropy are not opposed and Catholicism is a vehicle of civic impact.

One of these traditions is social Catholicism that Dobkin recognizes as a vehicle to produce charitable organizations intended to serve society as a whole. Blending boundaries between profit and non-profit. Case studies in historical perspective. Going back to the medieval tradition I have mentioned Franciscanism, as has been a powerful driver of reshaping charity.

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Two Italian scholars, Ceccarelli and Muzzarelli, have written interesting case studies about this movement. The pawnshops were directed, according to the original statutes, to people who were neither very rich nor absolutely poor. The pawnshops functioned like a bank but under particularly favorable conditions for a well-defined type of client, moderately poor and virtuous citizen.

The system of micro-credit is one of the modern approaches used to recognize and alleviate financial necessity; the foundation of the pawnshops confronted the same issue at the end of Middle Ages. The goal was to offer credit with special conditions; applying rates lower than fair market value instead of charity. The condition was to be confident in the possibility of escaping poverty and the establishment of a solid framework of trusts an trustable actors.

The client would have the possibility to overcome the general condition of inability through the empowerment of his individual condition and the trust offered by the bank. These pacts stabilized the conditions of loans and of cohabitation between the Christian majority and the Jewish minority. These conventions indicated a new and important phase in the history of loan, and not only of small loan.

These conventions represent a phase of consciousness of a widespread need for loans. At the same time, the rules also represent a phase of trust in these brokers that, although they were not Christian, were still trustworthy. The relationship with Jewish broker lasted many centuries. The pawnshops derived from the particular culture and sensibility of the Franciscan order, but also from Jewish experience. The idea of intervening With the pawnshops, the Christian world directly addressed the problem of small credit, separating the idea of charity.

The later remained necessary to help the really weak, people who were not able to overcome independently poverty because of age, illness, and inability to work. The pawnshops, instead, were destined to help those who only needed economic help in order to overcome a temporary condition of necessity.

Pawnshops were effective economic venture not only for the clients, but also for the city. The city was alleviated from the obligation to assist men and women who risked to become really poor. For the city, the risk of potentially dangerous behaviors inspired by poverty diminished. The clients of pawnshops, the poor less poor, if appropriately sustained would have been able to access the goods and start small activities, consequently producing wealth.

As noticed by Muzzarelli the more innovative aspects of this initiative, created in Franciscan framework, met also challenges. The request of reimbursement of expenses, was in fact considered usury and the assimilation of Pawnshop to business activities was condemned by the dominant ideology of the Catholic Church. The relations between business and charitable behaviour is also at the core of Suraya Faroqhi who has extensively analyzed the practice of giving in Turkey, in the framework of Islamic tradition within the Ottoman Empire, with a specific focus on the practice of intertwining social investment and charity and the consequent blurring of their boundaries as a relevant aspect of the historical evolution of the waqf.

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From these case study related to different historical and religious traditions a lesson to be learned: Therefore it is important to analyze this complex system of practices, doctrines and visions from a prismatic perspective, that is from geographical and cultural areas in which cross-fertilization effects are visible and relevant.

The Mediterranean areas are certainly a prismatic field of inquiry with their different social anthropological and institutional configurations. Hybridization are well documented in the work of Mark R. Therefore in monotheistic religions patterns of crossfertilization have been at work since the oldest times.

The religious norms and their anthropological and cultural patterns are certainly factors of differentiation which are particularly relevant in the Mediterranean areas where the coexistence of different religious traditions is a traditional feature. This statement is overwhelmed in the One can affirm that philanthropy and its institutional and associative networks entered in a phase of debate and change which characterizes, with specific connotations, the Mediterranean areas and their strategic role within the global system.

Since the Mediterranean is a crosscontinental framework this process concerns European countries including Eastern and Central Europe, Turkey as well as other continental areas, such as the MiddleEast and the Northern part of Africa. It is also a matter of fact that the most diffused religious traditions in the Mediterranean areas Jewish, Islamic and Christian — Catholic, Protestant and Orthodox — in the contemporary period as well in the past- are characterised by increasing interaction and shaped by the effects of the evolution of civil society in the framework of the persistence of long established religious and cultural practices, including social rules and legal norms.

The Islamic as well as the Jewish tradition are characterised by an increasing interaction between religious statements and practice of social justice in which philanthropic activities and their institutional drivers, such as Foundations, NPOs and NGOs — are particularly relevant because they include innovation issues as well as traditional patterns. The rules of the present: In this overview of an emerging and promising research field there is an element missed: As stated by Suraya Faroqhi.

This latter condition explains why real estate was so often preferred when it came to instituting a vakif. Men and women who established pious foundations were furthermore The exploration of the changing patterns of philanthropy and its relations with religious practices and cultures in the Mediterranean areas both from the historical point of view in the long period and in the present is no more a complementary aspect of research issues concerning the past and present of multicultural societies but it represents a core element in the study of the process of social inclusion and social exclusion as it is testified by some of the contributions to this book.

As well as by research seminars focused on this subject. The case of Turkey, Israel and Cyprus are particularly emblematic and can be considered as a strategic focus to extend and improve research projects aiming to develop comparative issues in the relation between past and present as well as among different areas within the Mediterranean as well as in a global perspective.

The relations between religion and philanthropy should be analyzed as a global prismatic system in which as previously noticed there are different patterns of reaction and interaction in the framework of historical change: In Salonika, for example, conquered from the Venetians the churches were transformed into mosques.

Then there is to consider the case of differentiation of practices within the same religious framework. As stated by Faroqhi in her Analogically these considerations recall the debate of the Franciscan movement in distinguish the usura which was forbidden by Catholic doctrine form lending out money to the benefit of community.

The need to analyse the historical evolution of the waqf or more precisely vakif in Turkish, their role in the medieval period, their retrieval under the increasing domination of state authorities, is a crucial both for the scholars and the practitioners. Differentiated isomorphism can be used as an analytical tool to study the historical evolution of philanthropic institutions in the same context as well as to compare different institutional context in the same historical period.

In Italy and Turkey despite different social and political configurations, the State has controlled for long time charitable associations, such as the opere pie in Italy and the old foundations in Turkey. In both countries at When these creative patterns become a practice, grant-making activities can yield the transformative outcomes that encompass and embody social justice as a strategic goal of philanthropic activities.

It is a crucial goal both in the Italian society, facing an increasing immigration of religious and cultural minorities as well as in the Turkish society characterised a twofold dynamism, between the increasing role of faith and the consolidated secularisation of institutions and social policies and between the emerging role of Islamic movement and its social and anthropological aspects and the attractiveness of European political and legal and social configuration, Multiculturalism and its effects in shaping the role of religious congregations are a crucial factor in structuring the relation between religions and philanthropy in the global context.

This is the reason why we have decided to include in this volume the case of South Africa, as an interesting framework of social and cultural change in philanthropic culture and practices in a society in rapid transition as well a study of ethical roots of philanthropy in the North American continent, as a crucial background for the discussion of both the evolution of Protestant tradition faced to the development of a multi-cultural society see Soma Hewa contribution to this volume.

Inter-cultural exchanges are a growing phenomenon and are generating new institutional configurations such as the micro-credit and the welcome banks that adapt financial tools to cultural and religious traditions. The elaboration of case studies The study on religious aspect The Mediterranean is considered — according to the historian F. The representations of philanthropy as a dynamic space of social change through the practice of giving, concretely testifies that the Mediterranean is the most vivid and interactive laboratory of creativity as well as a scholarly framework to develop comparative studies of practices, cultures and symbols of philanthropy in its evolutionary patterns.

Many stereotypes that Western mental behaviour has generated towards Mediterranean cultures and religions — with a specific reference to the Muslim tradition — appear as inconsistent and wrong. Si tratta di un fenomeno universale, su cui abbiamo moltissimi esempi, soprattutto nei contesti urbani, anche non mediterranei.

Wikkan,Sustainable Development in the Mega -City. Can the Concept Be Made Applicable? Wikkan ricordo, Managing Turbulent Hearts: Christinat, Des parrains pour la vie. Ora essi si presenterebbero virtuosamente complementari e interagenti. La riflessione in corso, tuttavia, e proprio sui temi del classico capolavoro di Hungtinton6, segue un altro percorso. Simmel, Filosofia del denaro a cura di A. Ma penso anche alla creazione di nuove cerchie sociali e di reti di riferimento politico, con leaders intermedi delle organizzazioni partitiche che garantivano la redistribuzione di risorse dal centro.

Sant Cassia with C. Esso ha consentito a immense masse di resistere ai disagi della crescita in un ambiente arretrato, minizzando i costi sociali e sviluppando strategie di autodifesa individuali e collettive che hanno reso meno penoso il cammino vero la completa intersezione nel circuito del meccanismo di mercato. Pardo, Managing Existence in Naples. Tai Landa, Trust, Ethnicity and Identity. Eppure ci ostiniamo a non applicare i suoi modelli analitici.

Religioni e Filantropia nel Mediterraneo: Tradizioni, Simboli e Iconografie by Baskerville - Issuu

Chayanov, The Theory of Peasant Economy, ed. Ethnic Communities in Business. Alternative al degrado, al declino, alla marginalizzazione Sapelli, Southern Europe, cit. Si guardi ai destini tanto diversi di Barcellona e di Instanbul. Certo,si deve sempre affermare che: Klapsich-Zuber, Tuscans and their Familie: E le eccezioni sono le eccezioni dello Hinterlandindustriale piuttosto che rurale- e caratterizzano le esperienze di Barcellona, di Genova, di Trieste, di Smirne Izmir.

Essa ha subitamente abbandonato quella configurazione sociale industriale per assumere quella della neo- industria e del declino, quindi, della popolazione industriale rispetto a quella del settore terziario. Conflitti, sviluppo e dissociazione dagli anni cinquanta a oggi,Marsilio, Venezia, Si pensi alla siderurgia napoletana, per esempio. Petros, Greek Rentier Capital: Dynamic Growth and Industrial Underdervelopment e A. Fondazione Enrico Mattei, Milano Leontidou, The Mediterranean City in Transition. Social Change and Urban Development,cit. Anfossi, Prefazione, ad A.

Oommen, a cura , Azioni politiche fuori dai partiti. La politica di grandi costruzioni ad uso In una pagina fondamentale dell'Etica a Nicomaco Aristotele aveva 1 collocato la ricchezza elargitrice al centro della citt e del sistema sociale. Bekker, Berlin, II, pp. Ricchezza e povert nel cristianesimo primitivo, a cura di M. Mara, Roma, III ed. Dark — Anthea L. Harris, The Orphanage of Byzantine 3 Constantinople: Miller, The Orphanotropheion of Constantinople, in E.

Albu Hanawall and C. Orselli, I Beni culturali nella committenza e nella cura dei vescovi. Donciu, L'empereur Maxence, Bari , pp. Brodskij, Fuga da Bisanzio, tr. Forti, Adelphi edizioni 6 Milano , p. Brodskij esiliato dalla Russia nel ha avuto il Premio Nobel per la Letteratura nel Malgrado le sue professioni di antibizantinismo si fatto seppellire a San Michele di Murano, nella Venetia alterum Byzantium. Maltezou, Venezia , pp. Di Branco, con una nota di B. Hemmerdinger, testo greco a fronte, postfazione di G. Pertusi, Il pensiero politico bizantino, Edizione a cura di A.

Volpe Cacciatore, Napoli con sunto alle pp. Traduzione in tedesco in W. Su questa proposta di Tomaso Magistros cfr. Culte des saints et monarchie byzantine et post-byzantine, Bucarest, , pp. Si veda la bibliografia relativa al voivoda in A. Carile, Teologia politica bizantina, Spoleto , pp. PG 86, ristampa della notizia del Galland , cc.

Riedinger, Athenai , e di varie traduzioni cfr. Rocca, Un trattatista di et giustinianea: Bell, Glasgow , pp. Per la tradizione letteraria e politica di Agapeto rimane fondamentale cfr. Sevcenko, Agapetus East and West: Byron, The Byzantine Achievement. Carile, Materiali di storia bizantina, Bologna Haldon, Wiley-Blackwell, , pp. Pertusi, Il pensiero politico bizantino, a cura di A. Carile, Bologna, , p.

Thessalonike, con aggiunta di due articoli e prosqnkev di Aikaterine Christophilopoulou , ed. Laiou Editor in Chief, Washington, , pp. Ospedali, ospizi per viaggiatori, lebbrosari, nella capitale e lungo le vie di comunicazione, vennero eretti. Speciale cura si ebbe dei profughi e degli orfani, cui si provvedeva anche ad una forma di educazione, oltre che di mantenimento Carile, Materiali di storia bizantina, Bologna , rist. Miller, The Orphans of Byzantium. Child Welfare in the Christian Empire, Washington , pp. Finn, Almsgiving in the Later Roman Empire.

Christian Promotion and Practice , Oxford Nel pensiero e nella vita dei bizantini la philanthropia era: Ecco le regole della filosofia filantropica bizantina: Farsi monaco e vivere una vita di di preghiera e mortificazione dei bisogni materiali e distribuire le ricchezze proprie ai poveri significava raggiungere la perfezione. Brown, Povert e leadership, cit.

Arangio-Ruiz, I, Napoli , pp. Carile, Bologna , p. Alessio I Comneno consiglia al figlio: La filantropia costituiva una delle prerogative 31 J. Patlagean, Santit e potere a Bisanzio, tr. Child Welfare in the Christian Empire, Washinton , pp. Ma anche i dignitari laici assumevano una connotazione socialmente accettabile mediante operazioni filantropiche. Basilio il Grande, Giovanni Crisostomo, Sansone, Giovanni il Misericordioso, Stefano parakoimomenos di Maurizio, Dexiocrate, Michele Attaliata e molti altri si illustrarono con private fondazioni caritatevoli Licentiam igitur damus praedictis venerabilibus domibus non solum ad tempus emphytheosin facere immobilium rerum sibi competentium, sed perpetue haec emphytheotico iure volentibus dari.

XII con la relativa bibliografia sul tema della ideologia politica. Diamo licenza alle predette istituzioni venerabili di stipulare delle enfiteusi dei beni immobili di loro propriet non solo a tempo ma anche in perpetuo a favore di chi le vuole. Anche gli xenones o xenodocheia e gerocomeia offrivano servizi medici. Ospedali, cliniche, e ricoveri di Chiesa, imperatori e laici, erano usualmente annessi a luoghi di culto e di pellegrinaggio e anzi si riteneva che alcuni santi, e relative reliquie e alcune colonne avessero poteri curativi miracolosi Freu, Les figures du pauvre dans les sources , cit.

Miller, The birth of the Hospital, cit. Brown, Povert e leadership nel tardo impero romano, cit.

Constantelos, Byzantine Philanthropy, cit. Due fratelli della Isauria, Teodulo e Gelasio furono gli architetti del complesso e vennero definiti i nuovi Beseel e Eliab, i biblici architetti del Tabernacolo.

Carestia, locuste, peste e quindi fame, malattia e morte. Wright, Cambridge , p. Gli schiavi bambini valevano meno della met di un adulto, perch presentavano un rischio pi grande di sopravvivenza. A met del prezzo legale si potevano acquistare presso il gran principato di Kiev nel X secolo gli schiavi russi da rivendere al mercato di Costantinopoli, cfr.

Nel sobborgo costantinopolitano Irion sorgeva un leprocomion ospedale per lebbrosi denominato Zoticon. Una fonte citata dal Preger 46 afferma che fosse stato fondato da Giustino II e sua moglie Sofia Il protovestiarios Zotico ne era stato il suo primo direttore. Un altro ptochotropheion con lebbrosario si trovava nella regione di Argyronium, sulla costa del Ponto Eusino oltre la chiesa di San Panteleimon. Preger, III, , Volk, Gesundheitswesen und Wohlttigkeit, cit. Aerio, che a causa del suo arianesimo dovette lasciare il posto. Non mancano esempi di ricchi laici fondatori di ospedali.

Otto letti del secondo reparto erano a disposizione delle affezioni oculari e intestinali. Dodici letti nel terzo reparto erano riservati alle donne. Altri venti letti in due reparti servivano per malattie generali. Ogni reparto disponeva di un letto libero per emergenze e altri sei per malattie terminali. Gli altri reparti erano dotati allo stesso modo.

In un ospedale di di sessantun letti operavano trentacinque dottori. Il Typicon prescrive inoltre che di notte cinque dottori, quattro maschi e una femmina, fossero presenti in ospedale. Ogni letto era dotato di una coperta distesa su un tavolato al modo orientale, una coperta, un cuscino e una coperta di pelo di cavallo mentre in inverno venivano fornite due imbottite. Il direttore si doveva curare della biancheria mentre i vestiti dei pazienti dovevano essere puliti e stirati. La dotazione del letto veniva rinnovata anno per anno. I vestiti scartati venivano donati ai poveri.

Nel reparto donne operavano due dottori, una levatrice e quattro aiuti, due sovrannumerari e due infermiere. Miller, The Orphans of Byzantium, cit. Dottori e personale erano organizzati in due turni che cambiavano ogni mese. I primikerioi si occupavano del vitto dei pazienti e li visitavano spesso dando disposizioni al resto del personale e fornendo le prime cure agli spedalizzati. Un professore di medicina forniva lezioni ai dottori giovani.

Erano assistiti da quatto aiuti chirurghi e quattro aiuti dottori. Il direttore aveva ordine di non risparmiare nella cura del malato. Il personale subordinato comprendeva tre aiuto farmacisti, due sovrannumeari, un portiere, cuochi e loro aiuti, un mugnaio, un fornaio e un garzone di stalla per i cavalli dei dottori. A Pasqua venivano loro dati tre pezzi di sapone per il loro bagno. Il cimitero disponeva di quattro uomini incaricati delle sepolture e di un prete Amo ricordare, con una certa nostalgia per quel piccolo mondo antico, che nel a Patrasso nel cimitero cittadino, dove mi ero recato per una colliva celebrazione dopo quaranta giorni dalla sepoltura del genitore di un amico, ho trovato un papas che giocava a carte con gli addetti al cimitero, sulla porta di ingresso, in attesa di visitatori che intendevano arruolarlo per preghiere sulle tombe e per la consumazione di un piccolo pasto rituale sul piano della tomba stessa, uso ancora praticato nel mondo ortodosso.

Stessa esortazione valeva per i cuochi, le serve, i preti e il resto del personale: Durante la Settimana Santa concedeva amnistie ai criminali condannati a morte. Il governatore universale del mondo non poteva che essere un dio terreno56, una copia del prototipo celeste. Van Nuffelen, Pseudo-Themistius, Pros basilea: Imarets public kitchens were one of the institutions commonly found in Ottoman mosque complexes established as philanthropic endowments by the wealthiest and most powerful members of Ottoman society.

These complexes were often endowed as the religious, social and cultural anchor of new neighborhoods, and served the Ottomans as a means for developing and expanding existing urban spaces, or for establishing new ones. The largest foundations included multiple structures, providing spaces for prayer, education, hospitality, hygiene, and commerce.

Smaller complexes copied the large ones, touching fewer people, less grandly and in fewer ways, but nonetheless proliferating this model of philanthropic activity in additional neighborhoods, provinces or towns. A large complex could comprise one or more of the following institutions: The public kitchen usually fed the staff of the complex, the teachers and students in its madrasa and mekteb, and others, like members of the tekke, and in addition, some number of transient guests and local indigents. Stepping back to appreciate the imarets in the broad perspective of Mediterranean history, we can place them 1.

The history of changing Mediterranean hospitality practices has been carefully traced in the medieval period by Olivia Remie Constable in her book Housing the Stranger in the Mediterranean World. However, documentary evidence suggests that the sums expended on the provisions, equipment, and staff of these kitchens accounted for a major proportion of the annual expenditures of the complexes.

The imarets thus deserve close attention as the object of philanthropic spending, signaling the importance attached to providing food and sustaining certain population groups. Diet and nutrition affect physical and psychological health, directly influencing individual development, strength, cognitive abilities, emotions, productivity, Olivia Remie Constable, Housing the Stranger in the Mediterranean 2 World: Cambridge 3 University Press, Differences of diet among the richer and poorer in any society are also one of the most important markers of their respective status.

The foods that figure in charitable distributions are also an indication of the aims of the donors and the potential impact of the donation, in both substantive and symbolic terms. It adds an additional perspective to the idea that philanthropic endeavors serve as a tool of imperial legitimation: Yet the complexes were multi-purpose not only in their social and cultural services.

They also served to define what was Ottoman and to spread particular aspects of Ottoman culture across the empire. Most of the current understanding about food in imarets is gleaned from the texts of the vakfiyes endowment deeds drawn up by their founders. Typically, these documents included at least a minimal description of the dishes that were to be prepared in the kitchen, a budget for the necessary ingredients and a list of the intended clientele. Soup or stew served with bread appeared most frequently on imaret menus throughout the Ottoman Empire, for all clients.

The richer dishes of dane a savory meat stew with rice and zerde a rice dish sweetened with honey and flavored with saffron were widely stipulated for the menus of festival days such as Friday and Ramadan nights, and sometimes daily for See, for example, the frequent references to food in Nathalie Zemon 4 Davis, The Gift Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, Although it is difficult to calculate precisely, imarets seem to have been important agents in the daily sustenance of Ottoman urban populations.

The historian Stephan Yerasimos estimated that around the year , food and bread were distributed daily to approximately fifteen percent of the population of Istanbul, from imarets and other endowments in the city which fulfilled similar purposes. If fifteen percent was typical of Ottoman towns which had imarets, then, when the imarets and similar institutions functioned reasonably well, they played a significant role in sustaining and shaping Ottoman society, physically and socially.

Thus, it is worth exploring the uniformity and diversity of imaret menus and service even as defined normatively in the foundation deeds: Neumann and Amy Singer Istanbul: Haim Gerber has also discussed the relative importance of imarets 6 in providing daily sustenance, for which see H. At the same time, the uniformities discovered among kitchens clarify the ideology that infused the establishment of imarets and shaped their prototype.

Accounting for Food Somewhat surprisingly, Ottoman imarets as distant from each other as Istanbul and Jerusalem were meant to serve their clients much the same foods. This uniformity of planning not only suggests some model or archetype prevalent in the minds of the imaret founders but had immediate implications for the actual management of the kitchens. It also had consequences for the people who ate at imarets. At the same time, several points of diversity existed in imaret menus: Distinctions were also made regarding the amounts of food served to particular groups, the order in which they ate, and the manner in which they were served, including where they consumed their food.

More extensive discussions of sources for the study of imarets may be 8 found in Amy Singer, Constructing Ottoman Beneficence: They also reflect how diets were imagined to differ among people of varied social status and economic class, and so reveal another aspect of how status and class were visibly marked and reinforced in the Ottoman Empire.

While the vakfiyes often described the components of each meal as well as the ingredients of specific dishes, the muhasebe defterleri did not usually record such detail. Their very existence gives us some idea of how seriously the Ottomans regarded the matter of managing their large foundations.

Muhasebe defterleri are all about business, with almost no descriptive information, anecdotes or observations. They are useful when analyzed for the categories of accounting and when it is possible to use several registers in sequence. Occasionally, marginal or explanatory notes, for example on about the cost of replacing or repairing implements reveal details about how meals were prepared, served, and consumed, how foodstuffs were acquired and stored, and how kitchens were cleaned and maintained.

For a discussion of kitchen maintenance, see: Chronicles are more anecdotal in their records; where they record feasts and festivities, they contribute important and unanticipated detail to our study. Their proliferation in the Ottoman lands gave a particular, Ottoman expression to a much older practice — distributing food free of charge to defined sectors or groups in the population. The uniformity of dishes in imarets across the empire worked as an Ottomanizing mechanism. Like any cultural mode — dress, language, or aesthetic design — the imperial culinary frame could also absorb and co-exist with local forms and practices.

In this way, imperial forms were altered and adjusted to fit better, if not perfectly into local contexts. This is yet another part of the Ottomanization — localization paradigm that has been articulated so fruitfully, albeit for a different period, to analyze the dynamic interaction between imperial officials posted to the provinces and the local notables who were incorporated into the ranks of Ottoman officialdom, creating an Ottoman ruling class.

It offers an important opportunity to comparison meals to be served to varying ranks of individuals with those served in the imarets. A History from Within, ed. Cambridge University Press, See also the discussion. More specifically, the uniformity in imarets disseminated a specific idea of the size and shape of a basic daily subsistence meal, at least as imagined by the Ottoman elites. They established a standard norm against which to judge the imarets themselves, as well as other hosts, whether private individuals or institutions including sufi tekkes, janissary kitchens, and imperial palaces.

The uniformity in imarets also created a certain level of expectation among their clients: In contrast, the diversity in meals at the imarets signaled to the clients how their relative status was perceived by their Ottoman hosts, when compared with the other people served from the same source.

As is familiar to those studying Ottoman history, the most typical dishes served in imarets were bread together with either bulgur soup in the evening or rice soup in the morning, fortified with fat and onions, sometimes meat, and flavored with pepper and vegetables. The vegetables depended on the season of the year and the location of the imaret. Additional ingredients — pulses, yogurt, herbs, and spices — might be taken from local suppliers, kitchen gardens or other nearby sources. Watenpaugh, The Image of an Ottoman City: These two dishes were iconic for Ottoman feasts of all kinds.

Dane and zerde were on the menu at all of them. It was most regularly repeated at three-month intervals when the janissaries were admitted to the imperial palace, waiting in silence to receive their quarterly pay at an official ceremony. After being paid, they were offered dane and zerde on copper trays laid on the ground. This spectacle acknowledged the sultan as the provider and the janissaries as his disciplined, aggressive and energetic fighting force.

They were as predictable then as are pasta and espresso in Italy, cheese in France or a pint in an English pub in our own day. We are accustomed to think of the imperial palace as the paradigm for household organization among Ottoman officials, so perhaps the same is true regarding the imarets. Zerde was also served frequently in the palace, cooked in the usual way but with the addition of ground hazelnuts and almonds. This version of zerde may have been a richer and more prestigious version of the usual dish. From a contemporary perspective, the uniformity of meals may seem a monotonous routine for the mosque complex staff, the scholars, students and sufis who ate the same thing day after day.

Yet a relatively simple and locally unvarying menu was probably a constant of life for the vast majority of people in the pre-modern world. Marginal variations reflected the change of seasons, and richer fare marked collective festivals and private celebrations. For everyone, the uniformity reflected a measure of imperial stability and the financial health of the institution at which they were hosted.

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6. a Lion named Christian; a childrens story.

The capacity of an imaret, any imaret, to serve its clients the minimum expected was a public declaration that things were as they should be. Even at festivals there were no surprises when it came to the food, since specific foods helped to define the festivals themselves. The familiar dishes of dane and zerde provided another measure that life was continuing undisturbed and that Ottoman power was intact.

Despite its empire-wide uniformity, the food at the imarets was unfamiliar to some Ottoman subjects. The vast geographic span of the empire encompassed numerous and only partially overlapping culinary cultures. For example, vakfiyes for imarets in the region of Damascus included explanations of the dishes with phrases like: For the philanthropic endeavors of the Ottomans to be effective and acquire meaning among their subject populations, they needed to resonate.

Another was quality, equally important in Istanbul as in the provinces. Having established a horizon of expectations among their clients, imarets that failed to deliver the usual fare might compromise far more than their own local reputations. Diversity Although the basic daily and festival menus established a uniformity among the imarets, diversity and distinction were also integral features of these kitchens, mirroring the ways in which diversities and distinctions were integral to philanthropic endeavors more generally.

Not only does philanthropy exist because of economic and social diversities, but recipients are assigned differential status, starting from complete exclusion and ranging along continuums of greater and lesser deservedness. In the imarets, these distinctions were reflected in what and how much people were served, where they were served, and the order in which they received food. The best-documented of the imarets were those that belonged to imperial foundations in major Ottoman cities.

Their records describe a range of dishes served to clients whose status varied widely.

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As in many places, travelers arriving at the Fatih complex in Istanbul were meant to receive honey and bread at the imaret immediately upon their arrival, to revive them after their journey. In Edirne, at the imaret of Bayezid II, the charter mandated that guests be treated according to their status,25 and be received initially with sweets and jams and pickles as part of their welcome. These two dishes were the Ottoman holiday uniform. Yet while they probably seemed standard to the vast majority of people who ate them, dane and zerde, too, had variants for the privileged.

At the circumcision festival, the menus of the three meals that the sultan attended with different groups of officials each included several types of dane, with additions of noodles, herbs, spices or other vegetables e. One of the most notable distinctions between the routine imaret food and the dishes served to special guests or on festivals was the change from soup.

Soup is almost infinitely elastic because water can be added easily to make it serve more people, even at the expense of taste and nutritional value. The stews and pilavs, however, are less mutable in regard to the quantity one can produce from fixed inputs. They are also more 27 A. As far as we know which is actually relatively little given the large number of imarets that existed , there were also imarets in which there was little distinction among the foods consumed by people of different status. In those places, everyone ate the same soup and bread.

Yet there were other kinds of distinctions. The diversity of dining experiences in imarets could be marked not only by what people ate, but also by the size of the portions. This was particularly important among the regular clientele of the imarets where everyone received the same daily meals of soup and bread. Thus, in the Jerusalem imaret of Haseki Sultan, the staff had two loaves of bread and one ladle of soup per meal, with a piece of meat each on Fridays. The guests residing in the rooms had only one loaf of bread and a ladle of soup at each meal, with a piece of meat on Fridays.

University of Minnesota, ], see the translation of the vakfiye in the Appendix. Some foundation deeds, probably drawing on the experiences of foundation managers, provided for wardens or doorkeepers to keep order, admonished to treat people as dictated by their status. Round the dish were rolls of bread and sometimes a piece of honeycomb Typically for ranking guests, he was seated at a table or sofra , apart from the mass of clients — staff, students, teachers, and poor people.

However, a further distinction exists in the shape and location of the spaces where meals were served. The indoor seating clearly implied by the rooms and refectories mentioned above can be compared with the few known miniatures depicting imarets, in which the scene suggests that some people ate outside, within the perimeter of the imaret courtyard or perhaps in the garden of the complex. The illustrations of feasts and banquets such as those in the Surnames emphasize another distinction in the way people were served, and reflect the social expectations regarding the eating habits of different classes.

In virtually every imaret for which a description exists, the service of meals, whether soup or dane, is measured by portion into bowls for individuals or to be shared by two people. However, cooked foods for high-ranking people, like the meal served to Busbecq, arrived at the sofra in a single dish. The diners in these images are shown, each with his own spoon, eating from that one plate. In the act of consuming food, it was assumed that these people would behave with the decorum and self-control required to enable a group of adults to share out of a common dish. No such assumption existed for the larger groups of employees and students.

The scene for them, although not illustrated as far as I have seen, perhaps resembled something closer to the dramatizations of Oliver Twist, with long refectory tables and individual bowls, or people seated on the ground in a wide yard. Arapi and Reha G nay London: Reaktion Press, , 73, fig. This practice was explicitly set down for the imperial palace in the kanunname of Mehmed II. The law code provided that the members of the divan eat in three distinct groups, and that for each group, there was a corresponding rank of lower officials, who would replace their superiors at the dish.

Thus the document itself describes a dozen different feasts, each served separately to a specifically defined group. Images of similar feasts from the Surname-i Humayun of and the Surname-i Vehbi of give a good sense of the way people of different rank might experience such a meal with the notables sitting comfortably in elegant surroundings, attended by servants.

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Excluded from the public banquets, women might be included in separate feasts organized for them at a different location. After these high officials finished eating, lower-ranking officials replaced them at the same tables and finished what was left over. As a final distinction among the diners at imarets, one should mention the order in which people ate.

This was also specified in some places, spelling out a hierarchy of status and rights to a meal. In more than one imaret, the indigents were listed last, and they were sometimes meant to be served only if food was left over. The basic meals served in imarets may have exceeded the daily consumption levels of some urban residents who did not have the right to eat in them.

The fact that access to imarets was restricted and controlled suggests that there were those who made do with even less. The social range of people who were judged to merit only soup and bread twice a day was not insignificant: The distinction probably lay more in the size of their portions and in how able they were to supplement from other sources the basic diet provided by the imaret.

Conclusions The Ottoman imarets offer a rich venue for exploring not only the food itself, but the total dining experience in them, which worked to define and reinforce status distinctions among people in the Ottoman Empire. At the same time, imaret ideals and realities do not illustrate either the very bottom or the very top of Ottoman culinary hierarchy.

The poor probably fared much worse while the wealthy ate far better: Imarets, too, were not uniform in their 41 Singer, Constructing Ottoman Beneficence, The uniformity offered in imarets meant people could largely predict what they would get to eat, when it would be served, and with whom they were likely to eat. Diversity meant that the status of individual diners could be signaled in various ways, including distinctions of food, portions and service.

Local spices and seasonal foods distinguished one place from another, as did the arrangements for eating and service. Minarets announced the mosques as places of worship, refuge and study. The Tower of Justice Adalet Kulesi rose over the imperial divan, a reminder that the sultan was the paramount source of justice in his realms. As Hedda Reindl-Kiel has pointed out, the palace chimneys stood juxtaposed to the Adalet Kulesi as the most prominent vertical monuments in the palace.

Like the aesthetic canon, the culinary canon was linked to Ottoman ideals of justice and the well-being of the Muslim community. At the same time, the existence of the imarets acknowledges the wisdom of the Turkish saying: One person eats one person looks on, from this all hell breaks loose. Food and Shelter in Ottoman Material Culture, ed. Suraiya Faroqhi and Christoph K. Adam Sabra, Poverty and charity in medieval Islam: The Case of Learning Institutions S. Judaism, Christianity and Islam. These three religions taught that poverty could not be eliminated; giving to the needy was a pious act.

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