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Undergraduate and Graduate Programs 2023-2024


HIST 5514 Cities of the Empires:Eastern Mediterranean Urbanism From Late Antiquity to The Early Ottoman Era

This course examines the processes of change of the urban landscape, starting with the development of the Late Antique urban form of the second century CE. By examining architectural history, and archaeology, textual and documentary material throughout a broad chronological and topographical spread, moving from the Rome of the second century to that of the Middle Ages, from Constantinople to Istanbul, from the "twenty cities" of Late Antique and Byzantine Asia Minor to the capitals of the Seljuk Empire and Beyliks Turkic emirates, as well as to the first urban centers of the rising Ottoman empire, the course looks at the cultural, political and socio-economic changes of cities; notably the Christianization of the Roman empire, and the urban implications of those changes; the 'decline' of the ancient city and theories surrounding the 'rise' of Byzantine and early Islamic cities; the so-called Byzantine urban economic revival of the 11th and 12th century as well as the importance of the new capitals of the Seljuk Sultanate (Konya) and the first capitals of the Ottoman empire (Edirne and Bursa). Credit units: 3 ECTS Credit units: 5.

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