AtD 838. "all the world in a single city": Democracy in Salonica

[Mark Kohut]

One might say Salonica is the answer to the Macedonian Question before it was asked, yes?
   
  The alternative name Salonica, formerly the common name used in some western European languages, is derived from a variant form Σαλονίκη (Saloníki) in popular Greek speech. The city's name is also rendered Thessaloníki or Saloníki with a dark l typical of Macedonian Greek.[3][4] Names in other languages prominent in the city's history include سلانيك in Ottoman Turkish and Selânik in modern Turkish, Solun (Cyrillic: Солун) in the Slavic languages of the region, Sãrunã in Aromanian, and Selanik in Ladino.
  Thessaloniki is commonly called the Συμπρωτεύουσα Symprotevousa (lit. co-capital) of Greece since the National Schism, in much the same way as it was called the συμβασιλεύουσα symbasilevousa (co-queen) of the Byzantine Empire. It was also considered to be the second-most important city in the Ottoman empire. Wikipedia
      During the Ottoman period, the city's Muslim and Jewish population grew. By 1478,
   Thessaloniki had a population of 4,320 Muslims and 6,094 Greek Orthodox, 
  as well as some Catholics, but no Jews. By ca. 1500, the numbers had grown 
  to 7,986 Greeks, 8,575 Muslims, and 3,770 Jews, but by 1519, there were 15,715,
   54% of the city's population. The invitation of the Sephardic Jews expelled from Spain 
  by Ferdinand and Isabella, was an Ottoman demographic strategy aiming to prevent 
  the Greek element from dominating the city.[5] 
  The city remained the largest Jewish city in the world for at least two centuries, 
  often called "Mother of Israel".
   
    From a review of Osman's Dream, 2007
  . Finkel, a long-time resident of Turkey and Ottoman scholar, relates a "new" narrative 
  of empire that properly accounts for the richness and complexity of the Ottoman state 
  over nearly seven centuries. By presiding over their multiethnic empire for so long, 
  and ushering it from medievalism to modernity, the Ottomans should be ranked alongside 
  the Hapsburgs and the Romanovs, she argues. 
  That they are overlooked is the fault of Western historians who have peered at their subjects 
  through the lens of their own prejudices. Finkel's striking innovation is to turn a mirror on 
  the Ottomans and examine how they saw themselves and their empire.  
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  TRP gets 'inside' as an ideal, anyway?---MK


   
   
     

   

       
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