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Vassal Treaty of Esarhaddon, King of Assyria (reigned 681–669 BCE). This copy of the treaty was found in the inner sanctum of the Assyrian temple in Tell Tayinat (in southeastern Turkey), where it was…
In the nineteenth century, especially in the era before photography, it was common for artists to travel to exotic or picturesque locations in Europe, North Africa, and the Near East, and to produce…
This ewer and basin from Turkey were used to wash hands ritually during the Passover seder. Owned by the Benguiat family, a large and prominent Sephardic family in the Ottoman Empire, the objects…
[ . . . ] The oft-repeated reproach that Homer is a liar takes nothing from his effectiveness, he does not need to base his story on historical reality, his reality is powerful enough in itself; it…
The Gerush (Hebrew for “expulsion”) synagogue in Bursa, Turkey, dates back to the early sixteenth century and is unique in its dual-ark design; one upper section is located in the women’s gallery…
This Jewish woman of the Ottoman Empire wears a blue jacket over a black blouse, with red shoes and a tall hat draped in a veil. The title “Dona Ebrea in casa” translates to "Jewish woman at home."
How can I hew out a song when the hammer of my senses is coated with rust? How can I play the lute when my hand is ensnared in fetters of fear? For my heart has entered the gazelle’s paved [palace]…
O living and terrible God, replace my prison, this round pit, by a full moon and a goblet. Pray, turn the darkness of my hell into a shining light, and this dwelling-place of dusk into an orchard, a…
Istanbul has been blessed with a unique geography. It is for this reason that a neighborhood appearing no larger than a pin on the map will reveal itself as a sprawling snarl of intricate lanes and…
But the moment he disembarked in Kostan, he was seized and thrown into the bottom of the prison in Yedikule. In this terrible prison, which people entered only to die, he was thinking of his great…