In the first part of the article, infrastructural developments, technological progress and demographic changes in the world and in Europe, especially in the Balkan Peninsula, are addressed. This overview is provided in order to contextualise in which way the basis for historic-geographical research of the Byzantine World, conducted by the project Tabula Imperii Byzantini (TIB), has changed since 1966. In the second part of the article strategies are emphasised, how the race against time and the spirit of time should be approached, based on the current research of the TIB Balkans, by applying ‘regressive engineering’, Digital Humanities and Geocommunication. Cf. https://edizionicafoscari.unive.it/it/edizioni4/libri/978-88-6969-590-2/a-race-against-time/

NO. 2 (June 2019): Stefan Troebst, “The Black Sea as Historical Meso-Region: Concepts in Cultural Studies and the Social Sciences” Cengiz Çağla, “Nation-Building in Southern Caucasus: The Case of Azerbaijan (1900-1920)” Muhidin Mulalić, “Ethnic Cleansing, Genocide and Demographic Changes in Bosnia and Herzegovina” Jochen Töpfer, “Muslims, Law and Religious Freedom in Albania” Mihai Sorin Rădulescu, “L’Architecte de la plus grande mosquee de Roumanie: Victor G. Ștephănescu” Deniz Ertuğ, “Antik Yunan’dan Avrupa Krizine Teorik Çözüm Önerisi: Castoriadis’in Gözünden Yunan Mirası” Tsvetelina Tsvetkova, “A Review of Selected Books on the Russian Colonisation of Caucasus”

What do we know about the environments in which the Byzantine Empire unfolded in the eastern Mediterranean? How were they perceived and how did man and the environment mutually influence each other during the Byzantine millenium (AD 395-1453)? Which approaches have been tried up until now to understand these interactions? And what could a further environmental-historical research agenda look like? These questions were the focus of an interdisciplinary conference that took place on 17th and 18th November 2011 in Mainz. The present conference volume brings together contributions from researchers who have approached these issues from very different perspectives. They focus on the explanatory power of traditional as well as "new" sources and the methods of Byzantine Studies and Byzantine archaeology for this hitherto little-explored sphere. In this way, we see how closely environmental history is interwoven with the classical topics of Byzantine research - be they of an economic, social or culture-historical nature.

Journal of Balkan and Black Sea Studies No: 2, 2019 NO. 2 (June 2019): Stefan Troebst, “The Black Sea as Historical Meso-Region: Concepts in Cultural Studies and the Social Sciences” Cengiz Çağla, “Nation-Building in Southern Caucasus: The Case of Azerbaijan (1900-1920)” Muhidin Mulalić, “Ethnic Cleansing, Genocide and Demographic Changes in Bosnia and Herzegovina” Jochen Töpfer, “Muslims, Law and Religious Freedom in Albania” Mihai Sorin Rădulescu, “L’Architecte de la plus grande mosquee de Roumanie: Victor G. Ștephănescu” Deniz Ertuğ, “Antik Yunan’dan Avrupa Krizine Teorik Çözüm Önerisi: Castoriadis’in Gözünden Yunan Mirası” Tsvetelina Tsvetkova, “A Review of Selected Books on the Russian Colonisation of Caucasus”

This introductory text begins with the observation that the modern perception of Byzantium is strongly shaped by gen­ uinely »cultural« achievements, while the environments of the Empire barely play a role. A short history of research then outlines those frames in which knowledge of the en­ vironments was primarily gained: from the earliest works on Byzantine agriculture, mainly based on historical sources, to the interdisciplinary settlement archaeology projects which unlocked landscapes with surveys, beginning in the 1990s, to the boom of scienti c techniques and methodologies we still experience and which are increasingly applied in inventive interdisciplinary studies. This having been outlined, the mis­ sion of this book and the conference it relates to are stated: to present ideas and approaches, to create synergies and to gain a notion of how to proceed. In the end, a perspective is sketched that stresses mainly three points: that the sciences and humanities need to join forces in order to write environ­ mental history, that interdisciplinary communication is the only way, and that we should not leave aside questions of mentality – Byzantine or our own.

The overall character of the Black Sea region has been defined over time in various ways. For specialists in economy and trade, it has represented a region at the crossroads of the trade routes between Europe and Asia; for political scientists and historians, it has been a space of confrontation between the great terrestrial and naval powers; for the scholars attentive to its cultural dimensions, it has been a contact zone, a space of interaction between different peoples, religions and cultures. These attempts at a definition all revolve around an essential (and ambivalent) feature of the Black Sea as a factor of connection, a bridge, and at the same time a border, a dividing line between Europe and Asia, between the Baltic and the Mediterranean region. In this fluctuation between the two, the predominance of one over the other ("bridge" or "border") has depended on a number of factors, first among them the distribution of power relations in the region. This vol...

Journal of Balkan and Black Sea Studies 5 (December 2020), 2020 Contents 11-120 Special Issue Articles Transottoman Infrastructures and Networks across the Black Sea 13-18 Introduction to the Special Issue: Transottoman Infrastructures and Networks across the Black Sea Lyubomir Pozharliev, Florian Riedler, and Stefan Rohdewald 19-47 Concessions and Mirages along the Lower Danube: The Town of Silistria in the Plans of Foreign Railway Promoters during the mid-1850s Boriana Antonova-Goleva, Assist. Prof. Dr. Institute for Historical Studies, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Sofia 49-69 (Dis)Connected: Railway, Steamships and Trade in the Port of Odessa, 1865–1888 Boris Belge, Dr. phil., Department of History, University of Basel 71-96 State Goals and Private Interests in the Development of Transport Infrastructure in the Russian Black Sea Region in the Second Half of the Nineteenth Century Lyubomir Pozharliev, Dr. phil., Leibniz-Institut für Länderkunde, Leipzig 97-120 Integrating the Danube into Modern Networks of Infrastructure: The Ottoman Contribution Florian Riedler, Dr. phil., University of Leipzig Articles of the Issue 5 121-144 An Ottoman Story Until the End: Reading Fan Noli’s Post-Mediterranean Struggle in America, 1906-1922 Isa Blumi, Assoc. Prof. Dr. American University of Sharjah 145-170 Kemalism, Literature and Politics: Turkish Historical Novel in a Comparative Perspective Aslı Daldal, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Yıldız Technical University 171-190 Theoretical Approaches to the Black Sea Region: Is the Wider Black Sea Area a Region? Nasuh Sofuoğlu, PhD candidate Kadir Has University Book Reviews 191-193 The Beginnings of Macedonian Academic Research and Institution Building (19th ‒ Early 20th Century). Edited by Biljana Ristovska-Josifovska, Dragi Ǵorgiev, Skopje: Institute of National History, 2018. Vladimir Janev, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Institute of National History, Skopje 195-206 Dimitar Bechev, Rival Power: Russia’s Influence in Southeast Europe. New Haven, CT & London: Yale University Press, 2017. Jahja Muhasilović, Assist. Prof. Dr. International University of Sarajevo 207-212 Tomasz Kamusella, Ethnic Cleansing During the Cold War: The Forgotten 1989 Expulsion of Turks from Communist Bulgaria. London & New York: Routledge, 2019. Cengiz Yolcu, PhD Candidate 29 Mayıs University, Istanbul 213-216 İbrahim Kamil, Bulgaristan Türkleri ve Göçler. Bulgaristan Komünist Partisi Gizli Belgeleri (1944-1989) [Turks of Bulgaria and Migrations. Confidential Documents of the Bulgarian Communist Party (1944-1989)]. 8 volumes, Ankara: AKDTYK Atatürk Araştırma Merkezi, 2018. Mehmet Hacısalihoğlu, Prof. Dr. Yıldız Technical University, Istanbul

The Journal of Balkan and Black Sea Studies is an Istanbul-based journal that aims to enhance academic exchange among social scientists from Turkey, the Balkans, the Caucasus, and Eastern European countries. We initiated the journal in 2018 and have since published ten issues. The current, eleventh issue comprises five research articles and two book reviews. The inaugural research article in this issue, titled "The Ottoman Dracula: Kazıklı Voyvoda and the Construction of the Rebel and Evil in the Ottoman Empire" by Adrian Gheorghe, delves into the portrayal of the rebellious Romanian prince from the 15th century in Ottoman historical narratives spanning the 15th to 18th centuries. Gheorghe seeks to uncover potential links between the depiction of Dracula in German-speaking Europe and Ottoman historical accounts. The second research article in this issue, titled "İsrail-Filistin Sorunu Gölgesinde Unutulan Bir Halk: İsrail Çerkeslerinin Sosyal Entegrasyonları ve Sorunları" by Emir Fatih Akbulat, addresses the overlooked Circassian community residing in Israel. The Circassians were historically settled in the region during the Ottoman era, and after the establishment of Israel, they encountered a new government and language. The author highlights that despite facing discrimination due to their Muslim faith, similar to other Muslims, the Circassians have managed to establish positive relations with Israeli authorities and have been employed in roles such as soldiers or policemen. The third research article in this issue, titled "Negotiating Values: Diyanet and the Syrian Refugee Crisis" by Iulia-Alexandra Oprea, explores the role of the Turkish Presidency of Religious Affairs (Diyanet) and its Friday sermons advocating for acceptance and tolerance of Syrian refugees in Turkey, employing the Islamic concepts of muhacir (migrant) and ensar (helper). The article also delves into the tension between Islamic humanism and Turkish nationalism within contemporary Turkish discourse, as reflected in the narratives presented by Diyanet. The fourth research article in this issue, titled "The European Union's Soft Power Dynamics in Kazakhstan" by Madina Zhunissova, examines the soft power tools employed by the EU in Kazakhstan since the early 1990s. Utilizing Joseph Nye's concept of soft power, the author seeks to elucidate EU policies in the realms of culture, political values, and foreign policy. Zhunissova's concluding assessment of the EU's engagement in Kazakhstan is that both parties, namely the EU and Kazakh authorities, share an interest in fostering a closer relationship. The fifth research article (based on a conference paper) in this issue, titled "Transformation of Memorial Culture: The Case of Husein Bey Gradaščević in Contemporary Bosniak Perspective" by Amir Duranović, analyzes Bosniak historiography concerning the Bosniak notable Husein Bey Gradaščević, who initiated a revolt against Ottoman central rule in the early 1830s. According to the author, Bosniak historians, especially since the Bosnian War between 1992 and 1995, tend to interpret Husein Bey's movement as reflecting the desire of Bosniak notables for national autonomy in the 19th century. Another group of historians, including Turkish historians, assess it merely as a resistance movement against the modernization process in the Ottoman Empire. The sixth article in this issue is a comprehensive book review by Emir Fatih Akbulat, focusing on William H. Holt's book titled "The Balkan Reconquista and Turkey’s Forgotten Refugee Crisis." Akbulat also references earlier studies by scholars such as Justin McCarthy and Nedim İpek on the expulsion of Balkan and Caucasian Muslims during the long 19th century. He assesses Holt's new book as a highly significant contribution to the field, particularly in shedding light on the (lack of a strong) memorial culture of migrants from the Balkans and Caucasus in Turkey. The final paper is a concise book review by Klaus Kreiser on the book titled "Das Osmanische Europa. Methoden und Perspektiven der Frühneuzeitforschung zu Südosteuropa" (edited by Andreas Helmedach, Markus Koller, Konrad Petrovsky, and Stefan Rohdewald). In conclusion, I would like to express my gratitude to the authors of these excellent articles. I also extend my thanks to the editorial board members, first of all Cengiz Yolcu, and the referees of this issue for their hard work and valuable efforts during the evaluation process of the articles. Mehmet Hacısalihoğlu, Prof. Dr. Editor in Chief