The Railway and Ottoman Engagements with Anatolian Pasts

The advent of railways in mid-19th century western Anatolia engendered new encounters with the historical and archaeological landscapes of the region. Foreign railway engineers and tourists alike partook of the emergent mobilities afforded by the railways to access the region’s Classical and Biblical heritages. Ottomans, from high level bureaucrats to railway workers quarrying stones from local archaeological sites, also interacted with the region’s past in multivalent ways. The stories of Nassif Mallouf, Colonel Reşhad Bey, and other individuals foreground the changing Ottoman engagements with western Anatolia’s cultural heritage. Mallouf, a renowned polyglot and the dragoman of the British Consulate in Izmir during the early intensive railway building campaigns, and Reşad Bey, the railway’s imperial commissary, both had privileged access to the region’s historic places. This presentation inserts their contributions into the discourse on 19th century exploration in western Anatolia.