Armenians in Urban Order and Disorder of Seventeenth-Century Istanbul

The urban culture of seventeenth-century Istanbul was defined by the expansion of the public sphere through shared spaces like coffeehouses and gardens on the one hand, and unrest and rebellion on the other. This is regarded as a story of Muslims by default, in which non-Muslims occupy a marginal role at best. This article challenges such perception by examining the ways in which Armenians took part in urban culture of mid-seventeenth-century Istanbul. Drawing on descriptions of quotidian affairs and minor incidents recorded by Eremia Chelebi in his Ōragrutʻiwn, a fourteen-year chronicle of daily life in the city, it demonstrates that Armenians were not only active participants in Istanbul’s urban culture but that this urban world changed the nature of the Armenian community itself. The chastising gaze of the urban public and intercommunal competition shaped the notions of propriety within the Armenian community, while the city provided a stage and models for a new type of politics of the crowd that challenged conventions of communal representation.