We are pleased to annonce that the Institute for Advanced Studies on Asia will be hosting a lecture by professor Koh Choon Hwee (UCLA) entitled "The Ottoman Postal System: An Infrastructural History."

The seminar will be held both in person and online. To register for this event, please fill in the form.

Date and time: April 3, 2023 (Mon), 15:30〜17:00

Venue: Institute for Advanced Studies on Asia, 2nd Meeting Room (302)／Zoom

Speaker: Koh Choon Hwee (UCLA)

Title: The Ottoman Postal System: An Infrastructural History

Chair: Jun Akiba (IASA, U Tokyo)

Registration form:https://forms.gle/qozhdSaGk1v8r1hr6 (Closed at 23:59, April 1)

Lecture Abstract:
Like its Roman and Mongol predecessors, the horse-run Ottoman postal system was a sprawling infrastructure essential for everyday imperial affairs. Unlike them, however, it left behind a sea of paper documentation that tracked its mundane operations and traced its strategic reforms. Based on this uniquely rich archive, this book project follows eight small-scale actors across its chapters—The Courier, The Decree, The Bookkeeper, The Postmaster, The Villager, The Tatar, The Credit Voucher, and The Horse. It offers a history of the Ottoman Empire as a single, meaningful unit, in stark contrast to the fragmented landscape today of its more than thirty-five successor nation-states. This is a story about the lands from Belgrade to Baghdad, Crimea to Cairo, circa 1600 to 1900––a vast area once home to a united infrastructure that brought together diverse imperial subjects to serve a now forgotten Ottoman social order.

※This seminar is supported by JSPS KAKENHI Grant No. 20H01322.

Contact: Jun Akiba (IASA, U Tokyo, j-akiba[at]ioc.u-tokyo.ac.jp）