A taste of empire: Sacred bread, refugees, and the making of Ottoman imperial subjects

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2024

Department/School

History and Philosophy

Publication Title

Global Food History

Abstract

This article examines the importance of “sacred bread” (nan-ı aziz) in the context of migration and settlement in the mid nineteenth-century Ottoman Empire. It considers the aftermath of the Crimean War of 1853–1856 during which Crimean Tatars, Noghays, and refugees from other territories sought sanctuary within Ottoman lands. In this context, state welfare, refugee identity, and new conceptions of political authority began to evolve around the exchange of sacred bread. The symbolic and material significance of sacred bread transformed groups of incoming Muslims into a special class of Ottoman refugees throughout the 1850s and 1860s. This study argues that the symbolic and material currency of food or, more specifically, sacred bread constituted a way to acculturate the Crimean and Caucasian refugee community (muhacirin) in the Ottoman Empire. Ottoman food traditions such as sacred bread not only generated a Muslim refugee cultural identity, but also collectively united Muslim refugee communities on the basis of class and social identity. More importantly, bread played a significant role in transforming and acculturating refugee communities within Ottoman culture and served as a vector of cultural cohesion by forging a unified community. By examining refugee petitions and imperial correspondence, this article explores the centrality of sacred bread in Ottoman food systems and expands our conception of the postwar experiences of refugees by introducing bread as a novel way to analyze identity, subjecthood, and loyalty.

Comments

F. W. Lorenz is a faculty member in EMU's Department of History and Philosophy.

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