During the month of June 2023, I had the opportunity to conduct field work in Greece and Türkiye thanks to a grant from the École française d’Athènes. Starting in Athens, I travelled to Istanbul via Northern Greece and Turkish Thrace. On the way, the aim was to stop at sites where dedicatory inscriptions dating from the early Ottoman period were possibly still visible and accessible, such as in Thessaloniki, Komotini and Edirne.
Early Ottoman inscriptions in the Balkans have been known for a long time as documentary sources. Indeed, dedicatory inscriptions affixed to monuments contain valuable information about individuals, including the founder (e.g. name, gender and title reflecting a position in the Ottoman social hierarchy), the function of the building, and a date. The inscriptions were therefore deciphered, edited and studied since the early 20th century. The Thésaurus d’Épigraphie Islamique (or TEI, supported by the Max van Berchem Foundation and the University of Liège) is a remarkable tool for a first approach to this material.
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