Water from Stone

with Jesse Howell & Marijana Mišević
hosted by Sam Dolbee
| In this special episode of the Ottoman History Podcast, Sam Dolbee and Jesse Howell travel by bike along the Ćiro Trail from Dubrovnik in Croatia to Mostar in Bosnia and Herzegovina, where they meet fellow Ottoman historian Marijana Mišević. Along the way, they consider the legacy and traces of early modern Ottoman caravan roads across this space, as well as their intersections with the Austro-Hungarian, Yugoslav, and more recent past. The episode is about mobility, memory, and the built environment. Also bicycles, friendship, and the journey.


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In this special episode of the Ottoman History Podcast, Sam Dolbee and Jesse Howell travel by bike along the Ćiro Trail from Dubrovnik in Croatia to Mostar in Bosnia and Herzegovina, where they meet fellow Ottoman historian Marijana Mišević. Along the way, they consider the legacy and traces of early modern Ottoman caravan roads across this space, as well as their intersections with the Austro-Hungarian, Yugoslav, and more recent past. The episode is about mobility, memory, and the built environment. Also bicycles, friendship, and the journey.

Stream via SoundCloud 


Stream bonus conversation with Jesse Howell available in the player below



Contributor Bios

Jesse Howell is Associate Director of the AM Program at Harvard University's Center for Middle Eastern Studies. He is a historian of the early modern Mediterranean, and completed his dissertation "The Ragusa Road: Mobility and Encounter in the Ottoman Balkans (1430-1700)" as part of Harvard's joint program in History and Middle East Studies. Prior to his work as a historian, he was a professional dance theater performer in California and Germany.
Marijana Mišević is a historian of the early modern Ottoman Empire and the south Slavic world. She completed her PhD in Harvard's joint History and Middle Eastern Studies program in 2022 with a dissertation entitled "Writing Slavic in the Arabic Script: Literacy and Multilingualism in the Early Modern Ottoman Empire." She completed her MA at Central European University, and her BA at University of Belgrade.
Sam Dolbee is an Assistant Professor of History at Vanderbilt University, where he teaches classes on environment, disease, and the modern Middle East. His book Locusts of Power will be out in early 2023 from Cambridge University Press.

Credits


Episode No. 529
Release Date: 16 September 2022
Recording Location: Ćiro Trail, Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina 
Sound production by Sam Dolbee
Production and editing help from Chris Gratien, Arianne Sedef Urus, and Harun Buljina
Special thanks to Miran Hasibović and the Herzegovina Bike Project
Bibliography courtesy of Jesse Howell and images courtesy of Jesse Howell and Sam Dolbee
Music: Blue Dot Sessions, "Fifteen Street"; Zé Trigueiros, "Petite Route," "Big Road of Burravoe"


Images

Jesse Howell preparing bike in Dubrovnik
Sign for the Ćiro Trail near Ivanica
Inside a former train station: rear graffiti reads "Tito, come back!"

Trebišnjica River Valley, southern Herzegovina
A tunnel along the trail
Restored Ottoman bridge east of Čapljina
Restored mosque in Počitelj
Stone roofs in Počitelj
The fortress town of Počitelj and the Neretva River in the distance
Along the trail south of Mostar
The Neretva south of Mostar
Partisans Memorial Graveyard at Mostar
Partisans Memorial Graveyard at Mostar
Partisans Memorial Graveyard at Mostar
The Sufi lodge (tekke) at Blagaj
The Mostar Bridge illuminated at night
Sam, Marijana, and Jesse at the Mostar Bridge


Further Listening
Leyla Amzi-Erdoğdular 192
8/28/15
Late Ottoman Bosnia and the Imperial Afterlife
Dženita Karić 406
3/17/19
Bosnian Comrades on Hajj
Darryl Li 459
4/15/20
The Bosnian War, Jihad, and American Empire
András Riedlmayer 305
3/9/17
Documenting the Destruction of Balkan Waqf Institutions
MC Low 501
4/7/21
Ottoman Mecca and the Indian Ocean Hajj
Daniel Pontillo 137
12/27/13
Across Anatolia on a Bicycle
Ramazan Hakkı Öztan 505
7/5/21
Devrimin Karaborsası: Balkan Komitacıları, Teknoloji ve Şiddet

Select Bibliography


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