On the Road to the Abode of Felicity: Observations of a Damascene Scholar in Anatolia and Istanbul in 1530

Abstract

This paper explores the journey of Damascene scholar Mohammed Badreddin al-Ghazi in the wake of the Ottoman conquest of the Bilad al-Sham (1530). His account gains its historical significance from the description of the towns and locations of Anatolia (Bilad al-Rum) he passed travels through or stayed at and his occasional commentary on the behavior and manners of people he came across. Al-Ghazzi's journey also gives us a sense of the ethinic relations between Arabs and Turks, and the misunderstandings and or prejudice at that early period of Ottoman rule in the Arab region. The account also reveals the way intellectual networks between Arab scholars and their Turkish counterparts were established and how they were perpetuated through successive generations.