Franco-Levantines
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It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into Italian Levantine. (Discuss) Proposed since January 2012. |
- This article is specifically about Latin Christians in the Levant. Other ethnic groups in the Levant are covered under their individual names.
Levantines or Franco-Levantines (French: Levantines, Italian: Levantini, Turkish: Levantenler or Tatlısu Frenkleri) are Latin Christians who lived under the Ottoman Empire. The term is also applied to their descendants living in modern Turkey and the Middle East.
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[edit] Characteristics
Levantines were mostly of Italian (especially Venetian and Genoese), French, or other Euro-Mediterranean origin and lived in Istanbul, İzmir/Smirne and other parts of Anatolia (in present-day Turkey) or the eastern Mediterranean coast (the Levant, particularly in present-day Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and Palestine/Israel) since the period of the Crusades, the Byzantine period and the Ottoman period.
The majority of them are descendants of traders from the maritime republics of the Mediterranean (such as the Republic of Venice, the Republic of Genoa and the Republic of Ragusa) or of the inhabitants of the Crusader states (especially the French Levantines in Lebanon, Israel and Turkey).
[edit] In Turkey
Levantines continue to live in Istanbul (mostly in the districts of Galata, Beyoğlu and Nişantaşı), İzmir (mostly in the districts of Karşıyaka, Bornova and Buca), and the lesser port city Mersin where they had been influential for creating and reviving a tradition of opera.[1] Famous people of the present-day Levantine community in Turkey include Franco-Levantine Caroline Giraud Koç and Italo-Levantine Giovanni Scognamillo.
Most of Turkey's small Roman Catholic community are Levantines.
[edit] In the Levant
When the United Kingdom took over the southern portion of Ottoman Syria in the aftermath of the First World War, some of the new rulers adapted the term "Levantine" pejoratively to refer to inhabitants of mixed Arab and European descent and to Europeans (usually French, Italian or Greek) who had assimilated and adopted local dress and customs. [2] [3]
[edit] References
- ^ Mersin'in bahanesi yok, Radikal, 26 May 2007
- ^ "Gale Encyclopedia of the Mideast & N. Africa: Levantine". answers.com. http://www.answers.com/topic/levantine-4#ixzz1kPR27aty. Retrieved 2012-01-25.
- ^ "About the Journal of Levantine Studies". levantine-journal.org. http://www.levantine-journal.org/AboutJLS.aspx. Retrieved 2012-01-25.
[edit] See also
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