Salonica, City of Ghosts: Christians, Muslims and Jews, 1430-1950HarperCollins, 2004 - 525 pages The history of a rarely written about, bewilderingly exotic city: 500 years of clashing cultures and peoples, from the glories of Suleiman the Magnificent to its nadir under Nazi occupation. Salonica is the point where the wonders and horrors of the Orient and Europe have met over the centuries. Written with a Pepysian sense of the texture of daily life in the city through the ages, and with breathtakingly detailed historical research, Salonica will evoke the sights, smells, habits, songs and responses of a unique city and its inhabitants. The history of Salonica is one of forgotten alternatives and wrong choices, of identities assumed and discarded. For centuries Muslims, Christians, and Jews have succeeded each other in ascendancy, each people intent on erasing the presence of their predecessors, and the result is a city of cultural traditions and memories of extreme violence and genocide, one that sits on the overlapping hinterlands of both Europe and the East. |
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Abdul Albanian Anatolia army arrived Athens Balkan Balkan Wars became British building Bulgarian Byzantine cafés capital cemetery centre chief rabbi Christian church city's Constantinople consul converted crowd Dimitrios eastern Edirne Egnatia Europe European faith fire forced French German Greece Greek hand Hellenic houses hundred imperial inhabitants Islam Istanbul Italian Izmir janissaries Jewish Jewish community Jews journalist land later Levant lived London Ma'min Macedonia Marranos Mehmed merchants Mertzios Mevlevi minarets modern mosque municipal Murad Muslim neighbourhood officers Orthodox Ottoman authorities Ottoman city Ottoman empire Paris Pasha peasants police political population Porte quarter refugees religion religious remained reported Russian Salonica Salonique streets sultan synagogues Thessaloniki thousand tis Thessalonikis took trade travellers troops Turkey Turkish turned Upper Town Vardar Venetian Venizelist Venizelos Via Egnatia villages visitors walls women workers wrote YDIP Young Turks Yusuf Bey Zevi