The newspaper Anatoli appeared between 1843 and 1923 in Ottoman language written in Greek script. It was founded by Evangelinos Misailidis (1820-1890), a very productive writer and journalist of his time. The first years, the newspaper appeared in Izmir. After a fire in Izmir in 1850 destroyed his printing press, Misailidis moved to Istanbul and from 1851 onwards, Anatoli appeared in Istanbul. Target audience of the newspaper was the Turkish-speaking Orthodox community of Istanbul and the Turcophone Orthodox population living in the interior parts of Asia Minor.
Evangelinos Misailidis continued to publish Anatoli until his death in 1890. After his death, under the direction of his son Hristos Misailidis and Nikolaos Soullidis, the newspaper circulated until 1923. Unfortunately, no complete collection of Anatoli’s print run exists in any library.
The Orient Institut Istanbul owns issues of the years 1888-1894 of Anatoli. All issues — a total of 3802 pages —were digitized in 2017. They are online available in open access: https://opendata.uni-halle.de//handle/1981185920/103987
Here is an example from a header of the issue dated July 14, 1988:
The full title of the newspaper reads Anatoli: politika ve ticaret gazetası olup salı, pencşembe ve cuma irtesi basılur. Later the subtitle was changed to siyasiye, fenniye, tüccariye ve havadisi mütenneviyeden bahis gazeta şimdilik haftada üç defa sali, perşembe ve cuma ertesi çıkar and then even to umur-i siyasiye, meshebiye ve fenniye gazetası olup salı, pencşembe ve cuma irtesi neşr olunur.
The ever so subtle changes in the subtitle tells us about changes in linguistic attitudes of the editors over time. We also learn about the price of the newspaper, the possibility to advertise and the names of the owner and director(s) and the address of the newspaper’s office.
Ahead of the title we see the issue number 3927 and the number of the issue year 38 (i.e. volume), as well as the date of the issue in Hicri (in brackets), Georgian and Julian calendar and the name of the day of the week. The weekdays are generally given in Turkish, except for the section of orthodox Christian religious holidays, simply called imerologion ‘calendar’. The weekdays of the are given in Greek in this section, as e.g. here 2 (July, Julian calender) savvaton = Saturday; Feast of the Deposition of the Precious Robe of All Saints, Mother of God and Ever-Virgin Mary, 3 kiriaki = Sunday, 4 devtera = Monday.
The newspaper is a very valuable source for historians, literary historians and linguists.
It contains news from inside and outside the empire, short notices, prices and valuta exchange rates, information about the stock market, advertisements, the weather, a calendar of the religious holidays of the relevant week and also many examples for literature in the form of serialized novels.[1]
Here are some examples of how these various sections looked like and what they contained.[2]
Hava
Karların hazretinden Avrupa’da, Sırbistan’da, Bulgaristan’da yollar kapanıp, demir yolları işleyemiyor dün Avrupa’dan yolcu gelmemiştir.
Fransa’da Toulon ve Marsilya limanları donmuştur. Şimdiyedeyin bu gibi bir vaka sebkat etmemiştir.
Weather
Because of the snow, roads in Europe, Serbia and Bulgaria were closed and railroads could not operate; yesterday no passengers from Europe did arrive.
In France, the ports of Toulon and Marseille are frozen. No such incident has occurred so far.
Internal affairs from January 10, 1893, issue 4617
Dahiliye
Tevcihat
Konya vilayeti dahilinde Bozkır kazası kaymakamlığı Ürgüp kaymakamı Hakkı efendiye.
Ürgüp kazası kaymakamlığı Ilgın kaymakamı Osman Nuri efendiye.
Ilgın kazası kaymakamlığı Uluborlu kaymakamı Raşid efendiye.
Uluborlu kazası kaymakamı Mekteb-i mülkiye-i şahane mezunlarından Mehmet Tahsin beye.
Internal affairs
Promotions
The post of district governor of Bozkır in Konya province (was given) to Hakkı Efendi, district governor of Ürgüp.
The district governorship of Ürgüp to Osman Nuri Efendi, district governor of Ilgın.
The district governorship of Ilgın to Raşid Efendi, district governor of Uluborlu.
The district governor of Uluborlu district to Mr. Mehmet Tahsin, a graduate of Mekteb-i mülkiye-i şahane.
News (from abroad) from July 28, 1888, issue 3938
Ahvali Hazıra
Almanya İmparatorunun Petersburg’a, Stockholm’e ve Kopenhag’a ilk seyahati Friydrişruh’de Prens Bismarck’a ziyareti ile hitam buldu ise de, umumun dikkatini celp etmekten dur olmayıp, Avrupa gazeteleri hale türlü manalar vermektedirler.
Actualities
Although the German Emperor’s first trip to Petersburg, Stockholm and Copenhagen ended with a visit to Prince Bismark in Friedrichsruh, it did not cease to attract public attention, and European newspapers gave it various meanings.
Valuta exchange rates from July 28, 1888, issue 3938
Akçe Fiyatları
Konsolit
Şimendifer
Tasfiye
Tahliye
Mecidiye farkı
Beşlik ile sağ
Metalik ile sağ
Altılık ile
Kırmitsa
Renhina
İngiliz lirası
20 frank
Pol (cedid Rus lirası)
Advertisement for a sewing machine in issue 4605 from November 24, 1892
Familyalara ve terzilere mahsus Berta-I-M’in dikiş makinaları
Bir müddetten beri maruf BERTA-I-M nam fabrikanın imal etmekte olduğu dikiş makinaları cümle kullananlar tarafından meth olunması ile mezkûr makinaların iyiliği tasdik olunmuştur ve asla bozulması yahut tamire muhtaç olmaksızın 15 – 20 sene bir devam işleyeceğini mezkûr fabrika taahhüt eder.
Mezkûr makinaların yalnız depozitosu olan Der-i saadet’te Bahçe-kapısında Ömer Efendi hanında Orosdi-Pak ve kumpanyası tarafından ehven fiyat ile füruht olunur.
Üzerinde Vertaim ismi olmayan makinalar taklittir.
Berta-I-M sewing machines for families and tailors
The sewing machines manufactured by the well-known BERTA-I-M factory have been praised by those who have used them for some time and the goodness of the said machines has been confirmed and the said factory guarantees that they will continue to work for 15 – 20 years without any breakdown or need for repair.
Only the deposit of the aforementioned machines will be sold at a fair price by Orosdi-Pak and his company at Ömer Efendi Inn in Bahçe-Kapısı in Der-i saadet.
Machines without the name Wertheim on them are imitations.
The examples give a good impression of how valuable this source is for those interested in Ottoman history during this period. It is therefore all the more regrettable that only 7 of the approximately 80 volumes of the total print-run are currently available online. It would be highly desirable to locate additional volumes, digitize them, and make them available online.
Astrid Menz – Orient-Institut Istanbul
Melissa Sivri – Orient-Institut Istanbul, translated from English
[1] For more details on the Karamanlı literary production see Şişmanoğlu Şimşek, Şehnaz 2023. Karamanlidika Literary Production in the Mid-nineteenth Century. In: Routledge Handbook on Turkish Literature. London: Routledge. 327-344
[2] For the sake of readability, we have refrained from a scientific transcription.
