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5 - Manufacturing Light

from Part I - Nocturnal Realities

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 July 2021

Avner Wishnitzer
Avner Wishnitzer
Affiliation:
Tel-Aviv University
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Summary

This chapter visits sketches the contours of an “Ottoman lighting system,” that is, a centrally regulated network that procured lighting materials from the provinces and channeled them to Istanbul and other crucial points in the imperial power grid and set lighting priorities in line with its political needs. The main argument is that lighting was considered a basic commodity and its regular supply therefore concerned the state. Yet, access to light was extremely unequal, which, as shown in the next chapter, made light a shiny index of power.

Keywords

lightingartificial lightcandleslanternslampsguildscourt recordsleisurematerial history
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Chapter
Information
As Night Falls
Eighteenth-Century Ottoman Cities after Dark
 , pp. 144 - 170
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

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