The Neo-Ottoman Frontier

Vernacular Revision in Post-Earthquake Antakya

Abstract

Antakya, also known as Antioch under Roman, Byzantine, and Crusader rule and أﻧﻄﺎﻛﯿﺔ (Antakiyah) under Umayyad, Mamluk, and Ottoman rule, is a historically contested city. Due to its geographic location and, in part, to the mythological weight of the city’s supposed foundation by Alexander the Great, Antioch has served as a mediator between two complex lineages, one Hellenistic-Roman-Byzantine and the other Islamic-Arab-Ottoman. This meditative position has contributed to modern Antakya’s cultural diversity and to a unique historical trajectory that has both contributed to and contradicted the states—whether nation-states in the current era or the pre-capitalist empires and caliphates that preceded them—that subsumed the city of Antioch as a municipality. However, Antioch has not historically asserted independence, autonomy, or acted as a city-state within larger states; instead, Antioch’s foundation and legacy have been incorporated into the symbolic identity of various states, fueling prototypical national myths or serving as a regional capital capable of consolidating power through its historical weight and legitimacy. This dynamic has shaped the city itself, as its history and legacy are intentionally tailored and repackaged to serve the interests of various metropoles, a process that manifests physically in the city’s urban form and visual language.