Back	Symposia in Conjunction with the Exhibition of Ottoman Orders and Decorations A Bridge between the State and the People: Fund Raising Medals The new symposia series, organized by the Ottoman Bank Museum, continues to bring together researchers and academics to examine, from different viewpoints, its recent exhibition, Pride and Privilege: An Exhibition of Ottoman Orders and Decorations. At the conference scheduled for Tuesday, December 14, at 6:00 p.m., the focus, this time, is on 'fund' medals. Assist. Prof. Nadir Özbek from Boğaziçi University will be joining Prof. Edhem Eldem, curator of the exhibition, to discuss one the chief innovations brought to Ottoman orders and decorations by Abdülhamid II: their use as a means to mobilize funds in the name of assistance and solidarity. In the wake of the 1984 Istanbul earthquake, Sultan Abdülhamid, always eager to find new occasions in which to use his medals, came up with the revolutionary idea of creating a medal to reward donors to the relief fund that had been set up in support of the victims of the catastrophe.The Medal for the Earthquake Relief Fund was to be the first among fund raising medals issued during Hamidian times and a forerunner of similar medals that would be issued later during the Young Turk and Republican periods. The symposium will examine, within its historical context, the crucial role played by this innovation of the Sultan in promoting a growing public space and a new image of Ottomanism. After graduating from the department of electrical and electronic engineering at Boğaziçi University, Asst. Prof. Nadir Özbek earned a master's degree in history from Boğaziçi University as well, followed by a Ph.D. in the same discipline from Binghamton University. His book, Osmanlı İmparatorluğu'nda Sosyal Devlet: Siyaset, İktidar ve Meşrutiyet, 1876-1914, dealing with the politics of welfare in the late Ottoman Empire, was published in 2001. Nadir Özbek is currently a faculty member of the Atatürk Institute for Modern Turkish History at Boğaziçi University. For further information on this free symposium organized by the Ottoman Bank Museum, please call: (212) 334 22 70 A decoration that would add to the prestige of both the Empire and the Sultan... FIRST-CLASS BREAST STAR OF THE ORDER OF CHARITY The Order of Charity (Nişan-ı-Şevkat), created by Abdülhamid II, in September 1878, as an order of merit uniquely for women, was to become one of the most remarkable of Ottoman orders. As usual, the Sultan's aim in creating a new decoration was essentially diplomatic, namely, to enhance the prestige of both the Empire and its ruler. Less than three weeks after its creation, the order was conferred, for the first time, on Lady Layard, the wife of the British ambassador, for her work on behalf of wounded soldiers and refugees. Initially created to be bestowed for services in times of war and other catastrophes, the decoration soon acquired immense popularity and losing all reference to true merit became just another award almost automatically granted to Ottoman sultanas, the wives and daughters of prominent state officials or foreign diplomats, and numerous foreign queens, empresses and princesses, as a sign of Sultan Abdülhamid's attentions and favors.