Water from Stone

with Jesse Howell & Marijana Mišević

hosted by Sam Dolbee

| In this special episode of the Ottoman History Podcast, Sam Dolbee and Jesse Howell travel by bike along the Ćiro Trail from Dubrovnik in Croatia to Mostar in Bosnia and Herzegovina, where they meet fellow Ottoman historian Marijana Mišević. Along the way, they consider the legacy and traces of early modern Ottoman caravan roads across this space, as well as their intersections with the Austro-Hungarian, Yugoslav, and more recent past. The episode is about mobility, memory, and the built environment. Also bicycles, friendship, and the journey.

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In this special episode of the Ottoman History Podcast, Sam Dolbee and Jesse Howell travel by bike along the Ćiro Trail from Dubrovnik in Croatia to Mostar in Bosnia and Herzegovina, where they meet fellow Ottoman historian Marijana Mišević. Along the way, they consider the legacy and traces of early modern Ottoman caravan roads across this space, as well as their intersections with the Austro-Hungarian, Yugoslav, and more recent past. The episode is about mobility, memory, and the built environment. Also bicycles, friendship, and the journey.

Stream via SoundCloud 

Stream bonus conversation with Jesse Howell available in the player below

Contributor Bios

	Jesse Howell is Associate Director of the AM Program at Harvard University's Center for Middle Eastern Studies. He is a historian of the early modern Mediterranean, and completed his dissertation "The Ragusa Road: Mobility and Encounter in the Ottoman Balkans (1430-1700)" as part of Harvard's joint program in History and Middle East Studies. Prior to his work as a historian, he was a professional dance theater performer in California and Germany.
	Marijana Mišević is a historian of the early modern Ottoman Empire and the south Slavic world. She completed her PhD in Harvard's joint History and Middle Eastern Studies program in 2022 with a dissertation entitled "Writing Slavic in the Arabic Script: Literacy and Multilingualism in the Early Modern Ottoman Empire." She completed her MA at Central European University, and her BA at University of Belgrade.
	Sam Dolbee is an Assistant Professor of History at Vanderbilt University, where he teaches classes on environment, disease, and the modern Middle East. His book Locusts of Power will be out in early 2023 from Cambridge University Press.

Credits

Episode No. 529
Release Date: 16 September 2022
Recording Location: Ćiro Trail, Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina 
Sound production by Sam Dolbee

Production and editing help from Chris Gratien, Arianne Sedef Urus, and Harun Buljina

Special thanks to Miran Hasibović and the Herzegovina Bike Project

Bibliography courtesy of Jesse Howell and images courtesy of Jesse Howell and Sam Dolbee
Music: Blue Dot Sessions, "Fifteen Street"; Zé Trigueiros, "Petite Route," "Big Road of Burravoe"

Images

Jesse Howell preparing bike in Dubrovnik

Sign for the Ćiro Trail near Ivanica

Inside a former train station: rear graffiti reads "Tito, come back!"

Trebišnjica River Valley, southern Herzegovina

A tunnel along the trail

Restored Ottoman bridge east of Čapljina

Restored mosque in Počitelj

Stone roofs in Počitelj

The fortress town of Počitelj and the Neretva River in the distance

Along the trail south of Mostar

The Neretva south of Mostar

Partisans Memorial Graveyard at Mostar

Partisans Memorial Graveyard at Mostar

Partisans Memorial Graveyard at Mostar

The Sufi lodge (tekke) at Blagaj

The Mostar Bridge illuminated at night

Sam, Marijana, and Jesse at the Mostar Bridge

Further Listening

	Leyla Amzi-Erdoğdular	192 8/28/15	Late Ottoman Bosnia and the Imperial Afterlife
	Dženita Karić	406 3/17/19	Bosnian Comrades on Hajj
	Darryl Li	459 4/15/20	The Bosnian War, Jihad, and American Empire
	András Riedlmayer	305 3/9/17	Documenting the Destruction of Balkan Waqf Institutions
	MC Low	501 4/7/21	Ottoman Mecca and the Indian Ocean Hajj
	Daniel Pontillo	137 12/27/13	Across Anatolia on a Bicycle
	Ramazan Hakkı Öztan	505 7/5/21	Devrimin Karaborsası: Balkan Komitacıları, Teknoloji ve Şiddet

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