Reconstructing a Lost Site: Spatial History, Memory, and the Ottoman Imperial Slave Market in Istanbul

The Ottoman Imperial Slave Market (Esir Han) in Istanbul operated for over two centuries and was conceivably the largest slave market in the Middle East until the date of its closure by the order of Sultan Abdülmecid in the mid-nineteenth century. Its existence was an integral part of an intricate network of local and international slave trade, connecting regions, peoples, cultures, and economies across the Ottoman Empire and beyond. After its closure date, the remnants of Ottoman slavery gradually faded from the cityscape, and before long, the location of the official slave market was lost to time. This research examines the lost space of the Ottoman Imperial Slave Market as a case for understanding how urban transformation produces not only spatial change but also historical forgetting. The disappearance of slavery from Istanbul’s everyday landscape has contributed to the marginalization of slavery within collective memory, rendering it distant, abstract, or irrelevant to contemporary urban life. The effacement of material spaces of slavery has shaped what is remembered, what is ignored, and what becomes narratively locatable in a modern city. To address this absence methodologically, this research combines historical cartography, archival documentation, and digital spatial analysis. By cross-referencing historical maps, imperial decrees, and urban descriptions, it reconstructs the probable location of the Esir Han within the layered topography of Istanbul. Comparative descriptions of the market environment from local and foreign sources indicated how different societies imagine, describe, or approach to the same space. These sources are integrated through digital mapping techniques, allowing fragmented historical references to be aligned and visualized within contemporary urban maps. By situating the memory of slavery within the dynamics of urban transformation, this study highlights the importance of spatial methods for examining forgotten histories, and it proposes digital humanities and spatial analysis as tools for active historical reconstruction