Research Assistant Kutsi Aybars Çetinalp and Prof. Dr. Tuncay Zorlu recently presented their co-authored paper, “Rethinking the ‘Victorian Crusader’: Deconstructing the ‘Crusader Spirit’ in the PEF Survey,” at the SCCLE Porto event. Their research challenges the popular narrative that the 19th-century Palestine Exploration Fund (PEF) was driven by a medieval “Crusader spirit.” Instead, the study reveals that the PEF’s motivations were distinctly modern, stemming from Victorian scientific curiosity, Protestant Biblical literalism, and British imperial strategies in Ottoman Palestine. By meticulously re-examining historical memoirs and periodicals, their analysis offers a profound counter-narrative to traditional historical discourse. This participation highlights our faculty’s active engagement in global academic dialogues concerning the history of science and historical geography.
Research Assistant Kutsi Aybars Çetinalp and Prof. Dr. Tuncay Zorlu recently presented their collaborative research at the SCCLE Porto event. Their joint paper, titled “Rethinking the ‘Victorian Crusader’: Deconstructing the ‘Crusader Spirit’ in the PEF Survey,” offers a critical re-evaluation of 19th-century scientific expeditions within Ottoman Palestine. This presentation effectively bridges the fields of historical geography and the history of science, showcasing our institution’s interdisciplinary research capabilities on a global platform.
The research addresses a prominent narrative within Middle Eastern historical discourse. As highlighted by Salman Abu-Sitta in his pivotal Atlas of Palestine 1871-1877, there is a widespread tendency to view the Palestine Exploration Fund’s Western Survey as being driven by a medieval “Crusader spirit.” This framework often interprets modern Western interventions in the region as direct continuations of medieval military and religious zeal. However, the study presented by Zorlu and Çetinalp challenges this specific notion, arguing that applying a crusader framework to the PEF is an anachronistic misinterpretation that overlooks the era's complexities.
To construct their counter-narrative, the researchers meticulously re-examined the PEF’s Memoirs and contemporary periodicals. Drawing upon Res. Asst. Çetinalp’s expertise in how spatial practices were mobilized for imperial agendas, and Prof. Dr. Zorlu’s extensive research on the integration of scientific knowledge within the Ottoman Empire's global networks, the study dissects the true drivers behind these expeditions. They investigated how Victorian medieval romanticism was reactivated not for conquest, but to frame uniquely modern scientific pursuits.
The paper reveals that the PEF’s motivations were fundamentally modern and multifaceted. Rather than a simplistic medieval revival, the Fund’s religious impulses were deeply rooted in Protestant Biblical literalism. In an age grappling with the profound challenges posed by Darwinism to the Christian faith, the PEF sought empirical, scientific proof to verify the scriptures. This scientific approach was heavily focused on precise cataloging and measuring. Furthermore, these scientific and spatial practices were inextricably linked to the practical, secular, and geopolitical strategic imperatives of the British Empire. Ultimately, characterizing the PEF Survey merely as a "Crusade" constitutes a historical distortion of a distinctively Victorian phenomenon.
The presentation of this paper at SCCLE Porto highlights the importance of deconstructing entrenched historical narratives. It underlines our faculty members’ ability to produce high-impact research that intersects history, geography, and science.
