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Congresses organised by IRCICA:IRCICA ACTIVITIESCongress on “THE MAGHREB AND WESTERN MEDITERRANEAN DURING THEOTTOMAN PERIOD” held in RabatUnder the patronage of His Majesty King MohammedVI, IRCICA and the Royal Institute for the Historyof Morocco (IRRHM, Rabat), jointly implemented aninternational congress on “The Maghreb and WesternMediterranean during the Ottoman Period”, held in Rabat,Morocco on 12-14 November 2009.The congress aimed to promote research on the history ofthe Maghreb and the Western Mediterranean region duringthe period of the Ottoman State by exploring the existingand new directions of research and offering scholars andspecialists an opportunity to present their findings and shareinformation. The Ottoman presence in part of the regionunder study had varying degrees and spheres of influencesand relations with the entire region. A total of 39 historians– twelve from Morocco, nine from Turkey and thirteen fromother countries – participated in the congress. The sessionsspread over three days were followed by the Moroccan pressand broadcasting organisations.Two exhibitions accompanied the congress: an exhibitionof documents selected from the Turkish Prime Ministry’sOttoman Archives and reflecting relations between theKingdom of Morocco and the Ottoman State; and, anexhibition of the publications of the Faculty of Letters,Mohammed V University.The first session, titled “Discovering The Other”, receivedcontributions studying the geographers and travelers andtheir travelogues as to how peoples of the Maghreb andthe Ottoman world came to know each other throughthese sources. Among the texts studied were the works ofillustrious Ottoman scientists-geographers such as Piri Reisand Katip Çelebi about Morocco and the writings emanatingfrom Moroccan ambassadorial missions and Moroccantravelers about Ottoman lands. The papers presented were:“The Coasts of the Maghreb in the Book on the Thingsof the Sea by Piri Reis” (Jean-Louis Bacqué-Grammont,Jean-Charles Ducène), “Knowing Other Geographies andCultures in 17th Century: Katip Çelebi’s Narration of NorthAfrica in his Tuhfetu’l-Kibar Fî Esfari’l-Bihar” (Seyfi Kenan),“Mediterranean Challenges of Moroccan Embassies duringthe Reign of Sultan Mehmed III” (in Arabic, MohamedBoukbout), “Moroccan Waqfs in Cairo during the OttomanPeriod” (in Arabic, Mohammed Afifi), “The MoroccanTravel to the East and the Mediterranean Basin: the Situationin the 19th century: the Great Transformations in theMediterranean” (in Arabic, Mostafa al-Ghachi).Two sessions were devoted to the theme “Maghrebians andOttomans”. The studies presented were mostly based onOttoman archive documents, the “Muhimme” documents inparticular: “The Ottoman State and the Maghreb: from Unityto Conflict” (in Arabic, Nafisa al-Dhahabi), “Morocco and theOttoman State: from Symbolic Unity to Unity of Solidarity”(in Arabic, Djaafar Ibn al-Hajj al-Sılmi), “Political Relationsbetween the Ottoman State and Morocco: the Period of al-Saadi as an example” (in Arabic, Fazil Bayat), “The FirstModern Constitution in the Ottoman Muslim World: theTunisian Constitution of 1861 (Law of the Tunisian State) andthe Ottoman Constitution of 1876: Comparative Study” (inThe opening: from left to right, Prof. Abderrahmane el-Moudden (from the Dept. of History, Mohammed V University, Rabat; member of IRRHM),Dr. Halit Eren (IRCICA Director General), Prof. Abderrahim Benhadda (Dean, Faculty of Letters and Humanities, Mohammed V University, Rabat),Dr. Mohamed Kably (Director, IRRHM)IRCICA ActivitiesSeptember -December 2009, No: 80 Newsletter 9