Jean (Jan) Lambert-Rucki’s artistic vision of the Ottoman women’s world of Selânik

Abstract

On the 8th of November, 1912, the feast of Saint Demetrius, the city of Selânik سلانیك, regarded as the second most important city of the Ottoman Empire (together with Smyrna/İzmir), was surrendered to the Greek army by Tahsin Paşa, commander of the Turkish garrison. Several hours later, the rival Bulgarian army entered the suburbs of Selânik from another direction and, according to anecdotal evidence, TahsinPaşa could only inform the Bulgarian official envoys that: "I only had one Selânik, which I have already surrendered."