Edhem Eldem is professor of history at Bosphorus University, Istanbul. His main areas of specialization are foreign trade in the Levant in the eighteenth century, credit and finance in the post-classical period of the Ottoman Empire, nineteenth-century Ottoman élite structures and “Westernizing” elites, and social and economic topography of Istanbul in the late Ottoman period. He is the author many publications in English, French, and Turkish, among them In Search of the Gulbenkians. Gülbenkyanların İzinde (2006), Pride and Privilege. A History of Ottoman Orders, Medals and Decorations (2004), La Méditerranée turque (2000, with Feride Çiçekoğlu), French Trade in Istanbul in the Eighteenth Centtury (1999), A History of the Ottoman Bank, (1999), and The Ottoman City between East and West: Aleppo, Izmir and Istanbul (1999, with Daniel Goffman and Bruce Masters). Professor Eldem is the Curator of the Ottoman Bank Museum and organized several major exhibitions, including  “Voyvoda Street from Ottoman Times to Today” (2000), “Pride and Privilege. An Exhibition on Ottoman Orders, Medals and Decorations” (2004), and “Galata through the Ages” (2005). eldem@boun.edu.tr