Acknowledgements
It was my genuine fascination with the cultural heritage of Byzantine and Ottoman Manastır/Bitola that guided my research as a professional art historian, an archaeologist and a historian. This book is a product of field and archival research. It is difficult to thank all those who deserve it, having supported a complex project stretching across more than three decades. At the onset of this project, crucial was the assistance of colleagues and scholars of various profiles, without whose remarkable accomplishments and noble support, this manuscript would never ever have existed. A number of archaeologists, historians, linguists, Ottomanists, Byzantinists, architects and museum curators have aided my research, while a group of friends provided moral support along the long way.
The present book grew out of a dissertation that I completed at the La Trobe University in Melbourne in 2004. First of all, I would like to express my gratitude to my mentor Professor Joan Barclay-Lloyd. It has been a true privilege to be her student and I thank her for her kind understanding and for the inspirational role-model she was to me as a scholar of Medieval Art History. Furthermore, I owe gratitude to the Very Reverend professor of Christian studies, Lawrence Cross, then to my precious expert in Ottoman culture, Professor Mucaid Asimov, and later Dimitar Dimitrovski.
For the second part of the project, that of the transformation of the dissertation into a book, I would like to express my gratitude to my precious friend Jovica Grozdanovski. I am also very grateful to the eminent historians of Islamic architecture, Igor Grabar and Mehmed Ibrahimgil, then to my colleagues and friends Hidayet Ceylan, Nizamedin Asim, Petar MiljkoviÄ-Pepek and Krum Tomovski. I must also thank the distinguished historians of medieval Islam and Christianity, primarily Miloye and Ljiljana MandiÄ, Tome Janakievski, Gjorgi Dimovski-Tsolev, Peco Srbinovski, Gordana Filipovska-Lazarovska, StojÄe Naumov, Mesut Idriz, Jerzy RozpÄdowski, Sreten PetkoviÄ and BoÅ¡ko BabiÄ.
For allowing me access to the archival documents, I thank the State Archive of the R. of Macedonia, the central in Skopje and the regional section in Bitola. Similar thanks go to the Institute for the protection of monuments and Museum of Bitola and the Institute for the protection of monuments in Skopje, as well as to the University Library âSt. Clement of Ohridâ in Skopje. I am grateful to the Houghton Library/Harvard College Library, Massachusetts (USA) for allowing me to publish Edward Learâs paintings created in Manastır in 1848.
I must equally acknowledge the various important contributions that this project received from Ljubo Atanasovski, James Taylor, Christopher Brown, Antonie Ristevski, Marjan MalbaÅ¡iÄ, Vladimir Ognenovski, Michael Crosby- Mihajlovski, Domingo Cordoba, Slobodan Stojkoski, Lydia Nakova, Plumi Veliu, Damien McAree, Lewis McGregor, Belinda Božinovski DâAngelo and others.
The La Trobe University Social Research Assistance Platform (SRAP) has generously provided me with additional funding for my research in 2018, for which I owe special gratitude to Elizabeth Lawrence and Amy Wong. Further funding from this source was crucial for the completion of this manuscript.
Last, but not least, I would like to express my gratitude to my parents â Professor DuÅ¡anka Mihajlova and the late Blagoy (Vangel) Mihajlovski, for their unconditional support through the years. I faithfully dedicate this work to their honour and remembrance. Naturally, I also take full responsability for the entirety of this book, including all of its shortcomings, which I am sure you will kindly forgive.