Coffee and the Ottoman Social Sphere

In 1555 two Syrian merchants named Hakam and Shams opened the first coffeehouse in Ottoman Istanbul. The coffeehouse gained immediate popularity, and within fifteen years there were over six-hundred coffeehouses within the capital alone. Due to Istanbul’s flourishing merchant economy, the Ottoman public had access to many commodities such as chocolate, opium, tobacco, and tea. However, none of these items triggered the emergence of a social sphere. Coffee’s properties, specifically its temperature, bitterness, and thickness, led to the need for a specific space in which to consume the beverage. Although coffee went through many modes of presentation, the beverage eventually settled within the coffeehouse. The standardized layout of the coffeehouse included an open floor with perimeter seating. Activities within the coffeehouse were intellectually oriented and included debates, conversation, storytelling, and poetry. Coffeehouse patrons were able to transcend their societal positions and engage in these activities, classifying the coffeehouse as the first Ottoman social sphere. Other institutions within the public sphere, such as the tavern, the workplace, and the mosque, were constricted by an underlying social structure which impeded social mobility. The coffeehouse, a space of expression and a merging of the classes, did not replace these institutions, rather it was an independent entity that harnessed a new social function

Three Puzzles on Mathematics, Computation, and Games

In this lecture I will talk about three mathematical puzzles involving mathematics and computation that have preoccupied me over the years. The first puzzle is to understand the amazing success of the simplex algorithm for linear programming. The second puzzle is about errors made when votes are counted during elections. The third puzzle is: are quantum computers possible?Comment: ICM 2018 plenary lecture, Rio de Janeiro, 36 pages, 7 Figure

The Invisible Life-worlds of a Coptic Christian

This essay presents the life-story of a Coptic Christian between the PlayStation lounge, the coffeehouse and the prison. By taking this constellation as a point of departure, I broadly link such a portrait to overlooked contacts between Coptic Christian youth and the clerical hierarchy of the institution of the Coptic Orthodox Church. While attention is usually given to how Copts experience, negotiate and struggle against the various roles of the Church and its tradition of khidma (service), I investigate Coptic youngsters’ lifeworlds when they wish or have to stay invisible from the Coptic Church’s presumptions of representing its congregants