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In this seminal study, Jane Hathaway presents a wide-ranging reassessment of the effects of Ottoman rule on the Arab Lands of Egypt, Greater Syria, Iraq and Yemen - the first of its kind in over forty years.
Challenging outmoded perceptions of this period as a demoralizing prelude to the rise of Arab nationalism and Arab nation-states in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, Hathaway depicts an era of immense social, cultural, economic and political change which helped to shape the foundations of today's modern Middle and Near East. Taking full advantage of a wide range of Arabic and Ottoman primary sources, she examines the changing fortunes of not only the political elite but also the broader population of merchants, shopkeepers, peasants, tribal populations, religious scholars, women, and ethnic and religious minorities who inhabited this diverse and volatile region.
With masterly concision and clarity, Hathaway guides the reader through all the key current approaches to and debates surrounding Arab society during this period. This is far more than just another political history; it is a global study which offers an entirely new perspective on the era and region as a whole.
List of contents
Introduction: Rewriting Arab history, 1516-1800 1. Lands and peoples 2. The Ottoman conquest of the Arab lands 3. The organization of the Ottoman provincial administration 4. Crisis and change in the seventeenth century 5. Provincial notables in the eighteenth century 6. Religious and intellectual life 7. Urban life and trade 8. Rural life 9. Marginal groups and minority populations 10. Ideological and political changes in the late eighteenth century 11. Transformations under Ottoman rule
About the author
Jane Hathaway is Professor of History at Ohio State University. Her previous publications include
The Politics of Households in Ottoman Egypt: The Rise of the Qazdaglis (1997);
A Tale of Two Factions: Myth, Memory, and Identity in Ottoman Egyptand Yemen (2003); and
Beshir Agha, Chief Eunuch of the Ottoman Imperial Harem (2006)
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Summary
In this seminal study, Jane Hathaway presents a wide-ranging reassessment of the effects of Ottoman rule on the Arab Lands of Egypt, Greater Syria, Iraq and Yemen - the first of its kind in over forty years.
Challenging outmoded perceptions of this period as a demoralizing prelude to the rise of Arab nationalism and Arab nation-states in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, Hathaway depicts an era of immense social, cultural, economic and political change which helped to shape the foundations of today's modern Middle and Near East. Taking full advantage of a wide range of Arabic and Ottoman primary sources, she examines the changing fortunes of not only the political elite but also the broader population of merchants, shopkeepers, peasants, tribal populations, religious scholars, women, and ethnic and religious minorities who inhabited this diverse and volatile region.
With masterly concision and clarity, Hathaway guides the reader through all the key current approaches to and debates surrounding Arab society during this period. This is far more than just another political history; it is a global study which offers an entirely new perspective on the era and region as a whole.
