﻿ The proposed thesis deals with Beirut's urban development from a maritime town to a provincial capital in the 19. and early 20. centuries. It does so in the context of physical, politico-administrative and socio-cultural inscriptions on the city by a centralizing Ottoman state. The center-periphery relations in the Ottoman Empire are examined in terms of the forces of political integration and social cohesion as well as challenges to them. The empire-city nexus that is maintained throughout this thesis posits Beirut both as the site of Ottoman imperial discourses and practices and as the site of local appropriation of- and resistance to - them. Local power was articulated in arenas of negotiation between Istanbul and Beirut (e.g. municipal councils, bureaucratic and personal networks, production of space, practices of urban management). At the same time, the quality of the city's growth and wealth created discontent and resistance among these sectors of society that were excluded from, or threatened by, Beirut's development as a port city and provincial capital (e.g. strikes, boycotts, demonstrations, riots). The condition of Beirut at the turn of the century was commented and reflected upon in contemporary Arabic journal editorials, newspaper articles, poems and speeches whose transformative power, it will be argued, affected the very physical form of Beirut's urban fabric.

The effect of Ottoman rule on fin de siècle Beirut : the province of Beirut, 1888-1914

The aim of this article is to analyse the scholarly and journalistic literature dealing with late Ottoman rule in Palestine (1840-1918) by Arab, Turkish and Israeli historians writing between 1970 and 1990. The 'parties' that were directly involved in the history of Ottoman Palestine were the Arabs as the numerically preponderant population, the Ottomans as sovereigns, and the Jews both as a small indigenous minority and also as a group of immigrants. The 'successor' states of these parties, the Arab states and the stateless Palestinians, Turkey and Israel regard themselves as the trustees of their 'own' histories, a position that is more or less adopted by their respective historians. The broader interest of the analysis is the question of the civilizational impact of Ottoman rule and the extent to which Ottoman reforms of the nineteenth century influenced the changes that Palestine has undergone in the last 150 years. The focus here is on the interpretations given by historians to the attitude of the Ottoman government towards early Zionist immigration to Palestine. In the intrusion of European imperialism and European-style nationalisms and the Zionist immigration, the Arab, Turkish and Israeli historians have found a common point of debate. They are not far removed from the 'overheated ethnocentricism' brought forth by the Israeli-Arab conflict after 1948.' Underlying the description of Ottoman Palestine the endeavour to make an early claim on post-Ottoman history can be detected.

/pdf/late-ottoman-rule-over-palestine-its-evaluation-in-arab-5dn1evmuuy.pdf

Late Ottoman rule over Palestine: its evaluation in Arab, Turkish and Israeli histories, 1970–90

This paper probes the history of the Temple Mount complex during the British Mandate for Palestine. Approaching this sacred space from three different perspectives — British, Arab, and Jewish — this paper examines how people and events surrounding it contributed to the evolution of Palestine after World War I. Ultimately, I argue that Britain’s non-policy on the Temple Mount undermined the Mandate project and ultimately contributed to the rise of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Fearful of angering Muslims in Palestine and around the world, the British handed control of the space to an indigenous Arab-Muslim administration. This policy of “affirmative deference” allowed certain Muslim leaders to carve out a sphere of de facto sovereignty inside the site and establish a base for resistance to the British government. For many Jewish settlers in Palestine, sanctioned and unchecked Arab power inside Judaism’s holiest site led them to abandon faith in the Mandate and formulate their own plans for independence. Stated simply, Britain’s mismanagement of the Temple Mount intensified the fragmentation of Palestine from its geographical and ideological center. In addition to telling an important micro-history of the period, I also hope to provide a useful case study for broader analysis of the interaction between secular and traditional authority and the dynamics of sacred space.

/pdf/managing-the-divine-jurisdiction-sacred-space-and-the-limits-1n4owplofp.pdf

Managing the Divine Jurisdiction: Sacred Space and the Limits of Law on the Temple Mount

The historiography of modem Palestine is largely confined to studies of the period of the first Zionist aliyah onward. This approach has two inherent shortcomings: the history of Palestine becomes little more than an addendum to the history of Zionist colonization, and, minimal attention is given to the origins of the so-called 'traditional' Palestinian Arab elites. The works which do concern themselves with the earlier part of the nineteenth century do so for shorter periods, rather than examining the social, political, and economic development of Palestine throughout the entire century. Moreover, there is a tendency to impose stubbornly held generalizations about the Middle East as a whole onto Palestine, taking little or no account of the unique features of Palestine in the late Ottoman era. This thesis attempts to address some of the neglected areas in the historiography of Palestine for the 'long' nineteenth century. Through the study of Jerusalem and Nablus, and more specifically of the most important families of notables, the present work hopes to provide a clearer picture of crucial social, political, and economic developments in Palestine over the entire period. Chapter one first traces the origins of the Husayni, Khalidi, Nashashibi, 'Abd al-Hadi, and Tuqan families and then examines their fortunes during the first half of the nineteenth century. Chapter two examines the Palestinian notables' response to the new bureaucratic and administrative structures of the Tanzimat and Hamidian periods. Chapter three, concentrating on awqaf, land tenure, soap production, and citriculture, examines the economic development of Palestine in the nineteenth century. In examining the most important notable families of Jerusalem and Nablus and their role in the economic development of Palestine, this thesis establishes a number of points regarding commonly held generalizations on or about Palestine in the nineteenth century. Firstly, certain of the so-called traditional political leaders of Palestine were in fact relatively new to positions of prominence. Secondly, the notables of Palestine continued to prosper in the changing administrative climate of the nineteenth century, while becoming the willing agents of Istanbul's policy of centralization. Lastly, the economy of Palestine was not moribund prior to the arrival of Zionist colonizers, nor was it ever totally incorporated into the world economy. This thesis is based on relevant primary sources in the British Foreign Office Confidential Prints FO 424 and Arab Bureau Papers FO 882, on contemporary European accounts and a wide range of secondary published and unpublished sources, including the most recent historical scholarship.

A land with a people : the political economy of Jerusalem and Nablus in the nineteenth century

This article examines the Ottoman extension of rule and jurisdiction to the Beersheba frontier of southern Palestine. As part of its Tanzimat reform policies, the Ottoman administration founded the new town and sub-district of Beersheba in 1900, and sought to implement a legal reform. Deviating from the formal law that requires the founding of a civil-nizamiye court, the Ottoman instituted a form of legal exception and authorized the local administrative council to sit as a judicial forum and for its Bedouin Shaykh members to serve as judges. Studies of Ottoman Beersheba have typically focused on Bedouin autonomy and tribal law. The few studies that discussed the judicial order, have mistakenly assumed the Ottoman institution of a “tribal court,” and its persistence thereafter. Interestingly, what began as a simple grant of legal exception, justified by civilizational discourses of ignorance and savagery, grew into a judicial complexity. Very soon jurisdictional tensions arose, integrating questions across various webs of legal orders, jurisdictions, and political networks that shaped the reform in Beersheba and beyond. In following various legal disputes from Beersheba to Gaza, Jerusalem, and Istanbul, the article challenges some of the prevailing research categories, dichotomies, and approaches in the study of Ottoman legal history and tribal societies, including the concept of ‘legal pluralism.’

Civilizational Exceptions: Ottoman Law and Governance in Late Ottoman Palestine

This is an attempt to describe the views and actions of three Ottoman governors (mutasarrifs) of Jerusalem during the last years of the Hamidian period, Mehmet Tevfik Bey (1897-1901), Ahmet Re~id Bey (1904-6) and Ali Ekrem Bey (1906-8). It is not very common to have first hand information about the activities of individual Ottoman officials derived from their own writings. In this case, however, we are fortunate to have in our possession published memoirs or papers written by three governors who themselves were, almost consecutively, the chief representatives of the Ottoman government in the district for a period of over a decade. From their writings it is possible to learn much, not only about the main problems which Ottoman authorities encountered in Jerusalem and the way they handled them, but also about the workings of the Ottoman administration at the time.' The three governors had a similar background in that they were all born in Istanbul to families of officials, received training in the same profession, were employed for a good number of years at the Mabeyn-i Hiimayun, the palace secretariat, and were appointed to Jerusalem as their first governatorial post. Mehmet Tevfik [Biren] (1867-1956), whose memoirs were published in 1993,2 was the son of a high official in the Ministry of Education. He enrolled in the Mekteb-i Miilkiye, the School of Civil Administration, and after graduating in 1885 was appointed as secretary in the Mabeyn-i Hiimayun. After he left Jerusalem in 1901 he went on to serve as vali in a number of provinces and during the Young Turk period was to hold several administrative, public and teaching positions, rising to become minister of finance in the last Ottoman cabinets after the war. Sent into retirement by the nationalist government in 1922, he took on an academic career as a professor of economics. Ahmet Raaid [Rey] (1870-1956), who published his memoirs in 1946,3 was the son of a provincial governor, graduated from the Mekteb-i Milkiye in 1888, was appointed as secretary in

The district of Jerusalem in the eyes of three Ottoman governors at the end of the Hamidian period

(1987). The Ottoman Governors of Palestine, 1864–1914. Middle Eastern Studies: Vol. 23, No. 3, pp. 274-290.

The Ottoman Governors of Palestine, 1864–1914

Foreign visitors to Palestine typically relate in their travel books and memoirs the kind of welcome they received in the different places they happened to visit or pass through. Anybody reading these books is often struck by the difference in the treatment given to travellers in one place or another, namely the fact that while certain towns and villages seem to have been quite hospitable toward their visitors, others gave them anything but a warm welcome. There seems, moreover, to have been a certain recurrence in the conduct toward foreigners in particular places. While certain towns and villages seem to have been generally hospitable, or at least 'indifferent' toward their visitors, others tended to be hostile and even violent. Travellers to Palestine in the nineteenth century, and particularly during its first half, often single out Nablus and Hebron as belonging to this latter category. The literature abounds with many vivid descriptions. As related by the travellers, some of those who wished to pass through Nablus on their way to or from Jerusalem were often warned of what might befall them and advised not to travel without guards or companions. Murray's Handbook for Travellers, around the middle of the century, describes the inhabitants of Nablus as follows: 'The Muslem inhabitants have a bad character and deserve it. They have long been notorious for fanaticism and turbulence ... Travellers, and especially ladies, in passing through the streets are exposed to the most wanton insolence." Those who did pass through the town often spoke of the considerable difficulties they encountered. They were cursed, spat at, pelted with stones or sticks and were often threatened with much worse. While most of the offenders were children, their parents were far from discouraging them, and even when not molested they could feel, they said, the hostility in the eyes of the people. Women were not allowed to walk unveiled, and a visit to the important mosques of the town was prohibited. Travellers spoke extensively, and often in most unkind terms, of Nablus' bad reputation. Its inhabitants were said to be quarrelsome, rebellious, and most fanatical and bigoted toward non-Muslims. John Mills, who spent three months in Nablus during the middle of the century, was most outspoken in his impressions: 'No district in Syria', he says, 'has been more turbulent and less manageable to the Turkish government than that of Nablus and surrounding villages and no people in Palestine are so deeply

Zealous Towns in Nineteenth-Century Palestine

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The district of Jerusalem in the eyes of three Ottoman governors at the end of the Hamidian period

The Ottoman Governors of Palestine, 1864–1914

Zealous Towns in Nineteenth-Century Palestine