The Ottomans governed Jerusalem from 1516 to 1917. The Jerusalem that the Ottomans had conquered ... more The Ottomans governed Jerusalem from 1516 to 1917. The Jerusalem that the Ottomans had conquered in the sixteenth century, a small pilgrimage town and provincial center, was very different from the rapidly developing and modernizing city that they lost to the British. Egyptian governors ruled Jerusalem from 1831 until 1840, when the Ottomans were able to retake Jerusalem and the rest of the Levant with the help of British and Austrian troops. The Ottomans also invested considerably in the city and its region in the second part of the nineteenth century, in part to keep up with the enormous amount of European activity in Jerusalem. In 1872, Jerusalem became the capital of an independent district, or mutasarriflik, which was overseen directly by the Interior Ministry in Istanbul. One of the most important European settlement initiatives in Jerusalem was the work of the Templars who established the German Colony southwest of the Old City in the 1870s.
Journal of The Economic and Social History of The Orient, Jun 16, 2020
This article takes the understudied Ottoman city of Gaza in southern Palestine at the end of the ... more This article takes the understudied Ottoman city of Gaza in southern Palestine at the end of the nineteenth century as a case study to illustrate the new possibilities available today to researchers of the Middle East by combining the study of historical sources with GIS and other digital technologies. It first surveys the main sources available for the study of this city, some of which have only become available to researchers in recent years. It then describes the construction of a comprehensive database based on these sources and ways to run statistical analyses based on it. Finally, it presents the research results on maps and aerial photos connected to a GIS system. The case of Gaza can thus serve as a model for studying other cities in Ottoman Greater Syria and the Ottoman Empire in general.
Reviews 339 them by political boundaries and geographical isolation" (p. 6). The author explains ... more Reviews 339 them by political boundaries and geographical isolation" (p. 6). The author explains this state of affairs by pointing to the Ottoman Empire's millet system, which offered protected status to non-Muslims and accommodated cultural differences. She then points to the policies of Arab states, which have generally given religious and ethnic minorities a certain amount of autonomy. Syria figures prominently as an example. The book alludes to Syria's pan-Arab and secular brand of nationalism, which has allowed space for ethnic and religious minorities to maintain separate communities with their own languages, cultural traditions, and schools. The author is careful, however, to note exceptions to this trend in the region, such as Palestinians in Lebanon and undocumented Kurds (bidūn) in Syria. It would have been interesting to read her views on the extent to which these exceptions complicate the "integration without assimilation model'' and on what they indicate about the current geopolitics of the Middle East. For readers framing their interest in forced migration around specific countries within the Middle East, the historical and ethnographic data will, at times, seem unevenly distributed. The area today comprising Turkey, Israel/Palestine, and especially Syria are given significant historical coverage, but there is less detailed information on Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt, and particularly Iraq. In terms of the personal narratives, the author largely includes those of individuals who ended up in Syria and to a lesser extent Egypt and Jordan. At the same time, one of the book's accomplishments is that it avoids taking for granted current national boundaries. The narrative stretches back to the Ottoman era, framing forced displacement through watershed historical moments that have had an impact on mobility and boundary making in the Middle East in the last 150 years. Displacement and Dispossession in the Modern Middle East represents a valuable contribution to the study of forced displacement in the Middle East. The book will appeal to scholars in the social sciences and especially those in disciplines such as history, anthropology, geography, and political science whose research focuses on minorities or forcibly displaced groups in the Middle East. It also constitutes a useful textbook for introductory courses on these topics.
The explosive topic of Mid-East politics is well known for historians who assert objectivity whil... more The explosive topic of Mid-East politics is well known for historians who assert objectivity while writing from bias. Ilan Pappe admits his bias directly. In the introduction to his new work, he says flatly that Bmine is a subjective approach, often but not always standing for the defeated over the victorious^(p. 12). Most assuredly, as the chronology Pappe presents approaches the present day, the victims and downtrodden with whom he unabashedly sympathizes appear most often in the form of the Palestinian population, both in Israel proper and those Palestinians living in Gaza and the West Bank. This attitude would seem to conflict with a stated aim of his text, his claim not to tell the story from a partisan perspective, but rather to condemn all who abuse power Bin the name of one ideology or another.^It conflicts as well with his other claim of offering an Balternative narrative(p. xx). Nonetheless, the book may still be useful and instructive to the student whose sole perspective on Middle Eastern history remains the conventional Zionist narrative. According to Pappe, focusing on the land rather than on the conflict should prevent what he calls Bnational historiographical writing.^But the conflict is unavoidable even with respect to the basic language employed. How should one refer to the land? Palestine as a geographic entity that could be found on a 1920s map, which had its own currency and passports, is different from the Bthe land of Palestine^as used by Pappe, which clearly parallels the phrase Bland of Israel.^While not reflecting a geopolitical structure, as would be the case with BState of Israel,^and perhaps thus avoiding the conflict, employing the term Bland of Palestine,^particularly for an Israeli writer, presupposes a particular conception of the character of the land and its rightful inhabitants, or rulers, too, for that matter. Yet despite Pappe_s bias, which should not surprise the reader familiar with his previous publications, A History of Modern Palestine does provide a concise and coherent presentation of the history of the land during the period prior to the creation of Israel. For this earlier period where significant historical research has unearthed a wealth of relevant documentation, Pappe ostensibly presents the facts impartially, willing to blame the ills that initially befell the Arabs of Palestine on the shoulders of both the Zionist settlers,
The Garden Club of America stimulates the knowledge and love of gardening, shares the advantages ... more The Garden Club of America stimulates the knowledge and love of gardening, shares the advantages of association by means of educational meetings, conferences, correspondence and publications, and restores, improves and protects the quality of the environment through educational programmes and action in the fields of conservation and civic improvement. Subjects: Medicinal botany. Purpose: To protect and preserve knowledge about the medicinal use of plants and thus prevent the disappearance of plants with therapeutic potential.
Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient, 2015
In this paper we argue that historians of the eastern Arab lands (Ar. al-mashriq al-ʿarabī) shoul... more In this paper we argue that historians of the eastern Arab lands (Ar. al-mashriq al-ʿarabī) should turn their attention to the Bedouins for two main reasons. First, the societies in the Arab East cannot be adequately understood without a full evaluation of their Bedouin component, especially outside urban areas. Second, studying the Bedouins can open new perspectives on important debates in Middle Eastern historiography. The paper further contends that the arid lands of the Arab East still need to be explored as a historical region with its own distinct patterns of regional connectivity and political organisation. Finally, we highlight environmental history and the study of emic categories as promising avenues for future research on this region.
The study examines popular politics in Damascus during the 1830s with a focus on kinship and othe... more The study examines popular politics in Damascus during the 1830s with a focus on kinship and other social categories that served as bases for political action. It is based on a close reading of one text, an anonymous Arabic chronicle known as 'Historical Memoirs' (Mudhakkirāt tārīkhiyya), which is analysed as a repertoire of contemporary social and political concepts. This analysis reveals an ideology of 'localist' resistance against the centralising state and its 'loyalist' allies in Damascus. Kinship played an important role in this struggle on the social plane (e.g. by using family networks for political ends) as well as on the cultural plane (e.g. through the use of kinship metaphors or through criticism of kinship ties in politics). It is concluded that the function of kinship in Damascene politics can only be understood in the context of other social categories such as factionalism, religious affiliation, class and ethnicity.
This article examines a revolt among the Sba'a-'Abada Bedouin, a sub-group of the 'An... more This article examines a revolt among the Sba'a-'Abada Bedouin, a sub-group of the 'Anaza tribal confederation, in Mandatory Syria. The case offers a rare glimpse into the political dynamics of a Bedouin group under French Mandatory rule. The analysis shows that the political circumstances enabled lower ranking tribal representatives to enter into direct negotiations with other Bedouin leaders and state agencies. These negotiations demonstrate that tribal categories such as the 'Anaza confederation provided a flexible reference system for the steppe population, which was used by tribal and state bodies alike.
The Ottomans governed Jerusalem from 1516 to 1917. The Jerusalem that the Ottomans had conquered ... more The Ottomans governed Jerusalem from 1516 to 1917. The Jerusalem that the Ottomans had conquered in the sixteenth century, a small pilgrimage town and provincial center, was very different from the rapidly developing and modernizing city that they lost to the British. Egyptian governors ruled Jerusalem from 1831 until 1840, when the Ottomans were able to retake Jerusalem and the rest of the Levant with the help of British and Austrian troops. The Ottomans also invested considerably in the city and its region in the second part of the nineteenth century, in part to keep up with the enormous amount of European activity in Jerusalem. In 1872, Jerusalem became the capital of an independent district, or mutasarriflik, which was overseen directly by the Interior Ministry in Istanbul. One of the most important European settlement initiatives in Jerusalem was the work of the Templars who established the German Colony southwest of the Old City in the 1870s.
Journal of The Economic and Social History of The Orient, Jun 16, 2020
This article takes the understudied Ottoman city of Gaza in southern Palestine at the end of the ... more This article takes the understudied Ottoman city of Gaza in southern Palestine at the end of the nineteenth century as a case study to illustrate the new possibilities available today to researchers of the Middle East by combining the study of historical sources with GIS and other digital technologies. It first surveys the main sources available for the study of this city, some of which have only become available to researchers in recent years. It then describes the construction of a comprehensive database based on these sources and ways to run statistical analyses based on it. Finally, it presents the research results on maps and aerial photos connected to a GIS system. The case of Gaza can thus serve as a model for studying other cities in Ottoman Greater Syria and the Ottoman Empire in general.
Reviews 339 them by political boundaries and geographical isolation" (p. 6). The author explains ... more Reviews 339 them by political boundaries and geographical isolation" (p. 6). The author explains this state of affairs by pointing to the Ottoman Empire's millet system, which offered protected status to non-Muslims and accommodated cultural differences. She then points to the policies of Arab states, which have generally given religious and ethnic minorities a certain amount of autonomy. Syria figures prominently as an example. The book alludes to Syria's pan-Arab and secular brand of nationalism, which has allowed space for ethnic and religious minorities to maintain separate communities with their own languages, cultural traditions, and schools. The author is careful, however, to note exceptions to this trend in the region, such as Palestinians in Lebanon and undocumented Kurds (bidūn) in Syria. It would have been interesting to read her views on the extent to which these exceptions complicate the "integration without assimilation model'' and on what they indicate about the current geopolitics of the Middle East. For readers framing their interest in forced migration around specific countries within the Middle East, the historical and ethnographic data will, at times, seem unevenly distributed. The area today comprising Turkey, Israel/Palestine, and especially Syria are given significant historical coverage, but there is less detailed information on Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt, and particularly Iraq. In terms of the personal narratives, the author largely includes those of individuals who ended up in Syria and to a lesser extent Egypt and Jordan. At the same time, one of the book's accomplishments is that it avoids taking for granted current national boundaries. The narrative stretches back to the Ottoman era, framing forced displacement through watershed historical moments that have had an impact on mobility and boundary making in the Middle East in the last 150 years. Displacement and Dispossession in the Modern Middle East represents a valuable contribution to the study of forced displacement in the Middle East. The book will appeal to scholars in the social sciences and especially those in disciplines such as history, anthropology, geography, and political science whose research focuses on minorities or forcibly displaced groups in the Middle East. It also constitutes a useful textbook for introductory courses on these topics.
The explosive topic of Mid-East politics is well known for historians who assert objectivity whil... more The explosive topic of Mid-East politics is well known for historians who assert objectivity while writing from bias. Ilan Pappe admits his bias directly. In the introduction to his new work, he says flatly that Bmine is a subjective approach, often but not always standing for the defeated over the victorious^(p. 12). Most assuredly, as the chronology Pappe presents approaches the present day, the victims and downtrodden with whom he unabashedly sympathizes appear most often in the form of the Palestinian population, both in Israel proper and those Palestinians living in Gaza and the West Bank. This attitude would seem to conflict with a stated aim of his text, his claim not to tell the story from a partisan perspective, but rather to condemn all who abuse power Bin the name of one ideology or another.^It conflicts as well with his other claim of offering an Balternative narrative(p. xx). Nonetheless, the book may still be useful and instructive to the student whose sole perspective on Middle Eastern history remains the conventional Zionist narrative. According to Pappe, focusing on the land rather than on the conflict should prevent what he calls Bnational historiographical writing.^But the conflict is unavoidable even with respect to the basic language employed. How should one refer to the land? Palestine as a geographic entity that could be found on a 1920s map, which had its own currency and passports, is different from the Bthe land of Palestine^as used by Pappe, which clearly parallels the phrase Bland of Israel.^While not reflecting a geopolitical structure, as would be the case with BState of Israel,^and perhaps thus avoiding the conflict, employing the term Bland of Palestine,^particularly for an Israeli writer, presupposes a particular conception of the character of the land and its rightful inhabitants, or rulers, too, for that matter. Yet despite Pappe_s bias, which should not surprise the reader familiar with his previous publications, A History of Modern Palestine does provide a concise and coherent presentation of the history of the land during the period prior to the creation of Israel. For this earlier period where significant historical research has unearthed a wealth of relevant documentation, Pappe ostensibly presents the facts impartially, willing to blame the ills that initially befell the Arabs of Palestine on the shoulders of both the Zionist settlers,
The Garden Club of America stimulates the knowledge and love of gardening, shares the advantages ... more The Garden Club of America stimulates the knowledge and love of gardening, shares the advantages of association by means of educational meetings, conferences, correspondence and publications, and restores, improves and protects the quality of the environment through educational programmes and action in the fields of conservation and civic improvement. Subjects: Medicinal botany. Purpose: To protect and preserve knowledge about the medicinal use of plants and thus prevent the disappearance of plants with therapeutic potential.
Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient, 2015
In this paper we argue that historians of the eastern Arab lands (Ar. al-mashriq al-ʿarabī) shoul... more In this paper we argue that historians of the eastern Arab lands (Ar. al-mashriq al-ʿarabī) should turn their attention to the Bedouins for two main reasons. First, the societies in the Arab East cannot be adequately understood without a full evaluation of their Bedouin component, especially outside urban areas. Second, studying the Bedouins can open new perspectives on important debates in Middle Eastern historiography. The paper further contends that the arid lands of the Arab East still need to be explored as a historical region with its own distinct patterns of regional connectivity and political organisation. Finally, we highlight environmental history and the study of emic categories as promising avenues for future research on this region.
The study examines popular politics in Damascus during the 1830s with a focus on kinship and othe... more The study examines popular politics in Damascus during the 1830s with a focus on kinship and other social categories that served as bases for political action. It is based on a close reading of one text, an anonymous Arabic chronicle known as 'Historical Memoirs' (Mudhakkirāt tārīkhiyya), which is analysed as a repertoire of contemporary social and political concepts. This analysis reveals an ideology of 'localist' resistance against the centralising state and its 'loyalist' allies in Damascus. Kinship played an important role in this struggle on the social plane (e.g. by using family networks for political ends) as well as on the cultural plane (e.g. through the use of kinship metaphors or through criticism of kinship ties in politics). It is concluded that the function of kinship in Damascene politics can only be understood in the context of other social categories such as factionalism, religious affiliation, class and ethnicity.
This article examines a revolt among the Sba'a-'Abada Bedouin, a sub-group of the 'An... more This article examines a revolt among the Sba'a-'Abada Bedouin, a sub-group of the 'Anaza tribal confederation, in Mandatory Syria. The case offers a rare glimpse into the political dynamics of a Bedouin group under French Mandatory rule. The analysis shows that the political circumstances enabled lower ranking tribal representatives to enter into direct negotiations with other Bedouin leaders and state agencies. These negotiations demonstrate that tribal categories such as the 'Anaza confederation provided a flexible reference system for the steppe population, which was used by tribal and state bodies alike.
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Papers by Johann Buessow