Losing Istanbul : Arab-Ottoman imperialists and the end of empire

• Recovering a forgotten element of Sultan Abdul Hamid II's reign, which ended abruptly in 1909 when the coalition of reactionaries on which his power depended collapsed, Minawi (Cornell Univ.) offers an invaluable discovery: a contingent of Arab-Ottoman loyalists. The 1908–09 coup against Abdul Hamid uprooted a number of Arabic-speaking bureaucrats whose careers had been made through the Ottoman Empire's rule over their homelands in the Levant. Mobilizing an “experiential history” of some of these prominent Arab allies entrenched in Istanbul's bureaucracy, Minawi challenges the anachronistic “separatism” that many scholars claim Arab families in the region demanded. The book's retelling of the last 20 years of Ottoman collapse creatively mobilizes the private experiences of two men, Sadik al-Mu'ayyad (d. 1910) and his uncle Shafiq al-Mu'ayyad (d. 1916), both of whom recognized the possibilities of an inclusive, geographically vast Ottoman state. Through their personal experiences, Minawi captures a compelling narrative about the systemic challenges this last generation of “Arab-Ottoman imperialists” faced. This book sheds much-needed light on hitherto ignored interpersonal dynamics that escaped the caustic identity politics historians long claimed had destroyed the empire. Summing Up: Highly recommended. General readers through faculty.

Ämnesord

HUMANIORA  -- Annan humaniora -- Kulturstudier (hsv//swe)

HUMANITIES  -- Other Humanities -- Cultural Studies (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

Ottoman Empire

World War I

Migration

Arabs

Minorities

Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures

Mellanösterns språk och kulturer

Publikations- och innehållstyp

ref (ämneskategori)

rec (ämneskategori)