- ZMO
Kirchweg 33
14129 Berlin
Germany
Nora Lafi
Leibniz-Zentrum Moderner Orient, Cities as Laboratories of Change, Faculty Member
- Middle East Studies, Ottoman History, Turkish and Middle East Studies, Middle East Politics, Colonialism, Middle East History, and 27 moreOttoman Studies, Middle Eastern Studies, Middle East & North Africa, Ottoman Empire, Revolutions, Early modern Ottoman History, Syrian Studies, Maghreb studies, Late Ottoman Period, Modern Ottoman History, French colonialism, Ottoman Historiography, History of Istanbul, Tunisian History, Conflict in Libya, Algerian war, Contemporary Libya, Ottoman, Middle East, Political Processes and Social Changes in The Maghreb Region, Abbasid Intellectual History, Imperialism, Empire, Urban History, Arab Spring (Arab Revolts), Political Islam, Egyptian History, and Governanceedit
- Senior Researcher, Zentrum Moderner Orient, Berlin
1999: PhD Aix-Marseille I University
2009: Habilitation à diriger des recherchesedit
This book proposes a study of the old regime forms of Ottoman municipal urban governance that were progressively built between the 15th and the 18th c. on the basis of various heritages (Byzantine, Medieval Islamic, Seljukid, Sassanid,... more
This book proposes a study of the old regime forms of Ottoman municipal urban governance that were progressively built between the 15th and the 18th c. on the basis of various heritages (Byzantine, Medieval Islamic, Seljukid, Sassanid, medieval Ottoman) as well as an interpretation of the reforms of the Tanzimat era under the light of this re-evaluation of the previous system. This allows the author to propose innovative ideas on the very nature of civic life, social organization and modernity in the Islamic world. The research is based on original archives from Istanbul (BOA) and various cities of the Empire, from Aleppo to Tunis, Thessaloniki to Alexandria or Damascus and Cairo to Tripoli.
Cet ouvrage est consacré à l’étude des racines et des caractéristiques de la gouvernance urbaine dans l’empire ottoman. Il démontre comment s’est développée sur la base de différents héritages (Byzantin, Islamique médiéval, Seljukide, Sassanide et Ottoman médiéval) à partir du XVe siècle une forme municipale d’ancien régime et étudie sa transformation durant les réformes de l’ère des Tanzimat au XIXe siècle. L’auteure propose ainsi des interprétations innovantes quant à la dimension civique de la vie urbaine, l’organisation sociale et l’impact ambigu avec la modernité dans un contexte islamique. L’étude s’appuie sur des archives inédites trouvées à Istanbul (BOA) et dans des villes comme Alep, Tunis, Thessalonique, Alexandrie, Damas, Le Caire et Tripoli
Cet ouvrage est consacré à l’étude des racines et des caractéristiques de la gouvernance urbaine dans l’empire ottoman. Il démontre comment s’est développée sur la base de différents héritages (Byzantin, Islamique médiéval, Seljukide, Sassanide et Ottoman médiéval) à partir du XVe siècle une forme municipale d’ancien régime et étudie sa transformation durant les réformes de l’ère des Tanzimat au XIXe siècle. L’auteure propose ainsi des interprétations innovantes quant à la dimension civique de la vie urbaine, l’organisation sociale et l’impact ambigu avec la modernité dans un contexte islamique. L’étude s’appuie sur des archives inédites trouvées à Istanbul (BOA) et dans des villes comme Alep, Tunis, Thessalonique, Alexandrie, Damas, Le Caire et Tripoli
Research Interests: Ottoman History, Middle East Studies, Middle East & North Africa, North Africa Studies, Middle East History, and 11 moreUrban History, Colonialism, Mediterranean Studies, Urban Studies, Ottoman Studies, Turkish and Middle East Studies, Islamic Studies, Ottoman Empire, Islam, Maghreb studies, and Cities
The objects of this chapter are to investigate the pertinence of the use of the concept of ‘social movement’ for analysing the developments that the Arab world has been the theatre of during the last few years and, through a critical... more
The objects of this chapter are to investigate the pertinence of the use of the concept of ‘social movement’ for analysing the developments that the Arab world has been the theatre of during the last few years and, through a critical reading of such developments, to re-frame the role of such movements in comparison with other determinants. The definition of a social movement adopted here relates to the existence and action of a network of individuals and groups that share a certain sense of collective destiny and collectively ask for social and political change though various forms of protest. The interpretation of what happened in the Arab world since 2010 is, however, a highly delicate operation, as the processes initiated by social movements often turned into civil wars, coups d’état and/or conservative political developments. Both local claims and international geo-strategy are also entangled in the determination of the various chains of events and so it is difficult to judge the precise role of social movements in sparking the events that led, or not, according to the place, to regime change. The more time passes after the events the more investigators are becoming suspicious regarding the role of social movements. It seems that the season of revolutionary romanticism that accompanied and immediately followed the events is becoming the object of much more circumspect interpretations. A further difficulty is added by the fact that the perception of the existence and characteristics of a civic sphere in the cultural context of the Arab world has been the object of lasting culturalist clichés. The very existence and role in society of expressions coming from the civic sphere is thus to be analysed historically and anthropologically in order to assess the nature of contemporary protests. In this chapter I argue that one of the conditions necessary in order to explain the logics of mobilization of social movements is to re-evaluate the historical dimension of the civic sphere in the region. Contemporary social movements, but also their evolution since 2011, cannot be understood without a look at the history of mobilization in this cultural context. I will thus study here the roots of the civic dimension in the Arab world and follow its developments and limits throughout the events which marked the region since 2010.
Research Interests:
Table of Contents Urban Violence in the Middle East. Changing Cityscapes in the Transition from Empire to Nation State Edited by Ulrike Freitag, Nelida Fuccaro, Claudia Ghrawi, and Nora Lafi 334 pages, 21 illus., bibliog.,... more
Table of Contents
Urban Violence in the Middle East. Changing Cityscapes in the Transition from Empire to Nation State
Edited by Ulrike Freitag, Nelida Fuccaro, Claudia Ghrawi, and Nora Lafi
334 pages, 21 illus., bibliog., index
ISBN 978-1-78238-583-7 $95.00/£60.00 Hb Published (March 2015)
eISBN 978-1-78238-584-4 eBook
Covering a period from the late eighteenth century to today, this volume explores the phenomenon of urban violence in order to unveil general developments and historical specificities in a variety of Middle Eastern contexts. By situating incidents in particular processes and conflicts, the case studies seek to counter notions of a violent Middle East in order to foster a new understanding of violence beyond that of a meaningless and destructive social and political act. Contributions explore processes sparked by the transition from empires — Ottoman and Qajar, but also European — to the formation of nation states, and the resulting changes in cityscapes throughout the region.
Ulrike Freitag is a historian of the Modern Middle East with a special interest in urban history and the Arabian Peninsula in its global context. She directs Zentrum Moderner Orient and teaches at the Freie Universität. She is author of Indian Ocean Migrants and State Formation in Hadhramaut (Brill, 2003).
Nelida Fuccaro is Reader in Modern Middle Eastern History at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. She is the author of Histories of City and State in the Persian Gulf (CUP, 2008) and the editor of “Histories of Oil and Urban Modernity in the Middle East” in CSSAAME (2013).
Claudia Ghrawi holds a Master of Arts degree in history and political science and studied Arabic in Damascus and Berlin. She works as a research fellow at the Zentrum Moderner Orient and is a Ph.D. student at the Freie Universität Berlin.
Nora Lafi is researcher at Zentrum Moderner Orient and is a historian of the Ottoman Empire with a focus on Urban Studies. She is coeditor of The City in the Ottoman Empire: Migration and the Making of Urban Modernity (Routledge, 2010).
Contents
Introduction: Urban Violence in the Middle East: Changing Cityscapes in the Transition from Empire to Nation State
Claudia Ghrawi, Fatemeh Masjedi, Nelida Fuccaro, Ulrike Freitag
Part I: Managing and Employing Violence
Chapter 1. Mapping and Scaling Urban Violence: The 1800 Insurrection in Cairo
Nora Lafi
Chapter 2. A Capital Challenge: Managing Violence and Disorders in Late Ottoman Istanbul
Noémi Lévy-Aksu
Chapter 3. Gendered Obscenity: Women’s Tongues, Men’s Phalluses and the State’s Fist in the Making of Urban Norm in Interwar Egypt
Hanan Hammad
Part II: Symbolic Politics of Violence
Chapter 4. Urban Violence, the Muharram Processions and the Transformation of Iranian Urban Society: The Case of Dezful
Reza Masoudi Nejad
Chapter 5. Symbolic Politics and Urban Violence in Late Ottoman Jeddah
Ulrike Freitag
Part III: Communal Violence and its Discontents
Chapter 6. The 1850 Uprising in Aleppo: Reconsidering the Explanatory Power of Sectarian Argumentations
Feras Krimsti
Chapter 7. The City as a Stage for a Violent Spectacle: The Massacres of Armenians in Istanbul in 1895-96
Florian Riedler
Chapter 8. Transforming the Holy City: From Communal Clashes to Urban Violence, the Nebi Musa Riots in 1920
Roberto Mazza
Part IV: Oil Cities: Spatiality and Violence
Chapter 9. On Lines and Fences: Labour, Community and Violence in an Oil City
Rasmus Christian Elling
Chapter 10. Reading Oil as Urban Violence: Kirkuk and its Oil Conurbation, 1927-1958
Nelida Fuccaro
Chapter 11. Structural and Physical Violence in Saudi Arabian Oil Towns, 1953-1956
Claudia Ghrawi
Afterword: Urban Injustice, Urban Violence and the Revolution: Reflections on Cairo
Khaled Adham
Notes on Contributors
Bibliography
Urban Violence in the Middle East. Changing Cityscapes in the Transition from Empire to Nation State
Edited by Ulrike Freitag, Nelida Fuccaro, Claudia Ghrawi, and Nora Lafi
334 pages, 21 illus., bibliog., index
ISBN 978-1-78238-583-7 $95.00/£60.00 Hb Published (March 2015)
eISBN 978-1-78238-584-4 eBook
Covering a period from the late eighteenth century to today, this volume explores the phenomenon of urban violence in order to unveil general developments and historical specificities in a variety of Middle Eastern contexts. By situating incidents in particular processes and conflicts, the case studies seek to counter notions of a violent Middle East in order to foster a new understanding of violence beyond that of a meaningless and destructive social and political act. Contributions explore processes sparked by the transition from empires — Ottoman and Qajar, but also European — to the formation of nation states, and the resulting changes in cityscapes throughout the region.
Ulrike Freitag is a historian of the Modern Middle East with a special interest in urban history and the Arabian Peninsula in its global context. She directs Zentrum Moderner Orient and teaches at the Freie Universität. She is author of Indian Ocean Migrants and State Formation in Hadhramaut (Brill, 2003).
Nelida Fuccaro is Reader in Modern Middle Eastern History at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. She is the author of Histories of City and State in the Persian Gulf (CUP, 2008) and the editor of “Histories of Oil and Urban Modernity in the Middle East” in CSSAAME (2013).
Claudia Ghrawi holds a Master of Arts degree in history and political science and studied Arabic in Damascus and Berlin. She works as a research fellow at the Zentrum Moderner Orient and is a Ph.D. student at the Freie Universität Berlin.
Nora Lafi is researcher at Zentrum Moderner Orient and is a historian of the Ottoman Empire with a focus on Urban Studies. She is coeditor of The City in the Ottoman Empire: Migration and the Making of Urban Modernity (Routledge, 2010).
Contents
Introduction: Urban Violence in the Middle East: Changing Cityscapes in the Transition from Empire to Nation State
Claudia Ghrawi, Fatemeh Masjedi, Nelida Fuccaro, Ulrike Freitag
Part I: Managing and Employing Violence
Chapter 1. Mapping and Scaling Urban Violence: The 1800 Insurrection in Cairo
Nora Lafi
Chapter 2. A Capital Challenge: Managing Violence and Disorders in Late Ottoman Istanbul
Noémi Lévy-Aksu
Chapter 3. Gendered Obscenity: Women’s Tongues, Men’s Phalluses and the State’s Fist in the Making of Urban Norm in Interwar Egypt
Hanan Hammad
Part II: Symbolic Politics of Violence
Chapter 4. Urban Violence, the Muharram Processions and the Transformation of Iranian Urban Society: The Case of Dezful
Reza Masoudi Nejad
Chapter 5. Symbolic Politics and Urban Violence in Late Ottoman Jeddah
Ulrike Freitag
Part III: Communal Violence and its Discontents
Chapter 6. The 1850 Uprising in Aleppo: Reconsidering the Explanatory Power of Sectarian Argumentations
Feras Krimsti
Chapter 7. The City as a Stage for a Violent Spectacle: The Massacres of Armenians in Istanbul in 1895-96
Florian Riedler
Chapter 8. Transforming the Holy City: From Communal Clashes to Urban Violence, the Nebi Musa Riots in 1920
Roberto Mazza
Part IV: Oil Cities: Spatiality and Violence
Chapter 9. On Lines and Fences: Labour, Community and Violence in an Oil City
Rasmus Christian Elling
Chapter 10. Reading Oil as Urban Violence: Kirkuk and its Oil Conurbation, 1927-1958
Nelida Fuccaro
Chapter 11. Structural and Physical Violence in Saudi Arabian Oil Towns, 1953-1956
Claudia Ghrawi
Afterword: Urban Injustice, Urban Violence and the Revolution: Reflections on Cairo
Khaled Adham
Notes on Contributors
Bibliography
Research Interests:
Antoine Isaac Silvestre de Sacy (1758-1838) fut une figure essentielle du développement et de l’institutionnalisation des études orientales en France, mais aussi dans d’autres pays d’Europe – Italie, Russie, pays... more
Antoine Isaac Silvestre de Sacy (1758-1838) fut une figure essentielle du développement et de l’institutionnalisation des études orientales en France, mais aussi dans d’autres pays d’Europe – Italie, Russie, pays germaniques – dans le premier XIXe siècle. Professeur de persan au Collège de France, professeur d’arabe à l’École des langues orientales, président de la Société asiatique de Paris à sa fondation en 1822, il entretint un réseau de correspondance savante à travers l’Europe et l’Empire ottoman et forma à Paris plusieurs générations d’étudiants français comme étrangers. L’aventure napoléonienne en Égypte avait alors fortement stimulé les études arabes et, plus largement, les différentes philologies orientales. L’intérêt pour le présent immédiat s’accompagnait d’une curiosité pour les langues anciennes de l’Orient. Silvestre de Sacy manifesta lui-même ce double intérêt et promut de manière décisive une approche profane des langues et cultures orientales. Poursuivant la tradition d’étude conjointe des langues et cultures turques, arabes et persanes, il redéfinit donc en même temps l’équilibre structurel entre philologie, théologie, histoire et anthropologie. L’œuvre et la biographie de Silvestre de Sacy documentent ainsi non seulement les rivalités et coopérations internationales, mais aussi les recompositions des savoirs et des disciplines à une époque fondatrice des études orientales modernes. Ont participé à cet ouvrage : Sophie Basch, Annie Berthier, Dominique Bourel, François Deroche, Munir Fakher Eldin, Michel Espagne, Annick Fenet, Jean-Patrick Guillaume, Ludmila Hanisch, Nora Lafi, Sylvette Larzul, Henry Laurens, Nicolas Lyon-Caen, Nazan Maksudyan, Sabine Mangold, Sandrine Maufroy, Alain Messaoudi, Markus Messling, Pascale Rabault-Feuerhahn, Mohammed Sabri ad-Dali, Fredrik Thomasson
Research Interests:
Urban Governance Under the Ottomans focuses on one of the most pressing topics in this field, namely the question why cities formerly known for their multiethnic and multi- religious composition became increasingly marked by conflict in... more
Urban Governance Under the Ottomans focuses on one of the most pressing topics in this field, namely the question why cities formerly known for their multiethnic and multi- religious composition became increasingly marked by conflict in the 19th century.
This collection of essays represents the result of an intense process of discussion among many of the authors, who have been invited to combine theoretical considerations on the question sketched above, with concrete case studies based upon original archival research. From Istanbul to Aleppo, and from the Balkans to Jerusalem, what emerges from the book is a renewed image of the imperial and local mechanisms of coexistence, and of their limits and occasional dissolution in times of change and crisis.
Raising questions of governance and changes therein, as well as epistemological questions regarding what has often been termed 'cosmopolitanism', this book calls for a closer investigation of incidents of both peaceful coexistence, as well as episodes of violence and conflict. A useful addition to existing literature, this book will be of interest to scholars and researchers in the fields of Urban Studies, History and Middle Eastern Studies.
1 Introduction: Cosmopolitanism and Conflicts: Chances and Challenges in Ottoman Urban Governance
Part I: The ottoman Urban Governance from Old regime to the Tanzimat Era
2 Ottoman Reform and Urban Government in the District of Jerusalem, 1867-1917 – Johann Bussow
3 Social Stratification and Change in Herzogovinian Urban Life in the Tanzimat Era - Hannes Grandits
4 [A Quest for] The Bourgeoisie of Istanbul – Edhem Eldem
5 The Role of Labour Migration for the Urban Economy and Governance of Nineteenth Century Istanbul – Florian Riedler
6 North to South Migration in the Imperial Era: Workers and Vagabonds between Vienna and Constantinople – Malte Fuhrmann
Part II: Questions on Ottoman Urban Cosmopolitanism
7 Did Cosmopolitanism Exist in Eighteenth-century Istanbul? Stories of Christian and Jewish Artisans– Suraiya Faroqhi
8 A City Under Fire: Urban Violence in Istanbul during the Alemdar incident (1808) – Aysel Yildiz
9 From a Challenge to the Empire to a Challenge to Urban Cosmopolitanism? The 1819 Aleppo Riots and the Limits of the Imperial Urban Domestication of Factional Violence– Nora Lafi
This collection of essays represents the result of an intense process of discussion among many of the authors, who have been invited to combine theoretical considerations on the question sketched above, with concrete case studies based upon original archival research. From Istanbul to Aleppo, and from the Balkans to Jerusalem, what emerges from the book is a renewed image of the imperial and local mechanisms of coexistence, and of their limits and occasional dissolution in times of change and crisis.
Raising questions of governance and changes therein, as well as epistemological questions regarding what has often been termed 'cosmopolitanism', this book calls for a closer investigation of incidents of both peaceful coexistence, as well as episodes of violence and conflict. A useful addition to existing literature, this book will be of interest to scholars and researchers in the fields of Urban Studies, History and Middle Eastern Studies.
1 Introduction: Cosmopolitanism and Conflicts: Chances and Challenges in Ottoman Urban Governance
Part I: The ottoman Urban Governance from Old regime to the Tanzimat Era
2 Ottoman Reform and Urban Government in the District of Jerusalem, 1867-1917 – Johann Bussow
3 Social Stratification and Change in Herzogovinian Urban Life in the Tanzimat Era - Hannes Grandits
4 [A Quest for] The Bourgeoisie of Istanbul – Edhem Eldem
5 The Role of Labour Migration for the Urban Economy and Governance of Nineteenth Century Istanbul – Florian Riedler
6 North to South Migration in the Imperial Era: Workers and Vagabonds between Vienna and Constantinople – Malte Fuhrmann
Part II: Questions on Ottoman Urban Cosmopolitanism
7 Did Cosmopolitanism Exist in Eighteenth-century Istanbul? Stories of Christian and Jewish Artisans– Suraiya Faroqhi
8 A City Under Fire: Urban Violence in Istanbul during the Alemdar incident (1808) – Aysel Yildiz
9 From a Challenge to the Empire to a Challenge to Urban Cosmopolitanism? The 1819 Aleppo Riots and the Limits of the Imperial Urban Domestication of Factional Violence– Nora Lafi
Research Interests: Ottoman History, Middle East Studies, Middle East & North Africa, Urban History, Cosmopolitan Studies, and 13 moreCosmopolitanism, Urban Studies, Ottoman Studies, Turkish and Middle East Studies, Turkey, Islamic Studies, Ottoman Empire, Ottoman Balkans, Islam, Jerusalem, History of Istanbul, Istanbul, and Aleppo
"The nexus of urban governance and human migration was a crucial feature in the modernisation of cities in the Ottoman Empire of the nineteenth century. This book connects these two concepts to examine the Ottoman city as a destination of... more
"The nexus of urban governance and human migration was a crucial feature in the modernisation of cities in the Ottoman Empire of the nineteenth century. This book connects these two concepts to examine the Ottoman city as a destination of human migration, throwing new light on the question of conviviality and cosmopolitanism from the perspective of the legal, administrative and political frameworks within which these occur.
Focusing on groups of migrants with various ethnic, regional and professional backgrounds, the book juxtaposes the trajectories of these people with attempts by local administrations and the government to control their movements and settlements. By combining a perspective from below with one that focuses on government action, the authors offer broad insights into the phenomenon of migration and city life as a whole. Chapters explore how increased migration driven by new means of transport, military expulsion and economic factors were countered by the state’s attempts to control population movements, as well as the strong internal reforms in the Ottoman world.
Providing a rare comparative perspective on an area often fragmented by area studies boundaries, this book will be of great interest to students of History, Middle Eastern Studies, Balkan Studies, Urban Studies and Migration Studies"
Focusing on groups of migrants with various ethnic, regional and professional backgrounds, the book juxtaposes the trajectories of these people with attempts by local administrations and the government to control their movements and settlements. By combining a perspective from below with one that focuses on government action, the authors offer broad insights into the phenomenon of migration and city life as a whole. Chapters explore how increased migration driven by new means of transport, military expulsion and economic factors were countered by the state’s attempts to control population movements, as well as the strong internal reforms in the Ottoman world.
Providing a rare comparative perspective on an area often fragmented by area studies boundaries, this book will be of great interest to students of History, Middle Eastern Studies, Balkan Studies, Urban Studies and Migration Studies"
Research Interests:
"Editorial Page 79 Nora Lafi, Ulrike Freitag, Guest Editors Daily life and family in an Ottoman urban context: Historiographical stakes and new research perspectives Pages 80-87 Ulrike Freitag, Nora Lafi Family, clergy,... more
"Editorial
Page 79
Nora Lafi, Ulrike Freitag, Guest Editors
Daily life and family in an Ottoman urban context: Historiographical stakes and new research perspectives
Pages 80-87
Ulrike Freitag, Nora Lafi
Family, clergy, conviviality and morality among the Greek-Orthodox in Izmir at the end of the Empire
Pages 88-97
Vangelis Kechriotis
'alim families in seventeenth-century and eighteenth-century Algiers: Genealogy and heritage
Pages 98-107
Fatiha Loualich
Street politics in Damascus: Kinship and other social categories as bases of political action, 1830–1841
Pages 108-125
Johann Büssow
Linguistic diversity and everyday life in the Ottoman cities of the Eastern Mediterranean and the Balkans (late 19th–early 20th century)
Pages 126-141
Johann Strauss
Women, family affairs, and justice: Tunisia in the 19th century
Pages 142-151
Dalenda Larguèche
Bori practice among enslaved West Africans of Ottoman Tunis: Unbelief (Kufr) or another dimension of the African diaspora?
Pages 152-159
Ismael M. Montana
Procreation, family and ‘progress’: Administrative and economic aspects of Ottoman population policies in the 19th century
Pages 160-171
Selçuk Dursun
State ‘parenthood’ and vocational orphanages (islâhhanes): Transformation of urbanity and family life
Pages 172-181
Nazan Maksudyan
"
Page 79
Nora Lafi, Ulrike Freitag, Guest Editors
Daily life and family in an Ottoman urban context: Historiographical stakes and new research perspectives
Pages 80-87
Ulrike Freitag, Nora Lafi
Family, clergy, conviviality and morality among the Greek-Orthodox in Izmir at the end of the Empire
Pages 88-97
Vangelis Kechriotis
'alim families in seventeenth-century and eighteenth-century Algiers: Genealogy and heritage
Pages 98-107
Fatiha Loualich
Street politics in Damascus: Kinship and other social categories as bases of political action, 1830–1841
Pages 108-125
Johann Büssow
Linguistic diversity and everyday life in the Ottoman cities of the Eastern Mediterranean and the Balkans (late 19th–early 20th century)
Pages 126-141
Johann Strauss
Women, family affairs, and justice: Tunisia in the 19th century
Pages 142-151
Dalenda Larguèche
Bori practice among enslaved West Africans of Ottoman Tunis: Unbelief (Kufr) or another dimension of the African diaspora?
Pages 152-159
Ismael M. Montana
Procreation, family and ‘progress’: Administrative and economic aspects of Ottoman population policies in the 19th century
Pages 160-171
Selçuk Dursun
State ‘parenthood’ and vocational orphanages (islâhhanes): Transformation of urbanity and family life
Pages 172-181
Nazan Maksudyan
"
Research Interests: Languages, Ottoman History, Family studies, Middle East Studies, Religion and Sexuality, and 14 moreUrban History, Gender and Sexuality, Orthodox Theology, History of Sexuality, Syrian Studies, Ottoman Studies, Turkish and Middle East Studies, Turkish History, Ottoman Empire, Marriage and Divorce, History of Daily Life, Ottoman Historiography, Tunisian History, and Social history of Algeria
From my childhood in a family of Algerian origin in Istres (Marseilles, France) to my present academic life in Berlin, an overview of the different stages of my career, with a focus on themes like migration, immigration, integration,... more
From my childhood in a family of Algerian origin in Istres (Marseilles, France) to my present academic life in Berlin, an overview of the different stages of my career, with a focus on themes like migration, immigration, integration, discrimination, sport, Islam, the Arabic language, the post-colonial condition in France, cities of the Arab world, gender and of course Ottoman urban studies.
The French academic system of the "Habilitation à diriger des recherches" requires the writting of a such autobiographic essay (ego-history). I will probably never make a real book out of it, but this small e-book is anyway the occasion for me to share this experience
Key words: habilitation à diriger des recherches, HDR, essai d'égo-histoire, mémoire autobiographique
The French academic system of the "Habilitation à diriger des recherches" requires the writting of a such autobiographic essay (ego-history). I will probably never make a real book out of it, but this small e-book is anyway the occasion for me to share this experience
Key words: habilitation à diriger des recherches, HDR, essai d'égo-histoire, mémoire autobiographique
Research Interests: History, Sociology of Sport, Gender Studies, Education, Sex and Gender, and 35 moreOttoman History, Social Sciences, Arabic Language and Linguistics, Race and Racism, Educational Inequalities (class; race; gender etc), Immigration, Critical Race Theory, Class, Race and Ethnicity, Discrimination, Gender, Autobiography, Ottoman Studies, Ottoman Empire, Racism, 20th century France, Migration Studies, Everyday Racism, Race And Ethnicity (in ) migration of indigenous people, Migrant Children's Education, Gender and Race, Physical Education, Beur Literature, Racial and ethnic discrimination, Autobiographical Memory, Citizenship, Berlin, Sport, Race, Algeria: language and national identity, Exercise Science, Algeria, Provence, Marseille, and Immigration Status & Nationality
An essay in comparative urban history and a look at the spirit of the urban reforms of the late ottoman period. With an introduction oncomparatism and the Ottoman urban reforms by Nora Lafi and papers on Jerusalem (Vincent Lemire and... more
An essay in comparative urban history and a look at the spirit of the urban reforms of the late ottoman period.
With an introduction oncomparatism and the Ottoman urban reforms by Nora Lafi and papers on Jerusalem (Vincent Lemire and Yasmin Acvi), Damascus (Stefan Weber), Beirut (Jens Hanssen for the ottoman period, Carla Edde for the colonial period), Rome (Denis Bocquet), Rhodes (Denis Bocquet), Tunis (Nora Lafi), Livorno (Samuel Fettah).
With an introduction oncomparatism and the Ottoman urban reforms by Nora Lafi and papers on Jerusalem (Vincent Lemire and Yasmin Acvi), Damascus (Stefan Weber), Beirut (Jens Hanssen for the ottoman period, Carla Edde for the colonial period), Rome (Denis Bocquet), Rhodes (Denis Bocquet), Tunis (Nora Lafi), Livorno (Samuel Fettah).
Research Interests: Ottoman History, Middle East Studies, Urban History, Comparative History, Urban Studies, and 9 moreOttoman Studies, Ottoman Empire, Ottoman Historiography, Late Ottoman Period, Ottoman-Turkish Westernization, History of Ottoman Art and Architecture, Jerusalem, The history of Damascus during the Nineteenth century between 1831-1861, and Beirut
The publication of what had originally been my PhD (1999). An urban history of Tripoli during the late Ottoman period, with an emphasis on the forms of urban self-government and their fate during the Ottoman reforms (Tanzimat).
Research Interests:
Les Annales tripolitaines de Laurent-Charles Féraud sont longtemps restées dans les recoins obscurs des bibliothèques. La présente réédition critique entend donner à ce texte toute la visibilité qu'il mérite. Œuvre d'un des plus grands... more
Les Annales tripolitaines de Laurent-Charles Féraud sont longtemps restées dans les recoins obscurs des bibliothèques. La présente réédition critique entend donner à ce texte toute la visibilité qu'il mérite. Œuvre d'un des plus grands connaisseurs du Maghreb, elles constituent une source majeure d'information non seulement sur les visées de la France en Tripolitaine (Libye actuelle), une province ottomane qui a longtemps échappé à la colonisation européenne avant de tomber entre les mains des Italiens en 1911, mais aussi sur l'histoire de cette province. Féraud était ce que l'administration militaire française a produit de plus efficace au service de ses visées stratégiques: un homme de terrain doublé d'un érudit, un homme doté de grandes connaissances linguistiques doublé d'un habile diplomate.
Publiées à titre posthume par Augustin Bernard, les Annales tripolitaines étaient depuis des décennies largement inaccessibles. Elles méritent pourtant une large diffusion, offrant à la fois une connaissance précieuse du Maghreb ancien et une chronique implicite de l'expansion coloniale française. Elles complètent également le panorama des écrits de Laurent-Charles Féraud, dans lequel les Annales sont souvent oubliées au profit des écrits sur l'Algérie. Les Annales sont plus -qu'une "monographie" qui se contenterait de rassembler une multitude de renseignements sur la région depuis la conquête arabe en 642 jusqu'à la fin du XIXe siècle: elles sont aussi une œuvre vivante, investie de la passion de l'historien. Certes cette passion est au service de la cause coloniale, mais il faut reconnaître à l'entreprise sa qualité d'érudition et sa grande sensibilité à l'âme tripolitaine. Œuvre majeure de cet érudit du XIXe siècle, qui a connu et parcouru le Maghreb tout au long de sa vie, de l'Atlantique à la Cyrénaïque, et de la Méditerranée au Sahara, dans une période cruciale de son histoire, entre les années 1840 et les années 1880, les Annales apportent un éclairage précieux et unique non seulement sur un horizon géographique mal connu, mais également sur l'histoire du Maghreb en général, entre période ottomane et ère des colonisations.
Publiées à titre posthume par Augustin Bernard, les Annales tripolitaines étaient depuis des décennies largement inaccessibles. Elles méritent pourtant une large diffusion, offrant à la fois une connaissance précieuse du Maghreb ancien et une chronique implicite de l'expansion coloniale française. Elles complètent également le panorama des écrits de Laurent-Charles Féraud, dans lequel les Annales sont souvent oubliées au profit des écrits sur l'Algérie. Les Annales sont plus -qu'une "monographie" qui se contenterait de rassembler une multitude de renseignements sur la région depuis la conquête arabe en 642 jusqu'à la fin du XIXe siècle: elles sont aussi une œuvre vivante, investie de la passion de l'historien. Certes cette passion est au service de la cause coloniale, mais il faut reconnaître à l'entreprise sa qualité d'érudition et sa grande sensibilité à l'âme tripolitaine. Œuvre majeure de cet érudit du XIXe siècle, qui a connu et parcouru le Maghreb tout au long de sa vie, de l'Atlantique à la Cyrénaïque, et de la Méditerranée au Sahara, dans une période cruciale de son histoire, entre les années 1840 et les années 1880, les Annales apportent un éclairage précieux et unique non seulement sur un horizon géographique mal connu, mais également sur l'histoire du Maghreb en général, entre période ottomane et ère des colonisations.
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The object of this chapter is to reflect on the relationship between Venice and the Ottoman Levant on the longue durée, and on the connection between geopolitical considerations and local societies. The focus is put on Aleppo, a city of... more
The object of this chapter is to reflect on the relationship between Venice and the Ottoman Levant on the longue durée, and on the connection between geopolitical considerations and local societies. The focus is put on Aleppo, a city of the Levant in which, at the end of the Middle Ages, Venetian merchants acquired a considerable influence that they retained during most of the Ottoman era. After reflecting on the long-term relationship between Venice and the Ottoman Levant between the local and the global, the essay considers the local dimension, starting from what we can find about Venetian merchants in local sources: civic chronicles and tahrir defteri. This study mainly uses Ibn Iyâs’s chronicle and Ottoman archives.
In a town ruled by its merchants and notables, as far as local affairs were concerned, Venetians were always perfectly included among the local notables (unlike the other Europeans); their local identity always remained very strong, in spite of the opening of a consulate, in 1548, which did lead to a different definition of the Venetian identity, but only after centuries.
In a town ruled by its merchants and notables, as far as local affairs were concerned, Venetians were always perfectly included among the local notables (unlike the other Europeans); their local identity always remained very strong, in spite of the opening of a consulate, in 1548, which did lead to a different definition of the Venetian identity, but only after centuries.
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Tunis as a Laboratory of Ottoman Modernity: The Example of the TGM Suburban Railway (1863-1881) Nora Lafi This article discusses the way in which infrastructural modernization was implemented in late-Ottoman Tunis. Based upon research in... more
Tunis as a Laboratory of Ottoman Modernity: The Example of the TGM Suburban Railway (1863-1881)
Nora Lafi
This article discusses the way in which infrastructural modernization was implemented in late-Ottoman Tunis. Based upon research in the national archives of Tunisia, it follows the various steps of the planning, construction and operation of a suburban railway between the 1850s and the turn of the 20th c.: concession to foreign private investors, rivalries between foreign consulates as for the control of infrastructures in the Ottoman province of Tunisia, passage to the colonial period. The article illustrates both the genuine character of the local Ottoman effort at infrastructural modernization and its founding ambiguities, i.e., the recourse to the system of the concession, constant interferences by foreign powers (British, French and Italian). It also illustrates how modernization was the result not of a mere import of foreign expertise but also of negotiations of the local level and of a planned policy at the imperial level with peer-to-peer circulations between the main cities of the Empire.
Nora Lafi
This article discusses the way in which infrastructural modernization was implemented in late-Ottoman Tunis. Based upon research in the national archives of Tunisia, it follows the various steps of the planning, construction and operation of a suburban railway between the 1850s and the turn of the 20th c.: concession to foreign private investors, rivalries between foreign consulates as for the control of infrastructures in the Ottoman province of Tunisia, passage to the colonial period. The article illustrates both the genuine character of the local Ottoman effort at infrastructural modernization and its founding ambiguities, i.e., the recourse to the system of the concession, constant interferences by foreign powers (British, French and Italian). It also illustrates how modernization was the result not of a mere import of foreign expertise but also of negotiations of the local level and of a planned policy at the imperial level with peer-to-peer circulations between the main cities of the Empire.
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The existence of a series of early Ottoman Tahrîr Defteri allows scholars to reconstruct how the Ottoman instruments of governance of diversity were created, as part of a wider negotiation of the insertion of local society into the... more
The existence of a series of early Ottoman Tahrîr Defteri allows scholars to reconstruct how the Ottoman instruments of governance of diversity were created, as part of a wider negotiation of the insertion of local society into the imperial structure.
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A reflection on today's relationship between Europe and the former Ottoman world
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This article offers an anthropological reading of Ottoman sources on Libya to shed light on the history of women in Islamic contexts while addressing key issues of gender, power, and representation in history writing. It features the... more
This article offers an anthropological reading of Ottoman sources on Libya to shed light on the history of women in Islamic contexts while addressing key issues of gender, power, and representation in history writing. It features the potential of a method that, while illuminating the presence of women in a variety of archival and textual Ottoman sources, questions the gendered nature of their representations as historical subjects. In so doing, the article contributes to current debates on history writing and articulates the perspective of a scholar of Women's History in the Islamic context. The article first outlines some of the challenges that have been identified and tackled by feminist historians over recent decades as for the search for sources in which women's lives can be retraced. It then introduces the main sources that were used in the research – a civic chronicle and a petition – and proposes more general reflections on method in historical research, in which the possibility of tracking women's life journeys in predominantly masculine sources is critically explored. Finally, a series of female figures emerging from such sources as for the case of Ottoman Tripoli (North-Africa) is studied, with an effort of reflection on social typologies and categories in which women were often reduced to clichéd characters like the Wife, the Widow, the Slave, and the Prostitute.
Research Interests: Gender Studies, Historical Anthropology, Women's Studies, Ottoman History, Women's History, and 13 moreMiddle East & North Africa, Research Methodology, North Africa Studies, Gender History, Ottoman Studies, Women, Women and Gender Issues in Islam, Ottoman Empire, Maghreb studies, Mediterranean and North Africa, Libya, Women and Gender Studies, and North Africa
Pier Paolo Pasolini (1922-1975), was a poet, film-maker, journalist, philosopher and intellectual but he was not a historian. He lived, however, in times in which his country was at the centre of complex entanglements of scale between... more
Pier Paolo Pasolini (1922-1975), was a poet, film-maker, journalist, philosopher and intellectual but he was not a historian. He lived, however, in times in which his country was at the centre of complex entanglements of scale between national politics and cold war geopolitics. This resulted in a destructive season of terrorism and political manipulations in Italy. Pasolini denounced the collusion between neo-fascist militias, parts of the state apparatus, NATO and the CIA in the organisation of deadly terrorist acts in the country. His position, as an intellectual , can be a source of inspiration when trying to reflect on how historians can tackle the present. Contrary to the periods they study in the archives, and for which they reflect on the heuristic status of the historical proof, they don't have such proofs for the present. What they have however, is, in addition to a considerable sum of information, the knowledge of some mechanisms, that might help interpret the present. This paper is an attempt to interpret current events in the Middle East, North Africa, Europe and the Mediterranean in the light of this inspiration, around the explicitation of a few facts that are often neglected or unsaid.
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The concept of authenticity, as defined in international circles between the 1960s and the 1994 Nara Conference on Heritage, has been one of the main instruments used to define policies aiming at heritage protection during the last few... more
The concept of authenticity, as defined in international circles between the 1960s and the 1994 Nara Conference on Heritage, has been one of the main instruments used to define policies aiming at heritage protection during the last few decades. The concept also became more than an instrument: it shaped entire approaches to the question of the built heritage and to the process – social and political – aiming at its conservation and restoration. For this reason, it has been the object of intense discussions, with scholars and activists denouncing some of its founding ambiguities as being tied to static and sometimes culturalist conceptions of history, to colonial visions, and to policies of social segregation. The object of this chapter is to reflect on such debates around the case of the city of Aleppo, and particularly around the way its medieval and Ottoman built heritage was dealt with in the period of the Ottoman reforms of the second half of the 19th century, the period of French colonial occupation, and the various phases of independence up to its present- day tragic destruction.
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This article analyzes the process of reforming police practices and institutions in Tunis during the period of the Tanzimat. Working from the unpublished annals of the sheikh al-madîna, the head of the pre-Tanzimat municipal institutions,... more
This article analyzes the process of reforming police practices and institutions in Tunis during the period of the Tanzimat. Working from the unpublished annals of the sheikh al-madîna, the head of the pre-Tanzimat municipal institutions, and from archives pertaining to the creation of new police forces during the reforms, it engages with a series of ongoing debates in historiography about the nature of modernization processes in a province of the Ottoman Empire that was already subject to European colonialist pressures and about the relationship between the imperial structure, local notables and the urban population. The main argument illustrates how modernization was a complex process of continuity and change in which the negotiation of new institutional, bureaucratic, and social features was a central issue. Reevaluating the importance and character of pre-Tanzimat institutions also suggests that we read the process that led to modernization and the nature of modernity itself with a critical lens.
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Ce chapitre, qui fait partie d'un ouvrage dirigé par Torbjørn Ødegaard sur le consul norvégien Hammeken et sur son séjour à Alger, s'attache à décrire la situation de la ville au XVIIIe siècle: espace bâti, société urbaine, pouvoirs... more
Ce chapitre, qui fait partie d'un ouvrage dirigé par Torbjørn Ødegaard sur le consul norvégien Hammeken et sur son séjour à Alger, s'attache à décrire la situation de la ville au XVIIIe siècle: espace bâti, société urbaine, pouvoirs urbains.
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La présente étude, dont les échos contemporains sont malheureusement assourdissants, se fonde sur le choix de rechercher les racines des manifestations de violence dont les villes du monde arabe ont été le théâtre au cours de leur... more
La présente étude, dont les échos contemporains sont malheureusement assourdissants, se fonde sur le choix de rechercher les racines des manifestations de violence dont les villes du monde arabe ont été le théâtre au cours de leur histoire, non point comme des données innées émanant d’une supposée propension à l’éruption des sociétés locales, mais plutôt comme la résultante d’une série de facteurs induisant une rupture des équilibres de gouvernance et de coexistence socialement construits à plusieurs échelles, de la maisonnée à l’Empire puis à l’échelle de la géopolitique, et de la rue au quartier et à la ville
Research Interests: Anthropology, Ottoman History, Sociology of Violence, Violence, Middle East Studies, and 15 moreMiddle East History, Urban History, Sexual Violence, Political Violence and Terrorism, Urban Studies, Ottoman Studies, Turkish and Middle East Studies, Political Violence, Ottoman Empire, Modern Middle East History, Late Ottoman Period, Gender And Violence, War and violence, Mediterranean and North Africa, and Middle East
La question du gouvernement urbain à Alexandrie a toujours constitué pour moi l'horizon d'un dialogue avec Robert Ilbert, souvent entamé, toujours en filigrane de nos discussions relatives à d'autres villes, mais jamais vraiment refermé.... more
La question du gouvernement urbain à Alexandrie a toujours constitué pour moi l'horizon d'un dialogue avec Robert Ilbert, souvent entamé, toujours en filigrane de nos discussions relatives à d'autres villes, mais jamais vraiment refermé. Mes recherches sur les institutions municipales d'ancien régime dans l'Empire ottoman ont en effet commencé sous sa direction au moment de la préparation de ma thèse de doctorat sur la ville de Tripoli (1992-1999). C'est grâce à ses encouragements que j'ai osé creuser les hypothèses que me suggéraient mes premières découvertes en archives, puis que j'ai pu démontrer pour la capitale de la Libye actuelle l'existence d'un système de gouvernement municipal d'ancien régime ottoman, à l'articulation entre intégration impériale et prérogatives de la notabilité locale. Ces affirmations allaient à l'encontre des idées reçues sur l'absence de telles institutions émanant de la société locale en contexte ottoman, arabe ou islamique. Dominaient encore les perceptions académiques de villes soit gouvernées par des représentants de l'Empire soit dénuées de toute organisation civique locale ayant débouché sur la constitution d'une sphère du gouvernement urbain : la gouvernance locale était perçue comme lacunaire ou au mieux fragmentaire. Robert Ilbert n'avait pas travaillé directement sur cette période, et n'avait pas formulé directement d'hypothèses en la matière, mais son ouverture d'esprit, manifestée dès la définition de mon sujet de recherche, tranchait avec les réticences que je percevais par ailleurs. Pour cet hommage, j'ai donc voulu tenter d'examiner l'hypothèse pour la ville même dont il a étudié la période suivante.
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In 1857 the city of Tunis witnessed the first anti-Jewish riots in Tunisian history. These events marked the end of the communal balance that had until then characterized the Ottoman pax urbana under the old regime, and took place in the... more
In 1857 the city of Tunis witnessed the first anti-Jewish riots in Tunisian history. These events marked the end of the communal balance that had until then characterized the Ottoman pax urbana under the old regime, and took place in the context of the difficult implementation of Ottoman reform in the province of Tunisia, and of the growing influence of European consuls in urban and provincial affairs. This chapter analyzes the various logics that led to the outbreak of communal strife: the instrumentalization of popular violence by different urban factions; the influence of state violence on popular will; and the link between a novel form of resentment against the Jewish community and the ambiguous actions of European consuls who held increasingly evident colonial views of and ambitions over local society.
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Cette contribution propose à la fois de faire un point historiographique sur les études urbaines arabes, et d’amorcer une étude du passage de la ville arabe à la modernité administrative à partir du cas de Tripoli (Libye ...
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La possession de l'archipel Maltais fut pendant longtemps un atout dans les opérations de guerre maritimes ou commerciales pour qui voulait asseoir sa domination en Méditerranée. Comment Tripoli de Barbarie et Malte, possession... more
La possession de l'archipel Maltais fut pendant longtemps un atout dans les opérations de guerre maritimes ou commerciales pour qui voulait asseoir sa domination en Méditerranée. Comment Tripoli de Barbarie et Malte, possession anglaise depuis 1814, ont-elles lié leur histoire ...
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Dear friends ofthe Ottoman Urban Studies Seminar. It is a pleasure to have you all here for this third year ofour reflections about Ottoman Urban Societies. After a first year about urban government, a second one about the question of... more
Dear friends ofthe Ottoman Urban Studies Seminar. It is a pleasure to have you all here for this third year ofour reflections about Ottoman Urban Societies. After a first year about urban government, a second one about the question of cosmopolitanism, we choose to dedicate ...
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Une lecture historique, des années 1960 aux années 1970 du projet Grand Delta d'industrialisation de la région du delta du Rhône en liaison avec les ambitions de planification interrégionale de la Datar pour l'axe ...
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Entre la fin du XV e siècle et le début du XVI e siècle, l'Empire ottoman, qui a quelques décennies auparavant consolidé considérablement son assise continentale par la prise de Constantinople, capitale de l'Empire romain d'Orient, qui... more
Entre la fin du XV e siècle et le début du XVI e siècle, l'Empire ottoman, qui a quelques décennies auparavant consolidé considérablement son assise continentale par la prise de Constantinople, capitale de l'Empire romain d'Orient, qui devient Istanbul, se lance dans une vaste entreprise d'intégration de l'occident méditerranéen. Ce moment de redéfinition des aires d'influence en Méditerranée est aussi un moment crucial dans l'histoire de la cartographie, comme l'incarne l'oeuvre d'Ahmed ben al-Hadj Muhammad Karamani-i Larendevî, plus connu sous son nom de marin : Piri Reis.
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L'historien est forcément mal-à-l'aise lorsqu'il s'agit de formuler des idées sur le présent. L'histoire n'est jamais une somme de leçons du passé dont l'étude déboucherait de manière mécanique sur des solutions pour le présent. La... more
L'historien est forcément mal-à-l'aise lorsqu'il s'agit de formuler des idées sur le présent. L'histoire n'est jamais une somme de leçons du passé dont l'étude déboucherait de manière mécanique sur des solutions pour le présent. La méthode même de l'historien se détache d'une telle croyance. Pourtant, l'historien n'est pas privé de droits civiques. Dans le cadre de notre discussion de ce soir, je voudrais tenter d'avancer quelques idées, destinées à nous faire collectivement réfléchir aux valeurs qui sont les nôtres, que nous défendons et que nous transmettons à nos enfants. Mon idée principale est que nous vivons aujourd'hui le moment d'un fort repli sur ce que nous considérons comme les valeurs fondamentales de la civilisation européenne et que ce repli ne nous aide pas à penser le monde. C'est au contraire à mon avis par une vision critique et historicisée des fondements de cette civilisation que nous éviterons l'écueil d'un combat incompréhensible par ceux qui ne se sentent pas concernés par ces valeurs, voire agressés par elles. En somme, et c'est le sens de tout travail avec la jeunesse, il ne suffit pas de parler uniquement aux convaincus pour convaincre. Il faut surtout comprendre les racines du doute, voire du rejet. Cela a été le sens de ma contribution au programme de l'OFAJ-DFJW 'Transmed : penser les marges de l'Europe'. Je voudrais ce soir reprendre certaines de ces conclusions et les étendre aux domaines imposés par une actualité tragique. L'idée est que les impasses actuelles dans la pensée des marges de l'Europe, et notamment de la Méditerranée, ont des racines historiques précises, et souvent impensées, qui touchent toute une sédimentation d'ambiguïtés idéologiques qui ont contribué au façonnement de l'idée même d'Europe. Nos valeurs, en somme, ne sont pas neutres.
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La période ottomane a longtemps été lue, pour ce qui concerne l’Afrique du Nord, comme marquée par une occupation vue comme « turque », ayant précédé d’autres occupations, cette fois de nature coloniale. L’objet de cet article est, autour... more
La période ottomane a longtemps été lue, pour ce qui concerne l’Afrique du Nord, comme marquée par une occupation vue comme « turque », ayant précédé d’autres occupations, cette fois de nature coloniale. L’objet de cet article est, autour d’une réflexion sur la nature de l’impérialité ottomane, de proposer une vision critique de ce type de narration. L’accent est particulièrement mis sur la dimension intégrative de la gouvernance impériale, ainsi que sur le pacte d’appartenance impériale entre les élites locales maghrébines et le gouvernement d’Istanbul.
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In this article, I try to propose a new reading of the municipality under its late Ottoman form and to propose alternative interpretations to the still widely accepted dichotomy about the transition between Empire and Nation State. The... more
In this article, I try to propose a new reading of the municipality under its late Ottoman form and to propose alternative interpretations to the still widely accepted dichotomy about the transition between Empire and Nation State. The main argument is that there was between at least the 16th and the 19th century an old regime form of urban government in the city, more complex than often described, and that this system was reformed during the second half of the 19th century, when the municipality became one of the instruments of the promotion of an Ottoman modernity. I argue that this Ottoman municipal modernity was consistant and coherent, in spite of its limits, and that a re-evaluation of this feature in necessary in order to revise interpretations about the passage to Greek sovereignty. The imperative of a new perspective on the urban and local nature of the municipal Ottoman modernity invites indeed to pose new questions to the passage to the Greek period.
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The object of this paper is an analysis of the issue of town planning during the first years of the Italian occupation of Libya. Based upon the archives of the presidency of the council of ministers in Rome and on local archives in... more
The object of this paper is an analysis of the issue of town planning during the first years of the Italian occupation of Libya. Based upon the archives of the presidency of the council of ministers in Rome and on local archives in Tripoli, the authors trace the rivalries between army engineers, civil engineers and the former ottoman municipality in the drawing of the first colonial masterplan of Tripoli.
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In his 1954 address to the American Philosophical Society on the role of the Ottoman Empire in world history, Arnold Toynbee emphasized the importance of the year 1453. The subsequent centuries he envisioned as merely a series of... more
In his 1954 address to the American Philosophical Society on the role of the Ottoman Empire in world history, Arnold Toynbee emphasized the importance of the year 1453. The subsequent centuries he envisioned as merely a series of splendours and failures leading inevitably to the collapse of the Empire and the creation of the modern Turkish state. For many years, the process was seen as follows: the Ottoman Empire was a counterpoint to great global frescoes which had little to do with the methodological progress to be accomplished later in the field of history, now tackled from a global perspective. Even in this framework, as will be seen, the place of the eighteenth century cannot be taken for granted. The Ottoman Empire’s important position is recognised, of course, in valuations of the interlaced cultural and institutional spheres which have shaped the world; it is conceded that the Empire incarnated certain crucial aspects of the evolution of these spheres and their interstices at the moment when modernity emerged, the fundamentals of which are to be discussed on a solid base, beyond cumbersome ideological wreckage. Nevertheless, in the field of Ottoman studies, the common era eighteenth century is rarely considered as a key period. Work has tended to focus on Ottoman expansion in earlier period, as well as on the decline, portrayed as irremediable, of the nineteenth century.
Nevertheless, for the Ottoman Empire – and in particular for its Arab provinces, the eighteenth century represents a crucial moment. (This is not to ignore other aspects of the Empire nor non-Ottoman areas of the Arabic cultural domain). From a global historical perspective, the study of these provinces is a crucial area for current research. The same is true for work in connected history. It is only from this angle that the Ottoman Empire will be able to find its rightful place in reflections on the destiny of empires and on the characteristics of the societies to which they have given birth
Nevertheless, for the Ottoman Empire – and in particular for its Arab provinces, the eighteenth century represents a crucial moment. (This is not to ignore other aspects of the Empire nor non-Ottoman areas of the Arabic cultural domain). From a global historical perspective, the study of these provinces is a crucial area for current research. The same is true for work in connected history. It is only from this angle that the Ottoman Empire will be able to find its rightful place in reflections on the destiny of empires and on the characteristics of the societies to which they have given birth
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The history of Thessaloniki (or Salonica, Selânîk) is now well-documented: many aspects of urban life during the last decades of the Ottoman Empire and during the transition to Greek sovereignty have been explored and the image we have of... more
The history of Thessaloniki (or Salonica, Selânîk) is now well-documented: many aspects of urban life during the last decades of the Ottoman Empire and during the transition to Greek sovereignty have been explored and the image we have of the history of the city is now much more nuanced than a few decades ago. Historiography, however, often remains quite splintered between various sectors which are not always corresponding to a common sphere of questionings and of scholarly dialogue. From the history of the Jews in the city to the general history of the Ottoman Empire between reforms and Balkan Wars, or to the history of national struggles in the region and to that of the city at the time of its integration into the Greek kingdom, Thessaloniki tends to be the object of separate historiographical traditions, questionings and methods. All have profoundly evolved during recent decades, but not necessarily converged. It is of course a matter of competences, for historians working on different periods and archival resources of different nature and languages. But it is also a question linked to the very sociological milieu of historians, with its divides, its schools of interpretation and its own diversity of points of view. The question of the historiography of Thessaloniki indeed remains a highly ideological one, with different traditions corresponding to different interpretations of history. Even if the era of national historiographies is now largely over, or at least the object of critical examinations, history writing about and on Thessaloniki is far from being the object of a consensus. Divergent views on the Ottoman period continue for example to characterize the narratives of the city. But the context is quite favourable for a new discussion: on the one side, the Greek nationalist narrative has now been nuanced, and on the other side, studies on cosmopolitan Salonica and on the context of the Ottoman reforms of the last third of the 19th c. have brought a new vision of the late Ottoman period. In this article, I try, with the example of urban governance and of municipal institutions, to build on the context of the present dynamism in historiography in order to propose a new reading of the municipality under its late Ottoman form and to propose alternative interpretations to the still widely accepted dichotomy about the transition between Empire and Nation State. The main argument is that there was between at least the 16th and the 19th century an old regime form of urban government in the city, more complex than often described, and that this system was reformed during the second half of the 19th century, when the municipality became one of the instruments of the promotion of an Ottoman modernity. I argue that this Ottoman municipal modernity was consistant and coherent, in spite of its limits, and that a re-evaluation of this feature in necessary in order to revise interpretations about the passage to Greek sovereignty. The imperative of a new perspective on the urban and local nature of the municipal Ottoman modernity invites indeed to pose new questions to the passage to the Greek period.
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The idea of cosmopolitanism today is often an exercize in regressive nostalgia, harking back to a time when Muslims and Jews, or Greeks and Turks, lived together in Mediterranean cities, mostly of the Ottoman Empire. In this paper, I... more
The idea of cosmopolitanism today is often an exercize in regressive nostalgia, harking back to a time when Muslims and Jews, or Greeks and Turks, lived together in Mediterranean cities, mostly of the Ottoman Empire. In this paper, I examine both this notion of Ottoman cosmopolitanism and, under a critical perspective, its ambiguous contemporary revivals.
Key Words: Mediterranean, urban, cities, city, cosmopolitanism, coexistence, colonialism, diversity, governance, ottoman, empire, Adwan, Asu, Baali, Ballinger, Bayat, Bhanu, Bottin, Bowden, Breckenridge, Bromberger, Brown, Bullen, Cartier, Cheah, Cochran, Darques, Driessen, Escher, Fettah, Fuhrmann, Gastaut, Georgelin, Gikandi, Goldhaber, Hanssenn, Livne, Malacrino, Komins, Meijer, Meinecke, Mills, Nagel, Pedani, Pehlivan, Pojman, Prange, Reimer, Rosenfeld, Vertovec, Thelen, Yavuz, Tadroz, Istanbul, Cairo, Jérusalem, Marseille, Tel-Aviv, Jaffa, Haifa, Naples, Greek, Armenian, Jews, Alexandria, Beirut, Salonika, Thessaloniki"
Key Words: Mediterranean, urban, cities, city, cosmopolitanism, coexistence, colonialism, diversity, governance, ottoman, empire, Adwan, Asu, Baali, Ballinger, Bayat, Bhanu, Bottin, Bowden, Breckenridge, Bromberger, Brown, Bullen, Cartier, Cheah, Cochran, Darques, Driessen, Escher, Fettah, Fuhrmann, Gastaut, Georgelin, Gikandi, Goldhaber, Hanssenn, Livne, Malacrino, Komins, Meijer, Meinecke, Mills, Nagel, Pedani, Pehlivan, Pojman, Prange, Reimer, Rosenfeld, Vertovec, Thelen, Yavuz, Tadroz, Istanbul, Cairo, Jérusalem, Marseille, Tel-Aviv, Jaffa, Haifa, Naples, Greek, Armenian, Jews, Alexandria, Beirut, Salonika, Thessaloniki"
Research Interests: Critical Theory, Urban Geography, Ottoman History, Diversity, Urban History, and 25 moreUrban Planning, Critical Race Theory, Urban Regeneration, Colonialism, Cosmopolitanism, Mediterranean Studies, Urban Studies, Ottoman Studies, Post-Colonialism, Mediterranean Studies (Area Studies), History of the Mediterranean, Urban Sociology, Diversity & Inclusion, Creative City, Empire, Imperialism, Conflict and security, Post Colonial Theory, Urban Cohesion, Governance and Democracy, Colonialism and Imperialism, Nationalism and Decolonization, Belonging and Citizenship, Ethnicity and Nationality, and Nation building and State making
In many societies, petitions are a means of communication between rulers and ruled. Since the 1980s, historians have tried to analyse the nature of this relationship and to answer linked questions, such as the emergence of public opinion,... more
In many societies, petitions are a means of communication between rulers and ruled. Since the 1980s, historians have tried to analyse the nature of this relationship and to answer linked questions, such as the emergence of public opinion, the existence of a civil society and the capacity of a society to develop forms of democracy. Petitions are indeed a very abundant archival resource, and also a very specific individual or collective expression of discontent, protest, opinion or need. As such, they are invaluable historical sources, both informative and reflective of the nature of the society that produced them. From ancient times to the era of Byzantium, from medieval England to18th century North America, or from 18th century Japan to present times, petitions have been crucial in shedding light on the whole governance context, as scholars have frequently shown. In the Ottoman empire, petitions were also central features of the relationship between rulers and ruled. In the Ottoman empire, communication between local societies and the central administration in Istanbul was codified during the period of the old regime on the basis of various medieval practices, themselves sometimes of ancient origin. In cases of conflict, or where generally accepted administrative processes had broken down, or in cases where new demands or problems had arisen, inhabitants were granted the right to write petitions either on an individual basis or as a group (professional, confessional, civic collective body). But this system of petitioning was more than mere recourse to remedies or adjustments. Rather, it was an integral tool in the functioning of the empire and in the definition of imperial power in the provinces. The petition was not just an exceptional tool, but a normal procedure, whose bureaucratic nature had been formalised over the course of the Ottoman centuries. Indeed, the central archives in Istanbul contain hundreds of thousands of such petitions from throughout the empire and spanning the 15th to the 20th centuries. These petitions were registered by a specialised administrative bureau, whose consistency and importance grew as the empire set about constructing its bureaucratic apparatus. Petitions were registered in daftar, and subjected to a whole administrative process that constituted the very essence of imperial authority. The petition cannot be likened to a bottle thrown into the ocean in the hopes of capturing the sultan's attention, and nor was it merely akin to a medieval supplicant's appeal to the sovereign in the hopes of gaining an exception. It was rather an act of codified administrative communication whose role is pivotal to an understanding of the very essence of the Ottoman empire and the relationship between centre and peripheries. This codification had a multifaceted heritage dating from the period from the 16th to the 18th centuries, an era that in administrative terms constitutes the Ottoman old regime. However, during the Tanzimat era and, for cities, the period of municipal reform during the second half of the 19th century, when both the whole administrative system and the very foundations the organisation of society itself were reordered, these old practices were, paradoxically, used intensively to negotiate the accommodation of the new administrative system with local configurations. At the very moment of its reform, the old system was the object of strong collective investment, which reveals both the importance of the old channels of communication and of the mediation process for accommodating the new.
Research Interests: Ottoman History, Urban History, Governance, Medieval Islam, Archives, and 18 moreUrban Studies, Ottoman Studies, Civil Society and the Public Sphere, Turkish History, Byzantine Studies, Late Antiquity, Islamic Studies, Ottoman Empire, Byzantine History, Early modern Ottoman History, Modern Ottoman History, Islamic History, Ottoman-Turkish Westernization, Old Regime Justice, Economic and Social History of the Ottoman Empire, History of Istanbul, Cultural anthropology, bureaucracy, and Right of petition
The question of the circulation of municipal knowledge has benefited in the last decade from a renewed historiographical attention. In a Mediterranean context, the stake is mainly to reconsider our perception of the circulation of ideas... more
The question of the circulation of municipal knowledge has benefited in the last decade from a renewed historiographical attention.
In a Mediterranean context, the stake is mainly to reconsider our perception of the circulation of ideas that enabled (or constrained) the modernisation of societies during the course of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The subliminal starting point (but sometimes enounced very explicitly) is that circulations occurred from North to South and West to East. The “Mediterranean Crossings” hypothesis I will explore in this chapter, and illustrate with the case of the urban reforms in the Ottoman Empire, is that circulations were more complex, while modernity, even when imported in its exact form, was interacting dynamically with societies in which processes of change were already in action.
The study of circulations in a Mediterranean case is a minefield. It provides opportunities not only to understand the circulation of ideas between different cultures, but also to confront the impact of colonialism and imperialism. The very vision of modernity being prejudiced by these issues, the stake of the promotion of a renewed global history involves a reconsideration of two centuries of unequal circulations and, ultimately, a different reading of the fate of modernity in “subaltern” societies. The study of the Ottoman Empire shows that circulations were more complex than a translation of knowledge from ‘export' to ‘import' societies. It is only with a discussion of ideas on circulation that the complexity of these societies can undo this conventional “reception” mode.
The Ottoman Empire is particularly adapted to such a historiographical programme. On the one hand, the concept of Empire has recently aroused new developments in global and imperial history. These have revisited the canonical empires, or developed comparative imperial questions between the Russian, the Habsburg and the Ottoman, bringing about new insights into the treatment of local characters, the dynamics of integration and assimilation, the importance of circulation as a social glue for imperial constructions, and the governance of diversity. As for the Ottoman case, a whole new generation of scholars is especially keen to discuss the complex interaction between local and global, and to reach beyond nation and religion as central paradigms. This is not to suggest that these notions are irrelevant. Yet, as they turn our eyes to specificities and peculiarities, they sometimes mask the dynamics of the circulation of ideas associated with modernity. This insistence on cultural specificities also contributed to the conceptual isolation of the Ottoman region, despite Franz Rosenthal's proposals for a firm inscription of Muslim societies into World History as early as 1952.
In a Mediterranean context, the stake is mainly to reconsider our perception of the circulation of ideas that enabled (or constrained) the modernisation of societies during the course of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The subliminal starting point (but sometimes enounced very explicitly) is that circulations occurred from North to South and West to East. The “Mediterranean Crossings” hypothesis I will explore in this chapter, and illustrate with the case of the urban reforms in the Ottoman Empire, is that circulations were more complex, while modernity, even when imported in its exact form, was interacting dynamically with societies in which processes of change were already in action.
The study of circulations in a Mediterranean case is a minefield. It provides opportunities not only to understand the circulation of ideas between different cultures, but also to confront the impact of colonialism and imperialism. The very vision of modernity being prejudiced by these issues, the stake of the promotion of a renewed global history involves a reconsideration of two centuries of unequal circulations and, ultimately, a different reading of the fate of modernity in “subaltern” societies. The study of the Ottoman Empire shows that circulations were more complex than a translation of knowledge from ‘export' to ‘import' societies. It is only with a discussion of ideas on circulation that the complexity of these societies can undo this conventional “reception” mode.
The Ottoman Empire is particularly adapted to such a historiographical programme. On the one hand, the concept of Empire has recently aroused new developments in global and imperial history. These have revisited the canonical empires, or developed comparative imperial questions between the Russian, the Habsburg and the Ottoman, bringing about new insights into the treatment of local characters, the dynamics of integration and assimilation, the importance of circulation as a social glue for imperial constructions, and the governance of diversity. As for the Ottoman case, a whole new generation of scholars is especially keen to discuss the complex interaction between local and global, and to reach beyond nation and religion as central paradigms. This is not to suggest that these notions are irrelevant. Yet, as they turn our eyes to specificities and peculiarities, they sometimes mask the dynamics of the circulation of ideas associated with modernity. This insistence on cultural specificities also contributed to the conceptual isolation of the Ottoman region, despite Franz Rosenthal's proposals for a firm inscription of Muslim societies into World History as early as 1952.
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Research Interests: History, Middle East & North Africa, North Africa Studies, Historiography, Colonialism, and 16 moreLiterature and Politics, Algerian war, Egypt, Maghreb studies, Empire, Imperialism, Algeria: language and national identity, Algerian Independence War, Algeria, Tunisia, North Africa, French colonial Algeria, Contemporary Algeria, France, Colonialism, Etudes maghrébines, and Morocco. Culture
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With this study on Aleppo during the second half of the 17th century, Charles Wilkins not only proposes a detailed vi- sion of the evolution of this urban society in Ottoman times, but also a reflection on the relationship between what... more
With this study on Aleppo during the second half of the 17th century, Charles Wilkins not only proposes a detailed vi- sion of the evolution of this urban society in Ottoman times, but also a reflection on the relationship between what happened at the scale of the Empire, notably a series of wars, and the re-organization of taxa- tion at the scale of the city, with a series of decisions which had a huge impact on urban neighbourhoods, guilds, notables and merchants. This is probably one of the major originalities of this book: focus- ing on the entanglement of scales between geopolitics and urban life in a complex organization like the Ottoman Empire.
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A review of Karen Barkey's Empire of Difference and a reflection on the governance of diversity in an Ottoman context, as well as on State-building processes and on the mutual construction of legitimacy between the imperial sphere and... more
A review of Karen Barkey's Empire of Difference and a reflection on the governance of diversity in an Ottoman context, as well as on State-building processes and on the mutual construction of legitimacy between the imperial sphere and local powers.
Key Words: Ottoman Empire – State – Centralization – Istanbul – orient – orientalism – imperial model – imperial governance – Byzantium – Kappeler – Osman – Orhan – Wittek – Kafadar – Darling – Imber – Inalcik – Lowry – Matschke – Murad II – Christians – cohabition – governance – diversity – 1453 – petitions – Moore – Crete – Arab provinces – Voltaire – Islam – Locke – multiculturalism – Young Turks – Abdülhamid – Patrona Halil – Tanzimat – World War I – BOA Archives – tolerance – Bourdieu
Key Words: Ottoman Empire – State – Centralization – Istanbul – orient – orientalism – imperial model – imperial governance – Byzantium – Kappeler – Osman – Orhan – Wittek – Kafadar – Darling – Imber – Inalcik – Lowry – Matschke – Murad II – Christians – cohabition – governance – diversity – 1453 – petitions – Moore – Crete – Arab provinces – Voltaire – Islam – Locke – multiculturalism – Young Turks – Abdülhamid – Patrona Halil – Tanzimat – World War I – BOA Archives – tolerance – Bourdieu
Research Interests: Ottoman History, Middle East Studies, Transnational and World History, Transnationalism, Comparative History, and 20 moreImperial History, Governance, Colonialism, Ottoman Studies, Transnational History, Byzantine Studies, Islamic Studies, Ottoman Empire, Pierre Bourdieu, Byzantine History, Early modern Ottoman History, Ottoman Historiography, Late Byzantine history, Islamic History, Late Ottoman Period, Ottoman-Turkish Westernization, Modern Turkey, Ottoman, Middle East, Empire, and Imperialism
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On a généralement de la politique des archives dans l'Empire ottoman une image fondée sur la narration des étapes successives de la modernisation de cet aspect de l'appareil administratif au cours des différentes phases de réforme de la... more
On a généralement de la politique des archives dans l'Empire ottoman une image fondée sur la narration des étapes successives de la modernisation de cet aspect de l'appareil administratif au cours des différentes phases de réforme de la seconde moitié du 19e s. Il existait pourtant auparavant une politique des archives de type d'ancien régime, au service du fonctionnement d'un appareil complexe de gouvernance. Sa compréhension ouvre aussi celle des rapports d'ancien régime entre centre et périphérie, par le biais du dialogue pétitionnaire.
Research Interests: Ottoman History, Middle East Studies, Middle East & North Africa, North Africa Studies, Middle East History, and 19 moreUrban History, Archives, Ottoman Studies, Turkish and Middle East Studies, Ottoman Empire, Collaboration Of Archives, Libraries And Museums, Communication Of Memory In Archives, Libraries And Museums, Middle Eastern Studies, Early modern Ottoman History, History of Archives, Tunisian History, Late Ottoman Period, Ottoman-Turkish Westernization, Mediterranean and North Africa, North African History, Tunisia, Petitions, Ottoman Turkish historical writing, and Ottoman Anatolia (1200-1500) Comparative empire
Urban Studies Seminar 2015-2016.
Organized by Pr. Ulrike Freitag and Dr. Nora Lafi.
Every second Monday 17:00/19:00 at ZMO Berlin (Kirchweg 33).
Starting November 2, 2015.
Annual Theme: Refugees in the City
Organized by Pr. Ulrike Freitag and Dr. Nora Lafi.
Every second Monday 17:00/19:00 at ZMO Berlin (Kirchweg 33).
Starting November 2, 2015.
Annual Theme: Refugees in the City
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The object of this seminar is both to critically examine the ways in which the Arab World has been historically inserted into perspectives of global history and to study the global conception of history in Arabic literature. The seminar... more
The object of this seminar is both to critically examine the ways in which the Arab World has been historically inserted into perspectives of global history and to study the global conception of history in Arabic literature. The seminar will thus focus both on global interpretations of the position of the Arab World in global history in the modern Era, and on another dimension of this global thinking: the one coming from the Arabic tradition of history writing. The module is composed of 2 hours of seminar and one hour of exercise on the literature, mostly in Arabic.
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6° Convegno internazionale / 6th International Congress. Venezia, 22-24 febbraio 2018 / 22-24 February 2018
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Società dalmata di storia patria in collaborazione con / in collaboration with the Istituto ellenico di studi bizantini e postbizantini Convegno internazionale / International Congress Venezia e il suo Stato da mar / Venice and its Stato... more
Società dalmata di storia patria in collaborazione con / in collaboration with the Istituto ellenico di studi bizantini e postbizantini
Convegno internazionale / International Congress Venezia e il suo Stato da mar / Venice and its Stato da mar
Venezia / Venice, Castello 3412, Istituto ellenico di studi bizantini e postbizantini
Giovedì-sabato 9-11 marzo 2017 / Thursday-Saturday 9-11 March 2017
Convegno internazionale / International Congress Venezia e il suo Stato da mar / Venice and its Stato da mar
Venezia / Venice, Castello 3412, Istituto ellenico di studi bizantini e postbizantini
Giovedì-sabato 9-11 marzo 2017 / Thursday-Saturday 9-11 March 2017