Late Ottoman Palestine

Uncovering a history buried by different nationalist narratives (Jewish, Israeli, Arab and Palestinian) this book looks at how the late Ottoman era set the stage for the on-going Palestinian-Israeli conflict. It presents an innovative analysis of the struggle in its first years, when Palestine was still an integral part of the Ottoman Empire. And it argues that in the late Ottoman era, Jews and Palestinians were already locked in conflict: the new freedoms introduced by the Young Turk Constitutional Revolution exacerbated divisions (rather than serving as a unifying factor). Offering an integrative approach, it considers both communities, together and separately, in order to provide a more sophisticated narrative of how the conflict unfolded in its first years.

The decisive consequences of the Young Turk Revolution of 1908 had ramifications over the entire Ottoman Empire - and the Ottoman territory of Palestine was no exception. "Late Ottoman Palestine" examines the impact of Young Turk policies and reforms on local societies and administration, using Palestine as a prism through which to explore the impact of the Revolution in the provincial arena far from the administrative and political centre of the capital. It thus sheds light upon the last decade of Ottoman rule in Palestine, crucially dealing with the roots of Jewish-Arab conflict in the area and the early crystallization of Arab, Palestinian and Zionist identities, along with that of an Ottoman imperial identity. It will be a vital resource for students and researchers interested in the modern history of the Middle East, the Ottoman Empire and Palestine.

Uncovering a history buried by different nationalist narratives (Jewish, Israeli, Arab and Palestinian) this book looks at how the late Ottoman era set the stage for the on-going Palestinian-Israeli conflict. It presents an innovative analysis of the struggle in its first years, when Palestine was still an integral part of the Ottoman Empire. And it argues that in the late Ottoman era, Jews and Palestinians were already locked in conflict: the new freedoms introduced by the Young Turk Constitutional Revolution exacerbated divisions (rather than serving as a unifying factor). Offering an integrative approach, it considers both communities, together and separately, in order to provide a more sophisticated narrative of how the conflict unfolded in its first years.

The decisive consequences of the Young Turk Revolution of 1908 had ramifications over the entire Ottoman Empire - and the Ottoman territory of Palestine was no exception. "Late Ottoman Palestine" examines the impact of Young Turk policies and reforms on local societies and administration, using Palestine as a prism through which to explore the impact of the Revolution in the provincial arena far from the administrative and political centre of the capital. It thus sheds light upon the last decade of Ottoman rule in Palestine, crucially dealing with the roots of Jewish-Arab conflict in the area and the early crystallization of Arab, Palestinian and Zionist identities, along with that of an Ottoman imperial identity. It will be a vital resource for students and researchers interested in the modern history of the Middle East, the Ottoman Empire and Palestine.

Die Studie untersucht für die Jahre vor dem Ersten Weltkrieg anhand der arabisch-palästinensischen Zeitung Filas?in lokale Debatten um politische Ordnung, kollektive Identität und Beziehungen zwischen ethnischen und konfessionellen Gruppen; dies vor dem Hintergrund transregionaler und transosmansicher Zusammenhänge. Dies ist deshalb relevant, weil Gruppenbeziehungen in Palästina für diese Phase der osmanischen Moderne wenig erforscht sind und sich in einer tiefen Umbruchphase, einer sog. ›Sattelzeit‹, befanden. Filastin, veröffentlicht ab 1911 in Jaffa von Isa al-Isa und Yusuf al-Isa, lokalen griechisch-orthodoxen Christen, diente als Medium, in dem ein vielfältiges Spektrum an palästinensischen Autoren verschiedener Konfession folgende Fragen kontrovers verhandelte: 1. Regeln des Zusammenlebens im multiethnisch und multikulturell geprägten Jaffa; 2. Die Integrierbarkeit der jüdisch-zionistischen Einwanderer in die Region, und 3. die Partizipation arabisch-palästinensischer Christen im von Griechen dominierten griechisch-orthodoxen Patriarchat von Jerusalem. Exploring Filas?in in the context of Arab Palestinian press development, its specific environment and networks, and the political culture after the Young Turk Revolution, this study analyzes the main concepts and terminological features that are conveyed through ist coverage. Further, it studies Palestinian group relations in the light of three selected case studies: the press debate on 1. the social cohabitation of groups in the Jaffa region, 2. the socio-economic integration of Zionist immigrants into the Jerusalem District, and 3. the political participation of Arab Palestinian Orthodox Christians in the administration of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem, and their opposition against the clerical establishment. Filastin was published from 1911 onwards in the coastal town of Jaffa by the cousins Yusuf and Isa al-Isa, Arab Palestinians of Greek Orthodox confession. Soon, it had established itself as a 'forum of debate' in late Ottoman Palestine, serving a pool of authors from different ethnic and confessional but similar educational backgrounds and moral values as a public medium to which they contributed through publishing articles, protest letters, petitions, etc. On its pages, these authors controversially discussed concepts of collective identity, society-building, political order and all kinds of reforms that they perceived progressive and as fitting the 'spirit of the age', as they called it: the age of Ottoman Constitutionalism and modernity. This study explores local debates on Palestinian group relations through Filastin during the years 1911 until 1914 which is relevant since, during this period of time, the Arab Middle East in general and Palestine in specific underwent a so-called 'saddle period'; a deep and fundamental change with regard to social relations and political concepts that is still rather unexplored in today's scholarship.

The popular image of the family and the court of law in Muslim societies is one of traditional, unchanging social frameworks. Iris Agmon suggests an entirely different view, grounded in a detailed study of nineteenth-century Ottoman court records from the flourishing Palestinian port cities of Haifa and Jaffa. She depicts the shari'a Muslim court of law as a dynamic institution, capable of adapting to rapid and profound social changes indeed, of playing an active role in generating these changes. Court and family interact and transform themselves, each other, and the society of which they form part. Agmon's book is a significant contribution to scholarship on both family history and legal culture in the social history of the Middle East.