Middle East History

This volume asks fundamental questions about the political impact of cultural institutions by exploring the power struggles for control over such institutions in Syria and Lebanon under French Mandate rule. Countering assertions of French imperial cultural ascendancy and self-confidence, the book demonstrates the diverse capacities of Arab and other local communities, to forge competing cultural identities that would, in later years, form the basis for rising political self-enfranchisement. Drawing on a wide array of written sources and oral testimonies, the book illuminates how political and religious leaders fought to harness the force of culture through projects as diverse as schools, cinema, scouting, and tourism. These leaders were to be found not only in the French colonial administration or the burgeoning Syrian and Lebanese parliaments, but also in student societies, missionary congregations, and philanthropic organizations. The book pays particular attention to the last decade of French rule before Syrian and Lebanese independence as a critical time of transition and debate. The rich individual histories of institutions such as the American University of Beirut, the secular French Mission laïque, or the Jesuit missionaries come together in a broader narrative that speaks to the ongoing Syrian and Lebanese journeys toward national identity.

This is the first major comparative study of the frontiers of the Ottoman Empire, one of the crucial forces that shaped the modern world. The chapters combine archaeological and historical approaches to the further understanding of how this major empire approached the challenge of controlling frontiers as diverse and far-flung as Central and Eastern Europe, Anatolia, Iraq, Arabia and the Sudan. Ranging across the 15th to early 20th centuries, chapters cover frontier fortifications, administration, society and economy and shed light on the Ottomans' interaction with their neighbours, both Muslim and Christian, through warfare, trade and diplomacy. As well as summing up the current state of knowledge, they also point the way to fresh avenues of research. The book gives a particular prominence to the nascent discipline of Ottoman archaeology.

This volume brings together studies in the rabbinic literature of late antiquity by specialists in the history of the Jews in that period in order to reveal the value of rabbinic material as historical evidence and to show the problems and issues which arise in its exploitation. An introductory section discusses the current state of knowledge about Palestine in this period and debates the difficulties involved in editing and dating rabbinic texts. Specific core texts and text categories are then introduced to the reader in a series of ten discrete studies. The volume concludes with six thematic analyses which illustrate the use and limitations of rabbinic evidence for cultural, religious, political, economic and social history.