The Urban Social History of the Middle East, 1750-1950

The great cities of the Middle East and North Africa have long attracted the attention and interest of historians. With the discovery and wider use over the last few decades of the Islamic court records and Ottoman administrative documents, our knowledge of Middle Eastern cities between the seventeenth and early twentieth centuries has vastly expanded. Drawing upon a treasure trove of documents and using a variety of methodologies, the contributors succeed in providing a significant overview of the ways in which Middle Eastern cities can be studied, as well as an excellent introduction to current literature in the field. Islam has often been characterized as an "urban religion;" recognizing Islam s deep ties to civic matters and to the city itself, the essays gathered here explore the interconnectedness between religion and its geography. The authors effectively define and map out urban social history in the Middle East from the eighteenth to twentieth centuries, affording us a foundational volume that enriches our understanding of society in the late Ottoman and colonial periods."