Socio-Economic Change and Class Consolidation in Ottoman Beirut and Damascus
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Some pages may have indistinct La qualite d'impression de print especially if the original certaines pages peut hisser a pages were typed with a poor desirer, surtout si les pages typewriter ribbon ~r if the originales ont 6te university sent us an inferior dactylographiees a I'aide d'un photocopy. ruban use ou si 19universitensus a fait parvenir une photocopie de qualitti inf8rieure. Reproduction in full or in part of La reproduction, mhepartielk, this microform is governed by de cette microforme est soumise the Canadian Copyright Act, a ia ioi canadienne sur ie droii R.S.C. ?970, c-. C--30, and d'auteur, SRC 1979, c. C-30: et subsequent amendments. ses amendements subsequents. BRIDGING THE DICHOTOMY: SOCIO-ECONOMIC CHANGE AND CLASS CONSOLIDATION IN OTTOMAN BEIRUT AND DAMASCUS M. James Quilty B.A. (Honours), Memorial University of Newfoundland, 1987 THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS in the Department of History O M. James Quilty, 1992 Simon Fraser University September, 1992 All rights reserved. This work may not be reproduced in whole or in part, by photocopy or other means without the permission of the author. National Library Bibliothhue nationale 1*1 of Canada du Canada Acquisitions and Direction des acquisitions et Bibliographic Services Branch des services bibliographiques 395 Wellington Street 395,rue Welling!on Ottawa. 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ISBN 0-315-91215-4 APPROVAL NAME: M. James Quilty DEGREE: TITLE OF THESIS: Bridging the Dichotomy: Socio-Economic Change and Class Consolidation in Ottoman Beirut and Damascus EXAMINING COMMITTEE: CHAIR: J. I. Little William Cleveland, profess& John Spagnolo, ~s~ci'&6ofessor - . Donald M. Reid, Professor Georgia State University at Atlanta DATE: 27 October 1992 PARTIAL COPYRIGHT LICENSE I hereby grant to Simon Fraser University the right to lend my thesis, project or extended essay (the title of which is shown below) to users of the Simon Fraser University Library, and to make partial or single copies only for such users or in response to a request from the library of any other university, or other educational institution, on its own behalf or for one of its users. I further agree that permission for multiple copying of this work for scholarly purposes may be granted by me or the Dean of Graduate Studies. It is understood that copying or publication of this work for financial gain shall not be allowed without my written permission. Title of Thesis/Project/Extended Essay Bridging the Dichotomy: Socio-Economic Change and Class Consolidation in Ottoman Beirut and Damascus Author: ' zgnaturej LY --- - " M. James Quilty (name) (date) .. 111 Abstract In the past decade Beirut and Damascus, and the notables that dominated these cities, have been the focus of some excellent social historical study. The two cities have never been the subject of a single comprehensive analysis, however, and are only occasionally treated together in the same work. The existing literature on Damascus mentions Beirut only in the context of the latter's rise in economic znd diplomatic stature at expense of the former. Similarly, discussions of Beirut usually consider Damascus in terms of its declining position in the region. Related to this historiographical eccentricity is the hermetic seal that seems to separate the literature on the two cities. Beirut has been studied by historians interested in those qualities which differentiated it from most other Syrian cities: its role as a non-Muslim enclave and a centre of western learning, western capital penetration, and, for much of the nineteenth century, a liberal (implicitly western) inter-sectarian tolerance. Damascus, on the other hand, has been looked upon as the embodiment of an Ottoman political, economic, and social system in disarray. Its main interest for historians has been its role in solidifying a political opposition to western encroachment, Arab Nationalism, and the social prerequisites to this coalescence, the consolidation of a notable class in the latter nineteenth century. This thesis attempts to bridge tf-e dichotomy that has separated the treatment of Ottoman Beirut and Damascus and their notables by comparing the development of the two cities over the course of the long nineteenth century. This comparison focuses specifically upon the socio-economic changes that were integral to the consolidation of the urban notability: the impact of European econornic penetration and Ottnrnafi refom; the cities' position relative to their hinterlands; the notables' relationship with their European and Ottomm patrons and their own urban clientele; and finally the notables' relations with each other, both within each city arid between Beirut and Damascus. Through this comparative znalysis, the thesis seeks to demonstrate that major material similarities existed between Beirut and Damascus in the last decades of Ottoman rule. In concludes that the forces of class consolidation were not more prevalent in Damascus but equally active, and inhibited, in both Damascus and Beirut. Since this thesis re-evaluates the findings of the existing literature on the Syrian notability, it is largely based upon secondary sources. Where it has been opportune to do so, however, it has been augmented by material from the British Foreign Office's series of consular reports entitled Confidential Print: Turkey, 1841-1914,424 Series. This thesis is dedicated to Richard Morgan, who reached the end before me. vi Acknowledgements This thesis would have been impossible without the considerable assistance given me by the teachers and students with whom I have worked since arriving at SFU. I would like to thank them for their support and direction, and for all the tolerance they have shown the self-indulgences that have marked my stay. In this regard B would particularly like to thank Bill Cleveland and John Spagnolo-the latter for insisting that the apparent muddle of the Middle East was actually a complex, the former for allowing me to explore this complexity, and for demanding that I express the complex comprehensibly. vii Table of Contents .. Approval ....................................................................................................... II ... Absmct ....................................................................................................... u Dedication .....................................................................................................v Acknowledgments ...........................................................................................vi Introduction . CONTTNUlTY AND CLASS CONSOLIDATION IN LATE OTTOMAN SYRIA: A RECONSIDERATION .......................................................................... -1 Chapter One . THE SYRIAN POLITICAL ECONOMY AND EUROPEAN PENETRATION IN THE LONG NINETEENTH CENTURY .................................................. 15 the Ottoman command economy to 1800 ....................................................... 16 the Syrian political eco~iornyfrom 7 800 ........................................................19 Chapter Two. THE NOTABILITY OE NINETEENTH CENTURY DAMASCUS AND BEIRUT: CITY AND HINTERLAND, PATRON AND CLIENT ......................... 45 Beirut. ?3amascus, and their hinterlands ........................................................ 46 the Damascene estates and their Beiruti counterparts in the long nineteenth century ...... 55 ascending linkages and institutional structures ........................................ 56 descending linkages: migration, social integration. and mobilisation .............. 63 Chapter Three. THE. PEGINNINGS OF CLASS CONSOLIDATION: FAMILY, MERCHANT CAPITAL, AND UPWARD MOBILITY ..................................... 75 merchant capird and material diversification