THEA_A01.qxd 11/10/07 12:20 PM Page i THE ARAB LANDS UNDER OTTOMAN RULE, 1516–1800 THEA_A01.qxd 11/10/07 12:20 PM Page ii A History of the Near East General Editor: Professor P. M. Holt The Prophet and the Age of the Caliphates: the Islamic Near East from the sixth to the eleventh century Hugh Kennedy The Age of the Crusades: the Near East from the eleventh century to 1517 P. M. Holt The Making of the Modern Near East 1792–1923 M. E. Yapp The Near East since the First World War M. E. Yapp Medieval Persia 1040–1797 David Morgan The Formation of Turkey C. Cahen The Arab Lands under Ottoman Rule, 1516–1800 J. Hathaway THEA_A01.qxd 11/10/07 12:20 PM Page iii THE ARAB LANDS UNDER OTTOMAN RULE, 1516–1800 JANE HATHAWAY WITH CONTRIBUTIONS BY KARL K. BARBIR ROUni>GE Routledge Taylor & Francis Group LONDON AND NEW YORK First published 2008 by Pearson Education Limited Published 2013 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017, USA Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business Copyright © 2008, Taylor & Francis. The rights of Jane Hathaway and Karl Barbir to be identified as authors of this work have been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permis- sion in writing from the publishers. Notices Knowledge and best practice in this field are constantly changing. As new research and experience broaden our understanding, changes in research methods, professional practices, or medical treatment may become necessary. Practitioners and researchers must always rely on their own experience and knowledge in evaluat- ing and using any information, methods, compounds, or experiments described herein. In using such information or methods they should be mindful of their own safety and the safety of others, including parties for whom they have a professional responsibility. To the fullest extent of the law, neither the Publisher nor the authors, contributors, or editors, assume any liability for any injury and/or damage to persons or property as a matter of products liability, negligence or otherwise, or from any use or operation of any methods, products,instructions, or ideas contained in the material herein. ISBN 13: 978-0-582-41899-8 (pbk) British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A CIP catalogue record for this book can be obtained from the British Library Set in 10.5/13pt Galliard by 35 THEA_A01.qxd 11/10/07 12:20 PM Page v Dedicated to the memory of Professor P. M. Holt THEA_A01.qxd 11/10/07 12:20 PM Page vi This page intentionally left blank THEA_A01.qxd 11/10/07 12:20 PM Page vii CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS x NOTE ON TRANSLITERATION AND DATES xii LIST OF FIGURES xiv LIST OF MAPS xv introduction REWRITING ARAB HISTORY, 1516–1800 1 Why The Arab Lands under Ottoman Rule?2 Sources for the study of the Ottoman Arab lands 5 ‘Decline’ and decentralization 7 State and society 9 Local notables and localization 12 Households 13 Households and localization 14 Artisans 16 Rural populations 17 Marginal populations 18 Conclusion 21 chapter one LAND AND PEOPLES 23 Regions and nomenclature 23 Geographical features 25 Peoples 27 Religious minorities 29 Conclusion 34 chapter two THE OTTOMAN CONQUEST OF THE ARAB LANDS 35 The rise of the Ottomans 35 The Mamluk sultanate (1250–1517) 36 The Safavids 37 The Portuguese 38 · vii · THEA_A01.qxd 11/10/07 12:20 PM Page viii CONTENTS Conquest of the Mamluks 39 Süleyman I’s conquest of Iraq 40 Yemen 41 North Africa 44 Conclusion 44 chapter three THE ORGANIZATION OF THE OTTOMAN PROVINCIAL ADMINISTRATION 46 Relations with the conquered population 46 Administrative subdivisions 48 Land tenure 49 The nature of Ottoman rule in Egypt 51 Early challenges to Ottoman rule 52 chapter four CRISIS AND CHANGE IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY 59 The ‘decline’ paradigm 59 The crisis of the seventeenth century 62 Kuls and Osman II 64 Janissary hegemony in the Arab provinces 67 Jelali governors and their equivalents 69 The loss of Yemen 75 The Köprülü reforms 76 chapter five PROVINCIAL NOTABLES IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 79 Ayan 79 The ayan household 81 Georgian mamluks in ayan households 98 Women in the household 99 African eunuchs and ayan households 102 Ayan architecture 107 Conclusion 112 chapter six RELIGIOUS AND INTELLECTUAL LIFE 114 The ulema 115 Sufism 126 The ulema in social protest 131 The ulema as intellectuals 132 Conclusion 136 · viii · THEA_A01.qxd 11/10/07 12:20 PM Page ix CONTENTS chapter seven URBAN LIFE AND TRADE 138 Arab provincial cities 138 Government regulation of markets 147 Long-distance trade 154 The Red Sea coffee trade and its cultural effects 162 Conclusion 167 chapter eight RURAL LIFE 169 Land tenure 169 Village life 172 Tribes 180 Conclusion 186 chapter nine MARGINAL GROUPS AND MINORITY POPULATIONS 188 Religious minorities 189 Non-elite slavery 200 Women 202 The poor and disabled 209 Conclusion 211 chapter ten IDEOLOGICAL AND POLITICAL CHANGES IN THE LATE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 213 ‘Neo-Sufism’ 214 Wahhabism 217 The crisis of Selim III’s reign (1789–1807) 219 conclusion TRANSFORMATIONS UNDER OTTOMAN RULE 228 The effects of Ottoman rule 228 The Ottoman Arab provinces after 1800 234 The Ottomans and the world 237 The question of nationalist historiographies 244 Present-day relevance 247 BIBLIOGRAPHICAL ESSAY 249 OTTOMAN SULTANS TO 1839 285 POLITICAL CHRONOLOGY 286 GLOSSARY 295 INDEX 311 ·ix· THEA_A01.qxd 11/10/07 12:20 PM Page x ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS his book has been a very long time in preparation, and it seems Tthat the more time passes, the more debts of gratitude I accrue. First and foremost, I owe a tremendous debt to Professor Peter Holt for recommending me for this project. One of my great regrets is that he did not live to see the publication of this book, which is dedicated to his memory. I sincerely hope that his confidence was not misplaced. I am also deeply grateful to the editors at Addison Wesley Longman/ Pearson Education for their patience and to my friend and colleague Professor Colin Heywood, who read the entire manuscript and made numerous valuable suggestions. Thanks, also, to Professor Karl K. Barbir, who read drafts of the Introduction and Chapters 1–6 and made a number of useful suggestions, many of which I have incorporated into the text. Much of the book’s conceptualization, as well as a draft of the Introduction, was accomplished at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey, where I was a fellow of the School of Historical Studies during winter and spring 2000. I thank my fellow fellows and the permanent members of the School of Historical Studies for their comments on a presentation I gave based on the Introduction. I am like- wise grateful to the M. Münir Ertegün Foundation for Turkish Studies in the Department of Near Eastern Studies, Princeton University, and above all Professor M. pükrü Hanioglu, for allowing me to serve as Ertegün Visiting Professor of Turkish Studies in spring 2003; the course on the Ottoman Arab provinces which I taught in that capacity helped me to shape the main part of the book’s text. Reaching back a bit farther in time, I should like to thank Professors Abraham Marcus and Cemal Kafadar, my MA and PhD advisors, respec- tively. During the lengthy process of revision, I turned again and again to notes and outlines from their courses. Naturally, responsibility for any errors is entirely mine, not least because too many years have passed since I took my postgraduate degrees to hold my advisors responsible for my own shortcomings! At Ohio State, my colleagues Cynthia Brokaw and Stephen F. Dale, as well as PhD candidate Lisa Balabanlılar, helpfully recommended secondary sources on the Qing and Mughal empires for comparative purposes. Mr Chris Aldridge and Mr Mitchell ·x· THEA_A01.qxd 11/10/07 12:20 PM Page xi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Shelton of the Harvey Goldberg Program for Excellence in Teaching in Ohio State’s History Department were instrumental in preparing the maps and illustrations for this book. Finally, my heartfelt thanks to Beshir and Stella, and to my husband, Robert Simkins, for bearing with this project for all these years. ·xi· THEA_A01.qxd 11/10/07 12:20 PM Page xii NOTE ON TRANSLITERATION AND DATES ransliteration – that is, the rendering in Roman letters of words in Tlanguages that do not employ the Roman alphabet – is a challenge, particularly when two Middle Eastern languages with very different sound systems, in this case Arabic and Ottoman Turkish, are involved. I have retained distinctive Turkish letters apart from c, ç and q, which I feared general English-speaking audiences would find simply too alien and which I have therefore replaced with j, ch and sh, respectively. In the case of modern Turkish titles cited in the Bibliographical Essay, however, it has proven impossible to forgo these letters. Here is an equivalency guide to the Turkish letters: c = j ç = ch g = soft ‘g,’ as in French espagnol ı ≈ u, as in ‘put’ ö ≈ ur, as in ‘hurt,’ or French œ q = sh ü ≈ u, as in ‘mute,’ or French u. Apart from a few Arabic titles in the Bibliographical Essay, I have avoided indicating long vowels in Arabic or Ottoman Turkish.