The Modern

I Middle East
A Sourcebook for History

Edited by
Camron Michael Amin,
Benjamin C. Fortna,
and Elizabeth Frierson

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 ,

Contents

List ofillustrations XXl

Notes on contributors xxu

Maps xxxii

1. State and society 1

Introduction 1

1.1 A provincial treasurer reports, c.167 4 3

Mark L. Stein
1.2 An Armenian account of the O ttoman siege ofErevan, 1724 ' 7
George Bournoutian
1.3 Concord and harmony among Ottoman provincial governors:·
a grand vizier's advice and.warning: Abdi,tllah Pa~~. 1749 18
From the Islamfi.che project
1.4 Negotiating the power of the sultan: the Ottoman Sened-i ittifak
(Deed of Agreement), 1808 22
Ali Alzytldtz and lvf.. $iikrii Hanioglzt
1.5 Creating new institutions: Clot Bey's organization of Egypt's
first modern medical establishment, 1827-1837 31
Robert G. Landen
1.6 Observing Muhammad cAfi Pa~a and his administration
atwork, 1843-1846 39
,. Paul Sedra
1.7 A manifesto for educational reform in Qajar Iran, 1859 43
Monica Ringer
1.8 Discipline in a late Ottoman provincial secondary school, 1903 48
Benjamin C. Fortna
1.9 An Armenian-Iranian promoted to Amir Tuman of the Persian
Cossack Brigade: firman of Mohammad cAfi Shah Qajar, 1908 53
David Yaghoubian
1.10 Wahhabi CWama and the state in Saudi Arabia, 1927 57
Guido Steinberg
 J

Contents xv

2. 7 Cartoon from the satirical Turkish weekly comic LeMan

entitled 'Sozde Mini Oykii .. .'('A So-Called Short Story'),
27 January 2001 127
Matthew Elliot
2.8 From the Internet magazine, The Iranian, 25 January 2002:
a debate on the legacy of the Persepolis celebrations of 1971 13 2
Cyrus Kadivar and Jahanshah ]avid
Selected bibliography 152

3. Gender and society 15 5

Introduction 15 5
3.1 A view ofIndian Muslim womanhood from Hali's
Majalis1m-Nissa, 1874 157
Gail Minattlt
\
3.2 'Should a woman demand all the rights of a man?' From the
Cairo periodical, Al-Hila!, 1894 174
Sarah Gualtieri
3.3 Two Ottoman officials on gender and class in early '
twentieth-century Nablus, 1916 178
Weldon C. Matthews
3.4 Excerpts fromAntun al-Gamayyil's textbook,Al-Fatatwa'l-Bayt
('The Young Woman and the Home'), 1916 184
Mona R11ssell
3.5 The Turkish 'Modem Woman': two press articles, 1924and 1926 191
Carole Woodall
3.6 Gender, morality, and state policy in modem Iran: a Ministry of
,. Education memorandum, 193 5 201
Camron Michael Amin
3.7 Interview of a deputation of the Arab Women's Committee
in Jerusalem at Government House on Thursday,
24March 1938 205
Ellen L. Fleischmann
3.8 Two views of women fighters during the Algerian War of'
National Liberation, 1957 214
Ryme Seferdjeli
Selected bibliography 221
xiv Contents

1.11 Crime and society in Iran: press and court transcripts, 1934 62
Cyrus Schayegh
1.12 A protest of the Jewish women workers of Palestine against
the new municipal ordinance which deprives the women of
Palestine of their civic rights, 1934 65
Ellen L. Fleischmann
1.13 The rise of mass doctrinal parties: the program of Hasan al-Banna
and the Muslim Brotherhood, 1936 68
Robert G. Landen
1.14 Jamal cAbd al-Nasir (GamalAbd al-Nasser): from Egypt's
Liberation, 1953 73
From the.Islam.fiche project
1.15 The Program of the Ba'W (Arab Socialist Resurrection)
Party, 1963 85
Robert G. Landen
Selected bibliography 91

2. Press, media, and society 97

Introduction 97
2.1 'The Statement of Purpose' of an early official gazette in
Qajar Iran, 1851 99
Camron Michael Amin
2 .2 Nationalist imagery in Egypt's tabloid presses: a drawing from
the Egyptian Papagal/.o, 1904 . 10 l
Indira
,. Falk Gesi.nk
2.3 'Tlie world of journalism, or the reasons for the establislunent
of the newspaper To Jjor', 1907 104
Adeeb Khalid
2.4 The aftermath of revolution in the Ottoman cartoon
space, 1909-1910 108
Palmira Brummett
2.5 Seruan Azhar: a paper published by Southeast Asian students
in Cairo, 1925 112
Nfichael Laffan
2.6 Journalism in Egypt in the 192.Qs and 1930s: from The Education of
Salmna Musa, 1947 116
From the Islam.fiche project
 J
Contents xvii

5.2 An official report on efforts to re-establish Ottoman control

over Kuwait, 1870 311
Frederick Anscornbe
5.3 Nationalism, Ottomanism, pluralism, humanism: extracts
from the Sufi writing of Abu'l-Huda al-Sayyadi, 1903 314
Thomas Eich
5.4 Excerpts from Of Tarz-i Siyaset ('Three Kinds of Politics')
by Ak9uraoglu Yusuf, 1904 320
Barak Sahnoni
5.5 Pan-Asianism in the late Ottoman Empire, 1905-191.2 331
Renee Worring111·
5.6 Armenian and Iranian collaboration in the constitutional
revolution: the agreement between Dashnakists and Majlis
delegates, 1908 339
Hom-i Berbman
5.7 Excerpts from Ahmet Agaoglu's The Turkish World, 1912- 1913
' 344
A. Holly Shisskr
5.8 Separdic Zionism in the Ottoman Empire: 'The Time is Here',
Ha-Herut, 1 April 1914 . . ', 350
AbigailJacobson
5.9 Interview with Boubeddi Ben Ayyad, a Moroccan
World War II veteran of the French Army, 1999 353
Moshe G111-shovich
5.10 Iran and the National Front, a speech by Prime Minister
MohammadMosaddeq, 27September1951 360
Robett G. Landen
5.11 Anwar al-Sadat's speech to the Israeli Knesset, 1977 368
,. From the Islamfiche prefect
Selected bibliography 382

6. V iews of the world 387

Introduction 387
6.1 Letters from Nader Shah to the Ottoman Court, 1736 388
Ernest Tucker
6.2 Ottoman-Iranian marriage and the Ottoman legal code,
1822- 1926 395
Karen M. Kern
xvi Contents

4. Religion and society 225

Introduction 225
4 .1 An intellectual biography of a religious scholar in Ottoman
Damascus: from Isma'il al-Ajluni's 'The Finest and
Most Perfect of Men who are Connected by Chains of
Transmission to all other Fine Men', 173 7 226
Steve Tamari
4.2 Three letters from Imam Shamil to his followers, 1834-1858 231
Ernest Tucker
4.3 Kemal Atatiirk on the abolition of the Ottoman caliphate,
3March1924 233
Robert G. Landen
4.4 An ·appeal from the Iraq Minorities (non-Muslim) Rescue
Committee, 1931 239
Nelida F11tcaro
4.5 From the]avid-na11taeh of Muhammad Iqbal, 1932 244
Fro11t the Islamfiche project
4.6 Reporting the news with an Islamic revivalist twist: excerpts
from The Banner ofIslam, 1946 262
Camron Michael Amin
4. 7 The Committee for Public Morality in Saudi Arabia, 1957 268
Guido Steinberg
4.8 Twelver Shl'1.sm and revolutionary Islam in Iran: from
cAli Sharicati's, Approaches to the Understanding ofIslam, 1968 273
from the Islamfiche project
4. 9 Israel at fifty: the cultural war in the pages of Ha'aretz and
the Jerusalem Post, 1998 284
Danny Ben-Moshe
4.10 Osama bin Laden's use of history: an audiotape released
in early 2004 292
Benjamin C. Fortna
Selected bibliog;raphy 299

5. Modern identities 303

Introduction 303
5.1 On justice towards peasants: from Rifaca Rafic al-Tahtawi's
Paths ofEgyptian Minds in the Delights ofModern Culture, 1869 305
Juan R. L Cole
 ,
Contents xix

7 .3 Science in religious education: a fatwa from

Cairo, 1888 4 77
Indira Falk Gesink
7.4 A memorial to a young Assyrian refugee, 1922 482
EdenNaby
7.5 The Brigadier and the hnam: two commemorative poems
from Iran, 1928 and 1989 485
Paul E. Losensky
7.6 Three poems on British involvement in Yemen, from the
Yemeni press, 193 7 492
Flagg Miller and Ulrike Freitag
7.7 Taha Husayn: revolt against tradition, from Al-Ayyam
(The Days), 1939 501
From the Islam.fiche project
Selected bibliography ' 515

8. Economic change 517

Part 1: Economic data 519
Michael Twomey
Introduction 519
Statistical tables and comments 521
Selected bibliography 558

Part 2: The cultural impact of economic change 561

Introduction 561
8.1.. The barber of Damascus: Ahmad Budayri al-Hallaq's chronicle
of the year 1749 562
Steve Tamari
8.2 Six Ottoman documents on the power of guilds in the Balkans,
1760s 569
Frederick Anscombe
8.3 Economic change: Muhammad cAli's development schemes
in Egypt and Syria, 1834 and 183 7 57 5
Robert G. Landen
xvili Contents

6.3 The journals of an Ottoman student in England, July 1829

to January 1830 401
Paul Sedra
6.4 The young Ottoman: NanukKemal~ 'Progress', 1872 406
Robert G. Landen
6.5 The West through the eyes of an Iranian Qajar monarch:
Naser al-Din Shah's first trip to Europe, 1873 411
Robert G. Landen
6.6 The battle for British public opinion on Turkey and the Eastern
Question: two documents, 1876 and 1904 416
Nazan 9ifek
6.7 Ismail Gaspirali and Tatar emigration from Russia to the
Ottoman Empire, 1902-1903 428
Brian Glyn Williams
6.8 Conceptualizing modernity in late Ottoman times: Japan as a
modelnation,1902-1913 432
Renee Worringer
6.9 The Ottoman home front, a German correspondent's
remarks, 1917 441
Robert G. Landen
6.10 Muslim state participation in UN human rights
debates, 1946-1966 444
Susan Waltz
6.11 The Lebanese community of.Dearborn, Michigan, 197 5-2000 456
Ronald R. Stockton
Selected bibliography 461

7. Redefining tradition 465

Introduction 465
7.1 A late Ottoman style of architectural poetry:
Tevarih-i manzume, 1796 466
Shirine Hamadeh
7.2 Imams in the reformed anny ofMahmud Il: uniform
regulations from Ottoman miJ.itary archives, c.182 7 471
Halil ibrahim Erbay
xx Contents
8.4 Financial imperialism and its relationship to development;
the Ottoman Public Debt Administration, 1881-192 5 584
Robert G. Landen
8.5 Development concessions, the D'Arcy Concession for
Iranian oil, 29 May 1901 594
Robert G. Landen
8.6 Memento of a life, by Haj Mohammad Hosayn
Amin al-Zarb II, 1928 599
Shireen Mahdavi
8. 7 The population as a national economic resource: an Iranian
press article, 193 7 62 3
Cyrus Schayegh
8.8 Diplomatic and court perspectives on the 'White Revolution'
in Iran, 1958-1971 627
Ali M. Amari
Selected bibliography 636

Glossary 638
Index 641