Ottoman Syria Research Articles

Islamic Reform: Politics and Social Change in Late Ottoman Syria, by David Dean Commins. viii + 199 pages, notes, appendix, bibliography, index. Oxford University Press, New York1990. $32.50.

Islamic Reform: Politics and Social Change in Late Ottoman Syria, by David Dean Commins. viii + 199 pages, notes, appendix, bibliography, index. Oxford University Press, New York1990. $32.50. - Volume 26 Issue 1

Islamic Reform: Politics and Social Change in Late Ottoman Syria.

This book examines Syria's religious, intellectual, and political history during the period of transformation before World War I. Focusing on an attempt to reform Islamic belief and practice at the turn of the century, Commins shows how the reformers used debates over the religious law of Islam to advance their visions of a progressive Islamic state. Based on a wide variety of previously unpublished sources, the book will shed new light on a period that is of considerable importance for the modern history of the Middle East.

BOOK REVIEWS

Book reviewed in this article: Sexuality and War: Literary Masks of the Middle East. By Evelyne Accad Islamic Reform: Politics and Social Change in Late Ottoman Syria. By David Dean Commins Khomeini's Forgotten Sons: The Story of Iran's Boy Soldters. By Ian Brown Bibliographical Guide to Iran: The Middle East Library Committee Guide. Edited by L. P. Elwell‐Sutton

Craft Organization, Work Ethics, and the Strains of Change in Ottoman Syria

Craft organizations (guilds), whose origins in the Arab-Islamic countries are controversial, developed in a highly sophisticated way in these countries under Ottoman rule. Known as tawd'if (sing. td'ifa) in Ottoman Syria and in other Ottoman provinces, these organizations were autonomous. They regulated the affairs of their members, distributed collective taxes among them, controlled the quality of their products, and fixed the prices of their commodities. The stability of the economic and social life in Syria owes much to these organizations. Religioethnic tolerance was a major characteristic of these organizations which included Muslims, Christians and Jews within their ranks. Through work ethics, merit was the primary consideration for admission into, and promotion within, the craft. Under the impact of industrialized Europe, locally manufactured goods were unable to measure up to the competition of European goods which flooded the local markets in the 19th century. Bankruptcies were reported among local manufacturers, wages were lowered, causing friction between journeymen and masters, and emigration abroad progressed. Local manufacturers, however, were not altogether resigned to their fate. They pooled resources, introduced partnerships cutting across religious barriers, and produced competitive goods meeting local needs. A nascent local bourgeoisie thus began to take shape.

Islamic reform: politics and social change in late Ottoman Syria

Islamic reform: politics and social change in late Ottoman Syria

The Formation of Pan-Arab Ideology in the Interwar Years

Arab nationalism arose as an opposition movement in Ottoman Syria, Palestine, and Iraq around the turn of the century. It remained a minority movement until the Ottoman collapse in 1918, but after the Ottoman defeat it became the overwhelmingly dominant movement in these territories where, except for some Lebanese, all successful politicians were Arab nationalists during the interwar years. Just what Arab nationalism meant to its proponents at the time, however, has been difficult to determine. The period only dimly figures in studies of Arab nationalism. Full studies have been devoted to survivors from the past, Rashid Rida⊃ and Shakib Arsian, to Sati⊂ al-Husri (al-Husari), a relative newcomer whose greatest prominence was to be in the 1940s and 1950s, and to the Muslim Brothers, who arrived on the scene even later, whose influence was to lie in the future, and who, like Rida⊃, were not considered to be primarily Arab nationalists. Otherwise, hardly a scant handful of pre-World War II Arab nationalist writers, and these from the late 1930s, receive even casual mention.

Middleman Minorities in the Syrian Mosaic

In this article, an aspect of the “middleman minority” situation will be explored: How do individuals of different minorities interact when they are competing within a single social field. The case that will be used here is that of the competition of Christians and Jews in Late Ottoman Syria for certain positions attached to the government and for key roles in international trade. Image management in the present instance includes stigmatization of one's rivals. The implications of this case for other studies of minorities is considered.

Religious Reformers and Arabists in Damascus, 1885–1914

The literature on the genesis of Arab nationalism in Syria often mentions a group of religious reformers who influenced the first generation of Arab nationalists. The relationship between reformers and nationalists, however, has not been explored, perhaps because sources mention the influence of liberal sheikhs without suggesting where the sheikhs came from or what they signified. This study traces the social origins and ideological import of the religious reform movement in Damascus, a hitherto neglected phenomenon. The relationship between reformers and Arabists is also discussed so as to shed new light on the beginnings of Arab nationalism and its significance in late Ottoman Syria.