Kemal H. Karpat

The Transformation of the Ottoman State, 1789-1908

The study of the Ottoman state in tĥe latter part of the eighteenth century and throughout the nineteenth demands a broader analytical framework than hitherto used if its transformation and the social and political history of the Middle East, the Balkans, and even North Africa, which were parts of the Ottoman State at one time or other, are to be properly evaluated and interpreted.

The Ottoman Emigration to America,1860–1914

Population movements have always played a major role in the life of Islam and particularly the Middle East. During the nineteenth century, however, the transfer of vast numbers of people from one region to another profoundly altered the social, ethnic, and religious structure of the Ottoman state—that is, the Middle East and the Balkans. The footloose tribes of eastern Anatolia, Syria, Iraq, and the Arabian peninsula were spurred into motion on an unprecedented scale by economic and social events, and the Ottoman government was forced to undertake settlement measures that had widespread effects. The Ottoman-Russian wars, which began in 1806 and occurred at intervals throughout the century, displaced large groups of people, predominantly Muslims from the Crimea, the Caucasus, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean islands. Uprooted from their ancestral homelands, they eventually settled in Anatolia, Syria (inclusive of the territories of modern-day Jordan, Lebanon, and Israel as well as modern Syria), and northern Iraq. These migrations continued until the time of the First World War. In addition, after 1830 waves of immigrants came from Algeria—especially after Abdel Kader ended his resistance to the French—and from Tunisia as well. These people too settled in Syria at Damascus.

Ottoman Population Records and the Census of 1881/82–1893

Population movements have always played a dynamic role in the transformation of human society throughout history. Indeed, there is not a single phase of history anywhere in the world which has not been related in some way to low or high rates of birth and mortality, to migration and settlement and to their social, cultural, economic, and political effects. The history of the Middle East supplies excellent examples to support this contention. The Muslim calendar begins with an act of migration, that is the hejira of a.d. 622. Migrants going from the countryside to urban centers or fleeing from areas hostile to Islam have always exerted a crucial influence upon the social and political destiny of Muslim countries. The refugees from Spain to North Africa in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, the forced migration of Muslims from Russia (the Caucasus and Crimea) in the eighteenth to twentieth centuries, the shift of population in India, Pakistan, and Palestine in the 1940s, to cite just a few examples, have been major factors accounting, at least in part, for the social transformation of the Muslim world in general, and of the Middle East in particular.

Islam, multiculturalism and transnationalism : from the Lebanese diaspora

Part 1 Local and global cultures: migrants or citizens? cities, immigrants and integration multiculturalism past, present and future. Part 2 The refugees: the setting Lebanese immigration migration and the urban process family community proletarianisation conclusion. Part 3 The Lebanese heritage: making the Lebanese nation state making the Lebanese - proletarianisation and pluralism religion and the Lebanese state unmaking Lebanon -civil war and localism conclusion. Part 4 Lebanese families: kinship practices unmarried women wives keeping the courts out of the home. Part 5 Community and identity in the city. Part 6 Islam, multiculturalism and the global city: multiculturalism and urban consciousness Islam and multiculturalism.

Muslim migration : A response to Aldeeb Abu-Sahlieh : Religious traditions and migration

The Western literature on Muslim concepts of migration is exceptionally scanty, despite the obvious importance of the topic. The total number of specialized writings on the topic in English is less than a dozen. Yet, practically since its inception the Muslim world has lived under the pale of emigrationimmigration, and its modern history was, in part at least, epitomized by population movements east and southward, such as the exodus from Spain (1492-1580), Russia (1552-1917), China (1877-1952), and the Balkans (1877-1991), just to cite the main ones. However, during the last four decades of this century the flow of Muslim migration changed direction and began to flow from the East to the West. Thus, in a span of 35 years, the Muslim population of Western Europe increased from a negligible number to an army of 11 to 12 million people, most of whom are an impoverished and despised proletariat living in ghettos on the outskirts of large European cities. At the same time, roughly from the partition of India in 1947 there has been a steady movement of population among and in the interior of Muslim countries, in the form of rural-to-urban migration, refugees, e.g., the Kurds of Iraq, or labor transfers from Egypt, Turkey, and North Africa to Saudi Arabia and the Gulf emirates. These issues are of vital importance to both Muslim and Western countries and deserve close scrutiny. Dr. Aldeeb Abu-Sahliehs communica? tion is a most welcome contribution to the literature on the subject, especially for his information on the basic Islamic conception of migration, and certainly it helps fill the gap of knowledge. His paper is basically divided into two parts: the classical view of Islamic jurisprudence on migration and the current status of migrants in some Arab countries. I shall comment first on the classical view. Migration has a unique place in the history of Islam, both as an event of extraordinary consequence and as a source of ethical norms and social behavior. The history of Islamic society begins with the act of hijra (migration) of the Prophet and his companions from Mecca to Medina (YathriB) in the year 622. In fact the hijra was a flight and the migrants were actually refugees fleeing the violence of their adversaries, the unbelievers; the Prophet leading his commu? nity had been called to arbitrate the intercommunal conflict in Medina, thus placing the immigrants in a position of power, which certainly helped cast a favorable status for them. The Muslims in Medina became muhajir (emigrants)

Sons of the Conquerors: The Rise of the Turkic World – By Hugh Pope

always more about men and what they ought to be doing. The examples of political iconography included in the text illustrate Pollard’s points and make the book more accessible to the nonspecialist. Although this work might be too advanced for survey-level courses, it is quite appropriate for advanced undergraduates, providing an easy transition to historical theory. This work would be highly effective in upper-division or graduate-level courses on nationalism, identity, gender, education, and imperialism, as well as in the expected arenas of the modern Middle East and modern Egypt.

Book Review: Al-Mughtaribun American Law and the Transformation of Muslim Life in the United StatesAl-Mughtaribun American Law and the Transformation of Muslim Life in the United States. By MooreKathleen M.Albany: State University of New York Press, 1995. Pp. 211.

tion challengesthat confront the next generation of this nation. Likewise, why is there no explicitdiscussionof the foreign-bornworkers as a group as their ranks are increasingfaster than many of the other designatedgroups that are singled out for attention. Immigration, while taken as a given in this text, is a discretionary action of the federal government. Its effects are rapidly altering the composition of the nationslabor forceand population. Immigration policy, however, is not neuttal in its influences. Although there isvarietyamong the groupscompromising the foreign-bornpopulation,Asiaand LatinAmericahaveaccounted forover85 percent of all the immigrants to the UnitedStatesfor the past two decades,and the 1990 census revealed that 28 percent of the nations entire foreign-born population are fromonlyone country: Mexico. Itwould seem, therefore, that the consequences of extant immigrationpolicyare in direct conflictwith the pursuitof diversityaspresentedbythe authors, but they do not see it. Althoughthereismuchtobelearnedfromthis book,it isdisturbingto betoldthat diversity isan end itself Diversity isa characteristic of the U.S. laborforce. Butitwillbethepursuitofunitygoals, not theglorification ofdifferences, and theenactment of human resource development policies thatwill determinethe nations economic destiny as well as the state of domestic tranquility it achieves in the years ahead.