The International Workshop “Redefining Ottoman Governance: Center-Local Connectivity, Emerging Caliphate Concept, and Contemporary Perspectives” will be jointly organized by Islamic Trust Studies Gruoups B01 “The Ideas of the Muslim Community and State Systems (Principal Investigator: KONDO Nobuaki)” and B02 “Trust Building Through Thought and Strategy Principal Investigator: YAMANE So)”. 

Date & Time:March 16, Saturday, 2024, 13:30~17:00 (JST)

Programme
13:30 Introduction by Nobuaki Kondo (ILCAA)
13:45  Orçun Can Okan (Oxford University)
“A Twenty-first-century Turk Studying the Ottoman Empire’s “Arab Provinces” and the Post-Ottoman Arab East: Endeavors in “Foreign Studies”?”
14:30 Yusuke Motani (Osaka University)
“Connecting with Syrians: Muhammad Ali’s Rule over Syria in the 1830s”
15:15 Nobuyoshi Fujinami（Tsuda University）
“A Constitutional Caliphate? An Islamic Monarch in Ottoman Public Law”
16:10　Discussions

Abstracts

A Twenty-first-century Turk Studying the Ottoman Empire’s “Arab Provinces” and the Post-Ottoman Arab East: Endeavors in “Foreign Studies”?

Orçun Can Okan

In the last two decades, the circumstances of producing and sharing historical knowledge on “the Middle East” underwent profound and rapid changes in Turkey. While some of these require analysis in light of wider changes taking place around the world, some require attention within contexts particular to Turkey at particular points in time. This talk reflects on these changes and evolving contexts as experienced by a young(er) Turkish historian who chose to study post-Ottoman Turkey and “the Arab East” in Istanbul in the 2000s. What made this path particularly appealing among other alternatives at the time, in what broader landscapes of intellectual curiosity and academic career options? How did the relevant “field(s)” evolve since then? In addition to sharing tentative assessments on these questions, the talk invites comparison and contrast between different modes of circulation for simplistic generalizations about the Middle East and its peoples. It aims to stimulate conversation on the difficulties of identifying “the foreign(er)” in contexts of entangled imperial pasts, and the likely challenges ahead in efforts to formulate more “inclusive” historical perspectives on those pasts.

 

Connecting with Syrians: Muhammad Ali’s Rule over Syria in the 1830s

Yusuke Motani

    This presentation delves into the Egyptian rule of Syria (bilād al-Shām) during the 1830s, exploring how Muhammad Ali Pasha’s government sought to forge new ties with local Syrian notables to effectively govern the province. Following military conflict with the Ottoman government from 1831, Muhammad Ali and his government faced the pressing task of establishing amicable relations with Syrian notables and integrating them into governance structures in the newly acquired territory. This period can be viewed as a pivotal phase marked by the emergence of “connectivity” between central political authority and local elites, as the government endeavored to connect to Syrian notables.

    In examining this era in depth, the presentation will particularly focus on the interactions between the Egyptian administration in Syria and two key groups: the deputy governors (mutasallim) in Syrian towns and the members of the newly established regional councils (majlis al-shūrā) in major Syrian cities. These officials, appointed primarily from local notables, were endowed with discretionary powers by the government, making them play pivotal role in regional administration. By referring to a wealth of archival documents from the Egyptian National Archives (Dār al-Wathā’iq al-Qawmiyya al-Miṣriyya), the presentation aims to elucidate the roles and authorities bestowed upon these actors by the government, in order to assess the level of trust vested in them for governing Syria.

 

A Constitutional Caliphate? An Islamic Monarch in Ottoman Public Law

Nobuyoshi Fujinami

By the Young Turk Revolution in 1908, a novel conception of Caliphate had taken root in the Ottoman Empire. Liberated from the “Islamic” despotism of Sultan Abdülhamit II, Ottoman intellectuals declared the Caliph to be a constitutional monarch. Legally, the Caliph was an

organ of the state, representing the sovereign will of the nation. There was nothing specifically Islamic about his status as monarch. The Ottoman elites, familiar with Western jurisprudence, effectively excluded the Caliph from the public law of the state. In 1911, when the otherwise secular Unionists proposed giving the Caliph greater powers, few took them seriously. Even ulamas criticized the Unionists’ provocation. As their cynical use of the Caliphate demonstrated, Ottoman politicians rarely hesitated to exploit its authority. Beyond the secularist/Islamist dichotomy, the Ottoman Caliphate was de-sacralised in the last years of the empire, and the Ottomans’ attitude towards the Caliph was more opportunistic than Islamic.

 

Language: English

Venue: Seminar Room 306 (3rd floor), Research Institute for Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies (registered participants may also access the workshop online by Zoom), Open to public/Admission free, Pre-registration is required.

Pre-registration: please use this form for in-person participation. 
                                     please use this form for online participation. 

Organizer: Grant-in-Aid for Transformative Research Areas (A), “The Ideas of the Muslim Community and State Systems” (Principal Investigator: KONDO Nobuaki (ILCAA); 20H05827) / Grant-in-Aid for Transformative Research Areas (A) “Trust Building Through Thought and Strategy” (Principal Investigator: So Yamane (Osaka University),20H05828).

Contact: MORITA Madoka (mmorita[at]aa.tufs.ac.jp)