Religion Studies: Islam: Ottoman Empire

In this study Bat Ye'or provides a lucid analysis of the dogma and strategies of jihad, offering a vast panorama of the history of Christians and Jews under the rule of Islam. This epic story sheds light on the areas of fusion, interdependence, and confrontation between Islam, Christianity, and Judaism.

The first and only extensive treatment of the genocide of the Aramaic-speaking Christians of the Middle East, in particular the Syriac Orthodox communities, in the late 1800s and early 1900s under the Ottomans. Courtois bases his study on the diplomatic archives of the French Foreign Affairs office (Quai d'Orsay), the archives of the Dominican Mission at Mosul, Iraq, written eyewitness accounts, and oral interviews with genocide survivors conducted by the author.

The Great Game of Genocide addresses the origins, development and aftermath of the Armenian genocide in a wide-ranging reappraisal based on primary and secondary sources from all the major parties involved. Rejecting the determinism of many influential studies, and discarding polemics on allsides, it founds its interpretation of the genocide in the interaction between the Ottoman empire in its decades of terminal decline, the self-interested policies of the European imperial powers, and the agenda of some Armenian nationalists in and beyond Ottoman territory. Particular attention ispaid to the international context of the process of ethnic polarization that culminated in the massive destruction of 1912-23, and especially the obliteration of the Armenian community in 1915-16.The opening chapters of the book examine the relationship between the great power politics of the 'eastern question' from 1774, the narrower politics of the 'Armenian question' from the mid-nineteenth century, and the internal Ottoman questions of reforming the complex social and ethnic order underintense external pressure. Later chapters include detailed case studies of the role of Imperial Germany during the First World War (reaching conclusions markedly different to the prevailing orthodoxy of German complicity in the genocide); the wartime Entente and then the uncomfortable postwarAnglo-French axis; and American political interest in the Middle East in the interwar period which led to a policy of refusing to recognize the genocide. The book concludes by explaining the ongoing international denial of the genocide as an extension of the historical 'Armenian question', with manyof the same considerations governing modern European-American-Turkish interaction as existed prior to the First World War.

A History of Islamic Societies provides an authoritative and comprehensive treatment of the civilisations and patterns of life of Muslims throughout the world. Part I deals with the formative era of Islamic civilisation from the revelation of the Qur'an to the Thirteenth century and examines the transformation of Islam from a complex of doctrines and cultural systems into the organising principles of Middle Eastern Society. Part II traces the creation of similar societies in the Balkans, North Africa, Central Asia, China, India, Southeast Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. Part III considers the transformation of these societies under the forces of technological change, industrial revolution and European imperialism. It describes the emergence of modern economies, national states and secular ideologies in Muslim countries and seeks to assess the role of past Islamic institutions and present Islamic movements in the shaping of contemporary Muslim society.

Covering the greatest three centuries of Turkish history, this book tells the story of the Ottoman Empire's growth into a vast Middle Eastern Power. Born as a military frontier principality at the turn of the Fourteenth century, Turkey developed into the dominant force in Anatolia and the Balkans, growing to become the most powerful Islamic state after 1517 when it incorporated the old Arab lands. This distinctively Eastern culture, with all its detail and intricacies, is explored here by a pre-eminent scholar of Turkish history. He gives a striking picture of the prominence of religion and warfare in everyday life as well as the traditions of statecraft, administration, social values, financial and land policies. The definitive account, this is an indispensable companion to anyone with an interest in Islam, Turkey and the Balkans.

The sixteenth century was a watershed in Egyptian his- tory. After being the center of powerful Islamic empires for centuries, Egypt was conquered in 1517 and made an outlying province of the Ottoman Empire. This study illuminates aspects of Egypt's social, intellectual, and religious life in the sixteenth century, as described by the Egyptian Sufi 'Abd al-Wahhb al-Sha'rn, one of the last original writers before cultural decadence permeated the Arab world in the late Middle Ages. A prominent social commentator, Sha'rn reflected the intense Turkish-Egyptian struggle of the period and provided a vivid and intimate account of the Muslim world during the later medieval stage. Now in paperback, Society and Religion in Early Ottoman Egypt attempts to give a comprehensive analysis of Shaærani writings.