1. “Remembering” Egypt’s Ottoman Past: Ottoman Consciousness in Egypt, 1841-1914
- Author
-
Ozturk, Doga
- Subjects
- History, Islamic Studies, Middle Eastern History, Middle Eastern Studies, Ottoman Empire, Egypt, Ottoman-Egypt, Ottoman Egypt, Middle East, cultural history,
- Abstract
Scholarship on modern Egyptian history supports a narrative that depicts Egypt emerging as an independent political entity in the mid-19th century and steadily marching towards becoming a sovereign nation-state in the first decades of the 20th century. The Ottoman cultural context, within which Egypt operated at this time, is usually nowhere to be found in this story. This dissertation remedies this gap in the literature and “remembers” Egypt’s Ottoman past between 1841, when Mehmed Ali Pasha was granted the hereditary governorship of Egypt, and 1914, when Egypt’s remaining political ties to the Ottoman Empire were severed by the British Empire. Primarily based on a variety of sources produced in Arabic and Ottoman Turkish, it argues that even though the political ties between Istanbul and Cairo were weakening and a more distinct Egyptian identity was on the rise at this time, the Ottoman cultural consciousness continued to provide an important framework for the ruling and intellectual elite of Egypt, as well as the wider segments of the Egyptian public, until World War I. Taking a thematic approach to the subject, the dissertation demonstrates how the Ottoman imperial court culture provided a blueprint for the ruling elite in Egypt. Moreover, it asserts that Arabic-speaking intellectuals of Egypt, both male and female, continued to self-identify as “Ottomans” in their reactions to some of the momentous events that the Ottoman Empire was facing at the end of the 19th and early 20th centuries. Additionally, it demonstrates how these Arabic-speaking intellectuals utilized the idea of Ottoman consciousness in their efforts to resist European imperialism, which became particularly urgent after Britain occupied Egypt in 1882. Finally, my dissertation asserts that wider segments of the public in Egypt continued to demonstrate a sense of Ottoman consciousness in their reactions to the aforementioned events that the Ottoman Empire was going through at the time.
- Published
- 2020