A History of Muslims, Christians, and Jews in the Middle East

This book traces the history of conflict and contact between Muslims, Christians, and Jews in the Ottoman Middle East prior to 1914.

Heather J. Sharkey (Author)

9780521769372, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 3 April 2017

392 pages, 18 b/w illus.
23.5 x 15.7 x 2.6 cm, 0.67 kg

'Heather Sharkey's nuanced, complex, and unique book stands out because of her focus on a much larger geographical area (the Ottoman Empire, with occasional references to Iran and Morocco), as well as a longer historical timeframe (the 7th through early 20th centuries, with a focus on the Ottoman period). Moreover, she clearly weaves together three distinct analytical approaches: the theological, the political, and the social. By examining each of these elements of Ottoman society, Sharkey illuminates both Ottoman policies and the practices of Ottoman subjects. These features mark this text as an important standard for decades to come.' Noah Haiduc-Dale, Journal of Church and State

Across centuries, the Islamic Middle East hosted large populations of Christians and Jews in addition to Muslims. Today, this diversity is mostly absent. In this book, Heather J. Sharkey examines the history that Muslims, Christians, and Jews once shared against the shifting backdrop of state policies. Focusing on the Ottoman Middle East before World War I, Sharkey offers a vivid and lively analysis of everyday social contacts, dress, music, food, bathing, and more, as they brought people together or pushed them apart. Historically, Islamic traditions of statecraft and law, which the Ottoman Empire maintained and adapted, treated Christians and Jews as protected subordinates to Muslims while prescribing limits to social mixing. Sharkey shows how, amid the pivotal changes of the modern era, efforts to simultaneously preserve and dismantle these hierarchies heightened tensions along religious lines and set the stage for the twentieth-century Middle East.

1. Muslims, Christians, and Jews in the Middle East
2. The Islamic foundations of inter-communal relations
3. The Ottoman experience
4. The Ottoman Empire in an age of reform: from Sultan Mahmud II to the end of the Tanzimat era, 1808–76
5. The pivotal era of Abdulhamid II, 1876–1909
6. Coming together, moving apart: Ottoman Muslims, Christians, and Jews at the turn of the century
Epilogue.

Subject Areas: Islamic studies [JFSR2], Middle Eastern history [HBJF1]