State, Faith, and Nation in Ottoman and Post-Ottoman Lands

This book argues that religious affiliation was the most influential shaper of communal identity in the Ottoman era.

Frederick F. Anscombe (Author)

9781107042162, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 17 February 2014

344 pages, 2 b/w illus. 5 maps
22.9 x 15.2 x 2.1 cm, 0.63 kg

'A pleasure to read … I cannot, within the limits of a brief book review, do full justice to such a book covering almost a dozen countries over a period of two centuries. Anscombe's book is a tour de force with a wealth of minute details ranging from the reasons for local disturbances in Sarajevo to the legal system of Kuwait, all woven together within a grand narrative of Ottoman and post-Ottoman order and disorder. It might be labeled a bold revisionist historiography of the Ottoman Empire and its aftermath. I highly recommend it for anyone interested in a remarkably different interpretation of politics and society in the Ottoman and post-Ottoman Balkans and the Middle East.' ?ener Aktürk, New Perspectives on Turkey

Current standard narratives of Ottoman, Balkan, and Middle East history overemphasise the role of nationalism in the transformation of the region. Challenging these accounts, this book argues that religious affiliation was in fact the most influential shaper of communal identity in the Ottoman era, that religion moulded the relationship between state and society, and that it continues to do so today in lands once occupied by the Ottomans. The book examines the major transformations of the past 250 years to illustrate this argument, traversing the nineteenth century, the early decades of post-Ottoman independence, and the recent past. In this way, the book affords unusual insights not only into the historical patterns of political development but also into the forces shaping contemporary crises, from the dissolution of Yugoslavia to the rise of political Islam.

Introduction
1. State, faith, nation, and the Ottoman Empire
2. The pre-modern Islamic state and military modernization
3. The breaking of the pre-modern Islamic state
4. The reconstructed Muslim state
5. End of empire
6. The post-Ottoman Balkans
7. Post-Ottoman Turkey
8. The post-Ottoman Arab lands
9. The contemporary Balkans
10. Contemporary Turkey
11. Contemporary Arab countries
Conclusion. State, faith, and nation.

Subject Areas: Politics & government [JP], Middle Eastern history [HBJF1]