The Urban Social History of the Middle East, 1750Ð1950

The great cities of the Middle East and North Africa have long attracted the attention and interest of historians. With the discovery and wider use over the last few decades of the Islamic court records and Ottoman administrative documents, our knowledge of Middle Eastern cities between the seventeenth and early twentieth centuries has vastly expanded. Drawing upon a treasure trove of documents and using a variety of methodologies, the contributors succeed in providing a significant overview of the ways in which Middle Eastern cities can be studied, as well as an excellent introduction to current literature in the field, affording us a foundational volume that enriches our understanding of society in the late Ottoman and colonial periods.

Contributors: Edmund Burke III, Leila Fawaz, Bernard Hourcade, Robert Ilbert, Dina Rizk Khoury, Gudrun KrŠmer, Abdul-Karim Rafeq, Sarah D. Shields, Peter Sluglett, Sami Zubaida.