Rediscovering Palestine: Merchants and Peasants in Jabal Nablus, 1700–1900Drawing on previously unused primary sources, this book paints an intimate and vivid portrait of Palestinian society on the eve of modernity. Through the voices of merchants, peasants, and Ottoman officials, Beshara Doumani offers a major revision of standard interpretations of Ottoman history by investigating the ways in which urban-rural dynamics in a provincial setting appropriated and gave meaning to the larger forces of Ottoman rule and European economic expansion. He traces the relationship between culture, politics, and economic change by looking at how merchant families constructed trade networks and cultivated political power, and by showing how peasants defined their identity and formulated their notions of justice and political authority. Original and accessible, this study challenges nationalist constructions of history and provides a context for understanding the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. It is also the first comprehensive work on the Nablus region, Palestine's trade, manufacturing, and agricultural heartland, and a bastion of local autonomy. Doumani rediscovers Palestine by writing the inhabitants of this ancient land into history. |
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Contents
| 1 | |
Sources | 9 |
THE MEANINGS OF AUTONOMY | 16 |
Tables | 48 |
FAMILY CULTURE AND TRADE | 54 |
COTTON TEXTILES AND THE POLITICS OF TRADE | 95 |
British cotton imports from Turkey 17251789 | 99 |
Cotton production in the Levant 1837 | 104 |
Commissions for soap in the Bishtawi estate 1857 | 197 |
Account of soap cooked in Nabluss soap factories and of taxes assessed for each individual 18421843 | 213 |
CONCLUSION | 233 |
The Discourses of Modernity | 240 |
Weights and Measures | 247 |
Islamic Court records of Nablus 16551865 | 250 |
Soap factories in Nablus early nineteenth century | 255 |
Soap production in the Levant 1837 | 257 |
Other editions - View all
Rediscovering Palestine: Merchants and Peasants in Jabal Nablus, 1700–1900 Beshara Doumani No preview available - 1995 |
Common terms and phrases
Abd al-Hadi Acre Advisory Council agricultural Ahmad amount Arafat areas authorities became capital central changing Chapter chiefs clan clothes collected commodities contracts cotton council cultural customs Damascus demand detailed document early East economic Egypt Egyptian eighteenth especially European example expansion export forces governor Greater Hajj half Hanbali hand hinterland Ibid important increased internal investment involved Islamic Court Jabal Nablus Jerusalem judge land late letter located manufacturing means merchants Middle moneylending Muhammad Nabulsi networks NICR Nimr nineteenth century officials olive oil Ottoman owners Palestine Pasha peasants period piasters political practices production purchase received records regional relations religious ruling rural salam Sayyid share Shaykh soap factory social sources subdistrict Syria textile textile merchants tion trade Tuqan turn urban usually village
Bibliographic information
| Title | Rediscovering Palestine: Merchants and Peasants in Jabal Nablus, 1700–1900 |
| Author | Beshara Doumani |
| Publisher | University of California Press, 1995 |
| ISBN | 0520917316, 9780520917316 |
| Length | 340 pages |
| Subjects | › › History / Middle East / General |
| Export Citation | BiBTeX EndNote RefMan |