Transforming Damascus: Space and Modernity in an Islamic CityIn 1860, Damascus was a sleepy provincial capital of the weakening Ottoman Empire, a city defined in terms of its relationship to the holy places of Islam in the Arabian Hijaz and its legacy of Islamic knowledge. Yet by 1918 Damascus had become a seat of Arab nationalism and a would-be modern state capital. How can this metamorphosis be explained? Here Leila Hudson describes the transformation of Damascus. Within a couple of generations the city changed from little more than a way-station on the Islamic pilgrimage routes that had defined the city's place for over a millennium. Its citizens and notables now seized the opportunities made available through transport technology on the eastern Mediterranean coast and in the European economy. Shifts in marriage patterns, class, education and power ensued. But just when the city's destiny seemed irrevocably linked to the Mediterranean world and economy, World War I literally starved the urban centre of Damascus and empowered its Bedouin hinterland. The consequences shaped Syria for the rest of the twentieth century and beyond. |
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Abd al-Qader Abdulhamid al-Qasimi al-Salihiyya al-Sha'rani Arab Army Bedouin Beirut bequeathal bridewealth British cash chapter circulation commercial inventories consul court cultural capital Damas Damascene Damascus debt decades decentralization Dimashq documents dowry Druze economy Egypt Estate Sample European forms French Fuad German governor grain hajj Hamidian Hanafi Hawran Hijaz Railway Ibid ijtihad important investment Islamic Istanbul Izzat Jabal Druze Jamal Pasha Khalidiyya land liquidity mahr marriage mascus Mediterranean Midan Middle East Midhat Midhat Pasha military modernity Mosque mu'akhar Muhammad Muslim names Naqshbandi Nazim Nazim Pasha nineteenth century notables Ottoman Empire Ottoman Rule patterns percent period piasters political capital probate inventories province of Suriyya qassam Quran railroad Rashid reform religious road Salafis shari'a social society Stratum structures submedian Sufi Sufism Sultan Syria Tanzimat tion traditional transformation tribes Turkish ulama University Press urban wealth women Young Turk