European University Institute Library

Petitioning the Sultan, protests and justice in late Ottoman Palestine, 1865-1908, Yuval Ben-Bassat

eng

Includes bibliographical references (pages [288]-304) and index

mapsfacsimiles

index present

non fiction

Petitioning the Sultan

bibliography

852224615

Yuval Ben-Bassat

Library of Ottoman studies, 42

protests and justice in late Ottoman Palestine, 1865-1908

The practice of petitioning the Ottoman Sultan was a well-known institution which existed in one form or another throughout Ottoman history and enabled Ottoman subjects, far from the capital of Istanbul, to convey their grievances directly to the supreme ruler. Here, Yuval Ben-Bassat examines the petitions, including many previously unpublished ones, sent during the last decades of the Empire to the Ottoman Sultan Abdulhamid II. The petitions enable Ben-Bassat to explore Palestine's history in this formative period from a unique perspective, providing first-hand accounts of the dilemmas, struggles, acts, concerns, schisms and transformations Palestinian society experienced. Petitioning the Sultan will be of great interest to a broad audience of specialists studying the history of the Middle East, the Ottoman Empire, and Palestine's late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century world --, Provided by Publisher

Introduction 1. The Ottoman Institution of Petitions to the Ruler in Global and Islamic Perspectives 2. General Features of the Petitions 3. Petitions by the Urban Population of Gaza and Jaffa 4. Petitions by the Rural Population and the Bedouins 5. Requests by Ottoman Officials serving in Palestine 6. Social and Economic Matters 7. The Ottoman Bureaucracy and Administration as Reflected in Petitions 8. Effects of Zionist Activity as Reflected in Petitions to Istanbul 9. Foreign Activity in Palestine Conclusion