Losing Istanbul: Arab-Ottoman Imperialists and the End of Empire
On May 30th, CGC Tunis hosted, in collaboration with Columbia Global Centers | Istanbul, a hybrid discussion with Dr. Mostafa Minawi around his latest book, 'Losing Istanbul: Arab-Ottoman Imperialists and the End of Empire'. With Pr. Houssem Eddine Chachia (University of Tunis) as discussant, it was an insightful session that framed global pivotal events through the experiences of Arab-Ottoman imperial loyalists who called Istanbul home, offering an alternative history of the empire's last four decades. ?
Check out Dr. Minawi's talk at Columbia University in March 2023.
? About the book:
'Losing Istanbul' offers an intimate history of empire, following the rise and fall of a generation of Arab-Ottoman imperialists living in Istanbul. Mostafa Minawi shows how these men and women negotiated their loyalties and guarded their privileges through a microhistorical study of the changing social, political, and cultural currents between 1878 and the First World War. He narrates lives lived in these turbulent times—the joys and fears, triumphs and losses, pride and prejudices—while focusing on the complex dynamics of ethnicity and race in an increasingly Turco-centric imperial capital. Drawing on archival records, newspaper articles, travelogues, personal letters, diaries, photos, and interviews, Minawi shows how the loyalties of these imperialists were questioned and their ethnic identification weaponized. As the once diverse empire comes to an end, they are forced to give up their home in the imperial capital. An alternative history of the last four decades of the Ottoman Empire, Losing Istanbul frames global pivotal events through the experiences of Arab-Ottoman imperial loyalists who called Istanbul home, on the eve of a vanishing imperial world order.
?? About the author:
Mostafa Minawi is Associate Professor of History at Cornell University and the Director of Critical Ottoman & Post-Ottoman Studies. He is the author of 'The Ottoman Scramble for Africa: Empire and Diplomacy in the Sahara and the Hijaz' (Stanford, 2016).
?? About the discussant:
Houssem Eddine Chachia is an Assistant Professor at the University of Tunis (Tunisia). Coordinator Tunisia of the program New Generation of Social Scientists in the Arab Region, at Arab Council for the Social Sciences (Beirut). He was a visiting fellow at the Center for Middle Eastern Studies – at Harvard University (2017-2018). He mainly works on the Moriscos. He is interested in the processes and complexities of identity formation, and the relationship between Europe and the Maghreb in the modern era. His publications include: "The Morisco Landscape: Narratives of Expulsion in Modern Spanish Thought" (2023), "The Sephardic and Moriscos: The Journey of expulsion and installation in the Maghreb (1492-1756), stories and itineraries.” (2015); "Entre las orillas de dos mundos. El itinerario del jerife morisco Mūḥamed Ibn Abd Al-Rafīʿ: de Murcia a Túnez (2017); Túnez, el Mediterráneo y los Moriscos: Homenaje a Slimane Mostafa Zbiss y Mikel de Epalza (Tunis, forthcoming). Awarded as the best young researcher for the year 2020 (section history), presented by Beit al-Hikma (Tunisia), and the Arab Youth Award for Research and Religious Studies (2017), presented by Foundation Mominoon Without Borders (Morocco), and Ibn Battuta Award (2015), section Studies and edition, presented by the Arab Center for the travel literature (London-Abu Dhabi).