Urban factionalism in Late Ottoman Gaza, c. 1875-1914: Local politics and spatial divisions

Yuval Ben-Bassat; Johann Büssow

doi:10.1163/15685209-12341457

Urban factionalism in Late Ottoman Gaza, c. 1875-1914: Local politics and spatial divisions

Yuval Ben-Bassat, Johann Büssow

Department of Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

During the late Ottoman period the city of Gaza was caught up in internal political strife. The city's elite families tended to operate within rival factions while trying to draw Istanbul into its internal conflicts. In this context, they formed complex relationships with the elite of Jerusalem that dominated Palestine's politics, as well as with peasants and Bedouins in Gaza's hinterland. The article presents the first systematic account of factional strife in Gaza during the period. In addition, it examines what caused the internal divisions in Gaza to be so severe and considers whether factionalism also played out in the urban space. It is argued that (1) the severity of this factionalism derived from the rising stakes resulting from imperial politics and economic benefits, and (2) factionalism and urban development interacted with each other, leading to a particular type of 'spatialized factionalism'. We suggest that this perspective can lead to a better understanding of both urban politics and urban development in other towns and cities in the Ottoman Empire's Arab provinces.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	606-649
Number of pages	44
Journal	Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient
Volume	61
Issue number	4
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1163/15685209-12341457
State	Published - 2018

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
* We would like to thank Butrus Abu-Manneh for his help in previous stages of this research; Khaled Safi, Dotan Halevy, Sarah Büssow-Schmitz and Ahmad Fahoum for their useful and eye-opening remarks on this paper; Noga Yoselevich for editing Gatt’s map; and finally, the three anonymous reviewers whose remarks helped us improve this article consider-ably. Research for this paper was financed by the generous support of the German-Israeli Foundation for Scientific Research and Development (GIF).

Publisher Copyright:
© Koninklijke Brill Nv, Leiden, 2018.

Keywords

Factionalism
Gaza
Late Ottoman Palestine
Ottoman Empire
Politics of notables
Urban history

ASJC Scopus subject areas

History
Sociology and Political Science
Economics and Econometrics

Access to Document

10.1163/15685209-12341457

Cite this

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title = "Urban factionalism in Late Ottoman Gaza, c. 1875-1914: Local politics and spatial divisions",

abstract = "During the late Ottoman period the city of Gaza was caught up in internal political strife. The city's elite families tended to operate within rival factions while trying to draw Istanbul into its internal conflicts. In this context, they formed complex relationships with the elite of Jerusalem that dominated Palestine's politics, as well as with peasants and Bedouins in Gaza's hinterland. The article presents the first systematic account of factional strife in Gaza during the period. In addition, it examines what caused the internal divisions in Gaza to be so severe and considers whether factionalism also played out in the urban space. It is argued that (1) the severity of this factionalism derived from the rising stakes resulting from imperial politics and economic benefits, and (2) factionalism and urban development interacted with each other, leading to a particular type of 'spatialized factionalism'. We suggest that this perspective can lead to a better understanding of both urban politics and urban development in other towns and cities in the Ottoman Empire's Arab provinces.",

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Urban factionalism in Late Ottoman Gaza, c. 1875-1914: Local politics and spatial divisions

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Keywords

ASJC Scopus subject areas

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