A Study on History of Arab Cities in the Ottoman Era
The study considers a few trends in recent scholarship on the urban history of Arab cities under the Ottomans. One important development of recent years has been the publication of source material, both chronicles and archival material such as waqfs and court cases. This has helped researchers to develop approaches other than the models, like that of ‘the Islamic city' or the ‘Middle Eastern city'. Among the recent trends has been an interest in historical demography, in the study of trading networks and the movement of people, urban investment. Thus cities are studied in relation to each other, which is in itself a significant development because it gives certain coherence to the region as a whole and moves us away from the isolation paradigm. Another theme that new research has covered is that of marginals, prisoners, prostitutes and people outside of the economy.
NELLY HANNA
