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Damascus was for centuries a center of learning and commerce. Drawing on the city's dazzling literary tradition-a rich collection of poetry, chronicles, travel accounts, and biographical dictionaries-as well as on Islamic court records, James Grehan explores the material culture of premodern Damascus, reconstructing the economic infrastructure, social customs, and private consumer habits that dominated this cosmopolitan hub in the 1700s. He sketches a lively history of diet, furniture, fashion, and other aspects of daily life, providing an unusual and intimate account of the choices, constraints, and compromises that defined consumer behavior. Coffee, tobacco, and light firearms had arisen a...
This urban and architectural study of Aleppo reconstructs the city's evolution over the first two centuries of Ottoman rule and proposes a new model for the understanding of the reception and adaptation of imperial forms, institutions and norms in a provincial setting.
From ancient times to the present day, Iranian social, political, and economic life has been dramatically influenced by psychoactive agents. This book looks at the stimulants that, as put by a longtime resident of seventeenth-century Iran, Raphaël du Mans, provided Iranians with damagh, gave them a "kick," got them into a good mood. By tracing their historical trajectory and the role they played in early modern Iranian society (1500-1900), Rudi Matthee takes a major step in extending contemporary debates on the role of drugs and stimulants in shaping the modern West. At once panoramic and richly detailed, The Pursuit of Pleasure examines both the intoxicants known since ancient times--wine ...
For Jews across the Middle East and North Africa, the 1948 establishment of the State of Israel was a transformational period—in both the build-up to it and its aftermath. Using this momentous event as its focal point, this book takes the reader on a journey to remote destinations in the 20th century Jewish experience, examining aspects of Jewish history that have hardly ever been discussed in one place and in such an intriguing combination. Jews have played an integral role in the Arab world, Turkey, Iran, and North Africa for millennia. Their lives were intertwined with those of the majority non-Jewish communities among whom they dwelt: their mass expulsion and emigration after World War II ended the existence of a vital part of nearly all the societies in the region.
More than 20 years of rapid political, economic, social, and cultural change have turned Southeast Europe into a laboratory of transformative processes - processes that have deeply affected the structures of everyday life and that have resulted in a variety of (post-)modern life styles. The contributions by native and foreign researchers to this first of two volumes shed light on the changing practices and patterns of everyday life in Southeast Europe, many of which differ from those in other parts of Europe. The concepts of multiple modernities and post-modernity appear to be highly appropriate for a region in which - under the combined impact of post-socialist transformation, globalization, and EU integration - everyday life is marked by sharp dichotomies and tensions. Understanding these paths to (post-)modernity is relevant for those interested in the Balkans, as well as for those generally interested in processes of socio-cultural change. (Series: Ethnologia Balkanica - Vol. 15)
A collection of essays exploring the complex history of drugs and narcotics throughout historyfrom ancient Greece to the present dayshows that such substances were sought originally as healing agents, both within and without the medical profession. However, the mood- and mind-altering characteristics of some have led to the widespread abuse and legal controls we see today.
Eighteenth-century consumers of the Qing and Ottoman empires had access to an increasingly diverse array of goods, from home furnishings to fashionable clothes and new foodstuffs. While this tendency was of shorter duration and intensity in the Ottoman world, some urbanites of the sultans’ realm did enjoy silks, coffee, and Chinese porcelain. By contrast, a vibrant consumer culture flourished in Qing China, where many consumers flaunted their fur coats and indulged in gourmet dining. Living the Good Life explores how goods furthered the expansion of social networks, alliance-building between rulers and regional elites, and the expression of elite, urban, and gender identities. The scholarship in the present volume highlights the recently emerging “material turn” in Qing and Ottoman historiographies and provides a framework for future research. Contributors: Arif Bilgin, Michael G. Chang, Edhem Eldem, Colette Establet, Antonia Finnane, Selim Karahasanoglu, Lai Hui-min, Amanda Phillips, Hedda Reindl-Kiel, Martina Siebert, Su Te-Cheng, Joanna Waley-Cohen, Wang Dagang, Wu Jen-shu, Yıldız Yılmaz, and Yun Yan.
Captives and Corsairs uncovers a forgotten story in the history of relations between the West and Islam: three centuries of Muslim corsair raids on French ships and shores and the resulting captivity of tens of thousands of French subjects and citizens in North Africa. Through an analysis of archival materials, writings, and images produced by contemporaries, the book fundamentally revises our picture of France's emergence as a nation and a colonial power, presenting the Mediterranean as an essential vantage point for studying the rise of France. It reveals how efforts to liberate slaves from North Africa shaped France's perceptions of the Muslim world and of their own "Frenchness". From around 1550 to 1830, freeing these captives evolved from an expression of Christian charity to a method of state building and, eventually, to a rationale for imperial expansion. Captives and Corsairs thus advances new arguments about the fluid nature of slavery and firmly links captive redemption to state formation—and in turn to the still vital ideology of liberatory conquest.
“This amply illustrated, attractive book is valuable for dress history scholars . . . [an] ideal textbook for courses on clothing and cultural history.” —The Journal of Dress History Ottoman Dress and Design in the West is a richly illustrated exploration of the relationship between West and Near East through the visual culture of dress. Charlotte Jirousek examines the history of dress and fashion in the broader context of western relationships with the Mediterranean world from the dawn of Islam through the end of the twentieth century. The significance of dress is made apparent by the author’s careful attention to its political, economic, and cultural context. The reader comes to un...