Artâs, a small village in the heart of a fertile valley near Bethlehem, is the perfect observator... more Artâs, a small village in the heart of a fertile valley near Bethlehem, is the perfect observatory of the early European and American presence in Ottoman Palestine and its memory perduring to this day. Having attracted the attention of pilgrims, explorers and biblical scholars as early as the seventeenth century because of its supposed link with the legacy of King Solomon, Artâs became in the mid-nineteenth century the preferred location of settlers belonging to the Protestant millenarian movement. The multi-national millenarist network in Artâs did not constitute a monolithic bloc, but its different currents were united in the idea that the Jews should settle in the Holy Land to prepare for the "second coming" of Christ. At the beginning of the twentieth century, the presence of these settlers favored the presence of researchers, whose work subsequently had a strong resonance, especially among the inhabitants of the village. The appropriation of these researchers' work, and particularly that of Finnish anthropologist Hilma Granqvist, takes on its full meaning in the context of the Israeli occupation.
Far from binary readings of the relations between "East" and "West", this case study analyzes the power relations at work at the end of the Ottoman period and during the British mandate, based on a varied and unpublished corpus of archives. Their intersection with oral history narratives reveals the ways in which this period is recalled, interpreted or forgotten by the inhabitants of the village and by Europeans who lived there. These narratives highlight the significance attributed to history, both in popular memory and in Palestinian historiography. Between metahistory of humanity and microstoria, the example of Artâs opens a new perspective on a pivotal period in the history of the Near East.
Different forms of charity, relief and humanitarian action can be jointly approached as a means o... more Different forms of charity, relief and humanitarian action can be jointly approached as a means of governance and social regulation. More precisely, in the Middle East the question of stability – social and political – can be considered as a central driver for local and international actors alike. The book adopts a broad historical framework, reaching from antiquity to the present day, with the aim of approaching the subject with an openness conducive to understanding the evolution of the actors, modes of action and representations underlying aid initiatives.
Chrétiens et sociétés XVIe-XXe siècles, Jan 31, 2011
Cet article traite des imaginaires et des projets de chretiens millenaristes en Palestine au 19e ... more Cet article traite des imaginaires et des projets de chretiens millenaristes en Palestine au 19e siecle qui etait marque par un renouvellement d’interet pour la Terre sainte en Europe et en Amerique du Nord. Les idees millenaristes, selon lesquelles le « second avenement » du Christ et son regne millenaire dependaient du « retour » des juifs a la terre des propheties et de leur conversion au christianisme, etaient repandues parmi les membres de certaines eglises protestantes et anglicanes. Prenant comme etude de cas la colonie euro-americaine dans la vallee d’Artas pres de Bethleem, cet article montre comment ces idees ont conditionne la realite dans ce cas precis.
As a privileged site for individual and collective acts of charity, Jerusalem witnessed an import... more As a privileged site for individual and collective acts of charity, Jerusalem witnessed an important increase in charity and poor relief institutions in the nineteenth century, many of them European-backed and related to missionary ambitions. Partly in response to the perceived threat of the latter, the municipality of Jerusalem gradually became a crucial actor in poor relief, in the framework of an evolving legal framework defining the social responsibilities of municipalities and the rights of citizens. Drawing on the archives of the municipality, as well as diaries and memoirs of Jerusalemites, this article examines this transformation particularly in the realms of social welfare and health services.
Un article du New York Herald de novembre 1842 avec un dessin montrant le pasteur baptiste Willia... more Un article du New York Herald de novembre 1842 avec un dessin montrant le pasteur baptiste William miller et ses adeptes.
Different forms of charity, relief and humanitarian action can be jointly approached as a means o... more Different forms of charity, relief and humanitarian action can be jointly approached as a means of governance and social regulation. More precisely, in the Middle East the question of stability-social and political-can be considered as a central driver for local and international actors alike. This study adopts a broad historical framework, reaching from antiquity to the present day, with the aim of approaching the subject with an openness conducive to understanding the evolution of the actors, modes of action and representations underlying aid initiatives. The longue durée approach allows to show two main specificities of the modern and contemporary Middle East: firstly, the evolution of aid practices is directly linked to human mobility, since they are connected to religious practices, commerce or violence, which led to the need to take a census, to categorise and sometimes isolate populations in order to govern and control them. Secondly, in the absence of the welfare state as the most important provider of aid, the state has until today in the Middle East much less prominence among the
Blog of the Swiss Society for the Middle East and Islamic Cultures, 2021
Les évangéliques américains sont-ils le dernier rempart de l’expansionnisme sioniste ou des allié... more Les évangéliques américains sont-ils le dernier rempart de l’expansionnisme sioniste ou des alliés contre-nature pour Israël ? Majoritairement engagés aux côtés de l’ultra-droite israélienne, ils comptent pourtant une frange envisageant la conversion des juifs comme condition du salut de la chrétienté.
Les municipalités proche-orientales datent de la fin de l’époque ottomane et sont ainsi des témoi... more Les municipalités proche-orientales datent de la fin de l’époque ottomane et sont ainsi des témoins et des acteurs importants des changements qu’a connus la région au cours des 150 dernières années. L’échelon municipal permet d’appréhender les questions liées à l’espace social et politique des villes sur la longue durée. Ainsi, pour le cas de Jérusalem, l’analyse de la gouvernance urbaine (entre la fin de l’époque ottomane et la période mandataire) pointe la centralité de cet échelon afin de ..
As a privileged site for individual and collective acts of charity, Jerusalem witnessed an import... more As a privileged site for individual and collective acts of charity, Jerusalem witnessed an important increase in charity and poor relief institutions in the nineteenth century, many of them European-backed and related to missionary ambitions. Partly in response to the perceived threat of the latter, the municipality of Jerusalem gradually became a crucial actor in poor relief, in the framework of an evolving legal framework defining the social responsibilities of municipalities and the rights of citizens. Drawing on the archives of the municipality, as well as diaries and memoirs of Jerusalemites, this article examines this transformation particularly in the realms of social welfare and health services.
This article attempts to analyze the comprehensive urban plan commissioned by the municipality of... more This article attempts to analyze the comprehensive urban plan commissioned by the municipality of Jerusalem from Brown Engineers International in 1963 in light of the status of the city within Jordanian governance and politics, and also compared to earlier British plans. This plan was the basis for the 1966 town scheme submitted to the Jordanian government just one year before the 1967 war by Henry Kendall, who was in charge of city planning for the municipality between 1963 and 1966. Faced with the extreme reduction of the space for urban development after the division of the city, the plan ambitioned to lay the basis for a “complete city” and to compensate for the lack of vital infrastructures. For the Old City, the plan sought to further approaches to preservation initiated during the Mandate period, while calling for the creation of residential neighborhoods outside of it.
As a privileged site for individual and collective acts of charity, Jerusalem witnessed an import... more As a privileged site for individual and collective acts of charity, Jerusalem witnessed an important increase in charity and poor relief institutions in the nineteenth century, many of them European-backed and related to missionary ambitions. Partly in response to the perceived threat of the latter, the municipality of Jerusalem gradually became a crucial actor in poor relief, in the framework of an evolving legal framework defining the social responsibilities of municipalities and the rights of citizens. Drawing on the archives of the municipality, as well as diaries and memoirs of Jerusalemites, this article examines this transformation particularly in the realms of social welfare and health services.
This is the introduction to the special issue of the Jerusalem Quarterly devoted to the city's in... more This is the introduction to the special issue of the Jerusalem Quarterly devoted to the city's interrupted futures (no. 92).
The analysis of interrupted futures proposed in this special issue is not counterfactual history that consists of imagining other outcomes. While that is also an interesting historiographic exercise, the approach used here is not speculative, but rather interpretive. It is based on rigorous archival work, very much in the spirit of philosopher Jacques Derrida’s conception of the archive as a store for the future.........
(The entire issue is open-access, as always.)
ERRATUM - Endnote 2 should read as follows:
Reinhart Koselleck, The Practice of Conceptual History: Timing History, Spacing Concepts, transl. T. S. Presner et al. (Stanford: Stanford University Press), 76.
Cet article traite des imaginaires et des projets de chretiens millenaristes en Palestine au 19e ... more Cet article traite des imaginaires et des projets de chretiens millenaristes en Palestine au 19e siecle qui etait marque par un renouvellement d’interet pour la Terre sainte en Europe et en Amerique du Nord. Les idees millenaristes, selon lesquelles le « second avenement » du Christ et son regne millenaire dependaient du « retour » des juifs a la terre des propheties et de leur conversion au christianisme, etaient repandues parmi les membres de certaines eglises protestantes et anglicanes. Prenant comme etude de cas la colonie euro-americaine dans la vallee d’Artas pres de Bethleem, cet article montre comment ces idees ont conditionne la realite dans ce cas precis.
Revue des mondes musulmans et de la Méditerranée, 2017
Dans le cadre de cet article j’analyse le role de la municipalite ottomane de Jerusalem face aux ... more Dans le cadre de cet article j’analyse le role de la municipalite ottomane de Jerusalem face aux effets de la Premiere Guerre mondiale. Fonde sur un croisement entre les registres lacunaires du conseil municipal et des recits de soi contemporains, cet article interroge la transformation de ce pouvoir urbain entre 1914 et 1917 et ses actions face a la crise sanitaire et humanitaire grandissante.
This article intends to provide a description of the archives of the Ottoman municipality of Jeru... more This article intends to provide a description of the archives of the Ottoman municipality of Jerusalem (1892-1917) and point to some of the main benefits that can be derived from this little known source for the historiography of Jerusalem. The archives of the Ottoman municipality are part of the Historical Archives of the Jerusalem Municipality, kept in the municipality building at Safra Square in the Musrara neighborhood.The municipal council (majlis baladiyya, meclis-i belediye) of Jerusalem came into existence in the beginning of the 1860s.1 Jerusalem was in fact one of the very first cities within the Ottoman Empire to form a municipality, which was further consolidated after the Ottoman law on municipalities in 1877.2 From the 1880s onward, the municipal council was composed of nine to twelve members elected for a renewable mandate of four years: there were generally six Muslims, two Christians, and one or two Jews on the council (depending on the period), in addition to a max...
Artâs, a small village in the heart of a fertile valley near Bethlehem, is the perfect observator... more Artâs, a small village in the heart of a fertile valley near Bethlehem, is the perfect observatory of the early European and American presence in Ottoman Palestine and its memory perduring to this day. Having attracted the attention of pilgrims, explorers and biblical scholars as early as the seventeenth century because of its supposed link with the legacy of King Solomon, Artâs became in the mid-nineteenth century the preferred location of settlers belonging to the Protestant millenarian movement. The multi-national millenarist network in Artâs did not constitute a monolithic bloc, but its different currents were united in the idea that the Jews should settle in the Holy Land to prepare for the "second coming" of Christ. At the beginning of the twentieth century, the presence of these settlers favored the presence of researchers, whose work subsequently had a strong resonance, especially among the inhabitants of the village. The appropriation of these researchers' work, and particularly that of Finnish anthropologist Hilma Granqvist, takes on its full meaning in the context of the Israeli occupation.
Far from binary readings of the relations between "East" and "West", this case study analyzes the power relations at work at the end of the Ottoman period and during the British mandate, based on a varied and unpublished corpus of archives. Their intersection with oral history narratives reveals the ways in which this period is recalled, interpreted or forgotten by the inhabitants of the village and by Europeans who lived there. These narratives highlight the significance attributed to history, both in popular memory and in Palestinian historiography. Between metahistory of humanity and microstoria, the example of Artâs opens a new perspective on a pivotal period in the history of the Near East.
Different forms of charity, relief and humanitarian action can be jointly approached as a means o... more Different forms of charity, relief and humanitarian action can be jointly approached as a means of governance and social regulation. More precisely, in the Middle East the question of stability – social and political – can be considered as a central driver for local and international actors alike. The book adopts a broad historical framework, reaching from antiquity to the present day, with the aim of approaching the subject with an openness conducive to understanding the evolution of the actors, modes of action and representations underlying aid initiatives.
Chrétiens et sociétés XVIe-XXe siècles, Jan 31, 2011
Cet article traite des imaginaires et des projets de chretiens millenaristes en Palestine au 19e ... more Cet article traite des imaginaires et des projets de chretiens millenaristes en Palestine au 19e siecle qui etait marque par un renouvellement d’interet pour la Terre sainte en Europe et en Amerique du Nord. Les idees millenaristes, selon lesquelles le « second avenement » du Christ et son regne millenaire dependaient du « retour » des juifs a la terre des propheties et de leur conversion au christianisme, etaient repandues parmi les membres de certaines eglises protestantes et anglicanes. Prenant comme etude de cas la colonie euro-americaine dans la vallee d’Artas pres de Bethleem, cet article montre comment ces idees ont conditionne la realite dans ce cas precis.
As a privileged site for individual and collective acts of charity, Jerusalem witnessed an import... more As a privileged site for individual and collective acts of charity, Jerusalem witnessed an important increase in charity and poor relief institutions in the nineteenth century, many of them European-backed and related to missionary ambitions. Partly in response to the perceived threat of the latter, the municipality of Jerusalem gradually became a crucial actor in poor relief, in the framework of an evolving legal framework defining the social responsibilities of municipalities and the rights of citizens. Drawing on the archives of the municipality, as well as diaries and memoirs of Jerusalemites, this article examines this transformation particularly in the realms of social welfare and health services.
Un article du New York Herald de novembre 1842 avec un dessin montrant le pasteur baptiste Willia... more Un article du New York Herald de novembre 1842 avec un dessin montrant le pasteur baptiste William miller et ses adeptes.
Different forms of charity, relief and humanitarian action can be jointly approached as a means o... more Different forms of charity, relief and humanitarian action can be jointly approached as a means of governance and social regulation. More precisely, in the Middle East the question of stability-social and political-can be considered as a central driver for local and international actors alike. This study adopts a broad historical framework, reaching from antiquity to the present day, with the aim of approaching the subject with an openness conducive to understanding the evolution of the actors, modes of action and representations underlying aid initiatives. The longue durée approach allows to show two main specificities of the modern and contemporary Middle East: firstly, the evolution of aid practices is directly linked to human mobility, since they are connected to religious practices, commerce or violence, which led to the need to take a census, to categorise and sometimes isolate populations in order to govern and control them. Secondly, in the absence of the welfare state as the most important provider of aid, the state has until today in the Middle East much less prominence among the
Blog of the Swiss Society for the Middle East and Islamic Cultures, 2021
Les évangéliques américains sont-ils le dernier rempart de l’expansionnisme sioniste ou des allié... more Les évangéliques américains sont-ils le dernier rempart de l’expansionnisme sioniste ou des alliés contre-nature pour Israël ? Majoritairement engagés aux côtés de l’ultra-droite israélienne, ils comptent pourtant une frange envisageant la conversion des juifs comme condition du salut de la chrétienté.
Les municipalités proche-orientales datent de la fin de l’époque ottomane et sont ainsi des témoi... more Les municipalités proche-orientales datent de la fin de l’époque ottomane et sont ainsi des témoins et des acteurs importants des changements qu’a connus la région au cours des 150 dernières années. L’échelon municipal permet d’appréhender les questions liées à l’espace social et politique des villes sur la longue durée. Ainsi, pour le cas de Jérusalem, l’analyse de la gouvernance urbaine (entre la fin de l’époque ottomane et la période mandataire) pointe la centralité de cet échelon afin de ..
As a privileged site for individual and collective acts of charity, Jerusalem witnessed an import... more As a privileged site for individual and collective acts of charity, Jerusalem witnessed an important increase in charity and poor relief institutions in the nineteenth century, many of them European-backed and related to missionary ambitions. Partly in response to the perceived threat of the latter, the municipality of Jerusalem gradually became a crucial actor in poor relief, in the framework of an evolving legal framework defining the social responsibilities of municipalities and the rights of citizens. Drawing on the archives of the municipality, as well as diaries and memoirs of Jerusalemites, this article examines this transformation particularly in the realms of social welfare and health services.
This article attempts to analyze the comprehensive urban plan commissioned by the municipality of... more This article attempts to analyze the comprehensive urban plan commissioned by the municipality of Jerusalem from Brown Engineers International in 1963 in light of the status of the city within Jordanian governance and politics, and also compared to earlier British plans. This plan was the basis for the 1966 town scheme submitted to the Jordanian government just one year before the 1967 war by Henry Kendall, who was in charge of city planning for the municipality between 1963 and 1966. Faced with the extreme reduction of the space for urban development after the division of the city, the plan ambitioned to lay the basis for a “complete city” and to compensate for the lack of vital infrastructures. For the Old City, the plan sought to further approaches to preservation initiated during the Mandate period, while calling for the creation of residential neighborhoods outside of it.
As a privileged site for individual and collective acts of charity, Jerusalem witnessed an import... more As a privileged site for individual and collective acts of charity, Jerusalem witnessed an important increase in charity and poor relief institutions in the nineteenth century, many of them European-backed and related to missionary ambitions. Partly in response to the perceived threat of the latter, the municipality of Jerusalem gradually became a crucial actor in poor relief, in the framework of an evolving legal framework defining the social responsibilities of municipalities and the rights of citizens. Drawing on the archives of the municipality, as well as diaries and memoirs of Jerusalemites, this article examines this transformation particularly in the realms of social welfare and health services.
This is the introduction to the special issue of the Jerusalem Quarterly devoted to the city's in... more This is the introduction to the special issue of the Jerusalem Quarterly devoted to the city's interrupted futures (no. 92).
The analysis of interrupted futures proposed in this special issue is not counterfactual history that consists of imagining other outcomes. While that is also an interesting historiographic exercise, the approach used here is not speculative, but rather interpretive. It is based on rigorous archival work, very much in the spirit of philosopher Jacques Derrida’s conception of the archive as a store for the future.........
(The entire issue is open-access, as always.)
ERRATUM - Endnote 2 should read as follows:
Reinhart Koselleck, The Practice of Conceptual History: Timing History, Spacing Concepts, transl. T. S. Presner et al. (Stanford: Stanford University Press), 76.
Cet article traite des imaginaires et des projets de chretiens millenaristes en Palestine au 19e ... more Cet article traite des imaginaires et des projets de chretiens millenaristes en Palestine au 19e siecle qui etait marque par un renouvellement d’interet pour la Terre sainte en Europe et en Amerique du Nord. Les idees millenaristes, selon lesquelles le « second avenement » du Christ et son regne millenaire dependaient du « retour » des juifs a la terre des propheties et de leur conversion au christianisme, etaient repandues parmi les membres de certaines eglises protestantes et anglicanes. Prenant comme etude de cas la colonie euro-americaine dans la vallee d’Artas pres de Bethleem, cet article montre comment ces idees ont conditionne la realite dans ce cas precis.
Revue des mondes musulmans et de la Méditerranée, 2017
Dans le cadre de cet article j’analyse le role de la municipalite ottomane de Jerusalem face aux ... more Dans le cadre de cet article j’analyse le role de la municipalite ottomane de Jerusalem face aux effets de la Premiere Guerre mondiale. Fonde sur un croisement entre les registres lacunaires du conseil municipal et des recits de soi contemporains, cet article interroge la transformation de ce pouvoir urbain entre 1914 et 1917 et ses actions face a la crise sanitaire et humanitaire grandissante.
This article intends to provide a description of the archives of the Ottoman municipality of Jeru... more This article intends to provide a description of the archives of the Ottoman municipality of Jerusalem (1892-1917) and point to some of the main benefits that can be derived from this little known source for the historiography of Jerusalem. The archives of the Ottoman municipality are part of the Historical Archives of the Jerusalem Municipality, kept in the municipality building at Safra Square in the Musrara neighborhood.The municipal council (majlis baladiyya, meclis-i belediye) of Jerusalem came into existence in the beginning of the 1860s.1 Jerusalem was in fact one of the very first cities within the Ottoman Empire to form a municipality, which was further consolidated after the Ottoman law on municipalities in 1877.2 From the 1880s onward, the municipal council was composed of nine to twelve members elected for a renewable mandate of four years: there were generally six Muslims, two Christians, and one or two Jews on the council (depending on the period), in addition to a max...
From the end of the Ottoman period, the Near Eastern municipalities were important witnesses to, ... more From the end of the Ottoman period, the Near Eastern municipalities were important witnesses to, and actors in, the transformations experienced in the region over the last 150 years. The municipal scale lends itself to an analysis of the social and political space of cities over the long term. In the case of Jerusalem, the analysis of this scale permits a more nuanced understanding of the political transformations driven by the arrival of British Mandate authorities. In line with recent research on Ottoman municipalities, and taking a cue from Michel Foucault's call to consider cities as the model of the modern state in the nineteenth century, this article considers the municipality of Jerusalem as an essential laboratory of policies implemented at the local level by the Mandate.
Memories of 1948 (by C. Conti & A. Alcantara), 2019
The 19 stories offered here illustrate different ways of being present, of counting, of making on... more The 19 stories offered here illustrate different ways of being present, of counting, of making oneself heard and of having some weight. In the face of erasure – imposed through terror, through the destruction of their villages, by being uncounted during population censuses, by being deprived of their right of residence – in the face of the confiscation of their property and their marginalization in the dominant historiography on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, 11 men and 8 women tell their stories of 1948. They retrace the effects of this historic cataclysm and the different strategies for survival, perseverance, creativity and resistance that they deployed.
In 1925 a young Finnish student called Hilma Granqvist (1890-1972) went on an excursion to the vi... more In 1925 a young Finnish student called Hilma Granqvist (1890-1972) went on an excursion to the village of Artas south of Bethlehem. She had arrived in Jerusalem a few weeks earlier in order to study the women of the Old Testament. She thus arrived in Palestine “walking in trodden paths”, looking for remnants of Biblical times in contemporary Palestinian society. Her encounter with Palestinian society in general and with the villagers of Artas in particular changed her outlook and approach: she ended up being the person who inscribed Artas on the mental maps of modern anthropology by devoting five monographs to the “three big events of human biography ” – birth, marriage and death – on the basis of her fieldwork in the village.
Memorias de Palestine (para C. Conti & A. Alcantara), 2021
Sin embargo, desde 1948, los "ausentes" (como los israelíes llaman a los palestinos impedidos de ... more Sin embargo, desde 1948, los "ausentes" (como los israelíes llaman a los palestinos impedidos de regresar a sus tierras) han hecho sentir su presencia, aunque esta no pueda ser física. Las veinte historias de vida compiladas en este libro muestran diferentes formas de estar presente, de contar y de ser escuchados. Ante una anulación impuesta –por el terror, por la destrucción de los pueblos, (2) por su invisibilidad en los censos de población, por la pérdida del derecho de residencia–, ante la confiscación de sus bienes y su marginación de la historiografía dominante en el conflicto palestino-israelí, ocho mujeres y doce hombres comparten aquí sus historias de 1948. En ellas describen el efecto de este cataclismo histórico y las diferentes estrategias de supervivencia, perseverancia, creatividad y resistencia que desplegaron.
Palestine - Mémoires de 1948 (par C. Conti & A. Alcantara), 2019
Dans les dix-huit récits de vie présentés ici se déclinent différentes manières d’être présent, ... more Dans les dix-huit récits de vie présentés ici se déclinent différentes manières d’être présent, de compter, de se faire entendre et de peser. Face à un effacement imposé - par la terreur, par la destruction des villages , par leur non-comptabilisation lors des recensements de population, par la déchéance du droit de résidence - face à la confiscation de leur biens et à leur marginalisation dans l’historiographie dominante sur le conflit israélo-palestinien, dix hommes et huit femmes livrent ici leurs récits de 1948. Ils retracent l’effet de ce cataclysme historique et les différentes stratégies de survie, de persévérance, de créativité et de résistance qu’ils ont déployé.
Ottoman Tanzimat and its Implementations in Bilad al-Sham, 2017
The Ottoman municipality of Jerusalem is a particularly good example of an institution which was ... more The Ottoman municipality of Jerusalem is a particularly good example of an institution which was shaped by the Tanzimat reforms and which in turn applied their spirit on the level of local government.
أحوال الزواج في قرية فلسطينية, لمؤلفته هيلما غرانكفست
المترجمتان:
خديجة محمد علي قاسم (1934 - 200... more أحوال الزواج في قرية فلسطينية, لمؤلفته هيلما غرانكفست المترجمتان: خديجة محمد علي قاسم (1934 - 2009) من مواليد سلوان / القدس، اعتنت عناية خاصة بالدراسات التي تُعنى بالتراث الشعبي الفلسطيني، بدأت بترجمة هذا الكتاب ولم تنجزه. إخلاص خالد القنانوة، باحثة أردنية تحمل درجة الدكتوراه في اللغات الساميّة الشمالية الغربية من جامعة برلين الحرة - ألمانيا الاتحادية. صدرت لها عدة ترجمات من بينها: آثار قمران ومخطوطات البحر الميت (جودي ماغنس)
The Annual MUBIT Doctoral Workshop in Late- and Post-Ottoman Studies is a two-day workshop in Bas... more The Annual MUBIT Doctoral Workshop in Late- and Post-Ottoman Studies is a two-day workshop in Basel, Switzerland, designed for international doctoral students conducting research on the Near and Middle East. The workshop consists of a two-day, intensive program in which select students work closely with invited experts. Successful completion of the workshop entitles students to 3 ECTS credits.
This year, we are thrilled to host Dr. habil. Nora Lafi of the Zentrum Moderner Orient, Berlin, to lead our 12th annual workshop on the topic of “The Ottoman Governance of Diversity.” For more information on the content of the workshop, see below. The 2024 workshop will be held in person between 25 October (12:00 p.m.) and 26 October (13:00 p.m.) at the University of Basel.
The Seminar for Near and Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Basel is offering one fully-... more The Seminar for Near and Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Basel is offering one fully-funded doctoral position for the research project "Futures Interrupted: social pluralism and political projects beyond coloniality and the nation-state". This five-year project, started in January 2024, is led by Falestin Naïli (principal investigator) and is funded through a Swiss National Science Foundation Consolidator grant.
The project: This collective project aims to renew our perspective on the period between the end of the Ottoman Empire and the beginning of the age of nations in the Arab world by paying particular attention to local actors. The focus on unrealized social and political projects promoted by local actors allows us a look at the Arab world beyond the colonial framework and beyond the prevailing nation-state model. It also offers a view of alternative articulations of belonging and political community, using case-studies stretching from North Africa to South West Asia and the Arabian Peninsula. Futures Interrupted will be particularly attentive to the ways in which these unimplemented or unfinished projects dealt with the social pluralism which characterized the region at that time and which, in many parts of the area, was upset by the colonial division into separate states that occurred mostly after the First World War.
Special issue directed by guest editor Carol Khoury
Deadline for proposed abstracts: 15 Septembe... more Special issue directed by guest editor Carol Khoury
Deadline for proposed abstracts: 15 September 2023.
Call for Applications:
11th Annual MUBIT Doctoral Workshop in Basel
with Prof. Dr. Laura Robson (... more Call for Applications: 11th Annual MUBIT Doctoral Workshop in Basel with Prof. Dr. Laura Robson (Penn State U.) “States and Statelessness in the Post-Ottoman Middle East.”
The Annual MUBIT Doctoral Workshop in Late- and Post-Ottoman Studies is a two-day workshop in Basel, Switzerland, designed for international doctoral students conducting research on the Near and Middle East. The workshop consists of a two-day, intensive program in which select students work closely with invited experts. Successful completion of the workshop entitles students to 3 ECTS credits.
This year, we are thrilled to host Prof. Dr. Laura Robson of Penn State University, USA, to lead our 11th annual workshop on the topic of “States and Statelessness in the Post-Ottoman Middle East.” For more information on the content of the workshop, see attached. The 2023 workshop will be held in person between 20 October (12:00 p.m.) and 21 October (13:00 p.m.) at the University of Basel. The deadline for application is the 1st of September.
Launched in 2014, the EU-funded project www.openjerusalem.org is aimed at identifying, locating, ... more Launched in 2014, the EU-funded project www.openjerusalem.org is aimed at identifying, locating, classifying and making accessible the archives on the history of Jerusalem in the 19th and 20th centuries (1840-1940). Its web portal now provides access to 40,000 original documents written in 12 different languages and stored in 15 countries, within some 50 archiving institutions that are partners of the project. The 60 researchers involved in the network have published numerous scientific contributions, as well as publications for the general public.
"This issue of the Jerusalem Quarterly is yet another special issue, this time dedicated to Jerus... more "This issue of the Jerusalem Quarterly is yet another special issue, this time dedicated to Jerusalem’s futures, albeit the interrupted ones. As guest editor, Falestin Naïli conjured a lineup that brings into sharper focus, and elaborates on, a familiar theme in writings on Palestine and on the condition of Palestinians in Jerusalem and elsewhere: a theme of lost opportunities and unrealized plans. We leave it to you, our readers, to imagine what this means as you contemplate the turbulent history of Jerusalem in the twentieth century."
Jerusalem's status quo and the blocking of its future by the structural violence of the present o... more Jerusalem's status quo and the blocking of its future by the structural violence of the present occupation is not novel. This special issue of JQ proposes a reassessment of the city's urban past, one that is attentive to the schemes and ideas that were under discussion or in preparation during the late Ottoman, Mandate, and Jordanian periods, such as plans for a tramway line and public gardens. This issue seeks to focus on the possible futures that Jerusalem did not experience and on the plans that were interrupted as the city changed hands. Rather than yielding to facts on the ground, this issue is an invitation to explore the ideas for a Jerusalem that did not materialize. We welcome contributions about interrupted or unimplemented projects pertaining to urban planning, infrastructure, governance, cultural and social institutions, and civic engagement. The contributions should be based on an analysis of archival material.
A city of four million inhabitants today, Amman's expansion has become disproportionate to its ur... more A city of four million inhabitants today, Amman's expansion has become disproportionate to its urban history. Amman has experienced an impressive urban growth over the past fifty years, driven by forced migration and market laws. Developing from a small rural settlement at the end of the 19th century, Amman evolved into a regional crossroad at the end of the 20th century, and has become today a symbol for the consolidation of Hashemite rule, and as a result, the site of its contestation. Amman's exceptional position among other regional capitals and its recent urban history has forced its inhabitants to create narratives concerning the city's foundation, invent urban traditions, and negotiate ways of socialization.
It is my great pleasure to inform you of the publication of the Arabic translation of Hilma Granq... more It is my great pleasure to inform you of the publication of the Arabic translation of Hilma Granqvist's "Marriage Conditions in a Palestinian Village", vols 1 and 2. Translated by the late Khadija Qasim and Dr. Ekhlass Al Gananweh and edited by Dr. Omar Al Ghul (Yarmouk University), these pioneering ethnographic monographies are now finally available for Arab readers, researchers, teachers and all those who are interested in the immaterial heritage of the Arab world and Palestine in particular. I have had the honor of providing a critical introduction for the volume. The book was published by the Tarjuman project of the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies and is available for purchase in bookstores and on the Internet.
The Open Jerusalem project (full title: Opening Jerusalem Archives: For a connected history of ci... more The Open Jerusalem project (full title: Opening Jerusalem Archives: For a connected history of citadinité in the Holy City, 1840–1940) is funded by the European Research Council (starting grant) from 2014 to 2019 and based at the Paris-Est Marne-la-Vallée University in France. The project is directed by Vincent Lemire and run jointly with the researchers of the core team: Stephane Ancel, Yasemin Avcı, Leyla Dakhli, Angelos Dalachanis, Abdul-Hameed al-Kayyali, Falestin Naili, Yann Potin and Maria Chiara Rioli. Additionally, so far more than forty scholars from Europe, the Middle East, the United States and Canada have been involved in the project.
The Open Jerusalem project aims to unlock and connect different archives and sources in order to investigate the ordinary, entangled history of a global city through the lens of the concept of urban citizenship (citadinité). Citadinité is for a city what nationality is for a country and materializes itself in institutions, actors and practices. The project provides a bottom–up history of Jerusalem, a perspective that has been neglected by historians of the city, who have been generally preoccupied with ideological and geostrategic issues. This history is also a connected one because, within a complex documentary archipelago, the researchers seek points of contact revealing the exchanges, interactions, conflicts and, at times, hybridizations between different populations and traditions. The project is characterized by the scientific quality of its research tools, the close attention it pays to local archives and its unbiased openness to all demographic segments of the Holy City’s population. The transition of the project from an archival into an academic one is proceeding in three concurrent phases: the first involves creating an overview of the available resources, the second the organization of inventories and their presentation in a web portal and the third the development of a new urban history of Jerusalem from 1840 to 1940 through books and several other publications.
The project’s first international symposium, entitled “Revealing Ordinary Jerusalem (1840–1940): New archives and perspectives on urban citizenship and global entanglements,” will take place at the Institute for Mediterranean Studies in Rethymno (Greece) on 10–12 May 2016. It aims to serve as a forum for deepening discussions and initiating scientific debates, with contributions from members of the Open Jerusalem team, scholars specializing in related topics, urban historians and specialists of the region.
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Books by falestin naili
Far from binary readings of the relations between "East" and "West", this case study analyzes the power relations at work at the end of the Ottoman period and during the British mandate, based on a varied and unpublished corpus of archives. Their intersection with oral history narratives reveals the ways in which this period is recalled, interpreted or forgotten by the inhabitants of the village and by Europeans who lived there. These narratives highlight the significance attributed to history, both in popular memory and in Palestinian historiography. Between metahistory of humanity and microstoria, the example of Artâs opens a new perspective on a pivotal period in the history of the Near East.
Papers by falestin naili
The analysis of interrupted futures proposed in this special issue is not counterfactual history that consists of imagining other outcomes. While that is also an interesting historiographic exercise, the approach used here is not speculative, but rather interpretive. It is based on rigorous archival work, very much in the spirit of philosopher Jacques Derrida’s conception of the archive as a store for the future.........
(The entire issue is open-access, as always.)
ERRATUM - Endnote 2 should read as follows:
Reinhart Koselleck, The Practice of Conceptual History: Timing History, Spacing Concepts, transl. T. S. Presner et al. (Stanford: Stanford University Press), 76.
Far from binary readings of the relations between "East" and "West", this case study analyzes the power relations at work at the end of the Ottoman period and during the British mandate, based on a varied and unpublished corpus of archives. Their intersection with oral history narratives reveals the ways in which this period is recalled, interpreted or forgotten by the inhabitants of the village and by Europeans who lived there. These narratives highlight the significance attributed to history, both in popular memory and in Palestinian historiography. Between metahistory of humanity and microstoria, the example of Artâs opens a new perspective on a pivotal period in the history of the Near East.
The analysis of interrupted futures proposed in this special issue is not counterfactual history that consists of imagining other outcomes. While that is also an interesting historiographic exercise, the approach used here is not speculative, but rather interpretive. It is based on rigorous archival work, very much in the spirit of philosopher Jacques Derrida’s conception of the archive as a store for the future.........
(The entire issue is open-access, as always.)
ERRATUM - Endnote 2 should read as follows:
Reinhart Koselleck, The Practice of Conceptual History: Timing History, Spacing Concepts, transl. T. S. Presner et al. (Stanford: Stanford University Press), 76.
المترجمتان:
خديجة محمد علي قاسم (1934 - 2009) من مواليد سلوان / القدس، اعتنت عناية خاصة بالدراسات التي تُعنى بالتراث الشعبي الفلسطيني، بدأت بترجمة هذا الكتاب ولم تنجزه.
إخلاص خالد القنانوة، باحثة أردنية تحمل درجة الدكتوراه في اللغات الساميّة الشمالية الغربية من جامعة برلين الحرة - ألمانيا الاتحادية. صدرت لها عدة ترجمات من بينها: آثار قمران ومخطوطات البحر الميت (جودي ماغنس)
This year, we are thrilled to host Dr. habil. Nora Lafi of the Zentrum Moderner Orient, Berlin, to lead our 12th annual workshop on the topic of “The Ottoman Governance of Diversity.” For more information on the content of the workshop, see below. The 2024 workshop will be held in person between 25 October (12:00 p.m.) and 26 October (13:00 p.m.) at the University of Basel.
The project:
This collective project aims to renew our perspective on the period between the end of the Ottoman Empire and the beginning of the age of nations in the Arab world by paying particular attention to local actors. The focus on unrealized social and political projects promoted by local actors allows us a look at the Arab world beyond the colonial framework and beyond the prevailing nation-state model. It also offers a view of alternative articulations of belonging and political community, using case-studies stretching from North Africa to South West Asia and the Arabian Peninsula. Futures Interrupted will be particularly attentive to the ways in which these unimplemented or unfinished projects dealt with the social pluralism which characterized the region at that time and which, in many parts of the area, was upset by the colonial division into separate states that occurred mostly after the First World War.
Deadline for proposed abstracts: 15 September 2023.
11th Annual MUBIT Doctoral Workshop in Basel
with Prof. Dr. Laura Robson (Penn State U.)
“States and Statelessness in the Post-Ottoman Middle East.”
The Annual MUBIT Doctoral Workshop in Late- and Post-Ottoman Studies is a two-day workshop in Basel, Switzerland, designed for international doctoral students conducting research on the Near and Middle East. The workshop consists of a two-day, intensive program in which select students work closely with invited experts. Successful completion of the workshop entitles students to 3 ECTS credits.
This year, we are thrilled to host Prof. Dr. Laura Robson of Penn State University, USA, to lead our 11th annual workshop on the topic of “States and Statelessness in the Post-Ottoman Middle East.” For more information on the content of the workshop, see attached. The 2023 workshop will be held in person between 20 October (12:00 p.m.) and 21 October (13:00 p.m.) at the University of Basel. The deadline for application is the 1st of September.
Contact: [email protected]
"Marriage Conditions in a Palestinian Village", vols 1 and 2.
Translated by the late Khadija Qasim and Dr. Ekhlass Al Gananweh and edited by Dr. Omar Al Ghul (Yarmouk University), these pioneering ethnographic monographies are now finally available for Arab readers, researchers, teachers and all those who are interested in the immaterial heritage of the Arab world and Palestine in particular. I have had the honor of providing a critical introduction for the volume.
The book was published by the Tarjuman project of the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies and is available for purchase in bookstores and on the Internet.
The Open Jerusalem project aims to unlock and connect different archives and sources in order to investigate the ordinary, entangled history of a global city through the lens of the concept of urban citizenship (citadinité). Citadinité is for a city what nationality is for a country and materializes itself in institutions, actors and practices. The project provides a bottom–up history of Jerusalem, a perspective that has been neglected by historians of the city, who have been generally preoccupied with ideological and geostrategic issues. This history is also a connected one because, within a complex documentary archipelago, the researchers seek points of contact revealing the exchanges, interactions, conflicts and, at times, hybridizations between different populations and traditions. The project is characterized by the scientific quality of its research tools, the close attention it pays to local archives and its unbiased openness to all demographic segments of the Holy City’s population. The transition of the project from an archival into an academic one is proceeding in three concurrent phases: the first involves creating an overview of the available resources, the second the organization of inventories and their presentation in a web portal and the third the development of a new urban history of Jerusalem from 1840 to 1940 through books and several other publications.
The project’s first international symposium, entitled “Revealing Ordinary Jerusalem (1840–1940): New archives and perspectives on urban citizenship and global entanglements,” will take place at the Institute for Mediterranean Studies in Rethymno (Greece) on 10–12 May 2016. It aims to serve as a forum for deepening discussions and initiating scientific debates, with contributions from members of the Open Jerusalem team, scholars specializing in related topics, urban historians and specialists of the region.
http://openjlem.hypotheses.org/