This book proposes a study of the old regime forms of Ottoman municipal urban governance that were progressively built between the 15th and the 18th c. on the basis of various heritages (Byzantine, Medieval Islamic, Seljukid, Sassanid, medieval Ottoman) as well as an interpretation of the reforms of the Tanzimat era under the light of this re-evaluation of the previous system. This allows the author to propose innovative ideas on the very nature of civic life, social organization and modernity in the Islamic world. The research is based on original archives from Istanbul (BOA) and various cities of the Empire, from Aleppo to Tunis, Thessaloniki to Alexandria or Damascus and Cairo to Tripoli.
Nora Lafi, Ph.D. (1999), Habil. (2011), Leibniz-Zentrum Moderner Orient, is Senior Research Felllow. She also teaches Islamic Studies at the Freie Universität of Berlin. She published extensively on the theme of Ottoman cities.
[...] The book Esprit civique et organisation citadine dans lâEmpire ottoman (XVe-XXe siècles) contains a useful discussion of the theoretical debates that have marked the field until very recently, and presents important indications for future trajectories of research in the history of Ottoman urban contexts.
Nicola Verderame, University of Naples âLâOrientaleâ, in Studi Magrebini 17.1-2 (2019) 169-182