Ottoman Empire

The legacy of the great Muslim Sufi master from the XII century, Muhy al-din Ibn al-'Arabi left broad, profound, lasting and polarizing impact on the development of Islamic mysticism in the centuries after his death. The underlying principles of Sufism such as the ideas of the t…

This study uses approaches from science studies and the sociology of culture to examine discourses on science in the 19th century Ottoman Empire. Analyzing official documents, literature, textbooks, and the press, it reconstructs the often heated Ottoman debates regarding scienc…

In four interrelated chapters, along with all-important prolegomena, this dissertation explores the practice of history-writing through a sustained interrogation of the concept of the sea, especially relating to its formulation, past and present, as an object of historical study…

This dissertation investigates the governance of seventeenth-century Damascus by examining claims upon the productive capacity of land, and the collection and redistribution of agricultural taxes. The inquiry into what the state governs and how it does so starts with the observa…