State and Provincial Society in the Ottoman Empire: Mosul, 1540–1834 (Cambridge Studies in Islamic

Description

This comparative and broad-ranging book spans three centuries of Ottoman history. It offers a new interpretation of the relations between the central Ottoman empire and provincial Iraqi society in the early modern period, and demonstrates that, contrary to the accepted view, their military, fiscal and political links strenghtened rather than weakened over the period. The book will be of interest to historians of the Middle East and to Ottomanists, as well as to political scientists and those concerned with the process of state formation.

Dina Rizk Khoury’s book, which spans three centuries of Ottoman history, offers an interpretation of relations between the central Ottoman empire and the frontier city of Mosul during the early modern period. Basing her work on Ottoman and Iraqi archival sources, the author demonstrates that, contrary to the accepted view, the links between the central state and provincial social groups in fact grew stronger throughout the period. The development and expansion of the system of tax farms and entitlements, for example, bound the provincial service gentry, drawn from mercantile, military and bureaucratic provincial families, to the Ottoman state structure, notwithstanding the apparent weakening of administrative controls. This comparative and broad-ranging book will be of interest to Middle East historians and Ottomanists, as well as to those concerned with the process of state formation in the early modern period. Prizewinner – The British-Kuwait Friendship Society prize in Middle Eastern studies