Urban Violence in the Middle East: Changing Cityscapes in the Transition from Empire to Nation State

Published by Berghahn Books 2015

Urban Violence in the Middle East

Changing Cityscapes in the Transition from Empire to Nation State

Edited by: Ulrike Freitag , Nelida Fuccaro , Claudia Ghrawi and Nora Lafi

Volume 14 in the series Space and Place

https://doi.org/10.1515/9781782385844

Overview
Contents

About this book

Covering a period from the late eighteenth century to today, this volume explores the phenomenon of urban violence in order to unveil general developments and historical specificities in a variety of Middle Eastern contexts. By situating incidents in particular processes and conflicts, the case studies seek to counter notions of a violent Middle East in order to foster a new understanding of violence beyond that of a meaningless and destructive social and political act. Contributions explore processes sparked by the transition from empires — Ottoman and Qajar, but also European — to the formation of nation states, and the resulting changes in cityscapes throughout the region.

Author / Editor information

Ulrike Freitag is a historian of the Modern Middle East with a special interest in urban history and the Arabian Peninsula in its global context. She directs Zentrum Moderner Orient and teaches at the Freie Universität. She is author of A History of Jeddah: The Gate to Mecca in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries (CUP, 2020) and co-editor (with André Chappatte and Nora Lafi) of Understanding the City through its Margins (Routledge 2018).

Nelida Fuccaro is Reader in Modern Middle Eastern History at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. She is the author of Histories of City and State in the Persian Gulf (CUP, 2008) and the editor of “Histories of Oil and Urban Modernity in the Middle East” in CSSAAME (2013).

Claudia Ghrawi holds a Master of Arts degree in history and political science and studied Arabic in Damascus and Berlin. She works as a research fellow at the Zentrum Moderner Orient and is a Ph.D. student at the Freie Universität Berlin.

Nora Lafi is researcher at Zentrum Moderner Orient and is a historian of the Ottoman Empire with a focus on Urban Studies. She is coeditor of The City in the Ottoman Empire: Migration and the Making of Urban Modernity (Routledge, 2010).

Ulrike Freitag is a historian of the Modern Middle East with a special interest in urban history and the Arabian Peninsula in its global context. She directs Zentrum Moderner Orient and teaches at the Freie Universität. She is author of A History of Jeddah: The Gate to Mecca in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries (CUP, 2020) and co-editor (with André Chappatte and Nora Lafi) of Understanding the City through its Margins (Routledge 2018).

Reviews

“The book is a fascinating enrichment for the historically interested readers who are keen to learn more about the phenomenon of violence in urban spaces. The historical background invites to reconsider contemporary conflicts.” • DAVO

“…the spatial approach of the studies in this volume provides a framework for understanding recent events. For students and researchers examining street politics and urban conflict, in the Middle East or beyond, Urban Violence in the Middle East shows how macro level spatial context can be used to develop deeper and more nuanced understanding of micro level violence and political contestation.” • Middle East Media and Book Reviews Online

“This is a very remarkable collection of chapters... The totality is a lively read, exhibiting an almost universal familiarity with and appreciation of the literature.” • Peter Sluglett, National University of Singapore

“...the book is timely, it is topical and useful for a more historically grounded understanding of the urban unrest in the Middle East during the last years up to the present.” • Christoph Herzog, University of Bamberg

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	v
Figures Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Acknowledgements Publicly Available Download PDF	ix
Introduction Claudia Ghrawi, Fatemeh Masjedi, Nelida Fuccaro and Ulrike Freitag Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
Part I. Managing and Employing Violence
Chapter 1 Mapping and Scaling Urban Violence: The 1800 Insurrection in Cairo Nora Lafi Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	29
Chapter 2 A Capital Challenge: Managing Violence and Disorders in Late Ottoman Istanbul Noémi Lévy-Aksu Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	52
Chapter 3 Gendered Obscenity: Women’s Tongues, Men’s Phalluses and the State’s Fist in the Making of Urban Norm in Interwar Egypt Hanan Hammad Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	70
Part II. Symbolic Politics of Violence
Chapter 4 Urban Violence, the Muharram Processions and the Transformation of Iranian Urban Society: The Case of Dezful Reza Masoudi Nejad Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	91
Chapter 5 Symbolic Politics and Urban Violence in Late Ottoman Jeddah Ulrike Freitag Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	111
Part III. Communal Violence and its Discontents
Chapter 6 The 1850 Uprising in Aleppo: Reconsidering the Explanatory Power of Sectarian Argumentations Feras Krimsti Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	141
Chapter 7 The City as a Stage for a Violent Spectacle: The Massacres of Armenians in Istanbul in 1895–96 Florian Riedler Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	164
Chapter 8 Transforming the Holy City: From Communal Clashes to Urban Violence, the Nebi Musa Riots in 1920 Roberto Mazza Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	179
Part IV. Oil Cities: Spatiality and Violence
Chapter 9 On Lines and Fences: Labour, Community and Violence in an Oil City Rasmus Christian Elling Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	197
Chapter 10 Reading Oil as Urban Violence: Kirkuk and Its Oil Conurbation, 1927–58 Nelida Fuccaro Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	222
Chapter 11 Structural and Physical Violence in Saudi Arabian Oil Towns, 1953–56 Claudia Ghrawi Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	243
Afterword. Urban Injustice, Urban Violence and the Revolution: Reflections on Cairo Khaled Adham Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	265
Contributors Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	287
Selected Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	289
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	309