Church–State Relations in Palestine: Empires, Arab Nationalism and the Indigenous Greek Orthodox, 1880–1940

2011 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 55-72
Author(s):  
Samuel J. Kuruvilla
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
Small Group ◽  
Ottoman Empire ◽  
Holy Land ◽  
Greek Orthodox ◽  
Complex Issue ◽  
Arab Nationalism ◽  
Political Cooperation ◽  
British Colonial ◽  
State Relations

The need to negotiate and resolve ethno-nationalistic aspirations on the part of dependent and subject communities of faith-believers is a complex issue. The Ottoman Empire formed a classic case in this context. This article is a historical-political reflection on a small group of Christians within the broader Arab and ‘Greek’ Christian milieu that once formed the backbone of the earlier Byzantine and later Ottoman empires. The native Arab Orthodox of Palestine in the twilight years of the Ottoman Empire found themselves in a struggle between their religious affiliations with Mediterranean Greek Orthodoxy and Western Christendom as opposed to the then ascendant star of nationalist pan-Arabism in the Middle East. The supersession of the Ottoman Empire by the British colonial Mandatory system in Palestine and the loss of imperial Russian support for the Arab Orthodox in the Holy Land naturally meant that they relied more on social and political cooperation with their fellow Palestinian Muslims. This was to counter the dominance extended by the ethnic Greek ecclesiastical hierarchy in the Holy Land over the historically Arab Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem with support from elements within the Greek Republic and the British Mandatory authorities.

Arab Patriotism

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adam Mestyan
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
Ottoman Empire ◽  
Arab World ◽  
Urban Spaces ◽  
Cultural Dynamics ◽  
National Belonging ◽  
Arab Nationalism ◽  
British Occupation ◽  
Patriotic Sentiment ◽  
Modern Nation State

This book presents the essential backstory to the formation of the modern nation-state and mass nationalism in the Middle East. While standard histories claim that the roots of Arab nationalism emerged in opposition to the Ottoman milieu, this book points to the patriotic sentiment that grew in the Egyptian province of the Ottoman Empire during the nineteenth century, arguing that it served as a pivotal way station on the path to the birth of Arab nationhood. The book examines the collusion of various Ottoman elites in creating this nascent sense of national belonging and finds that learned culture played a central role in this development. The book investigates the experience of community during this period, engendered through participation in public rituals and being part of a theater audience. It describes the embodied and textual ways these experiences were produced through urban spaces, poetry, performances, and journals. From the Khedivial Opera House's staging of Verdi's Aida and the first Arabic magazine to the ʻUrabi revolution and the restoration of the authority of Ottoman viceroys under British occupation, the book illuminates the cultural dynamics of a regime that served as the precondition for nation-building in the Middle East. A wholly original exploration of Egypt in the context of the Ottoman Empire, the book sheds fresh light on the evolving sense of political belonging in the Arab world.

“NATIONALISM” AND KURDISH NOTABLES IN THE LATE OTTOMAN–EARLY REPUBLICAN ERA

2001 ◽  
Vol 33 (3) ◽  
pp. 383-409 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hakan Özoğlu
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
World War I ◽  
Ottoman Empire ◽  
Middle Eastern ◽  
World War ◽  
Arab Nationalism ◽  
Hard Data ◽  
Nation States ◽  
Early Republican ◽  
Late Ottoman

The era culminating in World War I saw a transition from multinational empires to nation-states. Large empires such as the Austro-Hungarian and the Ottoman searched for ways to cope with the decline of their political control, while peoples in these empires shifted their political loyalties to nation-states. The Ottoman Empire offers a favorable canvas for studying new nationalisms that resulted in many successful and unsuccessful attempts to form nation-states. As an example of successful attempts, Arab nationalism has received the attention that it deserves in the field of Middle Eastern studies.1 Students have engaged in many complex debates on different aspects of Arab nationalism, enjoying a wealth of hard data. Studies on Kurdish nationalism, however, are still in their infancy. Only a very few scholars have addressed the issue in a scholarly manner.2 We still have an inadequate understanding of the nature of early Kurdish nationalism and its consequences for the Middle East in general and Turkish studies in particular. Partly because of the subject's political sensitivity, many scholars shy away from it. However, a consideration of Kurdish nationalism as an example of unsuccessful attempts to form a nation-state can contribute greatly to the study of nationalism in the Middle East.

Late Ottoman Discourses on Nationalism and Islam and the Contributions of Russia’s Muslims

2015 ◽  
Vol 32 (4) ◽  
pp. 1-20
Author(s):  
Mustafa Gökçek
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Middle East ◽  
Ottoman Empire ◽  
Religious Studies ◽  
Arab Nationalism ◽  
Early Twentieth Century ◽  
Turkish Nationalism ◽  
Late Ottoman ◽  
Said Nursi

This study focuses on the early twentieth-century nationalist and Islamist discourses in the Ottoman Empire. Particularly after the 1908 coup, Turkish and Arab nationalism spread among the intellectuals. Under the Committee of Union and Progress (CUP) party’s leadership, Turkish nationalists received tremendous support to spread their views through associations and publications. Some of them defended the compatibility of Turkish nationalism with Islam. In response, traditional Islamist intellectuals argued that Islam was opposed to nationalism and tribalism and pointed out the potential dangers of pursuing nationalism in a multiethnic society. This article mostly focuses on the nationalist and traditionalist intellectuals. Among the first group was Halim Sabit, a Kazan Tatar who moved to Istanbul from Russia to pursue religious studies at a madrasa. He eventually became heavily involved in nationalist circles and published articles in Sırat-i Mustakım and İslam Mecmuası on how Islam allowed nationalism and how Turkish nationalism could serve Islam. At the same time, he participated in a trip to the Middle East to convince the Arabs of the need for Islamic unity. In contrast to Musa Kazım, Said Nursi, and other intellectuals, Sabit emphasized the unity of Muslim nations within the empire.

Un tentativo fallito di pacificazione religiosa. Alcuni aspetti della trasmissione dell’invito al Concilio Vaticano I ai vescovi greco-ortodossi dell’Impero Ottomano e del Regno Ellenico

2019 ◽  
Vol 48 (2) ◽  
pp. 337-376
Author(s):  
Carlo Pioppi
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
Ottoman Empire ◽  
Bosnia And Herzegovina ◽  
Greek Orthodox ◽  
Vatican Council ◽  
Of Greece ◽  
Catholic Bishops

In this paper we present the invitation to participate in the First Vatican Council, addressed to the Greek Orthodox bishops of the Ottoman Empire (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Albania, Macedonia, Thrace, Bulgaria, Romania, Anatolia, Cyprus and Crete, Middle East, Egypt) and the Kingdom of Greece. The study focuses specially on the Orthodox bishops reached by the invitation, through visits by Catholic clerics or through postal expeditions. The sources used are the correspondence between the Catholic bishops and apostolic vicars of these areas and the Congregation of Propaganda Fide, which are found in the archive of this Congregation and partly in the historical work on the First Vatican Council by Eugenio Cecconi (published between 1872 and 1879). We try to identify the reasons of the failure of this initiative, as well as the attitudes and reactions of the Catholic prelates in charge of the operation with regard to the Roman directives.

Late Ottoman Discourses on Nationalism and Islam and the Contributions of Russia’s Muslims

2015 ◽  
Vol 32 (4) ◽  
pp. 1-20
Author(s):  
Mustafa Gökçek
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Middle East ◽  
Ottoman Empire ◽  
Religious Studies ◽  
Arab Nationalism ◽  
Early Twentieth Century ◽  
Turkish Nationalism ◽  
Late Ottoman ◽  
Said Nursi

This study focuses on the early twentieth-century nationalist and Islamist discourses in the Ottoman Empire. Particularly after the 1908 coup, Turkish and Arab nationalism spread among the intellectuals. Under the Committee of Union and Progress (CUP) party’s leadership, Turkish nationalists received tremendous support to spread their views through associations and publications. Some of them defended the compatibility of Turkish nationalism with Islam. In response, traditional Islamist intellectuals argued that Islam was opposed to nationalism and tribalism and pointed out the potential dangers of pursuing nationalism in a multiethnic society. This article mostly focuses on the nationalist and traditionalist intellectuals. Among the first group was Halim Sabit, a Kazan Tatar who moved to Istanbul from Russia to pursue religious studies at a madrasa. He eventually became heavily involved in nationalist circles and published articles in Sırat-i Mustakım and İslam Mecmuası on how Islam allowed nationalism and how Turkish nationalism could serve Islam. At the same time, he participated in a trip to the Middle East to convince the Arabs of the need for Islamic unity. In contrast to Musa Kazım, Said Nursi, and other intellectuals, Sabit emphasized the unity of Muslim nations within the empire.

Nasser's Gamble

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jesse Ferris
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Middle East ◽  
Arab World ◽  
Decisive Role ◽  
Original Material ◽  
Egyptian Revolution ◽  
Arab Nationalism ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
The Arab Spring

This book draws on declassified documents from six countries and original material in Arabic, German, Hebrew, and Russian to present a new understanding of Egypt's disastrous five-year intervention in Yemen, which Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser later referred to as “my Vietnam.” The book argues that Nasser's attempt to export the Egyptian revolution to Yemen played a decisive role in destabilizing Egypt's relations with the Cold War powers, tarnishing its image in the Arab world, ruining its economy, and driving its rulers to instigate the fatal series of missteps that led to war with Israel in 1967. Viewing the Six Day War as an unintended consequence of the Saudi–Egyptian struggle over Yemen, the book demonstrates that the most important Cold War conflict in the Middle East was not the clash between Israel and its neighbors. It was the inter-Arab struggle between monarchies and republics over power and legitimacy. Egypt's defeat in the “Arab Cold War” set the stage for the rise of Saudi Arabia and political Islam. Bold and provocative, this book brings to life a critical phase in the modern history of the Middle East. Its compelling analysis of Egypt's fall from power in the 1960s offers new insights into the decline of Arab nationalism, exposing the deep historical roots of the Arab Spring of 2011.

Битвазапрошлое:храмсвятогоГеоргия вИзраавэпицентре церковно-политическойборьбыконцаXIXв.

2019 ◽  
pp. 256-281
Author(s):  
E.M. Kopot`
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
Ottoman Empire ◽  
19Th Century ◽  
Russian Empire ◽  
Foreign Affairs ◽  
Late 19Th Century ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Russian Empire ◽  
First Time ◽  
The Church

The article brings up an obscure episode in the rivalry of the Orthodox and Melkite communities in Syria in the late 19th century. In order to strengthen their superiority over the Orthodox, the Uniates attempted to seize the church of St. George in Izraa, one of the oldest Christian temples in the region. To the Orthodox community it presented a threat coming from a wealthier enemy backed up by the See of Rome and the French embassy. The only ally the Antioch Patriarchate could lean on for support in the fight for its identity was the Russian Empire, a traditional protector of the Orthodox Arabs in the Middle East. The documents from the Foreign Affairs Archive of the Russian Empire, introduced to the scientific usage for the first time, present a unique opportunity to delve into the history of this conflict involving the higher officials of the Ottoman Empire as well as the Russian embassy in ConstantinopleВ статье рассматривается малоизвестный эпизод соперничества православной и Мелкитской общин в Сирии в конце XIX века. Чтобы укрепить свое превосходство над православными, униаты предприняли попытку захватить церковь Святого Георгия в Израа, один из старейших христианских храмов в регионе. Для православной общины он представлял угрозу, исходящую от более богатого врага, поддерживаемого Римским престолом и французским посольством. Единственным союзником, на которого Антиохийский патриархат мог опереться в борьбе за свою идентичность, была Российская Империя, традиционный защитник православных арабов на Ближнем Востоке. Документы из архива иностранных дел Российской Империи, введены в научный оборот впервые, уникальная возможность углубиться в историю этого конфликта с участием высших должностных лиц в Османской империи, а также российского посольства в Константинополе.

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