The Middle East and the Making of the Modern World

497 Pages·2017·5.575 MB·English

by  Cyrus Schayegh

The Middle East and the Making
of the Modern World

The Middle East and the Making
of the Modern World
CYRUS SCHAYEGH

Cambridge, Mas sa chu setts, and London, England 2017
Copyright © 2017 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of Amer i ca
First printing
Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data
Names: Schayegh, Cyrus, author.
Title: The Middle East and the making of the modern world /
Cyrus Schayegh.
Description: Cambridge, Mas sa chu setts : Harvard University Press, 2017. |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2017001309 | ISBN 9780674088337 (alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Middle East— History—1517- | Human geography—
Middle East. | Rural- urban relations— Middle East— History. | Civilization,
Western— Middle Eastern influences.
Classification: LCC DS62.4 .S33 2017 | DDC 956— dc23
LC rec ord available at https:// lccn. loc. gov /2 017001309
Jacket image: Sa‘id Sabbāgh’s unified region. Sa‘id Sabbāgh,
Jughrāfiyyat Suriyya al-‘Umumiyya al-Mufassala (Sidon: Matba‘at
al-‘Irfān, 1923), 28.
To Dalia and Leo
and to Tsolin

CONTENTS
MAP 1 Ottoman Greater Syria, 1888 to World War I viii
MAP 2 Railroads in Greater Syria, 1914 ix
MAP 3 Greater Syria in the Mandate Period x
Introduction 1
PRELUDE 1 Khalil Sakakini Has a Dream 28
1 Rise of an Urban Patchwork Region 1830s–1914 34
PRELUDE 2 Rafiq al- Tamimi and Muhammad Bahjat Make a Tour 92
2 Crucible of War 1914–1918 96
PRELUDE 3 Alfred Sursock Keeps Busy 124
3 Ottoman Twilight 1918–1929 132
PRELUDE 4 Hauranis Migrate to Palestine 192

4 Toward a Region of Nation- States 1929–1939 200

PRELUDE 5 Eliahu Rabino’s War 266

5 Empire Redux 1939–1945 272

POSTSCRIPT The More Things Change 1945–2017 315

Conclusion 327

Abbreviations 349 Notes 351
Acknowledgments 469 Index 473