Table Of ContentBased on exhaustive work in numerous archives and in several languages, Lorenzo
Kamel has produced what I think is one of the most defi nitive works on the transi-
tion from empire to nation-state. It is impressively ambitious and does what many
major historians have been promising to do: to show how hard, Western conceptions
of identity shaped and formed the thinking and decisions of statesmen and other
political elites in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It also deals with the
penetration of hard national categories among the various peoples of the empire. It is
an authoritative book and will be very widely consulted.
Nicholas Doumanis
Author of Before the Nation and Professor, School of Humanities and Languages, Th e
University of New South Wales, Sydney
Th is book will make an important mark on the fi eld. It shows the ways in which
ethnic and other divisions were historically constructed in the Middle East under
the infl uence of imperial powers. Th e work combines meticulous archival research in
multiple languages with careful analysis of broader trends to map the transition from
empire to homogenised nation-states. Th is ability to document with rich detail and
at the same time be able to present the larger picture with great clarity is rare. Th e
author pulls off the feat with great erudition.
Beth Baron
Distinguished Professor of History, Th e Graduate Center and City College, CUNY
Past President (2015–17), Middle East Studies Association
Director, Middle East and Middle Eastern American Center
In this engaging revisionary study, Lorenzo Kamel shows how modern Western-ist
intellectual prejudices have distorted our understanding of identity and confl ict in
the modern Middle East. Based on original archival research and an exhaustive survey
of secondary literature, the author reveals a world that can only be characterised as
‘medieval’ if one misunderstands the Middle Ages. Focusing on the long nineteenth
century, the book provides a chronological continuation of much of the most interest-
ing work being done in pre-modern Mediterranean Studies.
Brian A. Catlos
Author of Muslims of Latin Christendom and Professor, Faculty of Religious Studies,
University of Colorado, Boulder
Lorenzo Kamel is a dedicated and meticulous scholar, extremely experienced and
internationally recognised for his research methodology. His extensive archival work,
which forms the basis of many of his most important publications, is impressive by
any academic standard. His archival research, informed by exemplary linguistic skills,
has, without question, created new understandings of the complex dynamics shaping
our inquiry into modern European empires, and the history of the Middle East in the
nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Th e Middle East from Empire to Sealed Identities
will continue this outstanding trend.
Sara Roy
Senior Research Scholar, Harvard University’s Center for Middle Eastern Studies
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The Middle East from Empire
to Sealed Identities
Lorenzo Kamel
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Edinburgh University Press is one of the leading university presses in the UK. We publish
academic books and journals in our selected subject areas across the humanities and social
sciences, combining cutting-edge scholarship with high editorial and production values to
produce academic works of lasting importance. For more information visit our website:
edinburghuniversitypress.com
© Lorenzo Kamel, 2019
Edinburgh University Press Ltd
Th e Tun – Holyrood Road
12 (2f) Jackson’s Entry
Edinburgh EH8 8PJ
Typeset in 11/15 Adobe Garamond Pro by
IDSUK (DataConnection) Ltd, and
printed and bound in Great Britain
A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 978 1 4744 4894 9 (hardback)
ISBN 978 1 4744 4896 3 (webready PDF)
ISBN 978 1 4744 4897 0 (epub)
Th e right of Lorenzo Kamel to be identifi ed as author of this work has been asserted in
accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 and the Copyright and
Related Rights Regulations 2003 (SI No. 2498).
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Contents
List of Figures vi
Abbreviations viii
Note on Transliteration x
Acknowledgements xi
Introduction: Th e Past’s Present 1
1 Beyond ‘Tribes’ and ‘Sects’: On Concepts and Terms 21
2 Th e First Moment – 1830s: Th e Germs of Competing
Ethno-religious Visions 45
3 Th e Second Moment – Th e Tanẓīmāt’s Long Waves:
Politicising Ethno-religious Diff erences 64
4 Th e Th ird Moment – From Ethnocentric Drives to a
New Millet System 96
5 Balfour’s ‘Pattern’ 118
6 Th e Racialisation of Middle Eastern People 159
7 Beyond ‘Artifi ciality’: Borders, States, Nations 184
Conclusion: Th e Present’s Past 211
Bibliography 228
Index 254
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Figures
3.1 Document signed by the presidents/secretaries of the mentioned
churches and missions 75
4.1 Some of the al-Fatat’s members at a resort near Damascus 101
4.2 Th e surrender of Jerusalem to the British, 9 December 1917 103
4.3 Th e Ottoman Clock Tower of Jerusalem’s Jaff a Gate, built by
the Ottomans in 1908 and destroyed by the British in 1922 105
4.4 Herbert Samuel reading his proclamation at the inauguration
of Emir Abdullah in Transjordan, 17 April 1921 108
4.5 Delegation of Arab women protesting against the British policy
in Palestine, Government House, Jerusalem, 1920s 109
5.1 Lord Balfour arrived at Jaff a on 25 March 1925. Hailed by
crowds at Tel Aviv on the following day 125
5.2 Regimental standard presented to defenders of Gaza for
repulsing the fi rst British attack, 1917 142
6.1 King Fayṣal of Iraq visiting his brother Emir Abdullah at
‘Amman, Transjordan, 1922 164
6.2 Burnt buildings near the quay of İzmir/Smyrna, 1922 171
6.3 A family in Erbil, early twentieth century 173
6.4 Typical tea stand in Iraq, on the railway to the ancient city
of Ur, early twentieth century 174
7.1 A pile of watermelons in the fruit market of Mosul, early
twentieth century 190
7.2 People belonging to a variety of religions, confessions and ethnic
groups passing over Tigris River, on the Katah Bridge, Baghdād,
early twentieth century 193
7.3 Open court of the Nebi Mousa’s shrine, 1918 196
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figures | vii
C.1 Th e vegetable market of Beirut, early twentieth century 215
C.2 A Jew and a Muslim playing chess in thirteenth-century
al-Andalus 219
C.3 Th e Battle of Lepanto, oil on canvas, by an unidentifi ed artist 220
C.4 Th e Famine statues in Dublin 221
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Abbreviations
ACAC American Colony Archive Collections, Jerusalem
AP Aberdeen Papers
ASDMAE Archivio Storico-Diplomatico del Ministero degli Aff ari Esteri,
Rome
ASV Archivio Segreto Vaticano, Vatican City
BAP Balfour Papers
BLMC British Library Manuscript Collection, London
BOA Başbakanlık Osmanli Arşivi, Istanbul
BOL Bodleian Library, Oxford
BP Benson Papers
CAB Cabinet Offi ce
CAMS Centre for Asia Minor Studies, Athens
CDM Centre for Documents and Manuscripts, ‘Amman
CHIR Center for Heritage and Islamic Research, Ab u Dis
CP Cecil Papers
CSA Cyprus State Archives, Nicosia
CZA Central Zionist Archive, Jerusalem
DP Davidon Papers
EP Ellis Papers
FO Foreign Offi ce
FP Fulham Papers
GP Gladstone Papers
HP Harley Papers
ISA Israel State Archives, Jerusalem
ITAC [Archives of the] Israeli Trust of the Anglican Church, Jerusalem
JBGP John Bagot Glubb Papers
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abbreviations | ix
JEMF Jerusalem and the East Mission Fund
JFC Joint Foreign Committee of the Board of Deputies and the
Anglo-Jewish Association
JHSP John Hope Simpson Report
JIA Jabotinsky Institute Archive, Tel Aviv
JNUL Jewish National and University Library, Jerusalem
KKL Keren Kayemeth Lelsrael
LANT Les Archives Nationales de Tunisie, Tunis
LJS London Jews Society
LPL Lambeth Palace Library, London
MDC Moshe Da yan Center, Tel Aviv
MECA Middle Ea st Centre Archives, St Antony’s College, Oxford
MP Mill Papers
NARA National Archives and Records Administration , Washington DC
PEF Palestine Exploration Fund, London
RP Rose Papers
SP Stanmore Papers
TNA Th e National Archives, London
TP Tait Papers
TSP Th e Sledmere Papers
UNA United Nations Archives, New York
WP Wordsworth Papers
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