As Night Falls Eighteenth-Century Ottoman Cities after Dark

In a world that is constantly awake, illuminated and exposed, there is much to gain from looking into the darkness of times past. This fascinating and vivid picture of nocturnal life in Middle Eastern cities shows that the night in the eighteenth-century Ottoman Empire created unique conditions for economic, criminal, political, devotional and leisurely pursuits that were hardly possible during the day. Offering the possibility of livelihood and brotherhood, pleasure and refuge; the darkness allowed confiding, hiding and conspiring - activities which had far-reaching consequences on Ottoman state and society in the early modern period. Instead of dismissing the night as merely a dark corridor between days, As Night Falls demonstrates how fundamental these nocturnal hours have been in shaping the major social, cultural and political processes in the early modern Middle East.

Introduction; I. Nocturnal Realities: 1. Disquieting; 2. Order Invisible; 3. The Urban Subconscious; 4. Ambivalence and Ambiguity; 5. Manufacturing Light; II. Dark Politics; 6. Shining Power; 7. Night Battles; Conclusion: Dawn of a New Night?

Avner Wishnitzer is Senior Lecturer in the Department of Middle Eastern and African History at Tel Aviv University where he specializes in the social and cultural history of the Ottoman Empire. He is the author of Reading Clocks, Alla Turca: Time and Society in the Late Ottoman Empire (2015) and a co-editor of A Global Middle East: Mobility, Materiality and Culture in the Modern Age, 1880–1940 (2016).