State, Faith, and Nation in Ottoman and Post-Ottoman Lands

Current standard narratives of Ottoman, Balkan, and Middle East history overemphasise the role of nationalism in the transformation of the region. Challenging these accounts, this book argues that religious affiliation was in fact the most influential shaper of communal identity in the Ottoman era, that religion moulded the relationship between state and society, and that it continues to do so today in lands once occupied by the Ottomans. The book examines the major transformations of the past 250 years to illustrate this argument, traversing the nineteenth century, the early decades of post-Ottoman independence, and the recent past. In this way, the book affords unusual insights not only into the historical patterns of political development but also into the forces shaping contemporary crises, from the dissolution of Yugoslavia to the rise of political Islam.

Introduction; 1. State, faith, nation, and the Ottoman Empire; 2. The pre-modern Islamic state and military modernization; 3. The breaking of the pre-modern Islamic state; 4. The reconstructed Muslim state; 5. End of empire; 6. The post-Ottoman Balkans; 7. Post-Ottoman Turkey; 8. The post-Ottoman Arab lands; 9. The contemporary Balkans; 10. Contemporary Turkey; 11. Contemporary Arab countries; Conclusion. State, faith, and nation.

Frederick F. Anscombe is a Senior Lecturer in Contemporary History at Birkbeck, University of London. His publications include The Ottoman Gulf: The Creation of Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar (1997); The Ottoman Balkans, 1750–1830 (edited, 2006); and articles in Past and Present, the Journal of Modern History, and The International History Review.