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The Ottoman Scramble for Africa: Empire and Diplomacy in the Sahara and the Hijaz is the first book to tell the story of the Ottoman Empire’s expansionist efforts during the age of high imperialism. Following key representatives of the sultan on their travels across Europe, Africa, and Arabia at the close of the nineteenth century, it takes the reader from Istanbul to Berlin, from Benghazi to Lake Chad Basin to the Hijaz, and then back to Istanbul. It turns the spotlight on the Ottoman Empire’s expansionist strategies in Africa and its increasingly vulnerable African and Arabian frontiers.
Drawing on previously untapped Ottoman archival evidence, Mostafa Minawi examines how the Ottoman participation in the Conference of Berlin and involvement in an aggressive competition for colonial possessions in Africa were part of the self-reimagining of this once powerful global empire. In so doing, Minawi redefines the parameters of agency in late-nineteenth-century colonialism to include the Ottoman Empire and turns the typical framework of a European colonizer and a non-European colonized on its head. Most importantly, Minawi offers a radical revision of nineteenth-century Middle East history by providing a counternarrative to the “Sick Man of Europe” trope, challenging the idea that the Ottomans were passive observers of the great European powers’ negotiations over solutions to the so-called Eastern Question.
Mostafa Minawi is a historian of the modern Middle East. His work lies at the intersection of the study of imperialism, race, and diplomacy in Africa and the Ottoman metropole, Istanbul. He is currently an Associate Professor of History and the Director of Critical Ottoman and Post-Ottoman Studies initiative at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. His first book, The Ottoman Scramble for Africa: Empire and Diplomacy in the Sahara and the Hijaz was published by Stanford University Press in 2016 which has been translated to Arabic by The Africa Institute in 2023. His second book, Losing Istanbul: Arab-Ottoman Imperialist and the End of Empire was published by Stanford University Press in late 2022.
Mustafa Adam has worked as a lecturer in English Language at several Sudanese universities and in the United Arab Emirates, and he is also an editor and translator to and from English. He has many contributions in academic and literary translation from Arabic and English. Over the years, Adam has translated a wide range of poems and short stories by Sudanese writers and poets and others, including the epic poem: “The Return to Sinner” by Mohamed Abdel-Hay and the poetry of modernist poets in Sudan such as Mohammed al-Makki Ibrahim and Ali Abdelgayyoum and the Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish. In addition to co-translating “Al-Salahi: Prison Memoirs” with Adel Babiker, commissioned by the Sharjah Art Foundation, he translated several chapters in several books on art and literature. His translations from English into Arabic include poems by Edwin Muir, Dylan Thomas, W. B. Yeats, and Soyinka. His published translations have appeared in Arablit Quarterly and the South Atlantic Quarterly. Adam holds an MA in English Literature, on the theatre of Harold Pinter, University of Khartoum and an MA in Linguistics, University of Manchester. He currently works as an editor/translator at The Africa Institute, Sharjah.
The Ottoman Scramble for Africa: Empire and Diplomacy in the Sahara and the Hijaz is the first book to tell the story of the Ottoman Empire’s expansionist efforts during the age of high imperialism. Following key representatives of the sultan on their travels across Europe, Africa, and Arabia at the close of the nineteenth century, it takes the reader from Istanbul to Berlin, from Benghazi to Lake Chad Basin to the Hijaz, and then back to Istanbul. It turns the spotlight on the Ottoman Empire’s expansionist strategies in Africa and its increasingly vulnerable African and Arabian frontiers.
The Ottoman Scramble for Africa: Empire and Diplomacy in the Sahara and the Hijaz is the first book to tell the story of the Ottoman Empire’s expansionist efforts during the age of high imperialism. Following key representatives of the sultan on their travels across Europe, Africa, and Arabia at the close of the nineteenth century, it takes the reader from Istanbul to Berlin, from Benghazi to Lake Chad Basin to the Hijaz, and then back to Istanbul. It turns the spotlight on the Ottoman Empire’s expansionist strategies in Africa and its increasingly vulnerable African and Arabian frontiers.
Drawing on previously untapped Ottoman archival evidence, Mostafa Minawi examines how the Ottoman participation in the Conference of Berlin and involvement in an aggressive competition for colonial possessions in Africa were part of the self-reimagining of this once powerful global empire. In so doing, Minawi redefines the parameters of agency in late-nineteenth-century colonialism to include the Ottoman Empire and turns the typical framework of a European colonizer and a non-European colonized on its head. Most importantly, Minawi offers a radical revision of nineteenth-century Middle East history by providing a counternarrative to the “Sick Man of Europe” trope, challenging the idea that the Ottomans were passive observers of the great European powers’ negotiations over solutions to the so-called Eastern Question.
Mostafa Minawi is a historian of the modern Middle East. His work lies at the intersection of the study of imperialism, race, and diplomacy in Africa and the Ottoman metropole, Istanbul. He is currently an Associate Professor of History and the Director of Critical Ottoman and Post-Ottoman Studies initiative at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. His first book, The Ottoman Scramble for Africa: Empire and Diplomacy in the Sahara and the Hijaz was published by Stanford University Press in 2016 which has been translated to Arabic by The Africa Institute in 2023. His second book, Losing Istanbul: Arab-Ottoman Imperialist and the End of Empire was published by Stanford University Press in late 2022.
Mustafa Adam has worked as a lecturer in English Language at several Sudanese universities and in the United Arab Emirates, and he is also an editor and translator to and from English. He has many contributions in academic and literary translation from Arabic and English. Over the years, Adam has translated a wide range of poems and short stories by Sudanese writers and poets and others, including the epic poem: “The Return to Sinner” by Mohamed Abdel-Hay and the poetry of modernist poets in Sudan such as Mohammed al-Makki Ibrahim and Ali Abdelgayyoum and the Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish. In addition to co-translating “Al-Salahi: Prison Memoirs” with Adel Babiker, commissioned by the Sharjah Art Foundation, he translated several chapters in several books on art and literature. His translations from English into Arabic include poems by Edwin Muir, Dylan Thomas, W. B. Yeats, and Soyinka. His published translations have appeared in Arablit Quarterly and the South Atlantic Quarterly. Adam holds an MA in English Literature, on the theatre of Harold Pinter, University of Khartoum and an MA in Linguistics, University of Manchester. He currently works as an editor/translator at The Africa Institute, Sharjah.
The Africa Institute (Sharjah, UAE)
Arabic
978-9948-788-31-7
15 x 23 cm, paperback
2023
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