
Regimes of Mobility
Borders and State Formation in the Middle East, 1918-1946
Edinburgh University Press
Published on 15. November 2023
Book
Paperback/Softback
392 pages
978-1-4744-8797-9 (ISBN)
Description
For the past two decades, insights gained from the burgeoning field of borderlands studies have enabled a new generation of scholars to challenge popular depictions of the emergence of the modern Middle East. For them, the region's borderlands were not just mere sites of peripheral activity, but rather liminal spaces criss-crossed by global flows and circulations central to state- and nation-formation across the Middle East. This volume analyses case studies on Turkey, Iraq, Syria, Palestine and Transjordan that highlight the connectedness of the politics of borderlands throughout the interwar Middle East.
Reviews / Votes
Ultimately, the volume provides a fresh perspective on understanding how the dismantling of the Ottoman Empire impacted on the borderlands of the newly emerged states and transformed regimes of mobility. -- Arda Akinci, University of Salamanca * Diyar, 4. Jg., 2/2023 * Regimes of Mobility offers a much-needed historical perspective on the current crisis in the eastern Arab world, where states have collapsed and societies have shattered, and where the world's largest concentration of permanent refugees grows ever larger. Contrary to previous state-centered histories, these cutting-edge essays engage the bottom-up story of how Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, Transjordan and Iraq emerged as states, created by the League of Nations after World War I. * Elizabeth F. Thompson, Mohamed S. Farsi Chair of Islamic Peace, American University in Washington * [...] Regimes of Mobility makes a important contribution to the border literature, both because it focuses on the border construction processes in a specific historical period and because it touches on the state formations of almost all states in the Middle East. -- Hakan UEnay * Journal of Borderlands Studies * Regimes of Mobility is a welcome addition to our knowledge on the history of the mainly Arab and Kurdish mobile societies and groups in the Arab East who adopted a mobile existence between Syria, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Turkey and Palestine. [...] Both the authors and the editors should be congratulated for crafting such a coherent narrative, usually difficult to achieve for an edited volume. -- M. Talha Cicek, Istanbul Medeniyet University * Middle Eastern Studies * Conceiving the post-Ottoman space less through hard borders than porous borderlands, and highlighting the interests of both local and colonial actors, Tejel and OEztan develop "regimes of mobility" into a percipient rubric for the mandate period. Framed by an astute introduction and afterword, eleven case studies trace how traders, nomads, priests and refugees negotiated customs controls, quarantine regulations and national churches amid competing notions and uses of territory. This is a timely study of both the disconnections and redirections that define eras of deglobalisation. * Nile Green, Professor of History and Ibn Khaldun Endowed Chair in World History, UCLA * Departing from the premise that borders move as well as people and that regimes come and go, Regimes of Mobility is an outstanding contribution to what Europeans designated "Middle Eastern" historical studies. This highly readable volume also provides invaluable insights into processes of bordering, multiscalar networking, state-making, mobility, individual agency, and imperial hard and soft power. * Nina Glick Schiller, Emeritus Professor of Social Anthropology, University of Manchester * This volume brings together a fantastic group of scholars whose top-notch articles, based on multilingual and transnational research, provide nuanced accounts of the emergence of Middle Eastern states and their boundary regimes. Tejel and OEztan's volume is a must-read for those interested in the history of subaltern groups, territoriality, mobility, nationalism, and state and identity formation in the post-Ottoman and inter-war Middle East. * Sabri Ates, Associate Professor of History, Southern Methodist University * The volume brings together a set of articles of generally impressive quality that offer a simultaneously concise and detailed overview of trends in Middle Eastern borderland studies joining a movement away from the nation state towards regionalization and micro levels of analysis in global history. -- Peter Wien, University of Maryland * Die Welt des Islams *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Edinburgh
United Kingdom
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Illustrations
10 black and white illustrations
Dimensions
Height: 234 mm
Width: 156 mm
ISBN-13
978-1-4744-8797-9 (9781474487979)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Jordi Tejel is Research Professor in Contemporary History at the University of Neuchatel. Between 2017-2022, he has led a European Research Council (ERC, Consolidator Grant) research project on the borderlands of the interwar Middle East. He has notably authored La question kurde: Passe et present (2014), Syria's Kurds: History, Politics and Society(2009), and co-edited with Ramazan Hakki OEztan Regimes of Mobility: Borders and State Formation in the Middle East, 1918-1946 (Edinburgh University Press, 2022), and with Peter Sluglett, Hamit Bozarslan and Riccardo Bocco Writing the History of Iraq: Historiographical and Political Challenges (2012). He has also published in journals such as British Journal of Middle East Studies, Ethnic and Racial Studies, European Journal of Turkish Studies, Iranian Studies, Journal of Borderlands Studies, Journal of Migration History, Middle East Studies, and 20&21. Revue d'histoire. Ramazan Hakki Oztan is Assistant Professor of History at the Atatuerk Institute for Modern Turkish History at Bogazici University, Istanbul.
Editor
Research Professor in Contemporary HistoryUniversity of Neuchatel
Assistant Professor of HistoryAtatuerk Institute for Modern Turkish History at Bogazici University, Istanbul
Content
ForewordResat Kasaba
Introduction: Regimes of Mobility in Middle Eastern Borderlands, 1918-1946 Jordi Tejel and Ramazan Hakki OEztan
Part I: Post-Ottoman Territoriality
1. Revisiting Milli: Borders and the Making of the Turkish Nation-StateAlexander E. Balistreri
2. Borders of State Succession and Regime Change in the Post-Ottoman Middle EastOrcun Can Okan
3. The Last Ottoman Merchants: Regional Trade and Politics of Tariffs in Aleppo's Hinterland, 1921-1929Ramazan Hakki OEztan
4. Personal Connections and Regional Networks: Cross-Border Ford Automobile Distribution in French Mandate SyriaSimon Jackson
5. Polysemic Borders: Melkite and Orthodox Clerics and Laymen in the Emirate of Transjordan, 1920s-1940sNorig Neveu
6. Contested Terrain: Cross-Border Violence, Politics, and Memory in Syria's Kurd Dagh RegionKatharina Lange
Part II: Cross-Border Mobilities
7. Borders, Disease and Territoriality in the Post-Ottoman Middle East Samuel Dolbee
8. Motor Cars and Transdesert Traffic: Channelling Mobilities between Iraq and Syria, 1923-30 Cesar Jaquier
9. Border Transgressions, Border Controls: Mobility along Palestine's Northern Frontier, 1930-1946Lauren Banko
10. When Nomads Flee: 'Raider', 'Rebel' and 'Refugee' in southern IraqRobert Fletcher
11. The 'Camel Dispute': Cross-Border Mobility and Tribal Conflicts in the Iraqi-Syrian Borderland, 1929-1934Laura Stocker
AfterwordCyrus Schayegh
Introduction: Regimes of Mobility in Middle Eastern Borderlands, 1918-1946 Jordi Tejel and Ramazan Hakki OEztan
Part I: Post-Ottoman Territoriality
1. Revisiting Milli: Borders and the Making of the Turkish Nation-StateAlexander E. Balistreri
2. Borders of State Succession and Regime Change in the Post-Ottoman Middle EastOrcun Can Okan
3. The Last Ottoman Merchants: Regional Trade and Politics of Tariffs in Aleppo's Hinterland, 1921-1929Ramazan Hakki OEztan
4. Personal Connections and Regional Networks: Cross-Border Ford Automobile Distribution in French Mandate SyriaSimon Jackson
5. Polysemic Borders: Melkite and Orthodox Clerics and Laymen in the Emirate of Transjordan, 1920s-1940sNorig Neveu
6. Contested Terrain: Cross-Border Violence, Politics, and Memory in Syria's Kurd Dagh RegionKatharina Lange
Part II: Cross-Border Mobilities
7. Borders, Disease and Territoriality in the Post-Ottoman Middle East Samuel Dolbee
8. Motor Cars and Transdesert Traffic: Channelling Mobilities between Iraq and Syria, 1923-30 Cesar Jaquier
9. Border Transgressions, Border Controls: Mobility along Palestine's Northern Frontier, 1930-1946Lauren Banko
10. When Nomads Flee: 'Raider', 'Rebel' and 'Refugee' in southern IraqRobert Fletcher
11. The 'Camel Dispute': Cross-Border Mobility and Tribal Conflicts in the Iraqi-Syrian Borderland, 1929-1934Laura Stocker
AfterwordCyrus Schayegh