After 1860

Debating Religion, Reform, and Nationalism in the Ottoman Empire

Bibliographic Data

ID8967263
AuthorsUssama Makdisi (corresponding author)
Year2002
Volume34
Issue4
Pages601-617
Publication date2002-09-18
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueInternational Journal Middle East Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0020-7438 • E-ISSN: 1471-6380
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0020743802004014
OpenAlexW2127616662
LanguageEN
Citations received16

The events of 1860 constitute a turning point in the modern history of Lebanon. In the space of a few weeks between the end of May and the middle of June, Maronite and Druze communities clashed in Mount Lebanon in a struggle to see which community would control, and define, a stretch of mountainous territory at the center of complicated Eastern Question politics. 1 The Druzes carried the day. Every major Maronite town within reach of the Druzes was pillaged, its population either massacred or forced to flee. In July, Damascene Muslims rioted to protest deteriorating economic conditions, targeting and massacring several hundred of the city's Christian population. Although the reasons for the fighting in Mount Lebanon and the riot in Damascus were quite different, the Ottoman, local, and European reactions inevitably conflated both events. 2 Following the restoration of order, the conflict of 1860 was the subject, effectively, of an Ottoman government mandate of silence—a desire to forget the events and proceed with administering the newly constituted Mutasarrifiyya of Mount Lebanon. At the same time, however, the sectarian violence prompted an outpouring of local memories that the Ottoman government could neither control nor suppress

Ancient history · Geography · Government (linguistics · Mandate · Mount · Nationalism · Political science · Politics · Population · Settlement (finance · Sociology · Demography · History · Islamic Studies and History · Jewish and Middle Eastern Studies · Law · Middle East Politics and Society

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