Ian Rutledge

In July 1860 Dr Mikhayil Mishaqa narrowly escaped death when an angry mob tried to lynch him in the backstreets of Damascus. A successful silk merchant and adviser to Lebanese princes, Mishaqa left his Levantine village for the city in 1834, where he trained as a doctor before becoming a US vice-consul. Ensconced in the heart of Ottoman Syria, Mishaqa soon joined the ranks of the Damascene Christian notables. But his prestigious position offered him little protection that July as Muslims in Mount Lebanon and Damascus turned on their Christian neighbours, killing more than 10,000 and 5,000 respectively in what Eugene Rogan calls a ‘genocidal moment’. Mishaqa and his family suffered numerous injuries and saw their house ransacked. Miraculously, they survived.

The Ottomans were no strangers to violence. The descendants of Osman Gazi cut a bloody path out of Anatolia to conquer and enslave until they had built a vast empire encompassing southeastern Europe, North Africa and much of the Middle East. But by the 16th century Sultan Suleiman I – known in the West as ‘the Magnificent’ and in Turkey and the Arab world as ‘the Lawgiver’ – had established the rule of law and sectarian bloodletting became a thing of the past. During the 19th century this began to change. Instances of violence between Ottoman Muslims and Christians became more frequent and more bloody all the way up to the end of the First World War. What had unsettled the order established by Suleiman? The question is addressed in two new books. In his enthralling Sea of Troubles Ian Rutledge offers a grand overview of the tensions that led to the decline of the Ottoman Empire and locates their source in the spread of capitalism and the ensuing inter-imperialist struggle. Rogan, meanwhile, zooms in and brilliantly captures the tragic outcome of this struggle. Read together, they shed much light on Ottoman modernity.

Read the rest of the review at HistoryToday.com.

William Eichler writes on the history and politics of Israel, Palestine and Turkey.… (more)