Arab-Ottoman Imperialists and the End of Empire: The Forgetting and Remembering of a Shared Past and Futures

Date & Time: 9 December, Tuesday, 17:00
Speaker: Mostafa Minawi
Discussant: Ebrar Küçükaşcı
Location: ANAMED Auditorium

Losing Istanbul: Arab-Ottoman Imperialists and the End of Empire offers an intimate history of the empire, relying on multi-national archival records, ego-documents, newspapers, and interviews. Minawi reveals the individual and professional upheavals experienced by a generation of Arab-Ottoman imperialists living in Istanbul at the turn of the 20th century. By moving beyond high politics and military history, the discussion will explore how these figures—who were both the instruments and beneficiaries of Ottoman imperial culture—navigated their Arab-Ottoman identity amidst the rise of ethno-nationalism and the shift toward the nation-state era.

The conversation will center on Minawi's award-winning book and the long history of forgetting the intimate connections of empire in the Levant and Istanbul. The discussion will delve into the complex interplay between imperial loyalties and emerging nationalisms, highlighting that the end of the empire was as much a psychological and personal trauma as it was a geopolitical event. A central theme will be the book's unique contribution to the history of identity, focusing on how elites engaged with concepts of racialization, multiculturalism, and multilingualism. Specifically, the talk will examine figures who worked for the palace during the Hamidian era and how they positioned themselves relative to "Ottomanism," "Arabness," and even "Whiteness" during the empire's final years.

This event is open to the public; please register to attend.