Writing the History of Palestine and the Palestinians

with Beshara Doumani

hosted by Chris Gratien

Historians face numerous challenges when attempting to excavate the Palestinian past. Palestinians are often erased from the landscape and their voices are wiped from the historical record. This is especially true with regards to the Ottoman past, which despite its immediate relevance for understanding the present, has been largely ignored by scholars. In this episode, Beshara Doumani discusses his experiences in rediscovering Ottoman Palestine and some of the unique challenges facing historians seeking to write the history of Palestinians.

	Beshara Doumani is a Professor of History at Brown University. His research examines the history of Palestine as well as family, law, and economy in Ottoman Syria.
	Chris Gratien is a doctoral candidate at Georgetown University researching the social and environmental history of the Ottoman Empire and the modern Middle East. (see academia.edu)

Episode No. 170
Release Date: 15 August 2014
Location: Etiler, Istanbul
Editing and Production: Chris Gratien
Short musical excerpt: Ahmed Qaabour - Ounadikoum

Listeners might also like:

#166 The Politics of 1948 in Israeli Archives | Shay Hazkani
#061 Pastoral Nomads and Legal Pluralism in Ottoman Jordan | Nora Barakat
#068 Palestine: The History of a Name | Zachary J. Foster
#084 Palestinianism and Zionism in the late Ottoman Era | Louis Fishman
#041 Ottoman Syria: Agriculture, Economy, and Production | Chris Gratien
#029 Archives and Libraries in Israel/Palestine | Zachary J. Foster

Citation: "Writing the History of Palestine and the Palestinians," Beshara Doumani and Chris Gratien, Ottoman History Podcast, No. 170 (15 August 2014) http://www.ottomanhistorypodcast.com/2014/08/writing-history-palestine.html.

SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY

Doumani, Beshara. Rediscovering Palestine Merchants and Peasants in Jabal Nablus, 1700-1900. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995.

Doumani, Beshara. 1985. "Palestinian Islamic Court Records: A Source for Socioeconomic History". Middle East Studies Association Bulletin. 19, no. 2: 155-172.

Doumani, Beshara. 2007. "Palestine Versus the Palestinians?: The Iron Laws and Ironies of a People Denied". Journal of Palestine Studies : a Quarterly on Palestinian Affairs and the Arab-Israeli Conflict. 36, no. 4: 49-64.

Davis, Rochelle. Palestinian Village Histories: Geographies of the Displaced. Stanford, Calif: Stanford University Press, 2011.

Rafeq, Abdul-Karim, Peter Sluglett, and Stefan Weber. Syria and Bilad Al-Sham Under Ottoman Rule Essays in Honour of Abdul Karim Rafeq. Leiden: Brill, 2010. 

Singer, Amy. Palestinian Peasants and Ottoman Officials: Rural Administration Around Sixteenth-Century Jerusalem. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994.

Tamārī, Salīm. Year of the Locust A Soldier's Diary and the Erasure of Palestine's Ottoman Past. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2011. 

Khoury, Dina Rizk. State and Provincial Society in the Ottoman Empire: Mosul, 1540-1834. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997.

Said, Edward W. Culture and Imperialism. New York: Knopf, 1993.

IMAGES

Nablus during the 1870s (Source: Quarelli, Israel Museum)