Author: Bruce Masters
Publisher/Publication: Cambridge University Press
DOI/ISBN: 0521803330
This study examines the evolution of sectarian relations and political identities in the Ottoman Arab provinces over four centuries from the arrival of the Sultan Selim's army in Syria in 1516 to the start of the First World War. The history of the non- Muslims of the Syrian provinces within the Fertile Crescent is related with the European influence that transformed the region. Syrian Christians and Jews served as the principal transmitters of new knowledge and ideas outside their native cities to other regions of the Arabic-speaking Ottoman world, while the history of the religious minorities in the Ottoman Arab world is utilized as a narrative of change and adaptation from their initial contacts with European merchants and missionaries to the articulation of national identities.