In his book, Losing Istanbul: Arab-Ottoman Imperialists and the End of Empire, Mostafa Minawi undertakes the challenging task of reexamining the discourse surrounding the “politics of notables.” In Albert Hourani’s understanding of the “politics of notables,” the urban notables in the Arab provincial centers, such as Damascus, Cairo, or Baghdad, were mostly landowners who inherited their wealth and status from the previous generations. Despite differences in each province, these notables would leverage their accrued capital and influence to act as intermediaries between the locals and the central authority. However, as Hourani points out, the Tanzimat reforms and increasing centralization broke the relationship between the notables and central authority. Eventually, many families lost their power. This inevitably necessitated a reinvention of the “politics of notables” for some family members.
Starting the discussion from this point, Minawi delves into the experiences of two members of the al-Azm (or Azmzade) family, a notable family from Damascus. Through an examination of Sadik al-Mu’ayyad Azmzade and his nephew Shafiq al-Mu’ayyad Azmzade, prominent figures within the family, Minawi exemplifies the possibility of reinventing roles within the state and becoming bureaucrats, military officers, diplomats, or negotiators by using family networks and education. Sadik and Shafiq did not stay in the Levant, where their family had wielded significant social and political capital in the eighteenth century. Instead, they established new careers and lives for themselves in Istanbul. Minawi also uses anecdotes from Izzet (bin Holo) al-‘Abid, another influential bureaucrat of the Hamidian period, from the notable al-‘Abid family, a relative of the Azmzades. Still, the principal focal point of his narrative centers around the Azmzade family members.
To provide a contextual framework, Minawi starts his book with a comprehensive chapter on the Ottoman Empire during the final decades of the nineteenth century and the early years of the twentieth century. The author outlines his cases, methodological approach, and sources. Within this context, he goes over the political and social milieu of the Hamidian period in relation to the Azmzades’ positions and careers. Under the Hamidian rule, both Sadik and Shafiq strategically leveraged the bureaucratic landscape in Istanbul, using their family connections, respective educations, and experiences in different fields. They occupied various positions, but ultimately lost Istanbul. “Losing Istanbul” meant they had to relinquish their privileged lifestyles and positions, as well as political and cultural influence in Istanbul, due to the developments in the early twentieth century.
Methodologically, Minawi draws on a nuanced definition of “experiential history.” First, he looks at how people of a specific era experienced the historical events of the time, and second, he analyzes how the small details on an individual level had a role in the flow of these historical events. His dual focus sheds light on the relationship between microhistory and total history, illustrating the symbiotic relationship between individual-level developments and the broader canvas of global historical events. Another facet of Minawi’s approach is his integration of Pierre Bourdieu’s concepts of social space and habitus. Rather than providing simple narrations of Sadik and Shafiq’s biographies, the author presents the intricate social dynamics and habitual frameworks that shaped their lives. As for the sources, Minawi adopts a comprehensive transnational approach, drawing on various state archives and libraries spanning Turkey, the United Kingdom, Bulgaria, Lebanon, France, and Syria. He supplements his archival sources with two manuscripts of travelogues. These firsthand accounts of experiences are further enriched with family memories and pictures reached through interviews with family members in Damascus, Istanbul, Qatar, and California.
The first chapter gives a background on Sadik and Shafiq’s lives in Damascus, providing a history of their childhood and educational pursuits in Damascus, Mount Lebanon, and Beirut. Eventually, they settled in the neighborhood of Teşvikiye/Tashwiqiyyeh in Istanbul and started their new life in the capital of the Empire, holding different roles, although both traveled for some time due to their assignments or family business. Their families were highly interrelated, and their houses were nearby. Here, Minawi offers insight into family relations, touching upon the other family members, paid and unpaid labor in the household, as well as some family tragedies. In the second chapter, the author goes over Sadik and Shafiq’s professional trajectories amidst the backdrop of increasing corruption and “dark events” characterizing the Hamidian rule; here, Minawi explains how Sadik and Shafiq worked under the Hamidian rule despite corruption for their benefit during those years. While both were ambitious in raising their income, regularly asking for raises through petitions, they were rewarded with promotions, gifts, or merits by the sultan for their loyalty.
In Chapters 3 through 6, Minawi shifts his focus to Sadik. Each chapter dissects Sadik’s different assignments as a diplomat and negotiator in Berlin, Crimea, Macedonia, Africa, and Bulgaria. In his travels to Africa, Sadik observed the locals and Bedouins as an outsider to give suggestions to the Palace aimed at fortifying the Empire’s geopolitical influence. Here, Minawi argues that Sadik, as an Ottoman elite from Istanbul, differentiated himself from the “others” by leveraging his perceived cultural and ethnic superiority as a white Ottoman. However, as Minawi contends, Sadik’s self-identification as an Ottoman elite was not enough for him to reposition himself under the Young Turks’ rule. Consequently, he accepted a demoted rank and eventually assumed the role of the governor of Jeddah. Minawi also notes that many other Arab-Ottomans faced a similar fate, disappearing from public life and losing their reputations in the following years. One exception was Shafiq.
In Chapter 7, the author brings Shafiq back to the discussion and shows how, unlike Sadik, he managed to reinvent a new position for himself in the Ottoman parliament in the aftermath of the 1908 Revolution. Here, Minawi highlights the discussion of language and ethnicity. During the Hamidian rule, Shafiq positioned himself without a concentrated focus on multiculturalism, nationalism, or self-identification. However, following the 1908 Revolution, he was thrust into the heart of discussions concerning language and identity and began representing Arab-Ottomans in parliament. Voicing his criticisms of the Young Turks’ policies, he faced various accusations, resulting in the tarnishing of his once-esteemed reputation and, ultimately, his execution. The last chapter concludes Minawi’s discussion of the “politics of notables” with an overview of Shafiq, Sadik, and their extended families during and after World War I. He presents the consequences of the dissolution of the Empire two-fold: the first is related to losing their prestige and home in Istanbul, and the second is about the efforts to rebuild their futures in Turkey, Syria, Egypt, or Libya.
Overall, the author goes through the lives of Shafiq and Sadik, from birth to death, giving place to some other family members on occasion. However, one point that needs to be added is the absence of a comprehensive background presenting the historical context and intricacies of the Azmzades or al-Azms. Minawi does provide a general background on al-Azms in the introduction and Chapter 1. Nonetheless, the information given on the Azmzades mostly covers the nineteenth century onwards instead of touching upon the things that made the Azmzades significant urban notables of Damascus. After all, the name Azmzade or al-‘Abid, in Izzet’s case, is the reason for their smooth entrance into the bureaucracy.
The book predominantly centers on Sadik and Shafiq, occasionally referring to their extended families when needed. However, there is an unequal division among the characters. As mentioned previously, Sadik takes precedence with four dedicated chapters, leaving Shafiq relatively less coverage. Additionally, Minawi delves into the life of Izzet al-‘Abid sporadically; however, these portions are somewhat more argumentative and less developed, possibly due to the sources available to the author. Nevertheless, it still gives the impression that the book is mainly on Sadik. This also leads to questioning the wording in the title: Arab-Ottoman Imperialists. Does the book offer a generalizable conclusion or refer more to a compelling family history?
Another point of discussion is identity. In various chapters, the author discusses the making of Sadik and Shafiq’s identities. Were they Arabs, Ottomans, or Arab-Ottomans? What did these identifications signify? Were they white? Why did Sadik differentiate himself from the Bedouins in Africa? The author looks at these questions through the lenses of multiculturalism and multilingualism. However, from what Minawi notes on Sadik and Shafiq’s stories, it appears that their decisions and self-positioning were primarily driven by their interests. Consequently, changes in their self-identification seem more connected to political developments and shifts in power dynamics rather than a deep-rooted sense of belonging based on language, ethnicity, or nationality.
Losing Istanbul: Arab-Ottoman Imperialists and the End of Empire makes noteworthy contributions through its methodological and historiographical inputs and warrants consideration of scholars interested in Arab-Ottoman intellectuals, urban notables, the changing conditions in the Hamidian and Young Turks periods, the discussions of ethnicity and race in the Empire, and post-Ottoman conditions. The book serves as a valuable resource for prompting the readers to think about the intricacies of bureaucracy in the late Ottoman era, the consequences of the Empire’s demise, and the subsequent reinvention of notable family members by integrating themselves into the imperial structure.
