Ottoman Turkish Language Study

Historians in the past used to identify the beginnings of capitalist accumulation and “modernity” in Palestine with the establishment of the British Mandate in the 1920s, or with the arrival of European immigrants. However, in recent years, social and economic processes in the late Ottoman period have been increasingly acknowledged as a vital part of the history of capital in the Middle East. Local practices, laws, networks, and commodities paved the way for the introduction of the global market into the economy of Palestine, and vice versa. My project, which focuses on commercial tobacco cultivation in Palestine, follows local practices, laws, and networks from the late Ottoman period to the 1980s. I have come to believe that only when I examine Ottoman, Arabic, Hebrew, and English sources together, will I be able to paint the fullest picture of the evolution of Palestinian tobacco cultivation and production.

With the help of the Abbasi summer grant, I spent six weeks studying Ottoman Turkish in the Intensive Ottoman Turkish Summer School in Alibey Adası, Turkey. The skills that I acquired over the summer will enable me to use many new sources - legal, personal, and official documents - from the Ottoman period and beyond. I will be able to excavate the deeply rooted origin story of tobacco cultivation, and to make headway in formulating my dissertation project. I greatly enjoyed spending the summer on the Aegean island of Cunda. It was a pleasure to be in such a beautiful environment with a group of future colleagues in training, who share my interest in Ottoman history.