Religion and Society in the Late Ottoman Empire

April 12-13, 2002

at 314 Royce Hall, UCLA

Organized by
James Gelvin
The UCLA Department of History

hosted by
The UCLA Center for Modern and Contemporary Studies

and co-sponsored by
The Center for Near Eastern Studies
The Department of History
The Division of Social Sciences
The Center for the Study of Religion
and The Humanities Research Institute at UC Irvine

During the nineteenth century, Ottoman domains underwent a dramatic transformation in association with the expansion of the world economic and state systems, on the one hand, and imperial efforts to centralize and "modernize," on the other. The Ottoman experience during this period was not unique: we can see the same processes with their attendant effects at work throughout the world. At the same time, both religious institutions and religious ideologies within the Ottoman Empire also underwent dramatic transformation, as did the social function and social meaning of religion. Again, the Ottoman experience was hardly unique: religious institutions and creeds, and the social function and meaning of religion, experienced analogous changes at roughly the same time from the Americas and Western Europe through Japan. While practitioners of history in general have failed to reach a consensus with regard to the relationship between religion/ideology and social processes, mainstream historians of the Middle East, perhaps cowed by the devastating critique targeting their Orientalist forebears, have either ignored the issue altogether or "resolved" it by reducing religion to a cipher or "false consciousness." The time has come, to paraphrase political scientists, for "bringing religion back in" in a thoughtful and critical manner.

The conference will bring together a dynamic group of scholars whose research addresses pertinent aspects of the religion/culture/social change problem. They will be joined by members of the UCLA History Department from fields outside the Middle East whose work deals with issues similar to those confronting historians of the Middle East and who will comment on papers presented by the participants.

** Papers will be available on this page from approximately March 7- April 26, 2002. After April 26, papers will only be available in hard copy form (please inquire at our office; see contact information on Center home page).

Program Schedule

Friday, April 12, 2002

9:30am      Welcoming Remarks: Vincent Pecora, UCLA
                  Introduction: James Gelvin, UCLA

9:45am       I. Renegotiating Public and Private Spheres
                  Elizabeth B. Frierson, University of Cincinnati
                  Vazife ve mes'uliyet: Duties and Responsibilities in Istanbul's Public Sphere, 1876-1909
                  James L. Gelvin, UCLA
                  Modernities, Religion, and the Construction of Gender in Early Twentieth-Century Damascus
                  Response: Stephen Frank, History, UCLA

11:15am     Break

11:30am     II. Religion and Alternative Visions of Community
                  John Voll, Georgetown University
                  Islamic Alternative Political Visions in the Late Ottoman Era: Tariqahs and Semi-States
                  David Commins, Dickinson College
                  Why Unayza? Ulama Dissidents and Nonconformists in the Second Saudi State, 1824-68
                  Response: Patrick Geary, History, UCLA

1:00-2:30pm   Break

2:30pm       III. Religious Minorities in a Modernizing State
                  Najwa Al-Qattan, Loyola Marymount University
                  Inside the Ottoman Courthouse: Territorial Law at the Intersection of State and Religion
                  Bruce Masters, Wesleyan University
                  Muslim-Christian Relations in Syria at the Dawn of the Twentieth Century
                  Response: Teofilo Ruiz, History, UCLA

4:00pm      Reception

Saturday, April 13, 2002

10:00am     IV. Putting Reformists Back in Reform
                  M. Sait Ozervarli, Marmara University/Harvard University
                  Reviving Religious Thought in the Late Ottoman Empire: The Case of Izmirli Ismail Hakki
                  Charles Kurzman, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
                  Intellectuals and Constitutionalism in the Late Ottoman Empire
                  Response: Geoffrey Symcox, History, UCLA

11:30-1:00pm     Break

1:00pm       V. Religion and Liminality
                   Dina Rizk Khoury, George Washington University
                   Who is a True Muslim? Exclusion and Inclusion Among Polemicists of Reform in Nineteenth-Century Baghdad
                   (paper will not be available)
                   Ussama Makdisi, Rice University
                   Undoing Minority Histories: The Case of As'ad Shidyaq
                   Julia Clancy-Smith, University of Arizona
                   Reflections on Women and Gender in Colonial North Africa, ca. 1900
                   Response: Eugen Weber, History, UCLA

3:00            Break

3:15pm       VI. Concluding Discussion: Participants and Attendees

 

 

            This conference is free and open to the public. Registration is not required, but seating is limited.
            Parking is available for $6.00 in Lot 2, or as directed by the Parking Services Information kiosks.

            For further information, please contact our Center by email at modcon@humnet.ucla.edu,
            or call (310) 825-9581.

 

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