Overview

In October 1875, two months after the takeover of the Somali coastal town of Zeila, an Egyptian force numbering 1,200 soldiers departed from the city to occupy Harar, a prominent Muslim hub in the Horn of Africa. In doing so, they turned this sovereign emirate into an Egyptian colony that became a focal meeting point of geopolitical interests, with interactions between Muslim Africans, European powers, and Christian Ethiopians. In Emirate, Egyptian, Ethiopian, Ben-Dror tells the story of Turco-Egyptian colonial ambitions and the processes that integrated Harar into the global system of commerce that had begun enveloping the Red Sea. This new colonial era in the city’s history inaugurated new standards of government, society, and religion. Drawing on previously untapped Egyptian, Harari, Ethiopian, and European archival sources, Ben-Dror reconstructs the political, social, economic, religious, and cultural history of the occupation, which included building roads, reorganizing the political structure, and converting many to Islam. He portrays the complexity of colonial interactions as an influx of European merchants and missionaries settled in Harar. By shedding light on the dynamic historical processes, Ben-Dror provides new perspectives on the important role of non-European imperialists in shaping the history of these regions.

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9780815635666

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Reviews

A well-researched, theoretically informed, and nuanced investigation of this important but neglected topic that adds to the growing literature on Ottoman and Egyptian imperial ventures in Africa.--James De Lorenzi, associate professor of history, John Jay College of Criminal Justice A very welcome contribution both to the historiography of Late Ottoman Egypt and Ethiopian regional and urban history in the context of the Scramble for Africa. Emirate, Egyptian, Ethiopian bolsters efforts to collapse traditional academic regional categories and bring Middle Eastern and African history into conversation.--Jonathan Miran, Western Washington University The research is solid and deep, and draws on British government records, French missionary archives, Arabic sources, oral histories, and more. This book contains abundant material and forges new ground. --Heather J. Sharkey, professor, Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, University of Pennsylvania

Author Information

Avishai Ben-Dror is a research fellow at the Harry S. Truman Institute for the Advancement of Peace at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and a lecturer in the Department of History, Philosophy, and Judaic Studies at the Open University of Israel. He is also an adjunct lecturer at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev.

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