The Arabs of the Ottoman Empire, 1516–1918: A Social and Cultural History by Bruce Masters (review)

During its lifespan of about six centuries, the Ottoman Empire ruled a multitude of distinctive ethnic and religious groups living in fairly different geographical settings and conditions. Historians of the Ottoman Empire have become increasingly interested in the ways these groups were integrated into and were exploited within the imperial system. In The Arabs of the Ottoman Empire, Bruce Masters explores the conditions Arabs experienced under the Ottoman Empire in the period 1516–1918, with special emphasis on the nature of ties that connected the subject population with the ruling class and on those that linked various individuals and groups within the ruling class to the dynasty. The book contributes to empire studies in general and to studies of center-periphery relations in the Ottoman Empire in particular.

Masters takes “all those who speak Arabic as their mother tongue” as Arabs (p. 14) and examines their experience under Ottoman rule in two distinct time frames: the early modern period (1516–1798) and the modern period (1798–1918). In the former, Ottoman sovereignty was gradually imposed, routinized, legitimized, and as a consequence embraced by the majority of Arabs. In the latter, the deep-rooted relationship between the dynasty and its Arab subjects was first shattered (1798–1840), then reestablished (1839–1908), and finally ended (1908–1918).

Masters underlines the role of Islam in establishing the legitimacy of Ottoman rule in the eyes of Arabs. Considering that the Ottoman state ensured the unity and continuity of Sunni Islam and the realization of its ideals, namely sharia, Arab Muslims offered their wholehearted loyalty to the Ottoman dynasty. In contrast to subject populations in the Balkan lands, whose majority comprised non-Muslims, Arabs saw themselves not as an “occupied people” but as collaborators in the imperial project. Masters’s emphasis on the role of Islam in ensuring the loyalty of Arab subjects of the Ottoman Empire is perceptive and is substantiated by references to the statements of several Sunni Arabs. However, it fails to explain the political allegiance (or lack thereof) of non-Muslim Arabs, whose experience under Ottoman rule the author chooses to disregard in this book.

Masters provides interesting observations about Arabs’ view of the Ottoman caliphate. “Arab writers before the nineteenth century never conceded the title of caliph to the Ottoman sultans. For them, the title was simply not transferrable to someone who was not of the Prophet’s tribe” (p. 54). In the Arabs’ view, the Ottomans ruled legitimately because they could claim authority with reference to the institution of sultanate, which had existed since the eleventh century. As Sunni Arab scholars, such as Ibn ‘Abidin and ‘Abd al-Razzaq al-Bitar, recognized the Ottomans as caliphs in the nineteenth century, they divided the caliphate into the “greater” caliphate of the early caliphs and the “lesser” caliphate of the Ottomans. In this context, bearing in mind that the works of H. A. R. Gibb, Colin Imber, Hüseyin Yılmaz, and Özgür Kavak have shown that beginning in the sixteenth century, the Ottoman sultans assumed the title of caliph and commissioned several authors to provide justification for this, I believe that inquiring further into the discrepancy between the imperial court and the Arab lands in their perceptions of the Ottoman caliphate can provide intriguing insights into the dissemination and reception of the imperial ideology, as well as into center-periphery relations in the Ottoman Empire.

Masters dedicates significant space to the changes in the nature and personnel of the Ottoman administration from the sixteenth to the eighteenth century. While “professional” bureaucrats headed provincial administrations in the sixteenth century, “self-made men” who “pledged their loyalty to the House of Osman but did not emerge from its retinue” (p. 39) began to emerge as governors in the eighteenth century. In addition, the author suggests that scholars revise the influential concept of the “politics of notables,” a...