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Book review: The Arabs and the Ottomans – Then and now Mohamed Afifi's historical research goes against the grain with regard to the role of the Ottomans in Arab history
"How could we qualify the Ottoman's annexation of the Arab countriesor the arrival of Sultan Selim I to the Arab world between 1516-1517 and the consequent end of the Mamluk state?" It is withthis basic, but for centuries controversial question that historianMohamed Afifi approaches Ottoman history in Egypt in his bookArab and Ottomans, published by Dar Al-Shorouk as part of itsAlternative Perspectives series of introductions. The question posited in Arab and Ottomans is Afifi's attemptto answer definitively the long-debated question: Did the Ottomans “conquer” or “open” the Arabworld– a question that is only akin to the debate over the truequalification of the arrival of Muslim troops to Egypt. Afifi's thesis seems to argue “no,” bit gives a nodof understanding to those who argue “yes.” In reading Afifi's Arab and Ottomans, one finds reason to go along withits author's argument that the fall of the Mamluks began before thearrival of the Ottomans and was not a direct rebound into that new relationship. Furthermore, Afifi also goes against the grain when he argues that the Ottoman's days in Egypt were not necessarily inferior to thedays of the Mohamed Ali (briefly say who Mohamed Ali is), who Afifi accuses of forcing afalse testimony into the Ottomans' history in Egypt. Bluntly, the ideathat Egypt lost its independence under the Ottomans and regained it under the rule of Mohamed Ali is "an exaggerated argument" that Afifisays was "in fact, designed to give legitimacy to the rule of MohamedAli." Pointedly, Afifi says that Egypt was not a sovereign state under Mohamed Ali and that theMamluks were no more natives of the country than the Ottomans, or Mohamed Ali, forthat matter, who was Albanian. So, if any of the three were considered occupiers, the others were, equally, as well. And, according to the author of Arabs and Ottomans, there is some evidence of what he qualifies as religious tolerance in the countriesunder the Ottoman Empire, overall economic well-being and a certaindegree of social cohesion to suggest what the days of the Ottomans inthe Arab countries. The writing of Ottoman history in Egypt, Afifi reminds the reader in the earlyparagraphs of his 100-page book, is influenced not just on whether thehistorian has an Islamist or nationalist perspective, butalso on the time period when the historian was writing. "After the defeat of [Egyptian in the war against Israel] in the1967 war and with the rise of the Islamic trend; it was natural thatthe nationalist liberal debate gave way to those sympathetic to anIslamic perspective to allow for a re-filtering of this period from anIslamist perspective," Afifi offers as an example. In fact, Afifi notices that usually when someone affiliated with Islamism touched on the Ottoman history in Egypt orelsewhere in the Arab world, the discourse almost always positive: the OttomanEmpire is the Muslim Khalifa and its “expansion” – the never considered it an “occupation” – ofthe Arab world only fortifies the ultimateMuslim state. Indeed, according to Afifi, those who subscribe to this theory immediately attribute the fall of Palestine in the hands of Jewish communities to the tragic fall of the Ottoman Empire. In a nationalistic vein, Afifi characterised the Ottoman presence in Arabcountries, including Egypt, as a four-century long occupation thatundermined the status of Cairo and even that of the Arabiclanguage itself – not to mention the interest in politics and theconditions of trade and crafts. On the eve of World War I, Afifi states, the debate between those whosupported the Germans and those who supported the Turks was the same: pursuingan independent and sovereign Egypt to beruled only by Egyptians – a scenario that was only made possible bythe 23 July 1952 Revolution, and those who adopted the Islamic State scenario. Today, this debate is again evoked with Turkey's increasing role in the Muslim-Arab world and with the rise of the political Islamicgroups, including the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt – with some of itsmembers suggesting an interest to revive the Islamic Khalifa. Al-Arab wa al othmaneyun (The Arabs and the Ottomans) By Mohamed Afifi Dar Al-Shorouk, Cairo, 2005. pp.104
