[Bilimsel Haber] WORKSHOP: NEW TRENDS IN EGYPTIAN HISTORIOGRAPHY OF THE OTTOMAN PERIOD: A GERMAN-EGYPTIAN ENCOUNTER

[Onur Inal]

NEW TRENDS IN EGYPTIAN HISTORIOGRAPHY OF THE OTTOMAN PERIOD: A
GERMAN-EGYPTIAN ENCOUNTER

BERLIN, MARCH 14, 2007, 9:30-18:00
WORKSHOP, ZENTRUM MODERNER ORIENT

Since several years Egyptian historiography is changing in a profound
way. A new generation of Historians is revisiting the heritage of the
nationalist and Marxist schools of historical writing in Egypt through a
set of new questions and methods. While nationalist historical writing
during much of the 20th Century focused on questions of state-, nation-
and identity- building since Muhammed Ali (1805-1848) and on the rise of
the national movement and its struggle against colonial domination,
Marxist historiography since the 1950s had introduced new objects, like
popular history or the structures of society and state. A younger
generation of Egyptian Historians refocus their research to questions of
relationship between state and society, between religion and society,
between élites and ordinary people, and between the local and the
global. While much of Egyptian History in the past has been written
through the perspective of colonial archives younger Egyptian historians
build their research on thorough investigations of local archival
material. Many of these inquiries investigate the pre-Napoleonic and
pre-Muhammed Ali Ottoman Period in Egypt.

This workshop offers an introduction and illustration of these new
methods and stakes in the writing of Egyptian history, with a focus on
archival resources, methods of investigation and heuristic paradigms.
The workshop is conceived as an occasion to present and discuss ongoing
research on the Ottoman period between Egyptian and German based
researchers.

PROGRAMME

9:30 -- 12:30:

Introduction: Dr. Nora Lafi (researcher, ZMO, and co-chair of the Cities
Compared research field of Europe in the Middle East – The Middle East
in
Europe): Ottoman Egypt in Perspective: New Archives, New Trends, New
Stakes

Dr. Magdi Guirguis (Cairo University, Fellow of Europe in the Middle
East
-- The Middle East in Europe): Introduction and Presentation of the
Panel of Egyptian Historians

Session 1 : Discussant Dr. Shaden Tageldin (Fellow of Europe in the
Middle East -- The Middle East in Europe)

Prof. Elsayed Mohammad Achmawi (Cairo University) : Egyptian  Approaches
to the Ottoman Period: Historiography in Perspective

Dr. Malte Fuhrmann (Researcher, ZMO Berlin): Turkish and German Ottoman
Historiographies: Methods and Questions

Dr. Mohammad Sabri ad-Dali (Lecturer, Hilwan University, Cairo): The
Role of Sufi Narratives in the Building of a Political Sphere in Egypt
(16th-17th c.)

Nasser Abd Allah Osman Abo Zead (B.A. Azhar University): Ulema and
Society in 16th-17Ith c. Egypt

Discussion

Lunch at ZMO Berlin and encounter with members of the Berlin Ottoman and
Oriental Research Community

14:00 -- 18:00:

Session 2: Discussant: Dr. Dana Sajdi (Fellow of Europe in the Middle
East
-- The Middle East in Europe)


Karima Thabet El Sayed Ghoneem (BA, Mansoura University): Law and
Politics in Ottoman Cairo (16th-17th c.)

Dr. Florian Riedler (Researcher, ZMO Berlin): “History from bellow” in
an Ottoman Context

Dr. Hossam Mohammad Abd Almity (Lecturer, Bani- Sueif University):
Merchants and State in 18th c. Egypt.

Dr. Nasser Ahmed Ibrahim Soliman (Lecturer, Cairo University): The Copts
and the French Occupation of Egypt: New Perspectives.

Rizq Hassan Ahmed Noury (BA, Cairo University): Corruption and
Administration in Egypt at the time of Mohammad Ali

Nasra Abd Elmotagaly Ibrahim Aly (BA, Banha University): Society and
State in 18th and 19th c. Rural Egypt

Discussion

This workshop is part of the activities of the « Cities Compared :
Cosmopolitanism in the Mediterranean and Adjacent Regions » that is
directed by Prof. Ulrike Freitag and Dr. Nora Lafi and that is part of
the research program “Europe in the Middle-East / The Middle-East in
Europe”.

The workshop is organized jointly by Magdi Guirguis (Fellow of Europe in
the Middle East -- The Middle East in Europe), Georges Khalil
(Coordinator of  Europe in the Middle East -- The Middle East in Europe,
Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin), Ulrike Freitag and Nora Lafi (ZMO).

Europe in the Middle East - the Middle East in Europe is a five-year
research program of the Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der
Wissenschaften, the Fritz Thyssen Stiftung and the Wissenschaftskolleg
zu Berlin. This research program seeks to rethink key concepts and
premises that link and divide Europe and the Middle East. It draws on
the expertise of scholars in and outside of Germany and is embedded in
university and extra-university research institutions in Berlin. The
program builds upon the previous work of the Wissenschaftskolleg zu
Berlin's Working Group Modernity and Islam and is funded by the Fritz
Thyssen Stiftung. For further Information please visit:
http://www.eume-berlin.de/

In conjunction to this workshop, a visit to the archives of the German
Foreign Office is being organised for participants by Dr. Silke Nagel
(ZMO
Berlin)

Venue: Zentrum Moderner Orient, Kirchweg 33, 14129 Berlin. S-Bahn 1:
Nikolassee http://www.zmo.de

-- 
Dr. Nora Lafi (Researcher, DFG)
Zentrum Moderner Orient, Kirchweg 33, 14129 Berlin, Germany
Tel: + 49 30 80 307 239
Ottoman Studies
Urban Studies
Chair (with Pr. U. Freitag) of the research programme on Cosmopolitanism
in Mediterranean Cities, Wissenschaftskolleg Berlin Personal Home Pages:
http://www.zmo.de/Mitarbeiter/Lafi/index.htm
http://www.h-net.org/people/editors/show.cgi?ID=124118
H-Mediterranean Editor:
http://www.h-net.org/~mediter/
Ottoman Urban Studies Seminar 2006/2007:
http://www.zmo.de/veranstaltungen/2006/Kolloquium-Aushang-Ottoman-Urban-
Studies.pdf
--
Nora Lafi
<nora.lafi at rz.hu-berlin.de>