The Middle East from Empire to Sealed Identities.

• Author: Karaman, Fikriye

By Lorenzo Kamel

Edinburgh University Press, 2019, 264 pages, $99.35, ISBN: 9781474448949

Challenging the discourse of the 'medievalisation' of the Middle East Lorenzo Kamel's book The Middle East from Empire to Sealed Identities provides an understanding of the historical process through which complex, flexible, and multifaceted identities of the Ottoman Empire transformed into the ones of simplified, politicized, and homogenized. Composed of seven chapters in addition to the introduction and conclusion the book mainly focuses on the 'long 19th century' (1798-1922).

In the first chapter, Kamel contextualizes major concepts including tribe and tribalism, sect and sectarianism, and the Middle East, by deconstructing their simplified and loaded versions. In the following three chapters, he examines the three 'moments,' junctures, of the 19th century that served to the emergence of competing ethno-religious visions. The first moment consisted of the rising up of nationalism amongst Ottoman Christians of the Balkans and the 'opening process' of the Ottoman markets to European powers. A phase ignited by Muhammed Ali's invasion of Greater Syria and more importantly 'imperialism of free trade'

The second moment was Tanzimat (1839-1871), a period when the Ottoman Empire undertook wide-ranging reforms, the majority of which were legal and administrative. Yet, regarding it as a factor that contributed to the politicization of the ethno-religious differences Kamel focuses on the concept of wataniyyah (patriotism) that was introduced for solidifying state and society relations. This period also witnessed the convergence of interests of missionaries and Christian Arabs in Syria and Lebanon creating networks through which Western powers "imposed their political, commercial, and cultural influence" (p. 72), which in turn sharpened the ethno-religious identities and gave rise to proto-Arab nationalism.

Another aspect of the second moment is Ottomanism, supranational ideology "providing political freedom and equality in exchange for loyalty to the Empire from all its citizens" (p. 8). Although he does not thoroughly explain how and why it resulted in such side effects, if it did so, Kamel argues that Ottomanism sharpened religious identities and increased ethnic-linguistic awareness among the Ottoman communities. After providing anecdotes about the distant past in which inclusive Ottoman citizenship was rooted particularly in the relations between Jews and...