CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2024
| Author | Pace, Lawson |
|---|---|
| Title | Negotiating Empire at the Periphery: Corruption, Banditry, and Bureaucratic Argumentation in Ottoman Yemen, 1888-1914 |
| Summary | This thesis examines the dynamics of Ottoman governance in Yemen from the 1880s until the outbreak of the First World War. Specifically, it follows the controversial shaykh ʿAbdullah Bûnî Pasha, arguing that shocks both internal and external to the province of Yemen provided critical disruptions allowing local elites take advantage of the weakened Ottoman state to consolidate their power while employing a common language of bureaucratic argumentation that emphasized concepts like banditry, tyranny, and justice. The thesis traces ʿAbdullah Bûnî Pasha’s rise and fall, as he built alliances within the provincial bureaucracy and the Ottoman imperial army before eventually being ousted in 1909 amid the political turmoil following the Young Turk Revolution and the rise of Sayyid Muhammad al-Idrîsî. Additionally, it analyzes petitions from Lower Yemen (1912-1914) to illustrate how local communities articulated grievances and negotiated power within the framework of structures of Ottoman rule. Drawing mostly on primary sources from the Ottoman State Archives, this thesis emphasizes the role of bureaucratic communication in shaping governance. It challenges the simplistic view of Ottoman Yemen as a space of constant rebellion, highlighting the active political agency of both Ottoman officials and Yemeni elites in constructing their own histories. It contributes to the historiography of Ottoman Yemen by integrating new perspectives on late Ottoman imperialism and emphasizing the complexity of interactions between local, provincial, and imperial actors. |
| Supervisor | Esmer, Tolga Uğur; Wilson, M. Brett |
| Department | History MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2024/pace_lawson.pdf |
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