The Ottoman Twilight in the Arab Lands : Turkish Memoirs and Testimonies of the Great War

The Great War is still seen as a mostly European war. The Middle Eastern theater is, at best, considered a sideshow written from the western perspective. This book fills an important gap in the literature by giving an insight through annotated translations from five Ottoman memoirs, previously not available in English, of actors who witnessed the last few years of Turkish presence in the Arab lands. It provides the historical background to many of the crises in the Middle East today, such as the Arab–Israeli confrontation, the conflict-ridden emergence of Syria and Lebanon, the struggle over the holy places of Islam in the Hejaz, and the mutual prejudices of Arabs and Turks about each other.

“The Ottoman Twilight in the Arab Lands presents five interesting memoirs of exceptional characters and comes in a perfect time where academia and research has been interested more often in the contemporary of Arab-Turkish relation and history. The chosen memoirs represent the post-Ottoman history which was published during the early stages of the Kemalist Republic of Turkey. Although the personality of Jamal Pasha has been central to all pages of all memoirs, they covered other issues, most importantly, the Ottoman military and rule in the Arab lands, executions of the Arab nationalists, politics of governing the Arabs, minorities, and military. … [It is] a good source for researchers of the history of the Ottomans in the Arab peninsula, Syria, Lebanon and Palestine, history of Turkish-Arab relation and studies of collective memories and literature, and the personality of the owners of memories as well as Jamal and Fahreddin Pashas.” - Mohammed Alrmizan, Bosphorus Review of Books

“In The Ottoman Twilight in the Arab Lands, Selim Deringil explores the fate of the very provinces that had been one of the main concerns of the Ottoman sultan Abdulhamid II, as he had himself shown twenty years ago in his groundbreaking Well-Protected Domains. His judicious selection of relevant excerpts from the memoirs of five Turks - three officers, an intellectual, and a young girl - who reminisce about the Ottoman debacle in the Arab lands during World War I makes for a fascinating read and a unique exploration into the meanders of individual and collective memory in times of tragedy and dislocation.” - Edhem Eldem, Professor of History, Bogazici University and College de France


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