Integration, conflict, and autonomy among religious minorities in the late Ottoman Empire: the Greek-Catholic (Melkite) Church and sectarian turmoil in Mount Lebanon and Damascus

Autori

  • Youssef Alvarenga Cherem Universidade Federal de São Paulo (UNIFESP)
  • Danny Zahreddine PUC Minas

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5752/P.2317-773X.2020v8n4p59-79

Parole chiave:

Ottoman Empire, Religion, Lebanon, Syria, Melkites, Druze

Abstract

The 19th century was a time of social and political upheaval for the Ottoman Empire. To contend with dwindling territories, uprisings, unrest, and international military, political, and economic pressure, it had to overcome structural deficiencies in the armed forces, economy, and State bureaucracy that kept it lagging behind its European counterparts. The modernizing impetus ultimately took the form of full-fledged legal and institutional reform by mid-century, transforming but also unsettling the Ottoman State and society. In this article we discuss a central component of those reforms and of the international relations of the Ottoman Empire in the 19th century: the legal status of non-Moslem minorities. We frame our discussion in the analysis of two moments: the official recognition of the Greek-Catholic (Melkite) religious community in 1848 and the sectarian civil conflict in Mount Lebanon and Damascus in 1860. The intersecting vectors of economical, religious and political interests in their local, regional and international dimensions will be fleshed out, evincing a more nuanced and multilayered, and less monolithic and state-centered, approach toward the international relations of the late Ottoman Empire and the working of its institutions.

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Biografie autore

Youssef Alvarenga Cherem, Universidade Federal de São Paulo (UNIFESP)

Bachelor in International Relations from the Pontifical Catholic University of Minas Gerais (2003), Master and Doctor in Social Anthropology from the State University of Campinas (2005, 2010). Currently an adjunct professor at the Federal University of São Paulo. He has experience in the area of ​​Middle Eastern history, Islam, anthropology of religion, political anthropology and Islamic art; acting mainly on the following themes: Islam, political Islam, Salafism, international relations in the Middle East, Lebanon, Iran, Israel-Palestine, history of religions, contemporary art in the Middle East.

Danny Zahreddine, PUC Minas

BA in International Relations from the Pontifical Catholic University of Minas Gerais, MA and PhD in Geography from the Postgraduate Program in Spatial Information Treatment (PUC Minas). Professor at the Department of International Relations at PUC Minas and a permanent member of the Postgraduate Program in International Relations (PUC Minas). Leader of the Middle East and Maghreb Study Group - CNPq (GEOMM).

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Pubblicato

2021-02-18

Come citare

Cherem, Y. A. ., & Zahreddine, D. (2021). Integration, conflict, and autonomy among religious minorities in the late Ottoman Empire: the Greek-Catholic (Melkite) Church and sectarian turmoil in Mount Lebanon and Damascus. Estudos Internacionais: Revista De relações Internacionais Da PUC Minas, 8(4), 59–79. https://doi.org/10.5752/P.2317-773X.2020v8n4p59-79

Fascicolo

Sezione

Dossiê Império Otomano