Description: This book has three main themes: the socio-economic history of Turkish society in the 17th-18th centuries; the outcome of the Tanzimat (Reforms) in the province of Jerusalem, as an example of the whole phenomenon; and the historical origins of Turkish and Arab identities leading to the modern phenomenon of nationalism. Many of the studies are based on archival research, and the documents give a new picture of the issues involved.
Review Quotes: 'I recommend Gerber's State and Society in the Ottoman Empire not only to Ottoman scholars, but to early modernists working on state formation and the relation of ecclesiastical law to the unification of national legal systems, as well as to women historians, and, of course, to contemporary scholars.' Sixteenth Century Journal