The Ottoman Scramble for Africa

"In this engaging and timely study, Mostafa Minawi demonstrates that the Ottoman Empire was capable of reinventing itself in the age of New Imperialism and finding alternative ways to compete with European powers for colonial possessions in Africa. This book will leave the reader with a richer understanding of the 'Scramble for Africa.'"Janet Klein, The University of Akron "The Ottoman Scramble for Africa successfully demonstrates the value of a transcontinental approach to the history of empire. Mostafa Minawi has crafted a well-written and richly textured narrative that invites deeper engagement and conversations among scholars of Africa, Europe, and the Middle East."Judith Byfield, Cornell University "Readers of Mostafa Minawi's The Ottoman Scramble for Africa are in for a treat. What starts out as the genealogy of a powerful Damascene Arab notable family evolves into a fascinating tale of Ottoman global ambitions in Libya and central Africa in the 1890s. With an engaging story, well-grounded in a number of archives, this book is a welcome piece of the puzzle surrounding late Ottoman colonialism."Virginia Aksan, McMaster University "Minawi writes with passion and precision, and he has produced an accessible and thought-provoking book, having found in Azmzade an auspicious narrative hook. This is an ambitious book that casts light on hitherto unknown aspects of Ottoman history, the view from the perspective of the empire's outlying regions at the turn to the twentieth century."Hasan Kayali, American Historical Review "The Ottoman Scramble for Africa is a fascinating analysis of the diplomatic endeavours of Istanbul at the end of the nineteenth century in Africa and Arabia. Scholars interested in the imperial borderlands in Africa and the Middle East need to read it and will benefit from its invaluable trans-imperial approach."Vincent Hiribarren, Journal of Islamic Studies "Mostafa Minawi's book makes a major contribution to discourses about late nineteenth- century non-European colonialism in general and Ottoman colonialism in Africa in particular. Drawing upon a wide range of theoretical paradigms and using historical sources in Near Eastern and European languages, Minawi has written an impressive work...The book will attract the interest of specialists of the Ottoman Empire and European imperial history in Africa, as well as Africanists and general researchers of colonialism."Avishai Ben-Dror, The Journal of African History "Mostafa Minawi's book on Ottoman imperial presence in Africa constitutes an important intervention in the study of European colonialism. This is, indeed, an important book that greatly advances our understanding of the global implications of Europe's Scramble for Africa in the late nineteenth century. It will be of great interest to scholars of colonial Africa and the Middle East, as well to those with an interest in the global ramifications of European empire building."Scott S. Reese, African Studies Review "Minawi is to be commended for bringing his considerable linguistic and archival skills to work on reframing our understanding of Ottoman imperialism in the age of the Scramble. His work...provides future scholars of the Ottomans a dynamic new framework for rethinking the meaning of empire in the nineteenth century."Nathaniel Mathews, Journal of World History

Mostafa Minawi is Assistant Professor of History at Cornell University.

Introduction: Old Empire, New Empire 1. Ottoman Libya, the Eastern Sahara, and the Central African Kingdoms 2. The Legal Production of Ottoman Colonial Africa 3. The Diplomatic Fight for Ottoman Africa 4. Resistance and Fortification, 18941899 5. Transimperial Strategies for an Intercontinental Empire 6. The Local Meets the Global on an Imperial Frontier Conclusion: The Blinding Teleology of Failure