Urban Violence in the Middle East

Ulrike Freitag is a historian of the Modern Middle East with a special interest in urban history and the Arabian Peninsula in its global context. She directs Zentrum Moderner Orient and teaches at the Freie Universität. She is author of A History of Jeddah: The Gate to Mecca in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries (CUP, 2020) and co-editor (with André Chappatte and Nora Lafi) of Understanding the City through its Margins (Routledge 2018).

“The book is a fascinating enrichment for the historically interested readers who are keen to learn more about the phenomenon of violence in urban spaces. The historical background invites to reconsider contemporary conflicts.” • DAVO“…the spatial approach of the studies in this volume provides a framework for understanding recent events. For students and researchers examining street politics and urban conflict, in the Middle East or beyond, Urban Violence in the Middle East shows how macro level spatial context can be used to develop deeper and more nuanced understanding of micro level violence and political contestation.” • Middle East Media and Book Reviews Online“This is a very remarkable collection of chapters... The totality is a lively read, exhibiting an almost universal familiarity with and appreciation of the literature.” • Peter Sluglett, National University of Singapore“...the book is timely, it is topical and useful for a more historically grounded understanding of the urban unrest in the Middle East during the last years up to the present.” • Christoph Herzog, University of Bamberg

• List of IllustrationsAcknowledgmentsIntroduction: Urban Violence in the Middle East: Changing Cityscapes in the Transition from Empire to Nation StateClaudia Ghrawi, Fatemeh Masjedi, Nelida Fuccaro, Ulrike FreitagPart I: Managing and Employing ViolenceChapter 1. Mapping and Scaling Urban Violence: The 1800 Insurrection in CairoNora LafiChapter 2. A Capital Challenge: Managing Violence and Disorders in Late Ottoman IstanbulNoémi Lévy-AksuChapter 3. Gendered Obscenity: Women’s Tongues, Men’s Phalluses and the State’s Fist in the Making of Urban Norm in Interwar EgyptHanan HammadPart II: Symbolic Politics of ViolenceChapter 4. Urban Violence, the Muharram Processions and the Transformation of Iranian Urban Society: The Case of DezfulReza Masoudi NejadChapter 5. Symbolic Politics and Urban Violence in Late Ottoman JeddahUlrike FreitagPart III: Communal Violence and its DiscontentsChapter 6. The 1850 Uprising in Aleppo: Reconsidering the Explanatory Power of Sectarian ArgumentationsFeras KrimstiChapter 7. The City as a Stage for a Violent Spectacle: The Massacres of Armenians in Istanbul in 1895-96Florian RiedlerChapter 8. Transforming the Holy City: From Communal Clashes to Urban Violence, the Nebi Musa Riots in 1920Roberto MazzaPart IV: Oil Cities: Spatiality and ViolenceChapter 9. On Lines and Fences: Labour, Community and Violence in an Oil CityRasmus Christian EllingChapter 10. Reading Oil as Urban Violence: Kirkuk and its Oil Conurbation, 1927-1958Nelida FuccaroChapter 11. Structural and Physical Violence in Saudi Arabian Oil Towns, 1953-1956Claudia GhrawiAfterword: Urban Injustice, Urban Violence and the Revolution: Reflections on CairoKhaled AdhamNotes on ContributorsBibliography