Rediscovering Palestine: Merchants and Peasants in Jabal Nablus, 1770-1900.

• Author: Ibrahim, Mahmood

Reviewed by Mahmood Ibrahim

Professor Doumani has made an outstanding contribution not only to the study of Palestine but also to Ottoman studies as a whole. The framework that he utilizes is conceptually tight, yet elastic enough that it could serve as a model for different regions of the Ottoman empire, and other area studies as well:, thus making his contribution both empirically and theoretically meaningful. This framework, analyzing the "social lives" or career patterns of four locally produced commodities, allows him to discuss many aspects in the social, political and cultural history of Jabal Nablus, the economic and social center of Palestine during the 18th and 19th Centuries.

The sources Doumani employs are equally noteworthy. In addition to primary archival documents, (such as Islamic court records (sijills) and travel accounts), he introduces the records of the Municipal Council of Nablus and, most importantly, local family papers, most of which are made available here for the first time. All these sources were read critically and sensitively. Accordingly, Doumani weaves a rich tapestry of Palestinian society integrating the peasantry, the merchants, urban notables and government officials in an intimate yet accessible narrative of a society that is resilient and dynamic.

This aspect of Doumani's study is in stark contrast to the usual images of Palestine as a depressed, economically devastated, politically chaotic and sparsely populated region. Whether mobilizing to repulse foreigners like Napoleon or locals like al-Jazzar, notables, merchants and others in Nablus were conscious of an identity that did not wait for a firman to be stirred into action. The liveliness of Palestinian society is also evident in his discussion of the "social lives" and "social space" of cotton and textiles. Doumani brings to light how commercial agriculture developed, how it prepared the integration of Palestine in the world market economy, and the influence of such integration on local and regional political structures. He also discusses how textile merchants produced and reproduced their trading networks and how those merchants gradually integrated the hinterland of Nablus with its own urban structure. The importance of textile in the cultural context is discussed by Doumani and...