The chief subject matter of this study is an early seventeenth century Ottoman work of prose, Khw?bn?ma [Book of Dream], written by one of the most prominent authors of his time, Veys? Efendi (d.1628). In Khw?bn?ma, Veys? narrates his dream in which Alexander the Two-Horned strikes a conversation with the Sultan Ahmed I regarding the latter’s concerns of the abuses in state apparatus. Throughout this conversation, the legendary figure, Alexander, provides the young sultan with a brief and gloomy history of humankind as a lesson to learn that abuses are not peculiar to his reign and there is nothing to worry about. Due to this advice form, the text is regarded as an example of Ottoman mirror for princes genre that flourished following the reign of Suleyman. Yet, it has some considerable deviations from contemporary treatises, for it i) unequivocally fictionalizes the content through ‘dream’ fashion, and ii) challenges the prevalent “Golden Age” rhetoric through the historical vision purported by Alexander. Instead of reading the genre of Ottoman mirrors as transparent sources of Ottoman “decline”, the corpus of these texts would better reveal the intellectual, psychological and literary atmosphere in the post-Suleymanic era. It was a period many contemporary intellectuals were imbued with a sense of decline as having compared ‘their’ disordered presents with a “glorious” past. Yet, it was also the time that a distinctive Ottoman politico-literary style was consolidating. Khw?bn?ma stands right at the center of these various dimensions: In Khw?bn?ma, dream not only gives the text its own literary quality and creativity, which became inspirational for subsequent Ottoman literary production; but also serves as a refuge from the state of anxiety shared by some of those contemporary Ottoman intellectuals and elite culture. Through a survey of wide range of primary materials including Ottoman mirror for princes, biographies of poets, Islamic dream lore, and similar dream-framed accounts produced in contemporary and later Ottoman-Turkish literature, we will attempt to touch upon the intellectual sensibilities, historical visions, and new ways and receptions of fictionality apparent in early modern Ottoman culture.

Focusing on Quaker missionary activity in Ramallah from 1869 to 1939, this paper examines the dynamic interactions between American Christian missionaries and residents of Ramallah and surrounding villages during the Ottoman and British mandate periods. Using memoirs, oral histories, and archival sources including private letters and diaries, this paper argues that the Quakers’ relative successes in establishing educational and medical services, as well as a permanent Meeting House (church), resulted from their failure to convert a significant number of Palestinian families. Despite pressure from their funders in the United States, Quakers in Ramallah quickly realized that conversions would be limited. Instead, they devoted their attention to spreading American social and domestic practices and values through formal education. Quakers provide a useful case study for considering missionary encounters in the Ottoman and colonial periods because of their egalitarian style of worship, focus on social justice, aversion to overt proselytizing, as well as some superficial similarities to Islam (such as prohibiting alcohol), all of which set them apart from other missionaries. Their focus on tolerance and the ‘inner light,’ rather than outward official conversion, made them less threatening to entrenched Orthodox Christian and Muslim authorities. Quakers focused more on spreading Anglo-Saxon norms than religion, which enabled them to fit in with the established practices of religious co-existence found in Ramallah during the Ottoman era. While Quakers encountered pockets of resistance, many Greek Orthodox and some Muslims in Ramallah competed for the opportunity to educate their children in Quaker schools. By the turn of the twentieth century, Quakers were running more than a dozen day schools and spots in their boarding schools were highly coveted. The evolution of these institutions is a story of resistance, cooperation, and eventual cooptation that illuminates some of the complex dynamics between missionaries and their intended converts.

As bilateral relations between Syria and Iran developed following the Islamic revolution in Iran, the two governments expanded their relationship on the cultural level. While Iran had set up a cultural centre in Damascus as early as 1983, which was to promote the Islamic revolution and the ideas of Imam Khomeini, Syria opened a Syrian-Arab cultural centre in Tehran only in 2005. This centre is a remarkable phenomenon, considering both the general lack of Syrian cultural diplomacy and the difficulty to open foreign cultural centres in Iran. The centre’s objectives are less clear-cut than the ones of the Iranian centre in Damascus. It has been established mainly for political reasons, to underline the alliance between the Syrian and Iranian states and reciprocate Iranian cultural activities in Syria by providing an outlet for cultural cooperation in Tehran. While most countries struggle to organise cultural activities in Tehran, the Syrian centre is supported by the Iranian authorities. The motivations and reach of the Syrian cultural centre’s activities will be discussed to discern to what extent Syria has a presence in Iran and who it reaches out to. The study draws on interviews with Syrian and Iranian officials as well as foreign cultural attachés in Iran, on newspaper articles and official documentation.

This paper will discuss different strategies towards writing the history of the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia. The history of the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia is being interpreted very differently by scholars, activists and official historiographers. Official narratives often focus on the role of the state in the unification of the country and the integration of al-Hasa into the Saudi kingdom. They barely mention the local social, religious and political dynamics such as the presence of a large Shiite minority. Dissenting interpretations try to emphasize the specific local history of the region and its peculiarities. In recent years, several books, journals, articles and associations have tried to counter official narratives of the region. These are mainly the work of a group of Shiite political activists, who used to be or are still part of Shiite Islamist Movements. This group of political activists has tried to create a unified historical narrative for the Shiite community in the Eastern Province that includes its regional, sectarian and socio-economic characteristics. Their main aim is to raise the political consciousness of the population and they have developed from – at certain times armed – revolutionary struggle against the government to the writing of local histories. Many of them see the writing of historical texts as a continuation of their political work. This paper will examine their strategies at creating a unified historical narrative for the Shiite community. It will also try to outline to what extent this narrative is accepted by the Shia community. The paper is based on fieldwork carried out in Saudi Arabia, interviews with key activists and historians, and a hermeneutic examination of writings by Shiite activists and local historians.