Orchards on the Orontes demonstrates the degree the population of Antioch was integrated into larger systems of institutional and interpersonal networks that spanned the Ottoman Empire during the first half of the eighteenth century through a focus on mulberry and olive orchards. I argue that a key secondary effect of Antioch’s integration into an imperial economy was a parallel process of social/cultural ‘Ottomanization’ further strengthening the connection of Antiochenes to the larger empire during this period. The mulberry and olive orchards of the Orontes River valley were lucrative holdings that attracted not only the interest of the notables of Antioch but also the wealthy of major cities such as Aleppo or Istanbul. The orchards were also physical locations where most of the population of the county lived and labored to cultivate the olives, mulberries, silkworms, and related secondary goods often represented by numbers in a distant register entry. As a result, the affairs revolving around the administration of orchards brought together a variety of individuals cutting across demographic distinctions like rank, class, gender, or even age. In many cases, the ‘bringing together’ was literal with people traveling between the county’s rural districts, the city of Antioch, and Istanbul carrying revenue, instructions, or seeking adjudication. I utilize a variety of Ottoman archival records including Antioch’s court records, imperial provincial orders and rulings, and various additional administrative and financial records to create a historical ethnographic study to historicize the social and institutional significance of orchards across local, regional, and imperial levels. Focusing on a single county (kaza) allows a more comprehensive approach drawing conceptually and methodologically on a diverse array of scholars like Baki Tezcan, Dina Rizk Khoury, and Beshara Doumani who all approach different aspects of Ottoman society and utilize varying scales of analysis. As an evidenced-based case study, Orchards on the Orontes contributes to a variety of historiographical debates around decentralization, regional autonomy, modernization, class relations, gender norms, and other aspects of early modern Ottoman society.

Current scholarship on migration in the Middle East has explored the numerous ways in which migrants and the state have interacted in a framework of mobility and settlement. When considering the nineteenth-century context of the Ottoman Empire, these studies have shed light on new ways to understand the plethora of populations who moved and became new subjects and citizens of the empire. This paper introduces a new way to conceptualize these relationships by taking a cultural historical approach toward examining material objects that were embedded with a plethora of meanings that shaped the relationship between migrant and state and even amongst refugees themselves. It considers the aftermath of the Crimean War of 1853 – 1856 during which mass migrations of Crimean Tatars and other refugees sought sanctuary within Ottoman territories. This paper examines the cultural, political, and economic value of distributing and possessing “sacred bread.” In this manner, this paper argues that the symbolic currency of food or, more specifically, bread was a way to distinguish members of the refugee community called muhacirin in the Ottoman Empire. Food traditions such as that of sacred bread shaped not only refugee cultural identity, but also stratified refugee communities socially on the basis of class and social identity. More importantly, food played a significant role in transforming and acculturating refugee communities within Ottoman culture and served as a vector of cultural cohesion in the creation of a unifying force. By examining food systems, this paper expands our conception of the postwar experiences of muhacirs and permits a redefining of identity, subjecthood, and loyalty through the material reality and transaction of sacred bread.

The emphasis on “soft” design structures, such as the portable home that is the refugee tent, invites us to consider the “soft” as a site of power negotiation in everyday life that can be studied historically and environmentally. This paper considers drawings of locust plagues as sites of resistance and power contestation in settings such as the Algerian independence war and conflict-driven migration in North Africa, at the scale of insects. Taking as case study the paperwork and drawings related to French colonial defense against the invasion of grasshoppers and the rhetoric of the colonial other and war in the mixed commune of Graz from 1940-55, this essay considers the orchestration of instructions, poisons, and harvest surrounding invasion as well as map drawings that provide crucial information about the spread and location of grasshoppers, and the actual material damage to crops, homes and families. It argues for a reconceptualization of the communal thinking and movement of locusts and a reexamination of sticky material including molasses, as powerful line of defense, that implicates our conceptualization and methodological approach to the global study of refugee and environmental crises today as well as intelligence systems inspired by insect behavior. In dialogue with media theorists Jussi Parrika and Claudette Lauzon, this work considers the paradigms of design celebrating insect and swarm intelligence from the history of the military intelligence at the scale of drawing and mapping as case studies in the colonial archive.

How did alcohol taxation shape early modern Ottoman society? This paper addresses this question through an in-depth analysis of the taxes levied on alcoholic beverages, particularly wine and arak (a distilled spirit), and on taverns in seventeenth-century Ottoman Istanbul. It examines the types, amounts, and collection methods of these taxes while providing insights into the interactions surrounding these taxes. I argue that alcohol taxation was a financial and regulatory instrument for the state as well as a catalyst for dialogue between tax collectors and taxpayers and, more broadly, between the state and society. This argument is supported through a close reading of the city’s Islamic court records (sicils), which include both unpublished and published sicils from various courts of Istanbul. These sicils, constituting a rich tapestry of records such as imperial edicts, taxation rules and receipts, and daily life accounts, offer unparalleled insights into the complexities of tax-related interactions. The paper also uses the Ottoman Imperial Council registers (mühimmes) to supplement the information collected from the sicils. As an analytical framework, the study adopts an approach to the Ottoman revenue system that categorizes taxes based on their base or “the item on which the tax is levied,” diverging from widespread approaches that focus on revenue sources (e.g., tithes on agriculture, market taxes, mining revenues) or recipients. This paper reveals that taxes on wine, arak, and taverns provided the Ottoman state with a lucrative revenue source from the city’s alcohol production, trade, and consumption networks and served as a tool for regulating these networks. The authorities taxed alcohol through any means available, reflecting the state’s willingness to waive the restrictive principles of Islam concerning alcohol consumption. The paper further demonstrates that tax collectors were key agents in enforcing taxation regulations, thereby ensuring the proper functioning of the taxation system and that individuals utilized tax payment as a strategy to continue their alcohol-related enterprises even during the prohibitions on alcohol.

This study reveals structural shortcomings in neoliberal approaches to agricultural development and food provision in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) by analyzing the cases of Egypt and Morocco. Furthermore, it demonstrates that Morocco cannot serve as a model for developing Egypt’s agricultural sector. In the neoliberal discourse, the case of Morocco’s agricultural development is considered successful, with modern, private, irrigated, highly capitalized, and export-oriented farms producing fruits and vegetables and exporting them to other countries, especially European countries. Moreover, the country’s regime successfully overcame a wave of the Arab Spring, by providing a stable supply of wheat (and bread) to the people and ensuring food security. In contrast, Egypt is considered an unsuccessful (or less successful) case in this neoliberal discourse. Despite its potential for export-driven agricultural development, the country’s agricultural sector is vulnerable and underdeveloped. Furthermore, it is overly dependent on imported wheat, and generous wheat subsidies exacerbate this trend. Therefore, some neoliberal economists argue that Egypt should invest in export-driven agricultural projects to earn more foreign currency. This policy advice is based on the theory of comparative advantage, with Morocco serving as a successful model for Egypt. Neoliberal economic reform also targets generous food subsidies, which are among the major contributors to Egypt’s fiscal deficit. However, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 highlights the limitations of the neoliberal approach in the MENA region. The blockade of the Black Sea triggered a global food crisis, resulting in a sharp increase in food prices in this region. This food crisis demonstrates that the neoliberal approach to agriculture and food supply assumes a peaceful period in which foodstuffs are adequately supplied; however, this approach is vulnerable to external shocks during wartime. Furthermore, despite food subsidies receiving significant state funding, neoliberal scholars argue that they are inefficient for poverty alleviation. However, the usefulness of food subsidies is demonstrated during food crises. A large proportion of the population of MENA countries comprises middle-class citizens who are economically vulnerable, and external shocks can cause their living conditions to fall below the poverty line. Many members of this social group work in the informal sector and are not covered by social insurance. For these informal workers, food subsidies are the last resort for avoiding poverty.