In recent decades, animals made it into the mainstream of historical research as part of what is known as ‘the animal turn’, according which historians are encouraged to consider animals not merely as backdrops to human affairs, but rather as important actors who lived together with humans in an emotional relationship. As Erica Fudge has argued, the fact that people of the past were able to acknowledge the importance of animals in their lives suggests that it is a way of opening up a question of being with animals in the past instead of just using them. The influence of this ‘animal turn’ increases also within the field of Middle Eastern studies, as different scholars focus on varied periods and geographical spaces with the intention to find historical traces that will suggest that this turn existed already in the past. It was recently suggested by Sarra Tlili for instance, that the mentioning of animals within the Islamic scripture offers a long perceived eco-centric worldview on animals, rather than the commonly accepted anthropocentric one that focuses on humans as the center of the universe. In this proposed paper, I will demonstrate how the sixteenth-century Ottoman elite society's worldview on animals was influenced by both anthropocentric and eco-centric discourses. Contemporary historians (?ehnâmecis), as well as other courtly poets and artists, constantly used animal imagery to fashion Ottoman rulers as charismatic figures. During Süleymân I (r.1520-1566)'s reign, their narrative was very much anthropocentric, because it befitted this sultan's persona. Therefore, literary works such as Lâmi?î Çelebî (1472-1532)'s Nobility of Man (?erefü’l-Insân), and historical treatise such as Ârifî Çelebî (d. 1562)'s The Book of Süleymân (Süleymânnâme), nurtured a worldview according which animals were exploited by the sultan in order to stress the fact that Süleymân was above all creatures. However, towards the end of the sixteenth-century, during Murâd III (r. 1574-1595)'s reign, a different eco-centric discourse appeared within historical Ottoman treatises. In accordance with Murâd's sedentary persona, court historian Seyyid Lokmân (in office between 1569-1597) was obliged to create in his Book of Skills (Hünernâme) a generic image of a saint-like sultan, whose charisma was recognized not merely by his human followers, but also by non-human animals. By focusing on the second volume of the Book of Skills that deals with Süleymân, I will demonstrate how the charismatic image of this sultan was shaped by both anthropocentric and eco-centric discourses during the sixteenth-century.

The Islamic bestiary represents an interdisciplinary book tradition that is less a product of Islam itself and more a framing of local beast lore—as far west as Morocco, east as Indonesia, north as the Caucasia, south as sub-Saharan Africa—within the conventions of Arabic literature and medicine. Just as Judeo-Christian bestiaries were undoubtedly influenced by the concept of dominion over the animals (Genesis 1:26), Islamic bestiaries must always contend with the teachings of the Qur’an, which offers a slightly different approach to the animal kingdom. Surah al-Isra (17.3) suggests that all descendants of those who were in Noah’s ark are destined to be saved. We may interpret “those” to mean the human beings aboard the ship that survived the great flood, or it may also include the non-human creatures who sought refuge in Noah’s vessel. Religious authorities and scholars of Islam have suggested both. Verse 17.44 of this surah explains that animals have a method of praising Allah that humans cannot understand but should nonetheless respect. Dozens of animals appear in the Qur’an, and six surah have animal titles. In Surah al-Baqarah (2.26), the Qur’an states that Allah is not ashamed to speak of gnats, suggesting that the humblest of creatures can have great honor. Yet on the other hand, even in a predominantly theocentric rather than anthropocentric confession, the Qur’an also stipulates that humankind is the khalifa (vice regent) (2.30) over the creatures of the earth, who are sakhkhara (subjected) to human beings (22.65). This tension or ambiguity about the human race’s role in the cosmos is evident in the multi-pronged impetus for creating books of animals; for example, zoological volumes serve to categorize the wildlife in an anthropocentric framework; present animal names in the Arab tongue, important during the years of Islamic expansion; provide physical descriptions, with the human form as a basis for comparison; explain usefulness in human society through labor or derived medicines; and lastly, lessons from their virtue or vices, making nothing more than an allegory of their bestial lives. From an art historical and literary perspective, this paper will how to presence of human figures or anthropomorphized features in Islamic bestiaries mirror a troubled relationship to the animal kingdom as human authors and illustrators strive to make a divine creation legible to members of their own species beyond a narrative of dominion.

This paper probes the political and cultural roles of birds in people’s cultivation of environmentalist dispositions and stewardship. In Turkey, birds have become the forefront of environmentalist grassroots movements against mega-projects and urban infrastructure expansion—from threatened urban parks to power plants, bridges and roadways, and wetland drainage schemes. What are the ways in which birds have become symbols of environmental stewardship? How do birders make sense of changing and threatened environments? And how are birds themselves implicated in environmental change? This paper draws from my anthropological and ethnographic research in Turkey to interrogate the varied connections between bird-watching and environmentalism. It argues that field activities like bird identification, bird counts, and compiling bird population data are central social settings for the formation of environmentalist ethics and socialites amongst middle-class Turkish citizens. In the field, birders learn to make sense of place in particular ways, and this place-making is formed in encounters with rural residents and hunters, and shaped by conflict and collaboration with state officials. However, these environmentalist ethics are also contested, as different social groups produce different assessments of environmental change. These contrasting environmental politics take form and are expressed in everyday practices and assessments about birds’ habitats, livelihoods, and migratory routes.

“The French have conquered the Arabs and won their colony, only in their turn to be conquered by the sparrows,” wrote one visitor to Algeria in 1879. In the nineteenth century, French colonists in Algeria bitterly complained about the apparently substantial theft of agricultural bounty carried out by their enterprising foe. They pushed the government to except sparrows from the 1844 law on hunting that protected most bird species. To this day, the Algerian government carries out dénichage (de-nesting) campaigns against the agricultural pest. This paper explores this conflict between French agriculturists and sparrows in North Africa. It also argues that the contemporaneous introduction of the Australian eucalyptus tree to the region significantly heightened this conflict. Obscured among the many impacts of the intended transfer of Australian eucalyptus and Eurasian sparrows to new continents in the 19th century was the creation of a novel symbiotic relationship between the eucalyptus and the sparrow. Many French settlers became enamored with the sweet-smelling and fast-growing eucalyptus trees in the late 19th century, as they were convinced that it could revitalize deforested terrain and neutralize malarial miasmas with its “balsamic odor.” However, this paper argues based on contemporary sources and recent developments in avian science, the distinctive scent and swift growth of the eucalyptus also attracted many new sparrows to the rising groves of eucalyptus on the plains of the Maghrib. A new tripodal relationship, driven by conflict and cooperation, formed in the 19th-century Maghrib (and Australia) between humans, the genus Eucalyptus, and the genus Passer. This paper uses this complex interaction, in which no single participant has been truly supreme, to reflect on the contributions that evolutionary history and animal studies can make to a deeper understanding of the French colonial period in the Maghrib and the environmental history of the Middle East and North Africa.

As Morocco makes headlines for tourist destinations, working towards sustainable renewable energy, and international environment policy, there are grassroots organizations working toward the care and health of the working equines and homeless companion or “street” animals. Typically, when the animals become too old to work or are injured beyond recovery, they are slaughtered for their meat, to feed dogs or zoo animals, or are abandoned. With the help of various non-profits and care facilities around Morocco, owners of donkeys and mules have an option for free veterinary care or retirement options for the animals after a life of hard labor. There is currently one study on the working animals focusing on the American equine charity hospital of the Fes medina (Davis & Frappier 2000), but there has been little research on the impact of these charities and associations within Morocco. Many grassroots associations Moroccan-led are typically foreign-funded through donations and foreign-charity status. These facilities not only provide free care for the animals and adoption services, but work to shape mentality and spread knowledge about animals in Morocco. Through media narratives via Facebook and Instagram, and TV interviews posted to YouTube, these groups gain recognition and donations from all over the world. By using travel narratives, participant-observation in Morocco at the American Fondouk in Fes, Jarjeer Mules in Marrakesh, and the ADAN Association for dogs and cats in Rabat, as well as interviews, this paper compares and contrasts the animal charities in Morocco and seeks to understand the how the hybridity of using Islam and Western techniques to create empathy and garner support and donations.