Modern Arab Kingship: Remaking the Ottoman Political Order in the Interwar Middle East

Adam Mestyan's book explores how the "recycling" of the Ottoman Empires' uses of genealogy and religion created new political orders in the Middle East. He argues that post-Ottoman Arab political orders were not products of European colonialism but of the process of "recycling empire." Mestyan suggests that these polities should be understood as subordinated sovereign local states, with governance without sovereignty becoming the new form of Western domination. He draws on previously unused archival sources to explore ideas and practices of creating composite polities in the interwar Middle East, shedding light on local agency in the making of the forgotten Kingdom of the Hijaz, Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Syria.

Format: Hardback
Length: 352 pages
Publication date: 08 August 2023
Publisher: Princeton University Press

In his groundbreaking work, Adam Mestyan challenges the prevailing notion that post-Ottoman Arab political orders were solely the result of European colonialism. Instead, he argues that these orders emerged through a process of "recycling empire." Mestyan demonstrates that in the aftermath of World War I, Allied Powers officials and ex-Ottoman patricians worked together to reshape imperial institutions, drawing upon earlier Ottoman practices of genealogy and religion to create new polities. Notably, colonized Palestine was excluded from this process. These new polities, according to Mestyan, should be understood as subordinated sovereign local states, relying on religious, ethnic, and dynastic sources of imperial authority.

Concurrently, governance without sovereignty emerged as the new form of Western domination. Mestyan's research relies on a wealth of previously unused archival sources from Ottoman, French, Syrian, and Saudi Arabia, providing a comprehensive exploration of ideas and practices related to the creation of composite polities in the interwar Middle East. Through his analysis, Mestyan sheds light on the local agency involved in the formation of the forgotten Kingdom of the Hijaz, Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Syria, the first Muslim republics.

Mestyan also delves into the adjustment of imperial Islam to a world without a Muslim empire, discussing the post-Ottoman Egyptian monarchy and the intertwined making of Saudi Arabia and the State of Syria in the 1920s and 1930s. His innovative approach offers a valuable refinement of our understanding of political dynamics throughout the twentieth century and into the present day, challenging traditional theories of modern political order.

Weight: 736g
Dimension: 165 x 360 x 31 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780691190976