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Document Details :

Title: Ordering the Past of Ottoman Yemen, 1872-1914
Author(s): KÜHN, Thomas
Journal: Turcica
Volume: 34    Date: 2002   
Pages: 189-220
DOI: 10.2143/TURC.34.0.882

Abstract :
This article explores Ottoman perspectives on the conquest and administration of Yemen between 1872 and 1914 within the larger context of 19th and 20th century imperialism and colonial rule. More specifically, it argues that Ottoman bureaucrats and intellectuals sought to legitimate the subjugation of the local people by employing discursive practices that, albeit very similar to those used by contemporary European and Japanese imperialists, clearly reflected the specificities of the Ottoman context. It was particularly by deploying Orientalist conceptions, such as cultural decline and despotic rule that the Ottomans ordered the past of south west Arabia in a way that was to provide evidence for the need for “civilizing” Ottoman rule and, eventually, for the elaboration of a specifically Ottoman form of colonial difference.

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