At the dawn of modernity

This is one of our favorite classes to teach as we look more closely at a specific time, versus larger sweeping trends.

The mid 1800s in Ottoman Palestine was a dynamic region in transition, from the old world to the new, from lackadaisical to a more centralized Ottoman state, from time when your religion was your most dominant characteristic, to a world where the nation was a word on everyone’s lips.

Palestine at the dawn of maternity is a wonderful place for us to understand not just the conflict, that we are all more than aware of, but what internal ideas and characteristics from this colorful period allow us to wrap our heads around what came before the ‘modern world’.

With lots of maps and colorful imagery, great power struggles and politics, there is no shortage of drama surrounding that peculiar place called Palestine.

What can we learn from the trade routes in Arabia that ended on Mediterranean docks and ports, or for Egyptian caravans heading north with Mamluk sultans swinging swords? This colorful period of history is a delightful sight to be revealed by the microscopes of a great and exciting symposium.

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