Losing Istanbul: Arab-Ottoman Imperialists and the End of Empire
Monday, March 27, 5:30-7:00pm
Nelson Mandela Auditorium, FedEx Global Center
UNC – Chapel Hill
Presented by Dr. Mostafa Minawi, Professor of History at Cornell University. Losing Istanbul offers an intimate history of empire, following the rise and fall of a generation of Arab-Ottoman imperialists living in Istanbul. Mostafa Minawi shows how these men and women negotiated their loyalties and guarded their privileges through a microhistorical study of the changing social, political, and cultural currents between 1878 and the First World War. He narrates lives lived in these turbulent times—the joys and fears, triumphs and losses, pride and prejudices—while focusing on the complex dynamics of ethnicity and race in an increasingly Turco-centric imperial capital.
This event is part of the UNC Center for Middle East and Islamic Studies 2022-2023 lecture series: “Legacies of the Middle Eastern and Muslim Experience of the 20th Century.” Co-sponsored by Carolina Asia Center, History Department, Clein Family Initiative on Global History, Carolina Seminar on Transnational and Modern Global History, and The Central Asia Working Group.
