The Global Geopolitics of Holy Spaces from Ottoman Jerusalem to the Red Sea Basin
Abstract: Based on his current research, Professor Minawi will discuss how Ethiopian and Ottoman imperialism on the African Red Sea Coast was reflected in the inter-imperial competition for holy real estate in Jerusalem. He will trace how some of the holiest sites for Christians became global battlegrounds for imperial influence, reflecting European, Ottoman, and Ethiopian geopolitics from the tip of the Horn of Africa through Bab el-Mandab, to the island of Suakin.
Speaker: Mostafa Minawi is Professor of History at Cornell University in the United States. He is the author of The Ottoman Scramble for Africa: Empire and Diplomacy from the Sahara to the Hijaz (Stanford University Press, 2016) and the Albert Hourani Book Prize winner, Losing Istanbul: Arab-Ottoman Imperialists and the End of Empire (SUP, 2022), and a number of articles on international law, late 19th-century imperialism, and microhistory. His work explores the intimacies of Global History by investigating Ottoman imperialism and inter-imperial competition in central and northeastern Africa, southwestern Asia, and southeastern Europe. He has held several prestigious fellowships in Turkey, Hungary, Germany, the United States, and Qatar.
Chair: Professor Justin Willis, University of Durham & President, The British Institute in Eastern Africa
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