Gaza on the Eve of the Modern Middle East: New Research on the City and its Region during the Late Ottoman Era

In contemporary public discourse, Gaza tends to be characterized solely as a theatre of the ongoing escalating conflict between Israel and the Palestinians. However, little is known about Gaza’s society, politics, economy, and culture during the Ottoman era. In their talk, Yuval Ben-Bassat and Johann Buessow will present the main finding of their decade-long research on late Ottoman Gaza, recently published in the book Late Ottoman Gaza: An Eastern Mediterranean Hub in Transformation (Cambridge University Press, 2024). Drawing on a range of previously unused local and imperial Ottoman sources and using new digital humanities methodologies, the book explores the city’s history from the mid-nineteenth century until WWI. It demonstrates that Gaza’s historical importance extended far beyond the territory of the ‘Strip’ as the city was an important hub for people, goods, and ideas in the Eastern Mediterranean.