The Ottoman Province Of Damascus in The Sixteenth Century

DESCRIPTION

[xv], 309 pp of English text; notes, tables, endpaper maps, biblio, index. HARD COVER in dustwrappers. Copy in Mint condition. New. Although the first three centuries of Ottoman rule in the Arab lands are far removed from us in time, they remain a period which has been very little studied. Unlike other "Dark Ages" in history, their obscurity is by no means due to lack of materials for the scholars. Published or in manuscript, there are reasonably copious literary sources, particularly chronicles and biographical dictionaires. While the Ottoman period is distinguished from all those that preceded it in the Arab Near East by the great abundance of archival materials provided by the state records. Here, as rarely in the history of Islamic lands, detailed research, with a corpus of administrative documents controlling and balancing literary works, becomes possible.