Alan Mikhail

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Alan Mikhail (born 1979) is an American historian who is a professor of history at Yale University. [1] His work centers on the history of the Ottoman Empire.

Contents

Education

Mikhail graduated in History and Chemistry from Rice University in 2001, and received his MA in history from the University of California, Berkeley in 2003. [2] His PhD was conferred from the same university in 2008. His thesis The Nature of Ottoman Egypt: Irrigation, Environment, and Bureaucracy in the Long Eighteenth Century was awarded the Malcolm H. Kerr Dissertation Award in the Social Sciences (2009) by Middle East Studies Association of North America (MESA). [2]

Career

He served as a postdoctoral scholar at Stanford University for two years, before becoming an assistant professor of history at Yale University in 2010. [2] In 2013, he was promoted to full professor and became department chair in 2018. [2]

Works and Reception

Nature and Empire in Ottoman Egypt

His first monograph, Nature and Empire in Ottoman Egypt (2011), was a part of the Cambridge University Press series Studies in Environment and History. [3]  Based on his doctoral dissertation, the book argues for using an environmental lens to understand relations between the Ottoman Empire and the province of Egypt. [4] It received a positive reception [5] [6] and won the Roger Owen Book Award from MESA for the best book in two years in economics, economic history, or the political economy of the Middle East and North Africa. [7]

The Animal in Ottoman Egypt

The Animal in Ottoman Egypt, published in 2014 by Oxford University Press, examines Egypt's changing place in the Ottoman Empire and world economy from the sixteenth to the nineteenth centuries through human-animal relations. [8] Scholarly reception was mixed. [9] It received the Gustav Ranis International Book Prize for being the best book on an international topic by a Yale ladder faculty member. [10]

Under Osman's Tree

Under Osman's Tree, published by the University of Chicago Press in 2017, received critical acclaim [11] and was awarded the M. Fuat Köprülü Book Prize of the Ottoman and Turkish Studies Association. [12]

God's Shadow

God's Shadow was published by Liveright (an imprint of the trade publisher W. W. Norton) in August, 2020. The book argues for the central place of the Ottoman Empire in world history using the life and times of Selim I. The book garnered mostly positive reviews in newspapers. [13] In contrast, scholarly reception was very poor.

An Ottoman historian, Caroline Finkel characterized its assertions as "overblown". [14] Cornell Fleischer, Cemal Kafadar, and Sanjay Subrahmanyam identified numerous factual and interpretational errors and described the work as a "tissue of falsehoods, half-truths, and absurd speculations." [15] [16] A month later, they penned a rejoinder—in response to an article where Efe Khayyat and Ariel Salzmann questioned their motives behind writing an acerbic review [17] —which expanded on the list of Mikhail's factual errors, misrepresentations, and unorthodox scholarly practices, such as a reliance on Wikipedia articles. [18] Abdürrahim Özer of Bilkent University has since identified a long list of factual errors and misinterpretations in the book. [18] [19] [20] Ali Balci found the work to contain "some excessive comments for the sake of making Selim a part of the global history." [21]

Water on Sand: Environmental Histories of the Middle East and North Africa

Water on Sand, published by Oxford University Press in 2013, was met with positive reviews. [22]

My Egypt Archive

My Egypt Archive, Yale University Press, 2023. Depict a decade (2010-2001) Mikhail spend as a young researcher at National Archives of Egypt. [23]

Honors

In 2018, he received the Anneliese Maier Research Award of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. [24]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ottoman Empire</span> Turkish empire (1299–1922)

The Ottoman Empire, historically and colloquially known as the Turkish Empire, was an imperial realm that spanned much of Southeast Europe, West Asia, and North Africa from the 14th to early 20th centuries; it also controlled parts of southeastern Central Europe between the early 16th and early 18th centuries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Suleiman the Magnificent</span> Sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1520 to 1566

Suleiman I, commonly known as Suleiman the Magnificent in Western Europe and Suleiman the Lawgiver in his Ottoman realm, was the longest-reigning sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1520 until his death in 1566. Under his administration, the Ottoman Empire ruled over at least 25 million people.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mamluk</span> Slave-soldiers and enslaved mercenaries in the Muslim world

Mamluk or Mamaluk were non-Arab, ethnically diverse enslaved mercenaries, slave-soldiers, and freed slaves who were assigned high-ranking military and administrative duties, serving the ruling Arab and Ottoman dynasties in the Muslim world.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Selim III</span> 28th Sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1789 to 1807

Selim III was the sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1789 to 1807. Regarded as an enlightened ruler, he was eventually deposed and imprisoned by the Janissaries, who placed his cousin Mustafa on the throne as Mustafa IV. A group of assassins subsequently killed Selim.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Historiography of the Ottoman Empire</span> Causes of the Fall of the Ottoman Empire

The historiography of the Ottoman Empire refers to the studies, sources, critical methods and interpretations used by scholars to develop a history of the Ottoman Dynasty's empire.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Battle of Chaldiran</span> 16th century Ottoman-Safavid military conflict

The Battle of Chaldiran took place on 23 August 1514 and ended with a decisive victory for the Ottoman Empire over the Safavid Empire. As a result, the Ottomans annexed Eastern Anatolia and northern Iraq from Safavid Iran. It marked the first Ottoman expansion into Eastern Anatolia, and the halt of the Safavid expansion to the west. The Battle of Chaldiran was just the beginning of 41 years of destructive war, which only ended in 1555 with the Treaty of Amasya. Though Mesopotamia and Eastern Anatolia were eventually reconquered by the Safavids under the reign of Shah Abbas the Great, they would be permanently ceded to the Ottomans by the 1639 Treaty of Zuhab.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Classical Age of the Ottoman Empire</span> Ottoman Empire from circa 1450 to 1570

The Classical Age of the Ottoman Empire concerns the history of the Ottoman Empire from the conquest of Constantinople in 1453 until the second half of the sixteenth century, roughly the end of the reign of Suleiman the Magnificent. During this period a system of patrimonial rule based on the absolute authority of the sultan reached its apex, and the empire developed the institutional foundations which it would maintain, in modified form, for several centuries. The territory of the Ottoman Empire greatly expanded, and led to what some historians have called the Pax Ottomana. The process of centralization undergone by the empire prior to 1453 was brought to completion in the reign of Mehmed II.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ottoman miniature</span> Art form in the Ottoman Empire

Ottoman miniature is a style of illustration found in Ottoman manuscripts, often depicting portraits or historic events. Its unique style was developed from multiple cultural influences, such as the Persian Miniature art, as well as Byzantine and Mongol art. It was a part of the Ottoman book arts, together with illumination (tezhip), calligraphy (hat), marbling paper (ebru), and bookbinding (cilt). The words taswir or nakish were used to define the art of miniature painting in Ottoman Turkish.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ottoman–Safavid relations</span> Diplomatic relations between the Ottoman Empire and Safavid

The history of Ottoman–Safavid relations started with the establishment of the Safavid dynasty in Persia in the early 16th century. The initial Ottoman–Safavid conflict culminated in the Battle of Chaldiran in 1514, and was followed by a century of border confrontation. In 1639, Safavid Persia and Ottoman Empire signed the Treaty of Zuhab which recognized Iraq in Ottoman control, and decisively parted the Caucasus in two between the two empires. For most of it, the Zuhab treaty was a consolidation of the Peace of Amasya of about a century earlier.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Foreign relations of the Ottoman Empire</span> Overview of the foreign relations of the Ottoman Empire

The foreign relations of the Ottoman Empire were characterized by competition with the Persian Empire to the east, Russia to the north, and Austria to the west. The control over European minorities began to collapse after 1800, with Greece being the first to break free, followed by Serbia. Egypt was lost in 1798–1805. In the early 20th century Austria-Hungary annexed Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Bulgarian Declaration of Independence soon followed. The Ottomans lost nearly all their European territory in the First Balkan War (1912–1913). The Ottoman Empire allied itself with the Central Powers in the First World War, and lost. The British successfully mobilized Arab nationalism. The Ottoman Empire thereby lost its Arab possessions, and itself soon collapsed in the early 1920s. For the period after 1923 see Foreign relations of Turkey.

Cornell Fleischer was an American historian and the Kanuni Suleyman Professor of Ottoman and Modern Turkish Studies at the University of Chicago.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stanford J. Shaw</span> American historian (1930–2006)

Stanford Jay Shaw was an American historian, best known for his works on the late Ottoman Empire, Turkish Jews, and the early Turkish Republic. Shaw's works have been criticized for their lack of factual accuracy as well as denial of the Armenian genocide, and other pro-Turkish bias.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of Lebanon under Ottoman rule</span>

The Ottoman Empire nominally ruled Mount Lebanon from its conquest in 1516 until the end of World War I in 1918.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ottoman–Mamluk War (1516–1517)</span> Imperial Ottoman conquest of Egypt and the Levant

The Ottoman–Mamluk War of 1516–1517 was the second major conflict between the Egypt-based Mamluk Sultanate and the Ottoman Empire, which led to the fall of the Mamluk Sultanate and the incorporation of the Levant, Egypt, and the Hejaz as provinces of the Ottoman Empire. The war transformed the Ottoman Empire from a realm at the margins of the Islamic world, mainly located in Anatolia and the Balkans, to a huge empire encompassing much of the traditional lands of Islam, including the cities of Mecca, Cairo, Damascus, and Aleppo. Despite this expansion, the seat of the empire's political power remained in Constantinople.

Şahkulu, also known as Şahkulu Baba, or Karabıyıkoğlu, was the leader of the pro-Shia and pro-Safavid uprising in Anatolia – the Şahkulu Rebellion – directed against the Ottoman Empire in 1511. He was viewed as a Messiah and Prophet by his followers. His death in battle signified the end of the uprising.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bibliography of the Ottoman Empire</span>

This is a bibliography of notable works about the Ottoman Empire.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ehud R. Toledano</span> Israeli historian

Ehud R. Toledano is professor of Middle Eastern history at Tel Aviv University and the current director of the Program in Ottoman & Turkish Studies. His areas of specialization are Ottoman history, and socio-cultural history of the modern Middle East.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Selim I</span> 9th Sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1512 to 1520

Selim I, known as Selim the Grim or Selim the Resolute, was the sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1512 to 1520. Despite lasting only eight years, his reign is notable for the enormous expansion of the Empire, particularly his conquest between 1516 and 1517 of the entire Mamluk Sultanate of Egypt, which included all of the Levant, Hejaz, Tihamah and Egypt itself. On the eve of his death in 1520, the Ottoman Empire spanned about 3.4 million km2 (1.3 million sq mi), having grown by seventy percent during Selim's reign.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Late Ottoman genocides</span> 1913–1924 Armenian, Greek, and Assyrian genocides

The late Ottoman genocides is a historiographical theory which sees the concurrent Armenian, Greek, and Assyrian genocides that occurred during the 1910s–1920s as parts of a single event rather than separate events, which were initiated by the Young Turks. Although some sources, including The Thirty-Year Genocide (2019) written by the historians Benny Morris and Dror Ze'evi, characterize this event as a genocide of Christians, others such as those written by the historians Dominik J. Schaller and Jürgen Zimmerer contend that such an approach "ignores the Young Turks' massive violence against non-Christians", in particular against Muslim Kurds.

References

  1. ↑ "Anneliese Maier Research Award 2018 - The Award Winners". www.humboldt-foundation.de (in German).
  2. 1 2 3 4 Mikhail, Alan (2017). "Alan Mikhail CV" (PDF).
  3. ↑ Mikhail, Alan (2011). Nature and Empire in Ottoman Egypt: An Environmental History. Studies in Environment and History. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN   978-1-107-00876-2.
  4. ↑ "Middle East Studies Association - Malcolm H. Kerr Dissertation Awards - Alan Mikhail". Middle East Studies Association. Retrieved October 30, 2020.
  5. ↑ Butzer, Karl W. (2012). "NATURE AND EMPIRE IN OTTOMAN EGYPT: An Environmental History. By Alan Mikhail". Geographical Review. 102 (3): 392–393. doi:10.1111/j.1931-0846.2012.00161.x. ISSN   1931-0846. S2CID   162890954.
  6. ↑ Borsch, Stuart (February 25, 2012). "Nature and Empire in Ottoman Egypt: An Environmental History (review)". The Middle East Journal. 66 (1): 172–173. ISSN   1940-3461.
  7. ↑ "Middle East Studies Association - Roger Owen Book Award - Alan Mikhail". Middle East Studies Association. Retrieved October 30, 2020.
  8. ↑ The Animal in Ottoman Egypt. Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press. December 1, 2016. ISBN   978-0-19-065522-8.
  9. ↑
  10. ↑ "The MacMillan Center International Book Prizes". The MacMillan Center. May 29, 2015. Retrieved December 21, 2020.
  11. ↑
  12. ↑ Under Osman's Tree.
  13. ↑
  14. ↑ "Caroline Finkel - Master of the Universe?". Literary Review. Retrieved February 22, 2021.
  15. ↑ "How to Write Fake Global History| Cromohs - Cyber Review of Modern Historiography". oajournals.fupress.net. 2020. Retrieved January 4, 2021.
  16. ↑ "Fake global history in the age of fake news". www.eurozine.com. Retrieved February 22, 2021.
  17. ↑ boundary2 (October 1, 2020). "Efe Khayyat and Ariel Salzmann — On the Perils of Thinking Globally while Writing Ottoman History: God's Shadow and Academia's Self-Appointed Sultans". boundary 2. Retrieved February 17, 2021.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  18. 1 2 "Romancing "American Selim" - K24". T24 (in Turkish). Retrieved February 22, 2021.
  19. ↑ Ozer, Abdurrahim. "Tweet-review of Alan Mikhail's book, God's Shadow".{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  20. ↑ Butler, John (October 7, 2020). ""God's Shadow: Sultan Selim I, his Ottoman Empire, and the Making of the Modern World" by Alan Mikhail" . Retrieved October 31, 2021.
  21. ↑ Balci, Ali (July 13, 2021). "Bringing the Ottoman Order Back into International Relations: A Distinct International Order or Part of an Islamic International Society?". International Studies Review. 23 (viab031): 2090–2107. doi:10.1093/isr/viab031. ISSN   1521-9488.
  22. ↑
  23. ↑ Kapil Komireddi (March 12, 2023). ‘My Egypt Archive’ Review: Doing History Under Tyranny. Wall Street Journal.
  24. ↑ "Alan Mikhail honored for work on environmental history".
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