Under Ottoman rule, the city of Haifa, located at the southern point of the largest bay on the coast of what today is Israel, was transformed from a scarcely-inhabited fortress town to a major modern city. This book details the history of Haifa under the Ottomans during the period 1516-1918. Alex Carmel uses a variety of original sources to uncover the realities of life in Haifa under Ottoman rule and paints a vivid picture of the development of the city in this era. Carmel's work has become the benchmark of the historiography of Israel's third largest city and remains to this day, the best-known and most highly-regarded survey of Haifa under Ottoman rule. This, the first English edition of 'Ottoman Haifa', will be essential reading for all historians of the Ottoman Empire and the Middle East.

This volume offers a history of Haifa during that crucial part of the nineteenth century when Europe's penetration of Palestine combined with Istanbul's centralization efforts to alter irrevocably the social fabric of the country and change its political destiny. After tracing the town's beginnings in the early eighteenth century, the author painstakingly reconstructs from the few sijill volumes that have survived vital aspects of Ottoman Haifa's society and administration. A fresh look at the town's demography is followed by an in-depth discussion of the way inter-communal relations developed after the 1864 Vilāyets Law had brought a restructuring of the sources of elite power. The author's findings on the social status of Haifa's Muslim women significantly add to the vibrant picture of economic activities we now know urban Muslim women in the Ottoman Empire were involved in.

This "sijill"-based history carefully reconstructs the changing aspects of Ottoman Haifa's society, administration and inter-communal relations, at a time when Ottoman reform policies and the encroachment of the West made the coastal towns of Palestine crossroads of culture and politics.

Like other regions within the Ottoman Empire, Palestine at the turn of the nineteenth century underwent extensive economic and social changes. These encompassed the demography, society and economics of the various ecological groups of the population. The articles in this volume present different aspects of this long and complex process. They fall thematically into four groups. The first, which includes articles by U.O. Schmelz and Ruth Kark, focuses on demographic and urban developments. the second, with articles by Ya'akov Firestone and Yossi Ben-Artzi, offers various views of changes in the village and in agriculture in Palestine. The third part, containing articles by Shmuel Avitsur, Walter Pinhas Pick, Nachum T. Gross and Alex Carmel, covers several areas in the historical development of the industrial and services branches. Finally, the articles in the fourth section, by Oded Peri, Gabriel Baer and Clinton Bailey, examine questions in the sphere of fiscal developments. Included are studies on Arab and Jewish as well as nomadic, rural and urban societies. The consequences of economic activity in the private and public sectors and of local and foreign entrepreneurs are examined. In several articles the authros trace the changes that occurred in traditional insitutions such as the Muslim waqf, while others focus on the introduction of the new economic institutions such as the modern bank and railway.

'The most wonderful natural feature I have ever seen.' With these words the explorer William Gosse expressed the awe he and many others have felt at the natural phenomenon of Uluru. The first white person to reach the central Australian monolith, he gave it the name 'Ayers Rock'. But who was Henry Ayers, the man whose name is forever associated with Australia's most recognisable natural icon? And why should he still be remembered today? Although the rock now carries its ancient indigenous name, Uluru, the name of Ayers is still linked with the the Rock's 'discovery' in 1873. Indeed, 'Ayers Rock' is one of the most famous natural wonders on earth and, despite its remote location, attracts over 400,000 visitors each year. This book, the first biography of Henry Ayers, focuses attention on the complex character behind the name and examines all aspects of his life - from his humble origins in the naval city of Portsmouth in southern England, his migration to Australia and his career as a miner, businessman and eventually as Premier of South Australia - a post to which he was elected seven times. It provides a fascinating insight into Australian history through the life of a man who was consistently in the upper echelons of influence and authority in colonial society and whose legacy lives through his association with the most famous and recognisable natural feature of his adopted country.

A study of Palestine in the early twentieth century that takes a step back from the intricacies of the Arab-Zionist conflict, focusing instead on the country's position within the broader history of empire and anti-colonial resistance.