BTS 121
Beirut 2009, XVI/350 pp., german text, 3 fig., 2 maps
This monograph offers the first typology of the institutions (mosques, madrasas, zawiyas) that constitute the 'religious space' of 18th-century Aleppo. Stefan Knost identifies their locations and situates them with regard to both legal theory and social practice during the last decades before the Tanzimat reforms. These results are based on a micro-historical study of legal documents of the local Shari'a courts (siǧillāt al-maḥākim al-šarʿīya).
By combining this approach with an analysis of the employees and administration of these institutions, Knost can make modern conceptualizations of urban space fruitful for the history of Ottoman Aleppo.
Stefan Knost is professor and lecturer at the department for Oriental Studies at the University of Halle. His topic of research focuses on the early-modern and modern history of the Arab provinces of the Ottoman Empire.