2024 Theses Doctoral

The Politics of Self-determination in Egypt and Bilād al-Shām: A Regional History, 1908-1923

Khalifa, Nada

This dissertation offers a new interpretation of the interplay between projects of imperial consolidation and movements for self-determination in Egypt and the Arab provinces of the Ottoman Empire from 1908, when the Young Turk revolution restored Ottoman parliamentary rule, to 1923, when the Treaty of Lausanne recognized an independent Turkish state.

Through an examination of commissioned works and investigations, the dissertation shows how conceptions of autonomy, self-determination and independence entered the lexicon of regional politics in the context of debates over constitutional order—the decentralization of Ottoman governance in the Arab provinces, the introduction of the League of Nations mandates system in bilād al-Shām and Iraq, and the abrogation of the British protectorate over Egypt.

Drawing on diplomatic records, private papers, memoirs and the archives of the commissions under study, each chapter shows how experts, intellectuals and activists navigated a transitional conjuncture marked by the breakdown of longstanding structures of political and social authority. Understanding commissions as indices of an investigative modality concerned with populations, their sentiments, and desires, I trace the emergence of a culture of public accountability in its convergence with the making of constitutional order in Egypt and bilād al-Shām.