al-Ṣināʿa in Late Ottoman Beirut: A Historical Study of an Arabic Concept

Abstract

This dissertation investigates the Arabic notion of al-ṣināʿa in late 19th century Beirut. In identifying the concept’s semantic universe and layers of historical meanings, its material manifestations since the late 1860s, and the related reform project it prompted, I trace the emergence of al-ṣināʿa from the classical Arabic-Islamic corpus of knowledge into a modern field of inquiry. Thinking through al-ṣināʿa, I ask how historical actors in the Arab-Ottoman port-city connected knowledge and practice to modernity at the time of integration into the world-economy; in other words, how the cultural and literary revival of the period -the Nahda- was brought to bear on practice, material culture, and Arabic economic and scientific ideas. My study shows how a local culture of ṣināʿa emerged from the loci of the Nahda and propagated into the public sphere. In many ways, modern ṣināʿa designated a new configuration of knowledge and practice premised on utility, itself expressed in the language of patriotism and economic welfare in response to the European economic encroachment. Overall, I present al-ṣināʿa as an Arabic source concept that embodies the late 19th century Beiruti experiences of modernity and that speaks to hegemonic concepts that have so far served to depict histories of material culture in the Arab and Islamic worlds, such as Islamic art.