Handelsmetropole und Pilgerstation:: Djidda in spätosmanischer Zeit

Abstract

Commercial Center and Pilgrims’ Thoroughfare: Jeddah in the Late Ottoman Period

This article discusses changing notions of „foreignness“ in nineteenth century Jeddah. This was a town where traders of the Red Sea and adjacent oceans, as well as pilgrims en route to Mecca met, and often settled. The article argues that Jeddah was a cosmopolitan city in the sense that it allowed, for most of the century, for these different groups to co-exist peacefully. In the course of the nineteenth century, legal as well as political and economic conditions changed and, arguably, increasingly regulated and complicated this co-existence. The article describes on the basis of a number of examples how ethnic, political and sectarian identities were constructed and changed over time. Arguably, this impacted most dramatically on those Muslims stemming from regions which had come under European protection. Earlier considered predominantly as co-religionists, they now came to be regarded as potential European agents in the age of imperialism. The influx, notably, of Indian Muslim traders added an economic dimension as British protection afforded them advantages in a changing international trade system. Another group whose presence increased, but was regarded with high suspicion were Christians of various nationalities. The Jeddah uprising of 1858 can be interpreted as the most prominent expression of these tensions.