Late Ottoman Empire and Egypt

Law and identification transgressed political boundaries in the nineteenth-century Levant. Over the course of the century, Italo-Levantines- elite and common- exerciseda a strategy ofa resilient hybridity whereby an unintentional form of legal imperialism took root in Egypt.a a This book contributes to a vibrant strand of global legal history that places law and other social structures at the heart of competing imperial projects- British, Ottoman, Egyptian, and Italian among them.a Analysis of the Italian consulara and mixed court cases, and diplomatic records, in Egypt and Istanbula reveals the complexity of shifting identifications and judicial reform in two parts of the interactive and competitive plural legal regime.a The rich court recordsa showa that binary relational categories fail to capture the complexity of the daily lives of the residents and courts of the late Ottoman empire.a Over time and acting in their own self-interests, these actors exploiteda the plural legal regime.a Case studies in both Egypt and Istanbul explore how identification developed as a legal form of property itself.a Whereas thea classical literature emphasizeda external state power politics, this book builds upon newa work in the field that shows the interaction of external anda internal power strugglesa throughout thea regiona leda to assorted forms of confrontation, collaboration, and negotiationa in the region.a Ita will be of interest to students, scholars, and readers of Middle East, Ottoman,a and Mediterranean history.a It will also appeal to anyone wanting to know more abouta cultural history in the nineteenth century, anda the historical roots of contemporary global debates on law, migration, and identities.a