acquisition of wealth but "in the Middle East individual obligations . . . in terms of religiously commanded participation in a religiously defined community" (270). The wealth and power of the Ottoman Empire also had a slowly corrupting effect. After 1600, most sultans were less active in affairs of state; key elements of the military such as the Janissaries engaged in business and interfered in politics; and military officials and other notables in faroff provinces increasingly acted somewhat autonomously from Istanbul. As the Ottoman Empire turned into the Sick Man Europe in the 19th Century, European powers quarreled over its possessions and over who would succeed it in modern times. Turkish nationalism replaced Ottoman nationalism. It took an ugly form during the war and immediately thereafter through the massive massacres and expulsions of Armenians and Greeks in Asia Minor. Although Turkey's borders were much shrunken, it preserved its independence under the secular nationalism of its leader Kemal Ataturk, who became a national hero after he organized the successful defense of the nation at Gallipoli in 1915-1916. The hardships of the war generated protests and riots in 1919 and intense political activity in Egypt. According to Beinin and Lockman, "in Egypt as in so many other countries . . . the war and its turbulent aftermath were to mark one of the great turning points in modern history" (395). However, the growth of Egyptian nationalist political parties such as the Wafd and the more fundamentalist Muslim Brotherhood were kept within narrow bounds by the British until after World War II. Cleveland, William L. A History of the Modern Middle East. Boulder: Westview P, 1994. The first decades of the 16th century served as a turning point in the long loom of modern history by setting the stage for the ultimate decline |
