ADMINISTRATIVE AND SOCIO-POLITICAL TRANSFORMATIONS IN OTTOMAN PALESTINE: BETWEEN CENTRAL AUTHORITY AND LOCAL

Abstract

This study explores the historical, administrative, and socio-political transformation of Palestine under Ottoman rule between 1516 and 1918, emphasizing the region’s strategic and symbolic significance within the Empire. Drawing on Ottoman archival sources and modern historiographical analyses, the research traces the evolution of local governance from the semi-autonomous leadership of families such as the Zaydānīs, Cezzar Ahmed Pasha, and Süleyman Pasha al-ʿĀdil, through the Egyptian administration of Muhammad Ali (1831–1840), and into the period of Tanzimat reforms and Abdülhamid II’s modernization policies. The study highlights the interplay between central and provincial powers, the emergence of urban elites, and the impact of imperial reforms on rural society and local notables.
Economically, it investigates the expansion of agriculture and trade—particularly the growth of cotton production in Galilee, the strengthening of Acre’s commercial networks, and the region’s gradual integration into global markets. The Tanzimat era brought new administrative structures, infrastructural development, and legal reforms, though these measures also intensified European influence and missionary activities, reshaping Palestine’s social fabric.
By the late Ottoman period, Jerusalem emerged as a key administrative and cultural center, while increasing Zionist immigration and European consular intervention foreshadowed the geopolitical challenges that would define the twentieth century. The study concludes that Ottoman policies in Palestine reflected both the strengths and contradictions of a multi-ethnic empire struggling to preserve its authority amid global imperial competition.