The Last Caravan

Auteur  : Philippe Pétriat
Éditeur : Cambridge University Press (Cambridge)
Date de parution : décembre 2024
Nombre de pages : 306
Présentation de l’éditeur

What can travelling camels tell us about the history of the interior of the Middle East ? In this innovative book Philippe Pétriat demonstrates how caravans - groups of travellers, often on trade expeditions, journeying together for mutual protection in hostile regions - are essential to understanding the history of the inside territories of the Ottoman Empire with its neighbours. From the first use of camels in transport, through to the decline of the caravan from the 1930s onwards, Pétriat reconstructs the land routes of these travellers through vast steppes and deserts in captivating detail.

Moving discussions of the political economy of the Ottoman and post-Ottoman Middle East beyond analysis of the coastal regions and maritime exchanges with Western countries, The Last Caravan instead reveals the pivotal importance of the Ottoman and Arab merchants in the suburbs of the cities and the rural markets and the travelling nomads and the animals that supported them.

• Provides a comprehensive history of the Middle East that does not focus on cities and coastal regions and instead on travel routes through the deserts
• Connects the Ottoman and the post-Ottoman history of the region and emphasizes its connections to neighbouring regions such as African Sahara and Eurasian steppes, both de-exceptionalizing the history of the Middle East, and providing the connected features of its history
• Provides a fresh understanding of the nomadic peoples of the Middle-East interior, and their pivotal impact on the economy of the region