Syrian Alawis under Ottoman Rule | Stefan Winter

E303 | Although the Alawi communities of Syria have played an important role in the politics of the 20th century, the longer history of these communities has often been obscured by generalizations and discourses of mystification. In this episode, we talk to Stefan Winter about the history of the Alawis over the centuries, which is the subject of his new book A History of the ‘Alawis: From Medieval Aleppo to the Turkish Republic. In particular, we focus on the ways in which Syrian Alawis were incorporated into the Ottoman Empire and experienced changes in Ottoman politics and governance. We also examine the social and economic history of the Alawis during the early modern period and the encounter with modernity. More at http://www.ottomanhistorypodcast.com/2017/03/alawis.html Stefan Winter (PhD, University of Chicago, 2002) is associate professor of history at the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQÀM). His work focuses mainly on Ottoman government and tribal society in the provinces of Tripoli, Aleppo and Raqqa in the early modern period. He has been invited professor at the EPHE and the EHESS in Paris, and was associate researcher at Bilkent University in 2014-2015. Chris Gratien holds a Ph.D. from Georgetown University's Department of History and is currently an Academy Scholar at the Harvard Academy for International and Area Studies. His research focuses on the social and environmental history of the Ottoman Empire and the modern Middle East. He is currently preparing a monograph about the environmental history of the Cilicia region from the 1850s until the 1950s. CREDITS Episode No. 303 Release Date: 4 March 2017 Recording Location: Boston, MA Audio editing by Chris Gratien Music: from archive.org - Baglamamin Dugumu - Necmiye Ararat and Muzaffer; Katibim (Uskudar'a Gider iken) - Safiye Ayla Special thanks to Kara Güneş for permission to use the composition "Istanbul" in the outro Images and bibliography courtesy of Stefan Winter available at http://www.ottomanhistorypodcast.com/2017/03/alawis.html