Minawi writes with passion and precision, and he has produced an accessible and thought-provoking book, having found in Azmzade an auspicious narrative hook. This is an ambitious book that casts light on hitherto unknown aspects of Ottoman history, the view from the perspective of the empire's outlying regions at the turn to the twentieth century.
Hasan Kayali
... Read moreAmerican Historical Review
The Ottoman Scramble for Africa successfully demonstrates the value of a transcontinental approach to the history of empire. Mostafa Minawi has crafted a well-written and richly textured narrative that invites deeper engagement and conversations among scholars of Africa, Europe, and the Middle East.
Judith Byfield
Cornell University
The Ottoman Scramble for Africa is a fascinating analysis of the diplomatic endeavours of Istanbul at the end of the nineteenth century in Africa and Arabia. Scholars interested in the imperial borderlands in Africa and the Middle East need to read it and will benefit from its invaluable trans-imperial approach.
Vincent Hiribarren
Journal of Islamic Studies
Readers of Mostafa Minawi's The Ottoman Scramble for Africa are in for a treat. What starts out as the genealogy of a powerful Damascene Arab notable family evolves into a fascinating tale of Ottoman global ambitions in Libya and central Africa in the 1890s. With an engaging story, well-grounded in a number of archives, this book is a welcome piece of the puzzle surrounding late Ottoman colonialism.
Virginia Aksan
McMaster University
In this engaging and timely study, Mostafa Minawi demonstrates that the Ottoman Empire was capable of reinventing itself in the age of New Imperialism and finding alternative ways to compete with European powers for colonial possessions in Africa. This book will leave the reader with a richer understanding of the 'Scramble for Africa.'
Janet Klein
The University of Akron
Mostafa Minawi's book makes a major contribution to discourses about late nineteenth- century non-European colonialism in general and Ottoman colonialism in Africa in particular. Drawing upon a wide range of theoretical paradigms and using historical sources in Near Eastern and European languages, Minawi has written an impressive work...The book will attract the interest of specialists of the Ottoman Empire and European imperial history in Africa, as well as Africanists and general researchers of colonialism.
Avishai Ben-Dror
The Journal of African History
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