Books by Heather J Sharkey
Across centuries, the Islamic Middle East hosted large populations of Christians and Jews in addi... more Across centuries, the Islamic Middle East hosted large populations of Christians and Jews in addition to Muslims. Today, this diversity is mostly absent. In this book, Heather J. Sharkey examines the history that Muslims, Christians, and Jews once shared against the shifting backdrop of state policies. Focusing on the Ottoman Middle East before World War I, Sharkey offers a vivid and lively analysis of everyday social contacts, dress, music, food, bathing, and more, as they brought people together or pushed them apart. Historically, Islamic traditions of statecraft and law, which the Ottoman Empire maintained and adapted, treated Christians and Jews as protected subordinates to Muslims while prescribing limits to social mixing. Sharkey shows how, amid the pivotal changes of the modern era, efforts to simultaneously preserve and dismantle these hierarchies heightened tensions along religious lines and set the stage for the twentieth-century Middle East.
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This is a marketing abstract from my book – pages 1 to 10 of the first chapter.
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Articles Available for Download by Heather J Sharkey
Histoire, société et études islamiques au 21e siècle, ed. Vincent Legrand and Ayang Utriza Yakin (Berlin: De Gruyter), 2024
What role has religion played in modern Middle Eastern history? How powerful has religious sentim... more What role has religion played in modern Middle Eastern history? How powerful has religious sentiment been relative to other social and cultural forces, and how diverse were ordinary people’s outlooks and experiences? How and when was religion in the Islamic Middle East important in practice as opposed to theory; how did the heritage of early Islamic history inform the policies of successor states; and how have legacies of the past, together with circumstances of the ever-shifting present, affected Muslim, Christian, and Jewish people as they crossed paths in everyday life? And when was religion not important –just one variable among others such as age, gender, profession, and origin, in shaping how people looked at the world and moved within it.
This article reflects on my responses to these questions as they appeared in my book entitled, A History of Muslims, Christians, and Jews in the Middle East, which appeared from Cambridge University Press in 2017. As a study in method, this article aims to stimulate thought about how to present a history like this one, to which many people feel strongly attached, and for which powerful legacies rebound to the present.
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Journal of Interactive Technology and Pedagogy (JITP), 2024
In this article we address challenges and considerations involved in planning, creating, and publ... more In this article we address challenges and considerations involved in planning, creating, and publishing a born-digital publication as a collaborative class project using the platform Scalar. We draw on experiences at the University of Pennsylvania, in Spring 2023, when students in a semester-long course co-authored a digital book called Food in the Islamic Middle East: A Case Study of the Sephardic Heritage Cookbook. We describe our approach to instructional design, training, learning goals, and enhancing the findability of the published site. Pedagogically, this project aimed to involve students in producing open-access digital humanities scholarship; to address needs in the post-COVID educational landscape by developing camaraderie through teamwork; and to deepen knowledge of and appreciation for Middle Eastern history and culture. It also aimed to cultivate digital citizenship; multisensory, experiential, and embodied learning; and community engagement. We discuss challenges that arose, which related less to Scalar's technological aspects, and more to the invisible labor for faculty and institutional liaisons who guided the project as well to the need for ensuring copyright adherence and students' privacy. Finally, we o!er advice for educators who want to pursue a similar project, in a seminar or larger class and in light of limited resources.
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Ordinary Sudan: From Social History to Politics from Below, Vol. 1, ed. Elena Vezzadini, Iris Seri-Hersch, Lucie Revilla, Anaël Poussier, and Mahassin Abdul Jalil , 2023
In January 1863, 446 soldiers boarded a French ship on the Egyptian coast and sailed for Veracruz... more In January 1863, 446 soldiers boarded a French ship on the Egyptian coast and sailed for Veracruz, Mexico. Almost all these men had been born and raised in the Sudan and had entered the Egyptian Army as slaves, whereupon they became Muslims, with new Muslim names. Four years later, in March 1867, the 299 survivors of le bataillon nègre égyptien (“the black Egyptian battalion”, as French authorities called them) sailed from Veracruz to Toulon in France, and went to Paris, where they received honors from Napoleon III, Emperor of the French. Leaving France, they sailed to Alexandria, where the Khedive Ismail reviewed them and Egyptian dignitaries honored them at a banquet before sending them back to Sudan.
At a time when Egypt was trying to expand its empire in northeast Africa, some of these Mexico veterans later fought on the Abyssinian (Ethiopian) front. Others served in Darfur and the Equatoria region along the White Nile which included much of present-day South Sudan and northern Uganda. Later, after Sudanese Muslims associated with the Mahdist movement declared jihad against the Turco-Egyptian regime (which had been subjecting much of Sudan to colonial rule since 1820, in a search for raw materials and slave soldiers for military expansion), four Sudanese veterans of Mexico, led by the British general Charles Gordon, died in 1885 at the Fall of Khartoum. A few joined the Mahdist side and turned to fight the Egyptians.
The remarkable story of these Sudanese soldiers takes Sudanese history beyond the Nile Valley, and beyond Sudanese relations with the colonial powers of Egypt and Britain, while making it possible to trace longer arcs between North Africa, Europe, North America, and western Asia during the nineteenth century. This exercise illuminates global histories of slavery, race, military formation, and empire-building, as well as comparative histories of civil war and religious sectarianism. At the same time, it shows how service in Mexico enabled the Sudanese soldiers to rise in rank in the Egyptian Army while involving them in formative episodes of Sudanese history. Finally, the careers of these men provide evidence for networks that connected the two Sudans – Sudan and the country which seceded from it in 2011, South Sudan – to Mexico, France, and the United States, in addition to Egypt and Britain.
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Missions and Preaching: Connected and Decompartmentalised Perspectives from the Middle East and North Africa (19th-21st Century), ed. Norig Neveu, Karène Sanchez Summerer, and Annalaura Turiano, 2022
This is an open access chapter distributed under the terms of the cc by-nc-nd 4.0 license.
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‘In Partibus Fidelium’: Missions du Levant et Connaissance de l’Orient Chrétien (XIXe-XXIe siècles), ed. Marie Levant, Philippe Bourmaud, Séverine Gabry-Thienpont, Karène Sanchez Summerer and Norig Neveu, 2022
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Journal of Presbyterian History, 2021
This essay introduces a special issue of the Journal of Presbyterian History on “The Dynamics of ... more This essay introduces a special issue of the Journal of Presbyterian History on “The Dynamics of Indigenization. This issue represents the first of a two-part series that considers how people in Presbyterian and Reformed missions, churches, and communities interacted with each other and with members of wider societies, while adapting practices, ideas, and identities to suit local needs and conditions. The articles in this series cover different parts of the world, and periods from the early nineteenth century to the early twenty-first. This Spring 2021 issue presents histories from North India, Thailand, and the Middle East (roughly, Lebanon and Kuwait); the Fall 2021 issue will cover Congo, Hawaii, and southeastern China. The goal of this series is to honor the scholarship of the late Lamin Sanneh; to recognize the global impact of Presbyterian and Reformed history, largely through missions; and to feature work creatively uses mission and church records from the Presbyterian Historical Society and other repositories, along with visual and material sources, in ways that can enrich our understandings of the past. We introduce this issue by reflecting on these goals and by considering what indigenization may mean or entail. Featured articles are by Deanna Ferree Womack, Arun W. Jones, and Karl Dahlfred.
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Almanac, 2020
Pedagogical reflections on teaching online during the time of the COVID-19 pandemic at the Univer... more Pedagogical reflections on teaching online during the time of the COVID-19 pandemic at the University of Pennsylvania, with special attention to the role of the online classroom in building community, fostering intellectual engagement, and promoting a sense of well-being through learning among undergraduates.
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European Cultural Diplomacy and Arab Christians in Palestine, 1918-1948: Between Contention and Connection, 2021
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European Missions in Contact Zones: Transformation through Interaction in a (Post-)Colonial World, 2015
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This article has two parts. 1) "Congenital Syphilis: A Sudanese Midwife's Report" (based on Arab... more This article has two parts. 1) "Congenital Syphilis: A Sudanese Midwife's Report" (based on Arabic materials in the Sudan Archive at Durham University) and 2) "Batul Muhammad 'Isa: Biography of a Sudanese Midwife" (based on an interview published in Khartoum in 1995).
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Papers Available for Download by Heather J Sharkey
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Thesis Available for Download by Heather J Sharkey
Abstract
This study concentrates on the experience of domestic slaves--men, women, and children ... more Abstract
This study concentrates on the experience of domestic slaves--men, women, and children who were affiliated to an owner's household--in the nineteenth-and early twentieth-century northern Sudan. Whereas most studies on Sudanese slavery show concern for the slave trade, the anti-slavery movement, or the abolition effort, this study instead examines the slaves themselves, and how they lived, worked, and functioned within their society.
A few key themes surface throughout this thesis. One relates to the rapid pace of change, both political and social, which occurred in the northern Sudan in the period under study and had a profound effect on slavery. In the course of a single century, slave-owning changed from a preserve of the elite to a commodity for the free majority, before coming under the onslaught of abolition. Another recurring theme pertains to the tremendous diversity within the slave experience--in terms of occupation, treatment, outlook, and so forth. Finally, the study also grapples with the question of slavery's relative benevolence in the Sudan, while discussing opportunities for the eventual assimilation and social integration of the servile elements.
A gaping hole exists in the historical record: namely, the absence of a large body of materials revealing the slave's own perspective. Thus the selfsame travellers' accounts and administrative records from which historians have shaped their narratives on trading, raiding, and abolition inform this study. Undeterred, this thesis launches an indirect attack on the subject. By piecing together observations made by witnesses to the slavery scene, and by filling in the gaps with carefully-considered hypotheses, a clearer and more colourful portrait emerges of the slave experience.
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Books by Heather J Sharkey
Articles Available for Download by Heather J Sharkey
This article reflects on my responses to these questions as they appeared in my book entitled, A History of Muslims, Christians, and Jews in the Middle East, which appeared from Cambridge University Press in 2017. As a study in method, this article aims to stimulate thought about how to present a history like this one, to which many people feel strongly attached, and for which powerful legacies rebound to the present.
At a time when Egypt was trying to expand its empire in northeast Africa, some of these Mexico veterans later fought on the Abyssinian (Ethiopian) front. Others served in Darfur and the Equatoria region along the White Nile which included much of present-day South Sudan and northern Uganda. Later, after Sudanese Muslims associated with the Mahdist movement declared jihad against the Turco-Egyptian regime (which had been subjecting much of Sudan to colonial rule since 1820, in a search for raw materials and slave soldiers for military expansion), four Sudanese veterans of Mexico, led by the British general Charles Gordon, died in 1885 at the Fall of Khartoum. A few joined the Mahdist side and turned to fight the Egyptians.
The remarkable story of these Sudanese soldiers takes Sudanese history beyond the Nile Valley, and beyond Sudanese relations with the colonial powers of Egypt and Britain, while making it possible to trace longer arcs between North Africa, Europe, North America, and western Asia during the nineteenth century. This exercise illuminates global histories of slavery, race, military formation, and empire-building, as well as comparative histories of civil war and religious sectarianism. At the same time, it shows how service in Mexico enabled the Sudanese soldiers to rise in rank in the Egyptian Army while involving them in formative episodes of Sudanese history. Finally, the careers of these men provide evidence for networks that connected the two Sudans – Sudan and the country which seceded from it in 2011, South Sudan – to Mexico, France, and the United States, in addition to Egypt and Britain.
Papers Available for Download by Heather J Sharkey
Thesis Available for Download by Heather J Sharkey
This study concentrates on the experience of domestic slaves--men, women, and children who were affiliated to an owner's household--in the nineteenth-and early twentieth-century northern Sudan. Whereas most studies on Sudanese slavery show concern for the slave trade, the anti-slavery movement, or the abolition effort, this study instead examines the slaves themselves, and how they lived, worked, and functioned within their society.
A few key themes surface throughout this thesis. One relates to the rapid pace of change, both political and social, which occurred in the northern Sudan in the period under study and had a profound effect on slavery. In the course of a single century, slave-owning changed from a preserve of the elite to a commodity for the free majority, before coming under the onslaught of abolition. Another recurring theme pertains to the tremendous diversity within the slave experience--in terms of occupation, treatment, outlook, and so forth. Finally, the study also grapples with the question of slavery's relative benevolence in the Sudan, while discussing opportunities for the eventual assimilation and social integration of the servile elements.
A gaping hole exists in the historical record: namely, the absence of a large body of materials revealing the slave's own perspective. Thus the selfsame travellers' accounts and administrative records from which historians have shaped their narratives on trading, raiding, and abolition inform this study. Undeterred, this thesis launches an indirect attack on the subject. By piecing together observations made by witnesses to the slavery scene, and by filling in the gaps with carefully-considered hypotheses, a clearer and more colourful portrait emerges of the slave experience.
This article reflects on my responses to these questions as they appeared in my book entitled, A History of Muslims, Christians, and Jews in the Middle East, which appeared from Cambridge University Press in 2017. As a study in method, this article aims to stimulate thought about how to present a history like this one, to which many people feel strongly attached, and for which powerful legacies rebound to the present.
At a time when Egypt was trying to expand its empire in northeast Africa, some of these Mexico veterans later fought on the Abyssinian (Ethiopian) front. Others served in Darfur and the Equatoria region along the White Nile which included much of present-day South Sudan and northern Uganda. Later, after Sudanese Muslims associated with the Mahdist movement declared jihad against the Turco-Egyptian regime (which had been subjecting much of Sudan to colonial rule since 1820, in a search for raw materials and slave soldiers for military expansion), four Sudanese veterans of Mexico, led by the British general Charles Gordon, died in 1885 at the Fall of Khartoum. A few joined the Mahdist side and turned to fight the Egyptians.
The remarkable story of these Sudanese soldiers takes Sudanese history beyond the Nile Valley, and beyond Sudanese relations with the colonial powers of Egypt and Britain, while making it possible to trace longer arcs between North Africa, Europe, North America, and western Asia during the nineteenth century. This exercise illuminates global histories of slavery, race, military formation, and empire-building, as well as comparative histories of civil war and religious sectarianism. At the same time, it shows how service in Mexico enabled the Sudanese soldiers to rise in rank in the Egyptian Army while involving them in formative episodes of Sudanese history. Finally, the careers of these men provide evidence for networks that connected the two Sudans – Sudan and the country which seceded from it in 2011, South Sudan – to Mexico, France, and the United States, in addition to Egypt and Britain.
This study concentrates on the experience of domestic slaves--men, women, and children who were affiliated to an owner's household--in the nineteenth-and early twentieth-century northern Sudan. Whereas most studies on Sudanese slavery show concern for the slave trade, the anti-slavery movement, or the abolition effort, this study instead examines the slaves themselves, and how they lived, worked, and functioned within their society.
A few key themes surface throughout this thesis. One relates to the rapid pace of change, both political and social, which occurred in the northern Sudan in the period under study and had a profound effect on slavery. In the course of a single century, slave-owning changed from a preserve of the elite to a commodity for the free majority, before coming under the onslaught of abolition. Another recurring theme pertains to the tremendous diversity within the slave experience--in terms of occupation, treatment, outlook, and so forth. Finally, the study also grapples with the question of slavery's relative benevolence in the Sudan, while discussing opportunities for the eventual assimilation and social integration of the servile elements.
A gaping hole exists in the historical record: namely, the absence of a large body of materials revealing the slave's own perspective. Thus the selfsame travellers' accounts and administrative records from which historians have shaped their narratives on trading, raiding, and abolition inform this study. Undeterred, this thesis launches an indirect attack on the subject. By piecing together observations made by witnesses to the slavery scene, and by filling in the gaps with carefully-considered hypotheses, a clearer and more colourful portrait emerges of the slave experience.