Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Author's note on usage
- List of maps and figures
- List of tables
- INTRODUCTION
- 1 THE OTTOMAN GREAT WAR AND CAPTIVITY IN RUSSIA AND EGYPT
- 2 IMAGINING COMMUNITY AND IDENTITY IN RUSSIA AND EGYPT: A COMPARISON
- 3 SAVIOUR SONS OF THE NATION: INSIDE THE PRISONERS' MINDS
- 4 PRISONERS AS DISEASE CARRIERS: CASES OF PELLAGRA AND TRACHOMA
- 5 WAR NEUROSES AND PRISONERS OF WAR: WARTIME NERVOUS BREAKDOWN AND THE POLITICS OF MEDICAL INTERPRETATION
- 6 DEGENERATIONIST PATHWAY TO EUGENICS: NEUROPSYCHIATRY, SOCIAL PATHOLOGY AND ANXIETIES OVER NATIONAL HEALTH
- EPILOGUE: THE SEARCH FOR A USEABLE PAST: PRISONERS OF WAR, THE OTTOMAN GREAT WAR AND TURKISH NATIONALISM
- Bibliography
- Index
2 - IMAGINING COMMUNITY AND IDENTITY IN RUSSIA AND EGYPT: A COMPARISON
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 October 2013
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Author's note on usage
- List of maps and figures
- List of tables
- INTRODUCTION
- 1 THE OTTOMAN GREAT WAR AND CAPTIVITY IN RUSSIA AND EGYPT
- 2 IMAGINING COMMUNITY AND IDENTITY IN RUSSIA AND EGYPT: A COMPARISON
- 3 SAVIOUR SONS OF THE NATION: INSIDE THE PRISONERS' MINDS
- 4 PRISONERS AS DISEASE CARRIERS: CASES OF PELLAGRA AND TRACHOMA
- 5 WAR NEUROSES AND PRISONERS OF WAR: WARTIME NERVOUS BREAKDOWN AND THE POLITICS OF MEDICAL INTERPRETATION
- 6 DEGENERATIONIST PATHWAY TO EUGENICS: NEUROPSYCHIATRY, SOCIAL PATHOLOGY AND ANXIETIES OVER NATIONAL HEALTH
- EPILOGUE: THE SEARCH FOR A USEABLE PAST: PRISONERS OF WAR, THE OTTOMAN GREAT WAR AND TURKISH NATIONALISM
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
The last joke I heard of him [Sheikh As'ad Shuqueiri] is this: At the time of the armistice, the English arrested the Sheikh [As'ad] and took him to Sidi Bishr prisoner of war camp. Dressed in a blue shirt and a blue garment (don), the old man was living a sad life. One day, as he again was sitting cross-legged on the hot sand and thinking, he heard the voice of an Arab prisoner of war:
– O Allah! O Allah! …
– Don't my son, don't summon him [Sheikh As'ad said]. If Allah were to have a sudden desire to come down to rescue us, He will not be able rescue Himself from the hands of the English. Moreover, you will be the cause of leaving Muslims without Allah.
Falih Rifki Atay, Zeytindağl, p. 59Chapter 1 demonstrated that the circumstances of capture, conditions of captivity and experiences of Ottoman prisoners in Russia were significantly worse than in the British camps in Egypt. This chapter investigates how those differing circumstances influenced construction and understanding of identity, identification, tradition, culture and nation. In so doing, it argues that the inferior conditions of life in the Russian camps contributed to a contentious sense of community among Ottoman prisoners. However, the presence of German and Austro-Hungarian prisoners, in close quarters with the Ottoman prisoners, was another significant reason for the hardening of boundaries around the concepts of nation, culture and tradition. Even the relatively easy access to Russian civilians became an important factor in this regard.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Healing the NationPrisoners of War, Medicine and Nationalism in Turkey, 1914-1939, pp. 46 - 76Publisher: Edinburgh University PressPrint publication year: 2013