Year of Locust (‘Am al-Jarad) is a diary of a young Jerusalemite man who served in the Ottoman Army during World War One. His diary is valued by historians for being one of the period’s rare memoirs of a non-combatant.
Instructions
- Listen to the podcast of Dr. Salim Tamari, the Middle East historian and the editor of Turjman’s diary. http://www.ottomanhistorypodcast.com/2018/07/tamari.html. This podcast is only for supplementary purposes. It aims to aid you in understanding larger processes about war and identity. In your essay, you need to quote and reference the memoirs of Turjman and its introduction by Salim Tamari.
- In a single essay of no more than seven (7) pages (double spaced, Times New Roman, 12), answer the following questions: avoid first person, this is an analytical paper.
1) Based on Turjman’s diary, describe the effects of war, war mobilization, and other environmental, social, cultural, and economic processes that are ongoing during the war years on Ihsan Turjman in particular and townspeople in general. Provide specific examples. 10 points.
2) In the span of Turjman’s diary, we observe an increasing degree of intrusion of the external powers/authorities into his city. Provide at least three noteworthy examples of this intrusion (5 points). Describe the historical development of such external intrusions starting with the nineteenth century (5 points). 10 points.
3) In his introduction to the book, historian Salim Tamari discusses the war-time experiences of several individuals living in the Ottoman Empire. In light of these individuals’ and Turjman’s variegated experiences, how do you think the war affected how these individuals viewed their relationship to the empire? How did they (re)-formulate their political identities during the war years? 10 points.