At the turn of the twentieth century, Ethiopian-Ottoman relations gained new urgency as both empires pursued expansion in the Horn of Africa while contending with intensifying European ambitions. This talk reframes that regional contest by centering a seemingly modest but deeply contested (and holy) real estate in Jerusalem to illuminate the global dimensions of Ottoman, Ethiopian, and European maneuvering between 1885 and 1917.
Focusing on Minawi’s book-in-progress tentatively titled, The Global History of a Jerusalem Rooftop: Ottoman Ethiopian Relations and the Geopolitics of Imperialism on the African Red Sea Coast, the talk traces how Ethiopian claims to sites in Ottoman Jerusalem intersected with Ottoman interests in Red Sea port cities. In particular, Minawi will discuss the case of Deir Es-Sultan, a small rooftop monastery at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Ottoman Jerusalem; the contested claims by Coptic and Ethiopian Churches to the space; and British, Italian, and Russian intervention on behalf of both parties, which are directly connected to their maneuvering for colonial possessions along the Ethiopian Red Sea Coast.
Reading Jerusalem’s sacred property regime against African coastal geopolitics, the talk exposes how a militarily and economically weaker Ottoman Empire leveraged sovereignty over holy spaces to negotiate imperial aims in Africa. What emerges is a trans-imperial history linking Istanbul, Jerusalem, and Addis Ababa, offering a fresh perspective on how urban sacred geographies shaped late-imperial diplomacy.
Mostafa Minawi is a professor of history at Cornell University. His research explores the intimacies of global history through the lens of Ottoman imperialism and inter-imperial competition in Central and Northeastern Africa, Southwest Asia, and Southeastern Europe, with a focus on archival sources from the Global South.
Minawi is the author of The Ottoman Scramble for Africa: Empire and Diplomacy from the Sahara to the Hijaz (Stanford University Press, 2016) and Losing Istanbul: Arab-Ottoman Imperialists and the End of Empire (Stanford University Press, 2022), which was co-awarded the Albert Hourani Book Prize. His work spans international law, late 19th-century imperialism, and microhistory, and has been supported by fellowships in Turkey, Lebanon, Germany, and the United States. He has taught in the United States, South Korea, and Lebanon, and is currently working on his third monograph, The Global History of a Roof Top in Jerusalem at the Turn of the Twentieth Century: The Geopolitics of Imperialism from Palestine to the Horn of Africa.
During his fellowship at #IAS_NUQ, Minawi will work on a chapter examining Italian-Ethiopian-Ottoman relations between 1885 and 1914, linking politics of religious protection in Jerusalem to imperial dynamics in the Horn of Africa.
DATE
Wednesday, September 17, 2025
TIME
1:00 p.m. – 2:15 p.m.
LOCATION
Room 1-300
