The simple story of my life recounts that I studied at the Reali School in Haifa majoring in subjects that centered on Arabic and Islam even before this was called a Middle Eastern major. When I began my studies at the Hebrew University Jerusalem I naturally gravitated to the “Department of History of the Muslim Countries” and “Arabic Language and Literature”. By the time I started my M.A. studies I changed my focus slightly and specialized in the History of the Ottoman Empire and Modern Turkey.
I was granted a fellowship at Ankara University and inspired by my mentor, Prof. Uriel Heyd, I began my research on the beginnings of Turkish nationalism which I completed at the University of California at Los Angeles. My return home was fortuitous when in 1968 Prof. Gabriel Warburg and I became the first local faculty members to be appointed to the Department of History of the Muslim Countries at the new University of Haifa.
From then onwards and over the years until my retirement I pursued the normal track in academia—teaching, research, and writing. At various times I took part in professional conferences, spent sabbaticals abroad, and held administrative positions at the University and in the Department. I taught a variety of courses in the Department among which were those on the History of the Ottoman Empire and Turkey and supervised students. I served as the Head of the Department, the Academic Head of the Jezreel Valley College (the former Ohel Sarah), and as the Dean of the Faculty of Humanities. From 2001-2003 I served as the Director of the Israeli Academic Center in Cairo.
My research focused on three main topics reflected in my publications, books and articles.
1. “Trends of Thought in Modern Turkey with an Emphasis on Nationalism”. I tried to show, on the basis of historical publications and the press, that the idea of ethnic nationalism reached the Turks of the Ottoman Empire early and was instrumental in laying the groundwork for Kemalist ideology. The Rise of Turkish Nationalism, 1876-1908, London 1977.
2. “ The Position of the Ulema vis a vis the Westernization Movement in the Ottoman Empire in the Nineteenth Century.” It appears that they benefitted from it in no small measure—which might explain their accommodation to westernizing reforms. “The place of the ulema in the Ottoman Empire during the age of reform (1839-1918”, Turcica, no. 20 (1988), pp. 51-74.
3. “The Ottoman Government and Administration in Palestine at the End of the Ottoman Period.” Ottoman views and practices and their contribution to the modernization in Palestine of the nineteenth century. To Be Governor of Jerusalem: The City and District During the Time of Ali Ekrem Bey, 1906-1908, Istanbul 2005.
Today I am working on Acre and its district in the nineteenth century. Preliminary conclusions appear in an article in Cathedra, no. 170, December 2018, pp. 33-62.