Saïda à l'époque des agha-s : La famille Hammud et l'État ottoman au XVIIIe siècle (original) (raw)

Saïda à l'époque des agha-s : La famille Hammud et l'État ottoman au XVIIIe siècle

Archivum Ottomanicum 37 (2020), 219-242.

This article traces the career of the Hammud family of Sayda (Lebanon) as Ottoman functionaries in the eighteenth century. Beginning with the myth of their Maghrebi origins and migration to south-western Syria, it examines, on the basis of Ottoman administrative documents from Istanbul, Sayda, Tripoli and Damascus, their adoption of the “agha” title and induction into the ayan class of provincial notables. It focuses primarily on their ties to the rural hinterland and monopolisation of the local cotton trade, but also on their control of the Sayda customs house and credit ties with French merchants. Arguing that their heavy indebtedness in the middle of the eighteenth century actually marked them as one of the most important notable households in the region, it furthermore explores their ties to various Ottoman figures and institutions in Istanbul, then analyzes their progressive “civilianization” as they become increasingly identified with the newly-created fiscal office of “Arabi Katibi” (Arab secretary) in the second half of the century. Ending with their eviction from Sayda in the wake of the Shiite occupation of the city in 1771, it suggests that their rise and fall as local aghas is illustrative of the evolving rapport between Ottoman provincial society and the central state at the cusp of the modern era.