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it is customary in the writing of Middle East history to start the modern era with Napoleon invading Egypt in 1798

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this issued in a long period of rapid and radical change

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but there is an assumption that the beginning Middle East history with Napoleon's invasion of Egypt

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that the modern era was created through European influence and supremacy on an era that is in decline and stagnant

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Benedetto Croce: history is always writing about contemporary history

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all history is written from the point of view of the present and as the present changes all the time, with the changes of the present, we have a changing view of the past, and our ideas about the past and the way we write about the past, change all the time

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thesis of decline

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since mid-16th century, the Ottoman Empire was in a 350-year linear decline

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the empire did not expand after Suleiman

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the empire was in constant retreat in terms of territory ever since the first defeat at Vienna in 1529

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the empire weakened over the centuries in comparison to Northern and Western Europe

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but far less in comparison to Southern Europe and Russia

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the second defeat at Vienna in 1683 ushered in a second wave of territorial contraction

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however, some defeats dealt to the Russians in 1711 in Moldova

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Middle East as stagnant society

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the "sick man of Europe"

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however, continued to enjoy unquestioned Islamic legitimacy

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even when rebellions brought down the ruling Sultan, the legitimacy of the empire remained intact

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this remained true until the rise of ideas of nationalism in the last 19th and early 20th centuries

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resurrected only by Western enlightenment

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difficulties faced by the Ottoman Empire in the 19th century

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territorial losses as exemplified by the Napoleonic invasion of Egypt

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Nationalist uprisings in the Balkans

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e.g. the Greeks, the Serbs, the Bulgarians who gradually throughout the 19th century broke away from the Ottoman Empire

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Western advance and advantage

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progress of science and technology was clearly superior than that in the Ottoman Empire

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but in 1878, the Ottoman Empire was still large, from Yemen to Libya to Turkey

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many rebellions were a sign of weakness

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Ottoman Empire in the 17th century

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growing decentralization

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rising social classes

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some argue this was an indication of a decline of the empire

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some argue that this was not a sign of decline

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to say that Napoleon is the beginning of the Modern Era in the Middle East is too simplistic

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the European input added great momentum to a process that had already begun

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some even say that Napoleon interrupted a local process of modernization

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no one has offered an alternative periodization

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the way to express the Middle East modern era now is:

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the Napoleonic phase was a key to a new period of rapid change, but one that added a quantum leap forward to an already ongoing process

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the colonial interaction, with all its obvious negatives, created an unprecedented measure of rapid change in economics, politics, and in the sphere of ideas and the erosion of tradition

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"ideas are more dangerous than occupation since ideas will erode beliefs and traditions, while occupation will come and go"