Al-Jamʿiyya of Nablus: An Early Form of Islamism in Late Ottoman Palestine

This paper examines al-Jamʿiyya of Nablus as an early form of provincial Islamism in late Ottoman Palestine during the Hamidian era (1878–1908). While scholarship often locates the origins of Islamism in the interwar period, the paper argues that a proto-form of organized Islamic political activism emerged earlier within Ottoman frameworks. Drawing on local chronicles, missionary archives, and Ottoman administrative records, it shows how al-Jamʿiyya, a local association of religious scholars and urban notables, mobilized religious authority, anti-missionary activism, and loyalty to Sultan Abdulhamid II. The association petitioned against a British missionary hospital and mobilized resources to establish a rival “Islamic Hospital,” framing its actions in explicitly Islamic terms. During the 1908–1909 constitutional crisis, its members publicly defended the sultan through a discourse of sharia, obedience, and caliphal sovereignty. The case demonstrates how provincial actors translated Hamidian pan-Islamism into local institutional activism, revealing Islamism as a defense of Ottoman Islamic order.