Travelling Substances and Their Human Carriers: Hashish-Trafficking in Mandatory Palestine

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Abstract

It is a known fact that the sale and consumption of drugs (opium and to a lesser extent cannabis) was widespread in the Ottoman Empire and did not elicit repressive measures such as those adopted against wine, coffee and tobacco. Not unlike European rulers and statesmen of their time, Ottoman sultans indulged in the pleasure of opium, which was also consumed by various Sufi orders in their rituals and ceremonies. These recreational and devotional practices were by no means confined to the upper echelons of the Ottoman state, however. Indeed, European and Ottoman travelers from the fifteenth century onward regularly reported on the proclivity of ordinary ‘Turks’ to consume humongous quantities of opium, similar to the situation that prevailed in Europe from the fifteenth to the mid-eighteenth century....
Original languageAmerican English
Title of host publicationA Global Middle East
Subtitle of host publicationMobility, Materiality and Culture in the Modern Age, 1880-1940
EditorsLiat Kozma, Cyrus Schayegh, Avner Wishnitzer
Pages201-228
Number of pages28
ISBN (Electronic)9780755608782
DOIs
StatePublished - Dec 2014

RAMBI publications

  • rambi
  • Drug traffic -- Eretz Israel
  • Eretz Israel -- History -- 1917-1948, British Mandate period
  • Hashish -- Eretz Israel

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