Libyan Provincialization and the Invention of Ottoman Africa

This article reinterprets Ottoman provincialization in the Libyan Sahara in the mid-nineteenth century. Adopting a geopolitical economy perspective, I argue this unsung region became the pilot province for development initiatives subsequently pursued across the Ottoman domains. Representing the convergent interests of transnational finance, local entrepreneurs, and reformist bureaucrats, such initiatives enabled the imaginative constitution of “Ottoman Africa”.