{'fraction_non_alphanumeric': 0.021727322107550243, 'fraction_numerical': 0.005431830526887561, 'mean_word_length': 5.26530612244898, 'pattern_counts': {'":': 0, '<': 0, '<?xml version=': 0, '>': 0, 'https://': 0, 'lorem ipsum': 0, 'www.': 0, 'xml': 0}, 'pii_count': 0, 'substrings_counts': 0, 'word_list_counts': {'cursed_substrings.json': 0, 'profanity_word_list.json': 0, 'sexual_word_list.json': 0, 'zh_pornsignals.json': 0}}
The State and the City, the State in the City: Another Look at Citadinité

At the core of this volume and the ambitious collective research project to which it belongs, the notion of citadinité calls for a new approach to the history of Jerusalem from 1840 to 1940. The localization and analysis of a wide range of archival sources aim to shed light on the institutions, actors, and practices that shaped the city throughout the period and defined its complex identity. The comprehensive collection of archives gathered for the project makes it possible to explore the connections and tensions between the polyphonic – not to say cacophonic – narratives that have accumulated for more than a century and to make room for forgotten voices. Beyond that, the combination of state, municipal, community, and private documents offers exceptional insight into the functioning of different institutions and groups settled in the city, and their interactions, both in everyday life and under exceptional circumstances. Despite being a city of its own, Jerusalem can be studied in a comparative perspective. This approach, in return, contributes to a broader conceptualization of citadinité. In this light, the current chapter discusses one aspect of the “documentary archipelago” available to scholars working in Mediterranean, Ottoman, and/or colonial cities: the presence of the state and its role in the construction of urban identities at the turn of the twentieth century.1 For several decades now, the historiography of Ottoman cities has been profoundly renewed. Reacting against the Weberian conceptualization of the Islamic city, historians of late Ottoman Arab, Anatolian, and Balkan cities have emphasized the political, social, economic, and cultural changes these cities underwent in the nineteenth century.2 Among them, the creation of