The Ottoman-Italian War of 1911-12: Conflict and Consequences

A British Institute at Ankara-Society of Libyan Studies Joint Online Lecture by Benjamin Fortna (University of Arizona).

Tuesday 26 October 2021 | 17:00-19:00 (London UTC+1) | 19:00-21:00 (Ankara UTC+3)

This lecture will reflect on the Ottoman-Italian War in North Africa of 1911-12 in light of its consequences for the Ottoman Empire and the wider Islamic world. Although the Ottomans had to abandon the fight against the Italians due to the Balkan Wars, the “Trablusgarb War” had consequences that reached well beyond the relatively short duration of the conflict.

Benjamin C. Fortna is Professor and Director of the School of Middle Eastern and North African Studies at the University of Arizona and formerly Professor of the History of the Middle East, SOAS, University of London.  His research focuses on the history of the late Ottoman Empire and the early Turkish Republic. His publications include The Circassian: A Life of Eşref Bey, Late Ottoman Insurgent and Special Agent (Hurst and Oxford University Press, 2016), Childhood in the Late Ottoman Empire and After, ed. (Brill, 2016), Learning to Read in the Late Ottoman Empire and the Early Turkish Republic (Palgrave Macmillan, 2010), and Imperial Classroom: Islam, Education and the State in the Late Ottoman Empire (Oxford University Press, 2002).