The author of numerous books, including The Arabs and the internationally bestselling The Fall of the Ottomans, Rogan is the recipient of the Albert Hourani Prize.
He applied the "Page 99 Test" to his new book, The Damascus Events: The 1860 Massacre and the Making of the Modern Middle East, and reported the following:
On page 99, readers find a biography of the Algerian Amir `Abd al-Qadir – a man I identify as ‘the world’s most famous Arab’ of the mid-nineteenth century. In 1832, `Abd al-Qadir emerged as the leader of Algerian resistance to the French occupation of their country. His guerrilla war attracted headlines in Europe and America. The New York Times compared the Algerian commander to Haitian revolutionary Toussaint Louverture (1743-1803) who stood up against Napoleonic France. `Abd al-Qadir fought for fifteen years before finally surrendering in 1847. After five years in French jails, `Abd al-Qadir was given his freedom in return for a vow never to return to his native Algeria. He went into exile in the Ottoman Empire, ultimately settling in Damascus in 1855, where he was to play a key role in the 1860 Damascus Events.Learn more about The Damascus Events at the Basic Books website.
Readers alighting on page 99 would get a better sense of the style than the content of the book. In writing The Damascus Events, I enjoyed the chance of developing a rich cast of characters who remain with the book to the end. These were men whose lives intersected in the streets of Damascus as well as in their writings at the time. I give all the biographical detail the sources reveal for each of the main characters. I even managed to source three photographic portraits of key characters, `Abd al-Qadir among them. Yet by taking readers to Algeria, they are far from the main theatre of the book, which is Damascus – a city not mentioned on page 99.
`Abd al-Qadir would prove central to the Damascus Events. Changes in society and economy between the 1830s and 1850s raised deepening tensions between the Muslim majority who found their position threatened by an ascendant Christian minority. `Abd al-Qadir was one of the few to recognize the volatility threatened violence. He armed 1200 Algerian veterans who had joined him in exile in Damascus. When murderous riots erupted in July 1860, `Abd al-Qadir deployed his troops to rescue Christians from the mob. It was largely due to his efforts that 85 percent of the Christian community survived the violence. For his heroism, `Abd al-Qadir was decorated with medals from the courts of Europe. American President Abraham Lincoln sent the Algerian a brace of pistols. `Abd al-Qadir was to live out his days in Damascus where he died in 1883. He would be resting there still had the government of independent Algeria not exhumed his remains for burial in Algiers as a national hero.
--Marshal Zeringue
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