Profile

Sarah Büssow researches and teaches on the cultural history of the modern Middle East. After two years of parental leave, she has been working as a research assistant in the ERC project “Late Ottoman Palestinians (LOOP)” since 2022. Previously, she was a research associate in the project "Gaza during the Late Ottoman Period", first at the Eberhard Karls University in Tübingen (2016-2018), then at the Center for Mediterranean Studies at the Ruhr University Bochum (2018-2020), where she also was curator of the exhibition “Gaza 1900”. Between 2008 and 2012 she worked as research associate at the Collaborative Research Center “Difference and Integration” at the Universities of Halle and Leipzig. She obtained a PhD in Islamic studies in Halle in 2014 on the subject of symbolic communication between Bedouins and Mamluks in the 14th century. Sarah Büssow is also the mother of four wonderful, wild children (born 2012, 2014, 2020, and 2021).

Research Interests

Social and cultural history; historical semantics; late Ottoman Palestine; Bedouins; migration; women, children, life cycles and generations in history

Projects

Research on families and households, life cycles, migration, and poverty in the framework of the ERC-funded research project “Late Ottoman Palestinians (LOOP)” (funded until 2027).

Publications

“Structural Portraits of Elite Households in Gaza, c. 1900: Strategies and Patterns of Cooperation”, in Yuval Ben-Bassat / Johann Büssow (eds.), From the Household to the Wider World: Local Perspectives on Urban Institutions in Ottoman Bilad al-Sham during the Transformations of the Long 19th Century, Tübingen: Tübingen University Press, 2022 pp. 47-64.

“Domestic Workers and Slaves in Late Ottoman Palestine at the Moment of the Abolition of Slavery: Considerations on Semantics and Agency”, in Stephan Conermann/Gül Sen (eds.), Slaves and Slave Agency in the Ottoman Empire, Göttingen: V&R Unipress Bonn University Press, 2020, pp. 373-433 (with Johann Büssow).

“Amīr al-ʿarab”, in Encyclopaedia of Islam Three, Leiden: Brill, 2019.

“Fanāʾand fasād: Perceptions and Concepts of Crises and Disasters in Fourteenth-Century Egypt”, in Gerrit Jasper Schenk (ed.), Disasters, Risks and Cultures. A Comparative and Transcultural Survey of Historical Disaster Experiences between Asia and Europe, Heidelberg: Springer, 2017, pp. 81-91.

“Speech to the Former French Prime Minister Joseph Caillaux on the Occasion of His Stay in Beirut in May 1912, Written by Members of the Masonic Lodge Le Liban (Lebanon, 1912)”, in Stefan Reichmuth et al. (eds.), Religious Dynamics under the Impact of Imperialism and Colonialism. A Sourcebook, Leiden: Brill, 2016, pp. 461-471.

Die Beduinen der Mamluken: Beduinen im politischen Leben Ägyptens im 8./14. Jahrhundert, Wiesbaden 2016.

„Reichtum“ in: ABC des Nomadischen. Hamburg: Museum für Völkerkunde, 2011, p. 174.

„Getreide und Brot“, in ABC des Nomadischen. Hamburg: Museum für Völkerkunde, 2011, p. 80 (with Annegret Nippa).

“Rules of Communication and Politics between Bedouin and Mamluk Elites in Egypt: The Case of the al-Aḥdab Revolt, c. 1353”, in Eurasian Studies, IX/1-2 (2011), pp. 65-102.

„Der Schwarze Tod in Ägypten. Strategien der Krisenbewältigung bei nomadischen und sesshaften Bevölkerungsgruppen im 14. und 15. Jahrhundert“, in Patrick Masius, Jana Sprenger, Eva Mackowiak (Hgg.), Katastrophen machen Geschichte. Umweltgeschichtliche Prozesse im Spannungsfeld von Ressourcennutzung und Extremereignis, Göttingen: Universitätsverlag Göttingen, 2010, pp. 47-62.

„Kreuzzüge als Teil des Feldzugs gegen die Welt des Islams“, in Stefan Leder (ed.), Feinde – Fremde – Freunde. Die Kreuzfahrer aus orientalischer Sicht. Halle: Zentrum für Interdisziplinäre Regionalstudien (ZIRS) der Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg, 2005 (Orientwissenschaftliche Hefte 19), pp. 23–28 (with Stefan Leder). Begleitheft zur Ausstellung „Saladin und die Kreuzfahrer“, Landesmuseum für Vorgeschichte, Halle 2005-2006.

„Zwischen Mut und Ehrgefühl. Frauen bei den Kreuzzügen“, in Stefan Leder (ed.), Feinde – Fremde – Freunde. Die Kreuzfahrer aus orientalischer Sicht. Halle: Zentrum für Interdisziplinäre Regionalstudien (ZIRS) der Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg,2005 (Orientwissenschaftliche Hefte 19), pp. 67–76. Begleitheft zur Ausstellung „Saladin und die Kreuzfahrer“, Landesmuseum für Vorgeschichte, Halle 2005-2006.

Select Presentations and Conference Papers

February 2020, Gaza um 1900. Provinzstadt - Verflechtungsgeschichten - Kommunikation und Wahrnehmungen (Gaza around 1900. Provincial town, entangled history, communication and perceptions). Centrum für Nah- und Mittelost-Studien Marburg, Universität Marburg.

February 2019, (together with Yuval Ben-Bassat and Johann Büssow), “‘Why did you make me love you?’ (Forced) Migration of Domestics in the late Ottoman Empire: Cases from Late Ottoman Palestine”. International Workshop Narrations and Narratives of Migrations in the Eastern Mediterranean, Ruhr-Universität Bochum.

October 2018, (together with Johann Büssow), Urban Governance, Families and Households in Late Ottoman Jerusalem and Gaza. International Conference Opening Open Jerusalem: Tracing Historical Paths through the Jerusalem Archives Digital Platform, Ca’ Foscari, University of Venice.

June 2018, (together with Johann Büssow) “Domestic Servants in Late Ottoman Palestine After the Abolition of Slavery: First Considerations on Semantics and Agency”.      International Conference New Perspectives on Slavery: The Ottoman Empire, Universität Bonn.

October 2016, (together with Johann Büssow) “Conflict Management in German Consular Records from Late Ottoman Palestine (1868-1917)”. International Conference Along the Balkan Route. Refugees and Minorities in South-Eastern Europe and the Middle East, Universität Tübingen.

April 2011, Rules of Communication between Bedouin and Mamluk Elites: The Case of the Ahdab Revolt, c. 1353. Internationale Konferenz Egypt and Syria under Mamluk Rule: Political, Social and Cultural Aspects, University of Haifa.

Exhibition

Sarah Büssow was curator of the exhibition “Gaza 1900 – eine Stadt des östlichen Mittelmeeres im Umbruch / Gaza 1900 – a city of the eastern Mediterranean in transition“, Haus der Archäologien, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, 5 Juli – 31 October 2019.