Dr. Yener Koç’s book chapter has been published by Koç University Press!

The chapter titled “Sheep Farming and Trade in the Ottoman East (1860-1914): Actors, Networks, and Patterns” wirtten by our faculty member Dr. Yener Koç, for the book “Animals on the Move Tracing Livestock in the Ottoman Empire Farm to Table to Waste” has been published by Koç University Press!

 

Abstract

This article traces the development of the interregional sheep market in eastern Anatolia, northern Iraq, and Syria during the last quarter of the nine- teenth and early twentieth centuries. By focusing on merchant petitions as well as other archival sources, it discusses the circumstances that paved the way for its emergence and development, the actors involved, and the risks and difficul- ties that it entailed. it argues that despite involving several obstacles and risks— such as large-scale thefts, informal tribal “taxes,” frequent animal diseases, and credit shortages—the lucrativeness of the sheep trade attracted merchants as well as other local and foreign actors to participate in this economic activity.