Arabs III

1517-1650 CE

From 1517 to 1650 CE, the Arabs discovered that Ottoman conquest was not liberation — Selim's victory over the Mamluks brought Mecca and Medina under Turkish protection, but Arab provinces became backwaters administered by Ottoman pashas, their proud cities reduced to provincial towns. The Sharifs of Mecca kept ceremonial dignity; Bedouin tribes ignored distant Constantinople; but the age when Arabs had commanded empires faded into nostalgic memory.