Graf T (2025)
Publication Language: English
Publication Type: Book chapter / Article in edited volumes
Publication year: 2025
Publisher: Berghahn
Edited Volumes: Encountering the Global in Early Modern Germany: Microhistories of Mobility, Materiality, and Belonging
City/Town: New York
Pages Range: 155-175
ISBN: 978-1-80539-873-8
URI: https://www.berghahnbooks.com/downloads/OpenAccess/BraunerEncountering/BraunerEncountering_07.pdf
Open Access Link: https://www.berghahnbooks.com/downloads/OpenAccess/BraunerEncountering/BraunerEncountering_07.pdf
Between November 1778 and July 1779, the Free Imperial City of Nuremberg hosted the prince of Palestine Joseph Abaisi (Yūsuf Ḥubaysh). Contrary to what one might expect, we know about his visit not because of the reverence which this ostensibly eminent dignitary received from the city’s leaders, but because his conduct soon got him into so much trouble that the authorities felt it necessary to intervene to maintain peace and order. For Abaisi had overstayed his welcome, run into debt, and was accused of engaging in illegal gambling. The documentation produced by these proceedings allow a rare glimpse into the everyday activities and local interactions of an ‘Arabian prince’, a particular type of migrant to eighteenth-century Europe who, even though their numbers were modest, elicited much fascination and comment from contemporaries. At the same time, Abaisi’s case illuminates how Nuremberg as well as other German authorities more generally dealt with the presence of non-European foreigners. Abaisi’s example is not only a classic case of the ‘exceptional normal’, but also a useful reminder of how relatively normal the presence of seemingly exceptional foreigners was in the Holy Roman Empire, requiring German governments and administrators to not only acknowledge it, but to also find ways of dealing with the everyday consequences arising from it.
APA:
Graf, T. (2025). Encountering the Middle East in Early Modern Germany: A Prince of Palestine in Nuremberg, 1778–79. In Christina Brauner, Renate Dürr, Philip Hahn, Anne Sophie Overkamp, Simon Siemianowski (Eds.), Encountering the Global in Early Modern Germany: Microhistories of Mobility, Materiality, and Belonging. (pp. 155-175). New York: Berghahn.
MLA:
Graf, Tobias. "Encountering the Middle East in Early Modern Germany: A Prince of Palestine in Nuremberg, 1778–79." Encountering the Global in Early Modern Germany: Microhistories of Mobility, Materiality, and Belonging. Ed. Christina Brauner, Renate Dürr, Philip Hahn, Anne Sophie Overkamp, Simon Siemianowski, New York: Berghahn, 2025. 155-175.
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