Reading the pains of civilization through memoirs and letters (Syria and Philistine landscapes: 1895-1918)

This study, through memoirs and letters, deals with the civilization imaginations that emerged on the ground of a geography belonging to the Syria-Palestine region. Syria and Palestine had existed as Ottoman territory until the defeat in the First World War. However, at the beginning of the 20th century, political developments in this geography accelerated the emergence of new tests, and the idea of "rupture" caused by long and periodic attacks separated these lands from the main geography. It can also be said that this geographical rupture led to a split in consciousness that should be considered at least as important. It has been observed that the issue of civilizational imagination and transformation, which was among the most debated topics in the new fiction of the century, was widely covered in the memoirs and letters of that period. In this study, the reasons that caused the Ottoman Empire to lose its dominance in Syria and Palestine, the ways in which Europe increased its dominance in the region, the general picture of the level of consciousness and awareness of the local people who were left alone with Western civilization in the midst of negligence, complacency and disorder in the administration, and the nationalist ideas that found the opportunity to manifest in the people with the weakening of the unifying elements of Islamic civilization are discussed through nine writers who were familiar with the geography in question due to situations such as duty or travel. A new imaginary that highlights separation from the common civilizational vision as the sole agenda is presented with its historical, cultural, literary and intellectual contexts around a selected cadre of authors, different justifications and topics. In this framework, the thesis invites us to discuss the accelerating debates on Syria and Palestine through literary records. Key Words: Literature, Palestine, memoir, letter, Syria, Middle East.