The Suez Canal and the Ottoman Empire

This article analyzes Faruk Bilici's Le canal de Suez et l'Empire ottoman, a volume that examines the establishment of the Suez Canal. The opening of the Suez Canal in Egypt under Ottoman rule is considered one of the most critical events in the modern history of the Middle East. Still, the current literature reduces its significance due to political and commercial competition between England and France on the canal. Faruk Bilici's book is concrete evidence that this perspective needs to change. One of the most important contributions of the study to the literature is that it shows how useful Ottoman archive sources can be in the research to comprehend the establishment of the Suez Canal.