The application of the Ottoman iskan policy in Syria: Salamiyya and its Ismaʿili population

n 1851, a group of Ottoman regional officials and leaders of the Hajjawi Ismaʿili community from Latakia assembled outside the fort of Salamiyya to launch an ambitious programme of resettlement of the city. The Ismaʿilis would settle in Salamiyya, re-establishing agriculture around the city and defending it from the attacks by tribes moving up from the Arabian Peninsula. This article presents for the first time the text and an analysis of the documents that established this project within the Ottoman iskan (settlement) policy, which settled various populations in abandoned and contested spaces throughout the empire, and highlights its significance for understanding the history of the Ismaʿili community in Syria and of Ottoman influence in shaping the region.