Protestants, Gender and the Arab Renaissance in Late Ottoman Syria

Published by Edinburgh University Press in 2019, this scholarly work emerged from the intersection of Middle Eastern studies and religious history. Deanna Ferree Womack explores the transformative period of the Nahda, or Arab Renaissance, during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in Ottoman Syria. The book specifically examines how Protestant missions influenced and were shaped by shifting gender roles and educational movements within Arab Christian and Muslim communities.

Womack utilizes extensive archival research, including correspondence and institutional records, to document the contributions of both foreign missionaries and local intellectuals to the intellectual climate of the era. The design and narrative approach reflect a rigorous academic effort to move beyond monolithic interpretations of colonial history, instead focusing on the nuanced exchanges that defined the social and intellectual fabric of the Levant prior to the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire.