By the early twentieth century, there were close to two hundred American missionaries working in the Middle East and Eastern Europe. They came in droves as early as 1830, organizing hundreds of schools, hospitals, printing presses, and seminaries. Until now, the missionaries’ sources and perspectives have dominated discussions of this moment in history, but the experiences of the Ottoman authorities are just as, if not more, revealing of an increasingly tense relationship between Christianity and Islam. An enthralling narrative of how locals made sense of American religious activity in the Ottoman Empire, Faithful Encounters examines the relation- ships between the authorities who managed the empire from the capital city of Istanbul, provincial agents who carried out the capital’s orders, and the missionaries who engaged with them. Exploring a wide range of untapped sources – from imperial ministries, security forces, and local petitions to international reports and missionary collections – Emrah Şahin traces the interactions of the Ottoman authorities, focusing on the viewpoints and manoeuvres they adopted to monitor the missionary presence at a time of turbulent public and political upheaval. Offering a comparative context from which to reconsider recent cultural relations in the region, Faithful Encounters is not only a history of Christian and Muslim relations. It is a lesson about a failing mission in a failing empire, with stunning relevance to the looming religious and ethnic crises of today. Emrah Şahin is a lecturer at the University of Florida. During the first six decades of the twentieth century, when the majority of present-day Kenya was under the control of the British Empire, many secular newspapers emerged as the products of tensions between Asian and European immigrants, the British administration, and the African petite bourgeoisie. In Pressing Interests Phoebe Musandu shows that, far from expressions of public opinion or vehicles of a free market, these periodicals served as powerful tools for the colonial government and the elite to shape political and economic conditions in their favour. Following the development of the most important newspapers established in colonial Kenya as they evolved to reflect the priorities and ambitions of their owners, investors, publishers, journalists, and editors, Pressing Interests explores the roles and contributions of the press in the country’s political and economic history. Shedding light on newspapers as business ventures, Musandu focuses on the management, financial, and production aspects of media. Drawing on previously unearthed archival documents, official and un- official correspondence, police and legal records, and the newspapers them- selves, she further examines the press as a medium for inter- and intra-racial competition for power and influence, as a base for the production of knowl- edge, and as an instrument for social control. In an era when we are often reminded of the power inherent in the ability to generate and disseminate information, Pressing Interests tells the story of colonial Kenya’s press through a timely mix of riveting accounts and the clarifying lens of careful analysis. Phoebe Musandu is assistant professor at Georgetown University in Qatar’s School of Foreign Service. 3 2 M Q U P F A L L 2 0 1 8 S P E C I F I C AT I O N S October 2018 -i2l9lii87l7S72l9ZZu8cn-7vZbmU4Zu8cn-7vZA64ZgcSn--ZZ3o3as -i2l9lii87l7S7il8ZZu,c9n996ZbmU4Zu,c9n996ZA64Zg-cn99ZZ150r$ hZBZ-ZZ8h233ZZ a:00£ZoDot5oT5a S P E C I F I C AT I O N S P1wt55l@daapO.Z6rdCta.ZtpZr$aZQt.r0sfZ0)ZFa5txt0p October 2018 -i2l9lii87l7ShcliZZu8Sn-7vZbmU4Zu8Sn-7vZA64Zgchn--ZZ3o3as -i2l9lii87l7Sh,l9ZZu,,9n996ZbmU4Zu,,9n996ZA64Zg2Sn99ZZ150r$ hZBZ-ZZchS33ZZ,Zko34Z7Z3$0r0. a:00£ZoDot5oT5a Faithful Encounters Authorities and American Missionaries in the Ottoman Empire emrah Şahin A riveting and timely narrative of how Muslim authorities treated Christian missionaries in the final age of the Ottoman Empire. Pressing Interests The Agenda and Influence of a Colonial East African Newspaper Sector phoebe musandu The first extended history of colonial Kenya’s press, 1899–1960s. H I S T O R Y • M I D D L E E A S T E R N / I S L A M I C S T U D I E S A F R I C A N H I S T O R Y • C O M M U N I C AT I O N S T U D I E S