Fin de Sie cle Beirut is a landmark contribution to the growing literature on Ottoman studies, Arab cultural history, and Mediterranean cities. Combining urban theory with postcolonial methodology, Jens Hanssen argues that modern Beirut is the outcome of persistent social and intellectual struggles over the production of space. Drawing on published and unpublished Ottoman government documents, Arabic sources, and European archival material, Hanssen traces the urban experience of modernity in the Ottoman Empire.