FALL 1999
HISTORY 300-605
T:
6:00-8:30—LT-912
ARAB-ISRAELI
CONFLICT
Zouhair Ghazzal
LT-926:
T: 5:30-6:00
voice/fax: (312)
803-0532
This course would like
to depart from the traditional and officially established view which sees the
Arab-Israeli conflict solely in terms of the struggle for land, its resources,
and its people. Based on a set of historical, anthropological, and sociological
readings, the course is structured on the notion of “territory” as
a set of mental and social representations that shape practices of the Self and
the Other; and, with a particular focus on Israeli society since 1948, these
images are analyzed in the way they shape the Self-Other perceptions in
everyday life (role of religion, gender divisions, the different perceptions of
Judaism, etc.) on the one hand, and in major political and historical events
such as the role of the state and the military, and the various Arab-Israeli
wars on the other. The aim is to critically examine the various socio-historical
representations of the Self and the Other—which, in the final analysis,
form the web of power-relations within these societies and between the parties of the
conflict—which have been established since the late nineteenth century
and to see how they evolved and affected the conflict until the present day.
The history of the
conflict could very roughly be divided into the following time periods.
• ottoman period. In the last century, and
since 1516, the entity now known as “Palestine” or “Israel”
was under Ottoman rule: it was one of the “Provinces” of the
Ottoman Empire until its dismantlement after the First World War.
“Minorities” of the empire, such as the Armenians, Christians, and
Jews, enjoyed a special status under what was known as the millet system. Basically this
meant having “minority” groups enjoying their own status with their
religious leaders or other notables “representing” them
vis-à-vis the Ottoman bureaucracy and in tax-collecting; they were not
subject to conscription and could not be recruited to official bureaucratic
positions (unless they converted to Islam); they were quite often subjected to
special taxes in lieu of their conscription; and they had, within each city of
the empire, their own neighborhoods, hâras, which were usually
protected by “gates” and closed at night.
Ottoman
Palestine shared the same basic social and economic structures with the rest of
the empire’s provinces. This meant that the Jews had their own
neighborhoods and even, according to some accounts, their own courts and
judicial system as well based on ancient Rabbinic laws. By all accounts, the
Jews were only, from a purely statistical perspective, a minority in Ottoman
Palestine, and this was probably true until 1914 when they counted no more than
80,000, compared to 555,000 as the lowest estimate usually given for the
Palestinian Arab population (Smith, 25).
The
percentage of Jews was even lower by the late nineteenth century. Things
started to change, at the benefit of the Jewish population, roughly in the
1880s when small numbers of Jews from the Russian and Austro-Hungarian Empires
began an immigration process to Ottoman Palestine as the result of
discriminatory policies in Eastern Europe in particular. By that time also, a
Zionist ideology claiming a “Jewish homeland” and crafted on the
model of the European nationalist ideologies of the nineteenth century, became
quite influential in Jewish circles in Eastern and central Europe. Some dates
are quite revealing here. In 1881, the Hibbat Zion, a Jewish
“nationalist” group, was founded in Russia. In 1896, Theodor Herzl,
an Austrian playwright and Journalist, regarded by many as the founder of the
modern Zionist movement, published his notorious Der Judenstaat (The State of the
Jews
and not The Jewish State as it is often mis-translated) in which the idea of a
“Jewish homeland” and “state” was promoted
systematically for the first time. It then became an “official”
notion, at least in Jewish circles, in 1897, when the World Zionist
Organization, founded at the first Zionist Congress in Basle, aimed at the
creation “for the Jewish people a home in Palestine secured by public
law.Ӡ (Earlier, an African
state, Uganda, was a first possibility for the “Jewish State.”)
This unusual location, however, was quickly dropped a few years later. And
finally, last but not least, the Balfour Declaration in November 1917 was the
first official statement by a key player in the region, the British Empire, in
recognizing the rights of the Jews for a “national homeland.” The
declaration did not dwell into the complex issue on how this
“homeland” would be established.
The Arab Palestinian population, its
notables, politicians, bureaucrats, and representatives, were, to say the
least, totally unprepared (at all levels) for such an event, that is, the
Jewish immigration to Palestine which became massive after World War I. While
the Jews were able to establish their own institutional organizations, thus
creating an unprecedented social and intellectual dynamism to their groups, the
Arab Palestinian population was still enmeshed in its Ottoman roots with a
system of notables as “political representatives.” The Arab
population thus lacked the “social dynamism” of Western societies
and the Palestinian élite was unprepared for and confused by the Jewish
immigration to Palestine. The Zionist national ideology modeled on European
political systems was outside the realm of the Palestinian élite still
part of the system of Ottoman politics. In short, they missed the boat. (Interestingly,
the non-indulgence of some Palestinian intellectuals in supporting the recent
peace-process repeats the fear in doing “something wrong” for a
second time in a century. What if they’re wrong again?)
• british mandate. As a result of the
dismantlement of the Ottoman Empire and the Sykes-Picot Agreement in May 1916,
Palestine and Iraq became, since 1920, part of the British Mandate system,
while Lebanon and Syria were under the French Mandate. The British Mandate
period in Palestine is characterized by an effort from the Arabs to curb the
Jewish immigration to Palestine while the Zionists did their best to go beyond
the limits imposed by the British. This led, in May 1939, to the official
proclamation known as the White Paper in which the British acknowledged that
the Balfour Declaration “could not have intended that Palestine should be
converted into a Jewish State against the will of the Arab population of the
country.” The Paper also permitted Jewish immigration at a maximum pace
of 15,000 yearly for five years (Smith, 104). The Mandate period was also
marked by a multitude of riots, terrorist and military acts (especially after
the establishment of the underground Zionist military organizations such as the
Hagana and Irgun), in addition to direct confrontations (in August 1929, 133
Jews and 116 Arabs were killed as a result of Muslim riots over claims to the
Wailing Wall access). All this led to the working out by commissions and later
by the United Nations of several partition plans (in July 1937, the Peel
Commission recommends partition; follows a U. N. partition plan in November
1947 which the Zionists accept and the Arabs reject) none of which was applied.
As a result of all these failures, and the inability of the British to satisfy
any of the two sides, the underground military group known as the Hagana took
the offensive in April 1948, following the British withdrawal from Palestine.
• the proclamation of the state of israel
on May 14, 1948 marks a new phase in the conflict. Prior to the proclamation,
the conflict was localized between various local Jewish and Arabs groups in
Palestine, and military or para-military underground Zionist organizations, on
the one hand, and between these groups and British administration on the other.
With the proclamation of the Israeli state, the conflict shall be transformed
into a regional inter-state conflict with the two super-powers taking sides
with the major players in the region (basically, the US shall become
Israel’s main arm supplier, especially after the French ceased to do so
after the 1967 six-day war, while the USSR shall supply arms to Syria, Egypt,
and Libya, among others). The period shall also be marked by five Arab-Israeli
wars, the crucial one being, of course, the six-day war in June 1967 when Israel
occupied the Syrian Golan Heights, the Jordanian West-Bank, and the Egyptian
Sinai Desert, including the Gaza Strip (which, since June 1994, is now under an
autonomous Palestinian administration).
• the first step towards peace took place
in September 1978 with the Camp David Agreements signed in Washington between
Egypt, Israel, and the US. Since then, several attempts have been made to
include other parties in the conflict in particular the Palestine Liberation
Organization (P.L.O.), and the Syrian, Lebanese, and Jordanian governments.
Fortunately, such efforts contributed in establishing, during the last year of
the Bush Administration, of the US sponsored peace-talks, a process that is
still at its very beginnings.
• the purpose of this course is to cover,
during the first three-four weeks of the semester, the historical roots of the
conflict as outlined above. The rest of the semester shall be divided into
themes, each theme focussing on a particular issue. We shall first explore the
origins and causes of the Palestinian refugee problem. On what basis have the
policies of pushing the Palestinians out of their own lands been established?
What are the ideological foundations of such exclusionist actions? Which
groups, institutions, and apparatuses were involved? Besides the historical and
political importance of a problem of this magnitude, there is also a moral and
ethical dimension attached to it: How justifiable is an exclusionist ideology
of the type propagated by the early Zionists? Are “nationalist”
ideologies exclusionist by definition? The same set of questions could be
applied to the policy of settlers and settlements, in particular in the
occupied West Bank.
We
shall also analyze how the Israeli society perceives itself in terms of the
ways it deals with problems immediately related to is Arab neighbors, or to the
past and present of the Jews (the Holocaust is here of particular interest), as
well as to particular issues related to the Israeli society.
GENERAL
There are weekly readings that you’re
expected to discuss collectively in class. Your participation is essential for
the success of the course. You might be also occasionally requested to prepare
a presentation on a chapter or book which are part of the weekly assignments. Class
presentations and discussions shall count as one-fifth of the total grade. Presentations should be improvised and 5
to 10 minutes long. Do not prepare a written presentation. The purpose of
presentations is to let you check on your readings and give you the opportunity
to perform and ask questions publicly. In addition to the routine weekly
presentations, students are requested, after submission of a first-draft, to
make a short presentation on their papers.
Besides
the two-draft research paper (see below the section on papers), you’re
expected to submit three interpretive essays. The final grade will be
calculated on the basis of one-fifth for the paper and one-fifth for each
interpretive essay. All interpretive essays are take-home. The purpose of the interpretative
essays is to give you the opportunity to go “beyond” the literal
meaning of the text and adopt interpretive and “textual”
techniques. A failing grade in all interpretive essays means also a failing
grade for the course, whatever your performance in the paper is. All essays
and papers must be submitted on time according to the deadlines set below. If
you’re absent from class for a deadline, you may e-mail your essay-paper
as an attached file in MS Word format, or fax it to the number above, or drop
it in my mailbox (CC-502, LT-910).
|
Class presentations & discussions,
and e-mail discussion list |
20% |
|
First Interpretive Essay |
20% |
|
Second Interpretive Essay |
20% |
|
Final Interpretive Essay |
20% |
|
Term Paper |
20% |
READINGS
• Weeks 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 & 6
(August 31, September 7, 14, 21, 28, October 5):
Charles Smith, Palestine and the
Arab-Israeli Conflict
(St. Martin’s, 1992);
Laqueur & Rubin, eds., The
Israel-Arab Reader
(Penguin, 1991).
Tuesday,
October 12, 1999: first interpretive
essay
• Weeks 7 & 8 (October 12 &
26):
Shlaim, Politics of Partition (Oxford).
Tuesday,
October 19: Mid-Semester Break
• Weeks 8 & 10 (November 2
& 9):
Shafir, Land, Labor and the Origins of
the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
(California).
Tuesday,
November 2: first draft deadline
• Weeks 11 & 12 (November 16
& 23):
Rabinowitz, Overlooking Nazareth (Cambridge).
Tuesday,
November 16: second interpretive essay
preliminary
presentation of first-drafts
• Week 13 (November 30):
Arendt, Eichmann in Jerusalem (Penguin).
• Week 14 (December 7):
Discussion
and presentation of term-papers
(if
you’re unable to meet for this last session, make an appointment:
you’ll not receive a grade unless you’ve completed a presentation
of your paper.)
Tuesday,
December 7: final draft deadline
Final interpretive essay is take-home
PAPERS
You are requested to
write one major research paper to be submitted during the last session,
Tuesday, December 7, 1999. You will have to submit, however, a first draft of
this paper on Tuesday, November 2, 1999. The first draft should be as complete
as possible and follow the same presentation and writing guidelines as your
final draft, but it won’t be graded. Only your final draft will count
as one-fifth of the total grade. The purpose of the first draft is to let you
assess your research and writing skills and improve the final version of your
paper. It is advisable that you choose a research topic and start preparing a
bibliography as soon as possible. I would strongly recommend that you consult
with me before making any final commitment. It would be preferable to keep the
same topic for both drafts. You will be allowed, however, after prior
consultation, to change your topic if you wish to do so.
You
may choose any topic related to the social, economic, political, and cultural
history of Islam, Judaism, and the Middle East. Papers should be analytical
and conceptual.
Avoid pure narratives and chronologies and construct your paper around a main
thesis.
Kate L. Turabian, A Manual for Writers of
Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations, 5th ed., Chicago: University of Chicago Press,
1987. Intended for students and other writers of papers not written for
publication. Useful material on notes and bibliographies.
Keep in mind the
following when preparing your preliminary and final drafts:
·
once
you’ve decided on a paper-topic and prepared a preliminary bibliography,
send an abstract and bibliography of your topic to the class-list
<h104h450-l@luc.edu> (see below). Your abstract should include: (i)
title; (ii) description; (iii) sources; (iv) methodology (e.g. suggestions on
how to read sources).
·
preliminary
drafts should be submitted on time, November 2. If you’re unable to
attend class that evening, drop your draft in my mailbox (LT-910, CC-502).
·
preliminary
drafts should be complete and include footnotes and an annotated bibliography.
·
do
not submit an outline as a first draft.
·
incomplete
and poorly written first drafts will not be accepted, and you’ll be
advised to revise your first draft completely.
·
if
you submit a single draft throughout the semester, you’ll receive X as a
final grade (WF on your transcript).
·
the
oral presentation is an essential aspect of your grade; if you can’t
attend the last session, request an appointment.
·
your
final draft should take into consideration all relevant comments provided on
your earlier draft.
·
if
you’re interested in comments on your final paper and interpretive essay,
request an appointment by e-mail.
Please use the following
guidelines regarding the format of your papers:
·
use
8x10 white paper (the size and color of this paper). Do not use legal size or
colored paper.
·
use
a typewriter, laser printer or a good inkjet printer and hand in the original.
·
only
type on one side of the paper.
·
should
be double spaced, with single spaced footnotes at the end of each page and an annotated
bibliography
at the end. (The bibliography that follows in the next section is annotated.)
·
keep
ample left and right margins for comments and corrections of at least 1.25
inches each.
·
all
pages should be numbered and stapled.
·
a
cover page should include the following: paper’s title, course number and
section, your name, address, e-mail, and telephone.
E-MAIL DISCUSSION LIST
An open e-mail
discussion list is available: each message—whether mine or from any student—will
reach anyone else on the list, so that every subscriber could directly write to
the list.
History
300: <H300-L@luc.edu>
The list
includes students from two History 300 courses, one on the Arab-Israeli
conflict, and the other on the history of legal systems.
The purpose of this
electronic listserv is to discuss issues relevant to both courses, and current
political and social matters as well. The focus, however, shall be primarily on
the readings themselves since they represent our primary source for dealing
with the complexities of these civilizations.
To join the list,
please send an e-mail message to:
listproc@luc.edu
and include as your
e-mail message (leaving the Subject: field blank, if possible):
subscribe
H300-L first-name last-name
e.g., Janine
Doe—you would type in:
subscribe
H300-L Janine Doe
GroupWise Users at
Loyola University Chicago: Please preface the 'listproc' address (or
subscription address) with 'internet:' in the To: field. For example:
To:
internet:listproc@luc.edu
Once you’ve
successfully subscribed (you’ll receive a confirmation message with
instructions), send all messages to the list’s address:
H300-L@luc.edu
Your message will be
automatically forwarded to all the list’s subscribers. You should also receive
a duplicate of your own message.
To unsubscribe send an
e-mail to listproc@luc.edu with the following message:
unsubscribe
h300-l first-name last-name
Do not send any mail to
my private address <zghazzal@midway.uchicago.edu>, except for appointments
or personal problems regarding the course. Suggestions for term-papers
topics should be posted directly at the class-list.
Problems in joining the
list? Questions? Send an e-mail to Brian Kinne <bkinne@luc.edu>.
notes from it
services:
From: "Jack
Corliss, Loyola University Chicago" <jcorlis@orion.it.luc.edu>
Please note that about
96% of all registered students have e-mail accounts, on the GroupWise e-mail
system (university e-mail system). We no longer encourage students to obtain
Orion accounts unless they plan to do personal web page design and development.
Of course, students can
use whatever e-mail account they have to subscribe and post to the class
discussion list including AOL and Entereact. If you want to send attachments to
the students on the list then they should find out their e-mail system handles
attachments.
You should also know
that as of May 1997, anyone using the computer workstations in any of the
University computing centers and public-access labs are required to have
university network access account (which we call the UVID). This is required
whether the student plans to access the Internet resources, their GroupWise or
Orion e-mail, use word-processing to write their papers, whatever.
Therefore, students are
assigned these accounts automatically. However, if a student does not remember
his or her university network access account/password, and registered late this
year, then the student will need to go to the computing center to have the
password reassigned or a network access account set up (usually takes 24
hours).
WHAT I HAVE JUST
PRESENTED ABOVE IS VERY IMPORTANT INFORMATION. Please be prepared to direct the
student to one of the computing centers if he or she does not know nor remember
the network access account or password.
Please note that some
students may know this network access account as the GroupWise account and
password—an unfortunate nomenclature—but most likely this is one
and the same. Previously, we referred to these as GroupWise accounts but now we
are calling them university IDs (or UVID), or university network access
accounts.
The computing centers
have had to deal with this last semester, so please do not hesitate to refer
any students to the computing centers for assistance, or they can call the Help
Desk at 4-4444 and the Help Desk staff will re-assign a network access
password.
SELECTIVE
BIBLIOGRAPHY
The following
bibliography is highly selective and only restricted to books and articles
which in a way or another are representative of a particular historical or
sociological/anthropological trend. Students are thus encouraged, when writing
their papers, to use more extensive bibliographies related to the topics they
are dealing with. Some of the books for our weekly discussion sessions include
such bibliographies. (It would better if you discuss with me your papers’
topics before
you start writing.)
1. Islam & The
Early Empires—General
The Qur’ân is the holy book of the
Muslims (in all their different factions and sects) delivered by God in Arabic
to the community of believers (umma) through the “medium” of the Prophet
Muhammad in sessions of “revelation” (wahî). Thus Arabic is not only
the language of the Qur’ân (and the Sunna), but also a divine
language, the language of God. All translations of the Qur’ân are
thus considered as illegitimate and inaccurate. There are several such
“translations/interpretations” available. A classical one would be
that of A.J. Arberry, The Koran Interpreted (Oxford University
Press). For a recent “reading” of the Qur’ân, see
Jacques Berque, Relire le Coran (Paris: Albin Michel, 1993).
R. Stephen Humphreys, Islamic
History. A Framework for Inquiry (Princeton University Press, 1991), is a long
annotated, commented, and thematically organized bibliography. Recommended for
those looking at the best in the field for sources available in English, French
and German. Some references to primary sources, mainly Arabic medieval sources,
are also included. The problem with this “inquiry” is that it
excludes from its field of investigation all publications in modern Arabic,
Hebrew, as well as Turkish and Persian. In short, this book is an excellent
tool for a primary survey of the status of the Middle Eastern studies in Europe
and North America.
Marshall G. S. Hodgson, The
Venture of Islam,
3 vols. (Chicago University Press, 1974), is a landmark study on the
“origins” of Islam and its historical evolution into empires.
Recommended for those interested in Islam within a comparative religious and
geographic perspective.
Ira Lapidus, A
History of Islamic Societies (Cambridge University Press, 1988), is a
complete fourteen-century history of Islamic societies. Chapters vary in depth
and horizon. No particular focus and not much imaginative—tedious to
read.
Bernard Lewis (ed.), The
World of Islam
(London: Thames and Hudson, 1976), is a thematically organized book with
chapters on literature, jurisprudence, sufism, the cities, the Ottoman and
modern experiences. Includes hundreds of illustrations and maps.
Watt, W. M., Muhammad
at Mecca
(Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1953); Muhammad at Medina (Oxford: Clarendon
Press, 1956), both are classics describing the life of the Prophet and his
first achievements in Mecca and Medina.
Franz Rozenthal, A
History of Muslim Historiography (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1952); 2d rev. ed., 1968.
Roy Mottahedeh, Loyalty
and Leadership in an Early Islamic Society (Princeton University Press, 1980), an
excellent book, based on primary sources from Southern Iraq that describe the
process and concept of bay‘a in early Islamic thought.
Hugh Kennedy, The
Early Abbasid Caliphate: A Political History (London: Croom Helm, 1981).
Jacob Lassner, The
Shaping of Abbasid Rule (Princeton University Press, 1980).
Lassner, Jacob, Islamic
Revolution and Historical Memory: An Inquiry into the Art of
‘Abbâsid Apologetics (American Oriental
Series, number 66.) New Haven: American Oriental Society. 1986.
The History of
al-Tabarî
(State University of New York Press, 1989), is a multi-volume series of the
translation of the “History” of Tabarî, one of the major
historians and interpreters of the Qur’ân of the early Islamic and
empire periods.
al-Shâfi‘î,
Risâla. Treatise on the Foundations of Islamic Jurisprudence, translated by Majid
Khadduri (Islamic Texts Society, 1987). Shâfi‘î was the
founding father of one of the four major schools of Sunni jurisprudence and the
Risâla
contains some of his major theoretical foundations on the notions analogy, qiyâs, and the ijmâ‘, consensus of the
community.
Martin Lings, Muhammad.
His Life Based on the Earliest Sources (Rochester, 1983).
Newby, Gordon Darnell, The
Making of the Last Prophet: A Reconstruction of the Earliest Biography of
Muhammad
(Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1989).
Maxime Rodinson, Muhammad (Pantheon, 1971), is an
interesting interpretation of the early Islamic period based on a social and
economic analysis of the Arabian Peninsula at the dawn of Islam.
M. A. Shaban, Islamic
History. A New Interpretation, 2 vol. (Cambridge University Press, 1971), is
an attempt towards a new interpretation of the ‘Abbâsid Revolution
of the eight century as a movement of assimilation of Arabs and non-Arabs into
an “equal rights” Empire.
Mohammad Hashim Kamali, Principles
of Islamic Jurisprudence (Cambridge, 1991). See also the great classic of Joseph
Schacht, The Origins of Muhammadan Jurisprudence (Oxford: Clarendon
Press, 1950).
Ignaz Goldziher, Introduction
to Islamic Theology and Law (Princeton University Press, 1981).
Fred Donner, The
Early Islamic Conquests (Princeton University Press, 1981), reconstructs the early
Islamic Conquests (futûhât) from a wealth of Arabic chronicles and
literary and ethnographic sources.
Bernard Lewis, The
Political Language of Islam (Chicago University Press, 1988), discusses the notion of
“government” and “politics” in Islamic societies.
Patricia Crone, Slaves
on Horses. The Evolution of the Islamic Polity (Cambridge University
Press, 1980); id., Meccan Trade and the Rise of Islam (Princeton University
Press, 1987), questions the thesis concerning the “trade boom” in
seventh-century Arabia.
Mahmood Ibrahim, Merchant
Capital and Islam
(Austin: University of Texas Press, 1990), links the rise of Islam and the
Islamic state with the emergence of a mercantile society in Mecca and views the
Arab expansion as the means by which merchants consolidated their political
ascendancy.
Ann Lambton, Continuity
and Change in Medieval Persia. Aspects of Administrative, Economic and Social
History, 11th-14th Century (The Persian Heritage Foundation, 1988).
Dominique Urvoy, Ibn
Rushd (Averroes)
(Routledge, 1991). Henry Corbin, Avicenna and the Visionary Recital (Princeton University
Press, 1960), is an analysis and interpretation of Hayy ibn Yaqzân.
Salma Khadra Jayyusi,
editor, The Legacy of Muslim Spain (Leiden: Brill, 1993). See also L. P. Harvey, Islamic
Spain, 1250 to 1500
(Chicago University Press, 1990).
2. The Ottoman
Empire
• REFERENCE
For a general social
history of The Ottoman Empire, see H.A.R. Gibb and Harold Bowen, Islamic
Society and the West,
Volume One, 2 parts (London: Oxford University Press, 1950-57).
For a general
chronological history of the Ottoman Empire, see Stanford Shaw & Ezel Shaw,
History of the Ottoman Empire and Modern Turkey, 2 vols., (Cambridge,
1977). See also M. A. Cook (ed.), A History of the Ottoman Empire to 1730 (Cambridge University
Press, 1976).
Paul Wittek, The Rise
of the Ottoman Empire
(London, 1963). A short monograph on the nature of early Ottoman expansion.
For a narrative account
of the rise of the Ottoman Empire viewed from the standpoint of historical
geography, see Donald Edgar Pitcher, An Historical Geography of the Ottoman
Empire. From earliest times to the end of the Sixteenth Century with detailed
maps to illustrate the expansion of the Sultanate (Leiden: E. J. Brill,
1972).
George Young, Corps
de droit ottoman, 7
vol. (Oxford, 1905-6) contains
selections from the Ottoman judicial code.
Halil Inalcik &
Donald Quataert, eds., An Economic and Social History of the Ottoman Empire,
1300-1914
(Cambridge University Press, 1994). In four chronological sections, the
contributors provide valuable information on land tenure systems, population,
trade and commerce and the industrial economy.
• GENERAL HISTORIES
Robert Mantran (ed.), Histoire
de l’Empire ottoman (Paris: Fayard, 1989).
Barbara Jelavich, The
Ottoman Empire
(Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1973).
Halil Inalcik, The
Ottoman Empire
(New York: Praeger Publishers, 1973).
Norman Itzkowitz, Ottoman
Empire and Islamic Tradition (New York: Knopf, 1972)
Peter Mansfield, The
Ottoman Empire and Its Successors (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1973).
William Miller, The
Ottoman Empire and Its Successors, 1801-1927 (New York: Octagon Books, 1966).
Smith William Cooke, The
Ottoman Empire and Its Tributary States (Chicago: Argonot, 1968).
• THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE IN THE
INTER-STATE SYSTEM
Alexander H. de Groot, The
Ottoman Empire and the Dutch Republic (Leiden, 1978).
Leopold von Ranke, The
Ottoman and the Spanish Empires in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries (New York: AMS Press,
1975).
Gustav Bayerle, Ottoman
Diplomacy in Hungary
(Bloomington: Indiana University, 1972).
J. C. Hurewitz, Diplomacy
in the Near and Middle East. A Documentary Record, 2 vol. (Princeton,
1956), contains a selection of administrative documents, edicts, and treaties since 1535.
• WORLD-SYSTEM THEORY
There has been numerous
studies within the last two decades that describe in economic terms how the
Ottoman societies have reacted to what is now known as the process of
“incorporation” of the Ottoman Empire in the world-economy. Despite
their merits, “world-systems” analyses are weak in understanding
and interpreting cultures and social structures. See for example, Immanuel
Wallerstein & Resat Kasaba, “Incorporation into the World-Economy:
Change in the Structure of the Ottoman Empire,1750-1839,” in J.-L.
Bacqué-Grammont & Paul Dumont, eds., Économie et
sociétés dans l'Empire ottoman (Paris: CNRS, 1983), 335-54. Some of the
most recent titles in “world-systems” include the following:
Huri Islamoglu-Inan,
ed., The Ottoman Empire and the World-Economy (New York: Cambridge
University Press, 1988).
Caglar Keyder, ed., Ottoman
Empire: Nineteenth-Century Transformations, in Review, 11(1988).
Caglar Keyder, State
and Class in Turkey: A Study in Capitalist Development (London & New York:
Verso, 1987).
Resat Kasaba, The
Ottoman Empire and the World Economy: The 19th Century (Albany, NY: SUNY
Press, 1988).
Pamuk, Sevket, The
Ottoman Empire and European Capitalism,1820-1913: Trade, Investment, and Production (Cambridge & New
York: Cambridge University Press, 1987).
• SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC HISTORY
Halil Inalcik, Studies
in Ottoman Social and Economic History (London: Variorum Reprints, 1985), is a
reproduction of a series of articles on the “beginnings” of the
Ottoman Empire, the impact of the Annales school on Ottoman historiography, etc.,
by a leading figure in the field of Ottoman studies. See also by the same
author his collected studies under the title The Ottoman Empire: Conquest,
Organization and Economy (London: Variorum Reprints, 1978).
Halil Inalcik,
“Military and Fiscal Transformation of the Ottoman Empire,
1600-1700,” Archivum Ottomanicum, 6(1980), 283-337, reproduced in Inalcik
(1985), discusses the transformation of the Ottoman tax-farming system from the
timâr
to the iltizâm. See also Bruce McGowan, Economic Life in Ottoman Europe.
Taxation, Trade and the Struggle for Land, 1600-1800 (Cambridge University
Press, 1981).
Kemal H. Karpat, Ottoman
Population: Demographic and Social Characteristics (Madison: The
University of Wisconsin Press, 1985). This book attempts, on the basis of
original archive materials, to show the demographic dimension of Middle Eastern
and Balkan societies under Ottoman rule in the 19th century. See the review of
Inalcik in IJMES,
21/3 (1989).
Ömer Lutfi Barkan,
“The Price Revolution of the Sixteenth Century: A Turning Point in the
Economic History of the Near East,” IJMES, 6(1975), 3-28. A
classical article which analyzes the effects of one of the first debasements of
the Ottoman currency in the 16th century.
Uriel Heyd, Studies
in Old Ottoman Criminal Law, ed. by V. L. Ménage (Oxford, 1973) discusses, among
others, the relation between the Islamic sharî‘a and the Ottoman qânûn.
Benjamin Braude &
Bernard Lewis (eds.), Christians and Jews in the Ottoman Empire: The
Functioning of a Plural Society. Volume 1, The Central Lands; Volume 2, The
Arabic-Speaking Lands. (New York, 1982), contains a wide range of articles on
“minority” groups in the Ottoman Empire.
On women in the Ottoman
Empire, see Fanny Davis, The Ottoman Lady. A Social History from 1718 to
1918
(New York: Greenwood Press, 1986).
Ehud R. Toledano, The
Ottoman Slave Trade and Its Suppression (Princeton University Press, 1982), stresses
the key role of the British in the elimination of the trade in black slaves
from Africa and the importance of the Ottoman’s own actions in abolishing
trade in white slaves from the lands around the Black Sea.
Suraiya Faroqhi, Towns
and Townsmen of Ottoman Anatolia. Trade, Crafts and Food Production in an Urban
Setting, 1520-1650
(Cambridge University Press, 1984).
Charles Issawi, Economic
History of Turkey
(Chicago, 1980), is an account, mainly based on the European consular
correspondence of the 19th century, of the Turkish economy during the period of
Western colonialism and imperialism.
Gabriel Baer, “The
Administrative, Economic and Social Functions of Turkish Guilds,” IJMES, 1(1970), 28-50. Haim
Gerber, “Guilds in Seventeenth-Century Anatolian Bursa,” Asian
and African Studies (AAS), 11(1976), 59-86. Orhan Kurmus, “Some Aspects of
Handicraft and Industrial Production in Ottoman Anatolia, 1800-1915,” AAS, 15(1981), 85-101.
Edward C. Clark, “The Ottoman Industrial Revolution,” IJMES, 5(1974), 65-76. Bernard
Lewis, “The Islamic Guilds,” Economic History Review, 8(1937), 20-37.
Jacques Thobie, Intérêts
et impérialisme français dans l'empire Ottoman (Paris, 1977) focuses
on the effects of French imperialism on the Ottoman Empire in general and on
some Arab Provinces in particular (Syria and Lebanon).
Gilles Veinstein, État
et société dans l’empire ottoman, XVIe-XVIIIe
siècles
(Variorum, 1994).
• THE STATE, IDEOLOGY, &
RELIGION
Serif Mardin, The
Genesis of Young Ottoman Thought (Princeton University Press,1962) studies the
effects of Western “liberal” thought on the Ottoman intelligentsia
of the 19th century and the “origins” of the Tanzimât reforms of 1839. See
also by the same author, “Ideology and Religion in the Turkish
Revolution,” International Journal of Middle East Studies (IJMES), 2(1971), 197-211. See
also R. C. Repp, The Müfti of Istanbul: A Study in the Development of
the Ottoman Learned Hierarchy (London: Ithaca, 1986) and J. R. Barnes, An
Introduction to Religious Foundations in the Ottoman Empire (Leiden: E.J. Brill,1986).
Richard L. Chambers, “The Ottoman Ulema and the Tanzimat” in Nikki
R. Keddie (ed.), Scholars, Saints, and Sufis: muslim Religious Institutions
Since 1500
(Berkeley-Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1972).
Cornell H. Fleisher, Bureaucrat
and Intellectual in the Ottoman Empire: The Historian Mustafa Ali, 1546-1600 (Princeton: Princeton
University Press, 1986). The Ottoman 16th century through the eyes of the
historian Mustafa Ali. See the critical review article (especially on the much
debated issue of “decline”) by Rhoads Murphey, “Mustafa Ali
and the Politics of Cultural Despair,” IJMES, 21(1989), 243-255;
idem, Regional Structure in the Ottoman Economy (Wiesbaden: Otto
Harrassowitz, 1987). A Sultanic memorandum of 1636 A.D. concerning the sources
and uses of the tax-farm revenues of Anatolia and the coastal and northern
portions of Syria.
Cornell H. Fleisher,
“Royal Authority, Dynastic Cyclism, and ‘Ibn
Khaldûnism’ in Sixteenth-Century Ottoman Letters,” Journal
of Asian and African Studies, 18/3-4(1983), 198-220.
Bernard Lewis, The
Emergence of Modern Turkey (Oxford University Press, 1968[1961]) A survey of the first
Turkish pan-movements till the proclamation of the Turkish Republic and its
aftermath. See also Uriel Heyd, Foundations of Turkish Nationalism (Westport, Conn.:
Hyperion Press, 1979).
Kemal H. Karpat,
“The Transformations of the Ottoman State, 1789-1908,” IJMES, 3(1972), 243-81.
Carter Findley, Bureaucratic
Reform in the Ottoman Empire. The Sublime Porte, 1789-1922 (Princeton University
Press, 1980); idem, Ottoman Civil Officialdom. A Social History (Princeton University
Press, 1989) reassesses Ottoman accomplishments and failures in turning an
archaic scribal corps into an effective civil service.
For a political anthropology
of the Ottoman Empire and the cultural barriers for its development, see Ilkay
Sunar, State and Society in the Politics of Turkey’s Development (Ankara, 1974).
3. The Arab
Provinces. General.
The work of Charles
Issawi gives the best synthesis of the economic development of the Arab
provinces of the Ottoman Empire (Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, Egypt). Among
his numerous works, Economic History of the Middle East (Chicago, 1966), Economic
History of the Middle East and North Africa (New York, 1982), The Fertile
Crescent, 1800-1914, A Documentary Economic History (New York: Oxford
University Press, 1988).
Another excellent work
of economic synthesis is Roger Owen’s The Middle East in the World
Economy
(London: Methuen, 1981).
William Polk &
Richard Chambers, eds., Beginnings of Modernization in the Middle East (Chicago, 1968) contains
some key articles by Karpat, Chevallier, Berque, Hourani, and others. Highly
recommended.
4. Syria &
Lebanon
The Lebanese
historiography did not progress much beyond the classical works of Chevallier
(1971), Harik (1968), and Smilyanskaya (1965), despite a number of interesting
recent publications in the field.
Dominique Chevallier, La
société du mont Liban à l’époque de la
révolution industrielle en Europe (Paris, 1971) is a complete study on the
economic, cultural, and political effects of the industrial revolution on Mount
Lebanon during the 19th century. See also by the same author, Villes et
travail en Syrie, du XIXe au XXe siècle (Paris, 1982).
Iliya Harik, Politics
and Change in a Traditional Society, Lebanon, 1711-1845 (Princeton, N. J.,
1968), is very powerful in analyzing the cultural transformations of the
societies of Mount Lebanon. The chapters on the process of
“rationalization” (in the sense of Weber) of the Maronite Church
are among the best in the field.
I. M.
Smilyanskaya’s thesis, Krestyanskoe dvizhenie v Livane (Moscow,1965), is
unfortunately only available in the original Russian with a complete Arabic
translation (Beirut, 1971). Some chapters are translated in English in Issawi
(1966 & 1988). Smilyanskaya’s thesis is an attempt to explain the
peasant’s movements of the 19th century in terms of class struggle rather
than inter-confessional struggles.
Boutros Labaki, Introduction
à l’histoire économique du Liban (Beirut,1984), focuses
mainly on the production of silk in Mount Lebanon during the 19th and early
20th centuries.
Leila Fawaz, Merchants
and Migrants in Nineteenth Century Beirut (Cambridge, Mass., 1983), covers the
rapid evolution of Beirut during the 19th century from a small provincial town
to a key commercial city.
William Polk, The
Opening of South Lebanon (Cambridge, Mass., 1963), is another classical study of
Mount Lebanon.
Mikhâyil
Mishâqa, Murder, Mayhem, Pillage, and Plunder. The History of the
Lebanon in the 18th and 19th Centuries, translated from the Arabic by Wheeler M.
Thackston, Jr. (Albany: State University of New York Press,1988), is a 19th
century chronicle by Mishâqa (1800-1888) who among other things served as
financial comptroller to the Shihâb emirs of Hâsbayyâ and in
his later years was a physician and consul to the United States in Damascus.
Thomas Philipp, The
Syrians in Egypt, 1725-1975 (Stuttgart, 1985), discusses the immigration of Syrians
(mainly Christians) to Egypt starting with the Ottoman period.
A.L. Tibawi, American
Interests in Syria (Oxford,
1961), analyzes the role and function of the Protestant missionaries in Syria
from the 1820s till the opening of the Syrian Protestant College in Beirut in
1866.
Abraham Marcus, The
Middle East on the Eve of Modernity. Aleppo in the Eighteenth Century (New York: Columbia
University Press, 1989), would be interesting to compare with Brown, People
of Salé
concerning the social and economic structures of Arab/Islamic cities. See also
Bruce Masters, The Origins of Western Economic Dominance in the Middle East.
Mercantilism and the Islamic Economy in Aleppo, 1600-1750 (New York University
Press, 1988).
Karl K. Barbir, Ottoman
Rule in Damascus, 1708-1758 (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1980), focuses on
the politics of the notables during the 18th century, the governorship of the
‘Azm, and the political and economic importance of the pilgrimage for
Damascus.
Philip Khouri, Urban
Notables and Arab Nationalism (Cambridge, 1983), discusses the formation,
during the Tanzimât period and after the Land Code of 1858, of
provincial bureaucracies composed mainly of Damascene land-owners belonging to
the traditional notable's class.
Linda Schatkowski
Schilcher, Families in Politics. Damascene Factions and Estates of the 18th
and 19th Centuries
(Stuttgart, 1985), is a more complete version of Khouri’s thesis on
Damascus. Her division of the city in three “conflicting” parts and
the maps provided are the best parts of the book.
William Polk (ed.),
“Document: Rural Syria in 1845,” Middle East Journal, 16(1962), 508-14.
Zouhair Ghazzal, L’économie
politique de Damas durant le XIXe siècle. Structures traditionnelles et
capitalisme
(Damascus: Institut Français de Damas, 1993).
Israel & the Palestinians
Charles Smith, Palestine
and the Arab-Israeli Conflict (St. Martin’s, 1992), provides with a
clear and detailed overview of the conflict.
Walter Laqueur and Barry
Rubin, eds., The Israel-Arab Reader. A Documentary History of the Middle
East Conflict
(Penguin, 1969, 1984), contain many of the key documents on the conflict, but
lacks in particular those related to the Arab side during the British Mandate
period.
Roger Owen, ed., Studies
in the Economic and Social History of Palestine in the Nineteenth and Twentieth
Centuries
(Carbondale, Ill., 1982), contains a series of well written articles on the
effects of foreign investments in Ottoman and British Palestine.
Neville J. Mandel, The
Arabs and Zionism Before World War I (Berkeley: University of California Press,
1976), focuses on the Arab and Ottoman reactions (mainly by leading politicians
and intellectuals) to Jewish immigration to Palestine during the last four
decades of Ottoman rule.
Kenneth Stein, The
Land Question in Palestine,1917-1939 (Chapel Hill, N.C., 1984), is in some aspects a
complementary study to Mandel’s Arabs and Zionism. Highly recommended for
those interested in the social and economic dimensions of the Arab-Israeli
conflict. See also Gershon Shafir, Land and Labor and the Origins of the
Israeli-Palestinian Conflict,1882-1914 (Cambridge University Press, 1989).
David Kushner (ed.), Palestine
in the Late Ottoman Period (Jerusalem-Leiden, 1986), has a number of interesting
articles on the economy of Palestine at the turn of this century. Problems
related to the demography, the system of iltizâm, and the waqf (Gabriel Baer), are
well covered. See also Moshe Ma‘oz (ed.), Studies on Palestine During
the Ottoman Period
(Jerusalem: The Magnes Press, 1975). On the Jews of the Arab Provinces of the
Ottoman Empire, see Norman A. Stillman, The Jews of the Arab Lands. A
History and Source Book (Philadelphia: The Jewish Publication Society of America,
1979).
Gabriel Baer, “The
Dismemberment of Awqâf in Early 19th Century Jerusalem,” AAS, 13(1979), 220-41. This
article, based on the law-court registers of Jerusalem, shows that the process
of the “dismemberment” of the waqf is only a judicial
device to transform it to the status of a quasi private property.
Philip Matar, The Mufti
of Jerusalem. al-Hajj Amin al-Husayni and the Palestinian National Movement (Studies of the Middle
East Institute, 1988), offers a comprehensive biography of Muhammad Amin
al-Husayni, the principle leader of Palestinian nationalism during the British
Mandate.
Muhammad Muslih, The
Origins of Palestinian Nationalism (Institute for Palestine Studies, 1988).
Justin McCarthy, The
Population of Palestine. Population Statistics of the Late Ottoman Period and
the Mandate
(Institute for Palestine Studies, 1990), shows that Arabs were a large majority
in Palestine up to 1947.
Avi Shlaim, The
Politics of Partition. King Abdullah, The Zionists, and Palestine, 1912-1951 (Columbia University
Press, 1990), focuses on the secret Arab-Zionist agreement to partition Palestine.
Benny Morris, The
Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem (Cambridge University Press, 1987). Morris
provides the strongest and most complete documented account of the refugee
problem between December 1947 (a month after the UN partition plan) and
September 1949 when some 600,000-760,000 Palestinian Arabs became refugees. He
argues that the bulk of the refugees—roughly 300,000—left between
March and May 1948 (date of the proclamation of the state of Israel) without
much pressure from the Zionist military groups, such as the Haganah and IDF,
and were preceded by the wealthy populations of Haifa and Jaffa. This, argues
Morris, came as a great surprise to everyone, including Ben-Gurion and his
aides in the Yishuv, who nevertheless decided not to let the refugees come back
to their homes. Such unorthodox views, Morris argues in 1948 and After.
Israel and the Palestinians (Oxford University Press, 1994), were criticized by
orthodox “historians” from both camps—Palestinians and
Israelis. See also by the same author, Israel’s Border Wars, 1949-1956 (Clarendon Press,
1993).
Yehoshua Porath, The
Emergence of the Palestinian-Arab National Movement 1918-1929 and The Palestinian
Arab National Movement 1929-1939 (London, 1974 and 1979), examines the origins of
Palestinian nationalism.
Uri Bar-Joseph’s, The
Best of Enemies, Israel and Transjordan in the War of 1948 (London, 1987).
Ilan Pappe, Britain
and the Arab-Israeli Conflict, 1948-1951 (London, 1988).
Michael Cohen, Palestine
and the Great Powers, 1945-1948 (Princeton University Press, 1982).
Simha Flapan, The
Birth of Israel
(New York, 1987).
Itzhak Galnoor, The
Partition of Palestine (SUNY, 1995). Galnoor’s book is constructed on one
main thesis: that, inadvertently, the “Arab Revolt” in Palestine, which
began in April 1936, openly placed the possibility of establishing a Jewish
state on the political agenda. Thus the British Royal Commission, which in
light of the “Arab Revolt” was established in 1937 to propose a
solution to the conflict, came out with a partition plan. This prompted the
various Zionist groups to question themselves on the possibility of a Jewish
state in Palestine rather than continue with the euphemism of the
“national home,” as proposed by the Balfour declaration in 1917.
Even though Galnoor is quite convincing when he describes the various Zionist
attitudes (opponents, proponents, and undecided), his terminology is
occasionally sloppy and confusing. He thus presents the Zionist groups as
working with “Western” concepts of territory, nation, and state,
while it is clear that it was their emotional and instrumental representation
of territory which shaped their notion of state thus bypassing, in a way
strikingly similar to the Nazi notions of Fatherland and Motherland, the
Western concepts of “body politic,” “social contract,”
and nation-state.
5. Iraq
Hanna Batatu, The Old
Social Classes and the Revolutionary Movements of Iraq (Princeton University
Press, 1978), covers extensively the rise and fall of the Iraqi Communist Party
(ICP) in the 1940s in the second part of the book, while the first part is an
introduction to Iraqi society based on a profile of its landowning and other
social “classes.” Finally, a third part deals, though less
extensively than the one devoted to the Communists, with the formation of the
Ba‘th and the coming to power of Saddâm Husayn. The three parts
seem like three different narratives without a major thread to bring them
together. Extensive use of the Foreign Office archives that the British left in
Iraq.
Samir al-Khalil, Republic
of Fear. The Inside Story of Saddam’s Iraq (Pantheon, 1989),
analyses the logic of Iraqi “totalitarianism.” Important insights
on the ideology of the Ba‘th party, its organization, and its links with
other state organizations such as the army, the mukhâbarât, etc. See also by the
same author, The Monument. Art, Vulgarity and Responsibility in Iraq (University of
California Press, 1991).
6. Iran
Roy Mottahedeh, The
Mantle of the Prophet. Religion and Politics in Iran (Pantheon, 1985), is an
analysis of some of the main intellectual movements in Iran prior and during
the Islamic Revolution in 1978 as seen through the eyes of a
“character” under the pseudonym of Ali Hashemi. However, despite
this focus on the education and becoming of a single Iranian ‘âlim, the overall point of
the book remains unclear.
7. Turkey
Serif Mardin, Religion
and Social Change in Modern Turkey. The Case of Bediüzzaman Said Nursi (SUNY, 1989), raises
the question of religious fundamentalism in Turkey through the case of Said
Nursi and his movement.
8. Egypt
André
Raymond’s seminal work Artisans et commerçants au Caire au
18ème siècle (Damascus, 1973-4) in 2 volumes is a must for the economic
history of Egypt during the 18th century. Compare with Marcus (1989) and Brown
(1976) on the concept of Arab/Islamic cities.
For the 19th century and
in particular the Muhammad Ali experience in “modernization,” a
revisionist work is Afaf Lutfi al-Sayyid Marsot, Egypt in the Reign of
Muhammad Ali
(Cambridge, 1984).
Judith Tucker, Women
in Nineteenth Century Egypt (Cambridge University Press, 1985), discusses the problems
in the historiography of women in Middle Eastern societies.
Bryon Cannon, Politics
of Law and the Courts in Nineteenth-Century Egypt (University of Utah
Press, 1988), explores the interaction between local and international factors,
both political and economic, that affected the establishment of an effective
civil and criminal court system in Egypt during the last decades of the
nineteenth century.
Timothy Mitchell, Colonising
Egypt
(Cambridge University Press, 1988), examines the peculiar methods of order and
truth that characterize the modern West through a re-reading of Europe’s
colonial impact on 19th-century Egypt.
Beinin, Joel and Zachary
Lockman, Workers on the Nile: Nationalism, Communism, Islam, and the
Egyptian Working Class, 1882-1954 (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1987).
Peter Gran, Islamic
Roots of Capitalism. Egypt, 1760-1840 (University of Texas Press, 1979). Gran’s
main hypothesis is that the output of the ‘ulamâ’ marked
“developments in secular culture and were supportive of
capitalism.”
Gabriel Baer, Egyptian
Guilds in Modern Times (Jerusalem, 1964).
Juan R.I. Cole, Colonialism
and Revolution in the Middle East. Social and Cultural Origins of Egypt’s
‘Urabi Movement
(Princeton University Press, 1993), focuses on the ‘Urâbî
movement as a broadly based social revolution hardly underway when it was cut
off by the British. A challenge to traditional élite-centered theories.
9. The Maghreb
What is interesting in
the Moroccan case is that this society has not been subject to Ottoman rule.
Hence it could be used as a background for a comparative analysis with the
Ottoman societies.
Abdallah Laroui’s Les
origines sociales et culturelles du nationalisme marocain,1830-1912 (Paris: Maspero, 1977),
is a monumental study on how the idea of Moroccan “nationalism”
evolved through the existence of “internal” institutions (mainly
the Makhzen). Highly recommended.
Schroeter, Daniel J., Merchants
of Essaouira: Urban Society and Imperialism in Southwestern Morocco, 1844-1886 (New York: Cambridge
University Press, 1988). An account of Essaouira in its heyday, as the city was
opening to foreign penetration, sheds light on the problems of traditional
societies in the age of European economic imperialism. Compare with the
classical study of Kenneth L. Brown, People of Salé. Tradition and
Change in a Moroccan City, 1830-1930 (Harvard University Press, 1976).
Edmund Burke III,
“The Moroccan Ulama, 1860-1912: An Introduction” in Nikki R. Keddie
(ed.), Scholars, Saints, and Sufis: Muslim Religious Institutions Since 1500 (Berkeley-Los Angeles:
University of California Press, 1972).
Carl L. Brown, The
Tunisia of Ahmad Bey, 1837-1855 (Princeton University Press, 1974).
Peter Von Sivers,
“The Realm of Justice: Apocaliptic Revolts in Algeria (1849-1879), Humaniora
Islamica,
1(1973), 47-60.
10. The Modern
Middle East Within an Anthropological & Historical Perspectives
Roger Owen, State,
Power and Politics in the Making of the Modern Middle East (Routledge, 1992),
presents the state, society, religion and the military within a comparative
perspective.
Dale F. Eickelman, The
Middle East. An Anthropological Approach, 2nd. ed. (Prentice-Hall, 1981, 1989), covers
a wide variety of topics from the villages and cities to self, gender and
sexuality. Depth of treatment varies from one chapter to another—some
chapters, like the one on the cities, are disappointing while others fail to
come up with an approach from the multitude of secondary studies that the
author relies upon. A crucial book for an overview of the current state of
anthropological literature on the Middle East.
Pierre Bourdieu, The
Logic of Practice
(Stanford University Press, 1990), originally published in Paris as Le sens
pratique
(1980), is a pioneering study on the social “practices” of the
Kabyles in Algeria, based on a field work in the 1950s, and with tremendous
philosophical, epistemological and anthropological implications. Recommended
for those who would like to take account of the most recent discoveries in the
“social sciences,” and most notably anthropology and combine them
with their own historical findings.
Dresch, Paul, Tribes,
Government and History in Yemen (Oxford University Press, 1990).
Goldberg, Harvey E., Jewish
Life in Muslim Libya: Rivals and relatives (Chicago University Press, 1990).
Haeri, Shahla, Law of
Desire: Temporary Marriage in Iran (Tauris, 1990), on the status of women and the
types of marriages (in particular the mut‘a, pleasure marriage) in
contemporary Iran.
Rosen, Lawrence, The
Anthropology of Justice: Law as Culture in Islamic Society (Cambridge UP, 1989),
is an important study on the practice of law in Morocco. Rosen starts with the
basic assumption that law in every society is part of the cultural system, and
then proceeds to show that “bargaining” is an essential
“concept” towards an understanding of the “practice” of
Islamic law. A breakthrough in the study of law in general.
Brinkley Messick, The
Calligraphic State. Textual Domination and History in a Muslim Society (California University
Press, 1992), discusses the transmission, conservation and interpretation of
the fiqh
(jurisprudence) literature from one generation to another in the context of an
Islamic society like Yemen. Focuses on details that historians usually avoid.
Recommended for those interested in history within an anthropological
perspective.
Michael Fischer and
Mehdi Abedi, Debating Muslims. Cultural Dialogues in Postmodernity and
Tradition
(Wisconsin University Press, 1990). Written in a post-modernist Derridean
style, this book is supposed to show that all kinds of Islamic practices
wherever they’re located are always in a permanent process of adaptation
and re-adaptation to the social realities of a particular period. This is done
through a re-assessment of the old “textual” traditions. Thus,
according to our authors, it is the various hermeneutical traditions that saved
Islam (or any other religion for that matter) from dogmatism—even though
they note a fear of différance in the Islamic traditions. Shortly prior to
publication, the authors have added an annex on Salman Rushdi’s The
Satanic Verses,
which is probably the best thing ever written on this highly controversial
book. For one thing, the authors show quite convincingly that Rushdi’s
knowledge of his “Islamic material” was very close to the
“authoritative sources” of Islam.
Smadar Lavie, The
Poetics of Military Occupation. Mzeina Allegories of Bedouin Identity Under
Israeli and Egyptian Rule (California University Press, 1990). This book, based on
extensive fieldwork in the South Sinai desert, borrows several post-modernist
and deconstructionist approaches from literary criticism and creatively applies
them to the Mzeina Bedouins. Thus the book is constructed around several
“allegorical characters”—the Shaykh, the mad-woman, the
old-woman, the ex-smuggler, and the “one who writes about us,” i.e.
the author herself who decided at one point to leave the Bedouins and write about them at Berkeley.
The “allegorical characters” are supposed to show the
Bedouins-in-transition between their old kinship and survival oriented ideology
towards “modernity,” i.e. the male Bedouins as part of a cheap and
under-paid Israeli labor-force. Her text is juxtaposed with large
“dialogues”—or “interviews”—to emphasize
the author’s “textual” approach: translate practices into
“texts” with meaning.
Lila Abu-Lughod, Veiled
Sentiments. Honor and Poetry in a Bedouin Society (University of
California Press, 1986), reflects on the politics of sentiment and the
relationship between ideology and human experience.
Virginia R.
Domínguez, People as Subject, People as Object. Selfhood and
Peoplehood in Contemporary Israel (Wisconsin University Press, 1989).
11. Gender, Women,
The Family & Sexuality
Lois Beck and Nikki
Keddie, eds., Women in the Muslim World (Cambridge University Press, 1978).
Judith Tucker, ed., Arab
Women. Old Boundaries, New Frontiers (Indiana University Press, 1993).
Fatima Mernissi, Beyond
the Veil. Male-Female Dynamics in Modern Muslim Society (Indiana University
Press, 1987).
Leslie P. Peirce, The
Imperial Harem. Women and Sovereignty in the Ottoman Empire (Oxford University
Press, 1993), examines the sources of the unprecedented political power of the
Ottoman imperial harem in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and assesses
the reactions of contemporaries, which ranged from loyal devotion to armed
opposition.
† For the full-text of the Basle Declaration, see Laqueur & Rubin, eds, The Israel-Arab Reader (Penguin, 1984), document 4, 11-12.