SUP Middle East Studies

SUP Middle East Studies http://www.sup.org/rss/middleeast.xml The latest titles from Stanford University Press en-us Copyright 2008 Stanford University Press webmaster@www.sup.org (Webmaster) Silencing the Sea: Secular Rhythms in Palestinian Poetry Silencing the Sea: Secular Rhythms in Palestinian Poetry Khaled Furani "This is a wonderful ethnography of contemporary Arabic poetry. Khaled Furani has made a significant contribution to a relatively neglected territory in the study of the secular. Silencing the Sea enlarges our understanding of the way modern pressures and seductions have led to the undermining of older sensibilities and the formation of new, and of how this process is reflected in Arabic poetry. This not simply a book for literary specialists, but for anyone interested in thinking about the different dimensions of secular experience."—Talal Asad, City University of New York "Silencing the Sea is good news: It ironically speaks of the redemptive power of the human word, as fractured as it can be, as opposed to the Divine word's overwhelming power. It engages the battle for secularism that Arab poets, in particular, are leading, as it is for them, and their societies, an existential and crucial issue. Furani follows their meandering poems, and thoughts, through strengths and imperfections, while answering implicitly Hölderlin's famous question: 'What are poets for in these destitute times?' by seemingly saying that by changing themselves these poets do change the world, at least by making chinks in the wall."—Etel Adnan, author of Master of the Eclipse and Sitt Marie Rose "Furani's illuminating conversations with contemporary Palestinian poets connect us to their differing understandings of their art and its changing forms. He locates these expressive choices in an analysis of secular currents and with respect to the predicaments of Arab life in Israel and under occupation."—Brinkley Messick, Columbia University "Khaled Furani's detailed and scholarly study takes us to the unattainable heart of poetry, whatever its category, out of which comes magical beauty."—Maryse Conde, Columbia University, author of Segu and Victoire: My Mother's Mother <center><a href="http://www.sup.org/book.cgi?id=10544">To buy this book or view bibliographic details, click here.</a></center> Silencing the Sea follows Palestinian poets' debates about their craft as they traverse multiple and competing realities of secularism and religion, expulsion and occupation, art, politics, immortality, death, fame, and obscurity. Khaled Furani takes his reader down ancient roads and across military checkpoints to join the poets' worlds and engage with the rhythms of their lifelong journeys in Islamic and Arabic history, language, and verse. This excursion offers newfound understandings of how today's secular age goes far beyond doctrine, to inhabit our very senses, imbuing all that we see, hear, feel, and say. Poetry, the traditional repository of Arab history, has become the preeminent medium of Palestinian memory in exile. In probing poets' writings, this work investigates how struggles over poetic form can host larger struggles over authority, knowledge, language, and freedom. It reveals a very intimate and venerated world, entwining art, intellect, and politics, narrating previously untold stories of a highly stereotyped people. Khaled Furani is Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Tel-Aviv University. http://www.sup.org/rss/book_rss.cgi?id=10544 http://www.sup.org/rss/book_rss.cgi?id=10544 A City Consumed: Urban Commerce, the Cairo Fire, and the Politics of Decolonization in Egypt A City Consumed: Urban Commerce, the Cairo Fire, and the Politics of Decolonization in Egypt Nancy Y. Reynolds "Sixty years before Egypt's Tahrir Square exploded in protest against Hosni Mubarak, Cairo burst into revolution with the great fire of 1952. This book gives a vivid new explanation for how ordinary Egyptians turned shopping and commerce into politics. More broadly, its story opens a fresh perspective on the economic and cultural changes that so profoundly reshaped the Middle East in the mid-20th century."—Elizabeth F. Thompson, University of Virginia "This pathbreaking study, theoretically sophisticated and empirically rich, explores the ways in which twentieth-century Egyptians' consumption practices helped shape their identities and their politics. Its treatment of consumption as a spatial practice opens new intellectual vistas, and it is a must-read for anyone interested in modern Egypt or in the politics of consumption and urban space."—Zachary Lockman, New York University <center><a href="http://www.sup.org/book.cgi?id=20614">To buy this book or view bibliographic details, click here.</a></center> Though now remembered as an act of anti-colonial protest leading to the Egyptian military coup of 1952, the Cairo Fire that burned through downtown stores and businesses appeared to many at the time as an act of urban self-destruction and national suicide. The logic behind this latter view has now been largely lost. Offering a revised history, Nancy Reynolds looks to the decades leading up to the fire to show that the lines between foreign and native in city space and commercial merchandise were never so starkly drawn. Consumer goods occupied an uneasy place on anti-colonial agendas for decades in Egypt before the great Cairo Fire. Nationalist leaders frequently railed against commerce as a form of colonial captivity, yet simultaneously expanded local production and consumption to anchor a newly independent economy. Close examination of struggles over dress and shopping reveals that nationhood coalesced informally from the conflicts and collaboration of consumers "from below" as well as more institutional and prescriptive mandates. Nancy Y. Reynolds is Assistant Professor of History at Washington University in St. Louis. http://www.sup.org/rss/book_rss.cgi?id=20614 http://www.sup.org/rss/book_rss.cgi?id=20614 Juridical Humanity: A Colonial History Juridical Humanity: A Colonial History Samera Esmeir "Samera Esmeir delivers an extremely compelling and smart interweaving of time, legality, and postcolonialism. Juridical Humanity is an innovative tool for those working in legal and postcolonial theory and represents a major leap forward in postcolonial thinking."—Keally McBride, University of San Francisco "This brilliant new study provides a broad and persuasive genealogy of juridical humanity in colonial Egypt. In a work of immensely creative theorization and superb historical scholarship, Esmeir radically rethinks the relationship between modern law, the human, and violence, challenging the ascendancy of narratives in which the human is always chained to the law. This book will be essential reading for historians, and scholars in Colonial/Postcolonial Studies and Political and Legal theory alike."—Omnia El Shakry, University of California, Davis Juridical Humanity: A Colonial History is an impressive work of scholarship—original, soundly argued, and thought provoking. Although existing histories of law distinguish between colonial and pre-colonial periods, Esmeir argues persuasively against the distinction, insisting that essential aspects of the latter can only be understood by examining how the former construed and dealt with it. This book helps the reader to formulate questions about the history of law and society in the Middle East that have not been raised in this way before. It deserves to be widely read by everyone interested in the Middle East."—Talal Asad, CUNY Graduate Center, author of Formations of the Secular: Christianity, Islam, Modernity <center><a href="http://www.sup.org/book.cgi?id=16425">To buy this book or view bibliographic details, click here.</a></center> In colonial Egypt, the state introduced legal reforms that claimed to liberate Egyptians from the inhumanity of pre-colonial rule and elevate them to the status of human beings. These legal reforms intersected with a new historical consciousness that distinguished freedom from force and the human from the pre-human, endowing modern law with the power to accomplish but never truly secure this transition. Samera Esmeir offers a historical and theoretical account of the colonizing operations of modern law in Egypt. Investigating the law, both on the books and in practice, she underscores the centrality of the "human" to Egyptian legal and colonial history and argues that the production of "juridical humanity" was a constitutive force of colonial rule and subjugation. This original contribution queries long-held assumptions about the entanglement of law, humanity, violence, and nature, and thereby develops a new reading of the history of colonialism. Samera Esmeir is Assistant Professor of Rhetoric at the University of California, Berkeley. http://www.sup.org/rss/book_rss.cgi?id=16425 http://www.sup.org/rss/book_rss.cgi?id=16425 New Babylonians: A History of Jews in Modern Iraq New Babylonians: A History of Jews in Modern Iraq Orit Bashkin "Orit Bashkin's riveting new book is, without doubt, the first attempt at providing a full portrait of the rise and fall of the Baghdadi Jewish community in the course of the eventful 20th Century. The book is based on rich documentation, memoirs, communal, and school records. Bashkin's narrative is a shining example of solid scholarship and, at the same time, a coherent account of the vicissitudes of the modern history of a dynamic Arab-Jewish community the like of which is no more in evidence."—Sasson Somekh, author of Baghdad, Yesterday (2007) "This remarkable book examines the tragic modern history of the oldest and most deeply rooted Jewish community in the Arab world. Bashkin succeeds in avoiding the many pitfalls which confront an author dealing with such a charged topic by deploying empathy, careful historical analysis and great rigor. This book should be welcomed by all those who seek to free themselves of the blinders imposed by different varieties of extreme nationalism, and as such should be welcomed by scholars everywhere."—Rashid Khalidi, Columbia University <center><a href="http://www.sup.org/book.cgi?id=20419">To buy this book or view bibliographic details, click here.</a></center> Although Iraqi Jews saw themselves as Iraqi patriots, their community—which had existed in Iraq for more than 2,500 years—was displaced following the establishment of the state of Israel. New Babylonians chronicles the lives of these Jews, their urban Arab culture, and their hopes for a democratic nation-state. It studies their ideas about Judaism, Islam, secularism, modernity, and reform, focusing on Iraqi Jews who internalized narratives of Arab and Iraqi nationalisms and on those who turned to communism in the 1940s. As the book reveals, the ultimate displacement of this community was not the result of a perpetual persecution on the part of their Iraqi compatriots, but rather the outcome of misguided state policies during the late 1940s and early 1950s. Sadly, from a dominant mood of coexistence, friendship, and partnership, the impossibility of Arab-Jewish coexistence became the prevailing narrative in the region—and the dominant narrative we have come to know today. Orit Bashkin is Associate Professor of Modern Middle East History at the University of Chicago. She is the author of The Other Iraq: Pluralism and Culture in Hashemite Iraq (Stanford, 2008). http://www.sup.org/rss/book_rss.cgi?id=20419 http://www.sup.org/rss/book_rss.cgi?id=20419 The Lebanese Connection: Corruption, Civil War, and the International Drug Traffic The Lebanese Connection: Corruption, Civil War, and the International Drug Traffic Jonathan V. Marshall "Jonathan Marshall's The Lebanese Connection is an enthralling chronicle of Lebanon's rise to prominence as a narco-trafficking state. While serving as a drug enforcement agent in Lebanon from 1972-1974, I experienced firsthand many of the issues he documents. I highly recommend this detailed and informative book."—Jeffrey R. Kildow, Special Agent (Retired), Drug Enforcement Administration 1968-2001 "This is an original book of great importance for understanding not just the Middle East, but today's world of terrorism, covert warfare, and failing states. Few people have the knowledge necessary to decipher the central relevance of Lebanese drug trafficking to Middle Eastern politics, the games of intelligence agencies, and the history of international organized crime. Jonathan Marshall has produced an indispensable guide through this jungle."—Peter Dale Scott, author of American War Machine: Deep Politics, the CIA Global Drug Connection, and the Road to Afghanistan "Challenging common misconceptions about sectarian civil war, narco-politics, and state failure in Lebanon, Jonathan Marshall sheds new light on how the shadowy realms of drug cultivation, the international arms trade, institutionalized corruption, and organized crime tragically overlapped in the twentieth century Middle East. Hard-hitting and hard-boiled investigative journalism that is cinematic in scope, The Lebanese Connection has troubling implications that should stimulate lively debate and future research."—Max Weiss, Princeton University <center><a href="http://www.sup.org/book.cgi?id=21641">To buy this book or view bibliographic details, click here.</a></center> Long before Mexico, Colombia, and Afghanistan became notorious for their contributions to the global drug traffic, Lebanon was a special target of U.S. drug agents for harboring the world's greatest single transit port in the international traffic in narcotics. In the words of one American official, "certain of the largest traffickers are so influential politically, and certain highly placed officials so deeply involved in the narcotic traffic, that one might well state that the Lebanese Government is in the narcotics business." Using previously secret government records, The Lebanese Connection uncovers for the first time the story of how Lebanon's economy and political system were corrupted by drug profits—and how, by financing its many ruthless militia, Lebanon's drug trade contributed to the country's greatest catastrophe, its fifteen-year civil war from 1975 to 1990. In so doing, this book sheds new light on the dangerous role of vast criminal enterprises in the collapse of states and the creation of war economies that thrive in the midst of civil conflicts. Taking a regional approach to the drug issue, Jonathan Marshall assesses the culpability of Syria, Israel, and of Palestinian factions and other groups that used Lebanon as their battleground. On the international level, he documents Lebanon's contribution to the hard drug problem of major consuming countries, from the days of the "French Connection" through the "Pizza Connection," as well as Lebanon's unrivaled place in the global hashish market. Jonathan V. Marshall is an independent scholar living in the San Francisco Bay Area. He has published four books, including Cocaine Politics (1991), with Peter Dale Scott, and Drug Wars (1991). A former journalist, he has also published hundreds of articles in magazines and newspapers, including The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post. http://www.sup.org/rss/book_rss.cgi?id=21641 http://www.sup.org/rss/book_rss.cgi?id=21641 Adaptable Autocrats: Regime Power in Egypt and Syria Adaptable Autocrats: Regime Power in Egypt and Syria Joshua Stacher "This is one of the best, most concrete explorations of developments in Egyptian and Syrian politics over the last decade. Stacher provides an original look at the inner workings and dynamics of two vitally important regimes in the Arab world and lays out the implications for the future of the significant differences between these two political systems."—Samer Shehata, Georgetown University "Stacher delivers key insights into the paradox of the rapid fall of the strong executive in Egypt's highly centralized state in 2011, while Syria's much more decentralized state hangs on to power. This timely work provides a rare window on elites and their alliances and struggles. It is a must read for those who wish to better understand whether the 'Arab Spring' will lead to the redistribution of political and economic power by limiting executive authority, or merely replace one elite group with another."—Diane Singerman, American University <center><a href="http://www.sup.org/book.cgi?id=21653">To buy this book or view bibliographic details, click here.</a></center> The decades-long resilience of Middle Eastern regimes meant that few anticipated the 2011 Arab Spring. But from the seemingly rapid leadership turnovers in Tunisia and Egypt to the protracted stalemates in Yemen and Syria, there remains a common outcome: ongoing control of the ruling regimes. While some analysts and media outlets rush to look for democratic breakthroughs, autocratic continuity—not wide-ranging political change—remains the hallmark of the region's upheaval. Contrasting Egypt and Syria, Joshua Stacher examines how executive power is structured in each country to show how these preexisting power configurations shaped the uprisings and, in turn, the outcomes. Presidential power in Egypt was centralized. Even as Mubarak was forced to relinquish the presidency, military generals from the regime were charged with leading the transition. The course of the Syrian uprising reveals a key difference: the decentralized character of Syrian politics. Only time will tell if Asad will survive in office, but for now, the regime continues to unify around him. While debates about election timetables, new laws, and the constitution have come about in Egypt, bloody street confrontations continue to define Syrian politics—the differences in authoritarian rule could not be more stark. Political structures, elite alliances, state institutions, and governing practices are seldom swept away entirely—even following successful revolutions—so it is vital to examine the various contexts for regime survival. Elections, protests, and political struggles will continue to define the region in the upcoming years. Examining the lead-up to the Egyptian and Syrian uprisings helps us unlock the complexity behind the protests and transitions. Without this understanding, we lack a roadmap to make sense of the Middle East's most important political moment in decades. Joshua Stacher is Assistant Professor of Political Science at Kent State University. He is a regular contributor to and on the editorial board of MERIP's Middle East Report. He has made media appearances and written commentary for NPR, CNN, BBC, Al-Jazeera, Foreign Affairs, Jadaliyya, and The Boston Globe, among others. He is also a founding member of the Northeast Ohio Consortium on Middle East Studies. http://www.sup.org/rss/book_rss.cgi?id=21653 http://www.sup.org/rss/book_rss.cgi?id=21653 A Jewish Voice from Ottoman Salonica: The Ladino Memoir of Sa'adi Besalel a-Levi A Jewish Voice from Ottoman Salonica: The Ladino Memoir of Sa'adi Besalel a-Levi Edited by Aron Rodrigue and Sarah Abrevaya Stein; Translation, Transliteration, and Glossary by Isaac Jerusalmi "We must be grateful to the two editors and the translator of this memoir for bringing a rare document back to life. Surviving the near-annihilation and dispersion of the Jews of Salonica over the last hundred years, this precious historical source offers a passionate portrait of the struggle between traditionalist and modernizing forces within the late-nineteenth-century Sephardic world. It is a gripping read and will advance the scholarly agenda of Sephardic studies."—Francesca Trivellato, Yale University "Sa'adi Besalel a-Levi was a man who found himself at the threshold of momentous changes that would all but swallow everything that was familiar to him in the early decades of the twentieth century. Yet, rather than meditating nostalgically about a world that was fast disappearing, Sa'adi embraced change with enthusiasm. He hoped that the future that was dawning would be free of the shackles of tradition that held him and the Jewish community of Salonica back. His unusual conviction about the power of progress, his efforts to make intellectual sense of the transformations that surround him, his repeated clashes with those who held power over him, and his repeated disappointments make this an exceptionally engaging book. Aron Rodrigue, Sarah Abrevaya Stein, and Isaac Jerusalmi have done a marvelous job of translating, editing, and making accessible this uniquely valuable source. Their work enriches our understanding of the life of the Jewish communities in and around Salonica and beyond in the second half of the nineteenth century in a profound way."—Resat Kasaba, University of Washington "How marvelous to have the first known memoir in Ladino so beautifully translated and explicated. Sa'adi, an Ottoman Jew, astute observer, and person of diverse accomplishments, lived through the better part of the long 19th century. His invaluable memoir, completed before the cataclysmic events of World War I and collapse of the Ottoman Empire, documents a world already in flux. The beauty of this memoir is the vividness with which Sa'adi conveys the very experience of change as someone who not only witnessed it but also lived and felt it. The reader can hear his voice and visualize what he describes in such telling detail. This is a book to read for the sheer pleasure of it and an accessible way to engage students new to the history of Ottoman Jews."—Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, New York University <center><a href="http://www.sup.org/book.cgi?id=18553">To buy this book or view bibliographic details, click here.</a></center> This book presents for the first time the complete text of the earliest known Ladino-language memoir, transliterated from the original script, translated into English, and introduced and explicated by the editors. The memoirist, Sa'adi Besalel a-Levi (1820–1903), wrote about Ottoman Jews' daily life at a time when the long-ascendant fabric of Ottoman society was just beginning to unravel. His vivid portrayal of life in Salonica, a major port in the Ottoman Levant with a majority-Jewish population, thus provides a unique window into a way of life before it disappeared as a result of profound political and social changes and the World Wars. Sa'adi was himself a prominent journalist and publisher, one of the most significant creators of modern Sephardic print culture. He was also a rebel, accusing the Jewish leadership of Salonica of being corrupt, abusive, and fanatical; that leadership, in turn, excommunicated him from the Jewish community. The experience of excommunication pervades Sa'adi's memoir, which documents a world that its author was himself actively involved in changing. At Stanford University, Aron Rodrigue is Charles Michael Professor in Jewish History and Culture, Professor of History, Anthony P. Meier Family Professor in the Humanities, and Director of the Stanford Humanities Center. Sarah Abrevaya Stein is Professor of History and Maurice Amado Chair in Sephardic Studies at UCLA. http://www.sup.org/rss/book_rss.cgi?id=18553 http://www.sup.org/rss/book_rss.cgi?id=18553