Dynastic Periodization and its Limits: Historiography in Contemporary Arab Monarchies
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Jörg Matthias Determann
Abstract: Over the last decades, a number of scholars have studied how historiography served to legitimize different Arab regimes. These scholars have, however, given little attention to the role of periodization. By contrast, this study suggests that periodization has been a central element of historiography in the monarchies. Many textbooks and other major works in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Oman, Jordan, and Morocco follow two broad tendencies in terms of periodization. The first tendency is to merge dynastic and national periods and to start the history of the country essentially with the rise of the contemporary ruling family. The second tendency is to integrate the contemporary dynasty into the history of a longer, sometimes perennial, monarchy. Nevertheless, official dynastic periodization has not determined all historical writing in the monarchies. Local and tribal historians often developed periodizations centered on specific cities or tribes and also imagined a much longer history than that of the contemporary dynasty.
© De Gruyter 2014
Articles in the same Issue
- Titelseiten
- Nachruf auf Ernst J. Grube (1932–2011)
- Introduction – What is in a Period? Arabic Historiography and Periodization
- Periodization as a Tool of the Historian with Special Reference to Islamic History
- Vanishing Syria: Periodization and Power in Early Islam
- Al-Jāhiliyya: Uncertain Times of Uncertain Meanings
- Dynastic Periodization and its Limits: Historiography in Contemporary Arab Monarchies
- Frames of Time: Periodization and Universals in the Works of Abdallah Laroui
- Silence and Nostalgia: Periodizing the Past in an Algiers Neighborhood
- Reviews
Articles in the same Issue
- Titelseiten
- Nachruf auf Ernst J. Grube (1932–2011)
- Introduction – What is in a Period? Arabic Historiography and Periodization
- Periodization as a Tool of the Historian with Special Reference to Islamic History
- Vanishing Syria: Periodization and Power in Early Islam
- Al-Jāhiliyya: Uncertain Times of Uncertain Meanings
- Dynastic Periodization and its Limits: Historiography in Contemporary Arab Monarchies
- Frames of Time: Periodization and Universals in the Works of Abdallah Laroui
- Silence and Nostalgia: Periodizing the Past in an Algiers Neighborhood
- Reviews
