Alternative Histories
Translates and annotates a rare eyewitness account of the 1915 Assyrian genocide during the First World War
- Set in the context of the failing Ottoman state and rising Young Turk regime
- Discusses Armenians and Greeks as well as Assyrians in one primary source
- Includes comments and interviews with perpetrators of events
- Annotated with information about sites, people and events
This text is one of the few surviving eyewitness sources on the Assyrian genocide, written by a seminarian living in greater Tur Abdin (the southeast of today’s Turkish state). The perspective is one that is little known and less discussed. Translated and annotated by a master of Syriac with an in-depth knowledge of modern Assyrian history, this text creates a unique opportunity for new and progressive scholarship.
The Assyrian genocide is one of the forgotten atrocities of the 20th century. The physical destruction was but one element; it also caused demographic shifts, loss of territory, generational trauma and linguicide, along with cultural genocide/ethnocide and identity erosion.
New comparative perspectives on Shi’a minorities outside the Muslim world
Key features
- Provides comparative insights into Shi’a Muslim communities across the globe, set in Muslim minority contexts
- Makes an important contribution to understanding the global dynamics of contemporary Shi’a Islam
- Illustrates how transnational Shi’a networks operate in Muslim minority contexts
- Discusses the impact of events in the Middle East on Shi’a Muslim minorities across the world
- Case studies include an in-depth ethnographic study of the Shi’a community in Buenos Aires; insights into the unique challenges of Shi’a Muslims in Sri Lanka; the connections of Shi’a Muslims in Cambodia to Iran; and the limits of sectarian differences among Shi’a Muslims in Germany
Global migration flows in the 20th century have seen the emergence of Muslim diaspora and minority communities in Europe, North America and other parts of the world. This book offers a set of new comparative perspectives on the experiences of Shi’a Muslim minorities outside the so-called ‘Muslim heartland’ (Middle East, North Africa, Central and South Asia). It looks at Shi’a minority communities in Europe, North and South America, Sub-Saharan Africa and East Asia and discusses the particular challenges these communities face as ‘a minority within a minority’.
Notes on Contributors
Roswitha Badry, University of Freiburg, Germany.
Emanuelle Degli Esposti, University of Cambridge, UK.
Chiara Formichi, Cornell University, USA.
Mari-Sol García Somoza, University of Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Mara A. Leichtman, Michigan State University, USA.
Arun Rasiah, Holy Names University in Oakland, USA.
Piro Rexhepi, Northampton Community College, UK.
Oliver Scharbrodt, University of Birmingham, UK.
Yafa Shanneik, University of Birmingham, UK.
Emiko Stock, Cornell University, USA.
Mayra Soledad Valcarcel, University of Buenos Aires, Argentine.
Benjamin Weineck, Bayreuth University, Germany.
Noor Zehra Zaidi, University of Maryland Baltimore County, USA.
Explores the underlying reasons for the conflict between the Druze and the Maronites of Lebanon
- Introduces an innovative lens and framework (collective memory) for understanding sectarian and communal hostilities: equally applicable to other disputes including the current Sunni-Shiite conflict in the region
- Employs new methodologies as well as interdisciplinary approaches to the Lebanese conflict, from memory studies, anthropology and oral history
- Uses untapped primary and secondary sources, paving the way for further research on collective memory and conflict
- Draws on extensive interviews with many of those involved in or affected by the conflict
The Druze and the Maronites, arguably the two founding communities of modern Lebanon, have the reputation of being primordial enemies. Makram Rabah attempts to gauge the impact of collective memory on determining the course and the nature of the conflict between these communities in Mount Lebanon. He takes as his focus ‘the War of the Mountain’ in 1982, reconstructing the events of this war through the framework of collective remembrance and oral history.
He challenges the idea that these group identities were constructed by their respective centres of power within the Maronite and Druze community, providing an alternative to the prevailing meta-narrative. Telling the stories of the many people who took part in these events, or who simply suffered as a consequence, helps to expose the intrinsic motives which led to this conflict and makes a valuable contribution to the field of Lebanese historical scholarship.
Explores the representation of minority cultures in museums of the Middle East and North Africa
- Sets out a new way of understanding cultural representations in non-Western museums
- Encourages a multidisciplinary/non-Western-centric reading of Middle Eastern museums
- Includes 13 case studies based on fieldwork and archival research in the Middle East
- Covers Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon, Morocco, Palestine, Tunisia, Turkey, Syria and the UAE
How are issues related to identity representation negotiated in Middle Eastern and North African museums? Can museums provide a suitable canvas for minorities to express their voice? Can narratives change and stereotypes be broken and, if so, what kind of identities are being deployed? Against the backdrop of the revolutionary upheavals that have shaken the region in recent years, the contributors to this volume interrogate a range of case studies from across the region – examining how museums engage inclusion, diversity and the politics of minority identities. They bring to the fore the region’s diversity and sketches a ‘museology of disaster’ in which minoritised political subjects regain visibility.
Contributors
Aomar Boum, Los Angeles, USA.
Rhéa Dagher, University of Balamand, Lebanon.
Lucía Cirianni Salazar, Freie Universität Berlin, Germany.
Francesca de Micheli, Lorraine University, France (affiliate).
Zoe Holma, historian and journalist.
Rita Kalindjian, University of Balamand, Lebanon.
Habib Kazdaghli, La Manouba University, Tunisia.
Virginie Rey, University of California, Irvine, USA.
Katarzyna Pieprzak, Williams College, MA, USA.
Virginie Rey, University of California, Irvine, USA.
Amanda Rogers, Colgate University, NY, USA.
Sarina Wakefield, University of Leicester, UK.
A study of every novel published by Palestinian citizens of Israel between 1948 and 2010
- Presents a comprehensive study of all 75 novels published by Palestinian citizens of Israel over 62 years
- Identifies the intellectual and ideological forces that drove major social and political transformations in the community over six decades
- Develops different concepts relating to Palestinian life in Israel, socially and politically, and in relation to other Palestinians
- Analyses the process of modernisation and the wide range of reactions to it among Palestinians in Israel
- Explores the reactions of Palestinians in Israel to the peace process between Israel and the Palestinian Liberation Organization from the 1990s to 2000
This book uses the methodology of sociology and literary studies to come to terms with the reality of Palestinian citizens of Israel across several generations. It explores the evolution of Palestinian identity from one that struggled for independence and self-determination up to 1948, to one that now presses the call for civil rights and civic equality. What were the forces that shaped this transformation over six decades?
Traditional sociological research on this community focusses on the structural relationships between Israel and its Palestinian citizens. Primarily concerned with the political discourse and activism of this community, it mostly makes use of party agendas, voting patterns and opinion polls as primary indicators. In contrast, this book focuses on the Palestinian voice, through an analysis of the 75 novels published by Palestinian citizens of Israel from 1948 to 2010. Paying attention to processes that are internal to this community, the author identifies the intellectual and ideological forces that drove major social and political transformations in this community over this period.
A comprehensive study of Arab Protestantism during the Nahda in Ottoman Syria
The Ottoman Syrians – residents of modern Syria and Lebanon – formed the first Arabic-speaking Evangelical Church in the region. This book offers a fresh narrative of the encounters of this minority Protestant community with American missionaries, Eastern churches and Muslims at the height of the Nahda, from 1860 to 1915.
Drawing on rare Arabic publications, it challenges historiography that focuses on Western male actors. Instead it shows that Syrian Protestant women and men were agents of their own history who sought the salvation of Syria while adapting and challenging missionary teachings. These pioneers established a critical link between evangelical religiosity and the socio-cultural currents of the Nahda, making possible the literary and educational achievements of the American Syria Mission and transforming Syrian society in ways that still endure today.
Key Features
- Locates Syrian Protestant narratives within American, Ottoman and global histories
- Explores macro-questions of Arab–American relations and gender roles in the Islamic world
- Brings Middle Eastern studies into conversation with the field of World Christianity
- Makes rare and neglected writings by Syrian Protestants accessible to non-Arabic speakers
- Includes a bibliography of primary Arabic source materials by Syrian Protestant women
- Provides family trees of Syrian Protestants
- Includes rare photographs from nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Ottoman Syria
A socio-political and cultural history of the Armenians in Cold War Lebanon
- Explores Lebanese Armenians’ changing views of their place in the making of the Lebanese state and its wider Arab environment, and in relation to the Armenian Socialist Soviet Republic
- Challenges the dominant Armenian historiography, which treats Lebanese Armenians as a subsidiary of an Armenian global diaspora
- Contributes to an understanding of the development of class and sectarian cleavages that led to the breakdown of civil society in Lebanon from 1975
- Highlights the role of societal actors in the US–Soviet Cold War in the Middle East
- Challenges the tendency to read Middle East history through the lens of dominant (Arab) nationalisms
This book argues that Armenians around the world – in the face of the Genocide, and despite the absence of an independent nation-state after World War I – developed dynamic socio-political, cultural, ideological and ecclesiastical centres. Tsolin Nalbantian focuses on one such centre, Beirut, in the postcolonial 1940s and 1950s. Nalbantian explores Armenians’ discursive re-positioning within the newly independent Lebanese nation-state; the political-cultural impact (in Lebanon as well as Syria) of the 1946–48 repatriation initiative to Soviet Armenia; the 1956 Catholicos election; and the 1957 Lebanese elections and 1958 mini-civil war. What emerges is a post-Genocide Armenian history of – principally – power, renewal and presence, rather than one of loss and absence.
