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Although a lot has been written about the history of the Middle East since the beginning of the 20th century, a history that has been marked by international conflicts, civil wars and struggles between nationalist, ethnic, and religious groups, no single-volume reference work has attempted to give ready access to the facts which underlie these complex historical developments in religious, political, geographic, and cultural arenas. With his Dictionary of the Middle East, Dilip Hiro, author, journalist, and commentator on the Middle East and Islamic affairs, has made a good attempt at alleviating this dearth.
In more than 1,000 alphabetically arranged entries, the Dictionary of the Middle East covers religious systems, countries and localities, political and cultural organizations and events, agreements and treaties, political and religious leaders, armed conflicts, literature and authors in an area including the countries of Bahrain, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, the Palestinian territories, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, the United Arab Emirates, and Yemen. Noticeably absent from this list are North Africa (Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, and Morocco), Sudan, Turkey, and Cyprus which are excluded on the basis of an arbitrary distinction Hiro makes between core (those countries covered in the dictionary) and periphery in his entry for the Middle East (p. 195). Preceding the dictionary entries are ten maps, including two full page maps, one of the "Ottoman Empire c. 1800", the other of "The Middle East Today", and eight smaller maps on two pages detailing various stages of the division and administration of Palestine and Jerusalem. The dictionary is followed by an index containing all entry headings with page references.
The dictionary covers the three major religious systems: Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. The three main entries each briefly outline the origin and basic principles of faith and trace the spread of the faith and its schisms. Separate entries then deal with sects and denominations, scriptures, and tenets. By means of cross references, marked with "[qv]", it is possible to follow these concepts and gain an overview of these systems of belief.
Geographical entries include countries, cities, regional and historical geographic terms, and rivers. Entries for countries are subdivided by means of boldfaced sub-headings, which include official name, capital, area, population, gross domestic product, national currency, form of government, official language and religion, administrative regions, constitution, ethnic composition, executive authority, high officials, history, legislature, and religious composition. Entries for cities include the capitals of each country as well as localities with political or historical importance (e.g., "Aleppo" (p. 10), "Hebron" (p. 109), or "Nablus" (p. 213)).
Headings of biographical entries are followed by an italicized classificatory term such as "Israeli politician" or "Iranian religious-political leader". The entry outlines in compressed form the biographies of the subjects and examines their role in a specific historical context. The scope of biographical entries ranges from political figures and religious dignitaries to writers and journalists. Personalities included are restricted to those "who reached adulthood around the turn of the 20th century or later" (p. ix). A laudable feature is the addition of writers to the list of biographies covered in the volume. Major contemporary Arab authors are well covered, although one would have expected entries for Taha Hussein, Gamal al-Ghaytani, Ghassan Kanafani and Anton Shammas. Unfortunately, no Iranian writers and only one Israeli writer (Amos Oz, p. 242) are mentioned. Women are also under-represented. Besides the present entries for Golda Meir (p. 194) and Nawal al-Saadawi (p. 276), entries for Hanan al-Ashrawi, Nazik al-Malaika, Umm Kulthum, and Forugh Farrokhzad, for instance, would certainly be in order.
Entries for treaties, pacts, and agreements list the signatories and briefly discuss the main points contained in the document. The entries close with a brief review of the effects and history of the agreement in question. Treaties and agreements covered include those signed in the 20th century. The entries for four United Nations Security Council Resolutions (242, 338, 598, and 687) contain either the full text or their "operative clauses" (pp. 332-333). Similarly, the full text of the "Balfour Declaration" (p. 47) is reproduced.
A number of entries are of special interest in the context of the Middle East. Entries on "Oil and Gas" (pp. 228-235) provide an overview of the oil and gas embargoes of 1967 and 1973-74, as well as the oil and gas industries of each country in the region. Moreover, entries on "Oil Industry, Middle East", "Oil Measurements", "Oil Prices", and "Oil Reserves" (pp. 235-236) round off the treatment of this topic. Another set of entries looks at the military strength of each country under headings beginning with "Military in..." (pp. 196-200). Besides a listing of the total number of a country's armed forces, its ground, air, naval, and paramilitary forces, there is also a section examining "non-conventional weapons", i.e., nuclear and chemical arsenals. Noteworthy among theses entries is "Military in Israel" which provides a detailed treatment of this country's nuclear capabilities. Another entry is dedicated to "Hostage-taking and Hostages", covering both the hostage crisis in Iran and the series of kidnappings of foreigners in Lebanon between 1975-1991. Finally, two entries list religious and secular titles (p. 319). Arabic or Persian titles are followed by an English translation, but no explanations or descriptions of the titles are given.
Transliteration of Arabic, Persian, and Hebrew words follows the usage in English-language news media. Occasionally, alternative spellings of names are cross referenced to the preferred spelling, e.g.: "Mohieddin, Khalid: see Muhyi al Din, Khalid." (p. 200) or "Shehab, Fuad: see Chehab, Fuad" (p. 297). Although these entries eliminate some of the confusion originating from differing transliteration methods in the international press, they cannot establish the desired consistency the reader would hope to encounter. In order to achieve such consistency, it might have been better to adopt a "moderate" or simplified transliteration method used by scholarly presses. Lack of consistency in some instances also hampers access to the information provided in the entries. Although the dictionary provides some "see" references from "popular" names of events or agreements to their preferred variant, the system of preferred terms suffers from major omissions. Whereas, for instance, an entry for "Iran-Contra-Affair" refers to the preferred heading "Irangate Affair" (p. 126), the accords between the PLO and Israel concluded in August 1993 are only accessible under the heading "Israeli-Palestine Liberation Organisation Accord" (p. 141). No "see" reference exists from either "Washington Accord" or "Oslo Accord", although both phrases are mentioned in the text of the entry and are commonly used in news media to refer to this agreement. The index at the end of the volume, which merely reproduces the entry headings and "see" references of the dictionary with added page numbers for cross references in other entries and the page number for the entry in bold type, could have easily been enlarged to include additional access points, thus avoiding this editorial flaw.
Hiro skillfully condenses often very complex subject matters into readable dictionary entries that strike an admirable balance between detailed treatment and cursory overview. This is especially true for entries dealing with issues, figures, and events of the recent past. His treatment, for instance, of the Lebanese civil war (1975-1990), the biographies of Iranian religious leaders, or the various political parties in Israel are not only examples of his ability for thoughtful compression, but also of his sense of impartiality. The work's major drawback lies in the rather arbitrary definition of the Middle East (p. 195), which excludes countries that share historical and cultural commonalities that tie them into this region and make them an integral part of it. However, the overall value of this handy reference tool for the countries it covers is undeniable. Especially strong in the coverage of recent Middle Eastern history and the current political situation, Dilip Hiro's Dictionary of the Middle East can wholeheartedly be recommended for college and university as well as public library reference collections.
Christof Galli
University of California at Berkeley
The importance of the topic of An Introduction to Islam might be underscored by some interesting comparative statistics presented by the author: There are approximately 900 million Muslims living all over the world, and: l. The nation of the Maldive Islands is 100% Muslim, yet its total population is only 200,000.
2. China's Muslims constitute 1.43% of the population. This proportion translates into more than 15 million people.
3. In the republics of former Soviet Union, Muslims comprise 17% of the population, a percentage equalling 46 million people.
4. 80% of the population of Indonesia is Muslim, or 125 million people.
Waines takes the reader from the formative period of Islam up to the present day. This beautifully organized book consists of the following three parts and with their respective chapters:
In addition, An Introduction to Islam offers an excursus on Islamic origins, a glossary, notes, and a detailed index. There is also an excellent and extensive section, "Further Reading," which will please academic librarians, as it presents an up-to-date survey of the Islamic materials used for Introduction to Islam.
This reviewer would prefer Waines to have included a section on Islam in Canada. There are large Muslim communities in major Canadian cities which warrant attention, but then only so much will fit into 314 pages, and one has to consider the vastness of this subject.
For readers interested in the book's publication or sales history, An Introduction to Islam was initially published on March 9, 1995, in a run of 5000 copies in paper and 350 in hardback. It went into a second printing in October 1995 with another 4000 copies. A Spanish translation has been completed for publication sometime next year, probably in about 4000 copies. By March 1996, I understand it had sold about 5100 copies in paper and 350 in hardback.
The photographic plates, which are of excellent quality, are an additional bonus. Chosen with good taste, they compliment the book in every way. This clear and authoritative book will be a valuable addition to the growing list of introductory books on Islam and is recommended for purchase for both academic and public libraries. Western businessmen would be advised: "You can't afford to leave on your next trip to a Muslim country without placing this book on your list of essentials to take along."
Salwa Ferahian
McGill University
Alice Roosevelt Longworth's famed dictum, expressed in one version as "If you haven't got anything nice to say about anybody, come sit next to me," certainly applies to Said K. Aburish, at least as author of this book. His title says it all, presenting his thesis nicely in only eleven words. One quibble about the title is that the order of the first three nouns may imply a sequence of events. Aburish makes it clear, however, that he thinks that the `corruption' was not a consequence of or subsequent to the `rise'; rather, that it was there before the family rose to power and has been part and parcel of the system ever since.
Given a great number of factors--among them the bombings in Saudi Arabia that have cost American lives, the political unrest there and elsewhere in the Arab/Persian Gulf, American support for oppressive governments while preaching the virtues of democracy, American dependency on Middle Eastern oil and its need to defend its sources, and the perennial volatility of the Middle East--a book like this could be of considerable importance. Policy makers and those who would and should influence them need information about the rulers and governments of those countries we are in league with, if only to be prepared for the grim and dangerous future. This book, however, doesn't do the job.
As a potential source of information on the House of Saud and the present state of Saudi Arabian politics, Aburish's history-cum-polemic is lacking. The stories Aburish tells are, by and large, familiar. The animus he displays toward the House of Saud, and especially toward certain of its members (in particular, Kings Abd al-Aziz and Fahd), is more than obvious. I have no problem with unbalanced presentations, but a book like this is not going to convince someone who is not already opposed to the House of Saud.
The specialist, familiar with the history, will accept (or dispute) what Mr. Aburish says, while bemoaning the great deficiencies of the book. The opponent of the House of Saud will eagerly accept what Mr. Aburish says as graphic proof of its misdemeanors. The nonspecialist--a college student, for example, doing a paper in political science or international relations--may use the book as a source, or may quote it, and by so doing will be left out on a limb.
The problem is that Mr. Aburish's book is not substantiated. A book like this should be bristling with footnotes and references to sources. It is not. There is not a single footnote in it. In the few instances where sources are named or quoted in the text, the citation is to author alone, or to author and title, leaving it to the reader to figure out where the words cited came from. This is a book that purports to give the story behind the story and to name names. Without citations to sources for the information presented in the text, the result is a work that depends for its reliability on the reader's prior knowledge and the reader's trust in Mr. Aburish.
Mr. Aburish, in his acknowledgments (p. ix), mentions that a total of 72 people were interviewed or provided information for the book. Of these, he says that 34 insisted on remaining anonymous, for obvious reasons, while 38 who are listed apparently allowed their names to be used. Some of the names listed in the acknowledgments are also listed in the "Bibliography." However, from the context in which they are cited within the text, it is not always clear if the quotations attributed to them are from the published work(s) cited in the "Bibliography" or from information transmitted orally. A conscientious editor could have informed Mr. Aburish that it is really not sufficient to say that he relied on informants who wish to remain anonymous and then to publish a work devoid of footnotes. Even when sources are anonymous, there are ways of referring to them in the text or footnoting so as to give a necessary factual substructure to a historical text. That was not done in this book. The result is a work that will persuade the already persuaded but perhaps few others.
One may contrast Aburish's book with the web pages of CACSA, the Committee Against Corruption in Saudi Arabia (www.saudhouse.com). Those pages--which currently mention this book and soon may contain excerpts from it--are full of detailed attacks on the House of Saud and many individual members. Many of those pages contain references to published sources, so that the reader can feel some assurance that the authors are not simply making things up.
Technical stuff for librarians: Mr. Aburish's "Bibliography," pp. 316-319, is useless. He divides his "Bibliography" into sections for "Books," "Statistical abstracts," "Press and broadcasting," "Published documents," and "Unpublished documents." The best that can be said for this "Bibliography" is that Mr. Aburish seems to have done his best to provide employment for Middle East librarians. In "Books," Mr. Aburish romanizes names of Arab authors according to his own system. He supplies the titles of their Arabic-language books in translation only. Thus one finds entries like:
The last section of the "Bibliography" is, if this is possible, of less help than the rest. "Unpublished documents" contains only three items:
The uselessness and pointlessness of such references need no further comment. The index is of similar quality and usefulness.
St. Martin's Press has had a distinguished record of publication on the Middle East as well as other subject areas. Somehow they seemed in this instance to have published a book without the intervention of an editor. No one caught or cared about the numerous run-on sentences, the ambiguous references, the sentences that simply carry no meaning, or the paragraphs that have to be read and reread before they make sense. No one seems to have caught or cared about things like the reference to the "well-known Dyan Centre." These are not minor matters. They suggest that the book went from author to printer without even a cursory glance by a skilled editor, who could have turned it into readable English and insisted on a structure of citations and authorities that could have given it credibility. More highly skilled editorial efforts would have benefited the author and readers alike. Instead, what might have been a valuable work that could have informed discussion of U. S. policy toward the Middle East was left a gossipy polemic.
Edward A. Jajko
Hoover Institution
This work constitutes a handlist of texts selected from one thousand forty Arabic manuscripts in the collections of the Institute of Oriental Studies at Saint Petersburg (formerly Leningrad) University. The 405 entries are arranged alphabetically by title and numbered sequentially. Each entry contains a basic bibliographic description with the information listed in the following order: title, author's name (when known) and death date (when known), incipit, explicit, script style, name of copyist (when known), number of leaves, page dimensions, subject, location and shelf number, references to Arabic and European sources, and microfilm position. Cross-references are given for titles found elsewhere in the work. For volumes containing multiple texts, there is a separate entry for each with the range of folios given. Three Turkish and eight Persian texts are contained in the catalog because they were bound together with works in Arabic.
A brief introduction outlines the purpose of the project and seventeen photostatic reproductions of sample manuscript pages (following p. 342) illustrate the appearance of some of the texts. According to Dr. Farfour, the cataloged texts were chosen because of their potential value to researchers. "Al-Muntaqá," the first word of the Arabic title, implies that the works chosen are the best of all those in the Institute's collection. The earliest text listed dates to the fifth century Hijrah; the most recent one is from the 14th century Hijrah. The collection thus appears to cover nearly one thousand years of Arabic literary production. The catalog concludes with twelve indices. These include alphabetical listings for titles, authors, autograph manuscripts, anonymous manuscripts (by title), copyists, place of transcription, Turkish manuscripts, and Persian manuscripts. Other categories include subject, date of transcription, shelf number, and location on microfilm.
The copy of Muntaqá min Makhtutat Jami`at Butrusburgh provided for review was, in its technical aspects, quite well done. The paper quality seems good (a test with a pH pen indicated moderate acidity) and the print is quite clear, although the boldface font used for the title entries is occasionally blurry. The quality of the illustrations is a weak point, but in spite of the inherent shortcomings of reproducing color images on plain paper in black-and-white, only one reproduction showed indistinct handwriting.
Judging from the contents of the subject index, the collection is quite broad and particularly strong in the areas of Qur'an and fiqh. Forty-five works of poetry and belles lettres are listed as well as eleven in history. The physical sciences are also well represented. Insofar as Muntaqá gives readers a rough idea of the holdings of the Arabic manuscript collection, it is very useful, particularly in view of the fact that, prior to the publication of this work, no census of the collection existed in any language. An exhibition catalog of some of the Institute's manuscripts (De Bagdad à Ispahan : manuscrits islamiques de la Filiale de Saint-Pétersbourg de l'Institut d'études orientales, Académie des sciences de Russie : Musée de Petit-Palais, 14 octobre 1994-8 janvier 1995. Paris: Fondation ARCH: Paris-Musées; Milan: Electa, 1994) has been published, but this cannot be said to comprise any sort of inventory of the Institute's holdings.
Despite its claim to serve the research interests of scholars, the utility of the catalog is limited for several reasons. The lack of any sort of critical apparatus--e. g., citations for published editions of texts--are absent. References to holdings in other European or Asian libraries are inadequate. Although brief citations are provided, complete notations for works of reference have been omitted. Researchers accustomed to the level of description found in the Catalogue of Arabic Manuscripts (Yahuda section) in the Garrett Collection, Princeton University Library (Princeton University Press, 1977), or in other catalogs of that caliber, will be disappointed in the cursory treatment given to these manuscripts.
Dr. Farfour does make the point that, because the manuscripts were being published for the first time, it was decided to list them in "intermediate" form (p. 6). Some entries contain notes on the texts (mulahazah), but these are very general in nature. Comments about the presence of a gloss, for example, or the date of completion by the scribe, are useful, but observations such as, "the folio numbers are reversed, running from left to right," (entry no. 227, p. 190), while interesting, provide little guidance for the researcher who desires to place the manuscript in its proper literary-historical context. In this regard, the inclusion of references to those manuscripts which have been published would have been most welcome.
More troublesome for researchers--and certainly for librarians--is the fact that authors' names do not conform to Library of Congress name authority rules. To proffer just one example, (Muhammad ibn Isma`il, 194/810-256/870) is indexed under Muhammad al-Bukhari. In a similar vein, the bio-bibliographical reference works cited in the source part of the entries consist merely of a title phrase (e. g., Mu`jam al-Mu'allifin) and a volume or page number. Nowhere is a full bibliographic citation for these titles given. That Muntaqá min Makhtutat Jami`at Butrusburgh employs names and reference citations in forms that are perhaps more familiar to native Arabic speakers than to European scholars is yet another factor which circumscribes the catalog's usefulness. Without recourse to such standard reference works as Brockelmann's Geschichte der arabischen Literatur, the catalog does little more than provide a record of the existence of the manuscripts listed. One could wish that the compilers had used as their model a work on the order of Catalogue des manuscrits et xylographes orientaux de la bibliotháeque impâeriale publique de St. Pâetersbourg, (Impr. de l'Acadâemie impâeriale des sciences, St. Pâetersbourg, 1852, repr. Saur, 1978), which achieves a high bibliographic standard for Arabic manuscripts in Russian collections.
Given the fact that the Arabic manuscripts of the Institute of Oriental Studies in Saint Petersburg have not been the subject of any prior systematic descriptive treatment, the present volume represents a positive and welcome step. Dr. Farfour and his colleagues have not compiled a critical study, but they have, at the very least, shed light on a collection which, until recently, had been difficult to access. The importance of this contribution should not be overlooked or diminished. Bona fide endeavors to catalog manuscripts and to bring these sources to the attention of interested scholars ought to be applauded.
Karl R. Schaefer
Drake University
This is a collection of eighteen papers on love and sexuality in Modern Arabic literature with an introduction by Hillary Kilpatrick. The authors and editors are scholars affiliated with different universities and research institutes in the United States, Europe, England and Israel. Each author approaches the subject from a distinct perspective. They cover their subjects in Arabic narrative prose, as well as modern Arabic poetry and drama. Some of these subjects include the figure of the lover, the romantic imagination, love and sexuality, erotic awareness, women's narrative and love and the body.
The subject of love and sexuality has constituted a major theme not only in Arabic literature, but also in the literature of all other languages since ages unknown. Some of the early Arabic stories of love and its agonies were immortalized by Jamil Buthaynah, Majnun Layl\'a, and Qays. Many Arabic literary historians recorded the love stories of poets and ordinary people. Some of these literary historians' works were analyzed by Lois Anita Giffen in her book Theory of Profane Love Among the Arabs, (New York: N.Y.U. Press, 1972) and by Mustafá `Abd al-Wahid in his book Dirasat al-hubb fi al-Adab al-`Arabi, (Cairo: Dar al-Ma`arif, 1972) 3 vols.
The first paper in this volume by B. Hallaq discusses the views towards love and their relations with the attitudes towards literature of four early Arab writers: al-Tahtawi, al-Shidyaq, Jibran, and al-Manfaluti. Robin Ostle's paper traces the evolution of the political and social reforms of the early twentieth century in Egypt including the emancipation of women and the Romantic movement. Paul Starkey's study of Tawfiq al-Hakim's novels concentrates on the dilemmas the women's liberation movement has created for society and the Egyptian male. In his paper, Roger Allen draws on the variety of roles played by women all over the Arab world, as portrayed in modern Arabic literature, especially in the Arabic short story. One of the best papers in this collection is Richard van Leeuwen's "Love and the Mechanisms of Power" in which he analyzes two Egyptian works of fiction: Najib Mahfuz's Trilogy and Jamal al-Ghit ani's al-Zayni Barakat. Both works portrayed love as fair, moral, and conducive to social and psychological liberation. Mattityahu Peled's analysis of sexuality in Jabra Ibrahim Jabra's novel The Search of Walid Mas`ud reflects the transition in the life of the author, who himself immigrated from Palestine to the more affluent society of Baghdad.
The authors of the papers in this book are recognized specialists in many areas of Arabic literature. They have used their expertise in literary criticism and their extensive comprehensive knowledge of modern Arabic literature to reveal for the first time many aspects of love and sexuality as they are portrayed in modern Arabic novels, short stories, dramas, and poetry in many Arab countries.
The book is altogether readable and contains copious notes, which contain references to many additional sources. It is recommended for all college and university libraries. I also recommend it for translation into Arabic.
Ragai N. Makar
University of Utah
Scholars consider the poet Nima Yushij (1895-1960) mainly responsible for the development of modern Persian poetry (she`r-e new). In this important study, Ahmad Karimi-Hakkak demonstrates that, in fact, the innovations in Persian poetry result from the efforts of at least three generations of poets in the early decades of the twentieth century.
He traces the course of this development by closely examining some of the works of these poets. Consequently, two types of innovations surface. In one type, some poets introduced new lexical, semantic, and rhetorical elements into poetry, though still within the categories of the classical poetic tradition. Other poets, however, aimed to alter various integral aspects of the tradition and were, thus, more revolutionary in their efforts.
The book is divided into six chapters, in addition to an introduction. In his introduction, the author states the most widely held beliefs about the origins of modern Persian poetry and its differences from classical poetry. He then presents an outline of the theoretical model, based on the works of semioticians like Bakhtin and Lotman, which informs his approach. He relates the process of poetic change to shifting cultural systems or frameworks. A new cultural system like modernization results in the introduction of new objects, concepts, or idioms. Therefore, poets, along with other architects of social change, begin to use existing words in new senses or create new forms. In the course of time, the culture begins to support such innovations, and thus emerges a new esthetic system.
Karimi-Hakkak delineates the various stages of this literary change in Iran by analyzing the poetry of several modernist poets: `Ali-Akbar Dehkhoda (1880-1955), Abolqasem `Aref (1882-1934), Mohammad-Taqi Bahar (1880-1951), Taqi Raf`at (1889-1920), Iraj Mirza (1874-1926), Parvin E`tesami (1907-1941), Abolqasem Lahuti (1887-1957), and Mohammad-Reza Mirzadeh-`Eshqi (1894-1924).
The author appropriately concludes his study with the views and poetry of Nima Yushij. Despite the efforts of poets like Dehkhoda and `Aref, argues Karimi-Hakkak, "it was indisputably Nima who created a remarkable corpus of poems which impressed their differentness upon the reader even before they were read." Nima was, therefore, the culminating force in the development of modern Persian poetry, which owes its inception and continuance to more than three generations of poets and critics.
Soheila Amirsoleimani
University of Utah
Professor Thackston has provided the students of Iranian and Near Eastern studies with yet another translation of a major work of Iranian historiography. Ghiyas al-Din Khvand Amir's (d. ca. 941/1534) history of the Timurid and early Safavid periods, all recorded in the third volume of his Habib al-Siyar, is generally considered to be one of the key sources for the study of those periods, as it contains information that is not available anywhere else. This particular volume of the book, which like each of the previous two volumes is composed of four parts, begins with a history of the Mongols and Genghis Khan, his descendants, and the Ilkhans of Iran. It continues to cover, in part two, the Mamluks of Egypt, Qarakhitai of Kirman, Muzaffarids of Shiraz, Atabegs of Luristan, rulers of Mazandaran, Sarbadarids of Khurasan, and Kurts of Herat. The subject of the third part is Timur, his sons and grandsons, down to the time of Sultan Husayn Bayqara and his son Badi al-Zaman, under both of whom Khvand Mir himself served and was patronized by Ali Shir Navai, the Sultan's friend and close amir. The book ends with a fourth part on the rise and reign of Shah Ismail, the first Safavid ruler of Iran, to whose son's local civil administrator of Herat, a Khvajah Habib Allah, the book is presented.
The first two volumes of Habib al-Siyar is an exercise in what was more or less an established trend in the realm of Iranian historiography: a universal history based prominently on other universal and local histories. Among Khvand Amir's sources were Rawzat al-Safa by his own grandfather Mir Khvand (to which Khvand Amir also added a supplementary volume), Rashid al-Din Fazl Allah's Jami` al-Tavarikh and Ata Malik Juvayni's Tarikh-i Jahangusha. Khvand Amir's version of history in all three volumes, however, incorporates often expanded biographies of important men of politics, literature, religion, and the arts. It also has the saving grace that it is written in a simpler language than the sources it uses.
Professor Thackston's translation is accurate (I compared a few passages of the translation from the beginning, middle and end with the original), reads well, and does have the flavor of the Persian. Unfortunately, it is not a truly complete translation. According to the translator, since some of the pieces of poetry that the author had included in his text served "merely to illustrate a specific context" and seemed "annoyingly lengthy," they were omitted. Another point of objection (which by no means should be directed to the translator) concerns the fact that the translation is not based on a critical edition of Habib al-Siyar, because such an edition has never existed. The Tehran edition of 1333/1954, from which the translation has been done, is a reissue of the previous 1263/1847 lithograph edition, and differs on many important points with several of more than 200 manuscript copies of Habib al-Siyar that exists today in various libraries and collections. (Khvand Amir himself revised each volume of his text more than once; for a complete listing of the manuscripts of Habib al-Siyar, some of which are in the author's own hand, see Storey, C. A., Adabiyat-i Farsi bar mabna-yi ta'lif-i Isturi, (Tehran, 1983), vol. 2, pp. 551-565).
As is customary with Professor Thackston's translations, Habibu's-Siyar is fully indexed and is supplemented with numerous maps and genealogical tables. No academic or research library with Near East or Iranian collections should be without a copy.
Kambiz Eslami
Princeton University
This is not book for those who think where there's (hashish) smoke, there's fire, or who are firm believers in conspiracy theories. In this short book, perhaps too short for the hefty price-tag, Farhad Daftary sets himself no less a task than the debunking of a myth that has held Westerners spellbound for over 800 years: the Muslim fanatic killer, his brain clouded by drugs and false visions of paradise, ready to kill and to die for his evil creed at the merest whim of his religious leaders. One need only look to the works of William Burroughs, or popular journalism about Muslim "suicide bombers" to see its currency and continued relevance in the popular culture of our time. Worse yet, as Daftary points out, one need only look to the "classic" Western scholarly works on the Ismailis to see the myth reinforced and perpetuated by those that should know better. Obviously, it is high time this fantasy-picture was exploded, and Daftary does a fine job. In a scant 127 pages (The remainder of the book is given over to a translation of "Mémoire sur la dynastie des Assassins et sur l'étymologie de leur nom" by Silvestre de Sacy, first published in 1818 and thus one of the primary sources of the propagation of the Ismaili myths among Orientalists.), Daftary traces the origins of the Assassin myths in the hostile propaganda levelled against the Nizaris by the Sunni Muslim world in general, and by their Shiite rivals, the Fatimid-Ismaili Mustalians, the Zaydis, and the Imamis. This is his so-called "black legend" of Ismailism, that the Ismailis were false Muslims, whose real concern was the destruction of Islam from within. Indeed, he shows that it was in a polemic issued by the Mustalian-Fatimid caliph al-Amir in 1123 that the Nizaris were first labelled as hashshishin. This general hostility amongst their co-religionists combined with the secrecy with which the Nizaris themselves guarded most of their customs and beliefs, and with the ignorance and prejudice of the Europeans who with the Crusades had become established along the Mediterranean coast of the Islamic central lands, adjacent to the Syrian Nizaris. It needed only the imaginative attempts of European writers to explain for themselves the chilling, irrational, seemingly otherworldly behavior of the Nizari political killers, or fida'is, to create the Assassin myths.
Daftary traces how imagination and misunderstanding, willful and accidental, came together and evolved in the various European accounts of the Nizaris into the full blown legend of the Old Man of the Mountain and his narcotic pleasure garden told by Marco Polo. Also, Daftary presents a clear and concise survey of the historical developments within the Ismaili movement, the Muslim community as a whole, and the fortunes of the Latin states of Outremer, which influenced this imaginative process. This is a book which will both appeal and be useful to non-specialists, as well as specialists, although I would have liked a little more detail in many places. Despite his obvious pro-Ismaili bias, Daftary has produced a very well reasoned, and convincing book.
David Giovacchini
Harvard University
Pan-Turkism, the ideologies and movements striving to unite all Turks, entered a new phase following the breakup of the USSR. With the establishment of six independent ex-Soviet Muslim republics in the Caucasus and Central Asia, Pan-Turkism is reassessed in these areas and in Turkey, as well as in parts of the Balkans. These developments prompted Jacob M. Landau, Professor of Political Science at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, to update and expand his previous study, Pan-Turkism in Turkey, which was published in 1981. The current work contains an introduction, seven chapters (each followed by extended notes), bibliography and an index.
The work starts with definitions of the terms used. Pan-Turkism's objective "is to strive for some sort of union--cultural or physical, or both--among all peoples of proven or alleged Turkic origins, whether living both within and without the frontiers of the Ottoman Empire (subsequently of the Republic of Turkey)" (p. 1). Somewhat related to Pan-Turkism is Turanism (also called Pan-Turanism) "which had as its chief objective rapprochement and ultimately union among all peoples whose origins are purported to extend back to Turan, an area in the steppes of Central Asia" (p. 1). Thus, the latter identity is much wider than the former, including, among others, Hungarians and Finns.
The book examines in detail the various stages in the development of Pan-Turkism inside and outside of Turkey, analyzing the reasons for its popularity, stagnation, and revival in the various periods and regions. Pan-Turkism was predominantly an ideological movement, supported to a large extent by intellectuals. Internal divisions often resulted from personal rivalry. During the Ottoman period, Pan-Turkism was on the rise both inside and outside the empire: Oppressed Turkic peoples in Russia hoped to improve their status in their country, while within the empire there were those, at times including senior government figures, who hoped to use Pan-Turkism in order to strengthen the empire's standing. Following World War I, the situation changed. The USSR strived to stop contacts between its peoples and the outside world, while in Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk decided to focus on the Republic of Turkey, and to avoid external expansion. With the relaxation of politics in Turkey after World War II, Pan-Turk inclinations were once again felt, but on a limited scale. With the breakup of the USSR, the new Muslim republics strive to remain independent, but most are eager to develop close cultural and economic ties with Turkey, without losing their own freedom and characteristics.
A major contribution of this work is the analysis of Pan-Turkish publications. Landau traced numerous monographs and periodicals of the various Pan-Turkish groups. He describes these publications, including their authors, editors, and contributors. He also states where these publications can be found. The list of Pan-Turkish periodicals (p. 235-237) provides only place of publication and dates. The text is very detailed, and the notes at the end of each chapter are very informative. The sources used are numerous and varied, as seen in the "Selected bibliography" (p. 235-260): in addition to Turkish (including Ottoman) sources, there are many titles in English, French, German and Russian. The index cites persons, places, organizations, and periodicals as well as subjects.
With its thorough analysis and extensive data, this study is a major contribution to Turkish studies, to Middle Eastern and Central Asian studies, and to the study of irredentism in general.
Rachel Simon
Princeton University
Life at the Crossroads is a book more than a monograph, general rather than specific, with an obtuse title and with a subtitle that is far from satisfactory if measured by the offering. Life at the Crossroads, I suspect, was meant to be more than A History of Gaza. The reader is immediately presented with an impressive cover superimposed with a Philisto-Arabian coin and is impressed that the book is published by a reputable British publisher. A hint of the author's interest is found in the foreword: "I hope that the publication of this book will presage a happier future for the people of the Gaza Strip than they have known for most of this century." (p. 1) The plight of the Palestinian people, while certainly a suitable topic in a proper context, detracts I would argue, from the subject matter chosen as the theme.
Butt, a British freelance writer and broadcaster, provides little in the beginning and even less throughout the book, for that matter, that offers the reader any idea of what exactly is the geographical referent, "Gaza." Hence, we are left with figuring out the context of Gaza City, the strip, or the region. There is a strong suggestion in the chapter entitled, "The Roots of Palestine," that the nomenclature for the contemporary political geographical entity Palestine can be traced to Philistia as the area of the Philistines and, therefore, from which we get the Arabic filastin and some kind of a connection to the current Palestinian political issue. We then rapidly survey, via individual and brief chapters, Assyrian, Babylonian, Persian, Greek, and Roman civilizations and by the 3rd century AD, Christian Byzantium. The meat of the book begins chronologically with the introduction of Islam and the rule of the Ottomans. As with the previous sections, we proceed with discreet chapters dealing with the onslaught of the British in World War I, followed by British occupation and still other forms of control either from Egypt or Israel. The book ends with a discussion of the intifadah, ironically originating in Gaza City.
The source material for the book is primarily secondary literature, peppered with an unnotable reference to some of General Allenby's letters. Supplementing such sources as Fodor's Israel 1986 is a number of interviews the author conducted with Palestinian residents of either Gaza City or refugee camps, focusing primarily on their political ambitions or social status. In short, Life at the Crossroads is not a source I would recommend for either information on Gaza or a better understanding of contemporary politics of the region.
Sanford R. Silverburg
Catawba College
In Other Words is a recent English translation of Autrement dit (Paris: Grasset, 1977). Marie Cardinal, a frequently published French writer and an active feminist, engages here in conversations with Annie LecLerc, in reflections on the issues which they discuss and on the dynamic of the exchange with LecLerc. This dynamic, not quite an interview yet not quite a mere conversation, is in fact one of the fascinating aspects of the book, and is a unique and captivating form of tackling the issues in the book. In these conversations, Cardinal goes through a very intimate exploration of her past, relationships with family and friends, the long psychoanalysis she underwent, sexuality, feminism and politics. Her personal experiences are the wide prism for observing women's roles and positions in society as well as the other issues in the book.
For the reader interested in the Middle Eastern facets of the book, there is not much to expect. Cardinal, who grew up in French Algeria and had left before its war for independence, frequently speaks of her childhood, young adulthood, her family and its background, but all this is far from being an Algerian memoir. Her memories from the life of her family and her thoughts of returning to visit Algeria provide us only with glimpses of the life of the French community in Algeria. The interactions with local people and culture is virtually absent from the book, as is any significant discussion or even allusion to the experience of colonialism, the coming of the Algerian war for independence and post-colonialism, in France and in Algeria. In a book that discusses oppression and liberation (in this case, of women), this is an odd omission.
Nevertheless, if one remembers that the focus of the book is not Algeria or French Algeria, but Cardinal's experiences and reflections, the book is interesting reading.
Ronen Raz
Princeton University
This book is a study, and indeed a critique, of the American policy towards the question of Palestine and towards Israel from 1945 to our days. Its chapters, which trace the developments in this policy throughout the years and under various American administrations, are organized according to the "pillars" of this policy: attitudes toward Zionism; the partition of Palestine; the Palestinian refugees; Israel's borders; the Palestinian people; Jerusalem; Jewish settlements in the occupied territories; and arms supplies to Israel. This thematic organization of the book provides a clear depiction of the subject matter while keeping it an interesting historical narrative of patterns and development in the U. S. policy in the Middle East. However, many of the developments in this policy are only cursorily analyzed, both in terms of internal and international politics. In addition, although the book is well documented, and the book's eighty pages of 23 appendices provide further documentation of the first decade of the period under study, it does not seem that Neff's research involved significant archival work, and the book is based largely on secondary material and on press reports. This is a conspicuous lacuna in any study of diplomatic history, especially since much information about the earlier years which are discussed in the book is available in American, Israeli and other archives.
The major argument which underlies the narrative and analysis of Neff's book is that the contradictions between the declared principles and actual policies of the United States towards Palestine/Israel, and the double standards applied in this policy harm America's interests and international image. Furthermore, Neff sees the American alliance with Israel as detrimental for the Palestinians and burdensome for the United States.
Overall, the book is an interesting and well documented perspective on the American policy in the Middle East and on Israeli-Palestinian relations, but it falls short of providing an insightful analysis of these issues.
Ronen Raz
Princeton University
Gaza, Sara Roy tells us in the introduction to her book, has been called "the forgotten man of the Middle East." Neglected by its occupiers and by the scholarship on the region, it suffered not only political oppression and economic havoc, but also was the subject of a disproportionally low number of studies. This important book not only amends the biases of scholarship, but also offers an insightful and rich study of the history of the Gaza Strip in the last century.
The main argument in the book, which is well captured in its subtitle, is that the years of Israeli occupation of Gaza (1967-1994) were a long process of de-development of the Strip's population, resources and infrastructure. Not a deliberate plan of its occupiers, but rather the result of Israeli policies which sought to secure control over the Gaza Strip, de-development was the result of nearly 30 years of Israeli occupation. Roy provides us with detailed and documented information about the process of de-development, supported by many figures and illuminating tables, and makes a convincing argument about the social and economic results of the Israeli occupation of Gaza.
The book's broad perspective and updated information (including a chapter on the Gaza-Jericho agreement) is not limited to the past thirty years. It includes very good background and historical chapters which discuss the development of Gaza and its economy until 1967, including the years of the British mandate and of Egyptian military administration, and an extensive bibliography of Gaza and its history. In addition, a strong theoretical chapter on questions of development and underdevelopment places the book's major argument in a proper theoretical context.
The sources for this study include Arab, Israeli and international materials, and in this sense provide a balanced and well-informed portrayal of Gaza and its history. One perspective which Roy could have devoted further attention to is that of the ordinary Gazans. Roy spent many months in the Gaza Strip conducting her research. She thanks many Gazans in her acknowledgments, and dedicates the book "to the camp people". Even though this is a book of political economy, the anthropological perspective which had evidently benefited Roy could have added an interesting new dimension to this study.
The above observation notwithstanding, the Gaza Strip is a fascinating, well researched, and convincing book, which is both important and interesting for anyone wishing to understand the present, past and maybe even the future of the Gaza Strip.
Ronen Raz
Princeton University
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