Arabic and its alternatives: religious minorities and their languages in the emerging nation states of the Middle East (1920-1950)

"Arabic and its Alternatives discusses the complicated relationships between language, religion and communal identities in the Middle East in the period following the First World War. This volume takes its starting point in the non-Arabic and non-Muslim communities, tracing their linguistic and literary practices as part of a number of interlinked processes, including that of religious modernization, of new types of communal identity politics and of socio-political engagement with the emerging nation states and their accompanying nationalisms. These twentieth-century developments are firmly rooted in literary and linguistic practices of the Ottoman period, but take new turns under influence of colonization and decolonization, showing the versatility and resilience as much as the vulnerability of these linguistic and religious minorities in the region. Contributors are Tijmen C. Baarda, Leyla Dakhli, Sasha R. Goldstein-Sabbah, Liora R. Halperin, Robert Isaf, Michiel Leezenberg, Merav Mack, Heleen Murre-van den Berg, Konstantinos Papastathis, Franck Salameh, Cyrus Schayegh, Emmanuel Szurek, Peter Wien"--

Arabic and its Alternatives discusses the complicated relationships between language, religion and communal identities in the Middle East in the period following the First World War, taking its starting point in the non-Arabic and non-Muslim communities of the region. Readership: All those interested in the modern and contemporary history of the Middle East, in religious and linguistic minorities, in identity formation and nationalism and in the relationship between language and religion.

Preface / Heleen Murre-van den Berg -- Note on Transcription -- Notes on Contributors -- 1. Arabic and Its Alternatives: Language and Religion in the Ottoman Empire and Its Successor States / Heleen Murre-van den Berg -- 2. Vernacularization as Governmentalization: the Development of Kurdish in Mandate Iraq / Michiel Leezenberg -- 3. "Yan, Of, Ef, Viç, İç, İs, Dis, Pulos ...": the Surname Reform, the "Non-Muslims," and the Politics of Uncertainty in Post-genocidal Turkey / Emmanuel Szurek -- 4. "Young Phoenicians" and the Quest for a Lebanese Language: between Lebanonism, Phoenicianism, and Arabism / Franck Salameh -- 5. "Those Who Pronounce the Ḍād": Language and Ethnicity in the Nationalist Poetry of Fu'ad al-Khatib (1880-1957) / Peter Wien -- 6. Arabic and the Syriac Christians in Iraq: Three Levels of Loyalty to the Arabist Project (1920-1950) / Tijmen C. Baarda -- 7. Awakening, or Watchfulness: Naum Faiq and Syriac Language Poetry at the Fall of the Ottoman Empire / Robert Isaf -- 8. Global Jewish Philanthropy and Linguistic Pragmatism in Baghdad / Sasha R. Goldstein-Sabbah -- 9. Past Perfect: Jewish Memories of Language and the Politics of Arabic in Mandate Palestine / Liora R. Halperin -- 10. United by Faith, Divided by Language: the Orthodox in Jerusalem / Merav Mack --11. Arabic vs. Greek: the Linguistic Aspect of the Jerusalem Orthodox Church Controversy in Late Ottoman Times and the British Mandate / Konstantinos Papastathis -- 12. Between Local Power and Global Politics: Playing with Languages in the Franciscan Printing Press of Jerusalem / Leyla Dakhli --13. Epilogue / Cyrus Schayegh -- Index.