Suchergebnisse

In the dreamtime of oil : wealth and development in an anomalous time -- Now, the police only drive : remembering rule and disorder in Bahla -- In the eye of the neighbor, there is fire : hazards and histories of sociality -- Circles of knowledge : religious learning, pious pasts, and alternative sociality -- Senses of water : nostalgia, private ownership, and bodily privacy -- Becoming Bahlawi : race, genealogy, and the politics of Arabness -- Perhaps he has a son : succession, depletion, and the uncertain future

In January 1964, on the heels of its formal independence from Britain, the East African island of Zanzibar exploded in a violent uprising ousting the Al-Bu Saidi sultan—an Omani by descent—and his primarily "Arab" government. Though early reports of the revolution did not indicate targeted attacks against Arabs, it soon became clear that thousands of Arab-identified residents—settlers—were killed, mostly in rural areas.1 Others, including some families I came to know during my years in interior Oman, described being separated from their families or being captured and taken to detention camps, where they stayed a week or two before being reunited. Some found their way to these camps in search of relatives, shelter, and food.2 Decades later, the chaos and violence of that time was recounted to me with unnerving directness. Eventually, thousands of Arabs were deported or fled—to Kenya, Dubai and Abu Dhabi, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Muscat and Oman. Muscat, on the coast of Oman, was the seat of the other Al-Bu Saidi sultan—a cousin of the Zanzibar sultan—who had only recently taken control of "Oman proper," the territory of the Imamate whose ruler was now in exile in Saudi Arabia having been defeated in a war with the Sultan of Muscat. In the meantime, those leaving Zanzibar required ships and documents.

Trade, mobility, and the sea—as concepts and practices—have, in the last several years, been the focus of superb and fascinating scholarly work. This essay explores some of the themes and arguments linking, and dividing, a body of work that has reinvigorated and shifted conversations about the Middle East toward a recognition of the significance of the Arabian Peninsula and Indian Ocean for our understanding of colonial and economic history. As with any review, this one cannot be comprehensive; these texts are far too rich for these limited pages. Nevertheless, I aim to trace some of the main lines of inquiry of each monograph as well as to note some of the overlaps of and differences between their arguments and approaches.

Limbert's essay explores the notion of Arabness. It argues that Indian Ocean experiences, histories, and debates present an alternative perspective to the one dominant in Egypt, Iraq, and the Levant. In particular, it suggests that even as late as the twentieth century, Arabness in the Arabian Peninsula and Indian Ocean circuit, which had a different history from that of Northern Arabia, was conceived more as a caste-like or class notion than an ethnic or racial one. Certainly, at specific moments and in particular contexts, there is overlap between the caste and ethnic notions and, certainly, neither should be considered essential to identity in the Middle East. Nevertheless, Limbert contends, it is through attention to the Middle East's margins—that is, in this case, the Indian Ocean—that we might better understand the various meanings of, and shifts in, the notion of Arabness.

This volume explores the ways petroleum as an industry and substance has moulded the social, cultural and artistic life of the Middle East. Rather than tackle the powers of this crucial resource from the perspective of macro-economics, impersonal rentier states and large corporations, this book 'brings oil back' into the ebbs and flows of Middle Eastern life. It focuses on the ways petroleum mediates and is mediated by national formations and imaginaries, visual practices, as well as scientific, business and artistic production. In focusing on the largest oil producing and exporting region in the world, this volume sheds light on the effects and affects of petroleum's presence within and beyond the oil-industry.Part 1 - Exposing Oil sets out the main themes through which oil is analysed in the volume (visibility, experience, representation and mediation). Part 2 - Oil Images deals with image making by the oil industry (as graphs, aerial photographs and promotional media) and by artists and designers who have engaged with, and commented on, oil's presence in the region. Part 3 - Oil Subjects focuses on the production of (oil) subjecthood and the formation of oil knowledge.

Introduction : societies, identities and global issues / Paul Dresch --. - Channels of interaction : the role of Gulf-owned media firms in globalisation / Naomi Sakr --. - Dialect and national identity : the cultural politics of self-representation in Bahraini Musalsalāt / Clive Holes --. - Cultural construction, the Gulf and Arab London / Christa Salamandra --. - Transnational connections and national identity : Zanzibari Omanis in Muscat / Madawi Al-Rasheed --. - Neither autocracy nor democracy but ethnocracy : citizens, expatriates and the socio-political system in Kuwait / Anh Nga Longva --. - Debates on marriage and nationality in the United Arab Emirates / Paul Dresch --. - Public order and authority : policing Kuwait / Jill Crystal --. - Gender, religious knowledge and education in Oman / Mandana E. Limbert --. - Political actors without the franchise : women and politics in Kuwait / Haya al-Mughni, Mary Ann Tétreault --. - Managing God's guests : the pilgrimage, Saudi Arabia and the politics of legitimacy / James Piscatori

Studies how oil has shaped the societies and cultures of the modern and contemporary Middle EastProposes a new research agenda for the study of oil's varied lives in the modern and contemporary Middle EastIncludes 13 case studies, including 2 photo essays by leading artists and designersTakes a thematic approach to promote interdisciplinary thinkingPresents contributions from leading historians and anthropologists, world-renown artists, curators and designers, and younger scholars who are developing an outstanding research portfolio on oilThis volume explores the ways petroleum as an industry and substance has moulded the social, cultural and artistic life of the Middle East. Rather than tackle the powers of this crucial resource from the perspective of macro-economics, impersonal rentier states and large corporations, this book 'brings oil back' into the ebbs and flows of Middle Eastern life. It focuses on the ways petroleum mediates and is mediated by national formations and imaginaries, visual practices, as well as scientific, business and artistic production. In focusing on the largest oil producing and exporting region in the world, this volume sheds light on the effects and affects of petroleum's presence within and beyond the oil-industry.Part 1 – Exposing Oil sets out the main themes through which oil is analysed in the volume (visibility, experience, representation and mediation). Part 2 – Oil Images deals with image making by the oil industry (as graphs, aerial photographs and promotional media) and by artists and designers who have engaged with, and commented on, oil's presence in the region. Part 3 – Oil Subjects focuses on the production of (oil) subjecthood and the formation of oil knowledge

While the British were able to accomplish abolition in the trans-Atlantic world by the end of the nineteenth century, their efforts paradoxically caused a great increase in legal and illegal slave trading in the western Indian Ocean. Bringing together essays from leading authorities in the field of slavery studies, this comprehensive work offers an original and creative study of slavery and abolition in the Indian Ocean world during this period. Among the topics discussed are the relationship between British imperialism and slavery; Islamic law and slavery; and the bureaucracy of slave trading