A Scholar of Popular Contemporary Islam on the Quest for ‘Truth’ in Damascus more

Syrian Studies Association ." Newsletter Volume XIII No. 2 wjnter 2008 Association News 2-3 400 Vears o/ Dutc/i- 4-5 Syrian Relations Culture and the 6-7 4rts Soc/ety and Religion 8-9 International Affairs History 10 11-12 Members of the Board President Peter Sluglett Secretary A. Higgins Member at Large Geoff Schad Student Member Hania Abou Al-Shamat Prize Committee Fred Lawson Webmaster Joshua Landis Newsletter Steve Tamari Book Reviews Andrea Stanton From the President Dear SSA Members, I am delighted to have been re-elected to a second (and final) term as President of the Syrian Studies Association. You may remember that we amended the bylaws in 2006 in order to pre- vent both the president and secretary being elected at the same time and for the same terms, in order to ensure a degree of continuity. Hence we will hold elections for the position of secretary this fall. I will serve until the end of the MESA meeting in 2010, at which the secretary du jour will have another year in office. The Association sponsored three panels at MESA in Montreal, all of high quality. I would like to express our gratitude to those who took part in them. The SSA recently issued a call for panel sponsorship for MESA 2008, which we hope will elicit a positive response. I should like to extend my since thanks to Annie Higgins for organising the various meetings in Mont- real and the reception, and for her sterling work as Secretary throughout the year. I am also grateful to Joshua Landis for his work on the SSA web- site. I should also like to thank Amr al-Azm for his stimulating talk on contem- porary Syria at the SSA reception, which prompted an informative and lively discussion. As some of you may know, we had approached Amr's father, Sadik al-Azm, who had agreed to come to Montreal but was unable to do so because his US visa was not issued in a timely fashion. Sadik al- Azm is spending this academic year at Princeton, and will be happy to visit other US universities while he is here. While difficult to evaluate with any degree of scientific precision from my armchair in Salt Lake City, it seems that there has been something of a thaw in US/Syrian relations. In any case, the tenor of these relations does not seem to affect the ability of graduate students and others to carry out research in Syria, where they continue to receive warm welcomes from their Syrian counterparts and colleagues. Steve Tamari has kindly taken over the editorship of the SSA's Newsletter, which will continue to be distributed in paper form for the time being but will soon only be available online. This will actually make it more accessi- ble, particularly to our members in the Middle East. I would like to thank Steve for his willingness to act as editor and also for his tactful prodding of the President into writing this note. Very best wishes to you all, Peter Sluglett (sluglett@aol.com) PAGE 2 SYRIAN STUDIES ASSOCIATION NEWSLETTER VOLUME XIII NO. 2 News of the Association and Members From the Newsletter Editor Dearest Syria Scholars, I am terribly sorry for not getting this issue of the newslet- ter out earlier. You should have had this in hand before the MESA meetings in November, 2007. Prof. Semerdjian's shoes are not easy to fill and I am still learning the ropes. My plan is to get two more issues out before this year's MESA. The next issue of the newsletter will probably appear elec- tronically. Please make sure that the Secretary/Treasurer has your current email address. If it is difficult for you to receive the newsletter by mail, let the Secretary/Treasurer know that as well. I need your help. Please send me articles (short is fine), suggestions for articles, letters to the editor, news of mem- bers, titles you'd like to see mentioned or reviewed in these pages, and any other material you can think of that might be of interest to scholars of Syria. We are especially interested in publishing articles in Arabic. Please encourage Syrian scholars to write for the newslet- ter. The Association's board agreed to offer free member- ships (and, thus, access to the newsletter) to scholars living in Syria. Please pass the word onto anyone interested and point them to our website at: http://www.ou.edu/ssa/ Though the editor bears ultimate responsibility for the pro- duction of the newsletter, a newsletter of an organization like ours depends in large part on the volunteer spirit. Finally, I would like to welcome our new Book Review Edi- tor Andrea Stanton who is currently a visiting professor at the American University of Beirut. Best wishes, Steve Tamari (stamari@siue.edu) Syria Scholar Earns Dissertation Recognition Prof. Sara Scalenghe (Georgetown University, 2007) earned an honorable mention from the 2007 Malcolm Kerr Disserta- tion Award (Middle East Studies Association) for her disser- tation titled "Being Different: Intersexuality, Blindness, Deafness, and Madness in Ottoman Syria". To quote the award committee: "The author is primarily interested in recovering the histories of "marginal" groups of people, "minorities that have been systematically absent from the, peripheralized within, the conventional historiog- raphy of the Middle East... The author carefully and appro- priately contextualizes such notions of human "defectiveness" as intersexuality (that is, hermaphrodi- tism), blindness, deafness, and mental illness (madness). Call for Nominations for Secretary Treasurer The current term of our indefatigable Secretary/Treasurer Annie Higgins is coming to an end. Please submit names of nominees to Geoff Schad (gschad@alb.edu) and ballots will be sent out with the next issue of the newsletter. Andrea Stanton: Book Review Editor We are honored to welcome Dr. Andrea Stanton as our new Book Review Editor. Dr. Stanton is Visiting Assistant Professor of History at the American University of Bei- rut. She earned her Ph.D. in History from Columbia Uni- versity (2007) with a disser- tation titled "A little radio is a dangerous thing: state broadcasting in Man- date Palestine". She has published several articles on the broadcasting and adver- tising history of the Levant. She has consistently contrib- uted book reviews on a vari- ety of topics for our news- letter. Any members, pub- lishers, authors, and or re- viewers should address in- quiries to Prof. Stanton at: as105@aub.edu.lb Join the Syrian Studies Association !!! Find all the details on-line at www.ou.edu/ssa or contact Secre- tary/Treasurer Annie Higgins at higginsuf@yahoo.com VOLUME XIII NO. 2 SYRIAN STUDIES ASSOCIATION NEWSLETTER PAGE 3 Former Syrian minister al- Zaim Supported Research on the Syrian Economy Prominent Syrian economist and former cabinet minister Issam al-Zaim December 14, 2007. He was 67. Al-Zaim was born in 1940 in Aleppo. He earned degrees in Po- litical Science and Economics at the Universite de Paris and defended his Doctorat d'Etat in Econmics in 1971 with a disserta- tion on national planning in oil-based economies. During the 1970s, he served as an economic advisor to the Na- tional Oil Company of Algeria and to Algeria's Ministry of Energy and Industry. During the 1980s and 1990s, he served in a variety of posts in United Nations organizations, including the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP). He spent extended periods in Vienna, New York, Sana', and Suva, Fiji and advised governments on issues related to energy technologies, sustain- able development, economic cooperation, and industrial devel- opment. In 2000, Al-Zaim was appointed Minister for Planning in the Syria's cabinet and the following year. Between 2001 and 2003, he served as Minister of Industry before losing his post when the government resigned in 2003. From 2003 until his death, he was Chair of the Board of the Syrian Economic Society, a scientific association promoting eco- nomic science and organising economic dialogue on Syria's eco- nomic and administrative reforms and human resources, techno- logical and educational modernisation, industrial modernisation and economic and social development. Since 2005, he also served as Director General of Arab Centre for Strategic Studies. In addition to his administrative career, Al-Zaim remained com- mitted to scholarship. He taught at universities in Mexico, Vene- zuela, Belgium, France, and Algeria. In addition to a host of stud- ies prepared for the UN, his publications include The Economy in the West Bank and Gaza Strip under Al-lntifada (Damascus: Min- istry of Culture, 1995) (in Arabic). Aleppo's Khan al-Wazir from a 19th-century photograph. Ottoman Aleppo Focus of Best Ar- ticle on Syria Prize At the November 2007 business meeting in Montreal, the asso- ciation's prize committee—made up of Fred Lawson, Geoffrey Schad and Annie Higgins--awarded the 2007 Article Prize to Heghnar Zeitlian Watenpaugh's "Deviant Dervishes: Space, Gender and the Construction of Antinomian Piety in Otto- man Aleppo," which was published in the International Jour- nal of Middle East Studies in 2005. The committee com- mended the essay for its meticulous reconstruction and careful analysis of the life and works of a prominent Sufi figure of the late sixteenth century, and for demonstrating the complex ways in which the memory and legacy of this figure were ap- propriated by the religious and political authorities in the years after his death. The article resurrects important epi- sodes of rebellious social action in Ottoman Aleppo in an inno- vative and stimulating way, and pushes the boundaries of the disciplines of social history, religious studies and urban stud- ies, while bringing to light crucial dimensions of the past that had been obscured or invisible. 2008 Dissertation Prize Submissions Sought In 2008, the Syrian Studies Association will award a prize for an outstanding doctoral dissertation com- pleted during the calendar years 2007 and 2008 that deals with a topic related to Syria. Anyone wishing to be considered for the prize should submit a print copy of the dissertation to the chair of the prize commit- tee: Fred Lawson, Department of Government, Mills College, Oakland, CA 94613. Prof. Lawson's email address is: lawson@mills.edu Submissions should arrive no later than 1 October 2008. The prize will be announced at the general busi- ness meeting of the SSA in Washington in November. PAGE 4 SYRIAN STUDIES ASSOCIATION NEWSLETTER VOLUME XIII NO. 2 400 Years of Syrian-Dutch Relations Book Review: 400 Years of the Dutch Consulate in Aleppo 1607-2007 Hussein I. El-Mudarris and Olivier Salmon, Les relations en- tre les Pays-Pas et la Syrie ottomane au XVIIs siecle. Les 400 ans du Consulat des Pays-Bas a Alep (1607-2007) (Aleppo, livralep@aol.com, 2007). 97 pages with bibliogra- phy; no index. Reviewed by Maurits H. van den Boogert When the first Dutch ship arrived off the Syrian coast at the end of the sixteenth century, the European nations which al- ready had a representative in Aleppo instantly realised that this would pose a formidable threat to their interests. Because the Dutch initially did not have privileges (ahdnames, known in the West as Capitulations) to conduct trade in the Ottoman Empire under their own flag, the French and the English both offered to "protect" the Dutch merchants, who had to pay consular fees to their hosts. The Ottomans were also aware of the potential significance of Dutch trade. Both the reference to the first vessel's arrival in the official chronicle of Naima and the speed with which the first Dutch ambassador was granted capitulations once his government had formally requested them in 1612 illustrate this. During the course of the seventeenth cen- tury, the Dutch rapidly became the dominant carriers of merchandise in the Mediterranean, while their position gradually declined after- wards due to political and commercial develop- ments. i?s relations entre les Pays-^Ba: et la Syte ottomane au XVII 'sikle lis K00 ans du Consulat des @aps-GBas d G%!ep (1BOT- 200T) dXiissim 3. •El-^'lu<liirris S: Qlivkr Salmon Five years before the Dutch obtained trade privileges of their own, the first Dutch consulate in the Ottoman Empire was established in Aleppo in 1607. This was almost two decades before their trade was organized in several councils of "Directors of the Levant Trade", the most important of which was established in Amsterdam in 1625. This means that the status of first Dutch consul in Aleppo, Aernout de Valee, effectively resembled that of mediaeval consuls, who principally acted as representatives of their local commu- nity of countrymen vis-a-vis the local Ottoman authorities. The capitulations gave the consul a stronger legal position, but only in the nineteenth century did Western consulates in the Ottoman Empire begin to look anything like modern diplomatic stations. This year the Dutch consulate in Aleppo celebrates its 400th anniversary, and it is on that occasion that the book un- der review was published. In just under one hundred pages, this beautifully illustrated volume covers four hundred years of Dutch-Syrian relations, with an emphasis on the seventeenth century. After a brief introduction about the genesis of the Dutch Republic, the reader is offered a concise survey of the earliest diplomatic relations in the sixteenth century. The dis- cussion of Amsterdam's development as a leading centre of international trade is subsequently mirrored by the section on Aleppo's economic importance (the ample illustrations visually strengthening the comparison). Then follow chapters on the earliest Dutch merchants in the Syrian city, and the state of Dutch trade there from 1603 until 1621. De Valee's appoint- ment is discussed in a separate chapter, followed by sections on the embassy of Cornell's Haga to Istanbul in 1612, the Ca- pitulations he was granted that year, and Haga's successors to the eighteenth century. The discussion then turns to the net- work of Dutch consulates which were established in the Levant from 1607 and to the consulate in Aleppo under Cornell's Pauw from 1613 to 1622. The reader is also offered a survey of the commodities in which the Dutch conducted trade in Aleppo, particularly cereals, spices and textiles. Sub- sequent chapters discuss the organisation and daily life of the Dutch community in the city, and the consulate's history during the rest of the seventeenth century. This is fol- lowed by a discussion of the cultural and academic contacts, focusing not only on the Dutch acquisition of Oriental manuscripts by scholars like Jacobus Golius, but also on prominent accounts of travel (e.g. Cornell's de Bruijn, and Olfert Dapper, who was, as the authors point out, a "fireside traveller" who relied exclusively on the accounts of others). The influence of "the Orient" on Dutch painting during its Golden Age and during the Ottoman Tulip Era is also dis- cussed. A brief outline of the consulate's history from the eighteenth century until the present concludes the historical survey. But the book does not end there, because it also offers several appendices. Besides a com- plete list of all Dutch consuls over the entire 400-year period, for example, it reproduces three pre-modern Western accounts of Aleppo - the last of which, by the inter- preter (dragoman) of the Dutch embassy in Istanbul, Gaspard Testa, dates from 1754 and is published here for the first time. This book is a valuable addition to the literature on the Otto- man Empire's relations with Europe in general, and on Dutch- Syrian relations in particular. So far, scholarly attention has focused on a limited number of diplomatic and commercial aspects, and surveys of larger periods are scarce. The authors should also be commended for spelling the vast majority of Dutch names correctly, which is an accomplishment, consider- ing the often exotic orthography found in both the sources and the literature. Moreover, the work under review offers new details about the background of the first Dutch consul in Aleppo, and the list of consuls through the ages (which was only partly available so far) in the appendix will be valuable for researchers who do not read Dutch. The list contains the (Continued on page IS) VOLUME XIII NO. 2 SYRIAN STUDIES ASSOCIATION NEWSLETTER PAGE 5 Reflections on the Occasion of the 400th Anniversary of the Dutch Consulate in Aleppo Ambassador Nikolaos van Dam The following is the text of a lecture delivered by Ambassador Nikolaos van Dam in Aleppo on October 31, 2007 on the occasion of the 400th anniversary of the establishment of a Dutch consu- late in Aleppo. Ambassador Van Dam is currently ambassador of the Netherlands in Indonesia. In addition to his diplomatic service, he has had a distinguished career as an academic. He is best known as author of the seminal The struggle for power in Syria: Sectarianism, regionalism, and tribalism in politics, 1961-1978 2nd ed. (1979). The Syrian Studies Association thanks Dr. van Dam for sharing this lecture with us. Aleppo severed from its hinterland Some 400 years ago, when the first consul of the Netherlands was officially appointed to Aleppo, we Syrian and Dutch started the long bilateral rela- tionship that we celebrate to- day. The journey from Amsterdam to Aleppo cannot have been an easy one at the time, if only because of the more limited means of transportation, the prevailing dangers, and the risky circumstances. But, on the more positive side, within the Ottoman Empire fewer political and state boundaries had to be crossed than ob- struct our movements today. Although geographically the same, the socio-economic lo- cation of the city of Aleppo has changed since then. Aleppo had not yet been cut off from its natural hinterland as it is today, due to the boundaries set after the First World War and under the sub sequent French and British Mandates. In Arab nationalist literature, Syria is described as a coun- try which has been severed from her hinterland, and thereby has become a limbless trunk. Aleppo is a clear ex- ample of this phenomenon. It is self evident to whomever looks at the political map of Syria of today that there are intensive contacts between Aleppo and Damascus, both socially and in the field of trade or economics. But when looking at older maps, it turns out that trade routes ran quite differently and that, as a result, contacts between Detail of an 18th-century Dutch map (in Italian) showing Aleppo. From El-Mudarris and Salmon, Les relations entre les Pays-Pas et la Syrie (see review on the facing page. Aleppo and Mosul where even more intensive than those between Aleppo and Damascus. Towns like Mardin, 'Ayntab and Harran, let alone Iskenderun-all now within Turkey-were still part of the natural Aleppan network. State boundaries and ethnic boundaries My first journey to Syria over land from Am- sterdam to Aleppo in 1964 was certainly much shorter and more comfortable than that of the first Dutch consuls and tradesmen more than four centuries ago. I traveled by train from Amsterdam to Istanbul with what used to be called the Orient Express, and from there I continued with a Turkish bus to Iskenderun. In this Mediterranean harbor city I was con- fronted with the fact that state boundaries do not always coincide with ethnic bounda- ries. I was pleasantly surprised when hearing people speaking Arabic for the first time. I noted with some excitement that this oc- curred before I had even crossed the interna- tional Turkish-Syrian border at Bab al-Hawa. Although the Arabic speaking people I met in Iskenderun officially resided in the Republic of Turkey, I considered them to be Arabs because of their mother tongue. But in Turkey they were, according to the Kemalist tradition, officially categorized as "Turks", as any reference to ethnicity was rejected at the time. Only more recently has it become acceptable in Turkey to refer to, for in- stance, "Turks of Arab ethnic origin", "Turks of Kurdish eth- nic origin", "Turks of Armenian ethnic origin", and so on. Syrians who have been brought up with an Arab nationalist education, which means almost all Syrians, may be surprised to find out that members of today's Arabic-speaking minor- ity in Iskenderun, consider themselves to be "Turks" of Arab (Continued on page 16) PAGE 6 SYRIAN STUDIES ASSOCIATION NEWSLETTER VOLUME XIII NO. 2 Culture and the Arts Gender Trouble in "Bab al-Hara II" by Elyse Semerdjian Ramadan is an exciting time for TV viewers across the Middle East and this season is no exception. There are so many pro- grams for viewers to choose from such as the epic biography "King Farouq," that features Syrian actor Taim Hassan as the Egyptian monarch and "Saqaf al-'Alam" [Top of the World] that presents the travels of Ibn Fadlan told against the back- drop of a Syrian graduate student whose thesis project is to translate the twelfth-century traveler's writings while studying in Denmark during the protests over the Danish cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad. But, the talk of Damascus and the Arab World is "Bab al-Hara II," the second in a series of tales from a fictitious Damascene old quarter called "Harat al- Dab'" [Quarter of the Hyena] during the French Mandate pe- riod. The series has been pro- claimed the most popular Rama- dan series of 2007. The story features the central character, the Barber Abu 'Issam (Abbas al-Nouri), who enjoys a life of prestige as the brother-in- law of the leader (za'im) of the quarter, Abu Shihab (Samer al-Masri). The basic conflict in the series begins with gender trouble between two households who are linked together by marriage. Abu 'Issams' wife Suad (Sabah al-Jaza'iri) and her neighbor Fariyal (Wafa' Mussali), whose children are married, despise each other. Eventually, a very public brawl erupts between the two women. The hu- miliation caused by Su'ad's confrontation with the neighbor embarrasses Abu 'Issam to the point that he scolds his wife. Su'ad, a strong and vocal woman, tosses some fateful words at her husband, one of many previous conflicts between the cou- ple, and her husband responds with a single verbal divorce. This divorce initiates an endless cycle of misery throughout the Ramadan month not only in the household but throughout the entire quarter. female resident after overhearing thieves in the middle of the night who plan to raid her home not only for goods but, possi- bly, to rape her as well. The thieves plan to dress like women in a full face covering, in order to conceal their identity. Abu 'Issam begins to communicate with the woman whose house is targeted. It is then that his ever so observant neighbors, not knowing the full story, believe Abu 'Issam is a womanizer. His reputation, and that of his family, is tanished. Soon, news of his divorce spreads through a ring of gossip throughout the entire community, beginning with the women and, later, through the community of men. Abu 'Issam's daughter's fi- ance breaks their engagement after being pressured by his family to distance himself from the family because of the stigma of a divorced mother-in-law. Abu 'Issam son's worsen- ing relations with his wife, especially as the conflict between his mother and mother-in law set off the initial problems in the quarter, ends their marriage. Ultimately, Abu 'Issam is pushed to extremes when his brother-in-law takes his wife Su'ad to his house making reconciliation even more difficult. WwW.JoreYat.Ner A scene from "Bab al-Hara II" After this divorce, contrary to the standard practices of the quarter, Abu 'Issam refuses to kick his ex-wife out of the house and sleeps in his shop, presumably because it is haram for him to live under the same roof. Soon, neighbors start to suspect Abu 'Issam of wrongdoing, especially as he takes interest in a Abu 'Issam also makes things worse for himself as he is often by him- self, brooding, rather than informing his neighbors about his di- vorce, and even worse, about the thieves roam- ing the hara. As uniden- ' tifed veiled women walk through the hara, Abu 'Issam follows them sus peering them of crime, yet every time he does, the watchful eyes of the shopkeepers confirm their suspicions of his lechery. Finally, in a moment of misplaced suspicion he yanks the full face veils from the heads of two women to dish out the final humiliation to himself and the hara, an act which results in near war between two quarters. "Bab al-Hara II" is an imaginary Damascus, a nostalgic journey to a day when honor, reputation and manhood were supreme. The serial is filmed on a set designed to look like the old city of Damascus. Each home is laden with beautiful objects of priceless value, including inlaid mother-of-pearl chairs, tables, and cabinets. Many people I have discussed the program with view it as an authentic representation of Damascus and its traditions, and many Syrian serials have been using this genre as it invokes a sort of historical pride in its viewers. For the historian, however, it's much less historical as the line be- tween the imaginary and the factual is blurred. Part of Abu (Continued on page 14) VOLUME XIII NO. 2 SYRIAN STUDIES ASSOCIATION NEWSLETTER PAGE 7 "Ambivalent Nostalgias" Electronic Arts Journal Explores Middle Eastern Nostalgias with Special Refer- ence to Syria Old Damascus Restaurant, Hala at-Faisat, 2003 ArteEast is a non-profit organization established in 2003 to present contemporary Middle-Eastern artists to a wide audi- ence in order to foster a more complex understanding of the region's arts and cultures and to promote artistic excellence. Their Fall 2007 feature was edited by Syria scholar Christa Salamandra (Dept. of Anthropology, Lehman College, City Uni- versity of New York) and titled "Ambivalent Nostal- gias" [ http: //www. a rteeast. org/pages/a rtenews/nosta Igias] Nostalgia permeates literary and expressive culture in the Arab world. Exile, loss, defeat, rupture find expression in a variety of cultural forms, in song, prose and poetry, on the big and small screen, and in restaurants and cafes. Nostalgia reflects all the paradoxes and contradictions of Arab modernity. It appears as an expression of power and powerlessness. It serves as a mode of inclusion and exclusion. It links personal to social, even monumental memory. It is both urbane and pastoral. It emerges in reluctant, subversive Proustian remi- niscence of childhood sweets, "like a fire that'll never go out." It critiques capitalism and globalization, although it is itself an idea, and a commodified practice drawn from a global marketplace. It is voiced from exile, and but also from those who never left, but feel that something crucial has left them. The issue includes these articles of interest to students of Syria: "Nostalgia Commodified: Old Damascus" by Christa Salamander; "Constructing Musical Authenticity: History, Cul- tural Memory, Emotional-Matla' " by Jonathan Shannon; "A Damascene Mosaic: On Nostalgic Longing and Monumentalism in Ghada Samman's "The Impossible Novel" " by Shareah Taleghani; "Damascus, What Are You Doing to Me?" by Nizar Qabbani, translated by Shareah Taleghani; "A Pound of 'Awwamat (1) and Some Syrup" by Suhail Shadoud, translated by Marlin Dick; and "Cannons of the Past" by Najeeb Nusair, translated by Christa Salamandra and Suhail Shadoud. New Books on Syria The following books are recent publications brought to the attention of the Book Review Editor. If you know of new books of interest to scholars of Syria or if you are interested in reviewing these or other books, please contact, Andrea Stanton, Book Review Editor, at as 105@aub.edu.lb Atallah, Athnasiyus, Yawmiyat mutran Hims lil-Rum al- Urthudhuks, 1881-1891. Edited by Nihad Munir Sam'an. Beirut: Dar al-Nahas, 2006. Aqili, Talal al. Al-Jami' al-Umawi fi-Dimashq. Damascus: Euro- pean Union Delegation to Syria, 2007. Brandell, Inga. ed., State Frontiers. Borders and Boundaries in the Middle East. London: I.B. Tauris, 2006. This book includes a number of the articles focusing on Syria and the Syrian- Turkish border area. Balamand University, Min dhikra al-mu'arrikh Ha tashakkul al- dhakirah: a'mal al-halaqah al-dirasiyah hawlaAsad Rustum (Al-Kurah: Manshurat Jami'at al-Balamand, 2004). Burayk, Mikha'il. Al-Haqa'iq al-wafiyah fi ta'rikh batarikah al-kanisah al-Antakiyah. Ed. Na'ilah Taqi al-Din Qa'idbayh. Beirut: Dar al-Nahar, 2006. Burayk (d. c. 1720 CE), an Orthodox priest of Damascus, is best known for his chronicle of the 18th century, Ta'rikh al-Sham. This work is a history of the patriarchate of Antioch from the time of St. Peter to the tenure of Makariyus Za im (1767 -1791 CE.) In addition to Burayk's text, this edition includes a forward by Burayk scholar Hayat al-'ld Bu 'alwan; a critique of an earlier (1903) edition; a description of three of five manuscript versions; three appendices including an essay on the Melkite patriarchate of Antioch by Bu alwan, a list of the patriarchs of Antioch, a list of Byzantine emperors, and a chronology of the patriarchate; references; and an index. Chehabi, H.E. Distant Relations: Iran and Lebanon in the last 500 years.London: I.B. Tauris, 2005. (Continued on page 15) PAGE 8 SYRIAN STUDIES ASSOCIATION NEWSLETTER VOLUME XIII NO. 2 Society and Religion A Scholar of Popular Contemporary Islam On the Quest for "Truth" in Damascus By Edith Szanto Ali-Dib "What do you mean by that?" is a common reaction when I tell someone that I study "contemporary popular Islam." To an- swer the question, I usually explain that I examine the role of Islam in everyday life. Ideally, of course, Islam penetrates every aspect of a Muslim's life - and when something goes wrong, many blame "culture" or "tradition," rather than "religion." Others resort to "self-interest theory" and argue that a particular person did something even if the action is technically contrary to Islam because of "self-interest." How- ever, the assumption that an individual acts solely upon "self- interest" ignores the regulatory force of the norm and how subjects negotiate with power and its effects. While Pierre Bourdieu has been critiqued for over-emphasizing the role of structure, I find his contributions helpful in highlighting the various ways in which people negotiate with power and its effects. Specifically, Bourdieu argues that people act accord- ing to their "habitus," an acquired set of dispositions, in ways that reflect their socio-economic circumstances and increase their (potential for) economic, social and symbolic capital.1 Thinking with Bourdieu then, about how people act in accor- dance with local norms in ways that benefit them, helps ex- plain why some Muslims "use Islam" as a form of (potential) social and symbolic capital when furthering their self-interests even when they are actually acting contrary to "authoritative" interpretations of Islam. The following account exemplifies this notion. It is an anec- dote that has been adapted from my fieldwork notes and it highlights how some Muslims appeal to Islamic norms in an attempt to increase their symbolic capital even when the "authoritative" Islamic norm actually endorses an opposing action. In other words, it exemplifies how a subject can dis guise his or her self-interest in an attempt to also gain sym- bolic and social forms of capital. A young Midani woman, Samia, had just given birth to her sec- ond child. Samia's first-born, a lovely little angel named Rafa, had just celebrated her first birthday. I came to visit Samia a few days after the delivery, while she was still weak and tired, recovering from her pregnancy and from giving birth twice in a relatively short period of time. Talking about this and that, she complained to me about her husband's unwillingness to help with changing her baby-girl's diapers. Even though it was physically difficult for Samia to stand and lift one-year-old 1 Pierre Bourdieu, Outline of a Theory of Practice, translated by Rich- ard Nice (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1977), 78-79, 76-77. Rafa, her husband Amer refused to help. He cited a friend of his who said it is makrukh or "hated" for the father to change an infant girl's diapers, because he would be looking at her 'awra, at her private parts. Amer said that he believed this friend, because he was a "good Muslim" and was studying to become an imam, a Sunni Friday prayer leader. According to Annebelle Bottcher, Syrian mosque-teachers, preachers and prayer leaders need little more than having at- tained the age of twenty-one and a degree from a religious secondary school.2 The friend, therefore, could have been simply studying for his secondary school diploma - or he could have been attending one of the religious universities in Damas cus (e.g. the Abu Nur Islamic Foundation) or even the Univer- sity of Damascus for a BA in Islamic Law. In any event, having studied Islamic Law myself, I disputed this soon-to-be shaykh's claim. I argued that for a prepubescent child and certainly for a one-year-old baby, 'awra is of no con- sequence. Also, as her father, he is exempt in certain respects anyways.3 However, unlike the soon-to-be imam, I proved to be less than credible. Amer told me that my credentials were inadequate, because I lack "normative Islamic (and especially Midani) virtues." I do not usually wear hi jab (a headscarf) and since "Islamic knowledge" (that is, 'Urn) is intimately tied to its performance, Amer did not believe me.4 So, I began searching the Internet for "Internet fatwas." I even found some that allowed fathers to change a female baby's diapers and I thought this would convince Amer.5 How- ever, this was not case. When I showed Amer a print-out of the internet fatwa, he retorted that he would not believe in anything from the Internet. He would only consider materials from Syrian sources. "Very well," I thought to myself and a few days later, headed for the Wizarat al-Awqaf, the Ministry for Religious Endow- (Continued on page 9) Annabelle Bottcher, Syrische Religionspolitik unterAsad (Freiburg: Arnold Bergstrasser Institut, 1998), 93. 3See, for example: Ahmad Ibn Naqib al-Misri, Reliance of the Traveler, translated by Nuh Ha Mim Keller (Beltsville, MD: Amana Publications, 1994), 93, 411-412, 550. 4See also: Frederick M. Denny, "Islamic Ritual: Perspectives and Theo- ries," in Approaches to Islam in Religious Studies, edited by Richard C. Martin (Oxford: OneWorld Publications, 1985), 63-64. 5 See also: Frederick M. Denny, "Islamic Ritual: Perspectives and Theo- ries," in Approaches to Islam in Religious Studies, edited by Richard C. Martin (Oxford: OneWorld Publications, 1985), 63-64. VOLUME XIII NO. 2 SYRIAN STUDIES ASSOCIATION NEWSLETTER PAGE 9 (Continued from page 8) merits. The Ministry is located just below the Maysat Square in an imposing building. On my first visit, I met the head of religious education. He was sitting in an office with two tables, one for him and one for his assistants. He was busy sorting papers and talking on the phone, but he found a few minutes for me and so I asked him about the case. The head of religious education agreed with me in general, but criti- cized me for not wearing a scarf and suggested I bring Samia and her husband with me to discuss the matter. Of course, I knew that neither Samia nor Amer would ever come and so I asked about how to proceed in order to obtain a proper fatwa. I was told that the HanafT Mufti of Damascus, Shaykh 'Abd al-Fattah al-Bizm, would be in his office down the hall on certain days and that I would have to come with a written request. So, I went home, sat down and drafted the question (in Arabic): Can a husband change the diapers of his baby girl (barely more than a year old), considering that the mother is still weak from a recent pregnancy and delivery? With the printed question in hand, I returned to the minis- try. The Mufti's office was larger than that of the head of religious education. His broad desk faced the door and book- shelves lined his walls. Behind the Mufti, a spacious window allowed us, the visitors, to enjoy a spectacular view of the mountain while we sat and waited in line. My Fatwa f^.jl\ j**jll jit uuJ l>J< ji V-aJl ^J) Laii] JL, p'j^l! AjUJIj ttitV^J f ji; ,jf "»l ji" ^ ^ ^ JlilaVL j i. ii.yj ^Jiu jjxjI jj rJii '—3—=1 t'jj L^il JjfriJ <^jli J) 11 " ■'- °- ^ JjyiJ t> T^^X? -_iLi-Sf ^'-^1 UiiL ^ ji jjLLit -i'^ijLii. jl ,1 ja, Ajl (-5^*-= J* ; Ip&^hl lj; uibJl j ^jji'-l^ .Jiiall JijiJI .iijij Jj---11 jSywll jrf r V*- ■ 4 copy of Ed/th Szanto Ali-Dib's fatwa on the admissibility of a father changing his daughter's diaper. Most of those in line before me did not ask for written fatwas. They came to ask orally for legal counsel and advice. One man, for instance, asked: "Can I take my wife back? I 'accidentally' divorced her for the third time when I came home yesterday and she wasn't there. She was at the grocery store and I got angry - but I didn't mean it!" When it was my turn, I was first questioned regarding my own "morals," but as the conversation progressed, it turned out that the HanafT Mufti of Damascus had been at Samia and Amer's wedding! Like the head of religious education, the Mufti of Damascus asked to see Samia and her husband personally, but I replied that I just wanted a written fatwa, knowing that neither hus- band nor wife would ever actually come to the Ministry, at (Continued on page 15) PAGE 1 0 SYRIAN STUDIES ASSOCIATION NEWSLETTER VOLUME XIII NO. 2 International Affairs Book Review Iranian-Syrian Relations Jubin M. Goodarzi, Syria and Iran: Diplomatic Alliance and Power Politics in the Middle East. London: Tauris Academic, 2006. 294 pp., notes and bibliography to p. 347. Reviewed by Fred Lawson Syria's strategic alignment with the Islamic Republic of Iran has played a crucial role in the international relations of the Mid- dle East for more than three decades. It nevertheless looked puzzling from the very beginning. Not only was the Syrian po- litical leadership resolutely secularist during the late 1970s, but it also confronted a severe challenge from an armed Islamist movement whose primary constituency mirrored the coalition of social forces that succeeded in overturning the Iranian monarchy in 1978-79. Yet it was during these years that Damascus and Tehran forged a partnership that marked a watershed in regional diplomacy. Furthermore, ties between the two states strengthened--rather than diminished-during the turbulent 1980s, even though Damascus and Tehran spon- sored rival Shi'i movements in Lebanon and adopted sharply divergent positions toward the Palestine Liberation Organiza- tion. No wonder Yair Hirschfeld in an important 1986 essay called Ba'thi Syria and the Islamic Republic "the odd couple." Jubin Goodarzi provides us with a remarkably detailed and sophisticated survey of this pivotal but puzzling alliance. The history of the partnership is divided into three successive phases: an initial period in which Damascus and Tehran re- placed animosity with collaboration (February 1979-May 1982); the moment that the alliance exercised its greatest influence on regional affairs (June 1982-March 1985); and the subse- quent era of stagnation and deterioration (March 1985-August 1988). One notices immediately that the eventful years after the Iran-Iraq war came to an end in the summer of 1988 stand outside the main body of the text. A nine-page closing chapter attempts to bring the story up to the present, but this brief epilogue pales in comparison to the rich narrative that covers the 1980s. Goodarzi situates significant shifts in Syrian-Iranian relations in the context of broader developments throughout the Middle East. Consequently, a good deal of attention is devoted to Syria's dealings with Israel, the Palestinians, Iraq, Jordan and the Soviet Union, as well as to Iran's interactions with Iraq, Hizbullah and the United States. There is no question that trends in all of these relationships had some impact on the alliance between Syria and Iran. But bringing so many periph- eral dynamics into the story risks clouding the central picture, and requires that the author take pains to spell out the spe- cific ways in which, say, a shift in Syrian-Iraqi relations shaped the course or intensity of Syrian-Iranian co-operation. All too often, the linkage between extra-alliance and intra-alliance dynamics is left for the reader to extrapolate. At the outset, Goodarzi stipulates that the book will ignore domestic political factors in explaining Syrian-Iranian affairs, partly because "secretive decision making even now makes it difficult to ascertain what various members of the Syrian and Iranian leadership really think" and partly due to the fact that "the available evidence and the authoritarian nature of the Syrian Ba'thist and Iranian Islamist systems suggest that domes- tic opinion was never taken into account" (p. 6). Fair enough. It is perfectly legitimate to decide that for analytical purposes one is going to concentrate on one set of causal variables to the exclusion of others. But scattered throughout the text is clear evidence that domestic factors did play an important part in determining various aspects of the alliance. Shortly after the Iranian revolution, Damascus opted to make over- tures to Tehran rather than to Baghdad as a result of simmer- ing tensions between two leading figures of the Ba'thi leader- ship (p. 18). Meanwhile, "the struggle in the Tehran govern- ment between pragmatic and radical elements over whether to export the Islamic revolution or to pursue its goals at home had a direct impact on the country's foreign relations" (p. 24). Immediately after the September 1980 Iraqi invasion of Khuzestan, Syrian President Hafiz al-Asad "refused to give Iran public support or to conduct military exercises in the east, for fear of the political repercussions it would have on the regime both domestically and regionally" (p. 33). And so on. Instead of simply asserting that internal factors are insignificant, it might have been more convincing to spell out ways that do- mestic politics combined with systemic dynamics to shape the alliance. Readers who care more about the twists and turns of Syrian- Iranian relations than they do about scholarly debates in inter- national relations will not mind that the conceptual issues con- cerning alliance formation, maintenance and bargaining that are raised in the introduction are never mentioned again. Even such readers, however, may find it odd that the last page of the chapter that deals with the period from June 1982 to March 1985 lists six distinct reasons why "the Islamic Republic of Iran cooperated with the Syrian Arab Republic" and another six reasons why "the Syrian Arab Republic [pursued] the liaison with the Islamic Republic of Iran" (p. 132), since these twelve arguments are not used to structure the preceding empirical material. As Ed McMahon used to say on the old Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, "this book tells you everything there is to know" about the Syrian-Iranian alliance, at least for the first ten years. Now if only someone, maybe even Jubin Goodarzi (Continued on page 15) VOLUME XIII NO. SYRIAN STUDIES ASSOCIATION NEWSLETTER PAGE 1 1 History Book Review Land, Law, and Ownership in Ottoman 'Ajlun Martha Mundy and Richard Saumarez Smith. Governing property, making the modern state: law, administration and production in Ottoman Syria. London and New York: LB. Tauris, 2007. Pb. 306 + XIII. Reviewed Abdul-Karim Rafeq This book offers a detailed study about Ottoman jurisprudence concerning ownership of agricultural land in southern Syria, more specifically in the district of 'Ajlun in Jordan in the pe- riod between 1830 and the First World War. The book is the product of years of research and constitutes a major contribu- tion to studies on Ottoman modernization regarding the rela- tionship between government administration, landownership and social groups. The authors divide the book into three parts: part one deals with Ottoman jurisprudence concerning ownership of land; part two discusses the administration of property in one dis- trict of the empire, namely the district of 'Ajlun; and part three focuses on governing property at the state, village, and household levels. In part one, the authors sketch a genealogy of nineteenth-century law governing miri (from amir, state) land after taking account of the legal changes that had oc- curred in the three preceding centuries. During this period, which Hanafi law, the official school of law of the Ottoman state, had adjusted itself to economic change and to involve- ment by the other Sunni schools to balance the rigidity of the Hanafi madhhab. Against this legal background, the authors focus in part two on the political administration of the district of 'Ajlun which was part of the province of Syria. They highlight the central role of regional elites who mediated the demands of the central gov- ernment with the social dynamics of agricultural production and village reproduction. To test the degree to which adminis- trative regulations regarding private property—as prescribed in the land code of 1858, the 1880 tapu registration, and the 1895 tax register - were applied, the authors on contrasting Governing Property, Making the Modern State Law, Admin tetration and Production in Ottoman Syria Martha Mundy and Richard Saumarez Smith systems of production. They choose two plain villages, Bait Ra's and Hawwara, and two hill villages, Kufr 'Awan and Khan- zira. Using land and civil registers, Islamic courts records, ca- dastral surveys, and field visits, the authors come to the con- clusion that the nineteenth-century Ottoman state chose to individualize the right to agricultural land and to restrict vil- lage management to a category of land (metruka in the 1858 law) and offices (guards, headmen) for village service. The previous legal basis for recognition of internal right-holding groups (halit ve serik) was simultaneously eliminated. The authors' final conclusion is that, "The Ottoman reforms proceeded by building an increasingly unified status of prop- erty-owning subject, wherein neither gender nor religion was relevant to accession or devolution. Subjects belonged to vil- lages and towns, but as property owners their legal personality was not that of a gendered man or woman nor of religious con- fession or other social identification ('tribe')." (p. 235) This book, based on a wide range of Arabic, Turkish and Euro (Continued on page 15) PAGE 1 2 SYRIAN STUDIES ASSOCIATION NEWSLETTER VOLUME XIII NO. 2 Book Review Men of the Pen in Ottoman Damascus Muhannad Ahmad Salim al-MubayyidTn, Ahl al-qalam wa dawru-hum fi al-hayah al-thaqafiyya fi madfnat Dimashq, 1121/1708-1172/1758 [Men of the Pen and their Role in the Cultural Life of the City of Damascus, 1121/1708- 1172/1758]. Damascus: IFPO, 2005. 532 pages, Euro 20. Reviewed by Dana Sajdi The historical significance of the Ottoman * ulama' is receiving increasing attention from modern scholars. Members of this critical group occupied a special position in society (as jurists, judges, teachers, sermonists), were involved in a complicated relationship with the state (as both its legitimizers and critics, and as beneficiaries of its largesse), and exercised general discursive and cultural hegemony. Along with Madeline Zilfi's classic work on the Istanbul ilmiye (Istanbul educational and judicial hierarchy) and Steve Tamari's dissertation on educa- tion in Damascus in the 18th century, a slew of recent mono- graphs and dissertations on Ottoman *ulama' have appeared in both English and German.1 From the Arabophone academy, the relatively recent book by Muhannad al-MubayyidTn is a Hercu- lean contribution. Al-MubayyidTn attempts nothing less than a comprehensive survey of the academic-judicial and religious institutions of 18th-century Damascus, their members and the literary produc- tion associated with them. Aside from Islamic institutions, al- MubayyidTn takes the laudatory step of including education and educational institutions in the Christian (but not the Jewish) community. Thus, the confusing term "ahl al-qalam" (men of the pen) in the title of the book does not here carry its usual Ottoman meaning of "bureaucrats", but includes any institu- tion or production associated with learned culture and the judiciary. Al-MubayyidTn's own (and rather imprecise) defini- 1 Madeline Zilfi, The Politics of Piety: The Ottoman Ulema in the Post- classical Age (1600-1800) (Minneapolis: Bibliotheca Islamica, 1988); Stephen Tamari, "Teaching and Learning in 18th-Century Damascus: Localism and Ottomanism in an Early Modern Arab Society," (Ph.D. Diss., Georgetown University,1998). For example, Denise Klein, Die osmanischen Ulema des 17. Jahrhunderts: Eine geschlossene Gesell- schaft? (Berlin: Klaus Schwarz 2007); and Ash Niyazioglu, "Ottoman Sufi Sheikhs Between the World and the Hereafter: A Study of Nev'Tzade 'Ata'T's (1583-1635) Biographical Dictionary," (Ph.D. Diss., Harvard University, 2002). tion of ahl al-qalam is "the group of teachers, prayer-leaders, sermonists and scribes, who occupied religious and educational positions for which they received remuneration from endow- ments, gifts from governors, and student tuition fees. We also find them in different positions such as judgeships, positions of ifta', the naqabat al-ashraf, and endowment administration. The same applies to the heads of Sufi orders who had been appointed in religious and educational positions...[and] includ- ing those military leaders who left their military positions and responsibilities to accompany Sufis, teachers, and the literari, and to themselves become poets, Sufis, and teachers" (p. 22). In other words, what al-MubayyidTn really means is that the category of ahl al-qalam includes almost anyone who has ap- peared in al-MuradT's Silk al-durar (the most important bio- graphical dictionary in the 18th century).2 To them, al- MubayyidTn adds Christian teachers. The imprecision of the definition is reflective of a general analytical deficiency in the book. But, the project is intended to be more of a statistical, quantitative and comprehensively informative nature than to be analytical or theoretical (although these should not neces- sarily be mutually exclusive). The first chapter of the book, all 98 pages of it, deals with the staggering range of sources utilized in the study. Al- MubayyidTn surveys documentary sources, ranging from the judicial court records of Damascus (between the years 1708- 1758), to endowment deeds, to Sultanic orders, to family pa- pers and genealogies (preserved in al-Asad library), to monas- tery and church documents and records. Further, the author peruses literary sources, such as the abovementioned bio- graphical dictionary by al-Muradi, several thabats (lists of one's teachers) and ijazas (licenses to transmit books), a cou- ple of chronicles, European travelogues, collections of fatawa, poetry and sermons, and even public inscriptions. In discussing this truly impressive range of sources, the author goes beyond the requisites of his own research project to offer the field an invaluable service. Not only does he catalogue the court re- cords of the period in question (table 4, p. 4), but breaks down the topics treated in the variety of legal cases registered in al- MTdan court (one of the eight functioning judicial courts in 18th-century Damascus) and calculates their proportions (table 3, p. 35). The same is done for a sample of 4,615 cases regis- tered across different courts (table 5, pp. 37-38). Another invaluable contribution is the author's identification of the sources utilized by al-MuradT in his compilation of Silk al-durar (pp. 63-70), thus providing a genealogy of this all-important biographical dictionary. As one of the most extensive intro- ductions and discussions of sources for 18th century Damascus, the first chapter alone makes the book worth purchasing by every student of Ottoman Syria. But, more pleasant surprises (and some frustrations) await the reader in the subsequent chapters. The second chapter treats the institutions of "culture and knowledge" and surveys mosques, colleges, maktabs (primary (Continued on page 13) 2 Khalil al-Muradi, Silk al-durar fTa'yan al-qarn al-tham 'ashar, (Cairo: Daral-Kitab al-lslamT, n. d.). VOLUME XIII NO. 2 SYRIAN STUDIES ASSOCIATION NEWSLETTER PAGE 1 3 (Continued from page 12) schools), Sufi zawiyas (lodges), public and private libraries, literary salons, and churches and monasteries. For each sub- section, the author provides whatever information he is able to unearth, including funding and maintenance of the institutions when relevant, the conditions and income sources of teachers and students, curricula and academic calendars. The discus- sion is often rather superficial, but the strength of the chapter lies in the location and tabulation of the functioning educa- tional and religious institutions of the period. The judiciary and bureaucracy are the topics of the third chap- ter. A large part of the chapter tackles the different judicial courts and the various positions found therein, ranging from the position of qadT and deputy qadT, to scribe, dragoman, and witness, as well as more minor positions. The author pays par- ticular attention to the position, responsibilities and preroga- tives, and sources of income of the qadT and his deputy in each legal rite (pp. 209-226). The third subsection explores several aspects of the position of muftT and tabulates the content of no less than 774 legal opinions culled from fatawa collections (table 13, p. 245). The sermonist (khatTb), naqlb al-ashraf (the chief of the descendants of the Prophet), and the over- seer of endowments (mutawallT al-awqaf) also get their share of attention too. The chapter ends with a discussion of bureau- cratic positions, such as that of treasurer (daftardar), scribes of the treasury, accountants (muhasibjiyya), receptionists (muqabiljiyya), and various other bureaucratic occupations, some of which seem to be cited here for the first time. The fourth chapter presents the reader with a serious taxo- nomical challenge. Entitled "'ulama', literati (udaba'), and authors (mu'allifun)", the chapter is a puzzling bricolage. The author starts by describing well-known practices and proce- dures of knowledge acquisition, ranging from attendance of lectures, to the attachment of students to teachers (mulazama), to travel in pursuit of knowledge. He ends this section with a table listing those Damascenes who acquired teaching positions in the Istanbul educational institution, the ilmiye (table 16, p. 282). Under the section on authors, al- MubayyidTn treats production in most branches of knowledge of the period (including the religious sciences, language and rhetoric, poetry and prosody, and historical writing) providing tables of titles and call numbers of extant manuscripts of the works when possible (table 18, pp. 292-294; table 19, p. 304; table 20, p. 309). Sufis are also treated in this chapter and, while the Sufi affiliations of individuals appearing in MuradT's Silk al-durar, Sufi rituals, and the relations of the Sufi order to guilds, do not seem to fit here, the information provided is useful. Al-MubayyidTn ends the chapter with a treatment of copyists, booksellers, and bookbinders. The last chapter, entitled 'The Cultural Relations Among the Men of the Pen", is divided into two sections. The first section considers the relationship between the ulama' and the state authorities, the 'ulama' and the military, the ulama' and "economic powers", and the 'ulama' and the commoners Entrance to al-Fathiyya, one of Damascus' 18th- century madrasas._ (note that in these subsections, the term ahl al-qalam disap- pears in favour of the term 'ulama'). Here, unfortunately, the discussion is rather superficial, but the next section is an ex- tensive exploration (though again, the link between the two sections is rather weak), which treats and tabulates the itiner- aries of Muslim ulama' and literati from and to Damascus, and provides long lists of names, positions, and places of origin of the travelling-savants culled from both narrative and docu- mentary sources (table 23, pp. 383-387; and table 24, pp. 3 88- 392). Amongst the author's interesting findings is the asym- metry of exchange with North Africa, which seems not to have been a significant intellectual destination for Damascene scholars. However, the reverse was not true. Apparently, many North Africans visited and remained in Damascus (pp. 416- 420), one of whom wrote his impressions of the "manners and customs" of the Levantines in a travelogue (p. 223, and note 5)-3 The author's prodigious appetite for tabulation and listing does not end at the last chapter, but continues into 5 appendices offering about 19 tables! Two of these are of significance for those interested in book and reading history. The first is a list _ (Continued on page 15) 3 Abu al-Qasim al-Zayyam (d. 1809), al-Turjumana al-KubrafTakhbar al-ma'murbarranwa bahra, "Abd al-Kanm al-RlalT, ed. (Rabat: Wazarat al-Anba', 1967). PAGE 14 SYRIAN STUDIES ASSOCIATION NEWSLETTER VOLUME XIII NO. 2 (Continued from page 6) "Bab al-Hara II" 'Issam's predicament, according to the program, is his inability to reconcile with his wife after the divorce. We find out that he has actually verbally divorced her once before, yet, anyone with a rudimentary knowledge of Islamic law knows that two divorces is not an irrevocable triple divorce. Abu 'Issam re- peatedly informs the viewer that his wife is now haram to him; therefore, he has to sleep in his shop and is unable to return to his home where she still resides. He attempts reconciliation unsuccessfully with a shaykh at his side (something completely unnecessary as he is not actually divorced). So, why is recon- ciliation so difficult? Why did the producers of the serial de- cide to change the criteria of divorce? Was it because a triple divorce would make reconciliation much more difficult as it would require Su'ad marry another man before reconciling with her husband? Furthermore, the role of the shaykh is greatly amplified in the series. It is understood that only he can reconcile the couples in the series. The most absurd scene involving the shaykh occurrs when 'Issam asks the shaykh to serve his divorce to his wife, unable to utter the words in per- son. These inaccuracies aside, "Bab al-Hara II" is fine entertain- ment. Is hosts a variety of highly skilled Syrian actors that have a long tradition in the Ramadan serials produced here. Articles have been written in the popular press concerning the revival of traditional Damascene vocabulary from the series in everyday speech throughout Syria as well as analyses by psy- chologists concerning the appeal of such escapism to the view- ing public. Everyday in Damascus, conversations abound about the daily happenings on the program; questions as to how far the catastrophe of Abu 'Issam's house will reach? Will Abu 'Issam and his wife reconcile? Will a wave of divorce over- take Harat al-Dab'? But for this viewer, gender trouble pre- vails as the men in the program are caricatures of Damascene manhood. There are constant references to manhood: "aren't you a man yet?" or "be a man!" Probably the best contrast to this prevailing image of Damascene manhood, is Abu 'Issam's neighbor, Abu Badr, who is overpowered by his wife who con- stantly ridicules him as weak and less than a man. The viewer is beat over the head with this image as Abu Badr cowers through the streets afraid of men and women alike. Unbridled displays of manhood are also demonstrated through the treatment of women in the series. On two occasions, 'Issam beats his wife in a very disturbing scene for her alleged role in the chaos that has affected his family. Jamila, Abu 'Issam's daughter, speaks to a baker from the other side of the door, without being seen; however, it is enough for her to be scolded by her father and for her male relatives to suggest this shame is enough to warrant killing her. But this is not all. The female characters have no role in decision making, they are ordered around by their husbands and sons and virtually se- cluded in their homes with no public roles whatsoever. Women have no agency, and when they do assert it, it's in a negative and destructive way. Female agency is only offered by way of the troublesome neighbor, whose feud with Su'ad kicked off the season. Eventually, Fariyal turns to black magic in order to try to reconcile her daughter with her husband. Repeatedly, she insults the people around her to the point that everyone comments that her tongue is long (lisanha tawil) and needs cutting, a euphemism for a woman who not only talks too much, but is rude and disrespectful. What kind of message does this send to the viewer, especially as it is, for some, rep- resentative of tradition and historical values? At the same time, I am glued to the TV every night to find out how this cycle of misery will be resolved. Others are waiting to see if Fariyal, painted as the true villain, will have a change of heart. Eventually, after being ostracized for her troublemak- ing, she does change her ways. The series ends with most of the divorced couples reuniting. We will have to wait and see for promises of more reunions next season, we will have to wait and see. Still, embedded in the storyline is the initial trouble between a man and wife, and how a wife's unruly behavior begot a chain of troubles throughout the neighborhood. Something within this initial story is very telling about a gender fantasy in which uncontrolled wives have the ability to spread chaos (fitna) throughout an entire community. Su'ad is that woman as is her neighbor, Fariyal, latter represents the worst kind of gen- der trouble as she is completely uncontrollable, disrespectful and has engaged in witchcraft, just in case her evil nature was not already apparent to viewers. At the end of the season, all parties are reconciled and the viewer is left with the under- standing that the women whose dispute caused a cycle of suf- fering are to blame for the chaos that ensued. Patriarchal control, in the form of divorce, spousal abuse, and social con- trol, solves the conflict in the hara. Perhaps one of the most disturbing aspects of "Bab al-Hara M" are the comments I have heard as I discussed the series with shopkeepers and residents here in Damascus. Some criticize the program as being silly, full of gossip more than storytelling, and slow moving (which is very true of some of the 30 chapters). Others affirm that the series represents the true traditions of Damascus. One cus- tomer in a shop commented that Damascenes should return to the traditions related in "Bab al-Hara II." The shopkeeper did not agree and began a conversation about which traditions he thought were not worth reviving. Some Damascenes have ex- pressed a dislike of the program arguing that it represents con- servative values that the reject. One Damascene housewife told me that she thought that the female characters repre- sented strong women. She was unable to tell me exactly what made them strong, but this was her overall impression of the women in the series. Despite its disturbing gender messages, "Bab al-Hara M" is fun to watch. The first series was so popular that it generated lesser quality knock offs that can be found on other channels. There are promises of a third season in which the quarter leader, Abu Shihab may find himself married. However, at least here in the Old City of Damascus, almost any time of the day during the month of Ramadan, you can walk through the streets and hear "Bab al-Hara II" blaring from the TVs in throughout its neighborhoods. It's a great time to escape the long lines at the bakeries! □ Elyse Semerdjian, the former editor of this newsletter, is As- sistant Professor of History at Whitman College in Washington State, USA. She is currently doing research in Syria. VOLUME XIII NO. 2 SYRIAN STUDIES ASSOCIATION NEWSLETTER PAGE 1 5 (Continued from page 7) New Books on Syria cooke, miriam. Dissident Syria: Making Oppositional Arts Offi- cial. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2007. Nassar, Issam and Salim Tamari, eds. Dirasat fi al-ta'rikh al- ijtima'i li-Bilad al-Sham: qira'at fi al-siyar wa-al-siyar al- dhatiyah. Beirut: Institute for Palestine Studies, 2007. Springett, Bernard H. Secret Sects of Syria and the Lebanon: Considerations of their Origin, Creeds, and Religious Ceremo- nies, etc. New York: Kegan Paul, 2007. Sunayama, Sonoko. Syria and Saudi Arabia: Collaboration and Conflicts in the Oil Era. New York: Palgrave, 2007. (Continued from page 9) On the Quest for "Truth" least not regarding the issue of diapers. I was told to come back in another two days and so I did. This was to be my third afternoon at the Ministry for Religious Endowments. Finally, it was my turn in line. The Mufti took out the printed version of my question from a large, gray folder and began to write on the bottom half in blue ink. Once he was finished, he signed, stamped, numbered, dated and registered the fatwa and then handed me my piece of paper. Back at Samia's, I proudly displayed "the ultimate proof" which I had earned for spending three afternoons at the Ministry. The first part of the answer, of course, consisted of religious invocations and then, in short, that a husband should help his wife in all household and family matters, especially when she is ill. Reading this, Amer tossed the prize of my quest back at me: "Samia is not ill! She just had a baby!" It was never per se about Islam; he was only using religion in order to justify his laziness! A couple of weeks ago Samia had her third baby and though Amer still does not help her with the diapers, he does not claim that Islam prevents him from helping her. Instead, he now claims that since it is a woman's Islamic duty to obey her husband, it is Samia's duty to obey him and change the kids' diapers. □ Edith Szanto Ali-Dib is currently a PhD student in Religious Studies at the University of Toronto. She works on Twelver Shi'i mourning rituals in and around the shrine of Sayyeda Zaynab. (Continued from page 11) Ottoman 'Ajlun pean sources, and researched through multi-disciplinary ap- proaches, is meant principally for specialists in the field and for interested graduate students. It includes a large number of maps, figures and tables to document the findings of the au- thors. The authors have to be complimented for producing this painstaking scholarly work and the publisher I.B. Tauris ought to be commended for publishing this highly technical work.n Abdul-Karim Rafeq is William and Annie Bickers Professor of Arab Middle Eastern Studies at the Department of History, The College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, Virginia USA. (Continued from page 10) Syrian-Iranian Relations himself, would lead us through the ensuing decades in an equally insightful and comprehensive fashion. □ Fred H. Lawson holds the Frederick A. Rice in the Department of Government at Mills College, Oakland, California, USA. He is the author, most recently, of Constructing International Relations in the Arab World (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2006). (Continued from page 13) Men of the Pen of 71 titles, authors, and topics of books that have been men- tioned in narrative sources as either "owned" or "endowed" property (pp. 427-434). The second list is of 125 books found in probate inventories (pp. 434-444) in the period under con- sideration. The extensive research and the sheer range and quantity of sources used in this project, on the one hand, and the author's patient and generous cataloguing and tabulating of minutiae, on the other, renders this book a veritable ency- clopaedia. Al-MubayyidTn's book could well be subtitled: "Everything you wanted to know about 18th century-Damascene academy, judiciary, bureaucracy, education, book history and readership, and were too afraid to research". And despite its analytical and organizational problems, its often sloppy refer- encing, and the almost complete absence of engagement with current scholarship, this is still a rich and user-friendly book which will undoubtedly serve as an indispensable reference work in the library of every Ottomanist, Syrianist, and/or "Ulamologist." To end this review with a reassuring note to al-MubayyidTn, who complains about the "cruelty and presumption of aca- demic supervision/advising" ("qaswat wa sahwat al-ishraf al- ilml), which obliged him to do several rounds of research and cataloguing even at the very last stages of writing his disserta- tion, I think it is clear that his efforts have not gone to waste. The resultant monograph deserves to enjoy a wide readership, and I have no doubt the author's superhuman labours will be the source of the gratitude of many of his colleagues. □ Dana Sajdi is Assistant Professor of History at Boston Col- lege and editor of Ottoman Tulips, Ottoman Coffee: Lei- sure and Lifestyles in the Eighteenth Century (London: IB Tauris, 2008). PAGE 1 6 SYRIAN STUDIES ASSOCIATION NEWSLETTER VOLUME XIII NO. 2 I (Continued from page 5) ethnic origin and feel much more attracted to Turkey and Europe than to Syria or the Arab world. Turkish state loyalties have gradually replaced ethnic loyal- ties, and a Turk of Arab ethnic origin may today be just as proud of his being a "Turk" (which means his orientation towards the Turkish state), as Turks without any identifi- able ethnic origin. Much of all this is the result of Turkish na- tional educa- tion. The links between Arabs from Syria and Turkey, where they still ex- ist, are bound to become even weaker as a result of the present borders. In southern Tur- key, the town of Harran with its typically Syrian tradi- tional beehive mud-brick houses, inhab- ited by the same Arab farmer fami- lies as in Syria, has now become a Turkish tourist attraction. In Mardin the children gen- erally no longer speak the Arab language of their parents but Turk- ish, the language of instruction. The Syrian Arab Republic covers parts of Bilad al-Sham and Bilad al-Rafidayn Having arrived in Iskenderun I had, at least according to the stamps in my passport, not yet left the Turkish Republic, but in some way I had already entered "Syria". That is to say not the Syrian Arab Republic, although I am fully aware that Syria in the past traditionally used to consider the ter- ritory of Iskenderun as "al-Liwa' al-Mughtasab" which was taken away from it as a result of French colonial policies. But I had entered that bigger geographic entity which is often called Bilad al-Sham, or "Greater Syria", which en- compasses a much greater area than today's Syrian Arab Republic. But what exactly is the territory of Bilad al-Sham? It can be defined it as the territory of Syria, Jordan, Lebanon and Palestine which were geographically, culturally and his- torically a y^js firifc perioral *icounter wltd Syr^w-bicJi v^as koih t*»*t»f<*l and pertotially fexciti rij aot fr? »f influence, ferine rest *f l,fe,l>oii> in<te.!ic*cbj»Uj 3hcl e.ntoVion»llj , ^fcd J never lost intetesi m this bestrfclful counir] e.ver since. Or> fcke tfrftfcrtrj, «nj i«tere.sl ^ eagerness fro get 4o knew Sjri* Ixttte-r ar-d r^ore i^xusU^, ■ Dr. van Dam seated to the left of Dr. Issam Aleppo last October as depicted in a drawin See page four for an obituary. united entity that was sepa- rated by the colonial pow- ers. This is the way in which it was described in an introduc- tion to the Conference of Bilad al-Sham in the Ottoman Era, which was held in Damas- cus in 2005. But is this cor- rect? I think that Bilad al- Sham is a clearly identi- fiable Arab region with certain geo- graphic, social and linguistic specifics. In cities of Syria, Lebanon, Jor- dan and Pales- tine certain types of "Syrian Arabic" are spoken with common characteristics that cannot be found outside Bilad al-Sham. But certain areas of north eastern Syria, are not, in my opinion, really part of Bilad al-Sham because they constitute a natural part of Mesopotamia, or Bilad al-Rafidayn, the land between Euphrates and Tigris, which is just as identifiable as an Arab region with its own specific characteristics. The dividing line between Bilad al-Sham and Bilad al- Rafidayn, both part of the Fertile Crescent region or "al- Hilal al-Khasib", could be located at the eastern end of Badiyat al-Sham near the Euphrates River. This means that today's Syrian Arab Republic covers an area which is, on the one hand, smaller than Bilad al-Sham because it does not include Palestine, Lebanon, Jordan, and parts which (Continued on page 17) al-Zaim during Dr. van Dam's lecture in g. Dr. al-Zaim passed away in December. VOLUME XIII NO. 2 SYRIAN STUDIES ASSOCIATION NEWSLETTER PAGE 17 (Continued from page 16) now fall within the Republic of Turkey . On the other hand, it also covers areas which fall outside Bilad al-Sham, nota- bly some north-eastern parts of the Syrian Arab Republic. This line of reasoning is not another Western justification for the division of Bilad al-Sham into even more parts. It is merely a personal observation stemming from my travels in the early 1970s by car from Aleppo to Mosul. When de- scending into the Euphrates valley eastwards, after having passed al-Raqqah, I had the sudden impression of entering an area which reminded me very much of Iraq. Present-day Syria is an artificial creation, a product of Western colonialism, just as its different shapes in the past were creations of other powers, whether these could be described as "colonial" or not. Some of these previous enti- ties, containing Aleppo and Damascus, were also artificial creations, depending on their geographical composition and on which party or dynasty held power at the time and where. Bilad al-Sham does constitute a geographic and cultural entity. It is also true that the Western colonial powers separated it on purpose into different pieces for various reasons. But, to argue that Bilad al-Sham was a historically united entity beforehand is unrealistic. It is as though one wants to say, "if the colonial powers had not split up the Arab Fertile Crescent as they did, this area would now be a united unit." This does not in any way mean that the countries of Bilad al-Sham should not be a fully integrated entity. Just as the political and economic integration of the European Union countries has brought them economic prosperity and stabil- ity, a similar effort would be desirable for the Arab coun- tries in the Middle East. But, is it a prerequisite for Arab countries or regions to have been united in earlier history in order to be able to unite or integrate in the future? I do not think so. Stability and prosperity in the Arab region would be advan- tageous to the rest of the world. But, taking the European Union as a point of departure, it also presupposes that the Arab states, who would like to join, would be required to have political systems similar enough to one another to be able to intensively cooperate, and that people would de- cide upon it out of their own free will. Kingdoms and re- publics can go very well together, as the European case shows. Just imagine that Bilad al-Sham had a system similar to that of the European Union. It would mean that its citizens would all be able to travel freely within this greater area, using the same currency, having free access to its whole internal market, and without having to show one's passport at its internal borders. One can conclude that states generally accept colonial boundaries when it suits them well, but tend to oppose them when there is a possibility of claiming a larger terri- tory, irrespective of whether this would be based on the facts of history or not. After such a long existence, the Syr- ian Arab Republic, seems to have lost most, if not all, of the artificiality which may have been perceived at an ear- lier stage. "Unifying colonialism" and "divisive colonialism": a choice between "divide and rule" or "unite and rule"? My frequent journeys through Bilad al-Sham have made me very much aware of the similarities between its inhabi- tants, but also of the boundaries dividing them. France and Great Britain, as well as other former colonial powers, are generally being blamed for the present division of the Arab world into separate states. But not all colonial powers are accused of having wanted to divide and split up their colo- nies. The Dutch are perhaps an exception in this respect. In the mid-1990s I had a public discussion with a Syrian politician who suggested that Dutch colonialism in Indone- sia, or the "Netherlands Indies" as it was called at the time, might have been a "positive" type of "unifying colo- nialism", which contrasted with the kind of "divisive colo- nialism" which had apparently been applied by the colonial powers in the Arab world. The Syrian politician noted correctly that Indonesia is a huge archipelago composed of thousands of islands, which are being inhabited by a highly diverse population, which speaks a multitude of languages, has a majority Muslim population, but also has many adherents of other religions. Once Indonesia got its independence, he concluded, it was not torn up into a large number of states, as happened in the Arab world, but was transformed into a unified state of great importance. Was this, he asked rhetorically, because the Indonesians revolted against being torn up? Or did the Dutch have a kind unifying colonialism, which the Arabs did not have "the luck"-as he called it-to experience? In fact, the Dutch did apply a type of colonialism which ultimately led to the unification of the huge area which today consti- tutes the Republic of Indonesia. The holding together of the large colonial territory by the Dutch, however, also gave rise to the suppression of sepa- ratist movements which, as in the case of Aceh, led to a bloody war of about 30 years. The irony of history is that, without this war, Aceh would now most likely not be part of modern Indonesia. In the final stage of its colonial period, however, the Neth- erlands tried to introduce a more loose federal system, in an attempt to preserve some control over this huge archi- pelago. But this policy clearly failed, because the idea of a fully independent and united Republic of Indonesia covering the whole of the archipelago, completely independent from the Dutch, turned out to be widely supported by a large majority of Indonesians. As a result, the former colonial boundaries became the official and final borders of the (Continued on page IS) PAGE 1 8 SYRIAN STUDIES ASSOCIATION NEWSLETTER VOLUME XIII NO. 2 (Continued from page 17) Reflections Republic of Indonesia. Not an inch more, as East Timor was not included because it had been colonized by the Portu- guese and not an inch less as Papua was finally incorpo- rated in the 1960s. When dealing with international boundaries, every inch of territory acquires an almost holy importance, because na- tional sovereignty is at stake. Loss of any inch of territory can lead to further claims, political instability, tensions in international relations and, sometimes, to war. Because of this, former colonial borders are generally respected, how- ever much their coming into existence may have been dis- liked. Is Arabism dying and being replaced by Islamic funda- mentalism? Thinking of Syria makes me think almost automatically of the issue of Arab nationalism. In my opinion, the strength of Arabism is underestimated these days. President 'Abd al Nasir's statement that "Damascus is the throbbing heart of Arabism" (qalb al-'urubah al-nabid) was made so long ago that it may have lost its earlier value or meaning. Besides, today's political circumstances are completely different. At present there seems to be a strong current of fundamen- talism in various parts of the world, both Islamic, Christian and Jewish. But this does not mean that Arabism or Arab nationalism is dying or dead, as is the fashion among those who are fixated with Islamic fundamentalism. Certainly, several Arab forms of wataniyah-sty[e state nationalism have become much more acceptable in the Arab world and are no longer pushed aside by qawmiyah-styles of pan-Arab nationalism. This does not mean that Arabism has disap- peared as a political force. It depends on the political is- sues which are at stake and the context. Arabism has devel- oped into new varieties, as a result of which inter-Arab cooperation has the potential to develop with even greater strength than in the past. Diversity is no longer a hindrance to Arab unity and cooperation. One can now be proud of being an Iraqi or Syrian without being accused of regional- ism. The time of forced or artificial homogeneity is appar- ently over. □ (Continued from page 4) Dutch Consulate in Aleppo only typo I have found (where it says Giovanni Rosche, read Gosche), but this merely confirms the book's overall care for such details. The Dutch Lion Dollar was accepted throughout the Levant in the pre- modern period._ The authors aimed to serve a wide readership, and it is only logical that choices had to be made. That they preferred to emphasise the consulate's golden years, only touching upon the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries is also understand- able. (For those who are interested in these periods, both the Netherlands and Syria have well-catalogued, accessible ar- chives holding relevant materials still waiting to be discov- ered.) Hussein El-Mudarris and Olivier Salmon compare their text with "un jasmin, s'etenant dans de multiples directions, et offrant son parfum aussi bien aux jardiniers chevronnes qu'aux simples passants dans la rue." Hopefully this study will attract new attention, from both specialists and non- specialists, to the subject it so elegantly presents. □ This book is only available through Hussein I. El-Mudarris, the Dutch consul in Aleppo. Requests should be addressed to the Dutch Consulate, Trade Promotion Office, P.O. Box 7313, Aleppo, Syria. The fax number is: 00-963-21-2229591. Maurits H. van den Boogert (PhD Leiden, 2001) is the author of The Capitulations and the Ottoman Legal System (Leiden, 2005) and is an editor of the Journal of the Economic and So- cialHistory of the Orient. He works for Brill Academic Publish- ers as an academic project manager for the Encyclopaedia of Islam- Three. VOLUME XIII NO. 2 SYRIAN STUDIES ASSOCIATION NEWSLETTER PAGE 1 9 Membership Renewal Form Please complete this form and send with a check for your membership dues (personal check in U.S. dollars or Euros) payable to "Syrian Studies Association" to: Annie Higgins, Secretary/Treasurer SSA Department of Near Eastern and Asian Studies Wayne State University 437 Manoogian Hall 906 West Warren Avenue Detroit, Ml 48201 Remember: All scholars resident in Syria are entitled to a free membership! You have the option of paying your dues on-line with a major credit card. Visit the Syrian Studies Associa- tion page at: http://www.ou.edu/ssa/member.htm and select the appropriate type of membership. New membership: □ Renewal: c Membership Type: 1 year, Regular ($25) □ 2 year, Regular ($47) □ 3 year, Regular ($69) □ Resident in Syria (free!): □ 1 year, Student ($10) and less than $35,000: □ 2 year, Student ($20) and less than $35,000 □ 1 year, Joint [2 at same address; one Newsletter] ($35) 1 year, Institutional Membership ($100): □ Name: _ Title: _ Institution: _ Work Address: _ Tel:_ Fax: . Email:___Web: Home Address: _ Tel: Send newsletter to: Work Address □ Home Address □ Questions? Please contact Annie Higgins at higginsuf@yahoo.com Syrian Studies Association Newsletter c/o Steve Tamari, Dept. of History Southern Illinois University Edwardsville Box 1454 Edwardsville, IL 62026-1454 USA