Category Archives: Countries

Flipping through Yemen a Millennium Ago

Books You Should Read, Islamic History, Yemen


Mosque in Jiblah, Yemen

There was a time when books were hard to come by. Either they cost too much or were inaccessible in a private or exclusive university library. Whatever else the world wide web has done (and that is a mouthful), it now functions as an archive. More and more, the rare and out-of-print books I used to be forced to read in a library reading room are becoming available online. Mr. Gutenberg might roll over in his Grab at the very thought of a pdf file, but print has taken a new and universal turn. I especially enjoy the “flipbook”, which simulates turning the pages of images of the original. For an enjoyable read on the early history of Yemen, there is the flipbook version of Henry Cassels Kay’s translation called YAMAN, ITS EARLY MEDIAEVAL HISTORY, published in London in 1892. This has excerpts (not always trustworthy in their translation) from Umarah ibn Ali al-Hakami (1120/21-1174), Ibn Khaldun (1332-1406); Muhammad ibn Yaqub al-Janadi (d. 1332?).

The sad thing is that well over a century ago, Kay lamented that there was virtually nothing available on the history of Yemen, which had become of strategic interest to the British empire. Continue reading Flipping through Yemen a Millennium Ago →

Bashing the academic Left

Arab-Israeli Conflict, Ethics, Israel

by David Newman, The Jerusalem Post, April 14, 2009

For the past two years I represented Israel’s universities in the UK in the debate surrounding the proposed academic boycott. There were many who could not accept the fact that a professor with left-of-center views should fill this role. The Department of Politics at Ben-Gurion University where I work has been described by its detractors as being the most left-wing academic department in Israel. After all, they would argue, people like myself are part of the problem, not the cause, and as proof of their argument they would roll out the same two or three names of Israeli academics (most notably Ilan Pappe) who had taken the unprecedented step of actually supporting the boycott. The proposed boycott proved to be a great opportunity for some left-wing bashing rather than focusing on the real problem – the growth of anti-Israel sentiment among specific groups within the UK university faculty union.

The last few years have been “in season” for attacking the academic left, a form of academic McCarthyism that is hard to recollect going back 10 or 20 years. Most pernicious and consistent is the self-styled Campus Watch, created by the neo-con critic of the Israeli left, Daniel Pipes. It uses students and faculty to spy on those teaching courses on Israel and the Middle East. Anyone who so faintly utters a word of criticism is immediately labeled as such, including some of the best critical scholars of Israel today. Continue reading Bashing the academic Left →

Gender and Justice in Palestine

Gender and Sexuality, Islamic Law, Palestine


Khouloud el-Faqeeh argues a legal point in her West Bank office. In March, she became one of the two first female Islamic judges in the Middle East.

New female judge transforms Islamic court

Khouloud el-Faqeeh is part Judge Judy, part Sunday School teacher.
By Ilene R. Prusher,The Christian Science Monitor, May 10, 2009

Ramallah, West Bank:

Khouloud el-Faqeeh has shattered the glass ceiling of Islamic jurisprudence.

After years of pushing to break into the all-male ranks of sharia judges in the Palestinian territories, she finally secured a post after scoring among the best – along with another woman – in a recent test for new jurists. They are widely considered to be the first female sharia judges in the Middle East.

Now, Ms. Faqeeh is setting a new tone in her Ramallah courtroom, where defendants are often shocked to see a woman on the bench. With a style that’s part Judge Judy, part Sunday School teacher, she’s on a mission to change her society, case by case. But sometimes, even the most progressive intentions won’t overcome powerful social forces, such as those driving Miryam Abed-Nabi, a newlywed who came to court recently to finalize a divorce. Her husband – Fahmi Awadullah, a man twice her age – took her as a second wife just a few months ago. But the marriage infuriated his adult sons, who worried about their portion of his inheritance. Continue reading Gender and Justice in Palestine →

Tarim, Islamic cultural capital for 2010

Architecture, Yemen


Al-Midhar mosque, Tarim, Hadramawt, Yemen

by Abdulaziz Oudhah, Yemen Observer, May 7, 2009

The Islamic Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (ISESCO) chose Tarim as an Islamic cultural Capital for 2010, after an agreement was reached during a meeting of Islamic Cultural Ministers in Algiers in 2004. A number of Islamic, Arab, Asian, and African towns were nominated in the process to choose three towns each year to be recognized as Islamic culture capitals.

ISESCO General Manger Abdulaziz al-Tawijri, said that the Islamic capitals program aims to promote the spread of Islamic culture, renew its content, perpetuate its message, and revive the cities’ glorious culture and civilization. The capitals are chosen according to specific standards, which consider the role that they have played in serving Islamic culture, art, science, and knowledge throughout their history. The legacy of these cultural capitals is important to the construction of present and future memory, which is inspired by Islamic civilization. Continue reading Tarim, Islamic cultural capital for 2010 →

Emirati Youth in a Rapidly Changing Society

Anthropology/Sociology, Development, Food and Drink, United Arab Emirates

by el-Sayed el-Aswad, United Arab Emirates University

The UAE has developed amenable ways of synchronizing localism with globalism. It is hard to erase specificities that create a misleading portrait of a single global culture. However, Emirati local culture transforms and appropriates aspects of the global into a unique system of local social meaning. The young generations of the Emirates, for instance, have succeeded in assimilating outside influences without deserting their heritage. They have expressed their pride generated by their ability to combine both local culture and modern, global ways of life. They speak Arabic with Emirati dialects, eat indigenous food, use incense and wear traditional costumes (including veils for women) so as to symbolically identify themselves with their traditional society, but, at the same time, they speak English and employ symbols signifying western ‘global’ modernity, such as using computers, eating Western fast food, consuming expensive perfumes, and driving extravagant four wheel-drive cars. However, it can be argued that symbols of modernity do not fundamentally alter people’s beliefs, values, or culture. Continue reading Emirati Youth in a Rapidly Changing Society →

God, the Devil and Pakistan

Judaism, Literature, Osama Bin Laden, Pakistan, Taliban, Terrorism Issue


Iblis (the Devil) from The Book of Nativities (Kitâb al-Mawalid) by Abû Ma’shar, 15th Century.

by Suroosh Irfani, Daily Times (Pakistan), May 7, 2009

Jewish denial during the war is perilously instructive for Pakistan today: a country where the founding spirit of justice and democracy is blighted by falsehood and fear. Small wonder that last month, Prime Minister Gilani virtually ignored the seditious speech of Sufi Muhammad.

Noted Saudi novelist Turki al Hamad’s novel, Kharadib, has sold over 20,000 copies in the Arab world since publication in 1999. Al Hamad continues to live in the Saudi capital Riyadh, despite fatwas of Saudi clerics against him, and Al Qaeda branding him an apostate.

The reason? Hamad’s teenaged protagonist in the controversial novel dares to ponder the question of God and the devil.

King Abdullah, then the Crown Prince, reportedly offered Hamad bodyguards for his protection, while reputed Saudi scholar Sheikh Ali al Khudair, who initially censured Hamad, withdrew his fatwa in 2003.

The retraction suggests that the musings of Hamad’s protagonist on “religion, sex and politics, the three taboos in Saudi society” had triggered a rethink on an issue that Muslim luminaries like Jalaluddin Rumi (d.1273) had addressed, long before German writer Goethe cast the devil in new light in his epic poem Faust in the 19th century.

However, it remained for Allama Iqbal’s genius to bring together Goethe and Rumi in a discourse on the devil, burnishing wisdom of the past with his own insights on evil. The upshot of it all is a realisation that “evil is not mere darkness that vanishes when light arrives. This darkness has as positive an existence as light,” as Javed Iqbal, former Chief Justice of Lahore High Court, notes in “Devil in the triangle of Rumi, Iqbal and Goethe” in Iqbal Review. Continue reading God, the Devil and Pakistan →

Guns and Bibles

Afghanistan, Bible and Holy Land, Iraq War, Islam and Christianity


Bible Translation map for Afghanistan from Mission Atlas Project

So much for the secular state. When the founding fathers envisioned the transformation of the thirteen original colonies into the United States of America, the explosive baggage of a state religion was wisely foregone. Contemporary Fundamentalist preachers may bemoan the historical fact, but we do not live in a “Christian” nation. Other states have chosen to maintain a formal religious identity, with varying levels of tolerance for those who are not in the majority. Take Afghanistan, for example. Indeed, the Bush administration did just that, or at least did so partially. Although the Taliban were sent packing into the hills, much to the dismay of Pakistanis who value sovereignty in Swat, Afghanistan is still a solidly Muslim country. The American military is present in Afghanistan in order to ensure security and protect the development agenda. Obviously this takes guns. But the latest addition to the peace-on-earth-keeping mission arsenal appears to be Biblical.

A report on al-Jazeera reveals that an American military chaplain is exhorting evangelical men in the ranks to tote more than their rifles. “The Special Forces guys, they hunt men. Basically, we do the same things as Christians. We hunt people for Jesus. We do, we hunt them down. Get the hound of heaven after them, so we get them into the Kingdom. That’s what we do, that’s our business,” he said. Continue reading Guns and Bibles →

Portrait of a Bahraini Anthropologist

Anthropology/Sociology, Bahrain, Scholars


Bahraini dhow builder, photo by Abdulla Al Khan; insert shows Dr. Abdullah Yateem

A modern culture specialist
By Paul Balles, Bahrain This Month

What makes Dr. Abdullah Yateem a modern culture specialist? He’s an anthropologist who has taken a modern approach to studying cultures.

Many people don’t know what anthropology is or what anthropologists do unless they happen to have attended university and learned that they could take courses in the subject.

If they listened to British television critic Nancy Banks-Smith, they might have heard her say, “Anthropology is the science which tells us that people are the same the whole world over — except when they are different.”

Cultural anthropologist Ruth Benedict, with tongue in cheek, put it another way, “The purpose of anthropology is to make the world safe for human differences.”

From these comments, one might safely assume that anthropologists study almost anything related to the similarities and differences between cultures.

Anthropologists like Dr. Abdullah Yateem address questions such as: how can people who look different, talk differently and come from different cultures get along together in today’s world? (paraphrasing Clyde Kluckhohn). Dr. Yateem is not only an anthropologist who studies cultures. Currently, he’s Assistant Undersecretary for Press and Publications in the Ministry of Information. Continue reading Portrait of a Bahraini Anthropologist →