In Memory of BJ

Anthropology/Sociology, Books You Should Read, Gender and Sexuality, Iraq, Scholars


Elizabeth Warnock Fernea pictured wearing traditional tribal women’s dress of the southern Euphrates area. The headscarf with fringe is the asha, the chin scarf is the foota. These garments are worn under the abbaya or outer cloak Photo: KATHARINE RAMSAY

For many students and professors, the go-to text for Middle East ethnography for several decades has been Elizabeth Warnock Fernea’s Guests of the Sheik, still in print, about her life with anthropologist husband Bob Fernea in an Iraqi village during the 1950s. BJ, as her many friends knew her, went on to an academic career in several parts of the Middle East, producing books, articles and films of lasting value. Her passing in December, 2008 was a loss for us all. Now there is a short videography of her life available on Youtube. Check it out. And, if you have not read it in awhile or at all, get a copy of Guests of the Sheik and read it again or for the first time.

On Mahometanism, 1833 style

Islam and Christianity, Islamic Sects, Islamophobia, Lithographs, Muhammad, Orientalism, Orientalist Images, Wahhabi


One of the books owned by a great, great aunt of mine in Cleveland was A History of the Church, etc., published in 1833. The bottom of the frontispiece is torn, so I do not know the publisher, although I suspect it was printed in Boston. It is a general history of Christianity with extended comments on other religions, including “Mahometanism.” The author is a certain C. A. Goodrich, who is decidedly Protestant and as unfriendly to Roman Catholicism as he is to Islam and Hinduism. Several parts of the text, which stretches a robust 504 pages, deal with Islam and are interesting for the biased perspective of the time. The history of the Church is according to periods, and Period V is labeled “The Rise of Mahometanism” (at the top of the pages of the chapter); the longer title is “The Period of the Rise of the Mahometan Imposture will extend from the establishment of the supremacy of the Roman Pontiffs, A.D. 606, to the first Crusade, A. D. 1095.” Period VI covers the Crusades, followed by the Reformation and then a very long chapter on the Puritans.

At the start of the section is a small lithograph of Muhammad, mounted on a steed with a sword in hand. Some of the information is descriptive; some even praises Muhammad, but it is clear that the author despises Islam as the excerpts below well show:


A History of the Church, 1833, p. 96

Continue reading On Mahometanism, 1833 style →

The Seduction of Simple Solutions

"Arab Spring", Huthis, Yemen


Over at Waq al-Waq there is an excellent commentary by Greg Johnsen on the situation in Yemen, responding to a “think tank” report from people who really do not know Yemen very well (or apparently want to know it in a certain way). Here is the start…

Late last week Frank Cilluffo and Clint Watts released a policy brief from George Washington University’s Homeland Security Policy Institute entitled “Yemen and al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula: Exploiting a Window of Counterterrorism Opportunity.”

My in-box quickly filled up with helpful people sending me copies of the report, I have now had time to read it and digest and my thoughts follow below.

(Note:) I don’t know Frank Cilluffo but I do know and respect Clint and he has seen a copy of my rebuttal here prior to posting.

For those who are faithful readers of Waq al-waq it should come as no surprise that I strongly disagree with the report and its conclusions. I think this is what happens when smart people tackle a complex problem in an environment they don’t know particularly well. The report, in my opinion, is full of assumptions that make sense broadly but break down the closer one gets to Yemen.

Obviously there are parts of the report I agree with, and many other places where well-intentioned people can disagree.

(Quotes from the paper are in italics; mine are in regular caps.)

Assumption 1: AQAP suddenly stronger this month

“This week’s escape of 63 suspected al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) fighters from a Yemeni prison exemplifies how President Saleh’s departure to Saudi Arabia and Yemeni instability embolden this lethal al Qaeda affiliate.“

I’m pretty sure that AQAP was emboldened prior to Salih’s departure, the group has been incredibly active in Yemen recently and I would argue that largely as a result of US air strikes between December 2009 and May 2010, the organization is actually stronger now in terms of recruits than it was when it dispatched the so-called underwear bomber who tried to bring down the airplane over Detroit on Christmas Day 2009.

Assumption 2: Huthis and Southern Movement are responsible

“In recent weeks, the writ of government in Yemen has evaporated under the twin strains of the Houthi rebellion in northern Yemen and the Secessionist movement in southern Yemen.”

This is simply untrue – the writ of Yemen’s government has evaporated under popular protests. The Huthi rebellion has been ongoing since 2004 and the Southern movement since 2007 – neither of these are new, and neither of these are the cause of the recent collapse.

For Greg’s full commentary, click here.

Does Islam Stand against Science?

Conferences and Talks, Islamic Sciences, Miniatures, Scholars


A lunar eclipse explained by al-Biruni

By Steve Paulson, The Chronicle Review, June 19, 2011

We may think the charged relationship between science and religion is mainly a problem for Christian fundamentalists, but modern science is also under fire in the Muslim world. Islamic creationist movements are gaining momentum, and growing numbers of Muslims now look to the Quran itself for revelations about science.

Science in Muslim societies already lags far behind the scientific achievements of the West, but what adds a fair amount of contemporary angst is that Islamic civilization was once the unrivaled center of science and philosophy. What’s more, Islam’s “golden age” flourished while Europe was mired in the Dark Ages.

This history raises a troubling question: What caused the decline of science in the Muslim world?

Now, a small but emerging group of scholars is taking a new look at the relationship between Islam and science. Many have personal roots in Muslim or Arab cultures. While some are observant Muslims and others are nonbelievers, they share a commitment to speak out—in books, blogs, and public lectures—in defense of science. If they have a common message, it’s the conviction that there’s no inherent conflict between Islam and science.

For the rest of this article, click here.

Dreaming on a hot summer day

Archaeology and Antiquities, Egypt, Orientalist Art


“The Simoon” by Ludwif Hans Fischer

One does not have to be on a caravan in the Sahara or trying to cross the Empty Quarter in mid-summer to appreciate the beauty of a sandstorm; in fact it is probably best appreciated when one is not in it. Above is how the hot winded simoon looked to the Austrian artist Ludwig Hans Fischer (1848-1915), who painted “The Simoon” in 1878. Below is how the simoon looked approaching the Sphinx to David Roberts in the early 19th century.


“Approach of the Simoon” by David Roberts

Princeton Online Arabic Poetry

Poetry, Teaching Resources


For lovers of early Arabic poetry and for students of Arabic there is a wonderful new resource called the Princeton Online Arabic Poetry Project. Thus far the site has classic poems by Imru’l-Qays (Mu‘allaqa), Yazid b. Mu`awiya (And Pearls Rained Down), Rabi`a al-`Adawiyya (My Cup and my Wine), Abu Nuwas (Don’t Cry for Layla), Abu Nuwas (The Wretch Paused), al-Mutanabbi (to Sayf al-Dawla). By clicking on the poem you can see the Arabic scroll down automatically as it is read. You can also at any time click on a line to see its translation. Check it out.

Orientalist Images #3: Oil as a Happy Thought

Literature, Orientalist Images



[With this post I continue a series dedicated to photographs in an “Orientalist” mode. In addition to Reading Orientalism (which is also the title of my last book), the creation of an imagined Orient is very much a pictorial voyeuristic voyage. In this series I focus on Western images of the Middle East and North Africa, both those that perpetuate stereotypes and those that chip away at the bias. Readers of the blog are welcome to send in images they have found and want to share.]

I continue with images from a 1933 edition of Richards Cyclopedia, with 24 volumes published in New York by J. A. Richards, Inc and edited by Ernest Hunter Wright and Mary Heritage Wright. This is an unusual encyclopedia, arranged by topics in a more or less arbitrary order but replete with images. One of the articles is called “The Mtchless Story-Teller” (vol 18, pp. 4433-4448) and retells several of the more famous tales from the Arabian Nights. In the story of Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves the plot to learn the secret of the cave from Ali Baba unfolds with a slave girl named Morgiana pouring hot oil in the vats where a number of robbers were hiding. But the reader is assured in the caption that it was a “happy thought” to so dispense with the troublemakers. Ah, how Orientalist to assume this part of the world has oil to burn…

to be continued