NSM

Nordisk Midtaustenbulletin
46, juni-september 1999

Tema:

EURAMES news

The third European congress takes place in the last week of September in Ghent in Belgium, as we have previously advertised. According to the program, there will be a few Nordic participants; more information from this in the next bulletin. We can however note that the Eurames president, Daniel Panzac of Aix, has announced his departure, after two years at the helm. The Council meeting in Ghent will thus have to elect a new leadership, which normally also means that the seceretariat of this umbrella organization moves. More of this later.

The European Science Foundation program that some of you have been involved with, on "Individual and Society in the Mediterranean Muslim World" is moving into the last of its four years. The main focus now is on finalizing a number of volumes on various aspects of the field. The first couple of volumes is already out, including one on literature, and in all there is expected to be around twenty volumes coming out of this projects, in most fields of Middle Eastern studies; mainly on SUNY Press or on Maisonneuve. We will include detail as they come to fruition.

Tidsskrift för Mellanösternstudier lever

Noen av dykk har etterlyst 1999-årgangen av TfMÖ, etter at Selskapet inngjekk avtale med Tidsskriftet om å sende det til våre medlemmer. Vi kan nå rapportere at Tidskriftet lever, men har berre lagt seg til ein lett akademisk distanse til volum-årgangen (eit akademisk tidsskrift bør gjerne komme ut to-tre år etter det året som står på omslaget...). Men dei har ambisjonar om å ta att dette, og nr 1/1999 er ikkje langt unna. Samarbeidet mellom Selskapet og Tidsskriftet blir derfor formalisert frå 1999; og medlemmer av Selskapet vil få meir detaljar om det sammen med (også forsinka) krav om medlemspengar for 1999. Det vil samtidig gå ut tilbod om å kjøp av tidligare nummer av TfMÖ til reduserte prisar.

Publications from Bergen

Also in Bergen we are somewhat in arrears in our publications; the journal Sudanic Africa: A Journal of Historical Sources recently appeared in its volume 9, 1998, a mere nine months late. The current issue, ca. 200 pages large, contains articles on Sufi disputes and caliphal ambitions in Nigeria, a delightful memoir of a young Arab translator's meeting with British colonialists in Hausaland, a bibliography of zar, biographies of Sudanese midwives and many other interesting items.

New books

Nicholas S. Hopkins and Kirsten Westergaard (eds.),Directions of change in rural Egypt . Cairo: The American University of Cairo Press 1999. viii, 398 pp. ISBN 977-424-483-4. $31.60.

This is the result of a conference held in Aswan, organized by the AUC, the Copenhagen Centre for Development Research and DANIDA, on culture, society and economy in rural Egypt today. Participants from all social sciences delivered research results spanning from Mersa Matruh to the reclaimed areas near Isma'iliyya to Edfu. Among the topics discussed is the effects of the 'owners and tenants law' of 1992; the perhaps declining role of migration, changes in consumption patterns and lifestyle, the role of the fellahin in the media; as well as dispute settlement and response to development programs. Overall, an image is presented of a multi-faceted society teetering on the brink between progress and impoverishment.
Among the twenty contributors are M.H. Abdel Aal, Lila Abu-Lughod, Soraya Altorki, Kirsten H. Bach, Ray Bush, Donald Cole, Gunter Meyer, H-C. Korsholm Nielsen andAhmed Zayed. Westergaard is a Director of the CDR.

Hamdi A. Hassan, The Iraqi invasion of Kuwait: Religion, Identity and Otherness in the Analysis of War and Conflict. London: Pluto Press 1999. 288pp. ISBN 0745314112. £ 17.99 / £ 55.

To what extent has religion, identity and 'otherness' facilitated and accelerated armed conflict in the Middle East? A decade after Iraq's invasion of Kuwait in 1990, Hamdi A. Hassan addresses this crucial question. The notion of Arabism - the religion and language which is so closely associated with the Pan Arabist ideals - is examined within the context of Iraqi foreign policy and as a motivating factor in the decision to invade. Hassan assesses how Saddam Hussein responded to American and Israeli intentions after the invasion, the reaction of other Arab states, and the unprecedented grass-roots support of the Iraqi leadership. The social organisation of Iraq - its families, clans and regional alliances - is outlined, as is the political structure of the country and the importance of Ba'athism in the region. The author challenges the approach taken by much Western writing on the Middle East which, he argues, frequently promotes the stereotypical view that Arabic and Islamic peoples are unable to act and react rationally. The vast body of literature on the region often ignores the diversity and complexity of Middle East societies by identifying and locating them within convenient topologies and conceptual frameworks.
Hamdi Hassan is a consultant to the Swedish National Labour Market Administration.

Conferences

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Responsible for this Web page is Knut S. Vikør. Archived 23.9.99