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Volume 7 - Number 8

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THIS ISSUE » THE ISRAEL-EGYPT PEACE TREATY – DOOMED TO FAILURE? » THE GCC STATES » THE GULF AND ITS INDIAN ENTANGLEMENTS » WOMEN’S SUFFRAGE IN KUWAIT » THE DRIVE TO DIVERSIFY GULF ECONOMIES » A HISTORY OF SAUDI ARABIA IN TEXTILES » MANHATTAN COMES TO MAKKAH » ARABIAN STUDIES IN BRITAIN » PLUS » REVIEWS AND EVENTS IN LONDON

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Editorial BoardNadje Al-Ali

SOAS

Narguess FarzadSOAS

Nevsal HughesAssociation of European Journalists

Najm Jarrah

George Joff éCambridge University

Max ScottStacey International

Sarah SearightSociety for Arabian Studies

Kathryn Spellman PootsAKU and LMEI

Sarah StewartLMEI

Ionis Th ompsonSociety for Arabian Studies,

Saudi-British Society

Shelagh WeirSOAS

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ListingsVincenzo Paci-Delton

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ISSN 1743-7598

Volume 7 - Number 8

April-May 2011

‘Deraa’ (inner dress), Central Region, Bani Tamim Tribe, 2009 © Art of Heritage (see page 14)

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4 EDITORIAL

5 FEEDBACK

6INSIGHTTh e Israel-Egypt Peace Treaty – doomed to failure?Patrick Seale

8THE GCC STATESTh e Gulf and its Indian entanglementsCaroline Osella

10 Th e battle for infl uence: women’s suff rage in KuwaitLindsey Stephenson

12Away from oil and towards innovation: the drive to diversify Gulf economiesKenneth Wilson

14Th e Art of Heritage collection: a history of Saudi Arabia in textilesMichelle Motiwalla and Pramod Kumar

16 Liwa: journal of the National Center for Documentation and Research, United Arab EmiratesGeoff rey King

17Manhattan comes to MakkahSamar Al-Sayed

18Th e British Foundation for the Study of ArabiaSarah Searight

19POETRYSaad al-Humaidin and Suad al-Mubarak al-Sabah

20ROAD TO JERICHO‘Th e message is always much stronger through music’Randa Safi eh on a concert tour of British, American and Palestinian musicians coming soon to London

22REVIEWS: BOOKSOttoman Brothers: Muslims, Christians, and Jews in Early Twentieth-Century Palestine by Michelle U CamposRoberto Mazza

Contents

23BOOKS IN BRIEF

25IN MEMORIAMTh e death of a distinguished generation of Islamic art scholars

26LISTINGS: APRIL-MAY EVENTS

4 » The Middle East in London » April-May 2011

Dear ReaderDear Reader

Sarah Searight, MEL Editorial Board

The fl uidity of events in the Middle East region will be well known to our readers, and its impact is

unpredictable. For this reason, although this issue is focused on the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states, our ‘Insight’ contribution by the renowned Middle East commentator Patrick Seale assesses an old issue still pertinent to the entire region: the future of the Israeli-Egyptian Peace Treaty in the post-Mubarak era.

As we know, the Gulf states, too, have had their share of upheavals. It is therefore apt to look at the region in terms of poverty, unemployment and corruption – aggravated by rising food prices – rather than merely oil wealth. Several of the articles in the current issue are indeed

EDITORIALEDITORIAL

relevant in this respect: for instance, the power of money in the construction boom in Makkah, the diffi culty Kuwaiti women face in making their newly acquired vote eff ective (they have fi nally acquired four seats in the national assembly) and the need to diversity GCC economies partly in order to provide employment in the private sector. Kuwait, Bahrain and Oman have all been shaken by protests for better representation and better employment prospects.

However, this issue also draws attention to some of the exciting cultural developments within the GCC. Alongside the architectural fl amboyance of new museums up and down the Arabian shore, it is good to read of two developments: the arrival of Liwa, a new journal published

in the UAE, described by Geoff rey King as ‘an essential point of reference for Gulf regional studies’, and from Saudi Arabia, the Art of Heritage collection – the crucial preservation of the country’s material culture. Th ese are heartening developments at a time of widespread regional disturbance. Equally appropriate is Randa Safi eh’s article on a concert tour of British, American and Palestinian musicians coming soon to London that aims to change the public’s image of Palestine by bringing to as wide as possible an audience the chance to hear the cry of Palestinians for freedom through music.

The Museum of Islamic Art in Doha, Qatar, designed by I M Pei and Jean-Michel Wilmotte


I HAVE been really enjoying reading the magazine – I am keen to contribute sometime.

Karen Zarindast, Persian TV, BBC World Service

WHAT A wonderful surprise I had when I opened my copy today – thank you and your team so much for putting Hojat’s work on the cover, it looks brilliant. I haven’t had time to read the whole issue yet but it looks like you have all been working hard!

Janet Rady, Janet Rady Fine Art

FeedbackFeedbackFEEDBACKFEEDBACK

We value your feedback and constructive suggestions. Please address letters to the editor to [email protected] or Editor, London Middle East Institute, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, Th ornhaugh Street, Russell Square, London WC1H 0XG

I JUST read the article ‘Wither Sanctions?’ in Th e Middle East in London. I must admit that I really enjoyed it. I have passed it to our partners and everyone showed a lot of interest in reading it.

Shahrzad Atai, solicitor at GSC solicitors LLP

CONGRATULATIONS on the new magazine format and image. It looks fantastic!

Charles Buderi, LMEI Advisory Council

THE NEW format is wonderful. Congratulations!

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I’M sorry that the LMEI magazine only comes out six times a year now. It was a monthly highlight.

Fiona Elliott

Volume 7 - Number 7February-March 2011

£4 | €5 | US$6.5

THIS ISSUE » IRAN » WHITHER SANCTIONS? » FLOWERS OF PERSIAN SONG AND MUSIC » MAKING NOISE QUIETLY » IRANIAN ORGANISATIONS IN LONDON » TASTING BLOOD: CALIGULA IN TEHRAN » WILL THERE BE WAR ON IRAN? » PLUS » RESTAURANT, EXHIBITION & BOOK REVIEWS AND EVENTS IN LONDON

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Al SAQI BOOKS


Israel has been unnerved by Egypt’s Revolution. Th e reason is simple: it fears for the survival of the 1979 Peace Treaty

– a treaty which, by neutralising Egypt, guaranteed Israel’s military dominance over the region for the next three decades.

By removing Egypt – the strongest and most populous of the Arab countries – from the Arab line-up, the Treaty ruled out any possibility of an Arab coalition that might have contained Israel or restrained its freedom of action. As Israel’s Foreign Minister, Moshe Dayan, remarked at the time: ‘If a wheel is removed, the car will not run again.’

Western commentators routinely describe the Treaty as a ‘pillar of regional stability’, a ‘keystone of Middle East diplomacy’, a ‘centrepiece of America’s diplomacy’ in the Arab and Muslim world. Th is is certainly how Israel and its American friends have seen it.

But for most Arabs, it has been a disaster. Far from providing stability, it exposed them to Israeli power. Far from bringing peace, the Treaty ensured an absence of

peace, since a dominant Israel saw no need to compose or compromise with Syria or the Palestinians.

Instead, the Treaty opened the way for Israeli invasions, occupations and massacres in Lebanon and the Palestinian territories, for strikes against Iraqi and Syrian nuclear sites, brazen threats against Iran, the 44-year occupation of the West Bank and the cruel blockade of Gaza and for the pursuit of a ‘Greater Israel’ agenda by fanatical Jewish settlers and religious nationalists.

In turn, Arab dictators, invoking the challenge they faced from an aggressive and expansionist Israel, were able to justify the need to maintain tight control over their populations by means of harsh security measures.

Th e Israeli-Egyptian Treaty has contributed hugely to the dangerous instability and raw nerves that have

characterised the Middle East to this day, as well as to the sharpening of popular grievances, and the inevitable explosions that have followed.

Emboldened by the Treaty, Israel smashed Iraq’s Osirak nuclear reactor in 1981 and, the following year, invaded Lebanon in a bid to destroy the PLO, expel Syrian infl uence and bring Lebanon into Israel’s orbit. Israel’s 1982 invasion and siege of Beirut killed some 17,000 Lebanese and Palestinians. In an act of great immorality, Israel then provided cover (and arc-lights) to its Maronite allies as they engaged in a two-day slaughter of helpless Palestinians at the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps. Israel remained in occupation of southern Lebanon for the next 18 years, until driven out in 2000 by Hizbullah guerrillas. So much for the Peace Treaty’s contribution to Middle East peace and stability.

As political upheavals sweep across the Middle East and North Africa, veteran journalist Patrick Seale off ers his thoughts on the likely future of the agreement

INSIGHTINSIGHT

Far from bringing peace, the Treaty ensured an absence of peace, since a dominant Israel saw no need to compose

or compromise with Syria or the Palestinians

The Israel-Egypt The Israel-Egypt Peace Peace Treaty Treaty – doomed to failure?


(Opposite) Anwar El Sadat, Menachem Begin and Jimmy Carter sign the Camp David Accords on September 17, 1978

(Left) Protesters in Tahrir Square, February 2011

Th e origins of the Peace Treaty can be traced to the diplomacy of Henry Kissinger, President Nixon’s National Security Adviser at the time of the October War. Anxious above all to protect Israel and contemptuous of Palestinian and Syrian aspirations, Kissinger manoeuvered Egypt’s Anwar al-Sadat out of his alliance with both Syria and the Soviet Union, and towards a cosy relationship with Israel and the United States.

With the 1975 Sinai Disengagement Agreement, Kissinger removed Egypt from the battlefi eld – a fateful decision that led directly to the Camp David accords of 1978, and the Peace Treaty of 1979. Sadat may have hoped for a comprehensive peace, involving the Palestinians and Syria. But he was out-foxed by Israel’s Prime Minister Menachem Begin, a fervent Zionist who was determined to destroy Palestinian nationalism and prevent the return of the West Bank to the Arabs. Begin was happy to return the Sinai to Egypt in order to keep the West Bank.

Weakened at home by pro-Israeli forces, President Jimmy Carter witnessed unhappily the scaling down of his peace eff ort from its original multilateral aims to a mere bilateral outcome – a separate Israeli-Egyptian peace. Washington swallowed Israel’s argument that the Treaty ruled out the threat of a regional war and was therefore in America’s interest. Egypt’s army was given $1.3bn annual USA subsidy. Th is was not to make it more warlike, on the contrary, to keep it at peace with Israel.

Defence of the Peace Treaty remains

the prevailing wisdom in Washington. Th e Obama administration is reported to have told Egypt’s military chiefs that they must maintain the treaty. In turn, Egypt’s Supreme Military Council has said that Egypt will honour existing treaties. So there will evidently not be any revocation of the Treaty. No one in Egypt or in the Arab world favours a return to military action, nor is ready for it. Still, the Treaty may well be put on ice.

We do not yet know the colour of the next Egyptian government. In any event, it will be hugely preoccupied with pressing domestic problems for the foreseeable future. If, as is widely expected, this government will have a strong civilian component drawn from the various strands of the protest movement, adjustments of Egypt’s foreign policy must be expected.

It is highly unlikely that Egypt will continue Hosni Mubarak’s policy – deeply embarrassing to Egyptian opinion – of colluding with Israel in the blockade of Gaza. Nor is the new Egypt likely to persist in Mubarak’s hostility towards the Islamic Republic of Iran and the two resistance movements, Hamas and Hizbullah. Whether the Treaty survives or not, Egypt’s alliance with Israel will not be the intimate relationship it was.

Th e Egyptian Revolution is only the latest demonstration of the change in Israel’s

strategic environment. Israel ‘lost’ Iran when the Shah was overthrown in 1979. Th is was followed by the emergence of a Tehran-Damascus-Hizbullah axis, which has sought to challenge Israel’s regional hegemony. Over the past couple of years, Israel has also ‘lost’ Turkey, a former ally of real weight. It is now in danger of ‘losing’ Egypt. Th e threat looms of regional isolation.

Moreover, Israel’s relentless seizure of Palestinian land on the West Bank and its refusal to engage in serious negotiations with the Palestinians and Syria on the basis of ‘land for peace’ have lost it many former supporters in Europe and the United States. It is well aware that it faces a threat of ‘de-legitimisation’.

How will Israel react to the Egyptian Revolution? Will it move troops to its border with Egypt, strengthen its defences, desperately seek allies in the Egyptian military junta now temporarily in charge, and plead for still more American aid? Or will it make a determined bid to resolve its territorial confl icts with Syria and Lebanon and allow the emergence of an independent Palestinian state with its capital in East Jerusalem?

Israel urgently needs to rethink its security doctrine. Th is is the clear lesson of the dramatic events in Egypt. Dominating the region by force of arms – Israel’s doctrine since the creation of the State – is increasingly becoming less of a viable option. It serves only to arouse ferocious and growing resistance, which must eventually erupt into violence. Israel needs a revolution in its security thinking, but of this there is as yet no sign.

Only peace, not arms, can guarantee Israel’s long-term security.

Patrick Seale is a renowned journalist and leading writer on the Middle East, and the author of several books, most recently Th e Struggle for Arab Independence (2010)

Whether the Treaty survives or not, Egypt’s alliance with Israel will not be the intimate relationship it was


As an anthropologist working in Kerala, South India, I realised as soon as I arrived for fi eldwork in

1989 that I would have to visit the Gulf. India’s economy in those days was still a closed one, and I was working in a rural area. Th e Gulf seemed mainly to exert its infl uence in that village in the form of a vigorous economy of migration and smuggling. A period of Gulf migration off ered village young men a chance to escape rural unemployment and make some money with which to begin to build a house and start a family. Migration graft ed itself into local expectations as a normal part of the ideal male life cycle, and a spell in the Gulf came to act as a rite of passage, turning callow rural boys into work-craft ed proper adult men – men of substance and worldly experience. Every family wanted to have a migrant in it, for the cash, access

to consumer goods and prestige it brought. Young girls hoped to marry migrants, dreaming of clean newly built villas furnished with those elusive and utterly desirable consumer goods.

Th e Indian economy liberalised in 1991, wage diff erentials closed and the Kerala fl ood was confi dently predicted to thin to a trickle – but it never did, despite various ups and downs in the job market and the political situation, as Dr Adam Hanieh here in SOAS Development Studies has been exploring.

When I eventually (in 1995) fi rst visited the Gulf, I understood how far an academic label like ‘temporary labour migration’ misses the point; and – frankly – is doing political work. Th e South Asia-Gulf connection has nothing temporary or ephemeral about it.

Malayalis (as Keralites know themselves)

over and over would proudly show me around shopping malls, hotel lobbies, public parks. And over and over I would hear the claim: ‘We built this place: there was nothing here before. We had the technological know-how, the skills. Th is place was just desert. Th ey had nothing.’ Th is is, of course, an exaggeration, which overlooks the pre-oil Gulf economies in areas such as pearl fi shing and date cultivation and an export trade that fl ourished all around the Indian Ocean. But the hyperbolic claim of the Indian migrant is a way of resisting the diminishing eff ects of a label like ‘temporary labour migrant’ and of claiming relationship to a place that would try its best to refuse that relationship – or the obligations and connection that relationship brings.

Another common claim is that ‘we run this place; the locals would be helpless without us’. Such claims are not simple boastfulness, but are part of migrant attempts to remind us all – especially Khaleejis (Gulf citizens) themselves – that the Gulf economy and lifestyle, as it is now, would simply not be sustainable without its

The Gulf The Gulf and its Indian and its Indian entanglementsentanglements

Caroline Osella explores the history and contemporary mutual interdependence of the Gulf-Indian relationship

THE GCC STATESTHE GCC STATES

Sending home all the Pakistani taxi drivers is one thing; but can the Sri Lankan housemaids upon whom Gulf citizens now

so readily depend be so easily dispensed with?

© Fillippo O

sella


(Opp0site) A Kerala migrant returns to Calicut airport and is reunited with his family

(Below) The ‘uru’ or ‘dhow’, used since antiquity for Indian ocean trade, was built at Beypore in coastal north Kerala

migrants. Malayalis laugh at programmes of emiratisation, omanisation and so on, pointing out that, in practice, infrastructure and lifestyle depend upon a range of workers – from professionals and the highly skilled to the unskilled and those willing to do domestic or other tough jobs – who are simply not to be found among Gulf nationals. Sending home all the Pakistani taxi drivers and training up locals is one thing; but can the Sri Lankan housemaids upon whom Gulf citizens now so readily depend be so easily dispensed with? Do we really see coming any time soon enough educated and world-class engineers or doctors among the locals to service even existing projects?

Th e harshness with which migrants’ claims and judgments are oft en made is not born of simple motives. Th ere is a cry in these claims for Khaleejis to recognise and respect the fact of contemporary mutual interdependence and of historically deep entanglement. As much as the housemaid needs that job, her employer (especially now that Gulf women are entering higher education and the workforce in such numbers) needs the domestic worker’s help.

From the Indian side, two aspects of the relationships are especially interesting: fi rstly, the ways in which diff erent regions of Kerala and religious communities in Kerala experience the Gulf and hence evaluate it diff erently; and secondly, the depth and breadth of the mutual entanglement of Kerala and the Gulf region, such that we can claim that ‘the Gulf is in Kerala, and Kerala is in the Gulf ’.

For the fi rst, I have found (unsurprisingly) that Kerala Hindus oft en feel ambivalent about the Gulf and have clearly stated goals of temporary migration with return to the homeland, while Kerala’s Christians, who have been a backbone of Gulf hospitals and clinics, oft en hope to use the Gulf as stepping stone to the USA. Th ere is a greater degree of ease, familiarity and comfort and a tendency to evaluate Gulf life and society positively among Kerala’s coastal Muslim communities, whose second language is Arabic and who have a history (recorded back to the 10th century but clearly even older) of trade partnerships. It is also relevant that in India, Muslims are a beleaguered minority; the Gulf off ers a comfortable space, and one where

consumer modernity is infl ected by Islam, a mix these migrants fi nd attractive. Material life (cooking, house-building, clothing and so on) shows strong and clear Gulf infl uence: some aspects (drinking cava) are longstanding; others (the abaya fashion) are recent, and all mingle to produce a deep sense among these coastal Muslims that, as one woman told me, ‘I am Gulf!’ – and, as I have argued, we cannot and must not disentangle ‘Gulf ’ from ‘Kerala’ in academic analyses.

Th at the connection goes back way beyond the oil and migration boom is something all too easy to overlook these days. Arab traders and sailors used to pass months sitting tight in Kerala, waiting for winds to turn favourable. Since the 1970s, even as Gulf-Kerala connections have intensifi ed and spread to a wider slice of Kerala society, Malayalis have seen the relationship progressively downplayed and overlooked as their erstwhile clients and collaborators – partners in trade, philanthropy, sociality and even marriage – turned into wealthy patrons, eager to consolidate new nation states and produce purifi ed histories and national identities.

In my work, I cannot stand as a simple ‘South Asianist’; I’ve oft en found myself trying to explain to Indian academic audiences that from where we sit in Kerala, Delhi is more alien and distant

(conceptually, materially and linguistically, in some cases, given that South India’s Muslims have Arabic, not Urdu, as their second language, while Hindi hardly exists across south India) than Dubai. Nor can anybody working in the Gulf ignore the eff ects of the migrant populations who live and work there (between 50 and 90 per cent of the total population). A project I am currently involved in draws together SOAS researchers with expertise and interests in how people experience cities, beyond banal categories of ethnic identity, residential quarter, social class and other sociological commonplaces. We are trying to explore, by means of a focus on sensory aspects of a place, how Gulf citizens move through their landscapes, experience them, are aff ected by and make sense (or fail to) of the richness that surrounds them. Th e Gulf is too easily stereotyped as an empty or synthetic space: it is richly complex and in many ways an ethnographer’s dream. It would be a wonderful moment for accepting the reality of Gulf society if Gulf citizens themselves recognised and valued their entanglements.

Dr Caroline Osella is Reader in Anthropology at SOAS

Th at the connection goes back way beyond the oil and migration boom is something all too easy to overlook these days


Aft er a hard-fought battle with the Kuwait parliament, Kuwaiti women gained the right to vote in

2005. Since then they have taken part in elections three times. Th e law narrowly passed with the aid of votes from appointed ministers. Since then, suff rage of Kuwaiti women has maintained the general trend of politics and more oft en than not bolstered the position of conservative and Islamist elements, contrary to the fears of many conservative politicians. Given this, women have made an impact on the elections. Constituting around 56 per cent of voters, their presence has necessitated a revamp of Kuwaiti elections institutionally, logistically and rhetorically. But women’s suff rage has not, as some had feared, meant a sweeping liberalisation of policies.

An arrant refusal to accept a representational quota in parliament makes the accomplishments of Kuwaiti women in politics striking. From the outset, Kuwaiti women leaders unanimously argued only for the right to vote and stand for election.

Th ey felt that this stance was necessary if women were to be seen as any consequence to elections, both as constituents and as legitimate representatives in parliament. Th is stance meant defeat in the fi rst two elections but those involved throughout the suff rage process were not deterred. Th ey recognised that time would be needed to train female candidates, acclimate voters – both male and female – to new realities and to gain the confi dence of potential constituents.

Beyond these challenges, additional strain was induced by the dissolution of parliament and snap elections – on all three occasions. Women were scheduled to fi rst participate in the parliamentary elections of 2007. However, the parliament was dissolved in May of 2006 and candidates were allowed scarcely a month to prepare for new elections. 27 women ran and none were elected.

Th e second elections of 2008 were again shrouded with uncertainties for women due to an overhaul of the electoral districts and

an unexpected dissolution of parliament by the Emir – three years early. Two months were allocated to prepare for these elections, yet this time women came much closer to winning. Th e condensed electoral districts meant that top 10 vote recipients in each district would be elected, and female candidates placed 11th and 15th in one of the districts. In the most recent elections in 2009, women acquired four seats including a fi rst and second placing in two districts.

Yet four seats for women in parliament did not mean four seats for any particular ideological faction. To be sure, none are of Islamist or Salafi persuasion. Offi cial political parties in Kuwait are illegal, although there are political movements, blocs and alliances. Th e currently elected female MPs are not a single bloc, with only one of them having ever run as a member of a bloc. Being a member of these factions has by no means been necessary to win a seat and there is no evidence to suggest that aligning with a group actually increases the chance of winning. In fact, these loose affi liations make it much easier for candidates to be ideologically ambiguous or amorphous.

Each of the female MPs are considered to some degree liberal. It is however

The The battle for battle for infl uence: infl uence:

Since women won the right to vote in 2005, the Kuwaiti political landscape has shifted. Yet there is more change to come, argues Lindsey Stephenson


Th e presence of women has necessitated a revamp of Kuwaiti elections institutionally, logistically and rhetorically

women’s suff rage in Kuwait


(Opposite) Young Kuwaiti women on the campaign trail

(Right) Kuwaiti elected lawmaker Dr Aseel Al Awadhi and Marzooq Al Ghanim during the reopening of Kuwait National Assembly, May 2009

simplistic to suggest that Kuwaiti politics is only stratifi ed between the ideological poles of liberal and Islamist. At present, the more divisive contentions are between Hadhar Kuwaitis who have been settled in the region since the 18th century and Bedu Kuwaitis, nomadic people, who were made nationals in the 1960’s. Other notable political contentions exist between the pro-government merchant class and tribal groups and the Shia’ and Sunni.

What is fascinating about these overlapping layers of affi liation is that because Kuwaitis each have four votes, they oft en vote for four candidates who represent diff erent facets of their identity or sensitivities. A voter once remarked that they voted for one individual because she was smart in economic matters, one because he was Hadhari, one because he was pro-government and one because he was a family friend. Others will for example, cast three votes for ‘good Muslims’ and one ‘from the heart’. Th is type of voting oft en leads to a gridlocked parliament. Fortunately, the demands of women have been extremely consistent. Th ey have articulated shared goals, regardless of their representational responsibilities, which should make it easier for them to work together.

So what are women demanding? In 2008, from the most liberal to the most conservative, Shia, Sunni, tribal, merchant, pro-government and opposition persuasions, women constituents were asking for the same three things: the right to pass their citizenship to their husbands and children, a fi ght against corruption, particularly in the Ministry of Health, which is known to sponsor trips abroad for well-connected individuals and thirdly was the revision of the statute that prohibits unmarried or widowed women from receiving the housing loan exclusively available for Kuwaiti men. Th eir requests were fairly straightforward but communicating them to the candidates is a slightly more convoluted process. Incorporating women into the electoral process isn’t as simple as doubling the number of chairs at election rallies. It has meant the creation of new institutions. While men have long had traditional social gatherings, easily refashioned into campaign

events, this framework has not existed for women. Furthermore, social constraints dictate that women and men should not attend mixed gatherings, so mirror institutions for women have sprung up. It is this restructuring of institutions, rather than the votes themselves that is causing the most change in Kuwaiti society.

Because women’s votes are very signifi cant, at least numerically, families are willing and encouraging of women to attend campaign events outside the home at night. While this same attitude applies to major events like weddings and family gatherings, it is not extended to general social outings. Th ose should be limited, and only take place during the day. However, regardless of each woman’s veracity for understanding policies and platforms, for many attendees these events are legitimate excuses to get out and socialise. And the more interesting part is how this legitimate civic duty is prying open the social sphere outside of election season as well.

Under the auspices of civic responsibilities, some Kuwaiti women have made a legitimate case for their need to have regular social and political gatherings with other unrelated women throughout the year. Daily gatherings – diwaniyyat – have always

been a fi xture present in Kuwaiti male culture and are only now extending to the women’s realm. Th is new-found movement and interaction outside of the family that has been facilitated by women’s suff rage will certainly be a relevant force for shaping Kuwaiti society.

Women’s suff rage has brought many fi rsts to the country oft en touted as the most democratic nation in the Middle East. New candidates and constituents that refl ect a more holistic picture of the Kuwaiti polity have reinvigorated the already vibrant political scene. However, the most signifi cant changes thus far have not manifested themselves in parliament, but through the social consequences of redefi ned political institutions.

Lindsey Stephenson is an MA student at the Aga Khan University – Institute for the Study of Muslim Civilisations and was a Fulbright fellow in Kuwait in 2007-2008

Th rough suff rage, Kuwaiti women have made a case to have regular social and political gatherings with

other unrelated women throughout the year


There is a quiet economic revolution occurring in the Gulf that will inevitably lead to very diff erent

economic structures in each Gulf state to those that exist today. Although each state is diff erent in terms of its hydrocarbon dependence, increasingly they seek to move their economies away from oil and gas dependence and public sector-based employment for their nationals. Th is shift is driven by a shared vision of creating more innovative, knowledge-based and internationally competitive economies.

A commonly held belief in Gulf states is that diversifi ed economies are more internationally competitive because they are more able to ride out commodity price fl uctuations. Norway and Australia are examples of diversifi ed, knowledge and commodity-based economies.

It is not precisely clear what ‘competitiveness’ means for a national economy. ‘Competitiveness’ is also in some ways an unfortunate term as it suggests that nations are competing like athletes for medals and that one nation doing better

economically means that others are doing worse. In reality, Gulf states benefi t when there is stronger economic growth in the rest of the world, particularly when there is an increase in demand for hydrocarbons, which boosts their oil and gas revenues.

Th e Gulf states are quite heterogeneous in terms of their basic economic and social structures. Saudi Arabia dwarfs the other Gulf states in many ways, but particularly with respect to population. Qatar and Bahrain have tiny populations for nation states and are not much bigger than the size of a regional city in many countries of the world. Dependency on non-nationals, particularly in non-public enterprise, is greatest in the United Arab Emirates (UAE)

Away from oil and Away from oil and towards innovation: towards innovation:

The Gulf states are striving for international competitiveness by shifting towards knowledge-based economies, but diversifi cation is diffi cult, says Kenneth Wilson


the drive to diversify Gulf economies

Gulf states increasingly want to move their economies away from oil and gas dependency to knowledge-based economies


(Opposite) A developing skyline in Saudi Arabia

(Above) King Abdullah Economic City, a major mixed-use business centre in western Saudi Arabia

and Qatar but still substantial in Kuwait and Bahrain. Oman and Saudi Arabia are the least dependent, in relative terms, upon non-nationals, but neither would be able to run their economies successfully without substantial input from non-national labour. Non-national labour takes many forms but includes the complete labour market spectrum from highly skilled and highly mobile knowledge workers all the way through to low-skilled and low-paid labourers from neighboring countries, but even from as far away as China.

So how internationally competitive are the Gulf economies? We can look to the Global Competitiveness Index (GCI) produced by the World Economic Forum (WEF) and the Doing Business Index (DBI) produced by the World Bank for some advice. According to the GCI, Qatar and UAE are quite internationally even more competitive at rank positions 17 and 25, respectively, in a fi eld of 139 countries. Saudi Arabia also ranks well at 21, while Bahrain, Kuwait and Oman are less internationally competitive. With respect to the DBI, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain are internationally competitive at rank positions 11 and 28, respectively (out of a fi eld of 183 countries), while UAE and Qatar rank quite reasonably, though Kuwait and Oman are not internationally competitive.

Composite indicators such as GCI and DBI are interesting, but they are not able to tell us in a detailed or disaggregated way much about the drivers behind nternational competitiveness or their specifi c characteristics unless we disentangle them and also have a clearer defi nition and understanding of the concept of international competitiveness itself. Indeed, there is by no means universal agreement that such composite indicators tell us very much, particularly when there are four dimensions of competitiveness that infl uence any economy. Th ese include internal market competitiveness, external price competitiveness, external cost competitiveness and competitiveness based on growth fundamentals.

Using data from WEF we can conclude that although there is some unevenness across indicators, generally speaking, UAE and Qatar are quite internationally competitive with respect to internal market competitiveness. Oman is not far behind, but comfortably ahead of Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, but Kuwait lags substantially behind and cannot be considered internationally competitive in this regard.

Measuring external price competitiveness in international markets requires converting domestic prices into a common currency so they can be compared. An example is the annual exercise conducted by the Economist magazine in compiling its ‘Big Mac’ index. Th e Economist converts the local price of a Big Mac burger, chosen because Big Macs are basically the same all over the world, into US dollars. Unfortunately, the Economist does not collect data on Big Macs for all Gulf states. According to the latest data (for Big Macs purchased on July 21, 2010), a Big Mac in Saudi Arabia is $2.67, compared to $2.99 in UAE and of $3.73 in the US. Th e cheapest Big Macs are in Sri Lanka at $1.90 and the most expensive are in Norway at $7.20.

If we assume that Big Macs are roughly the same price in other Gulf states as they are in UAE and Saudi Arabia, then we can conclude that, based on the Big Mac index, the Gulf states are reasonably competitive in the global market for Big Macs, certainly more competitive than the US and Norway. However, this is not particularly helpful since Big Macs are not traded internationally. But, in principle the same exercise can be undertaken for

a range of traded goods and these can be weighted appropriately to derive an index of overall external price competitiveness. Abstracting from transport costs and taxes, if global markets are competitive then the price of the same good should be the same all around the world provided the good is traded. Unfortunately, there are no reliable data on relative labour costs or on productivity for the Gulf states, and so we are unable to perform an external cost competitiveness comparison.

Any economy is likely to be more competitive if it has innovative and entrepreneurial enterprises that form part of a strong knowledge economy. WEF has been looking at growth competitiveness for more than two decades and has over time refi ned its ideas and measurement approaches to develop a method for comparing the international growth competitiveness of countries. WEF defi nes competitiveness as ‘the set of institutions, policies, and factors that determine the level of productivity of a country’.

Using WEF data, UAE and Qatar are quite internationally competitive in infrastructure, macro economy and technological readiness, while the other Gulf states generally are considerably less so. However, in the areas of education and innovation, two key drivers of the knowledge economy and enablers of economic diversifi cation, none of the Gulf states is internationally competitive.

Time will tell how successful the Gulf states are in moving away from a hydrocarbon-based economy. Th is change is necessary if they are to provide employment for their nationals in productive private sector work. Th e challenges are great and time may be against them. Th e recent upheavals in Tunisia, Egypt and Bahrain have not gone unnoticed in Gulf states and there are many young Gulf nationals with labour market aspirations currently not being met. However, already the economies of the Gulf look diff erent today compared to fi ve years ago, and change continues.

Dr Kenneth Wilson is Director of the National Research Foundation, UAE

In education and innovation, two key drivers of the knowledge economy, none of the Gulf states are internationally competitive


THE GCC STATES THE GCC STATES

The Art of Heritage Group, based in Riyadh, has a long history of commitment to social improvement.

At the core of the creative group, is the largest and oldest women’s charity in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia – Al Nahda Philanthropic Society for Women. Celebrating 50 years of service in October 2012, Al Nahda supports the welfare of women and works closely with other women’s groups throughout the country.

Art of Heritage is an unusual group with an unusual mission and background. Previously known as the Heritage Center (a division of Al Nahda founded nearly 20 years ago), Art of Heritage today acts as the commercial and marketing arm of Al Nahda. Re-structured and registered as a private company in July 2009, the objective of Art of Heritage is to continue its past eff orts as a not-for-profi t company with a goal to build long-term, sustainable

income for the group’s charitable works and generate employment for women.

Driven by concerns over the rapid disappearance of the kingdom’s rich and varied material culture, more than two decades ago the group’s founders and board members assembled a comprehensive, unique collection of traditional garments, jewelry, household items, artifacts and pottery from every region in Saudi Arabia: the Art of Heritage collection. Th e purpose of the collection then, as now, was to preserve the garments worn by mothers and grandmothers as traditional symbols of the past and to serve as a reference point for the production of modern replicas.

Th e Art of Heritage collection of original

antique clothing and textiles has inspired the reproduction garments created from these priceless resources. Handmade from start to fi nish in their Riyadh workshops, every dress is fully hand-embroidered – an example of bespoke couture based on native, traditional designs. In this way, the modern Art of Heritage-Al Nahda garments have become a living link to the past that modern Saudi women and brides treasure as new family heirlooms.

Th e Art of Heritage Group is also creating a catalogue and archive of the collection in order to provide a reference for the textile history of the region.

Th is is crucial as, to date, there is no reference point for information about

The Art of The Art of Heritage Heritage collection:collection:

Michelle Motiwalla and Pramod Kumar report on the early stages of the Art of Heritage collection archival project

a history of Saudi Arabia in textiles

Th e collection numbers nearly 5,000 garments and accessories, allowing for an in-depth examination of original source materials

© A

rt of

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itage


(Opposite) Bridal costume, Hejaz , 2009. Extravagant pink costume: outer ‘thobe’ and inner dress ‘dera’a’ illustrates various infl uences brought by pilgrims

(Below) Najdi ‘thobe’, Central Region, patchwork and embroidery, 2010

textiles from the Arabian Peninsula past and present. Th is study of the Art of Heritage collection will be the fi rst detailed look at the varied costumes of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the infl uences that have shaped them.

Th e collection numbers nearly 5,000 garments and accessories, allowing for an in-depth examination of original source materials. Apart from garments, the collection also holds an extensive array of soft furnishings used by bedouin and nomadic tribes. Essentially fl at woven textiles, the collection includes carpets, rugs, pillows, cushion covers, tent fabrics, saddle furniture and trappings.

Th e Art of Heritage archives reveal the fascinating and little known story of the many layers of the kingdom’s history and its rich, varied clothing culture. Common traits in textile traditions with neighbouring countries are frequently spotted, revealing a wealth of information on the possible evolution of a particular style and traces of its origin. Colour, texture and fi ne embroidery are popular in the archive and sit in stark contrast to the black abaya, a prevailing stereotype of the region’s textile tradition. A great deal of work remains to be done for a better understanding of Saudi Arabia’s textile legacy, both in terms of its native origins and distinct regional styles and infl uences. From the infl uences for pattern design, to the base fabrics and varied forms of embellishments and embroideries, there are so many stories to be told.

Th e costumes from the diff erent regions of the kingdom are heavily infl uenced by the textile arts and traditions of surrounding countries as well as the extensive trade networks that have historically included Arabia as its crossroads.

Th e project will also illuminate how the clothes were used by diff erent communities as everyday wear, formal wear at weddings, religious ceremonies and celebrations across varied rites of passage. Th e symbology behind the patterns used will form an integral part of this study.

Th e political changes of the 20th century and the establishment of modern Saudi Arabia in 1932 was to have a far-reaching eff ect on the lives of its then largely nomadic people. Until that time, the people of the kingdom were relatively isolated from direct foreign infl uences in everyday life and rather, assimilated infl uences into their own styles and usages.

A booming oil economy, industrialisation, transition to urban living and the adoption of Western wear came in quick succession.

Such rapid changes across the kingdom’s rich and ancient tribal societies ensured that regional diff erences in traditional costumes and sub-tribal variations were almost immediately obliterated. Th e evidence that they existed can today perhaps only be seen among the vast holdings of the Art of Heritage archives.

One of the most interesting observations in preliminary studies has been the clear infl uence on these garments from the region’s extensive trade links with the rest of the world. Hijaz has historically been a point of confl uence for Muslims from across the world. Th e port city of Jeddah, the holy cities of Mecca and Medina have all assimilated fabrics brought in by visiting pilgrims and trade caravans, for nearly two millennia.

Four centuries of Ottoman rule and the establishment of the Hijaz railway line from Damascus in 1908 proved to be another major conduit for the arrival of textiles from the northern countries.

Possibly the oldest garments in the group (some of which date back to the early 20th century) are from the Hijaz region, including heavily embroidered garments

and several forms of headgear. Others of a similar age are from the south western region.

Najdi costumes and textiles form the second largest signifi cant section of the collection, also with examples from the early 20th century. Clothing from the eastern region forms the most modern group of textiles in the collection.

Th ere is a small but signifi cant section of garments used by Queen Eff at; these, along with costumes and textiles belonging to other members of the Saudi royal family, complete the collection, which is a valuable resource to document the history of textiles in the region.

Michelle Motiwalla and Pramod Kumar assist with the Art of Heritage collection archive

One of the most interesting observations has been the infl uence on these garments from the region’s extensive

trade links with the rest of the world

© A

rt of Heritage



Liwa: Liwa: journal of the National Center for

Documentation and ResearchGeoff rey King on a distinctive new academic journal published in the United Arab Emirates

Liwa was launched in 2009 as the academic journal of the National Center for Documentation and

Research (NCDR) of the United Arab Emirates, edited by Dr Abd El Reyes. It has rapidly become an essential point of reference for Gulf regional studies in history, diplomatic exchanges, archaeology and heritage. In a region where journals have a habit of lapsing aft er a few issues, Liwa’s editorial team has sustained its momentum of publication with rigorous discipline. As Liwa has evolved, strands of editorial thinking have emerged that characterise the distinctive scope of the journal. In eff ect, Liwa is helping to reshape analysis of the region’s past, once so heavily dependent on British source material. Instead, it gives a more diverse view.

Th e extent of Liwa’s fulfi lment of its remit cannot be captured fully in a short

review. Liwa 1.1 sets the intent of the journal’s policy. Mu‘awiya Ibrahim surveys the Islamic architecture of SE Arabia as a whole, a welcome study of a once neglected subject. Agnelo Fernandes addresses the legacy of the Portuguese administration of the pearl fi sheries, using the long-neglected Portuguese source material. Victor Geraci describes the NCDR programme to preserve the oral history of the UAE, an important project in a time when nationals under the age of 40 do not have a personal recollection of the older heritage of the region.

In the same volume, John Wilkinson tracks the long history of the impact of Yemeni tribes who form the ancestry of some of the oldest families on the Gulf coast. Th is latter subject is echoed in Liwa 2.3 in Nellida Fuccaro’s account of the city-states formed by tribes from the interior of Najd that fi lled the 18th-century power vacuum left by the waning of Safavid and Ottoman power. Th is is a history with continuing consequences, masked by the transient glitz of the oil economy but resonating still and most immediately in the present tensions of Bahrain.

Hamad Sara’i summarises in Liwa 1.2 the source material on ancient Oman and Khalid al-Bakr in Liwa 2.3 records how the campaign by al-‘Ala b. al-Hadrami against the Sasanians marks the fi rst formation of an Islamic fl eet, refl ecting the nature of the Gulf with its long tradition of Arab seamanship.

A diff erent order of record is provided by Shaykha Shamma bint Hamad et al, in an in memoriam account of the life and the

unique photographic record of nurse ‘Dr Latifa’ – Gertrude Dyck – showing the life of the royal family and of women in the last century in Abu Dhabi.

B J Slot analyses in Liwa 1.2 aspects of French relations with the Gulf shaykhdoms in the face of the Pax Britannica – a situation that some shaykhs bitterly resented and the French recognised. Another survey of French diplomatic documents on the long reign of Shaykh Zayed I by Maitha al-Zaabi et al provides a re-interpretation that also gives a diff erent light to the perceptions derived from British archival materials.

Th e obituary tribute to Ezzeddin Ibrahim by Zaki Nusseibeh in Liwa 2.3 is a history of modern Arab times. Like many others, their talents scattered abroad through persecution at home, Dr Ezzeddin lived in exile in a succession of Arab countries before Shaykh Zayed b. Sultan Al Nahyan, perceptive as ever, made him a cultural adviser to help build the new Abu Dhabi. Zaki Nusseibeh records a remarkable career born of the Arab world’s last half century of diasporas.

Liwa is a journal of Arabia as it is now in its productive revisionism. It is also remarkable in the number of women who have written in it and who produce it. It is all together a refreshing addition to the academic scene in the Peninsula.

Dr Geoff rey King is Reader in Islamic Art and Archaeology at SOAS


‘Liwa’ is helping to reshape analysis of the region’s past, once so heavily dependent on British source material


Pakistanis and many other nationals who come on a yearly basis. It is very sad.’

Makkah can no longer evade the tentacles of globalised capitalism. Commercialism is no longer confi ned to the old souqs selling cheap gold, carpets, prayer beads and other items, but has also extended to include international fast-food and hotel chains, not to mention designer boutiques.

So what is to be done about this seemingly irreversible change that is sweeping this historic goldmine? Angawi says: ‘We are trying to leverage this movement in order to take our case to the highest authorities and stop the dramatic change to this skyline.’

Samar Al-Sayed, a Saudi-based writer, holds an MA in International & Comparative Law from SOAS

Samar Al-Sayed meets the founder of the Hajj Research Project and a distinguished SOAS alumnus who is critical of the construction boom that is transforming the skyline of the holy city

The Makkah Clock

Three years aft er work began on the latest expansion of the Grand Mosque’s precincts, Makkah is in

the midst of a property and construction boom. Th e mosque itself is now almost completely enclosed by skyscrapers and real-estate panels, and on entering the city cranes and construction sites obscure the view of the surrounding mountains. Some of these historically signifi cant heights are themselves being dynamited to build luxury accommodation for well-heeled pilgrims. On Mount Omar, for instance, a gigantic Clock Tower looms where an 18th-century Ottoman fort once stood, centerpiece of one of scores of new developments in a multi-billion riyal-building spree.

With over two million pilgrims performing the obligatory Hajj pilgrimage annually and many more making the optional ‘Umra pilgrimage at other times of the year, Makkah has to accommodate visitors on a scale unmatched by any other holy site on earth. Th e need for a further expansion of the precincts was undoubted. Yet controversy has stirred about the implementation of the project, which required the demolition of more than 1,000 adjacent properties, and the nature of the accompanying development.

‘Th e structure and fabric of Makkah is being altered to the point of no return,’ says Dr Sami Angawi, a Makkah-born architect and founder of the Hajj Research Project, which studies urban planning in relation to the dynamics of the pilgrimage to Makkah.

He stresses that the holy city is, essentially, a sanctuary. ‘In Islamic thought, sanctuaries are a no-go, no matter what religion they

represent. Th ey are a red line. Within the boundaries of a sanctuary, one cannot hunt or even retaliate for the killing of one’s own father. Trees are not to be uprooted. How is it, then, that we fi nd bulldozers and dynamite in such a place?’

Th e Old Mosque is the main indicator of scale in the city, and any development ‘must be proportionate in that it must remain the focal point’, Angawi argues. ‘Creating industrial urbanisation of the type we see in Manhattan and London is simply disrespectful to the sanctuary and the character of the city. Th e Prophet taught us the beauty of balance – ‘al-meezan’ – in Arabic, which is a prevalent theme in the Qur’an. What we see in Makkah today is every bit the contradiction of the principle of balance and proportionality; skyscrapers are dwarfi ng the House of God and robbing Makkah of its harsh, mountainous character.’

Angawi cites another feature of the city’s recent development that leads him to the shocking conclusion that ‘socially and culturally, Makkah is fi nished’. Historically, he explains, the area surrounding the mosque was a centre for social interaction and trade between people of a huge array of nationalities. In recent times, however, the norm has been for pilgrims from diff erent countries to be assigned to their separate camps on the periphery, with the centre now monopolised by the up-market real estate sector and its clients. Aft er worship, the humbler visitors are ushered back to their own accommodation areas. ‘As such, there is minimal interaction between Malays, Turks, Afghans, Iranians, Arabs,

Manhattan comes Manhattan comes to Makkahto Makkah


Skyscrapers are dwarfi ng the House of God and robbing Makkah of its harsh, mountainous character


The British The British Foundation for Foundation for the Study of Arabiathe Study of Arabia

Sarah Searight on a new organisation dedicated to the much-needed

development of research related to the Peninsula

Unlike those of our French, German or Italian colleagues, British academic studies in the fi eld of Arabia

lack government funding

British archaeologists at work at Kadhima, Kuwait

About a year ago, the Seminar for Arabian Studies approached the Society for Arabian Studies

to suggest a merger. Outsiders can well understand the potential for confusion between the two bodies, although their individual remits were very diff erent. Both are British inspirations, the Seminar founded some 40 years ago by John Dayton, an engineer with a long experience of working in Arabia, and the Society developing some 20 years ago out of the Committee for Gulf Archaeology.

Th e Seminar takes place every July, usually in the British Museum. Its main focus is archaeological and epigraphic, and it attracts over 100 scholars from all over the world. Th e proceedings are published by Archaeopress of Oxford. Th e Society, on the other hand, focuses on a wider range of Arabia-related topics, including Anthropology, ethnography, Geography and so on. As a charity, its lectures – four or fi ve a year – can be and are attended by the general public. Over the past decade it has also hosted fi ve conferences on the Red

Sea for which it has attracted some outside funding (Proceedings also published by Archaeopress), but in general it has been wholly dependent on membership fees for its activities. A wide range of scholars has attended the Red Sea conferences, three of which have been held in the British Museum, one in Southampton and one in Exeter. Th e Society also publishes an annual bulletin and a commendable collection of monographs. All details are on the Society’s website (www.societyforarabianstudies.org) and the Seminar’s (www.arabianseminar.org.uk).

Unlike those of our French, German or Italian colleagues, British academic studies in the fi eld of Arabia, both within Britain and in the fi eld, lack government funding, or indeed any outside funding except for specifi c projects such as the Red Sea conferences and the actual Seminar.

Th e Society makes tiny grants to deserving scholars (not exclusively British ones), barely enough to cover an air fare. Even more to the point, Britain lacks an academic post dedicated to the study of Arabia. Hence the establishment of the British Foundation for the Study of Arabia (BFSA), a title that involved, as can perhaps be imagined, a great deal of discussion. Th e Seminar approached the Society (rather than the other way round) because the Society is an existing charity with an approved constitution; this has now been adapted, with Charity Commission approval, to apply to the BFSA.

An overarching committee of trustees has been set up whose principal task will be to raise substantial funds. In this respect, a particular aim is to develop funding for the endowment of one or more academic posts in this country dedicated to the study of Arabia. In the meantime, BFSA is overseeing a range of academic research activities related to the Peninsula.

More and more Arabians – from the countries of the GCC and from Yemen – are involved in the study of the Archaeology, History, environment and so on of the peninsula. When discussing the name for the new body, it was generally agreed that ‘British’ should be included in its title. Th is would advertise Britain’s interest in developing Arabian studies, hopefully under the aegis of the British Foundation for the Study of Arabia.

Sarah Searight is a former chair of the Society for Arabian Studies and a member of the MEL Editorial Board

THE GCC STATESTHE GCC STATES©

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A Poet’s ConfessionA Poet’s ConfessionBy Saad al-Humaidin

POETRYPOETRY

Do you want me to spreada fl ying carpet on the windor spike my breast with a dagger,Play a tune on y fl uteto make a serpent dance?I am no Indian fakirto gouge out my eyes with a nailor stick a dagger in my breastI am a wound crawling with maggotsTh e living clay dies in my handand sorrow lords it in my heart.

I have been rowingtill the oars snappedmy boat runs aground in the sandmy mouth is a gravid leather bottlemy tongue is a hollow canepoetry, a crooked staff in a blind man’s handa worn-out shoeon a beggar’s footTh e poet is a bridge of cobwebs.

And the windmill turnsand turnsHere are corpses Here are dismembered limbs Here are shattered stonesTh e windmill’s rumbledigs deepinto my earsHere is a ridge a shoe a staff Do you want me to vanquish the wind,stick a dagger into myselfplay a tune tam tam from Zalfatick tock from Samirto make a serpent dance in the square?I am no conjurorgentlemenI am a poetand, as is well known,the poet sucks up everything like a sponge.

The Saudi poet Saad al-Humaidin (b.1943) was born in Ta’if and completed his secondary school studies before working in teaching and journalism, fi rst as editor-in-chief of Al-Yamama literary review in Riyadh and now as editor of the Saudi paper Al-Riyadh. His fi rst collection of poems, Drawing on the Wall, appeared in 1975. His latest collection, You are the Tent, I am the Threads, is currently in press.

Translated by Sagon Boulus and John Heath-Stubbs

A CovenantA CovenantBy Suad al-Mubarak al-Sabah

1Come, let us sign togetherA covenant of peaceWhereby I reclaim my days under your swayAnd my lips besieged by yoursWhereby you reclaim your fragranceTh at courses beneath my skin.2Write down whatever form of words you chooseWhatever terms you deem rightAnd I will unconditionally signDraw up what covenant suits you bestSo I’ll be eliminated from the numbersIn your notebooksFrom the furniture in your offi ceAnd you depart from the glass in my mirror.3Come let us try to play this impossible gameIf only for a daySo I will go to my hairdresser to kill timeAnd you to your smoking room to play cards.

Suad al-Mubarak al-Sabah (b. 1942), the distinguished Kuwaiti poet, is known equally well for her deep interest in human rights. She is a member of the Executive Board of the Arab Human Rights Organisation in Cairo and on the Board of Trustees of the Arab Thought Forum in Amman and Centre for Arab Unity Studies in Beirut. Suad al-Sabah studied in Cairo and England, obtaining her PhD in Planning and Development from the University of Surrey in 1982. She has published two collections of poetry, A Wish (1972) and To You My Son (1982), and is preparing her third, which contains her recent, more radical compositions. Suad’s poetry has developed in both form and content, embracing greater modernity while expressing joys of love, life and human freedom, as well as refl ecting on the anger and frustration at the tragedies in present-day Arab life. Suad also has several publications in her own fi eld of specialisation, which is Economics and development.

Translated by Salwa Jabsheh and John Heath-Stubbs

Both poems are introduced by Narguess Farzad and selected by her from The Literature of Modern Arabic: An Anthology, Edited by Salma Khadra Jayyusi

A mural in Sheikh Zayed Mosque,

Abu Dhabi


© Sarah Searight


ROAD TO JERICHOROAD TO JERICHO

oad to Jericho’ is an innovative project comprising a concert tour pioneered by British, American

and Palestinian musicians – coming to London in June 2011 – plus a feature fi lm that draws a stark contrast of musicians creating music against the backdrop of the occupation. Th e project is the brainchild of Simon Hewitt Jones, Drew Balch, Antony Pitts and Ramzi Aburedwan. Inspired by the musical revival in Palestine since the fi rst Intifada, ‘Road to Jericho’ aims to convey the cross-cultural exchange and collaboration of the Eastern and Western musicians and thus to reformulate Western perceptions of Palestine and stimulate awareness of life under occupation.

West Bank musician Aburedwan was raised in the refugee camp of Al-Amari in Ramallah and founded the Al-Kamandjati (‘the violinist’) Music School in 2002 to provide a musical education to Palestinian children. In 1987, at just eight years old, his picture became an iconic image of the fi rst Intifada, oft en seen in the campaign posters of the uprising; a little boy aiming a stone at an Israeli tank aft er seeing his friend shot by an Israeli sniper. Aburedwan’s destiny changed course when he was given the

opportunity to learn how to play the viola. He was later off ered a scholarship to study at the conservatory of Angers in France and went on to establish the Palestinian ensemble Dal’ouna in 2000.

Th e acclaimed group will perform alongside Fift h Quadrant, the string quartet of which Simon Hewitt Jones is the lead violinist, in a series of concerts in May and June 2011 that will take them to Jerusalem, Ramallah, Bethlehem, Jenin and Gaza in Palestine, as well as to cities in Egypt and Jordan and Aldeburgh and London in Britain. Th eir fi nal performance will take place on June 10, 2011 at the opening of the Spitalfi elds Summer Music Festival in London.

While Fift h Quadrant is a classical collective headed by violinist Simon Hewitt Jones and violist Drew Balch, the music performed on their tour will be a fusion of Western classical music and Arabic

oriental music performed by Dal’ouna, with traditional instruments such as the oud, bouzouq, accordion and nay. On the programme is Dvorak’s American String Quartet (op. 96) and the world premiere of Who is My Neighbour?, a piece based on the biblical story of the Good Samaritan, which takes place on the road to Jericho. Th is piece was specially composed by Antony Pitts, the award-winning British composer of contemporary choral works and founder and conductor of the vocal ensemble Tonus Peregrinus.

Meanwhile, a documentary will follow the musicians against the landscape of the Middle East confl ict, up until their last performance at the Spitalfi elds Festival. Th e aim is to illustrate how the relationships between the musicians and their cross-cultural dialogue develop, as well as to give people an insight into Palestinian life.

Hewitt Jones met Aburedwan when he

‘The message ‘The message is always is always much stronger much stronger through music’through music’

Randa Safi eh on a concert tour of British, American and Palestinian musicians that aims to help reestablish Palestine’s cultural heritage

‘If you are a foreigner, how do you contribute to an indigenous culture that needs to regrow itself? A lot of Palestinian culture has been worn down… I think

the answer is to bring and present ideas’

‘R


was fi rst invited to perform in Palestine by the Choir of London in 2007. Th ere, he also encountered Pitts, a regular visitor to Palestine, at a performance of part of his oratorio Jerusalem-Yerushalayim at St Anne’s Church in the Old City of Jerusalem. Since then, Hewitt Jones has been travelling to Palestine twice a year to perform and teach at Al-Kamandjati.

‘Road to Jericho’ was born during one of these visits to Palestine. While travelling in a mini bus, Aburedwan shared with Hewitt Jones and Balch his desire to bring Western classical music to Palestine. Th is developed into the idea of bringing Fift h Quadrant to perform there and of exposing Dal’ouna’s music to Britain in a cross-cultural exchange, to compete in the international arena. Hewitt Jones elaborates: ‘Th e magic of what Ramzi is doing is trying to get a new generation of Palestinian musicians; home-grown talent, because then you have strength of identity.’

I asked Aburedwan how the Palestinian situation has infl uenced his music. ‘Th e music that I compose is my emotion, my situation as a young Palestinian, a young musician,’ he says. ‘One of the pieces describes my childhood as a boy who is throwing stones. Th e piece is called Coincidence. I cannot compose something and go out of my reality because the melody came as an expression from inside. Th is expression will be linked systematically to what the Palestinian people live.’

Th e British counterpart’s music, composed by Pitts, was the focus of a workshop by the musicians in December 2010. Pitts recounts: ‘I had the chance to see and hear fi rst hand how Ramzi and his

colleagues worked with their instruments, particularly the bouzouq, the oud and various percussion, and to learn more about Arabic melodic and rhythmic modes. So these were key factors in developing those fi rst musical ideas.’

Hewitt Jones believes that the project will help to alter Western perceptions of the Middle East, yet remains philosophical. ‘I think it is really important for us not to pretend that music changes stuff in any particularly tangible way,’ he says. ‘All we can do is tell people, inspire people to think. We are not politicians, we do not want to say, “this is how it should be”. If you are a foreigner, how do you contribute to an indigenous culture that needs to regrow itself? A lot of Palestinian culture has been worn down. In Gaza, the music school we had been working with was destroyed during the off ensive of January 2009 – what do you do in that situation? I think the answer is to bring and present ideas.’ Aburedwan, too, believes that perceptions can change ‘through showing the result of cooperation and showing that the people of this country still exist and have their own culture and own way of living and own way of music. [Th e message] is always much stronger through music.’

Hewitt Jones remembers a poignant experience from the fi rst time he performed in Ramallah; somebody approached him and said: ‘Th ank you for giving me the last

two hours of my life back. Th is is the fi rst time in weeks we haven’t thought about this terrible thing.’ Hewitt Jones tells me: ‘Music feeds you with a sense of emotional well-being. It takes you out of your present moment for enough time to keep you sane. Th at is always part of the reason that we go to Palestine.’

What does Hewitt Jones hope the ‘Road to Jericho’ initiative will accomplish? ‘Th e most important thing to me is the idea of showing how the musical process comes together with two diff erent musical vocabularies, Eastern and Western, brought together in a way that creates something new and stronger and makes sense on many levels, regardless of who you are as an audience. It’s great to see that musical growth, it’s totally diff erent to what you see in the newspapers all the time. Th ere are these positive stories going on in Palestine. Most people will think of the Middle East and have negative images in their mind. What I suppose we are doing is saying, “when you think of Palestine, think of these amazing things, the amazing olive groves, the amazing musicians!” Th at’s something I hope for.’

Th e late Yasser Arafat used to say: ‘Th e Palestinian National Movement is not only the gun of the freedom fi ghter but mainly the pen of the writer, the brush of the painter, the words of the poet.’ Now that the Palestinian side has abandoned the dialogue by arms and resorts to the arms of dialogue, the Palestinians’ cry for freedom will express itself more and more through the music of their composers and musicians.

With special thanks to Simon Hewitt Jones, Ramzi Aburedwan and Antony Pitts. www.roadtojericho.com, www.spitalfi eldsfestival.org.uk

Randa Safi eh is a full-time secondary Music teacher in London and a member of the research network ‘Exploring Song and Music among Palestinians’, established by Birzeit University and the University of Gothenburg

‘Music takes you out of your present moment for enough time to keep you sane. Th at is always

part of the reason that we go to Palestine’

(Opposite) Simon Hewitt Jones and Drew Balch

(Left) Simon Hewitt Jones and Drew Balch in the Jordan Valley, November 2010


REVIEWS: BOOKSREVIEWS: BOOKS

Ottoman Brothers: Ottoman Brothers: Muslims, Christians, and Muslims, Christians, and Jews in Early Twentieth-Jews in Early Twentieth-Century PalestineCentury PalestineBy Michelle U Campos

Reviewed by Roberto Mazza

Stanford University Press, 2010. $24.95

In 1908 the Ottoman Empire was swept by a revolution, led by the Young Turks, which transformed the empire from an

absolutist state to a form of parliamentary democracy. Ottoman Brothers examines key concepts like citizenship, public life and liberty in the decade following the Ottoman revolution until the fi nal collapse of the Ottoman Empire aft er the First World War. Michelle Campos argues, quite convincingly, that during this decade the Ottoman Empire experienced the emergence of what she calls ‘civic Ottomanism’ – that is, the idea of an imperial citizenship project promoting an Ottoman socio-political identity.

In the fi rst part of the book, Campos shows the transition from Ottoman subjects to Ottoman citizens, how revolutionary language infl uenced the people and how people produced a new rhetoric. Relying on a variety of sources – including newspaper, diaries and memoirs – she discusses how liberty, equality and brotherhood were intended and experienced in the Ottoman Empire and in particular in Palestine. In her challenge to traditional literature that, according to her, cannot easily deal with the idea of imperial citizenship, Campos looks at Palestine as a microcosm that can represent the challenges the Ottoman Empire faced during that decade. She nonetheless acknowledges Palestine’s peculiarities, such as the large presence of missionaries, pilgrims, diplomats and certainly later on Zionists.

Focusing on Ottoman Palestine, Campos shows in the central part of the book how the idea of imperial nationhood translated in practical actions. In particular, she discusses the Ottoman boycott of Austrian goods and commerce, which followed the annexation of Bosnia-Herzegovina by the Austro-Hungarian Empire in October 1908. Campos argues that the boycott promoted Ottoman patriotism and brought people of diff erent social backgrounds and religions together, representing a successful example of popular participation. In the following chapter, she analyses what she calls the ‘mouthpiece of the people’, that is, the press produced in Palestine and in the Ottoman Empire following the re-establishment of the Ottoman Constitution. Here, Campos begins to show the divergent and at times colliding meanings of Ottoman citizenship and discourses, showing how journals and newspapers became an ideological battlefi eld. Th e press became the arena in which ethnic and religious diff erences became apparent; in the words of Campos a ‘barometer of Ottomanism’ – aft er all, communal identity was still stronger than diff erences, and Ottomanism, though diff erently understood, was still the leading identity marker in late Ottoman Palestine.

In the last part of the book, Campos focuses on Jerusalem and how the idea of citizenship was experienced in this cosmopolitan and multi-religious environment, leading her to the issue of European Zionism and how this

encroached, criticised and became a competitor of Ottomanism. Campos thoroughly addresses this issue, showing the Ottoman Jews’ contradictory responses to Zionism: some considered it a betrayal, while others considered it a legitimate expression of the Jews as a collective. In the end, events brought Zionism and other regional or religious identities to supersede Ottomanism.

Finally, Campos highlights the shortcomings of ‘Civic Ottomanism’, showing that ethnic and religious minorities tried to adhere to the idea of Ottoman citizenship but at the same time were excluded. She compellingly shows that in Palestine, the separation between Jews and Arabs was less caused by the Zionist-Palestinian confl ict and more by the failure of Ottomanism. Two major points make this book innovative: Campos did not use British sources, breaking a sort of ‘dogma’, and secondly, she constantly reminds the reader that the empire under discussion was Ottoman, not Turkish. Ottoman Brothers is a must-read for both scholars of Ottoman and Palestinian history and an important contribution to the study of nationalism.

Dr Roberto Mazza is Assistant Professor at Western Illinois University, USA, and a Research Associate at SOAS

h d d d b


BOOKS IN BRIEFBOOKS IN BRIEF

Seen in the Seen in the Yemen:Yemen:

Travelling with Travelling with Freya Stark & Freya Stark &

OthersOthers by Hugh Leach is published

by Arabian Publishing (2011). Price: £45

Seen in the Yemen brings the people, architecture and landscapes of ancient Yemeni culture alive through the black

and white photographs of the author, taken in the 1970s. His book is also a tribute to one of the most famous of all Arab and Asian travellers, the late Dame Freya Stark who died in 1993. In the mid-1970s, at the age of 83, she made two visits to the author, who was then serving in Sana’a. Th eir travels together through north Yemen marked the start of a long friendship. Th is volume is also designed to emulate Freya Stark’s earlier classic, Seen in the Hadhramaut, published in 1938. Th e author recalls the time they spent together in Yemen, her musings on the past and their mutual devotion to Leica cameras. Yemen today, like the rest of Arabia, is undergoing rapid and inevitable change and is much in the news. Th is book records a time when town and country had only recently embarked on the decades of upheaval, and much was visually unchanged.

Fezzes in the River is a case study of interwar diplomacy and self-determination in the wake of the First

World War. Renowned historian Sarah D Shields suggests that European politics, ideas of minority rights, and notions of democracy had a deleterious eff ect on the Middle East. Shields argues that self-determination of peoples, imported into the Middle East on the heels of the First World War, held out the promise of democratic governance to the former territories of the Ottoman Empire. At the same time, it brought an urgent need: to defi ne the collective ‘self ’, emphasising diff erences among people that had previously hardly mattered. Th e book cites Turkey’s claim to the province of Alexandretta in the territory of France’s mandate for Syria as evidence of this change. A contest for the land pitted the new Republic of Turkey against the government of Syria. Shields argues that the League of Nations introduced a new kind of identity politics into the province that redefi ned belonging, transformed nationalism, and set in motion the process of dysfunctional democracy still plaguing the Middle East.

This volume complements the award-winning best-seller General Maps of Persia, a lengthy investigation into

the old maps of Iran. For most of its long history, Iran has been mapped extensively and the author was the fi rst to bring together the old maps into a cartobibliography for scholars of both history and geography. Encouraged by numerous commending reviews, Cyrus Alai has continued his research and collected further material to produce Special Maps of Persia, 1477-1925.

Th e book includes chapters on historical maps, district maps, frontier maps, town maps and political maps. Like the preceding volume, it has a dual character, being both a carto-bibliography and a mapping history of Persia. It contains 761 map-entries, of which 409 are illustrated, mostly in colour. Concise related historical accounts precede every chapter and section, and essential historical notes are also supplied within many of the map entries.

Th e author served for nine years as the honorary treasurer of the International Map Collectors’ Society and has written numerous articles on the cartography of Persia. He also owns the largest personal collection of historic Persian maps.

Special Maps Special Maps of Persiaof Persia

by Cyrus Alai is published by Brill (2010). Price: £212

Fezzes in the RiverRiver

Identity Politics Identity Politics and European and European

Diplomacy in the Diplomacy in the Middle East on the Middle East on the Eve of World War IIEve of World War II

by Sarah D Shields is published by OUP (2011).

Price: £27.50


BOOKS IN BRIEFBOOKS IN BRIEF

A Quiet RevolutionRevolution

by Leila Ahmed is published by Yale

University Press (2011) Price: £18.99

Following on from previous works Women and Gender in Islam and A Border Passage: From Cairo to

America — A Woman’s Journey author Leila Ahmed has produced a case study of the veil’s resurgence, from Egypt through Saudi Arabia and into the West, suggesting a dramatically new portrait of contemporary Islam.

Th e book sees the author, who was the fi rst professor of Women’s Studies in Religion at Harvard University, reverse her original thinking on the topic of the veil. When she began her study, Ahmed assumed that the veil’s return indicated a backward step for Muslim women worldwide. What she discovered in the stories of her range of subjects confounded her expectations.

Ahmed observes that Islamism, with its commitments to activism in the service of the poor and in pursuit of social justice, is merging with western democracies’ own tradition of activism in the cause of justice and social change. Ahmed suggests it is oft en Islamists, even more than secular Muslims, who are at the forefront of such contemporary activist struggles as civil rights and women’s rights.

In this book, Sami Zubaida, Emeritus Professor of Politics and Sociology at Birkbeck College, University of London

draws on a career’s worth of experience trying to understand the region to address the fundamental question in Middle East studies: what is the Middle East?

He argues that to see it through the prism of Islam, as it is conventionally viewed, is to completely misunderstand it. Many of the ‘Islamic’ characteristics associated with the region are products of culture and society, not religion. To think of Islam itself as an essential, anti-modern force in the region rather than something shaped by specifi c historical-economic processes is, Zubaida argues, a mistake. Instead, he off ers an alternative view of the region, its historic cosmpolitanism, its religious and cultural diversity, its rapid adoption of new media cultures, which reveals a multi-faceted and complex region teeming with multiple identities.

Th e book features chapters that focus on Muslim society, political modernity in the Middle East, shift ing social boundaries and identities in the region, Islam and Nationalism and dicussion of the public and the private in Middle Eastern society.

In Yemen Divided, Middle East expert, chairman of the British Yemeni Society and former diplomat Noel Brehony

provides a comprehensive history of the People’s Democratic Republic of Yemen.

He explains the power politics that came to form a communist republic a few hundred miles from the holiest site in Islam, and the process and confl icts that led to Yemeni unifi cation in 1990.

Th e impact of the People’s Democratic Republic of Yemen is still felt today as Saudi and government armed forces engage with Houthis in the north and unrest continues to simmer across the South. Yemen Divided is an important book for anyone wanting to understand why Yemen, sensitive neighbour of Saudi Arabia and strategically vital to Middle East security, has veered towards massive instability.

South Yemen has come to be seen as a potential Al-Qaeda stronghold and at the heart of a separatist movement threatening to rip apart southern Arabia. In the book, the author attempts to address how this country of forbidding mountains and arid deserts has gone from British colony to communist state and then to ‘terrorist base’ in just half a century.

Yemen Divided:Divided:

The Story of a The Story of a Failed State in Failed State in South ArabiaSouth Arabiaby Noel Brehony is

published by IB Tauris (2011). Price: £35

Beyond Beyond Islam: Islam: A New A New

Understanding of Understanding of the Middle Eastthe Middle East

by Sami Zubaida is published by IB Tauris

(2011). Price: £56


at 92. Th e Keir includes some of the most important objects of Islamic art in existence. Edmund de Unger was the founder of the Islamic Art Circle, which has been a mainstay of the public profi le of Islamic art at SOAS since its meetings began at the School in 1964. Th anks to Edmund de Unger’s kindness and hospitality, generations of SOAS students of Islamic art have been able to visit his remarkable collection at Ham House in West London. His generosity in giving access to his Islamic art collection to students of the SOAS is remembered with gratitude.

Th e Department of the History of Art and Archaeology expresses condolences to the families of these distinguished contributors to the study of the arts of Islam.

IN MEMORIAMIN MEMORIAM

This winter has been a sad period for scholars of Islamic art at SOAS with the loss of three distinguished fi gures,

Mr Jack Franses, Professor Oleg Grabar and Mr Edmund de Unger, each of whom has contributed in the most profound manner to the study of the arts of the Islamic world over the past 50 years and to the study of Islamic art at SOAS.

Jack Franses, formerly head of Sotheby’s Islamic Department, died at the age of 92 on December 10, 2010. He conceived of the co-operation with the School that created the SOAS / Sotheby’s courses, initiated in 1964 as an entirely innovative approach to the teaching of Asian Art. He worked closely with Professor Emeritus Geza Fehervari and did much to ensure the survival of the study of Islamic art at SOAS at a time when its future was far from certain.

Oleg Grabar, successively Professor of Islamic Art at Harvard, Michigan and Princeton, and Aga Khan Professor, died

on January 8, 2011 at 83. Professor Grabar’s publications transformed the intellectual framework of the study of Islamic art and its academic study. He leaves as a legacy not only his published work but the many students, including SOAS graduates, who have been the benefi ciaries of his sense of enquiry expressed in his teaching, lectures and writing. His scholarship will remain one of the bases of the study of Islamic art far into the future.

Edmund de Unger, the founder of the Keir Collection, died on January 25, 2011

The death of a The death of a distinguished distinguished generation of generation of Islamic art scholarsIslamic art scholars

(Far left) Jack Franses

(Left) Edmund De Unger

(Above) Oleg Grabar


Events in LondonEvents in LondonTHE EVENTS and

organisations listed below are not necessarily endorsed

or supported by The Middle East in London. The accompanying texts and images are based primarily on information provided by the organisers and do not necessarily reflect the views of the compilers or publishers. While every possible effort is made to ascertain the accuracy of these listings, readers are advised to seek confirmation of all events using the contact details provided for each event. Submitting entries and updates: please send all updates and submissions for entries related to future events via e-mail to [email protected] or by fax to 020 7898 4329.

BM – British Museum, Great Russell Street, London WC1B 3DG SOAS – School of Oriental and African Studies, Th ornhaugh Street, Russell Square, London WC1H 0XGLSE – London School of Economics and Political Science, Houghton Street, London WC2 2AE

APRIL EVENTSFriday 1 April

6:30 pm | Poetry, Meditation, Music: Rumi Poetry Circle (Meeting) Every fi rst Friday of the month. Informal poetry circle. Admission free. Colet House, 151 Talgarth Road, London W14 9DA. T 079 4448 9527 E [email protected] W www.caravansary.org

6:30 pm | Th e Craft Heritage of Oman (Lecture) Neil Richardson; Marcia Dorr. Organised by: BM.Tickets: £5/£3 BMF. Stevenson Lecture Th eatre, BM. T 020 7323 8181 W www.britishmuseum.org

Saturday 2 April

11:30 am | Sufi Frame-Drumming (Workshop) Organised by: Silk Roads. Every Saturday. Sufi frame-

LISTINGS

years, but their cooking remains something of a well-guarded secret outside their own homes. Copies of books by both authors will be on sale.Tickets: £12/Students Free, advance booking essential. Spiro Ark Centre, 25 -26 Enford Street, London W1H 1DW. T 020 7723 9991 E [email protected] W www.harif.org / www.spiroark.org

Monday 4 April

6:45 pm | Sufi Meditation (Meeting) Organised by: Caravansary. Every Monday. Sufi Meditation Circle using practices traditionally known as zikr. Tickets: Suggested contribution £6/£5. Essex Unitarian Church, 112 Palace Gardens Terrace, Notting Hill Gate, London W8 4RT. T 079 4448 9527 E [email protected] W www.caravansary.org

7:00 pm | Open Sufi Meetings and Zikr (Meeting) Organised by: Ansari UK. First Monday of every month. An open Sufi meeting. Tickets: Donations welcome. Kensington Unitarians, 112 Palace Gardens Terrace, W8 4TR. T 07954 601372 / 07941 653337 W www.ansaripublications.com

8:00 pm | Rebetiko Jam Sessions of the SOAS Ad Hoc Rebetiko Band Organised by: Ed Emery. Every fi rst Monday of the month. With musicians from the Greek community along with musicians from Turkey, Iran and other areas

drumming (daf) workshops suitable for beginners and intermediate level. Tickets: £5. Chalkhill Community Centre, 113 Chalkhill Road, HA9 9FX. T 07954 601372 W www.silkroads.co.uk

11:30 am | Discover Mesopotamia through Storytelling on a ZIPANG Day Out Organised by: Th e Enheduanna Society. Guided tour looking at items which illustrate the world of stories in Mesopotamian mythology. Admission free. BM (meet in the Great Court beside the Information Desk). W www.zipang.org.uk

3:00 pm | Th e Frankincense Trail: Oman, Yemen and Saudi Arabia (Documentary) Organised by: BM. Admission free, booking advised. Stevenson Lecture Th eatre, BM. T 020 7323 8181 W www.britishmuseum.org

3:30 pm | Discover Mesopotamia through Storytelling ZIPANG Day Out Organised by: Th e Enheduanna Society. Doors open at 3.00pm. Storytelling workshop where you will hear a professional storyteller tell a Mesopotamian story and can have a go at telling the story yourself with live Iraqi music. Admission free. Poetry Cafe, 22 Betterton Street, Covent Garden WC2H 9BX. W www.zipang.org.uk

Sunday 3 April

6:00 pm | Middle Eastern Music, Drum Circle (Meeting) Organised by: London Drum Circle. Every fi rst Sunday of the month. Admission free. Colet House, 151 Talgarth Rd, London W14 9DA. E [email protected] W www.LondonDrumCircle.com

7:30 pm | A Convivial Evening with Linda Dangoor author of ‘Flavours of Babylon’ in conversation withProfessor Sami Zubaida (Book Launch) Organised by Harif and Spiro Ark Centre. Th e Jews of Babylon have a rich culinary tradition going back over 2,000

of the Middle East also taking part. All welcome. Admission free. Th e Horseshoe Pub, 24 Clerkenwell Close, London EC1. E [email protected]

Wednesday 6 April

10:00 am | Th e Stuart Cary Welch Collection, Part One: Arts of the Islamic World (Auction) Organised by: Sotheby’s. Viewings: Friday 1 - Tuesday 5 April. Admission free. Sotheby’s, 34-35 New Bond Street, London W1A 2AA. E [email protected] W www.sothebys.com

Th ursday 7 April

10:30 am | Art of the Islamic and Indian Worlds (Auction) Organised by: Christie’s. Also at 2.30pm. Leading the sale is a highly important Fatimid bronze gazelle and a 16th century Ottoman gold and turquoise-hilted knife. Admission free. Christie’s, London King Street, 8 King Street, St James’s, London SW1Y 6QT. T 020 7389 2374 E [email protected] W www.christies.com

Friday 8 April

10:00 am | Art and Textiles from the Islamic and Indian World including Works from the Collection of the Late Simon Digby (Auction) Also at 2.30pm. Organised by: Admission free. Christie’s London, South

MIDDLE EAST BRIEFINGSThe London Middle East Institute offers tailored briefings

on the politics, economics, cultures and languages of the Middle East.Previous clients include UK and foreign governmental bodies

and private entities.Contact us for details.

Tel: 020 7898 4330 E-mail: [email protected]


Rabih Mroué, Grandfather, Father and Son 2010, installation view, BAK, basis voor actuele kunst, Utrecht, photo: Victor Nieuwenhuijs, © the artist. (Rabih Mroué: I, the Undersigned, see Exhibitions, page 33)

Kensington, 85 Old Brompton Road, London SW7 3LD. Information T 020 7930 6074 W www.christies.com

Saturday 9 April

9:30 am | Sacred Spaces: places of worship and gathering (Seminar) Organised by: Aga Khan University Institute for the Study of Muslim Civilisations (AKU - ISMC). Th is one-day seminar will survey the history and diversity of sacred spaces. Tickets: £75/£45 conc. (Deadline for registration: 5 April) AKU - ISMC, 210 Euston Road, London NW1 2DA. T 020 7380 3865 E [email protected] W www.aku.edu/ismc/shortcourses

10:30 am | Clericals and Seminaries in Modern Iran (Conference) Abdulkarim Soroush; Mirza-Hassan Yousfi Eshkevari; Mohammad-Reza Nikfar; Mehrad Vaezinejad; Majid Tafreshi; Reza Beheshti-Moez; Siavash Ranjbar Daemi. Organised by: Forum Iran in association with the London Middle East Institute, SOAS (LMEI). Tickets: £15/£7 students (Pre-registration required). Khalili Lecture Th eatre, SOAS. E [email protected]

Th ursday 14 April

1:15 pm | Royal Treasures across the Cultures (Lecture) Hilary Williams. Organised by: BM. Discussion includes the Royal Standard of Ur. Admission free, booking advised. Stevenson Lecture Th eatre, BM. T 020 7323 8181 W www.britishmuseum.org

Friday 15 April

9:30 am | Investors and Entrepreneurship in Arab Media (Conference) Organised by: Arab Media Centre, Communication and Media Research Institute, University of Westminster. One-day conference on the processes that underlie contemporary ownership and management practices in Arab media organisations during the current period of political upheaval. Keynote lecture by Marwan Kraidy, the author of several works on Arab media industries. £85/£35 students. Regent Street Campus, University of Westminster, 309 Regent Street, W1B 2UW. T 020 7911 5000 ext 4298 E [email protected] W www.westminster.ac.uk/schools/media/camri

Wednesday 20 April

6:30 pm | Th e Politics of Fiction and Post-Civil War Memory Culture in Lebanon (Panel Debate) Panel discussion chaired by T J Demos, with speakers Shela Sheikh and writer Faisal Devji on the themes surrounding the exhibition I, the Undersigned by Rabih Mroué, see Exhibitions for details. Admission free, booking advised. Iniva at Rivington Place, London EC2A 3BA. T 020 7749 1240 E [email protected] W www.rivingtonplace.org

Th ursday 21 April

7:30 pm | Chouf Ouchouf (Performance: Th ursday 21 – Monday 25 April) Organised by: Southbank Centre and Crying Out Loud. Weaving together contemporary performance and traditional Moroccan acrobatics, Chouf Ouchouf gives audiences a daily snapshot of life in Tangier’s old quarter. Tickets: £30/£25/£20/£15. Queen Elizabeth Hall, Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, London SE1 8XX T 0844 847 9911 W www.southbankcentre.co.uk

Friday 22 April

7:30 pm | Chouf Ouchouf

(Performance: Th ursday 21 – Monday 25 April) See listing for Th ursday 21 April for details.

Saturday 23 April

7:30 pm | Chouf Ouchouf (Performance: Th ursday 21 – Monday 25 April) See listing for Th ursday 21 April for more details.

Sunday 24 April

4:00 pm | Chouf Ouchouf (Performance: Th ursday 21 – Monday 25 April) See listing for Th ursday 21 April for more details.

Wednesday 27 April

7:00 pm | Th e Past is Not Dead, the Story of Qajar Textiles in South Kensington (Lecture) Jennifer Wearden, former Senior Curator, V&A and now Honorary Research Fellow in the V&A. Organised by: Islamic Art Circle at SOAS. Part of the Islamic Art Circle at SOAS Lecture Programme. Chaired by Doris Behrens-Abouseif, SOAS. Admission free. Khalili Lecture Th eatre, SOAS. T 0771 408 7480 E [email protected] W www.soas.ac.uk/about/events/

Th ursday 28 April

4:00 pm | Oiling the Wheels of Trade: wine and winemaking in the Jebel al-’Arab in Late Antiquity (4th-8th centuries AD) (Lecture) Andrea Zerbini, Royal Holloway, University of London. Organised by: Palestine Exploration Fund. Recent fi eld surveys in the vicinity of Si’a in the Jebel al-‘Arab (Hawran) have unveiled a group of large wineries dated to the Byzantine and early Arab period, this lecture will focus on the winemaking process in ancient Auranitis. Admission free. Stevenson Lecture Th eatre, BM. T 020 7935 5379 E [email protected] W www.pef.org.uk

5:30 pm | Ancient Dilmun: the earliest state in Arabia and the vast mound cemeteries in Bahrain (Lecture) Steff en Terp Laursen, Moesgaard Museum, Denmark. Organised by: Society for Arabian Studies/British Foundation for the Study of Arabia (SAS/BFSA) and the Bahrain Society in association with the London Middle East Institute, SOAS (LMEI). Steff en Laursen will present archaeological evidence – art, temples, settlements, and the famous Dilmun burial mounds – to shed light on the remarkable early history of Bahrain. Admission free. Khalili Lecture


Th eatre, SOAS. E [email protected] / [email protected] W www.societyforarabianstudies.org

6:30 pm | Food Prices and Current Political Demonstrations in Middle East and North Africa: the changing face of food security in the region (Inaugural Lecture) Jane Harrigan, SOAS. Organised by: SOAS. Th e current political demonstrations in the region, which have already toppled several regimes, have been partly motivated by socioeconomic factors, including rising prices, declining real wages and unemployment. Professor Harrigan reviews recent developments and analyses the changing face of food security in the region. Admission free (Pre-registration required). Brunei Gallery Lecture Th eatre, SOAS. T 020 7898 4013 E [email protected] W www.soas.ac.uk/about/events/

6:30 pm | Th e Politics of Architecture in Confl ict (Presentation) Artists Reem Charif and Mohamad Hafeda explore ‘how to operate outside politics and within the social space of the everyday in complex confl ict sites’ in response to themes in the exhibition I, the Undersigned by Rabih Mroué, see Exhibitions for details. Admission free, booking advised. Iniva at Rivington Place, London EC2A 3BA. T 020 7749 1240 E [email protected] W www.rivingtonplace.org

7:00 pm | Planet Egypt Showcase (Performance) Organised by: Planet Egypt. Monthly bellydance showcases held on the last Th ursday of every month. Tickets: £12 on the door. Darbucka, 182 St John Street, London EC1V 4JZ. T 020 7490 8295 / 8772 E [email protected] W www.planetegypt.co.uk

Friday 29 April

7:30 pm | Zindeeq (Film) Organised by: Palestine Film Foundation. Part of the 2011 London Palestine Film Festival: Friday 29 April - Wednesday 11 May. Opening Gala. Dir Michel Khleifi , (2009), 85 min. Th e story of M, a Palestinian fi lmmaker living in Europe + Q&A with director Michel Khleifi and producer Omar Al-Qattan, chaired by Festival patron, Karma Nabulsi. Various ticket prices. Barbican Cinema 1, Barbican Centre, Silk

Street London EC2Y 8DS. E info@palestinefi lm.org W www.palestinefi lm.org

Saturday 30 April

2:15 pm | Zindeeq (Film) Part of the 2011 London Palestine Film Festival: Friday 29 April - Wednesday 11 May. See listing for Friday 29 April for details + Q&A with director Michel Khleifi and producer Omar Al-Qattan, chaired by Nadia Yaqub.

MAY EVENTS

Sunday 1 May

6:00 pm | Middle Eastern Music, Drum Circle (Meeting) Every fi rst Sunday of the month. See listing for Sunday 3 April for details.

3:30 pm | Tears of Gaza (Documentary) Part of the 2011 London Palestine Film Festival: Friday 29 April - Wednesday 11 May. See listing for Friday 29 April for venue and contact details. Dir Vibeke Løkkeberg (2010), 83 min. A record, presented with minimal gloss, of the 2008-2009 bombing of Gaza by Israeli forces + Q&A with director Vibeke Løkkeberg, chaired by Dina Matar, SOAS.

6:00 pm | Rachel (Documentary) Part of the 2011 London Palestine Film Festival: Friday 29 April - Wednesday 11 May. See listing for Friday 29 April for venue and contact details. Dir Simone Bitton (2009), 100 min. A dispassionate but devastating essay investigating the circumstances of Rachel Corrie’s death + Q&A with director Simone Bitton, chaired by Grietje Baars.

Monday 2 May

6:00 pm | Fix Me + Missing Part of the 2011 London Palestine Film Festival: Friday 29 April - Wednesday 11 May. See listing for Friday 29 April for venue and contact details. Fix Me (Documentary), Dir Raed Andoni (2009), 89 min. Raed Andoni has a tension headache - one that isn’t going to end soon. Th at’s because Andoni is a Palestinian living in Ramallah, where the prospects for a stress free life are elusive + Q&A with director Raed Andoni, chaired by Sara Alsaraf. Missing (Animation), Dir Tariq Rimawi (2010), 3 min.

6:45 pm | Sufi Meditation (Meeting) Every Monday. See listing for Monday 4 April for details.

7:00 pm | Open Sufi Meetings and Zikr (Meeting) First Monday of every month. See listing for Monday 4 April for details.

8:00 pm | Rebetiko Jam Sessions of the SOAS Ad Hoc Rebetiko Band Every fi rst Monday of the month. Please see listing for Monday 4 April for details.

8:30 pm | Far From Vietnam (Loin du Vietnam) + Soup Over Bethlehem (Mloukhieh) Part of the 2011 London Palestine Film Festival: Friday 29 April - Wednesday 11 May. See listing for Friday 29 April for venue and contact details. Far From Vietnam (Documentary) Dirs Chris Marker, Jean Luc Godard, Joris Ivens, Agnès Varda, William Klein, Alain Resnais, and Claude Lelouch (1967), 115 min. One of the most powerful works of cinematic protest ever fashioned. Soup Over Bethlehem (Mloukhieh) (Film) Dir Larissa Sansour (2006), 10 min.

Tuesday 3 May

6:15 pm | Israel Ltd. + Targeted Citizen + Yellow Mums + A Boy, A Wall, and A Donkey Part of the 2011 London Palestine Film Festival: Friday 29 April - Wednesday 11 May. See listing for Friday 29 April for venue and contact details. Israel Ltd. (Documentary), Dir Mor Loushy (2009), 53 min. A look at ‘Th e Israel Experience’ one of the largest Zionist outreach projects launched in recent years. Its purpose is to create new allies for the government of Israel. Targeted Citizen (Documentary), Dir Rachel Leah Jones (2010), 15 min. Yellow Mums (Film), Dir Firas Khoury (2010), 32 min. A Boy, A Wall, and A Donkey (Film), Dir Hany Abu Assad, (2008) 4 min.

8:30 pm | Children of the Revolution + Hasan Everywhere Part of the 2011 London Palestine Film Festival: Friday 29 April - Wednesday 11 May) See listing for Friday 29 April for venue and contact details. Children of the Revolution (Documentary), Dir Shane O’Sullivan (2010), 96 min. Th e stories of Ulrike Meinhof (Baader Meinhof Group) and Fusako Shigenobu (Japanese Red Army), the leading female revolutionaries

of the early 1970s + Q&A with director Shane O’Sullivan. Hasan Everywhere (Animation), Dir Andrew Kavanagh (2009), 7 min.

Wednesday 4 May

4:30 pm | From the Persian to the Mughal world: Muhammad Juki’s Shahnamah of Firdausi (Lecture) Barbara Brend. Organised by: Indian Art Circle, SOAS.Th e 13th Annual Toby Falk Memorial Lecture. Admission free. Room B111, SOAS. T 020 7898 4020 E [email protected] W www.soas.ac.uk/about/events/

6:15 pm | Leila and the Wolves (Film) Part of the 2011 London Palestine Film Festival: Friday 29 April - Wednesday 11 May. See listing for Friday 29 April for venue and contact details. Dir Heiny Srour, (1984), 90 min. Using a compelling narrative structure, Srour examines roles played by Palestinian and Lebanese women in their national struggles + Q&A with director Heiny Srour, chaired by Sheila Whittaker.

8:45 pm | Th is is my Picture When I was Dead (Documentary) Part of the 2011 London Palestine Film Festival: Friday 29 April - Wednesday 11 May. See listing for Friday 29 April for venue and contact details. Dir Mahmoud al Massad (2010), 83 min. Athens, 1983. Th e world press reports that 4 year old Bashir is killed in the assassination of his father, a top PLO lieutenant. But what if death is not the end of his journey? + Q&A with director Mahmoud al Massad, chaired by Mike Dibb.

Th ursday 5 May

6:15 pm | Recycle (Documentary) Part of the 2011 London Palestine Film Festival: Friday 29 April - Wednesday 11 May. See listing for Friday 29 April for contact details. Dir Mahmoud al Massad (2007), 80 min. “What makes a terrorist?” In Zarqa, Jordan’s second largest city, this is a much debated question + Q&A with director Mahmoud al Massad. Admission free, donations welcome. Khalili Lecture Th eatre, SOAS.

6:30 pm | Artists in conversation: Beirut, London, Beirut (Discussion) Artists Dia Batal and Tania El Khoury discuss their inter-


cultural practice with academic Layal Ftouni. Part of a series of events related to the exhibition I, the Undersigned by Rabih Mroué, see Exhibitions for details. Admission free, booking advised. Iniva at Rivington Place, London EC2A 3BA. T 020 7749 1240 E [email protected] W www.rivingtonplace.org

Friday 6 May

Time TBC | Contemporary Turkish Studies Annual Doctoral Dissertation Conference Organised by: LSE Contemporary Turkish Studies. 3rd Annual Doctoral Dissertation Conference. Tickets: TBC. LSE. T 020 7955 6067 E [email protected] W www2.lse.ac.uk/europeanInst itute/research/ContemporaryTurkishStudies/Graduate%20Workshop.aspx

6:15 pm | Diaries + Manshiyya

Part of the 2011 London Palestine Film Festival: Friday 29 April - Wednesday 11 May. See listing for Th ursday 5 May for ticket and venue details and Friday 29 April for contact details. Diaries (Documentary), Dir May Odeh (2010), 53 min. A look at the lives of three young women living in Gaza providing a vantage on life in the Gaza Strip rarely captured on fi lm. Manshiyya (Documentary), Dir Raneen Jeries (2010), 14 min.

6:30 pm | Poetry, Meditation, Music: Rumi Poetry Circle (Meeting) Every fi rst Friday of the month. See listing for Friday 1 April for details.

6:30 pm | ‘Five Loads of Grass, Four of Dung and Two of Straw’; Archaeobotanical Research in Egyptian Settlements (Lecture) Claire Malleson. Organised by: Friends of the Petrie Museum. Admission free. G6 Institute of

Archaeology, 31 Gordon Square, London WC1. T 020 7679 2369 W www.ucl.ac.uk/FriendsofPetrie/

7:30 pm | Th e Kingdom of Women (Documentary) Part of the 2011 London Palestine Film Festival: Friday 29 April - Wednesday 11 May. See listing for Th ursday 5 May for ticket and venue details and Friday 29 April for contact details. Dir Dahna Aburahme (2010), 54 min. Th e story of the women of Ein El Hilweh refugee camp in Lebanon between 1982 - 1984.

Saturday 7 May

9:30 am | State, Society and Economy in the Modern Middle East (Two-Day Conference: Saturday 7 - Sunday 8 May) Organised by: London Middle East Institute, SOAS (LMEI). A Middle East PhD Students International Conference. Th e Conference will provide an opportunity for young

scholars to present their research and work in progress. Includes a Poster Presentation. Tickets: £30 both days/£20 one day/ £15 conc. both days/£10 conc. one day (Pre-registration required). T 020 7898 4490 E [email protected] W www.lmei.soas.ac.uk

11:30 am | Sufi Frame-Drumming (Workshop) Every Saturday. See listing for Saturday 2 April for details.

11:30 am | Discover Mesopotamia through Storytelling on a ZIPANG Day Out Monthly event. See listing for Saturday 2 April for details.

3:30 pm | Discover Mesopotamia through Storytelling ZIPANG Day Out Monthly event. See listing for Saturday 2 April for details.

4:00 pm | Special Triple-Bill on the Gaza Tunnels: Into the Belly of the Whale + Abu Jamil St. + Ticket

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From Azrael Part of the 2011 London Palestine Film Festival: Friday 29 April - Wednesday 11 May. See listing for Th ursday 5 May for ticket and venue details and Friday 29 April for contact details.Into the Belly of the Whale (Film), Dir Hazim Bitar (2010), 24 min. Younis (Jonah), decides to make one fi nal tunnel run between the Gaza Strip and Egypt when things take a dangerous turn. Abu Jamil St. (Documentary), Dirs Monchovet Alexis & Stephane Marchetti (2010), 52 min. Beneath deafening bombs and in tunnels on the brink of collapse, we follow four Palestinian tunnel workers burrowing under the Gaza strip. Ticket From Azrael (Documentary), Dir Abdallah Al Ghoul (2009), 30 min. Short documentary charting the eff orts of a group of young Palestinian men digging a tunnel extending from

Rafah, in the Gaza Strip, through to Egypt.

Sunday 8 May

9:30 am | State, Society and Economy in the Modern Middle East (Two-Day Conference: Saturday 7 - Sunday 8 May) See listing for Saturday 7 May for details.

3:30 pm | 443 (Documentary) Part of the 2011 London Palestine Film Festival: Friday 29 April - Wednesday 11 May. See listing for Th ursday 5 May for ticket and venue details and Friday 29 April for contact details. Dir Erez Miller (2010), 52 min. Route 443 begins on the shore near Tel Aviv and ends in Jerusalem. Equal parts satire and investigative report, 443 off ers a new and inventive take on ‘the political

road movie’ + Q&A with director Erez Miller.

5:00 pm | Wilders: Th e Movie (Documentary) Part of the 2011 London Palestine Film Festival: Friday 29 April - Wednesday 11 May. See listing for Th ursday 5 May for ticket and venue details and Friday 29 April for contact details. Dirs Joost van der Valk & Mags Gavan (2010), 70 min. Documentary on Geert Wilders, the Dutch far right politician, which takes us on a journey from the Netherlands to London and the US, before ending up in Israel.

Monday 9 May

6:15 pm | My Name is Ahlam (Documentary) Part of the 2011 London Palestine Film Festival: Friday 29 April - Wednesday 11 May. See listing for Friday 29 April for contact details. Dir Rima Essa (2010), 74 min. While fi ghting for her daughter’s right to receive adequate treatment for leukaemia, Aisha, a Palestinian woman living in the West Bank, undergoes a rapid process of empowerment. Followed by a panel debate. Admission free, donations welcome. Darwin Lecture Th eatre, UCL, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT.

Tuesday 10 May

5:30 pm | New fi eldwork at the Severan fort of Myd[…] (Gheriat el-Garbia) on the limes tripolitanus (Lecture) Michael Mackensen, University of Munich. Organised by: Society for Libyan Studies. Th e Olwen Brogan Memorial Lecture. Admission free. Lecture Th eatre, British Academy, 10 Carlton House Terrace, London SW1Y 5AH. E [email protected] W www.britac.ac.uk/institutes/libya/

6:00 pm | (No) Laughing Matter (Documentary) Part of the 2011 London Palestine Film Festival: Friday 29 April - Wednesday 11 May. See listing for Monday 9 May for ticket and venue details and Friday 29 April for contact details. Dir Vanessa Rousselot (2010), 55 min. Convinced that humour knows no frontiers, young fi lmmaker Vanessa Rousselot embarks on an unusual quest: to search for humour in the West Bank.

7:15 pm | American Radical: the trials of Norman Finkelstein

(Documentary) Part of the 2011 London Palestine Film Festival: Friday 29 April - Wednesday 11 May. See listing for Monday 9 May for ticket and venue details and Friday 29 April for contact details. Dirs David Ridgen & Nicolas Rossier (2009), 84 min. A probing portrait of US scholar Norman Finkelstein.

Wednesday 11 May

6:15 pm | Shout (Documentary) Part of the 2011 London Palestine Film Festival: Friday 29 April - Wednesday 11 May. See listing for Monday 9 May for ticket and venue details and Friday 29 April for contact details. Closing Event of the 2011 Festival. Dirs Ester Gould & Sabine Lubbe Bakker (2009), 85 min. Ezat and Bayan have lived their entire lives under Israeli occupation. Th anks to Syrian parentage, they get the opportunity to study in Damascus. But students can cross the border just once annually, meaning they can’t visit home for 12 months.

7:00 pm | Mamluks & Mongols, Franks & Armenians: the archaeology of Antioch and Cilicia in the 13th-14th Centuries (Lecture) Scott Redford, Koç University, Istanbul. Organised by: Islamic Art Circle at SOAS. Part of the Islamic Art Circle at SOAS Lecture Programme. Chaired by Doris Behrens-Abouseif, SOAS. Admission free. Khalili Lecture Th eatre, SOAS. T 0771 408 7480 E [email protected] W www.soas.ac.uk/about/events/

Th ursday 12 May

6:00 pm | Th e Reign of al-Muqtadir (908-932) and the Decline of the Abbasid Caliphate (Lecture) Hugh Kennedy, SOAS. Organised by: Royal Asiatic Society. Admission free. Royal Asiatic Society, 14 Stephenson Way, London NW1 2HD. T 020 7388 4539 E [email protected] W www.royalasiaticsociety.org

7:00 pm | Presentation of ORTS Cup Award, followed by AGM and Show and Tell Organised by: Oriental Rug and Textile Society. Tickets: £6 for non-members. Swedenborg Hall, 20/21 Bloomsbury Way, London WC1A 2TH. T 020 8886 3910 E penny@orientalrugandtextilesociety.

Gaza City, 1993. © JC Tordai (24 Images of Palestine, 1986-2010: Photographs by J C Tordai The 2011 Annual Palestine Film Festival Photographic Exhibition, see Exhibitions, page 33)


o r g . u k W w w w .orientalrugandtextilesociety.org.uk/ortscup.php

Friday 13 May

Various Times | London International Documentary Festival (Friday 13 - Saturday 28 May) Includes Middle Eastern documentaries, fi lmakers and themes and a comedy night with Ahmed Ahmed who will be premiering his documentary ‘Just Like Us’ at the Barbican. Tickets: See Festival website below. Various venues across London. W www.lidf.co.uk / www.ahmed-ahmed.com

Saturday 14 May

12:00 pm | End the Seige on Gaza - Free Palestine A protest vigil to commemorate the Nakba and to ask the government to end the Siege on Gaza and the Israeli Occupation of Palestine. Assemble opposite Downing Street on Whitehall, London SW1A. E [email protected] W www.palestinecampaign.org

Monday 16 May

6:00 pm | Th e Parthians and the Production of the Canonical Shāhnāmas: Of Pahlavī, Pahlavānī and the Pahlav + From Oxus to Euphrates: Understanding the Idea of Iranshahr (200-1200 CE) (Lecture) Parvaneh Pourshariati, Th e Ohio State University; Touraj Daryaee, University of California, Irvine. Organised by: British Institute of Persian Studies (BIPS) and the Centre for Iranian Studies, SOAS. Admission free. Room G3, SOAS. T 020 7898 4490 E [email protected] W www.soas.ac.uk/iranianstudies/

Tuesday 17 May

9:45 am | Music in Middle Eastern Cinema (Four-Day Festival: Tuesday 17 - Friday 20 May) Martin Stokes, Oxford; Nacim Pak, Edinburgh; Kay Dickinson, Goldsmiths; Kamran Rastegar, Tuft s; Peyman Yazdanian, Iran; John Baily, Goldsmiths; Tony Langlois, Limerick. Organised

by: London Centre for Arts and Cultural Exchange in conjunction with the Tricycle Th eatre, the Institute of Musical Research (University of London), the Iran Heritage Foundation and the Centre for Iranian Studies, SOAS. A two-day conference and a series of fi lm screenings exploring the intersection of music and cinema in the Middle East. Convened by Laudan Nooshin, City University London. Th e Conference will take place on Tuesday 17 and Wednesday 18 May followed by two days of fi lm screenings at SOAS on Th ursday 19 and Friday 20 May. Th roughout May fi lm screenings will also be held at the Tricycle Th eatre. Various ticket prices. Stewart House, Room ST274/5 (next to Senate House, Malet Street, London WC1E 7HU), Chancellor’s Hall, Senate House (South Block), Khalili Lecture Th eatre, SOAS and the Tricycle Cinema, 269 Kilburn High Road, London NW6 7JR. E [email protected] / [email protected] W www.soas.ac.uk/iranianstudies/ / www.tricycle.co.uk

Wednesday 18 May

9:45 am | Music in Middle Eastern Cinema (Four-Day Festival: Tuesday 17 - Friday 20 May) Please see listing for Tuesday 17 May for details.

Th ursday 19 May

Times TBC | Music in Middle Eastern Cinema (Four-Day Festival: Tuesday 17 - Friday 20 May) Please see listing for Tuesday 17 May for details.

Friday 20 May

Times TBC | Music in Middle Eastern Cinema (Four-Day Festival: Tuesday 17 - Friday 20 May) Please see listing for Tuesday 17 May for details.

Saturday 21 May

9:30 am | Th e Idea of Iran: Turks

Tears of Gaza (Part of 2011 London Palestine Film Festival, see April/May Events, page 28)


and Persians and the spread of the Persianate world (Symposium)Saïd Amir Arjomand, Stony Brook Institute for Global Studies State, University of New York; Mohsen Ashtiany, Columbia University; Franklin Lewis, University of Chicago; Alexsandr Naymark, Hofstra University, New York; Khodadad Rezakhani, LSE; István Vásáry, Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest. Organised by: Centre for Iranian Studies and the Faculty of Oriental Studies, University of Oxford with the support of the Soudavar Memorial Foundation.Th e eighth programme in the series will focus on the years around the end of the fi rst millennium CE, when the political and cultural strength of the Abbasid Caliphate was on the wane and when the Eastern lands of the Islamic empire began to take on a new character, which has been dubbed ‘Persianate’ or ‘Perso-Islamic’. Tickets: £15/£10 conc. & LMEI Affi liates/Students Free (Pre-registration required). Brunei Gallery Lecture Th eatre, SOAS. T 020 7898 4490 E vp6@

soas.ac.uk W www.soas.ac.uk/iranianstudies/

Monday 23 May

7:00 pm | Complicity in Oppression: does the media aid Israel? (Panel Debate) Organised by: Palestine Solidarity Campaign and MEMO. Th e BBC’s former Middle East correspondent, Tim Llewellyn, joins Greg Philo, Research Director of the Glasgow Media Group, and Abdel Bari Al-Atwan, editor of Al Quds, to discuss the mainstream media’s coverage of Palestine and Israel. Chaired by Victoria Brittain, former associate foreign editor of the Guardian, author and PSC patron. Admission free (Pre-registration required). Amnesty International, Human Rights Action Centre, New Inn Yard, London EC2A 3EA. E [email protected] W www.palestinecampaign.org

Tuesday 24 May

9:30 am | Th e Camel Conference @ SOAS (Two-Day Conference:

Tuesday 24 - Wednesday 25 May) An international conference examining, documenting and celebrating camel cultures from around the world. It will deal with both material and cultural concerns, and will cover both Dromedaries and Bactrians. Tickets: £30/£10 conc./Free for SOAS staff and students (Pre-registration required). SOAS (Room TBC). E [email protected]

Wednesday 25 May

9:30 am | Th e Camel Conference @ SOAS (Two-Day Conference: Tuesday 24 - Wednesday 25 May) See listing on Tuesday 24 May for more details.

6:00 pm | Language and Identity in the Arabian Gulf (Lecture) Clive Holes, University of Oxford. Organised by: Society for Arabian Studies/British Foundation for the Study of Arabia (SAS/BFSA) in association with the London Middle East Institute, SOAS (LMEI). A lecture on the relationship between language and identity in the Gulf, which will pay particular attention to three phenomena: the recession of local linguistic identities; the spread of global English; and pidginisation as a consequence of labour migration from South Asia. Admission free. Khalili Lecture Th eatre, SOAS. E [email protected] W www.societyforarabianstudies.org

Th ursday 26 May

6:30 pm | Literature and Revolution in the Middle East (Lecture) Reza Aslan, author. Organised by: Senses Magazine in association with the London Middle East Institute, SOAS (LMEI) and supported by Cultural Signatures. Lecture followed by a book signing in which Dr Aslan will be introducing his new book ‘Tablet & Pen’ which spans a century of literature by the region’s best writers - from the famed Arab poet Khalil Gibran to the Turkish Nobel Prize winner Orhan Pamuk. Admission free (Pre-registration required). Khalili Lecture Th eatre, SOAS. T 020 7898 4490 E [email protected] W www.rezaaslan.com / www.lmei.soas.ac.uk

7:00 pm | Planet Egypt Showcase (Performance) See listing for Th ursday 28 April for details.

EVENTS OUTSIDE LONDON

Wednesday 4 May

5:00 pm | Th e History of Oil and Urban Violence in the Modern Middle East (Seminar) Nelida Fuccaro, SOAS. Organised by: Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies. Part of the History, Politics and Economies in the Muslim World seminar series. Admission free. Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies, George Street, Oxford OX1 2AR. T 01865 278730 E [email protected] W www.oxcis.ac.uk

Wednesday 11 May

5:00 pm | Th e ‘Contagion’ from Tunisia: on the faultline between demography, development and welfare distribution (Seminar) Adeel Malik, OCIS and QEH, University of Oxford. Organised by: Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies. Part of the History, Politics and Economies in the Muslim World seminar series. See listing for Wednesday 4 May for ticket, venue and contact details.

Saturday 14 May

9:30 am | Economy and Society in Late Sasanian and Early Islamic Iraq (Day Seminar) Admission free (sandwich lunch for £10 available). Danson Room, Trinity College, Oxford OX1 3BH. E [email protected]

EXHIBITIONS

Friday 1 April

Until 1 April | From Here to Eternity An exhibition of calligraphy and mosaic art by the artists Elaine M Goodwin and Mohamed Abaoubida which coincides with and celebrates the inauguration of the Centre for the Study of Islam. Admission free. Th e Street Gallery, Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies, University of Exeter (IAIS), Exeter EX4 4ND. T 01392 264040 E [email protected] W http://socialsciences.exeter.ac.uk/iais/all-events/

Until 9 April | Shadows of My Self Drawings, paintings and sculptures


of Selma Gürbüz, one of Turkey’s leading contemporary artists. Tickets: Museum entry charge: £5/£1 conc. (includes free return entry within 12 months) Leighton House Museum, 12 Holland Park Road, London W14. T 020 7602 7700 E [email protected] W www.roseissa.com

Until 16 April | Again, A Time Machine A new project, which explores the possibilities of solidarity between Poland and Iran in the form of a billboard poster, newspaper and an archival installation.Admission free. Eastside Projects, 86 Heath Mill Lane Birmingham, B9 4AR. T 020 7493 4766 / 0121 771 1778 E [email protected] / [email protected] W www.eastsideprojects.org/ / www.iranheritage.org

Until 17 April | Giorgio Andreotta Calo, Jalal Toufi c, Huang Xiaopeng Artists from around the world show moving image work at the Gallery with the performance of the Shiite ritual Ashura captured by Lebanese writer and artist Jalal Toufi c. Admission free. Whitechapel Gallery, 77-82 Whitechapel High Street, London E1 7QX. T 020 7522 7888 E [email protected] W www.whitechapelgallery.org

Until 30 April | Expired Ziad Antar’s fi rst solo exhibition in the UK. Antar’s work in this series is all about experimenting the medium of photography, waiting for the result of the ‘experiment’. Admission free. Selma Feriani Gallery, 23 Maddox Street, London, W1S 2QN. T 020 7493 6090 E [email protected] W www.selmaferiani.com

Until 2 May | Icons of the 4 Corners Iranian born London based artist Afsoon revisits the late 60s and 70s, and the blossoming of creativity and progress during that era. Admission free. Xerxes Art, 52 Haymarket, London SW1Y 4RP. T 020 7839 3033 E [email protected] W www.xerxesart.com

Until 14 May | Rabih Mroué: I, the Undersigned Infl uenced by the ongoing confl icts in Lebanon and the Middle East and the Lebanese Civil War (1975-1990), Mroué looks at issues of historical narration, exclusion and remembrance. Join curator Francesco Bernardelli on a tour of the exhibition at 6.30pm on Th ursday 7 April. Admission free. Rivington Place, London, EC2A 3BA. E [email protected] W www.rivingtonplace.org

Until 3 July | Surviving Treasures

from the National Museum of Afghanistan Th e exhibition will highlight some of the most important archaeological discoveries from ancient Afghanistan. Various ticket prices. Room 35, BM. T 020 7323 8299 W www.britishmuseum.org

Until 11 September | Adornment and Identity: jewellery and costume from Oman A unique display featuring a selection of 20th-century silver jewellery, weaponry and male and female dress from Oman. Admission free. BM. T 020 7323 8299 W www.britishmuseum.org

Ongoing | Th e Baghdad Car Installation by the artist Jeremy Deller of a car salvaged from the bombing of the historic Al-Mutanabbi street book market in Baghdad on 5 March 2007 which killed thirty-eight people. Admission free. Imperial War Museum London, Lambeth Road, London SE1 6HZ. T 020 7416 5000 W http://london.iwm.org.uk

Tuesday 5 April

Until 1 May | Deutsche Börse Photography Prize 2011 Th e Photographers’ Gallery’s annual prize rewards a living photographer,

of any nationality, who has made the most signifi cant contribution to photography in Europe. Th e four shortlisted artists include the Israeli artist Elad Lassry. Admission free. Ambika P3 at the University of Westminster, 35 Marylebone Road, NW1 5LS. T 0845 262 1618 E [email protected] W www.photonet.org.uk

Wednesday 27 April

Until 17 May | 24 Images of Palestine, 1986-2010: Photographs by J C Tordai Th e 2011 Annual Palestine Film Festival Photographic Exhibition consists of a series of monochrome prints by J C Tordai. Spanning three decades of reportage from across Palestine, the selection has been especially chosen by the artist for the 2011 Film Festival. Admission free. Barbican Centre (Mezzanine Level), Silk Street, London EC2Y 8DS. E info@palestinefi lm.org W www.palestinefi lm.org

Fix Me (Part of 2011 London Palestine Film Festival, see April/May Events, page28)


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this issue - soas, university of london ·

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