Fatima's Revolutionary Image in Fadak fi al-Ta'rikh (1955): The Inception of Muhammad Baqir al-Sadr's Activism

This article examines Muhammad Baqir al-Sadr's first publication, Fadak fi al-Ta'rikh, contextualising the historiographical depiction of the dispute that ensued between Abu Bakr and Fatima over the Fadak land. Informed by traditional Shi‘i approaches to this episode of early Islamic history, the study locates the text's themes within various Iraqi contexts, including the struggle for the ideological orientation of the state, the quest for a unified Iraqi Civil Code and the place of Shi‘is in the new Iraqi state. The main contention of this study is that through his engagement with contours of Iraqi oppositional discourse, Sadr transforms the traditional image of Fatima from a weak and abused victim of injustice to a revolutionary heroine who fought for Shi‘i political and legal rights. His innovative portrayal of Fatima's claim to the Fadak marks one of the earliest efforts to reinterpret Shi‘i parables in an activist spirit. Sadr is among the first to promote the shift from passive eschatological expectations for redress to temporal confrontation with forces of injustice and to convey the message that protest is desirable irrespective of its chances of success.     

A letter from Iraq: the writing of Iraqi correspondents in al-ʿAlam al-ʾIsraʾili and Israʾil

The most extensive participation of Jews in the literary Arabic revival (The Nahda) was in monarchial Iraq. Jewish Intellectuals had contributed to the development of national Iraqi culture. These intellectuals have been studied in the context of the non-Jewish Iraqi intellectuals, focusing on their national and cultural integration in the new Iraqi state. This article observes the participation of those intellectuals in two non-Iraqi Jewish journals which were published in literary Arabic, Isra?il, published in Cairo, and al-?Alam al-Isra?ili, published in Beirut. By changing the point of view from Iraqi Jews in the non-Jewish Iraqi cultural sphere to Iraqi Jews in a non-Iraqi Jewish cultural sphere, the article examines their relation between Iraqi identity and the national Jewish identity.     

Shi’i division over the Iraqi state: decentralization and the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq

ABSTRACT

This article traces the evolving political platform of one of Iraq’s oldest and most powerful Shi’i political parties, the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq (ISCI). Drawing on an analysis of 15 years of primary materials produced by ISCI, it focuses principally on their promotion of decentralization as a path towards peace and stability in Iraq. However, the article also traces the origins of a deep schism that emerged within ISCI between the movement’s old guard who were beholden to the Iranian regime and their model of vilāyat-i faqīh, and the youth-led Iraqi nationalist faction who wanted to see the instalment of a civil government without religious oversight. The article demonstrates that this division is indicative of a theological debate between Shi’i religious scholars over differing interpretations of the role of Shi’ism in politics. The article concludes by arguing that understanding the extent to which such esoteric religious debates manifest themselves politically is crucial to interpreting divisions within Shi’ism not just in Iraq, but across the broader Middle East.     

A historical review of the critical judgement of Il Gattopardo (1958) on the Risorgimento

The Leopard (Italian: Il Gattopardo) is a novel by Prince Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa that chronicles the end of the Bourbons' kingdom and the beginning of the Savoy dynasty, the first sovereigns of the new Kingdom of Italy (1861). Published posthumously in 1958, it became the top-selling novel in Italian history and it is considered one of the most important novels in modern Italian literature. In 2012 The Observer named it as one of the ‘10 best historical novels’. The purpose of this article is to refute the negative image of the Risorgimento as presented in this novel. The Leopard, with its broad resonance, has strongly contributed towards distorting the historical judgement on the foundations of the Italian nation, above all by failing to do justice to Prime Minister Cavour's courageous and judicious political strategy in the choice of the leadership class – also Sicilian – in the newly created Kingdom of Italy (1860–61).     

Soviet books on Israel

(see Middle Eastern Studies, Vol. VI, No. 3: October 1970, pp. 345–349).

Rasskazy Izrail'skikh pisateley (Stories of Israeli writers), Moscow, Progress Press, 1965; 320 pp.;

Iskatel'dzemchuga: novelly Izrail’ skikh pisateley (The pearl‐diver: stories of Israeli writers), Moscow, Nauka Press, 1966; 144 pp.

K. Ivanov and Z. Sheynis, was Gosudarstvo Israil’, ego polodzeniye i politika (The State of Israel: its situation and politics), Moscow, The State Publishing House for Political Literature, 1958; 148 pp.

G. S. Nikitina's Gosudarstvo Izrail‘ (osobennosti ekonomicheskogo i politicheskog orazvitii) (The State of Israel: the characteristics of its economic and political development), Moscow, The Institute of the Peoples of Asia in the Soviet Academy of Sciences—Nauka Press, 1968; 414 pp.

P. Demchenko's Arabskiy Vostok v chas ispitaniy (The Arab East in the hour of trial), Moscow, the Publishing House for Political Literature, 1967; 80 pp.

I. P. Blishchenko and V. D. Kudryavtsev's Agressiya Izrailya i medzdunarodnoe pravo (The Israeli aggression and international law), Moscow, International Relations Press, 1970; 80 pp.

S. A. Andreyev visited Israel and reported on his visit in his Izrail’, zametki dzurnalista (Israel: travel‐notes of a journalist), Moscow, Oriental Literature Press, 1962; 120 pp.

Ye. Yevseyev's Fashizm pod goluboy zvyozdoy (Fascism under the blue Star of David), Moscow Molodaya Gvardiya Press, 1971; 170 pp.,

Tadeusz Walichnowsky (which first appeared in Polish, and from whose third, 1968 edition, this Russian translation was prepared), called Izrail’ i FRG (Israel and Federal Germany), Moscow, Progress Press, 1971; 168 pp.     

Some Soviet works on Cyprus

Problemy Mira i Sotzializma (vol. XII, no. 11, November, 1969, pp. 6–10)

World Marxist Review: Problems of Peace and Socialism, vol. XII, no. 11, November 1969, pp. 3–6).

O.B. Shparo's Zakhvat Kipra Angliyey (Britain's Seizure of Cyprus), Moscow, Nauka Press, 1974; 283 pp.

S. M. Leonidov's Kipr v borb'e za nezavisimost’ (Cyprus in the war of independence), Moscow, Institute of Foreign Relations Press, 1963; 140 pp.

M. P. Pobedina's Respublika Kipr (The Republic of Cyprus), Prosveshcheniye Press, 1964; 72 pp.

A. Romanov, it is entitled Puteshestviye na ostrov Kipr: Zapiski dzurnalista (A Trip to the Island of Cyprus: notes of a journalist), Moscow, Political Literature Press, 1964; 68 pp.

V. Kondrat'yev, it is entitled (like Pobedina's work) Respublika Kipr (The Republic of Cyprus), Moscow, Znaniye Press, 1964; 32 pp.

E. Urazova, Kipr (Cyprus), Moscow, Mysl’ Press, 1966; 152 pp.

Molodiye poety Kipra (Young Poets of Cyprus), Moscow, Molodaya Gvardiya Press, 1971; 136 pp.     

Islamism,Trade Unionism and Civil Society: The Case of Hak-İş Labour Confederation in Turkey

Vostokovedieniye v izdaniyakh akademii nauk, 1726–1917: bibliografiya (Orientalism in the publications of the Academy of Sciences, 1726–1917: a bibliography), Moscow, Nauka Press, 1966; 144 pp. Edited by O. E. Livotova and V. B. Portugal’

Knigi glavnoy redaktsii vostochnoy literaturi izdatel'stva ‘Nauka’, 1957–1966: annotirovanniy katalog (The books of the major press for Oriental works — the Nauka Publishing House, 1957–1966: an annotated catalogue), Moscow, Nauka, 1968; 304 pp.

Literatura o stranakh Azii i Afriki (Publications on the lands of Asia and Africa), Moscow, Nauka Press.

Bibliografiya Turtsii (A bibliography of Turkey), Moscow, Oriental Literature Publishing Press, 1959–61.

Edited by N. I. Botashvili, its Russian title is Bibliografiya Turtsii (istoriya) (A bibliography of Turkey: history), Tiflis, Myetsniyeryeba Press, 1971; 292 pp.

Edited by A. K. Sverschevskaya, it is named Bibliografiya Irana: literatura na russkom yazike (1917–1965) (A bibliography of Iran: publications in Russian (1917–1965)), Moscow, Nauka Press — for the Institute of the Peoples of Asia in the Soviet Academy of Sciences, 1967; 392 pp.

edited by N. M. Zand and V. A. El'vova, is named Khudo?estvennaya literatura stran Afrika v Sovyetskoy pechati: 1958–1964 (The belles lettres of African countries in the Soviet press: 1958–1964), Moscow, Kniga Press, 1967; 176 pp.

compiled by K. O. Yunusov, and edited by two leading Orientalists, A. A. Dolinina and N. M. Zand. It is named Tawfiq al'‐Hakim: bibliograficheskiy ukazatel’ (Tawfiq al‐Hakim: a bibliographical guide), Moscow, Kniga Press, 1968; 72 pp.

Edited by T. A. Vaganova and S. S. Bulatov, it is named Spravochnaya literatura po stranam Azii i Afriki (Reference materials concerning the countries of Asia and Africa), Leningrad, Publication Department of the Library in the Soviet Academy of Sciences, 1972; 535 pp.     

Other publications received

(a 28‐page pamphlet, in the series Fifty Years of Soviet Oriental Studies, published in 1967 by Nauka Press for the Institute of the Peoples of Asia of the USSR Academy of Sciences).

N. A. Kuznyetsova and L. M. Kulagina, and entitled Iz istorii Sovyetskogo Vostokovyedyeniya 1917–1967

(From the History of Soviet Orientalism, 1917–1967),

(Moscow, Nauka Press for the Institute of Oriental Studies of the USSR Academy of Sciences, 1970, 252 pp.).

Middle Eastern Studies, Vol. 7, no. 3, October 1971, pp. 363–65

(see Middle Eastern Studies, Vol. VII, no. 2, May 1971, pp. 237–39).

V. V. Lyebyedyev's Pozdniy sryednyearabskiy yazik (XIII‐XVIII vv.)

(The Late Middle‐Arabic Language: The 13th‐18th Centuries), Moscow, Nauka Press, 1977; 92 pp.

A. A. Kovalyev and G. M. Gabuchan, was published by Moscow University Press in 1968 and comprises 208 pages.

V. S. Khrakovskiy's Ochyerki po obshchyemu i Arabskomu sintaksisu (Essays on General and Arabic Syntax), (Moscow, Nauka Press for the Institute of Linguistics of the USSR Academy of Sciences, 1973; 290 pp.).

V. M. Byelkin's Arabskaya Lyeksikologia (Arabic Lexicology), (Moscow University Press, 1975; 200 pp.).

F. L. Shapiro and edited by B. M. Grande, entitled Ivrit‐Russkiy slovar’ (Hebrew‐Russian Dictionary), (Moscow, Government Press for National and Foreign Dictionaries, 1963, 768 pp.).

B. M. Grande's Kurs Arabskoy grammatiki v Sravnityel'no‐istorichyeskom osvyeshchyenii (A Course of Arabic Grammar, From a Comparative Approach), (Moscow, Oriental Literature Press for the Institute of the Peoples of Asia of the USSR Academy of Sciences, 1963, 596 pp.).

A. A. Kovalyev and G. Sh. Sharbatov, entitled Uchyebnik Arabskogo Yazika (Textbook for Learning Arabic), (Moscow, Nauka Press for the Institute of Oriental Languages at Moscow University, 1969, 688 pp.).

E. Dz. Myemmyedov's Al‐Lugha al‐'Arabiyya (The Arabic Language), (Baku, Ma'arif Press, 1971, 404 pp.).

G. V. Tsyeryetyeli, entitled Arabskaya Khryestomatiya (An Arabic Anthology), (Tiflis University Press, 1975; 107, 16pp.).

O. B. Frolova's Mi govorim po‐Arabskiy (We speak Arabic), (Moscow, Nauka Press for the Oriental Faculty of Leningrad University and for the Institute of Oriental Studies of the USSR Academy of Sciences, 1972, 303 pp.).

I. S. Danilov, V. I. Ridzkov and M. G. Anisimov, entitled Arabsko‐Russkiy i Russko‐Arabskiy voyenniy slovar’ (Arabic‐Russian and Russian‐Arabic Dictionary of Military Terms), (Moscow, USSR Ministry of Defence Press, 1965, 704 pp.).

Kh. K. Baranov's Arabsko‐Russkiy slovar’ (Arabic‐Russian Dictionary), (2nd edition, Moscow, Government Press for Foreign and National Dictionaries, 1958, 1189 pp.)

T. A. al‐Farhi and V. N. Krasnovskiy, entitled Karmanniy Russko‐Arabskiy slovar’ (Pocket Russian‐Arabic Dictionary), (Moscow, Government Press for Foreign and National Dictionaries, 1959, 695 pp.).

G. Sh. Sharbatov's Russko‐Arabskiy uchyebniy slovar’ (A Russian‐Arabic school dictionary), (Moscow, The Soviet Encyclopaedia Press, 1964, 1056, 140 pp.).

V. M. Borisov's Russko‐Arabskiy slovar’ (Russian‐Arabic Dictionary), (Moscow, The Soviet Encyclopaedia Press, 1967, 1120 pp.).     

The ‘formal’ Marjaʿ: Shiʿi clerical authority and the state in post-2003 Iraq

Since the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003, the name of Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the Grand Shi?i cleric, has come to prominence. Sistani emerged as a key player in the processes that constituted and sustained the post-2003 Iraqi political order, as manifested in key events such as the writing of constitution or the mobilization against the Islamic State (I.S.). Nevertheless, Sistani did not have an official position in Iraq. Unlike the Iranian experience after the 1979 revolution which institutionalized the leading position of faqih (jurist), the Iraqi constitution set Iraq as a democratic, parliamentary state whose religious leaders held no formal offices. Indeed, Sistani rejected the Iranian model as unfit for Iraq’s conditions and societal fabric. Thus, given the absence of a constitutional status for Sistani, how do we understand his authority in Iraq? This article argues that although Sistani’s authority has not been constitutionalized, it was indirectly and roughly ‘formalized’ through practices and laws adopted after 2003. This formalization established a unique and unprecedented relationship between the state and the Shi?i religious authority in the form of arrangements that, to a degree, blurred the lines between formality and informality and created a shared space of governance.     

The Mixed Temporalities of Transnationalism in Dreams of Speaking

This article explores the mixed temporalities inherent in Gail Jones’s treatment of transnational grief in Dreams of Speaking (2006). I examine the novel’s interests in modernity and temporality and show how the atomic bombing of Nagasaki, in the novel, creates grief that is shared across national boundaries. The novel explores the coexistence of the modern and the unmodern, and Jones exemplifies this in the spectral nature of grief; it haunts the two protagonists throughout Dreams of Speaking. This article reads the coexistence of modernity and the unmodern alongside the ways in which Japan unsettles Eurocentric notions of colonial modernity (with its insistence on shared temporalities of progress) by having been a colonial power as well as by undertaking substantial modernisation in the postwar period. I employ Harry Harootunian’s notion of “mixed temporalities” to show the transnational dimensions in the cross-cultural interaction this novel facilitates. I compare the novel’s treatment of the bomb, and of temporality, to Salvador Dalí’s The Disintegration of the Persistence of Memory (1954) and highlight the transnational sentiments in Jones’s treatments of the tropes of water and resonance.     

Soviet works on Tunisia

Afrikanskiy Sbornik: istoriya (African Collection: History), Moscow, Nauka Press for the Institute of African Studies of the Soviet Academy of Sciences, 1963, 303 pp.

G. A. Nyersyesov on the French occupation of Tunisia in 1881 (pp. 170–230),

B. M. Dantsig et al., entitled Politika Frantsii v Azii i Afriki (French Policy in Asia and Africa), Moscow, Nauka Press for the Institute of the Peoples of Asia of the Soviet Academy of Sciences, 1965, 408 pp.

S. R. Smirnov et al., Novyeyshaya istoriya Afriki (The Recent History of Africa), Moscow, Nauka Press for the Institute of African Studies of the Soviet Academy of Sciences, 1964, 500 pp.

Ye. A. Lyebyedyev et al. and entitled Arabskiy Vostok i Magrib: sbornik statyey (The Arab East and the Maghrib: A Collection of Articles), Moscow, Nauka Press for the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Soviet Academy of Sciences, 1977, 232 pp.

N. A. Ivanov's Sovryemyenniy Tunis (Contemporary Tunisia), Moscow, The Institute of Oriental Studies of the Soviet Academy of Sciences, 1959, 132 pp.

B. Ye. Kosolapov's Tunis: gyeografichyeskiy ochyerk (Tunisia: A Geographical Essay), Moscow, Government Press for Geographical Literature, 1958, 46 pp.

V. P. Smirnov's Tunis: ekonomichyeskiy ochyerk (Tunisia: An Economic Essay), Moscow, Socio‐Economic Literature Press, 1962, 72 pp.,

V. Gusarov's Tunis (Tunisia), Moscow, Misl’ Press, 1974, 128 pp.

N. A. Ivanov has written a second work on another aspect of Tunisia, entitled Gosudarstvyenniy stroy Tunisa (Governmental Structure of Tunisia), Moscow, Government Press for Juridical Literature, 1962, 64 pp.

N. A. Ivanov has also written a historical study, entitled Krizis Frantsuzkogo protyektorata v Tunisye, 1918–1939 gg. (The Crisis of the French Protectorate in Tunisia, 1918–1939), Moscow, Nauka Press for the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Soviet Academy of Sciences, 1971, 400 pp.

Novoye litso: novyelli pisatyelyey Tunisa (A New Face: Stories by writers of Tunisia), Moscow, Nauka Press for the Governmental University of Leningrad, 1974, 78 pp.,

M. F. Vidyasova's Rabochiy klass v sotsiyal'noy strukturye Tunisa (The Working Class in the Social Structure of Tunisia), Moscow, Nauka Press for the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Soviet Academy of Sciences and for the Institute of Asian and African Countries at the Moscow Governmental University, 1975, 232 pp.

Shabayev's Rabochiy klass stran Magriba (Moscow, 1968)

Werner Plum's Gewerkschaften im Maghreb (Hanover, 1962),

L. P. Zudina entitled Agrarniye otnoshyeniya v Tunisye, 1956–1971 (Agrarian Relations in Tunisia, 1956–1971), Moscow, Nauka Press for the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Soviet Academy of Sciences, 1976, 183 pp.     

Debating Economic Democracy in South Korea: The Costs of Commensurability

ABSTRACT:

In the 2012 Korean presidential election, both liberal and conservative parties fought their campaigns on the slogan of “economic democratization,” marking a strong departure from past presidential elections and the growth-first policies of the then-incumbent conservative administration. Both parties pledged to tackle growing social polarization and the concentration of economic power by reforming the corporate governance of Korea's large, family-led conglomerates (chaebol), to the degree that chaebol reform itself became synonymous with economic democratization. This focus led to a series of heated exchanges among liberal-left reformers about the vision of economic democratization being promoted, with one camp favoring the creation of a “fair market” through the restructuring of the chaebol and another promoting the protection of the chaebol’s management rights over their affiliates as a desirable strategy for the creation of a Korean welfare state. This essay examines the long-standing tensions between these two liberal-left perspectives and argues that the capital-centric and market-based visions these camps promoted risk confining intellectual debate over the meaning of economic democracy within boundaries that serve dominant political interests.     

Imagining a dialectical African modernity: Achebe's ontological hopes,Sembene's machines,Mda's epistemological redness

In Chinua Achebe's book of essays Hopes and Impediments, he asserts that Nigeria's failure to ‘develop’ and ‘modernise’ like Japan is because of a ‘failure of imagination’. Yet for many Africans, modernity is a tainted ‘gift’ because it was introduced into the African continent along with European colonial capitalism which simultaneously caused an ontological crisis of self. Although many Africans want to ‘catch up’ with the West, how is it possible when Western technological superiority was equated with white racial superiority? Achebe declares that, as Africans ‘begin their journey into the strange, revolutionary world of modernization’, literature should function as guide. Hence, I examine Ousmane Sembene's novel God's Bits of Wood which depicts Africans laying claim to ‘race-less’, ‘language-less’ ‘machines’. But does (Western) technology change culture? Can African culture appropriate technology to form a dialectical African modernity? If so, what role does ‘tradition’ play? In Zakes Mda's The Heart of Redness, we witness the emergence of a traditional modernity made possible by a dialectical epistemology.     

THE POLITICAL SYSTEM IN IRAQI KURDISTAN: PARTY RIVALRIES AND FUTURE PERSPECTIVES

The Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI) possesses many of the traditional hallmarks of political authority and society, such as state institutions (an Executive, Legislature, and Judiciary), political parties, civil society, elections, and local government. Nevertheless, for the past twenty-five years, it has failed to create a unified political system that adheres to a mutually accepted form of government. Political division, in particular, a rivalry between the main parties, has proved to be a real impediment to the political development and stability of the Region.

This article argues that there is a relationship between the nature and structure of the political parties, which reflects interests' political views of party leaders, and the political systems that have been proposed as solutions to a lack of political stability in Iraqi Kurdistan. Specifically, it argues that the individual character of the main parties, the PUK and the KDP above all, explains why they favour one system of government over the one advanced by their rival and is the core political dispute in Iraqi Kurdistan currently. Finally, the article concludes by identifying prospective systems of government available the KRI and the potential consequences of each.     

Women of Japan and Korea: Continuity and Change,by Joyce Gelb and Marian Lief Palley,eds.

Abstract

Japan and Korea as neighboring countries share some basic similarities in their cultural heritage. Their languages, which belong to the Altaic family, exhibit a striking resemblance in grammatical structure. Yet their writing systems, the kana syllabaries and the han'gul alphabets, are distinct. Both societies have been influenced by Confucianism and Buddhism, but the place of Buddhism in contemporary Japan and Korea is quite different, and the Confucian legacy is believed to be much stronger in Korea than in Japan. The traditional family systems of Japan and Korea were both patrilineally organized, but the details of the descent rules differ markedly. In short, Japan and Korea share the general traits of East Asian civilization, but diverge in the details of their cultural traditions.     

Our Land Was a Forest: An Ainu Memoir,by Kayano Shigeru

Abstract

In an Asahi Shimbun interview (31 May 1994) Kayano Shigeru (1923-), author of Ainu no ishibumi (An Ainu Memoir, 1980), recalls the fireside uwepekere or folktales told to him in the Ainu language by his grandmother and remarks that “since there's no written Ainu language, it's only the ear, not the eye, that matters.” Our Land Was a Forest, Kayano's autobiographical memoir, impresses the ear as well as the eye of the reader, as Ainu voices—seldom listened to in the past—reverberate between the lines of the original Japanese version and this English language translation by Kyoko Selden and Lili Selden.     

Class or Citizenship? Debating Workplace Conflict in China

While a new working class is in the process of remaking itself in China, the latest trend in labour studies has rejected the Marxist tradition which sees the social relations of production as the point of departure for analysing workplace conflict. According to the new current, influenced by post-structuralism, class is only one of the identities articulated by workers, and it can be understood only with reference to their discourses. By critically evaluating an important book by Ching Kwan Lee (Against the Law: Labor Protests in China's Rustbelt and Sunbelt), this article suggests that her approach generalising workers' protests with the notion of citizenship cannot satisfactorily explain the changing pattern of labour protests in China since 2004. By using fieldwork data and connecting the analysis of the social relations of production with the changing patterns of workers' struggle, this paper argues that migrant workers protests are a significant part of the emerging class conflict in China.     

Urbanizing the Iranian public: text,Tehran and 1922

By using the heuristic device of transpatialization and the methodology of urban cultural studies, this article argues that the 1922 serialized novel Tehrān-e Makhuf (Dreadful Tehran) by Seyyed Mortaza Moshfeq-e Kazemi (1902–1978), with its distinctly urban modes of imagination and production, at once reflected and propelled a process that can be termed the urbanization of the Iranian public. The article analyses the literary techniques with which Moshfeq contributed to this process; the circumstances and context in which the novel was produced; and the ideological change reflected in the author and his work. The article thus sheds light on a crucial stage in modern Iranian history by unravelling some of the socio-spatial intertwinements that made that history.