"Real Solemn History" and its Discontents: Australian Political History and the Challenge of Social History

The relationship between Australian political and social history has received little historiographical attention. Political history has been lauded or, more often, dismissed as traditional historical practice, while from the 1960s social history took its place as a catch-all phrase for various "new" histories concerned with everyday life. This article examines the place of political and social history in the nascent Australian academic historical profession of the 1950s to the early 1970s, and then explores the impact of the new social history on academic political history. It will suggest that while there was only limited exchange before the late 1980s, in the last twenty years social history has contributed modestly to a reconstituted understanding of political history as part of lived experience.
"[…] I can read poetry and plays, and things of that sort, and do not dislike travels. But history, real solemn history, I cannot be interested in. Can you?"
"Yes, I am fond of history."
"I wish I were too. I read it a little as a duty, but it tells me nothing that does not either vex or weary me. The quarrels of popes and kings, with wars or pestilences, in every page; the men all so good for nothing, and hardly any women at all — it is very tiresome: and yet I often think it odd that it should be so dull, for a great deal of it must be invention […]". ¹     

BOOK REVIEWS

Book reviewed in this article:
Sandcastles: The Arabs in Search of the Modern World , by Milton Viorst.
Trick or Treason: The October Surprise Mystery , by Robert Parry.
Islam in History: Ideas, People and Events in the Middle East (New Edition, Revised and Expanded), by Bernard Lewis.
Islam and the West , by Bernard Lewis.
Muquddinuz fiilm al-istighrab (An Introduction to "Occidentalism") , by Hasan Hanafi.
Battle Lines: The American Media and the Intifada , by Jim Lederman.
Turmoil: The Druzes, Lebanon and the Arab-Israeli Conflict , by Najib.
The Middle East on the Eve of Modernity: Aleppo in the Eighteenth Century , by Abraham Marcus.     

Yigal Allon,Native Son: A Biography

T. S. Sadibayev's Islam i obshchyestvo: opit istoriko‐sotsiologichyeskogo isslyedovaniya, Islam and Society: an Essay of Historical‐Sociological Research (Moscow: Nauka Press, 1984: 304 pp.).

Islam v SSSR: osobyennosti protsyessa syekulyarizatsii v Ryespublikakh Sovyetskogo Vostoka, Islam in the Soviet Union: Characteristics of the Process of Secularization in the Republics of the Soviet East (Moscow: Misl’ Press for the Institute of Scientific Atheism in the Academy of Social Sciences of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, 1983: 176 pp.).

L. I. Klimovich's Kniga o Koranye: Ego proiskhodzhdyenii i mifologii, The Book about the Koran: Its Origins and Myths (Moscow: Political Literature Press, 1986; 272 pp.).

Islam v sovryemyennoy politikye stran Vostoka (Konyets 70‐kh nachalo 80‐kh godov XX v.). Islam in the Contemporary Politics of the Countries in the East: Late 1970s to Early 1980s (Moscow: Nauka Press, 1986; 280 pp.)

Sotsialno‐politichyeskiye pryedstavleniya v Islamye: Istoriya i sovryemyenost’, Socio‐political Notions in Islam: History and Present (Moscow: Nauka Press, 1987: 120 pp.).

A. A. Ignatyenko's Khalifi byez Khalifata, Caliphs Without a Caliphate (Moscow: Nauka Press, 1988; 208 pp.).

N. V. Dzhdanov and A. A. Ignatyenko, is entitled Islam na porogye XXI vyeka, Islam on the Threshold of the 21st Century (Moscow: Political Literature Press, 1989; 352 pp.).

M. I. Philippova has written Obshchyestvyenniye funktsii Islama v sovryemyennom Amyerikanskom Islamovyedyenii, The Social Functions of Islam in Contemporary American Islamology (Moscow: Nauka Press, 1989; 149 pp.).

Islam: Kratkiy spravochik, Islam: A Short Guide (Moscow: Nauka Press, 1983; 160 pp.)

Islam: Entsyklopyedichyeskiy slovar’, Islam: An Encyclopaedic Dictionary (Moscow: Nauka Press, 1991; 316 pp.).     

The Response to Terrorism as a Threat to Liberal Democracy

When dealing with terrorism as a threat to liberal democracy, it is a common assumption that it is the terrorists — who by definition refuse the rules of the liberal democratic "game"— who pose the greatest threat to the underlying principles and freedoms that are enshrined in this form of political life. However, in instances where the state fails to ensure that its response to terrorism is limited, well-defined and controlled, it is likely that institutionalised counter-terrorist policies will pose an even greater threat to the political and civil traditions that are central to the liberal democratic way of life. This paper demonstrates the potential danger by examining three cases when counter-terrorist policies initiated by (supposedly) liberal democratic entities came dangerously close to transplanting subversive terror from "below" with institutionalised, bureaucratised terror from "above": the "strategy of tension" initiated in Italy between 1969 and 1974; the Spanish "dirty war" against ETA between 1983 and 1987; and the abandonment of democratic rule in Peru between 1992 and 1996. The paper concludes that ultimately the effectiveness of the liberal democratic state's response to terrorism depends on its acceptability. It is therefore paramount that any solution which is initiated is made with due regard to the long term impact that it will have on the wider process of liberal democratic life.     

Book Reviews

Books reviewed in this issue.
R eview E ssay : T he A rmenian Q uestion *
Ermeni Meselesi Hallolunmuştur: Osmanlı Belgelerine Göre Savaş Yıllarında Ermenilere Yönelik Politikalar [The Armenian Question Resolved: Policies Toward the Armenians in the War Years according to Ottoman Documents]¹ By Taner Akçam.
Israel and Palestine: Reappraisals, Revisions, Refutations , by Avi Shlaim.
Oman: Politics and Society in the Qaboos State , by Marc Valeri.
Images of the Prophet: Narratives of the Prophet of Islam across the Centuries , by Tarif Khalidi.
The Arabs, A History , by Eugene Rogan.
Reflections on the Revolution in Europe: Immigration, Islam and the West , by Christopher Caldwell.
Peripheral Visions: Publics, Power and Performance in Yemen , by Lisa Wedeen.     

The New Global Threat: Transnational Salafis and Jihad

The ruling to kill the Americans and their allies-civilians and military- is an individual duty for every Muslim who can do it in any country in which it is possible to do it, in order to liberate al-Aqsa Mosque and the holy mosques from their grip, and in order for their armies to move out of all the lands of Islam, defeated and unable to threaten any Muslim. This is in accordance with the words of Almighty God. "And fight the pagans all together as they fight you all together," and "Fight them until there is no more tumult or oppression, and there prevails justice and faith in God."     

BOOK REVIEWS

Book reviewed in this article:
Civil Society in the Middle East, Volume I , edited by Augustus Richard Norton.
War and Peace in the Middle East: A Critique of American Policy , by Avi Shlaim.
Beyond Alliance: Israel and U.S. Foreign Policy , by Camille Mansour.
Islamic Fundamentalism in the West Bank and Gaza: Muslim Brotherhood and Islamic Jihad , by Ziad Abu-Amr.
The Revenge of God: The Resurgence of Islam, Christianity and Judaism in the Modern World , by Gilles Kepel.
Water Wars: Coming Conflicts in the Middle East , by John Bulloch and Adel Darwish.
Small Media, Big Revolution: Communication Culture and the Iranian Revolution , by Annabelle Sreberny-Mohammadi and Ali Mohammadi.
Don't Kill the Messenger: The Tragic Story of Wells Hangen and Other Journalistic Combat Victims , by Charles Arnot.
A Persian Requiem , by Simin Daneshvar, translated from the Farsi by Roxane Zand.     

Some Soviet works on Islam

N. A. Smirnov's Ochyerki istorii izucheniya Mama v SSSR (Essays on the study of Islam in the Soviet Union), Moscow, The Soviet Academy of Sciences’ Press, 1954; 276 pp.

Large Soviet Encyclopaedia (in Russian, 2nd edition, Moscow, 1953).

Soviet Historical Encyclopaedia (in Russian, Moscow, 1965).

1. E. A. Belyayev's Araby, Islam i Arabskiy Khalifat v rannyeye Sryednyevyekov'ye (The Arabs, Islam and the Arab Caliphate in the early Middle Ages), Moscow, Nauka Press, 1965; 280 pp.

2. I. M. Fil'shtinskiy and B. Ya. Shidfar's Ochyerk Arabo‐Musul'manskoy KuVtury (VII‐XII vv.) (An essay on Arabo‐Muslim culture from the seventh to the twelfth centuries), Moscow, Soviet Academy of Sciences – Nauka Press, 1971; 260 pp.

3. I. P. Pyetrushyevskiy's Islam v Iranye v VII‐XV vyekakh (Islam in Iran from the seventh to the fifteenth centuries), Leningrad University's Publishing House, 1966; 400 pp.

A. M. Vasil'yev, Puritanye Islama? Vahhabizmipyervoyegosudarstvo Sauditov v Arabii {Jlie Puritans of Islam ? Wahhabism and the first state of the Sa'uds in Arabia), Moscow, Nauka Press, 1967; 264 pp.

L. I. Klimovich's Islam (in Russian), 2nd enlarged edition, Soviet Academy of Sciences – Nauka Press, 1965; 335 pp.

R. R. Mavlyutov's Islam (in Russian), Moscow, The Political Literature Press, 1969; 160 pp.

D. A. Patrushyev's Islam i ego reyaktsionnaya sushchnos’ (Islam and its reactionary nature), Moscow, Znaniye Press, 1960; 32 pp.

M. V. Vagabov, it is named Islam i dzyenshchina (Islam and woman), Moscow, Mysl’ Press, 1968; 231 pp.

Kul't svyatykh v Islamye {Saint‐worship in Islam), by V. N. Basilov, Moscow, Mysl’ Press, 1970; 144 pp.

Nugman Ashirov's Evolyutsya Mama v SSSR (The evolution of Islam in the Soviet Union),’ Moscow, The Political Literature Press, 1972; 152 pp.     

Francesco Crispi and Italy's Pursuit of War against France, 1887–9

This paper will examine the problems of nation-building in Italy in later nineteenth century Italy, focusing principally on the ideas and policies of the man who dominated the country in the 1880s and 1890s, Francesco Crispi. It will be my contention that Crispi and many of his political contemporaries on both the left and the right were strongly conscious of the mobilising and nationalising potential of "the other", and to an extent manipulated and deliberately exaggerated threats posed both by internal enemies — principally the Catholics and the socialists — and external enemies — above all France. Crispi's attitude to France and the French was complex and highly ambivalent, and I will suggest — using as evidence his speeches, writings, and political actions, above all when prime minister in 1887–91 — that there was an element of disingenuousness in his repeated claims that France was bent on destroying Italy. What Crispi was trying to do was to create a climate of tension that would not only bring the population together, but might also lead on to a war, in alliance with Germany — a war that would finally cement the country's "moral unity".     

Book reviews

Islamic homeland, soviet section

Alexandre Bennigsen and Marie Broxup, The Islamic Threat to the Soviet State. London & Canberra: Croom Helm, 1983, 170 pp. Cloth, £12.95. ISBN 0–7099–0619–6.

Islam Today: the USSR

T. S. Saidbaev, Islam: istoriia i sovremennost. Moscow: Znanie, 1985, 64 pp., 47,290 copies. Series Nauchnyi Ateizm, No. 11, 1985.     

Book Reviews

Book reviewed in this article:
Saudi Arabia and the United States, Birth of a Security Partnership, by Parker T. Hart.
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia , by David E. Long.
Saudi Arabia and the Politics of Dissent , by Mamoun Fandy.
Murder in the Name of God: The Plot to Kill Yitzhak Rabin , by Michael Karpin and Ina Friedman.
Islam in the United States of America , by Sulayman S. Nyang.
Contrasts and Solutions in the Caucasus , ed. by Ole Hoiris and Sefa Martin Yurukel.
Minorities and the State in the Arab World , edited by Ofra Bengio and Gabriel Ben-Dor
Arab National Communism in the Jewish State , by Ilana Kaufman     

A Hard Culture? Religion and Politics in Turn-of-the-Century Australian History

The idea that Australia developed a uniquely "hard" political culture after 1788 — a culture that prized the rational and made short shift of religion — has had plenty of currency over the years. This idea has been challenged in recent scholarship, along with the broader notion that Western society became secularised during the twentieth century. Set against the backdrop of a wider challenge to the "secularisation narrative", this article explores the work of several historians dealing with the relationship between religion and Australian politics at the turn of the twentieth century. These historians, who include Al Gabay, Frank Bongiorno, Bruce Scates, and Judith Brett, are creating "softer" understandings of Australian political history. As a consequence, I suggest, their work has implications for the way we think about the relationship between the religious and secular Left, as well as for the way we think about Australian masculinities and culture more generally.     

Democracy in Modern Islamic Thought

Despite the hostility they exhibit towards each other, almost all Arab secularist and radical Islamists agree that democracy and Islam are irreconcilable, and that belief in one inevitably precludes belief in the other. In this article I will focus on the beliefs of the Islamist Rachid Ghannouchi regarding this issue. First I will examine his notion of how democracy can be achieved in an Islamic state. I will then explore issues of conflict that have arisen between traditional and modern Islamist thinking relating to the compatibility of democracy and Islam. Finally I will focus on two variables that are claimed to be major obstacles to liberal democracy in Muslim states: secularism and modernisation.     

Jerusalem in the Qur'a¯n

The focus of this article is Jerusalem and its status in Islam through the verses of the Qur'a¯ n (the holiest text in Islam), hadi¯th literature, and early Islamic history. The importance of this study is two-fold. First, it deals with all the Qur'a¯ nic verses which include either unambiguous references to Jerusalem and al-Masjid al-Aqsa¯ (the Furthest Mosque), or those that imply ambiguous but likely references to the same, or else those that imply ambiguous but unlikely references. Second, it shows why Jerusalem is so intrinsically important to Muslim beliefs and mentality. Therefore, it tries to help readers at large to understand the Muslim attitude in relation to this city. This article is divided into an introduction, four major sections and a conclusion. In the Introduction, the article tries to explain the status of Jerusalem in Islam and why it is regarded as holy by the one billion Muslims now living on earth. The first section illustrates the merits of Jerusalem in Islam through the Qur'a¯ n, hadi¯th literature, and early Islamic history. It also discusses the construction and the purposes behind building the Dome of the Rock. The second section illustrates and discusses the Qur'a¯ nic verses which imply unambiguous reference to Jerusalem. The third section deals with the verses which imply ambiguous, but likely, references to the same. The fourth section deals with the verses that imply ambiguous, but unlikely, references. It was found that there are about 70 places in the Qur'a¯ n which fall into these two last categories. These places are scattered through 21 s u¯ ras . In order to discover and explain the verses related to Jerusalem, I have relied on various sources of exegeses, hadi¯th , history and geography. Further, contrary opinions about the interpretation of any verse have been addressed and a sort of balance between them has been provided. Finally, in the conclusion, the writer of this article expresses a desire for justice without which a comprehensive peace cannot be established in this holy city, so that all the followers of the three religions, Judaism, Christianity and Islam, will have their rights equally.     

试析爪哇伊斯兰教的和谐价值观

印尼是世界上穆斯林最多的国家,但是大部分印尼人尤其是爪哇人信奉的伊斯兰教有别于其他国家或地区,即带有浓厚爪哇特色的伊斯兰教,是伊斯兰教与爪哇原始文化以及印度文化相结合而成的爪哇伊斯兰教。爪哇伊斯兰教强调的是实现内心或精神和谐以及社会和谐的价值观,但现实的印尼社会却与“和谐”相距甚远,所以爪哇伊斯兰教所崇尚和追求的只能说是理想中的和谐。     

In the hunt for the "sultans of smack:" dope, gangsters and the construction of the Turkish deep state

This article traces the development and evolution of the Turkish heroin trade against the backdrop of the Republic of Turkey's long transition from imperial core to nation-state. In taking up heroin's relationship to modern Turkey, I would like to specifically explore the meaning and manifestations of what many inside and outside of academia have called the "deep state." Heroin, I argue, was and is one of the most vital enablers of the factional "deep state" rivalries that compete for power in Ankara, adding a steady violent dimension to local and national politics.     

Islam–science relation from the perspective of post-revolutionary Iranian religious intellectuals

Throughout Islamic history, various arguments have been raised by Muslim scholars concerning how the Quran and scientific knowledge are related to one another. This paper seeks to examine how contemporary Iranian religious intellectuals (rowshanfekrān-e-dīnī) have dealt with the question of the compatibility or incompatibility between Islam and science. In particular, the paper focuses on the writings of two of the most significant reformers of the post-revolutionary era, namely Abdolkarim Soroush and Muhammad Mujtahed Shabestari, concerning the relation between science and religion. The paper also examines the extent to which the ideas of these two thinkers about the relation between Islam and science reflect those of pre-modern and modern Muslim scholars. To do so, I first examine various pre-modern and modern discourses within the Islamic tradition about Islam–science relation as well as the scientific exegesis of the Quran, and then investigate the extent to which Soroush’s and Shabestari’s perspectives are related to such discourses. The central argument of the paper is that the theories proposed by Soroush and Shabestari significantly differ from the views of those modern and pre-modern Muslim scholars who attempt to argue in favour of the dichotomous view that Islam is either compatible or incompatible with scientific knowledge.     

At Boiling Point: Like Water for Chocolate and the Boundaries of Mexican Identity

Abstract — This article explores the mechanisms of Mexican identity as they are constructed in Alfonso Arau's film Como agua para chocolate (1991) (Like Water for Chocolate). In re-designing the characters of Laura Esquivel's novel, Arau produces a range of filmic stereotypes drawn from both the Hollywood and the Mexican traditions of film-making. Through the careful manipulation of filmic devices such as editing, framing and close-ups, many of the features of Mexican otherness perpetuated by Hollywood throughout the twentieth century are inscribed. I apply the metaphor of boiling, derived from the film's title, to examine certain key concepts of cinematic 'mexicanness' including the tropes of 'revolution', 'border', 'race' and 'sex'. Crucial to this argument is a consideration of the contemporary political climate in which Like Water for Chocolate was both produced and released. In Mexico, it was released halfway through the sexenio (six-year period of rule) of President Carlos Salinas de Gortari's rule and is clearly one of the most succesful cultural products (and exports) of his government's now infamous rule. In the United States, the climate of anti-immigrant attitudes in 1992 and 1993 and the corresponding political tension provokes new readings of certain stereotypical images of Mexicans and mexicanness. It is the tension that is produced by the collision between these two contexts — cultural, political and ethnic — that forms the principal focus of discussion in this article.     

Between anti-westernism and development: political Islam and environmentalism

As Turkey's Gezi Park protests reminded us, Islamist parties the world over demonstrate utter disregard of the environment in their discourse and actions. However, Islam as a religion places strong emphasis on environmental protection. Thus, as the representatives of Islam that these parties claim themselves to be, it is puzzling that environmental policy is all but absent from most Islamist platforms. I ask, what explains the poverty of Islamists in regards to the environment? I argue that the reason for this poverty is found within and conforms to political Islam's problematic relationship with modernity, particularly in regards to their strong anti-western sentiment and self-purported victim status. My findings suggest that the inattention Islamists give to the environment is due to their association of environmentalism with the West and because of the uniquely unfavourable socio-economic environments in which they exist, which sends environmentalism to the purview of ‘low politics’. This analysis points to an inherent weakness in Islamist ideology – their lack of pragmatic policy. Hence, the peculiar case of Islamists and the environment is but a symptom of a larger issue within Islamism and can be a key element to understanding why and how Islamism is likely to fail.