Post‐war Iraq: an assessment

Sir Terence Clark is a Council Member of the Society. He retired from the Diplomatic Service after a distinguished career spent mainly in the Middle East, where he was Ambassador to Iraq and Oman. He is the author of many articles in specialist journals and co‐author of Oman in Time (2001). On 18 June 2003, Sir Terence, together with Sir Harold Walker, Chairman of the Society, spoke to the Society about the situation in Iraq as it then appeared. The following is an edited and updated version of Sir Terence's talk.     

The United Arab Emirates: economic vibrancy and US interests

Based in Tucson, Arizona, Dr J. E. Peterson is a historian and political scientist specializing in the Arabian Peninsula and Gulf. He received his PhD from the Johns Hopkins University and has taught at several academic institutions in the USA and worked for the US government and various research institutes. Until 1999, he served as the Historian of the Sultan's Armed Forces in the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister for Security and Defence in Muscat, Sultanate of Oman, and he spent 2000–2001 at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London. His books include The Arab Gulf States: Steps Toward Political Participation (Praeger, for the Center for Strategic and International Studies, 1988), Historical Dictionary of Saudi Arabia (Scarecrow Press, 1993; 2^nd ed. Scarecrow Press, 2003) and Defending Oman: A History of the Sultan's Armed Forces (forthcoming). He has written an Adelphi Paper, Saudi Arabia and the Illusion of Security (2002). His articles on ‘Saudi-American Relations after September 11’ and ‘Bahrain's First Steps Towards Reform Under Amir Hamad’ appeared in recent issues of Asian Affairs. Dr Peterson's website is www.JEPeterson.net     

FROM BAVARIA TO BOKHARA TO ISLE BREWERS: THE EXTRA-ORDINARY LIFE AND TIMES OF DR THE REVD JOSEPH WOLFF,DD

Hugh Leach is the Society's Historian and the author of Strolling About on the Roof of the World: The First Hundred Years of the Royal Society for Asian Affairs, Routledge Curzon, 2003.

This article is based on a Library Talk given to the Society in February 2007.     

Democratization in Gulf Monarchies: A New Challenge to the GCC

Dr. Kéchichian is the author of Succession in Saudi Arabia (Palgrave, 2001; Beirut and London: Dar Al Saqi, 2003 [in Arabic]); Oman and the World: The Emergence of an Independent Foreign Policy (RAND, 1995); and coauthor, with R. Hrair Dekmejian, of The Just Prince: A Manual of Leadership (London: Saqi Books, 2003). His most recent study, Succession in Arab Monarchies , written under a Smith Richardson Foundation grant, is forthcoming in 2005.     

Man on the Spot: Captain George Gracey and British Policy towards the Assyrians, 1917–45

Oman Since 1856: Disruptive Modernization in a Traditional Arab Society. By Robert Geran Landen. Pp. xvi+488. Tables, maps, bibliography, index. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press; London: Oxford University Press. 100s.

Oman: A History. By Wendell Phillips. Pp. xiv+246. Illustrations, maps, appendices, index. London: Longmans, 63s.

British Interests in the Persian Gulf. By Abdul Amir Amin. Pp. vi+164. Map, appendices, bibliography. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 36 guilders.

Lords of the Atlas. The Rise and Fall of the House of Glaoua 1893–1956. By Gavin Maxwell. Pp. 318. Longmans. 1966. 50s.

Britain and the Persian Gulf, 1894–1914. By Briton Cooper Busch. Pp. x+388. Appendices. Index. University of California Press London: Cambridge University Press. 83s.

Islamic Reform, The Political and Legal Theories of Muhammad Abduh and Rashid Rida. By Malcolm H. Kerr. Pp. 223, bibliog., index. University of California Press. London: Cambridge University Press. 42s.

Political and Social Change in Modern Egypt. (Historical Studies from the Ottoman Conquest to the United Arab Republic). Edited by P. M. Holt, Pp. xx+400, index. Oxford University Press. 70s.

The Surest Path: The Political Treatise of a Nineteenth‐Century Muslim Statesman. By Leon Carl Brown. Cambridge, Mass.; Harvard Middle Eastern Monograph Series XVI. Pp. 188. Harvard University Press. London: Oxford University Press. 34s.     

Malaysia: the making of a grand design

Anthony Stockwell is Professor of Imperial and Commonwealth History at Royal Holloway, University of London. He was President of the Royal Asiatic Society in 2002–2003 and is currently a Vice-President. His publications include British Policy and Malay Politics during the Malayan Union Experiment (1979) and, as editor, British Documents on End of Empire: Malaya, 1942–1957 (three parts, 1995). He has been joint editor of the Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History since 1990. This is a version of a lecture delivered to the Royal Society for Asian Affairs on 26 February 2003.     

The Cultural Revolution in Inner Mongolia 1967–1969: The Purge of the “Heirs of Genghis Khan”

This is the edited text of the Lecture which he delivered to the Society on 8 January 2008, immediately after he had been presented with the Sir Percy Sykes Medal. 1 1. The Sir Percy Sykes Memorial Medal, established in 1947, in memory of Sir Percy Sykes (1869–1945), a British soldier and diplomat who spent 25 years associated with Iran, and was author of one of the first histories of that country, A History of Persia, as well as of the travel book Ten Thousand Miles in Persia. The medal is ‘to be awarded by the Council of The Royal Society for Asian Affairs at such time or times as the council may in its discretion think fit, to any distinguished traveller, writer or other distinguished person whatsoever approved by the Society, who is deemed to have increased man's knowledge of and stimulated man's interest in Asian countries, or done work furthering cultural relations between the Commonwealth and Asian countries?…’. Sit Percy Sykes is not to be confused with his contemporary, Sir Mark Sykes, co-author of the 1916 Anglo-French ‘Sykes-Picot’ Agreement. Previous recipients of the award have included Freya Stark, Albert Hourani, Ella Maillart, Hugh Richardson, Giuseppe Tucci, Gunnar Jarring, Denis Wright, Peter Hopkirk, Mark Tully and William Dalrymple. (See Activities of the Society, page 332 of this issue.)     

Change and Conflict in Contemporary Omani Society: The Case of Kafa'a in Marriage

This article explores the conflict between Omani traditional culture1 ^?1 Bearing in mind the complexity of defining culture, it is defined in this article as what people in Oman think, value, believe and hold as ideas. Thus, culture in contemporary Omani society includes values that are derived from the long-established tribal and Ibadi religious institutions, social structural systems of life and behaviour. View all notes and modern change by examining the practice of kafa'a 2 ^?2 In Arabic, kafa'a literally means ‘equality’. In Islamic legal terminology, kafa'a in marriage refers to the equivalence of the man and the woman, as defined by certain criteria. Specifically, an aspiring husband should be equal or superior to the proposed wife in terms of socio-economic status in order to be accepted as a suitable husband in marriage. In practice, therefore, kafa'a actually perpetuates and indeed promotes inequality between people because it legitimates discrimination against people judged to have lower socio-economic status. Further information on kafa'a in marriage and its legal and historical development in Islamic tradition can be viewed in Amalia Zomeno, ‘Kafa'a in the Maliki School: A Fatwa from Fifteenth Century Fez’, in R. Gleave and E. Kermeli (eds), Islamic Law: Theory and Practice (New York: IB Tauris, 1997), pp. 87–105; and Farhat J. Ziadeh, ‘Equality (Kafa'a) in Muslim Law of Marriage’, The American Journal of Comparative Law, 6(4) (1957), pp. 503–511. View all notes in present-day Oman. kafa'a—which refers to the notion that the husband's family should be equal or superior in terms of social, religious or economic background to the wife's family if the marriage is to be accepted—exemplifies a type of social and legal inequality that is at odds with State rhetoric on equality but congruent with the type of hierarchical social structure traditionally valued by Omanis, which tolerates a high degree of inequality between individuals and groups. I argue that the recognition of kafa'a as a condition of marriage in Article 20 of the Omani Personal Status Law serves to, in effect, reinforce traditional tribal and religious cultural practices in Oman.     

Book reviews

Roger Pethybridge, One Step Backwards, Two Steps Forward: Soviet Society and Politics under the New Economic Policy, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1990, xi, 453pp., $80.00.

Masami Arasi, Turkish Nationalism in the Young Turk Era. Leiden, The Netherlands: E. J. Brill, 1992, 168pp., index, $45.

Alastair Lamb, Kashmir: a Disputed Legacy 1846–1990. Hertingfordbury, Herts: Roxford Books, 1991, xiv + 368pp., £25 hardback, £12.50 paperback.

Peter Hopkirk (ed.), Reginald Teague‐Jones, The Spy who Disappeared. Diary of a Secret Mission to Russian Central Asia in 1918. London: Gollancz, 1991, £5.99 paperback.

Suroosh Irfani and Fazal‐ur‐Rahman (eds), Afghanistan: Looking to the Future. Islamabad, Pakistan: Institute of Strategic Studies, F‐5/2, 158 pp., $6 paperback.     

Stilwell in the stocks: the Chinese nationalists and the allied powers in the second world war

Dr Hans van de Ven is Reader in Modern Chinese History at Cambridge University. His most recent publication is War and Nationalism in China, 1925–45 (Routledge, London, 2003; this will be reviewed in the next issue of Asian Affairs). Other publications include Warfare in Chinese History (Leiden, Brill, 2000) and From Friend To Comrade: The Founding of the Chinese Communist Party (University of California Press, Berkeley, 1991). This article is based on the talk which Dr Hans van de Ven gave to the Society on 11 March 2003.     

China after Deng Xiaoping: Implications for Japan

While there exists mistrust between China and Japan stemming from the legacy of the Second World War, the two countries are making efforts to build mutual trust through bilateral dialogue. Growing bilateral interdependence and common interests will likely ease the mistrust and overcome obstacles to a political partnership between the two countries. In the post-Deng era, this article argues that Japan and the West should help China integrate with the world economy if they want China's support in preserving a peaceful world order. Sino-Japanese bilateral cooperation and interdependence are not only beneficial for the two countries and the Asia-Pacific region, they are also of significance for promoting global cooperation and economic development. Thus, this article emphasises China's importance to Japan and the West in the twenty-first century. The author wishes to acknowledge useful comments by Susan Pares, Senior Executive Member of the Royal Society for Asian Affairs (London); Chi Kara Komura, Director of the Center for Asian and Pacific Studies, Seikei University (Japan) and Peter Curwen, Professor at the Policy Research Centre, Sheffield Hallam University (England), on an earlier draft of the paper. He has recently contributed articles to Asian Thought and Society, The Review of Policy Issues, New Zealand Journal of East Asian Studies, Korea Observer, and Australia and World Affairs.     

BEYOND THE WILLOW PALISADE: MANCHURIA AND THE HISTORY OF CHINA'S INNER ASIAN FRONTIER

Dr David Sneath is the Director of the Mongolia and Inner Asia Studies Unit at Cambridge University and a lecturer in Social Anthropology. He is a Fellow of Corpus Christi College where he is Deputy Tutor for Advanced Students and Director of Studies in Archaeology and Anthropology. He is the Co-editor of the journal Inner Asia and his most recent book Changing Inner Mongolia: Pastoral Mongolian Society and the Chinese State was published in 2000 by Oxford University Press (reviewed in Asian Affairs, June 2002). The following article is based on a lecture which he gave to the Society on 17 July, 2002.     

B. reviews and notes of recent bibliographies

i. Oman and Southeastern Arabia: A Bibliographic Survey. By Michael Owen Shannon. Boston, Mass., G.K.Hall & Co., 1978. pp.xvi, 165. $18.00.

ii. Türk Dili ve Edebiyati Ansiklopedisi: Devirler/Isimler/ Eserler/Terimler. Istanbul, Dergah Yayinlari, 1977. TL600 (for 2 vols.).

iii. Arab‐Israeli conflict: a historical, political, social and military bibliography. By Ronald M.De Vore. Oxford, Clio Press, 1976, pp.273. £10.45.

Conflict in the Middle East from October 1973 to July 1976: a selected bibliography. By Michael Rubner. Los Angeles, Center for the Study of Armament and Disarmament, California State University, 1977. pp.83. $3.00.

The Palestine Question: a select bibliography. Compiled from the holdings of the Dag Hammarskj?ld Library, United Nations. New York, United Nations, 1976. pp.63. £3.25 (Distributed in the U.K. by H.M.S.O.).

iv. Middle East Contemporary Survey: Volume I 1976–77.

Edited by Colin Legum. Tel Aviv, Shiloah Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies, University of Tel Aviv, and New York and London, Holmes and Meier, 1978. pp.xxiv, 684. £32.50.

v. The Modern Middle East: A Guide to Research Tools in the Social Sciences. By Reeva S.Simon. Boulder, Colorado, Westview Press, 1978. pp.xv, 283. £6.10.

vi. Gustav Meisels, Reference Literature to Arabic Studies, a bibliographical guide. Tel Aviv, University Publishing Projects Ltd., 1978. pp.xiv + 251.

vii. Saudi Arabia (World Bibliographical Series Vol.5).

Compiled by Frank A.Clements. Oxford and Santa Barbara, Clio Press, 1979. pp.xiv, 195. £16.75.

viii. The Records of the British Residency and Agencies in the Persian Gulf. IOR R/15. (India Office Records: Guides to Archive Groups). By Penelope Tuson. London, India Office Library and Records, 1979. pp.xix, 188. Pl.6. Index. £21.95.

ix. Modern Syria: An Introduction to the Literature. Compiled by C.H.Bleaney. Durham University, Centre for Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies (Occasional Papers Series, no.6). 1979. £4.00.

x. The Encyclopaedia of Islam. New Edition: Encyclopédie de 1'Islam. Nouvelle édition. Index to Volumes/aux [sic: read ‘des‘] Tomes I‐III. Compiled by/Établi par H.& J.D. Pearson. Edited by/Publié par E.van Donzel. Leiden, Brill/Paris, G.P.Maisonneuve & Larose S.A., 1979. pp.viii, 195. 60 guilders.     

The attentive spectators: Political participation of the Hong Kong Chinese

Based on a large-scale territory-wide questionnaire survey, this study purports to delineate the pattern of political participation of the Hong Kong Chinese. It is found that though the overall level of participation remains low, political activism has nonetheless increased since the early 1980s. Political participation in Hong Kong is primarily parochial and conventional in nature, yet there also exists a significant expressive and unconventional component. The mode of participation is fragmented and largely individualistic. Hong Kong Chinese are increasingly inclined to take collective actions, but participation mobilized by political groups is still limited. Hong Kong Chinese however pay much attention to politics. In view of the coexistence of high cognitive participation and low behavioral participation, Hong Kong Chinese can be appropriately described as “attentive spectators.” He is the author ofSociety and Politics in Hong Kong (1982) andHong Kong Politics in the Transitional Period (in Chinese, 1993)     

Book Reviews

Book reviewed in this article: BESOZZI, Claudio (2001). Illegal, legal ‐ egal? Zu Entstehung, Struktur und Auswirkungen illegaler Märkte. GOTTRAUX, Philippe, Pierre‐Antoine SCHORDERET und Bernard VOUTAT (2000) La science politique suisse à l'épreuve de son histoire. MARTY, Frank (2001). Managing International Rivers, Problems, Politics, Institutions. MATHIEU, Lilian (2001). Mobilisation de prostituées. RITTBERGER, Volker (2001). German Foreign Policy Since Unification, Theories and Case Studies. HOFFMANN‐NOWOTNY, Hans‐Joachim (2001). Das Fremde in der Schweiz. Ergebnisse soziologischer Forschung.     

Book Reviews

Book reviewed in this article: BENNANI‐CHRAÏBI, Mounia et Olivier FILLIEULE (éds.)(2003) Résistances et protestations dans les sociétés musulmanes BENNETT, Robert W.(2003). Talking it Through‐Puzzles of American Democracy JEGEN, Maya (2003). Energiepolitische Vernetzung in der Schweiz. Analyse der Kooperationsnetzwerke und Ideensysteme der energiepolitischen Entscheidungsträger KLITGAARD, Robert, Ronald MACLEAN‐ABAROA et H. Lindsey PARRIS (2002). Villes corrompues. Du diagnostic aux remèdes. PRIEST, Dana (2003). The Mission: Waging War and Keeping Peace with America's Military. RAVITCH, Diane and Joseph P.VITERITTI (eds.)(2001). Making Good Citizens. Education and Civil Society. SAGER, Fritz (2002). Vom Verwalten des urbanen Raums. Institutionelle Bedingungen von Politikkoordination am Beispiel der Raum‐und Verkehrsplanung in städtischen Gebieten SCIARINI, Pascal, Sibylle HARDMEIER et Adrian VATTER (eds.)(2003). Elections fédérales 1999. “Swiss electoral studies” (Selects), Band 6 Replik zur Rezension von Jeremias Blaser, Schweizerische Zeitschrift für Politikwissenschaft Rezension der Rezension der Rezension     

Oil,arms procurement and security in the Persian gulf

Professor Anoushiravan Ehteshami is Professor of International Relations at the University of Durham. He is also Vice-President of the British Society for Middle Eastern Studies (BRISMES). His most recent publications include The Foreign Policies of Middle East States (co-editor, 2002), Iran and Eurasia (co-editor, 2000) and The Changing Balance of Power in Asia (1998).     

Radicals and moderates in the Liberal party in 1886: The processes of political assimilation in the house of commons∗

Joseph F O'Callaghan: The Cortes of Castile‐León, 1188–1350 (University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia, 1989; pp. x, 265; ISBN 0–8122–8125‐X; £31.95)

Jack P. Greene, Charles F. Mullett, and Edward C. Papenfuse, Jr. (eds), Magna Charta for America: James Abercromby's ‘An Examination of the Acts of Parliament Relative to the Trade and the Government of our American Colonies’ (1752) and ‘De Jure et Gubernatione Coloniarum, or An Inquiry into the Nature, and the Rights of Colonies, Ancient and Modern’ (1774), Memoirs of the American Philosophical Society, Held in Philadelphia for Promoting Useful Knowledge, Vol. 165 (The American Philosophical Society, Independence Square/Philadelphia, 1986; pp. v‐xii, 346; ISBN 0–87169–165–5; US ISSN 0065–9738).     

The outsider in the novels of Naguib Mahfouz

The novels of Najib Mahfūz, or — to use the more familiar Western spelling of his name, Naguib Mahfouz — offer a progressive study of the outsider in relation to Egyptian middle‐class society. In the early novels it was poverty which set the character outside the gale of a normally functioning community. The poverty of Mahjub in Modern Cairo (al‐Qahira al‐jadida) (1945) and of Hasanayn in A Beginning and an End (Bidaya wa‐nihaya) (1949) is the cause of their isolation in those novels.

The Trilogy (i: Bayn al‐Qasrayn; ii: Qasr al‐shawq: iii: al‐Sukkariyya) (1956–7) offers a large‐scale study of an alienated personality. It is Kamal, who, with the house in Bayn al‐Qasrayn, provides the link between the three generations depicted in the Trilogy. Alienation here is rooted in disappointment and frustration brought about by the mere process of growing up and disillusionment, religious, social and emotional.

The post‐realistic novels after the Trilogy offer bold sketches of a series of outsiders and exiles: the outlaw in The Thief and the Dogs (al‐Liss wa‐1‐kilab) (1961), the disgraced politician in Autumn Quail (al‐Summan wa‐1‐kharif) (1962) , and a group of social and political exiles in a small pension called ‘Miramar’ in Miramar (1967).

In the late seventies Mahfouz was still writing short novels on outsiders, but the wheel has come full circle. They are the young men who have obtained their degree, got the standard government or public sector jobs, been accepted by the sweetheart and her family and are formally engaged, but still cannot find themselves a place in a society highly inflated with petrol dollars and mushrooming wealth, where it is near impossible for a young couple to afford the huge sums necessary for any new accommodation.     

Book Reviews

Books Reviewed: Gauderman, Kimberly (2003) Women's Lives in Colonial Quito. Gender, Law and Economy in Spanish America Bauer, Brian (2004) Ancient Cuzco: Heartland of the Inca Chassen‐López, Francie R. (2004) From Liberal to Revolutionary Oaxaca. The View from the South, Mexico 1867–1911 Saney Isaac (2004) Cuba: A Revolution in Motion Chomsky, Aviva, Carr, Barry and Smorkaloff, Pamela María (2004) The Cuba Reader. History, Culture, Politics Diacon, Todd A. (2004) Stringing Together a Nation: Cândido Mariano da Silva Rondon and the Construction of a Modern Brazil, 1906–1930 Racine, Karen (2003) Francisco De Miranda: A Transatlantic Life in the Age of Revolution Joseph, Gilbert M. and Henderson, Timothy J. (eds) (2002) The Mexico Reader: History, Culture, Politics Guenther, Louise H. (2004) British Merchants in Nineteenth‐Century Brazil: Business, Culture, and Identity in Bahia, 1808–50 Deborah Pacini Hernandez; Fernández L'Hoeste, Héctor and Zolov, Eric (eds) (2004) Rockin' Las Americas: The Global Politics of Rock in Latin/o America Warren, Jonathan W. (2001)Racial Revolutions: Antiracism and Indigenous Resurgence in Brazil Diego, Armus (ed.) (2003) Disease in the History of Modern Latin America: From Malaria to AIDS Chasteen, John Charles (2004) National Rhythms, African Roots: The Deep History of Latin American Popular Dance Brass, Tom (ed.) (2003) Latin American Peasants Thoumi, Francisco (2003) Illegal Drugs, Economy, and Society in the Andes Ariel de Vidas, Anath (2004) Thunder Doesn't Live Here Any More. The Culture of Marginality Among the Teeneks of Tantoyuca Vellinga, Menno (ed.) (2004) The Political Economy of the Drug Industry Manz, Beatriz (2004) Paradise in Ashes: A Guatemalan Journey of Courage, Terror and Hope Lauria‐Santiago, Aldo and Binford, Leigh (eds) (2004) Landscapes of Struggle: Politics, Society, and Community in El Salvador Tussie, Diana and Botto, Mercedes (eds) (2003) El alca y las Cumbres de las Américas: ¿una nueva relación público‐privada?