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According to conventional wisdom, the national identity of the Jordanian state was defined by the ruling Hashemite family, which has governed the country since the 1920s. But this view overlooks the significant role that the "Arab street"—in this case, ordinary Jordanians and Palestinians—played and continues to play in defining national identity in Jordan and the Fertile Crescent as a whole. Indeed, as this pathfinding study makes clear, "the street" no less than the state has been a major actor in the process of nation building in the Middle East during and after the colonial era. In this book, Betty Anderson examines the activities of the Jordanian National Movement (JNM), a collection of leftist political parties that worked to promote pan-Arab unity and oppose the continuation of a separate Jordanian state from the 1920s through the 1950s. Using primary sources including memoirs, interviews, poetry, textbooks, and newspapers, as well as archival records, she shows how the expansion of education, new jobs in the public and private sectors, changes in economic relationships, the establishment of national militaries, and the explosion of media outlets all converged to offer ordinary Jordanians and Palestinians (who were under the Jordanian government at the time) an alternative sense of national identity. Anderson convincingly demonstrates that key elements of the JNM's pan-Arab vision and goals influenced and were ultimately adopted by the Hashemite elite, even though the movement itself was politically defeated in 1957.
Why do the states of the Arab world seem so unstable? Why do alliances between them and with outside powers change so suddenly? Jamie Allinson argues that the answer lies in the expansion of global capitalism in the Middle East. Drawing out the unexpected way in which Jordan's Bedouin tribes became allied to the British Empire in the twentieth Century , and the legacy of this for the British Empire in the twentieth century, and the legacy of this for the international politics of the Middle East, he challenges the existing views of the region. Using the example of Jordan, this book traces the social bases of the struggles that produces the country's foreign relations in the latter half of the twentieth century to the reforms carried out under the Ottoman Empire and the processes of Land settlement and state formation experiences under the British Mandate. By examining the attempts of Jordan to create foreign alliances during a time of upheaval and instability in the region, Allinson offers wider conclusions the nature of interaction between state and society in the Middle East
Jordan's diverse socioeconomic make-up encapsulates, like no other Middle Eastern state, both the array of pressing short-term problems facing the region, and the underlying challenges that Arab states will need to face once the current spate of civil conflicts is over: meaningful youth employment, female participation in politics, and integration of refugees into society. This book tells the story of Jordan through the lives of ordinary people, including a political cartoonist, a Syrian refugee, a Jihadist and a female parliamentarian. The raw voices and everyday struggles of these people shine a fresh light on the politics, religion, and society of a culture coming to terms with the harsh reality of modernization and urbanization at a time of regional upheaval. With her deep knowledge of Jordan's landscape, language and culture, Rana Sweis sketches an intimate portrait of the intricacies and complexities of life in the Middle East. Rather than focusing on how individuals are affected by events in the region, she reveals a cast of characters shaping their own lives and times. Voices of Jordan shares those stories in all of their rich detail, offering a living, breathing social and political history.
A searing exploration of authoritarianism in the Middle East through the legacy of Gamal Abdel Nasser’s years in power in Cold War–era Egypt. Gamal Abdel Nasser, the larger-than-life Egyptian president who ruled for eighteen years between the coup d’état he led in 1952 and his death in 1970, is best known for wresting the Suez Canal from the British and French empires and befriending such iconic revolutionaries as Fidel Castro and Che Guevara. Yet there is a darker side to Nasser’s regime. He was a brutal authoritarian, whose legacy, Alex Rowell argues, lies at the heart of the violent and repressive order that still prevails throughout the Arab world today. We Are Your Soldiers examines seven countries—Egypt, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Yemen, and Libya—weaving the epic tale of Nasser’s dramatic encounters with each to reassess his impact in the Arab sphere. These engagements were often drenched in blood and destruction, leaving deep scars that endure to the present. Rowell shows how the Nasser years were crucial to the formation of regimes as varied as Bashar al-Assad’s Syria, Muammar al-Gaddafi’s Libya, Saddam Hussein’s Iraq and Abd al-Fattah al-Sisi’s Egypt. Crushing democracy at home while launching wars and slaying opponents abroad, Nasser ushered in the long political winter from which the region is still yet to emerge. Drawing on a deep reading of Arabic sources, extensive interviews, and material never before published in English, Rowell offers a necessary reexamination of Nasser’s rule and a new understanding of the politics of the Middle East.
An examination of archaeology in Jordan and Palestine, Competitive Archaeology in Jordan explores how antiquities have been used to build narratives and national identities. Tracing Jordanian history, and the importance of Jerusalem within that history, Corbett analyzes how both foreign and indigenous powers have engaged in a competition over ownership of antiquities and the power to craft history and geography based on archaeological artifacts. She begins with the Ottoman and British Empires—under whose rule the institutions and borders of modern Jordan began to take shape—asking how they used antiquities in varying ways to advance their imperial projects. Corbett continues through the Mandate era and the era of independence of an expanded Hashemite Kingdom, examining how the Hashemites and other factions, both within and beyond Jordan, have tried to define national identity by drawing upon antiquities. Competitive Archaeology in Jordan traces a complex history through the lens of archaeology's power as a modern science to create and give value to spaces, artifacts, peoples, narratives, and academic disciplines. It thus considers the role of archaeology in realizing Jordan's modernity—drawing its map; delineating sacred and secular spaces; validating taxonomies of citizens; justifying legal frameworks and institutions of state; determining logos of the nation for display on stamps, currency, and in museums; and writing history. Framing Jordan's history in this way, Corbett illustrates the manipulation of archaeology by governments, institutions, and individuals to craft narratives, draw borders, and create national identities.
This book is concerned with the relationship between nationalism and liberal thought in the Arab East during the first half of the twentieth century. It examines this formative period through reformist Islam, Arab secularism and Arab literature and shows that liberal ideas were not entirely eclipsed by nationalism with the outbreak of the Second World War.
This book analyzes how the state constructs and reproduces gender identities in the context and geopolitics of Jordan. Guardianship over women is examined as not only the basis of women’s legal and social subordination, but also a key factor in the construction and reproduction of a gender hierarchy system. Afaf Jabiri probes how a masculine state gives power and legitimacy through guardianship to institutions—including family, religion, and tribe—in managing, producing, and constructing gender identity. Does the masculine institution succeed in imposing a dominant form of femininity? Or are there ways by which women escape and resist the social and legal construction of femininity? Based on over 60 case studies of contemporary women in Jordan, the book additionally examines how the resultant strategies and tactics developed by women in Jordan are influenced by and affect their status within the guardianship system.
60 per cent of Jordanians are of Palestinian origin,a statistic which has propelled Jordan into the role of both player and pawn in regional issues such as the birth of the state of Israel,the prolonged Israel-Palestine conflict, the ascent and decline of Arab nationalism and the subsequent rise of political Islam and radicalism. Exploring Jordan's diverse Palestinian communities, Luisa Gandolfo illustrates how the Palestinian majority has been subject to discrimination,all the while also playing a defining role in shaping Jordanian politics,legal frameworks and national identity. The conflicts of 1948 and 1967,the civil unrest following Black September in 1972 and the uprisings of 1988 and 2000 have all contributed to a fractious Jordanian-Palestinian relationship. In Palestinians in Jordan,Gandolfo examines the history of this relationship,looking at the socio-political circumstances,the economic and domestic policies,the legal status of Palestinians in Jordan and the security dimension of Jordan's role in the region. She argues that policies put in place over the last century have created a society that is marked by high levels of inter-faith cohesion,as evidenced by the success and integration of minority Christian communities. She goes on to suggest that society divides along lines of ethnic and nationalist loyalty,between Jordanians and Palestinians,while domestic politics become increasingly fractious with the growth of Islamist groups that have gained grassroots appeal,especially in the refugee camps. Palestinians in Jordan looks through the kaleidoscope of Palestinian-Jordanian identities that accommodate a complex and overlapping web of different religious affiliations, mixed socio-economic conditions and the experience of exile reconciled with daily life in Jordan. At the same time,identities of these communities continue to be rooted in an attachment to the concept of Palestine,and the unifying force of the struggle against Zionism. These layers have made the versatile and fluid nature of identities essential,affording a fascinating study in inter-communal dynamics and nationalism. It is this which makes Palestinians in Jordan an important resource for those researching the Israel-Palestine conflict as well as for students of the Middle East,Politics,Anthropology and Gender with an interest in identity.
Why do countries celebrate defining religious moments or significant events in their history, and how and why do their leaders select certain events for commemoration and not others? This book is the first systematic study of the role of celebrations and public holidays in the Arab Middle East from the fall of the Ottoman Empire to the present. By tracing the history of the modern nation-state through successive generations, the book shows how Arab rulers have used public holidays as a means of establishing their legitimacy and, more broadly, a sense of national identity. Most recently, some states have attempted to nationalize religious festivals in the face of the Islamic revival. With its many illustrations and copious examples from across the region, the book offers an alternative perspective on the history and politics of the Middle East.
In Jordan, between censorship, repression and election rigging, political activism is limited – despite the democratic opening glimpsed in 1989. In this important new book, Pénélope Larzillière charts the path of longstanding activists in Jordan and shows how opposition movements there have shifted from the underground to a heavily controlled public sphere. Activists discuss their motivation and commitment and the consequences their activism has had throughout their lives. Not only do these accounts highlight the general conditions for political activism in a repressive regime, they also unpack the meaning individuals attach to their political journey and chosen ideology, whether communist, nationalist, Islamist or otherwise.