By: Madawi Al-Rasheed (Editor), Robert Vitalis (Editor)

Hardcover

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Saudi Arabia and Yemen are two countries of crucial importance in the Middle East and yet our knowledge about them is highly limited, while typical ways of looking at the histories of these countries have impeded understanding. Counter-Narratives brings together a group of leading scholars of the Middle East using new theoretical and methodological approaches to cross-examine standard stories, whether as told by Westerners or by Saudis and Yemenis, and these are found wanting. The authors assess how grand historical narratives such as those produced by states and colonial powers are currently challenged by multiple historical actors, a process which generates alternative narratives about identity, the state and society.

"This volume is an important step in the effort to bring the study of the politics of the Arabian Peninsula into the mainstream of scholarship and to bring the full range of scholarly approaches to the study of the Peninsula. It breaks new ground on both empirical and interpretative levels."-- F. Gregory Gause, III, Director of the Middle East Studies Program, University of Vermont

""Counter-Narratives" brings together some of the finest new scholarship on the Arabian Peninsula. The contributors offer a rich analysis of social identity, political belonging, and historical transformation in Saudi Arabia and Yemen. The book illuminates the differing roles of imperial powers, local hierarchies, intellectual reformers, oil companies, and other actors in shaping the region's modern politics. Conventional images of a world of tribes, rulers, and oilmen give way to finely textured interpretations of one of the most critically important areas of the contemporary world."--Timothy Mitchell. Professor of Politics, New York University

List of Maps	p. vii
Acknowledgments	p. ix
Notes on Contributors	p. x
Introduction	p. 1
Arabia Incognita: An Invitation to Arabian Peninsula Studies	p. 11
The 'Imama vs. the 'Iqal: Hadari-Bedouin Conflict and the Formation of the Saudi State	p. 35
Ecology, Knowledge, and Trade in Central Arabia (Najd) during the Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries	p. 77
Shifting Loyalties and Failed Empire: A New Look at the Social History of Late Ottoman Yemen, 1872-1918	p. 103
Leaving Only Question-Marks: Geographies of Rule in Modern Yemen	p. 119
Aramco World: Business and Culture on the Arabian Oil Frontier	p. 151
The Capture of Riyadh Revisited: Shaping Historical Imagination in Saudi Arabia	p. 183
Struggles Over History and Identity: "Opening the Gates" of the Kingdom to Tourism	p. 201
Evacuating Memory in Postrevolutionary Yemen	p. 229
Seeing Like a Citizen, Acting Like a State: Exemplary Events in Unified Yemen	p. 247
Bibliography	p. 285
Index	p. 305
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.

ISBN: 9781403963871
ISBN-10: 1403963878
Audience: Professional
Format: Hardcover
Language: English
Number Of Pages: 328
Published: 18th March 2004
Dimensions (cm): 22.0 x 14.0  x 2.0
Weight (kg): 0.474