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| Volume VIII, December 2001, Number 4 |
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| Book Review Excerpts |
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Review essay: Understanding Contemporary Afghanistan
Christopher Boucek
Former managing editor of the Middle East Times (Cairo).
Taliban: Militant Islam, Oil & Fundamentalism in Central Asia, by Ahmed Rashid. New York: Yale Nota Bene, 2000. 279 pages with notes, appendices and index. $14.95, paperback.
For the most comprehensive and accessible resource on the Taliban, Ahmed Rashid has produced an outstanding book. His Taliban: Militant Islam, Oil & Fundamentalism is by far the most thorough and detailed study to date, and the praise it has received and its high sales are well deserved. As a correspondent for the Far East Economic Review, Daily Telegraph and other publications, Rashid has been covering Afghanistan for over 20 years. He is able to bring his years of following intrigue in Central Asia to readers through very detailed facts, combined with a journalist's keen ability to inform without confusing. Rashid's Taliban benefits in large part from its many exclusive primary sources. By examining the origins, rise to power, and rule of the Taliban in ethno-linguistic and cultural terms, Rashid removes a great deal of the confusion surrounding the group's psychological motivations. If one were to read only one volume on the subject, Rashid's Taliban should be it.
Fundamentalism Reborn? Afghanistan and the Taliban, by William Maley, ed. London: Hurst & Company, 1998. 242 pages. $19.50, paperback.
William Maley has assembled an impressive collection of contributors for his edited volume Fundamentalism Reborn? Afghanistan and the Taliban. The end result is a remarkable study that succeeds in addressing the origins and future of the Taliban movement in Afghanistan. By dividing the book into sections that deal with the Taliban's international relations, the reconstruction of Afghanistan and the militia's future, Maley and his contributors have produced a key work that serves academics, scholars and policy makers equally well.
The Taliban: War, Religion, and the New Order in Afghanistan, by Peter Marsden. New York: Zed Books Ltd., 1998. 153 pages. $19.95, paperback.
In contrast, Peter Marsden's Taliban: War, Religion, and the New Order in Afghanistan is much more direct and purely factual, lacking the depth of understanding and context that Rashid is able to impart. Marsden accomplishes his intention of providing an ideological baseline for the Taliban circa 1997, but he fails to probe deeper to explore the movement's influences and development. The Taliban, perhaps more than any other Islamic political movement, is as much a product of the indigenous culture as it is a manifestation of constantly evolving outside influences and reactions to them. Marsden examines the Taliban as one of several competing forces in Afghanistan, not as the claimant to the legitimate government in Kabul. Written prior to the Taliban's ultimate seizure of Mazar-e Sharif and the destruction of the great Buddhas at Bamiyan, Marsden's brief study focuses mainly on the doctrinal issues surrounding the Taliban's origins and the movement's relations with international aid organizations. This last aspect is cast primarily within the framework of gender rights.
The Taliban Phenomenon: Afghanistan 1994-1997, by Kamal Matinuddin. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999. 283 pages with notes, glossary and bibliography. $20.00, hardcover.
Perhaps most surprisingly, The Taliban Phenomenon: Afghanistan 1994-1997 is a lackluster effort. Kamal Matinuddin, a retired Pakistani general and ambassador, could have provided much insight into the quasi-government with which Washington now finds itself at war. Matinuddin, formerly editor of the Afghanistan Report and Strategic Studies and author of Beyond Afghanistan: U.S.-Pakistan Relations, has had positions -- and access -- within Islamabad's power circles. But his thinly cited and referenced work seems more often to advance the notion that the Taliban are a completely organic movement, one that has acted nearly free from Pakistani influence and impact.
An Unexpected Light: Travels in Afghanistan, by Jason Elliot. New York: Picador, 1999. 473 pages. $18.00, paperback.
Where Matinuddin's book disappoints, An Unexpected Light by Jason Elliot excels. Elliot has produced a thoroughly consuming account of his travels in Afghanistan, first as a young volunteer with the mujahideen, and later as a witness to the destruction wrought upon the Afghan nation. Fluent in Afghan history and culture, Elliot is able to bring the scenes currently on cable news networks and in daily broadsheets to life. It is refreshing, and indeed uplifting, to read Elliot's honest account, imbued with his love of the Afghan people. The book's cover outshines that of the others discussed in this essay, which feature the same basic image on their jackets: a dour-looking, bearded, turban-clad Talib (sometimes several), clutching a Kalashnikov, usually arrayed upon a battle-scarred tank or armored personnel carrier. Light, however, features a scene of startling beauty, a daybreak of "unexpected light," establishing from the outset a perception that dispels much of the climate of danger and miscommunication.
Succession in Saudi Arabia, by Joseph A. Kechichian. New York: Palgrave, 2001. xiii + 287 pages, including 17 appendices, notes, bibliography and index. $49.95, hardcover.
Brooks Wrampelmeier
Retired U.S. Foreign Service officer; consul-general in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, 1987-89
In Saudi Arabia the ailing King Fahd has already delegated much of his day-to-day authority to his half-brother and heir apparent, Prince Abdullah. But Prince Abdullah is himself in his upper seventies, as is his likely successor, Prince Sultan. The kingdom therefore seems likely to experience a relatively rapid turnover of aging monarchs at the very time when it confronts serious domestic and international challenges that require energetic, decisive and enlightened leadership. Hitherto, succession has decended through the sons of Saudi Arabia's unifying monarch, King Abd al-Aziz ("Ibn Saud"). As these sons continue to age and die off, however, pressures are growing for a future king to be chosen from the ranks of the next generation, the grandsons of Abd al-Aziz. This was acknowledged by Minister of Interior Prince Nayif, a full brother of Fahd and Sultan and himself a potential future ruler, in an interview with The New York Times published August 26, 2001. Nayif commented that the move to a younger monarch could come either through a family vote or by a future king picking a member of the next generation as crown prince.
Joseph Kechichian's study of succession in Saudi Arabia is therefore a timely and welcome contribution to our knowledge of the succession patterns and the internal politics of the Al Saud ruling family. Kechichian, a former RAND researcher and author of several books and numerous articles on the kingdom and its Gulf Arab neighbors, has not only reviewed the extensive literature about Saudi Arabia and its ruling family but also visited Saudi Arabia three times in the course of writing this book and a forthcoming companion volume on the national security of Saudi Arabia. He conducted interviews with several princes and other key Saudi officials between 1994 and 1997. The amount of research that went into this book is impressive, reflecting as it does familiarity with standard Western works on the kingdom and also books, articles and unpublished manuscripts in Arabic. His bibliography includes works by authors highly critical of the Al Saud and their rule as well as by those sympathetic to their achievements.
Religion and Culture in Medieval Islam, by Richard G. Hovannisian and Georges Sabagh, eds. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999. viii + 120 pages. Text to p. 115, index to p. 119. $49.95, hardcover.
Charles E. Butterworth
Professor of government and politics, University of Maryland
This volume embodies the fourteenth Giorgio Levi Della Vida Biennial Conference Proceedings, a series reaching back to 1967. Readers turn to these publications less for coordinated studies pursuing a particular theme than for path-breaking analyses, synthetic statements or novel reappraisals by senior luminaries and promising younger scholars. Muhsin Mahdi's "Language and Logic in Classical Islam" in the initial conference proceedings, Logic in Classical Islamic Culture, edited by Gustave E. von Grunebaum, is an example of the first, while Fazlur Rahman's "Law and Ethics in Islam," the lead article in the 1985 Ethics in Islam volume in celebration of him and edited by Richard G. Hovannisian, illustrates the second. Frederick Denny's "Ethics and the Quran: Community and World View" from that same volume is suggestive of the third.
None of the contributions to Religion and Culture in Medieval Islam stands out in this manner, perhaps because the authors adhered too closely to a determined size limitation. Perhaps some had difficulty bringing their larger research interests to bear on the general theme of the conference as captured in the title of the book. Indeed, the different contributions lead one to wonder whether the theme might not more aptly be "religion as culture" or even "culture as religion" in Medieval Islam. No author focuses on the philosophers and their attempt to justify the pursuit of philosophy as consonant with religion, an investigation that would have cast greater light on the interaction between religion and culture. Most of the contributors accept the perspective of religious orthodoxy in pursuing the role of culture in Medieval Islam. As each pays homage to George Makdisi and the emphasis on humanism in his research, it becomes evident that humanism is understood narrowly as having little to do with the secular or primarily human concerns usually attributed to this movement. Still, a volume bringing together the ruminations of Roger Arnaldez, W. Montgomery Watt, Irfan Shahid, Mahmoud Ayoub and George Saliba on a common theme cannot be ignored. At the very least, it is enlightening to see how they address the topic from their differing perspectives.
Iran at the Crossroads, by John L. Esposito and R. K. Ramazani, eds. New York: Palgrave, 2001. 237 pages, with index. $49.95, hardcover.
Mahmood Monshipouri
Professor of political science, Quinnipiac University
Iran is a country truly at a crossroads of history. The intricacies of its politics and the paradoxes of its political culture defy any logical prediction of the country's domestic and foreign policies in years to come. The country is ruled by militant conservative forces, but it is also a functioning democracy -- albeit an illiberal one -- that holds regular elections at local and national levels. The country's popular reformist, President Mohammad Khatami, has been twice elected and is genuinely committed to the rule of law and the expansion of civil society. He pursues regional détente and pragmatism while advocating a dialogue among civilizations. Yet the nation's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, a non-elected official who personifies the conservative establishment, controls all the levers of power. In such a situation, several questions arise. What difference does democracy make, given that the real powers reside in the supreme leader? How will the power struggle between reformists and conservatives affect the shape of things to come? What direction should Iran's foreign policy take? How will the intersection of domestic and foreign policy play out? Of what significance are Iran's socioeconomic predicaments? These and other related questions have spurred a useful scholarly debate in this volume that seeks systematic explanations for the complexity and the dynamism of the processes of change in Iran at the turn of a new millennium.
Religious Minorities in Iran, by Eliz Sanasarian. Cambridge University Press, 2000. xix + 228 pages, 4 tables, 9 illustrations, notes, bibliography and index. $59.95, hardbound.
Dr. Sanasarian's study of the non-Muslim minorities of Iran fills an important gap in the information readily available on the complex mosaic of Middle Eastern society. A native of Iran and professor of political science at the University of Southern California, she is herself a member of the largest Christian minority in Iran, the Armenians. The vast majority of Iranians (93 percent) are Shia Muslims, though barely half (51 percent) are ethnically Persian. One quarter (24 percent) are Turkish-speaking Azeris, another 7 percent Kurds. The Azeris are Shia, but half of the Kurds are Sunni and provide the primary base of the small orthodox Muslim minority (5 percent), which also includes the Baluch, Turcoman and some of the Arab communities. Shiism is relatively new to Iran -- unlike Iraq, where it began shortly after the death of the fourth caliph, Ali -- having been introduced as the state religion by the Safavid dynasty in the sixteenth century. The non-Muslim minorities account for barely 1 percent of the total population of 60 million; the affiliation of the remaining 1 percent is not made clear by the author.
Comprehensive History of the Jews of Iran, by Habib Levy, translated from the Persian by George Maschke. Maza Publishers, 1999. xix + 597 pages, illustrations, glossary, bibliography and index. $45.00, hardbound.
Robert Brenton Betts
Visiting professor of history, University of Balamand, Tripoli, Lebanon
In contrast, Habib Levy's massive tome is of interest only to specialists, especially those with an interest in Judaica and whose sympathies are in tune with the views of the author. Levy (1896-1984) was a leading Iranian Jewish scholar of the twentieth century. His detailed account of 2,700 years of Jewish history in Persia runs to 600 pages and even in this form is an abridgement of yet a larger work in Farsi, which represents much of his life's work. While thorough to a fault, it is written to a personal agenda. The titles of some of the chapters, e.g. "Iran, Abattoir of Monotheists," "Foreign and Domestic Factors in the Flood of Anti-Semitism," "The Miserable Plight of the Jews of Kashan," and "Iran, Circus of European Spies" clearly indicate the tenor of the text.
Turkey's Transformation and American Policy, by Morton Abramowitz, ed. New York: The Century Foundation Press, 2000. x + 298 pages, with notes and index. $24.95, paperback.
Umut Uzer
Department of Government and Foreign Affairs, University of Virginia
Turkey at the outset of the twenty-first century has to decide whether its endeavor to become a full member of the European Union is compatible with its policy on Cyprus, its policy on minorities and the special role for the military in its body politic. The EU demands some concessions on these matters as a prerequisite for membership. Since Turkey perceives any concessions on Cyprus or giving cultural and possibly political rights to Kurds as detrimental to Turkish national interests, it might very well have to forego its desire to become part of the EU.
The contributors to Turkey's Transformation and American Policy argue that the major American concern in its foreign policy towards Turkey is for the latter to remain a secular, democratic and Western-oriented state. Past difficulties in bilateral relations were exacerbated by the Johnson letter of 1964, which prevented Turkish intervention in Cyprus by the not-so-implicit threat of remaining passive if the Soviets intervened in Turkey as a response, and the 1975-78 arms embargo in the aftermath of the Turkish intervention in Cyprus in 1974. In the 1990s, however, Turkish-American relations were exceptionally positive. Washington gave full support to Turkey in its bid for EU membership, the building of the Baku-Ceyhan pipeline, and the capture of the leader of the terrorist organization PKK. In fact, Turkish-American relations are more complex in the post-Cold War era, as Turkey has become a more important player on the Eurasian continent, particularly with the emergence of the Turkic states of Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan. Turkish cooperation in Operation Northern Watch, which protects the people of Northern Iraq, is viewed by the United States as an important contribution. Despite this positive atmosphere, however, the contributors believe that it is essential for Turkey to improve its human-rights record and give some cultural rights to the Kurds. The accession process to the EU might very well accelerate reform on these two fronts.
Syria and the Palestinians: The Clash of Nationalisms, by Ghada Hashem Talhami. Gainesville, FL: University Press of Florida, 2001. 257 pages, with notes, bibliography and index. $55.00, hardcover.
Robert B. Ashmore
Professor emeritus of philosophy, Marquette University
At a summit meeting of the Arab League held in Khartoum in August 1967, the first chairman of the PLO, Ahmad Shuqeiri, spoke these words: "We the people of Palestine are not members in the United Nations. No matter what our situation is, whether in Israel, in our occupied land, or in the Arab countries, this people of ours, this dismembered people, is one in its dreams and aspirations. Although most of these people are captives or refugees, this does not negate their natural right of self-determination . . . ."
Spoken in the wake of the Arab defeat that enabled Israel to confiscate lands not already occupied in 1948, those words as readily apply in 2001 to the Palestinian plight. As the world witnesses today yet another intifada against racist and religiously bigoted oppression by Israel, Palestinians struggle to realize their human rights in the face of U.S.-backed determination by Israel to preserve Jewish hegemony. Ghada Talhami, the D.K. Pearsons professor of politics at Lake Forest College in Illinois and editor of Arab Studies Quarterly, has written an important book tracing the development of this struggle, and from a unique perspective. Talhami examines specifically the interaction between Syria and the Palestinians, highlighting ideological differences that have come to form the basis of conflict between the two.
Whereas Syrian approaches have been steadfastly pan-Arabist in character, she argues, Palestinian ideology has evolved from the pan-Arabism of its original covenant to a nationalism that has weakened the struggle for liberation. Not reluctant to blame Yasser Arafat for betrayal of a unified Arab strategy, Talhami concludes her last chapter with this: "What kind of leadership can afford to decree a truncated definition of the homeland and its people and still claim to represent the Palestinian community at large?"
Out of Place, by Edward W. Said. New York: Vintage Books, 1999. 295 pages. $14.00, paperback.
Lawrence Davidson
Professor of history, West Chester University, West Chester, PA
The title of Edward Said's autobiography, Out of Place, states the theme of this intimate and honest work. Concentrating on childhood and adolescence, the author tells of a life spent in a frustrating search for identification. Although the writing of the book was sparked by Said's recent diagnosis of chronic leukemia, he has suffered almost from birth from another chronic ailment, that of having no sense of roots, of who he is supposed to be. Two factors seemed to cause this rootlessness. One was the chaotic nature of the time and place into which he was born, and the other was the highly neurotic nature of the household in which he was raised. Said was born in 1935 in Jerusalem. He was, therefore, a "mandate child." In 1935 Palestine and Jerusalem were themselves places of contested identity. Cut adrift by the shattering of the Ottoman Empire, they were absorbed into the British Empire at the end of World War I. From that point on, the identity of these places was transformed by virtue of the overwhelming power of the British-Zionist alliance. While whole territories were being forced to become something other than what they truly were, the Arabs of these lands were thrown into turmoil.
This then was the cultural and political background of Edward Said's crisis of identification. In 1948 the Said family fled to Egypt, losing its property and assets in Palestine. The financially well-off status of the family could not cushion the emotional experience of exile. And, for anyone who becomes an expatriate, voluntarily or involuntarily, the sense of disconnectedness and loss is unavoidable. On an eight-year-old child it can leave an indelible mark. If one is fortunate, some of this confusion and loss can be ameliorated by a sense of a strong family center. That is, a sense that even if you have no place in terms of nationality or people, you know who you are in terms of family and clan. Edward Said was not fortunate enough in this regard.
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