Struggle and Survival in the Modern Middle East

by Burke, Edmund

• ISBN13: 9780520079885
• ISBN10: 0520079884
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1993-02-01
• Publisher: Univ of California Pr

Summary

Until now, we have known very little of the lives of ordinary Middle Eastern men and women, despite extensive research on the modern Middle East. With this collection of essays, the life stories of peasants, villagers, pastoralists, and urbanites can finally be heard--no more will our view of the Middle East be seen only over the shoulders of the elite. These twenty-four biographies are drawn from the entire Middle East--from Morocco to Afghanistan--and provide vantage points from which to understand modern Middle Eastern history "from the bottom up." Spanning the past 150 years and reflecting important transformations, the stories challenge elite-centered accounts of what has occurred in the Middle East and illuminate hidden corners of a largely unrecorded world. The essays, divided chronologically, provide a comprehensive framework for those unfamiliar with Middle Eastern social history. "Pre-Colonial Lives" covers the period from 1850 until World War I, "Colonial Lives" chronicles the beginning of European rule, and "Contemporary Lives" relates the massive changes of the postwar era. Through them, we see how specific ecologies, ways of life, ethnic, class and gender situations can shape individual human action.

Table of Contents

Preface
Middle Eastern Societies and Ordinary People's Lives	p. 1
Precolonial Lives	p. 29
Assaf: A Peasant of Mount Lebanon	p. 31
Yishaq Ben Ya'is Halewi: A Moroccan Reformer	p. 44
Shemsigul: A Circassian Slave in Mid-Nineteenth-Century Cairo	p. 59
Journeymen Textile Weavers in Nineteenth-Century Damascus; A Collective Biography	p. 75
Ahmad: A Kuwaiti Pearl Diver	p. 91
Mohand N'Hamoucha: Middle Atlas Berber	p. 100
Ramadan al-Suwayhli: Hero of the Libyan Resistance	p. 114
Bibi Maryam: A Bakhtiyari Tribal Woman	p. 129
Colonial Lives	p. 143
The Shaykh and His Daughter: Coping in Colonial Algeria	p. 145
Izz al-Din al-Qassam: Preacher and Mujahid	p. 164
Abu Ali al-Kilawi: A Damascus Qabaday	p. 179
M'hamed Ali: Tunisian Labor Organizer	p. 191
Muhammad El Merid: The Man Who Became Qaid	p. 211
Hagob Hagobian: An Armenian Truck Driver in Iran	p. 224
Naji: An Iraqi Country Doctor	p. 234
Muhammad Ameur: A Tunisian Comrade	p. 251
Contemporary Lives	p. 269
Migdim: Egyptian Bedouin Matriarch	p. 271
Amir Agha: An Iranian Worker	p. 290
Rostam: Qashqa'i Rebel	p. 305
An Iranian Village Boyhood	p. 320
Gulab: An Afghan Schoolteacher	p. 336
Sumaya: A Lebanese Housemaid	p. 352
Abu Jamal: A Palestinian Urban Villager	p. 364
Haddou: A Moroccan Migrant Worker	p. 377
Glossary	p. 395
List of Contributors	p. 399
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