THE CENTER FOR MIDDLE EASTERN STUDIES NEWS HARVARD UNIVERSITY

2016–17

2 LETTER FROM THE DIRECTOR A message from William Granara

3 CMES OPENS FIELD OFFICE IN TUNISIA Inaugural celebration

6 NEWS AND NOTES Updates from faculty, students, alumni, and visiting researchers; Margaux Fitoussi on the Hara of Tunis; Q&A with Emrah Yildiz

26 EVENT HIGHLIGHTS Lectures, workshops, and conferences; Maribel Fierro’s view of ­Medieval Spain; the art of Helen Zughaib LETTER FROM THE DIRECTOR

2016–17 HIGHLIGHTS

WE COME TO THE END OF ANOTHER ACADEMIC YEAR about which CMES can boast an impressive list of accomplishments. It was a year in which we welcomed the largest cohort of our AM program, 15, increasing this year’s total enrollment to 28 students! I’m happy to report that we will be receiving 18 AM students next fall, testament to a highly successful and thriving master’s program in Middle Eastern studies at Harvard. A highlight of spring semester was the official opening and inaugural celebration of the CMES Tunisia Office, which we have been planning for the past three years. Mr. Hazem Ben-Gacem, AB ’92, our host and benefactor, opened the celebrations. Margot Gill, FAS Administrative Dean for International Affairs, and Malika Zeghal, Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Professor in Contemporary Islamic Thought and Life, joined me in welcoming our Tunisian guests, along with Melani Cammett, Professor of Government, Lauren Montague, CMES Executive Director, and Harry Bastermajian, CMES Graduate Programs Coordinator. Ten graduate students participated in our second annual Winter Term program in Tunis and were also part of the hosting committee for the event. This year’s symposia and workshops included Fitna: Civil War or Sectarian Conflict? convened by Roger Owen, A.J. Meyer Professor of Modern Middle East History Emeritus, and The Naksa Fifty Years Later: New Sources, Questions, and Approaches to the ’67 War, convened by Shawwaf Visiting Professor Khaled Fahmy and myself. Our Gibb Lectures this spring were delivered by Maribel Fierro, Research Professor at the Centro de Ciencias Humanas y Sociales in Madrid and Visiting Scholar at CMES and at the Islamic Legal Studies Program at Harvard Law School. CMES’s Arabian Peninsula Studies Initiative took a quantum leap forward this year with four lectures and a two-day conference organized with the Agha Khan Program at the Graduate School of Design. The conference, After Dark: Nocturnal Landscapes and Public Spaces in the Arabian Peninsula, brought together scholars from across the globe to examine in various ways how public spaces are designed and used at night. This was the first joint venture between GSD and CMES, and I wish to thank my co-convener, Gareth Doherty, Assistant Professor of Landscape Architecture and Senior Research Associate, for his vision and expertise. Steve Caton, Khalid Bin Abdullah Bin Abdulrahman Al Saud Professor of Contemporary Arab Studies and former CMES director, led a two-day workshop, Soil, Flesh, and Flows: Environmental Temporalities and Expertise in the Middle East. I take this occasion to pay tribute to Feryal Hijazi, Preceptor in Arabic, who will complete her appointment at Harvard at the end of June. Over the past eight years, Feryal has been a devoted teacher and mentor to hundreds of our students, a dedicated member of the Arabic language faculty, and a warm and cheerful colleague at CMES and NELC. —William Granara, CMES Director

ON THE COVER: Dougga, Tunisia, by Sihem Lamine CENTER FOR MIDDLE EASTERN STUDIES OPENS FIELD OFFICE IN TUNISIA

On January 17, the Center for Middle Eastern Studies opened its first overseas office, in Tunisia, home to a tradition of learning and research that extends from Antiquity to the present. The office and the year-round programs run from the location are made possible by the support of Harvard College alumnus Hazem Ben- Gacem ’92. “The Middle East is a part of the world that you’ll never The Harvard contingent at the inaugural celebration of the Center for Middle Eastern Studies Tunisia Office fully understand unless you get your feet on the ground and experience it first-hand,” scholarship and education,” incubator for analysis of the exciting new ways that said William Granara, CMES said Ben-Gacem. “I’m very evolving social, cultural, legal, will shape important work Director and Professor of excited by this first step and political movements in the across fields and disciplines,” Arabic. “Thanks to Hazem’s towards a substantial Harvard region, and offer an intellectual said Harvard president Drew generosity, Harvard students presence in Tunisia.” hub for scholars of, and from, Faust. and scholars have greater Founded in 1954, CMES, Tunisia, the Maghreb, the Programs available at the resources to pursue in- through interdisciplinary Mediterranean, and the wider Tunis location for students depth field research and can teaching and research, Middle East region. and faculty from across the more substantively engage has produced hundreds of “Broadening the contexts University include Harvard in language and cultural graduates with Middle East in which teaching and learning Tunisia Scholarships for immersion experiences.” and North Africa expertise happen at Harvard is a crucial Harvard graduate and “From the beginning the who have gone on to directly element of our engagement undergraduate research, hope has been to establish impact students, scholars, and with the world. We are always funding for Harvard faculty an outpost where Harvard the public both in the United seeking opportunities to sabbatical research, an Arabic faculty and students would States and around the world. make the University more language summer program come to discover Tunisia—its Its Tunisia office will provide intentionally global, and the for Harvard graduate and history, language, culture, art, students and scholars with a field office in Tunisia will undergraduate students, and and people—and integrate bridge to renowned Tunisian bring the world to Harvard a three-week Winter Session this experience into their archival facilities, serve as an and Harvard to the world in course for Harvard students.

2016–17 | CMESNEWS 3 TUNISIA OFFICE INAUGURAL CELEBRATION

Alex Viox and Lauren Montague

Karen Ben-Gacem Leila Ben-Gacem

Hazem Ben-Gacem, Becca Wadness, and Anna Boots

Amira Ben-Gacem, Margot Gill, and Alya Ben-Gacem Parker Wellington, William Granara, and Sihem Lamine

4 CMESNEWS | 2016–17 Malika Zeghal William Granara, Margot Gill, and Hazem Ben-Gacem

Amir Ben-Gacem, Hamida Ben-Gacem, Benjamin Moeling

Blaire Byg, Shawheen Rezaei, Margot Gill addresses guests Margaux Fitoussi, and Brittany Landorf

2016–17 | CMESNEWS 5 NEWS AND NOTES

FACULTY NEWS Without Borders Seminar and Ali Asani, Professor of Indo- participated in a panel Muslim and Islamic Religion discussion at the Center for the and Cultures, delivered lectures Study of World Religions on in January 2017 on the Ousmane Kane’s book Beyond importance of religious and Timbuktu: An Intellectual cultural literacy in a cosmopoli- History of Islam in West Africa. tan world at Habib University, Sibel Bozdoğan, Lecturer, Aga Khan University, and History of Architecture and Sheida Dayani Gareth Doherty Lahore University for Manage- Urbanism, Harvard Graduate ment Sciences in Pakistan. He School of Design, guest-edited collaborated with prominent the Journal of Decorative and was interviewed and read her Peninsula, a conference Pakistani musician and singer Propaganda Arts 28 (2016), a poem “The Ordinary Man of sponsored by the Aga Khan Ali Sethi in “Misaq-e Ishq: The special issue on Turkey. She this Neighborhood” on Radio Program and the Department of Covenant of Love,” a concert of delivered the Aga Khan Open Source with Christopher Landscape Architecture at the traditional Sufi poetry and Program lecture “An Urban Lydon, and participated in a GSD and CMES. William music held in Lahore. In Atlas for Istanbul 1922–1950: panel discussion on the film The Graham, Harvard University February he delivered a lecture Sources, Methods, and New Salesman at Coolidge Corner Distinguished Service Professor at South Asia Institute’s series Historiographies” at the GSD in Theatre, both in February. She and Murray A. Albertson on the Partition of South Asia, April 2017, and published a recieved a Harvard University Professor of Middle Eastern “Religion, Ethics, and Nascent paper in Architectural Histories Certificate of Teaching Studies, published “Wilfred Nationalism and the Partition,” 4(1):14. Melani Cammett, Excellence for fall 2016. Gareth Cantwell Smith and ‘Oriental- and the talk “Understanding Professor of Government, Doherty, Assistant Professor of ism’,” in The Legacy of Wilfred Islam behind the Headlines” for co-authored “Political Context, Landscape Architecture and Cantwell Smith (SUNY Press, the Harvard Club of San Diego. Organizational Mission, and the Senior Research Associate, 2017). His Encylopaedia of Islam In March he led a discussion of Quality of Social Services: Harvard Graduate School of Three article, “H. adīth Qudsī,” is Tanya Panjwani’s documentary Insights from the Health Sector Design, published Paradoxes of due to appear this spring. While on the renowned Pakistani in Lebanon,” forthcoming in the Green: Landscapes of a on leave this academic year, singer Sanam Marvi, sponsored journal World Development, City-State (University of Cemal Kafadar, Vehbi Koç by the Harvard Ed Portal and with Aytug Sasmaz, PhD California Press, 2017), an Professor of Turkish Studies, the Office of the Arts. In April candidate in the Department of ethnographic account of green delivered “Evliya Çelibi’s he hosted a talk by Musharraf Government. Sheida Dayani, in Bahrain. He also co-­ Encounter with the Art of the Ali Farooqi, Babar Ali Fellow at Preceptor in Persian, gave a convened, with CMES Director Frenks: A Question of Verisi- the South Asia Institute, “From poetry reading at Hood William Granara, After Dark: militude and Realism in Story to Book (Kahani Se Kitab Museum of Art at Dartmouth Nocturnal Landscapes and Ottoman Self-­Evaluation,” the Tak),” in the South Asia University in March 2017. She Public Spaces in the Arabian 2017 Aptullah Kuran Memorial

6 CMESNEWS | 2016–17 Lecture at Boğaziçi University, Middle East, or how they came in April. He spoke on the to hold the ideas that they Golden Age of Istanbul’s history held, and so I wanted to do under Grand Vizier Mehmed that. Third, I was interested in Sokollu Pasha at the ZEE Jaipur what in England we would call Literature Festival in January. a ‘primer,’ a kind of how-to- Ousmane Kane, Professor of do-it about what it’s like to be Near Eastern Languages and someone from outside an area Civilizations and Prince studying that area. I wanted to Alwaleed Bin Talal Professor of tell young people setting out Contemporary Islamic Religion in the field, this is what it was and Society, published Au-delà like to be studying the Middle de Tombouctou: Erudition Roger Owen and William Graham East at this particular moment islamique et histoire intellectu- in time, this is how I did it, elle en Afrique occidentale these are the questions I asked, (CERDIS and CODESRIA, THE BOOK OF ROGER these are the places I visited, 2017) and “Ahmad Baba et la and these are the advantages Traite des Esclaves,” in De Roger Owen, A.J. Meyer op-ed column for the Arabic and disadvantages of being an Tombouctou à Zanzibar, Islams Professor of Middle Eastern newspaper Al-Hayat. Now outsider, an observer.” Africains (Silvano Editoriale, History Emeritus and a comes his memoir A Life in “In this personal memoir,” 2017). He organized the former CMES director, first Middle East Studies (Tadween writes Khaled Fahmy, Shawwaf conference Texts, Knowledge, encountered the Middle East Publishing, 2016), an attempt Visiting Professor at Harvard and Practice: The Meaning of as a young soldier during his to record and make sense of and Owen’s former student at Scholarship in Muslim Africa at national military service in a life spent studying a culture Oxford, “we are not only given Harvard in February 2017, and Cyprus from 1955 to 1956, very different from his own. a first-hand account of what delivered keynote addresses at during which time he visited “It’s dedicated to my chil- it was like to live in the region the Symposium on Muslim Cairo, Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, dren,” says Owen. “I wanted through such tumultuous Africa at Duke University, and Beirut. He has lived to write it for them because I moments as the 1956 tripartite March 2017, and at The Qur’an, and traveled throughout the wanted them to know some- aggression on Egypt and the the Prophet, and Islamic Ethics: region, and spent his academic thing about my professional impact that the 1967 War had Interdisciplinary Perspectives on and professional life at Oxford life, and children don’t nec- on Jordanian, Lebanese, and adab, akhlaq, and the “ulum and Harvard, where he taught, essarily get told much when Palestinian lives. We are also al-din,” at the Institut islamique studied, made friends, and they’re young—you know, offered a rare glimpse into du Dakar, Senegal, December tried to understand the Middle ‘Dad has gone off to Kuwait’ how these moments, and many 2016. He presented his book East through its politics, or something, but no reason others, have shaped the polit- Beyond Timbuktu at Centre economic life, history, and why. Also, very often senior ical choices and the academic Jacques Berques et Centre popular culture. He kept an people in Middle East studies career of a leading scholar who d’Etudes sahariennes, Rabat, almost daily journal recording have written about the Middle has been at the center of the Morocco; Centre d’Etudes en his thoughts and feelings, and East but never explained why field of Middle East studies for Anthro­pologie sociale et since 1986 wrote a regular they were interested in the over fifty years.” • (continued on next page)

2016–17 | CMESNEWS 7 NEWS AND NOTES culturelle, Oran, Algeria; Department of Political Science California at Davis, was chapter “Factionalism, Columbia University; Centre at Emmanuel College, gave delighted to return to Harvard Privatization, and the Political d’etudes maghrebines, Oran; several talks: “Regime Change in November to give a talk at Economy of Regime Transfor- Centre National de Recherches in Turkey: Kurdish Politics and the Middle East Seminar and to mation” in Power and Change in Préhistoriques, anthro- Foreign Policy,” panel presenta- greet long-time friends, Iran (Indiana University Press, pologiques et historiques, tion, Centre for Turkish including seminar chairs 2016). He also published a Alger; and the International Studies, London, June 2016; Kelman, Roy, and Martin. The research report at Harvard Institute for Islamic Thought, “Turkey’s Governance talk was later published in entitled “The 2016 Iranian Virginia, in December 2016. Challenges—Creating Havoc Jadaliyya with the title “Why Parliamentary Elections and the Herbert Kelman, Richard Inside and Out: What Can Be History Matters in Post-2011 Future of Domestic Politics Clarke Cabot Professor of Done?” 5th International Morocco.” She and a former under the JCPOA,” analyzing Social Ethics Emeritus, Forum on Asia and the Middle CMES student, Emily the political factions and trend published Resolving Deep- East—A Global Perspective on ­Gottreich, now Chair of the lines in Iranian politics leading Rooted Conflicts: Essays on the Middle East Governance, Center for Middle Eastern to the 2016 parliamentary Theory and Practice of Inter­ Shanghai International Studies Studies at UC Berkeley, elections. He hosted talks at the active Problem Solving University, September 2016; co-wrote an article that Iran Project on issues ranging (Routledge, 2016) and Herbert “Turkey and the Kurdish appeared in Hespéris-­Tamuda from sectarian conflict in the C. Kelman: A Pioneer in the Field Regional Government: Are titled “Moroccan Jews and the Middle East to Iran–US rivalry of Conflict Analysis and There Lessons for Turkey in American Historical Imagi- and Iranian domestic politics. Resolution (Springer, 2016). Northern Syria?” Northeast nary.” The article was published He published pieces on Justine Landau, Assistant Political Science Association in a special edition co-edited by contemporary geopolitics and Professor of Near Eastern Meeting, Boston, November another former CMES student, Iran’s role in the Middle East, Languages and Civilizations, 2016; “Turkey’s Foreign Policy: historian Jessica Marglin, who notably “Iran’s Axis of started the “Persian and A New Analytical Framework is now on the faculty of the Resistance Rises” in Foreign Persianate Studies” seminar for Challenging Times,” with University of Southern Affairs, and gave interviews to series at the Mahindra Meliha Altunışık, Appreciating California. In April she gave a domestic and international Humanities Center in fall 2016, the Change in States’ Foreign paper on the memorialization media outlets including the with co-chairs Amr Ahmed, Policy Strategies panel, of World War II prison camps New York Times and CNN. Department of Near Eastern International Studies Associa- in North Africa at al-­ David Roxburgh, Prince Languages and Civilizations, tion, Baltimore, February 2017; Akhawayne University, and in Alwaleed Bin Talal Professor of and Sunil Sharma, Boston and “Debating Change in June she will present “New Islamic Art History, edited two University. Luke Leafgren, Turkish Foreign Policy within Agendas for Jewish Historical books forthcoming from Lecturer on Near Eastern the Changing Geopolitics of Research in Morocco” at a Harvard Art Museums in fall Languages and Civilizations, Turkey’s Neighborhood,” conference sponsored by the 2017 in conjunction with the published a translation of The roundtable, International CNRS in Lausanne, Switzer- exhibition “Technologies of the President’s Gardens by Muhsin Studies Association Meeting, land. Payam Mohseni, Director Image: Art in 19th-Century Al-Ramil (MacLehose, 2017). It Baltimore, February 2017. of the Iran Project and Fellow Iran.” The first, An Album of received an English Pen Award. Susan Gilson Miller, CMES for Iran Studies, Belfer Center Artists’ Drawings from Qajar Lenore G. Martin, CMES Associate and Professor of for Science and International Iran, is a monograph, co-­ Associate and Chair of the History at the University of Affairs, HKS, published the authored with graduate

8 CMESNEWS | 2016–17 students, about an album of (Claremont School of Theology drawings in the Harvard Art Press, 2016) and “Gaza: No Se Museums. The second, Puede Mirar—One Cannot Technologies of the Image: Art in Look: A Brief Reflection,” in 19th-Century Iran, co-edited Gaza as Metaphor (Hurst with Mary McWilliams,­ is the Publishers, 2016). She gave the exhibition catalogue, with following talks and lectures: essays on lacquer, lithography, “Examining the Israeli–­ photography, and painting. Palestinian Conflict,” Women in Roxburgh was also honored at Politics—Panel/Salon Tea on the 2017 Harvard Iranian Gala. Pacifism, organized by the Sara Roy, CMES Associate, was Nichols House Museum and the featured in the documentary Boston Athenaeum, Boston, Honorees Mehran Kardar, Christiane Amanpour, Sohelya Gharib, film Notes to Eternity at the May 2016; “Crossing Borders: and David Roxburgh at the 2017 Harvard Iranian Gala Belfast Film Festival, Belfast, The Writer and the Artist/ Ireland, April 2017. Following Israel and Palestine,” panel the showing of the film, she discussion and moderator at the Law and Gender (forthcoming Law School, Yale Law School, appeared with director Sarah Annual Conference of Conse- 2018), with Salma Waheedi and the University of Denver Sturm Cordery for a discussion with quence magazine, Boston, May Swathi Ghandhavadi Griffin; College of Law, and Harvard the audience. In 2016, the third 2016; “A Marginalized Center: “Constitutional Innovation and Law School and gave the public edition of The Gaza Strip: The Reflections on Gaza,” keynote Animal Protection in Egypt,” lecture “Are Animal Rights Political Economy of De-­ address at Gaza Unreleased/ Law and Social Inquiry Islamic?” at New York Univer- development was published by Gaza Inedite, organized by the (forthcoming); “Protection and sity in Abu Dhabi. She the Institute for Palestine Institut Francais, Jersualem, Status of Animals,” in the Max conducted research in Australia Studies in Washington, DC; the and the Institut Francais du Planck Encyclopedia of on halal food and the export of Institute will publish the Arabic Proche-Orient at the Institut du Comparative Constitutional Law animals for halal slaughter, and edition in summer 2017. She Monde Arabe, Paris, March (Oxford University Press, 2017), hosted the workshop Animal published the articles “Inter- 2016; and “Gaza: Cast Back- with Jessica Eisen; “Law,” in Agriculture from the Middle view [with Chris Gunness]: The wards, a Way Forward,” Spring Critical Terms for Animal East to Asia, sponsored by the UN in Gaza,” Middle East Policy 2016 Lecture Series, Middle Studies (University of Chicago Harvard South Asia Institute, 23 (Spring 2016) and “Gaza: East Studies, Watson Institute Press, forthcoming 2017); Harvard Law School Animal Abandoned in the Middle of for International and Public “Animals,” in The Oxford Law and Policy Program, and Nowhere,” Georgetown Journal Affairs, Brown University, Handbook of Islamic Law Harvard Law School Islamic of International Affairs (2016), March 2016. Kristen Stilt, (Oxford University Press, Legal Studies Program: Law and the book chapters “Gaza: A Faculty Director of the Islamic forthcoming 2017); and and Social Change. After a Reflection,” in Prophetic Voices Legal Studies Program and the “Islamic Judicial Review,” in two-year hiatus, Jason Ur, on Middle East Peace: A Jewish, Animal Law and Policy Comparative Judicial Review Professor of Anthropology, Christian and Humanist Primer Program, wrote “The Ambi- (forthcoming 2017), with Salma resumed his archaeological on Colonialism, Zionism and Na- tions of Muslim Family Law Waheedi. She presented field research in the Kurdistan tionalism in the Middle East Reform,” Harvard Journal of scholarly work at Northwestern Region of northern Iraq. The

2016–17 | CMESNEWS 9 NEWS AND NOTES project uses satellite imagery, STUDENT NEWS Press Club Foundation, for Winter Term. He has been drone aerial photography, and reporting on the unaccom- accepted into a PhD program field survey techniques to AM STUDENTS panied child migrants in in Islamic and Arab Studies reconstruct the history of Zena Agha convened a panel Europe. As editor-in-chief of at the University of Exeter in settlement and land use on the on the arts in the Arab world the Journal of Middle Eastern the UK. Alice ­Duesdieker and Erbil Plain. Malika Zeghal, at the tenth annual ­Harvard Politics and Policy at HKS, he Eleanor Ellis will be CASA Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Arab Weekend—North oversaw the journal’s move Fellows next year at American Professor in Contemporary America’s largest student-led online, quadrupled readership, University in Cairo. Islamic Thought and Life, pan-Arab conference—in and set up a weekly podcast on published “Constitutionalizing addition to organizing Funoon, regional events, Middle East PHD STUDENTS a Democratic Muslim State a night of Arab culture, where Weekly. He has been made an Farhad Dokhani contributed without Sharia: The Religious she performed alongside Omar Associate of the Investigative the chapter “Religious Sub- Establishment in the Tunisian Offendum and The Narcicyst. Reporting Program at UC jects and Themes: Shi‘i Islam 2014 Constitution,” in Sharia She performed poetry at Berkeley for 2017. In the wake and the Revival of Iranian and Modern Muslim Ethics Middlebury College, Boston of the Trump administration’s Sufism and Dervishes” to An (Indiana University Press, University, different Harvard ban on immigrants from seven Album of Artists’ Drawings 2016), and an article on the Schools, and the fundraising Muslim states, he reported for from Qajar Iran, edited by work of one of the most gala at the Boston Palestine the UK daily newspaper The David Roxburgh, forthcoming prominent Tunisian sociolo- Film Festival. She also led Telegraph. He also created a from Harvard Art Museums. gists, Abdelkader Zghal, for a a ten-day trip to Palestine set of videos for the Global Han Hsien Liew published festschrift (forthcoming in 2017 over spring break, taking 114 Studies Outreach at Harvard “The Caliphate of Adam: in Tunis). In November 2016 students from Harvard to meet summer 2016 teacher work- Theological Politics of the she participated in the with politicians, journalists, shop on journalism based on Qur’ānic Term Halīfa” in the ˘ conversation “Jewish and and civil society activists. his experiences as a journalist journal Arabica. He is now in Democratic/Democratic and She was awarded a summer for the Wall Street Journal Istanbul, writing his disser- Muslim: Israel and Tunisia in fellowship at the Library and in the Middle East. tation and doing manuscript Perspective,” with Ruth Innovation Lab at Harvard Hamdullah­ Baycar received research on a PhD fellowship Gavison, moderated by Noah Law School. Joseph Ataman a Sousou Fund grant for an offered by Koç University’s Feldman, at the inaugural event was awarded the Roy Rowan advanced Arabic language pro- Research Center for Anatolian for the Julis-Rabinowitz Fellowship with the Overseas gram in Amman, Jordan, over Civilizations. Program on Jewish and Israeli Law at Harvard Law School, and gave the fifteenth annual Wadie Jwaideh Memorial Lecture in Islamic Studies at Indiana University, titled “The Absent Secularists: Islam in the 2014 Constitution.” She also received the Star Family Prize Eleanor Ellis Farhad Dokhani Han Hsien Liew for concentration advising. •

10 CMESNEWS | 2016–17 CONGRATULATIONS GRADUATES!

AM PROGRAM Advisor: Himmet Taskomur Advisor: Sahar Bazzaz, Mythmaking in the Middle ■■ Zena Agha—Thesis: “The ■■ Alice Duesdieker—Thesis: College of the Holy Cross East.” Chair/advisor: Afsaneh Judaization of Space: A “Achieving Women’s Rights ■■ Shawheen Rezaei (AB/AM) Najmabadi Critical Analysis of Spatial through Arab Nationalism: ■■ Hannah Rigg—Thesis: ■■ Jesse C. Howell (History and Practices in Palestine–Israel.” Thuraya al-Hafiz’s Vision for “The Issues of the Colonial MES)—Dissertation: “The Advisor: Sarah Roy Arab Women and a United Caretaker: Dual Loyalty, Ragusa Road: Mobility and ■■ Dania Al Humaid Arab Nation.” Advisor: Palestinian Prisoners, and Encounter in the Ottoman­ ■■ Joseph Ataman—Thesis: Khaled Fahmy Israeli Medical Profession­ Balkans (1430–1700).” Chair/ “The War of Words: How ■■ Hajar Habbach als.” Advisor: Khaled Fahmy advisor: Cemal Kafadar Islamic State Tailors its ■■ David Max Korzen ■■ Nour Soubani ■■ Deniz Turker (History Messaging to English and ■■ Benjamin Leibowitz ■■ Robert Whalen of Art and Architecture Turkish Readers.” Advisor: ■■ Amir H. Mahdavi and MES)—Dissertation: Jocelyne Cesari ■■ Ethan Mefford—Thesis: “ ‘A JOINT PHD PROGRAMS “Ottoman Victoriana: ■■ Hamdullah Baycar—Thesis: Berber Dahir in Reverse’: Mu­ ■■ Elise K. Burton (History and Nineteenth-Century Sultans “Sati al-Husri as an Ottoman hammad V’s 1946 Campaign MES)—Dissertation: “Genetic and the Making of a Palace, Intellectual: The Idea of to Bureaucratize Charismatic Nationalism: Scientific 1836–1909.” Chair/advisor: Homeland and Nation.” Authority in Morocco.” Communities and Ethnic Gülru Necipoğlu

Zena Agha

Ethan Mefford, Hannah Rigg, Sarah S. Richardson, Cemal Kafadar, Alice Duesdieker, Benjamin Leibowitz Elise Burton, Janet Browne

Robert Whalen, Zena Agha, Joseph Ataman Hamdullah Baycar Hannah Rigg, David Max Korzen Jesse C. Howell

2016–17 | CMESNEWS 11 NEWS AND NOTES

NOSTALGIA, MEMORY, PLACE: MARGAUX FITOUSSI ON THE HARA OF TUNIS

In summer 2016, Margaux newspaper clippings, pottery, the Hara. Ultimately, however, I would feel welcome. We were Fitoussi, an MTS candidate artwork, envelopes, and letters was more interested in curating both intrigued by what would at Harvard Divinity School, related to Tunisian Jewry. It’s an exhibition about the Hara happen when people were face- curated a multimedia exhibition impossible to navigate his small and persuaded Bernard to share to-face with these images. in Tunis about the Hara, apartment without knocking his collection with me. the city’s historic Jewish into an artifact that pays The Hara represented In what academic discipline neighborhood, centered around homage to Tunisia. This was in these photographs no do you think this project a collection of photographs the genesis of the project that longer exists, because the most comfortably sits? Do from the late nineteenth and would become the exhibition. neighborhood underwent a you intend for the work early twentieth centuries. After the J-term trip, I knew I long process of rehabilitation, not to fit neatly into the In November at CMES, she wanted to return in the summer demolition, and reconstruction traditional confines of any assembled a smaller version of and I began brainstorming beginning in the early 1930s one discipline? the exhibition, premiered EL ideas with Sihem Lamine, the during the French colonial The exhibition is historically HARA, a short documentary administrative manager of period and continuing after grounded, but not chrono­ film about the Hara co-directed the CMES Tunis office. She Tunisian independence logically organized. Rather, with her friend Mo Scarpelli suggested that I curate an in 1956. Tunisians of my it was arranged around a and featuring an interview with exhibition about Jewish life generation have only vague and constellation of themes that the celebrated writer Albert in Tunis based on Bernard’s fragmentary notions of this speak to different aspects of Memmi, and gave a talk about collection. I took her idea and neighborhood, where a thriving Jewish life in the Hara. It the original exhibition in Tunis ran with it. Jewish community had lived visually traces the architectural and viewers’ reactions to it. since the thirteenth century. and lifestyle changes of the How and when did you learn Abdessettar Amamou, the Jewish neighborhood and In January 2016 you were that the collection of old Director of the Dar Ben Achour community from the eighteenth part of the first group of photographs from the Hara Library, was enthusiastic through the nineteenth century. Harvard students to go on the existed? about the project precisely The forty images I selected CMES Winter Term trip to I learned about Bernard’s because so few images of this highlighted the quotidian. I Tunisia. Is that when you got collection of photographs, neighborhood are currently in am interested in how the lives the idea for this project, or stereographs, and postcards circulation. He told me there of everyday people are shaped is it something you had been of the Hara from the late was a black hole in his memory by the political, social, and thinking about already? nineteenth to the early when it came to this place economic systems of the time. Right before I arrived in twentieth century after several and its history. He was sure At the same time, there were Tunisia, I met with Bernard conversations last spring. there would be interest in the also anthropological elements Allali, a Tunisian Jew who Initially, he was more interested exhibition’s topic and in these to this project. Basing myself moved to France at the age in helping me with an photos. It was important to in the Medina—the old city of 13. Over the course of forty exhibition about La Goulette— me to hold the event in what where the Hara was located—I years, Bernard has amassed the coastal, more cosmopolitan was once the Hara and in an collaborated with municipal a remarkable collection of neighborhood where many environment where current and Tunisian state employees, photographs, postcards, Jews moved to when they left residents of the neighborhood photographers, architects,

12 CMESNEWS | 2016–17 graphic artists, and filmmakers to curate the exhibit. It was through these colleagues (many of whom became friends) that I learned how the Tunisian Jewish community—past and present—is viewed today. More generally, I am interested in the way images are discursively embedded within a history of production, circulation, and consumption. How do changing political and social discourses over the course of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries influence our interpretations Installation view of the exhibition at the Dar Ben Achour Library in Tunis of these images? I wanted to deconstruct the notion that historical images and objects enabled me to engage with this about Jews coming from North Albert Memmi refers to the can hold the secrets to our history on a number of different Africa and the Middle East. Hara as a ghetto in his semi- past. These images are not levels, which was generative for For me, the most important autobiographical novel The held in amber. Rather, they me intellectually and creatively. product of this project was the Pillar of Salt, and so I opened are a site of potentiality and While the film, photography opening night in Tunis, where the discussion by asking the provocation. The spectator is exhibition, and presentations we also screened a rough cut panel participants: “Writers free to interpret the images and are best when experienced of the film and held a panel and scholars have referred to objects in ways that were never together, they most certainly discussion. Over 250 people the Hara as a ghetto: is this attached to them at the time of can function on their own. The came. I had expected that many an adequate term to describe their creation. film is reaching audiences that of the attendees would be of this neighborhood?” This wouldn’t normally seek out this an older generation: the same question evoked an intense What to you is the most sort of story. At our screening at people that would talk to me and fascinating conversation important product of the Atlanta Film Festival, I had about their Jewish classmates, about the ways ethno-religious this project: the film, the several people tell me that they Jewish neighbors, or the borders were delineated photography exhibition, or were unaware that there was fact that their fathers would within the Medina and what the presentations you gave such a “thing” as a Tunisian play Habiba Msika, a famous constituted Jewish and Muslim at CMES and in Tunis? Can Jew much less that Jews had Jewish singer, on the record space. Habib Kazdaghli, the these elements function been an important presence in player before bed every night. Dean of the University of independently, or do they Tunisia for centuries. In the However, I was really excited to Manouba and a professor of need to be read as a whole? United States, there’s a real see a large number of people my Jewish history, argued that These three different modes lacuna in popular knowledge age and younger. the Hara was not Venice or

2016–17 | CMESNEWS 13 NEWS AND NOTES

during the twentieth century. The migration of the Jewish community in Tunisia is yoked to the country’s experiences with colonialism, nationalism, and the broader Arab world’s relationship to Israel. In the preface to Memmi’s The Pillar of Salt, Albert Camus notes “the impossibility of a Jewish Tunisian of French culture to be anything precise.” I felt like I could really identify with that statement. Knowledge of the broader history of the Jewish

Margaux Fitoussi, Bernard Allali, and Marouan Zbidi preparing the exhibition in Tunis community in Tunisia enabled me to ask my family members more pointed questions. Why Warsaw. The term “ghetto” was Goulette, Daniel Cohen, chimed to be a tacit understanding to did they choose to migrate too closely aligned with that in to argue that marriage keep the conversation focused to France? What was it like of European Jewry and could and children are notable and on Tunisia. during World War II when not be applied to the Tunisian sometimes overlooked aspects The impetus for this the Nazis occupied Tunis and context. His comment received of communitarianism. With no project was to spark an sent my great-grandparents a roar of approval from the cars or public transport, how engaging conversation about a to work camps? I showed panelists and the audience. were they expected to meet complicated subject, and in that them photographs from In place of the conversation other Jews, get married, and we were successful. the exhibition and these I expected to have about how have children? images jogged memories I colonialism reordered social I found what was left out Did your own family history had never heard them talk relations between Jews and of the conversation to be inform your understanding about before. These archival Muslims, perhaps reflecting my revealing. The elephant in the of the larger history of images carried elements of own biases, a discussion about room was the state of Israel the Jewish community in a personal scrapbook. For doorways and intermarriage and how it had affected Judeo– Tunisia? instance, my grandpa pointed emerged. Were the doors of the Muslim relations. It’s almost Very much so. Understanding to a photograph of the Hafsia Hara closed at night to protect impossible to speak about the why my family migrated synagogue and started telling the Jews from external threats, departure of Tunisian Jews from Tunisia to France and me about the Yom Kippur to punish them, or as a symbol without addressing the fact that Israel in the decade following services he used to attend of respect, one that made it half of them went to Israel. Yet, Tunisian independence is very there. He was really shocked easier for the Jews to practice nobody brought this up during much tied to the history of the when I showed him a film Shabbat? Even the Rabbi of La our discussion, in what seemed Jewish community in Tunisia clip of the same synagogue

14 CMESNEWS | 2016–17 completely deserted and told a Tunisia that appears more him it was currently being heterogeneous. I’ll give you two transformed into a cafe. I brief examples of the different am really interested in the forms nostalgia takes: construction of memory—the My friend Moche, 27, uncanny confluence of our recently found hundreds of inner and outer world. Our photographs of Tunisian Jews memories are under constant taken in the 1950s and 1960s. revision. I saw this in real time At the time these photos were observing my grandpa react captured, one in five people to this information, which I living in Tunis were Jewish imagine didn’t come as much of and there were 110,000 Jews a surprise but visibly upset him. scattered across the country. As we leafed through photographs How do you compare of weddings, family dinners, nostalgia among current and Purim parties, and selfies in former Jewish residents of the barbershop, he murmured the Hara to that of non- repeatedly: “Look at them, there Jewish Tunisians for “the were so many of them.” His Hara” as a real or idealized nostalgia is palpable. For Moche, time and place? the present is disappointing. There’s no easy answer to that He does not pretend that question. Most Tunisians don’t it is possible to rebuild the think twice about the Jews life in these photographs. (except in relation to Israel/ He acknowledges that as a Palestine). But for those who collective community, the do, they do not mourn the Jewish population in Tunisia Opening of the exhibition in Tunis Hara as a place. During the is nearing its end. Yet, this past exhibition, nostalgia for the remains a site of potentiality, Hara, and Tunisia’s Jewish past one that opens mental maps with no intention of return. described as his lemonade, in writ large, especially amongst for thinking differently about He described Tunisia as a contrast with the glacial and those of my generation, seemed the relationship between past, country in blue, a sparkling uninspiring Atlantic Ocean. an obvious way to speak present, and future. blue. Our conversation was about the problems of the Memmi, 96, is quite critical peppered with these details of Was the CMES office in Tunis contemporary moment through of his experiences in Tunisia nostalgia: those words he only a useful resource as you put the prism of the past. The figure post-independence, but his remembers in Tunisian Arabic, this project together? of the Jew has become a way nostalgia for his natal country his affinity for a fish couscous Absolutely! Even before I really for those who do not identify is humorous and often tinged and his dislike for the French started working on this project, with the values or orientations with irony. It’s a nostalgia beef-steak and fries, the warm Professor Granara took me of the present to recuperate that savors the details, but Mediterranean Sea, which he one Sunday morning to find

2016–17 | CMESNEWS 15 NEWS AND NOTES my father’s apartment near the the Islamic World to submit an Central Market—an experience entry about the Hara of Tunis. I’ll never forget. He also lent I am also working on a couple me several novels by North of popular pieces about the African Jewish writers that neighborhood that we will influenced my thinking about submit in conjunction with the the exhibition and the film. film’s online release. Sihem’s help was invaluable and invigorating. She helped me Will you do more with brainstorm and conceptualize the visual elements of the the exhibition: finding a project? Will you exhibit the location, selecting the photos, photographs and/or the film writing my introduction and anywhere else? the texts that accompanied The exhibition returned to the photographs, and much Tunisia in the spring and was more. Sihem’s artist eye really shown at the University of brought the project together. Manouba as part of a conference For instance, Sihem suggested entitled “Minority Communities that we hang several of the between Memory and Forgetting: exhibition postcards from Recent Research on the Jews of the ceiling in the entryway Tunisia and North Africa.” and that we write messages My short film, EL HARA, on the postcards in French, opened at the Atlanta Film English, and Arabic. It was a Festival and is currently on the really beautiful addition to the film festival circuit. EL HARA exhibition. reflects upon the subtleties and Nour Barmada, my Arabic complexities of living under teacher in Tunis and in colonial rule through the work Cambridge, also helped me to of Albert Memmi—his writings select the photographs and to and an interview with him in correct the texts in Arabic. I 2016. This film project seeks feel very grateful to all three of to deepen the conversation them for their support over the about the long legacy of French course of the project. colonialism in North Africa What are your plans after proposed to carry out my field­ as well as to complicate the graduating from HDS? Will work in Tunis. I hope to study Do you hope to publish an Eurocentric opposition of you continue to do work on/ the shift in politics and political article based on this work? Arab and Jew. Above all, it is a in Tunisia? consciousness as reflected After the talk I gave at CMES, meditation on memory, place, I’ll be starting a PhD program in visual culture in post- I was invited by the editors and loss. We intend to release in anthropology at Columbia revolutionary Tunisia. I also of the Encyclopedia of Jews in the film online this summer. University in the fall and have plan to continue filmmaking. •

16 CMESNEWS | 2016–17 CMES STUDENTS HELP WELCOME YOUNG REFUGEES

This semester, CMES students versity. CMES shared its living Anna Boots, Chloe Bordewich, room for a brunch with Middle Blaire Byg, Alice Duesdieker, Eastern food and live Arabic Eleanor Ellis, Ethan Mefford, music in late January, the same Kim ­Quarantello, Hannah weekend that President Trump Riggs, and Becca Wadness unveiled his first executive participated in events to wel- order to ban immigration from come Syrian refugees who have Muslim-majority countries to recently resettled in Lowell, the United States. In March, a Massachusetts. The Middle group of students from Lowell East Refugee Service Initiative High School came for dinner (MERSI), a ­student-run organi- and a tour of the Harvard zation at the Harvard Kennedy Semitic Museum. And in April, Students from Harvard and from Lowell High School at the Semitic Museum School, organizes these events MERSI hosted a refugee story- to connect Arab refugees with telling evening to celebrate the Arabic-speaking Harvard community that the Harvard counterparts in Lowell and to ences in Syria and relocating to students from across the Uni- students have built with their learn more about their experi- the United States.

UNDERGRADUATE PHOTOGRAPHY FROM THE REGION

CMES awarded a first prize and three honorable mentions in the 2016–17 Harvard College International Photo Contest for photos taken in the Middle East region. First prize went to Kami Choi (’17), who is pursuing a joint concentration in government and Near Eastern languages and civilizations and who captured this image while in Amman, Jordan, interning at the United Nations Relief and Works Agency headquarters and conducting research for her senior thesis. Honorable mentions went to Laila Gharzai (’18), concentrating in government, Charlie Gibson (’18), concentrating in history and literature, and Alice Hu (’18), a joint concentrator in government and Near Eastern languages and civilizations.

“Al Balad,” Kami Choi → See all of the photos at cmes.fas.harvard.edu.

2016–17 | CMESNEWS 17 NEWS AND NOTES

ALUMNI NEWS Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al 1800–1980.” Lynn Holstein an analyst at an international Nahyan bestowed the Order (’74) has written the book 40 organization focused on AM ALUMNI of Independence (First Class) Artisans of Israel: Transcending establishing individual criminal Jeff Beals (’98) is exploring on Umej Bhatia (’05), the Tradition (Arnoldsche Art responsibility of high-level a run for Congress in 2018 in Ambassador of Singapore to the Publishers, forthcoming 2017). perpetrators implicated in New York’s 19th District, one UAE. The Presidential order The text is in English, Hebrew, the violation of International of the key swing districts in was presented to Ambassador and Arabic. It examines the Criminal and Humanitarian the country. After graduating Bhatia in recognition of the often dramatic innovation of Law in conflict and post-conflict Harvard with an AB in efforts exerted during his high-level craftsmen in all areas. She reviews and analyzes government with honors and an tenure to bolster and enhance sectors of Israel’s population. original government, military, AM in Middle Eastern studies, the friendly and cooperative Dorian LaGuardia (’96) is and security documents, as Jeff went on to serve as a relations between the UAE UK Aid’s Senior Emergency well as witness statements, to diplomat in the Foreign Service. and Singapore. The decoration Response Manager for support build legal cases against named He was decorated by the US was presented by H.H. Sheikh to the current food security individuals for crimes against Army and the State Department Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, crisis in Somalia. This includes humanity and war crimes. In for his service in Iraq, which Minister of Foreign Affairs and monitoring the results of UK March, Joseph V. Montville included mediating the International Cooperation, partners through innovative (’61) presented a paper on drafting of Iraq’s constitution in November 2016. Sheikh mobile technology and real-time shared pro-social values in and opening America’s first Abdullah praised Ambassador online data analysis. The UK, the Abrahamic traditions at diplomatic talks with the Bhatia’s role in enhancing ties amongst other donors, is trying a conference at Harvard to insurgency. Fluent in Arabic, he of friendship between the UAE to thwart a famine in Somalia celebrate Herbert C. Kelman was one of the longest serving and Singapore and wished like that of 2011–12. Joshua on his 90th birthday. Montville diplomats in Iraq. His time him success in his future Landis (’84) is looking forward chairs the Program on World there followed two years in endeavors. In January 2017, to spending the next academic Religions, Diplomacy, and Jerusalem, where he worked after completing his tenure as year in Arezzo, Italy, as Conflict Resolution in the alongside the late ambassador Singapore Ambassador to the Oklahoma University’s faculty- School for Conflict Analysis and Chris Stevens on peace talks in UAE, Ambassador Bhatia was in-residence at the school’s Italy Resolution at George Mason the West Bank and Gaza Strip. appointed as Director General campus, located in a recently University. Heidi Morrison He now lives in Woodstock, of Middle East, North Africa, refurbished monastery. His (’02) is the new PARC Faculty New York, with his wife and and Central Asia Directorate wife and kids have already Development Seminar two sons, where he teaches high in Singapore’s Ministry of begun studying Italian for representative to the PARC school history and civics. He Foreign Affairs Headquarters the move. While at CMES, Board of Directors. Malcolm encourages any and all alumni in Singapore. Hannah-Louise he took a year of intensive Peck’s (’66) entry on the United with an interest in supporting Clark (’05) won a three-year Italian, which he hopes will Arab Emirates will appear in his congressional campaign to early career research fellowship serve him well. Bruce Maddy- the 2017 edition of the World reach out. His website is www. from the Leverhulme Trust and Weitzman (’77) published A Almanac of Islamism, published jeffreybeals.com and his email the University of Glasgow for Century of Arab Politics: From by the American Foreign Policy address is jeffbealsmail@gmail. her new project, “Healing the the Arab Revolt to the Arab Council. This is an update com. United Arab Emirates Body of the Nation: Healthcare Spring (Rowman and Littlefield, of the entry that previously President His Highness and the State in Algeria, c. 2016). Aya Majzoub (’16) is appeared in the 2011 and

18 CMESNEWS | 2016–17 2013 editions of the almanac. suffering. Since January 2011 Visiting Fellow, “Where Have Professorship in Ottoman Alexander Schrank (’01), a tourist revenues have fallen all the Revolutionaries Gone?” and Turkish History and the career member of the Foreign 95 percent and with these the examining youth participation Carter V. Findley Fellowship in Service, has been serving at the Historic Cairo Restoration in Tunisia. In April she joined Ottoman and Turkish history US Embassy in Tbilisi, Georgia, Program, announced in 1998 the Carnegie Endowment at Ohio State University. These as First Secretary and External has faltered. Population for International Peace as result from fundraising efforts Political Affairs and Separatist figures are up, and thus the a Fellow, heading up their over many years, and Findley Conflicts Unit Chief since need for new housing. Zoning Tunisia program. John Zavage writes that it was generous of August 2016. He participates restrictions are circumvented (’13), US Army, was promoted the donors to ask to name them in the quarterly Geneva and high-rise buildings now to colonel in June 2016 and after the person who supplied International Discussions on compete with minarets in the will graduate this May from a the elbow grease. He also has the conflict in Georgia. The skyscape. Traffic is up, and with one-year program in National a new book in press at Brill, ninth edition of Charles D. it pollution and congestion. Security Studies at the Air War Enlightening Europe on Islam Smith’s (’60) Palestine and And most alarmingly, theft, a College, Maxwell Air Force and the Ottomans: Mouradgea the Arab–Israeli Conflict was problem before the uprising Base, Alabama. In 2017 he d’Ohsson and His Masterpiece. published in September 2016. of 2011, is now more acute. will begin an assignment as a The masterpiece was d’Ohsson’s He gave the paper “Imperial Beautiful carved interstices senior military representative Tableau général de l’Empire Mindsets: the Balfour of minbars, door knockers, for the US Diplomatic Mission othoman (Paris, 1787–1820), Declaration, the Palestine embroidered kiswa panels, to Yemen, which currently three volumes in folio, the most Mandate, and the Denial of mosque lamps are disappearing. operates in Saudi Arabia. knowledgeable book of its era Arab History” at the annual Religious buildings, once on Islam—also fabulously illus- meeting of the Middle East open and welcoming, are PHD ALUMNI trated. Zahra Jamal (’08) was Studies Association in Boston, now locked. Egypt’s Islamic Arbella Bet-Shlimon (’12) is named Rice University’s repre- November 2016. Andrew heritage, always a stepsister an assistant professor in the sentative to President Obama’s Watkins (’15) published an op- to its Pharaonic past, suffers, Department of History at the Interfaith and Community ed in the Boston Globe, “Duty and yet these monuments University of Washington, Service Campus Challenge or Desertion in Afghanistan,” are the most concentrated, Seattle. This spring, she is by the US Department of in December 2016. He is the most numerous, the most receiving the University of Education in 2015, and was currently working in Turkey, varied collection in the Islamic Washington Distinguished recognized for excellence in Iraq, Lebanon, and Jordan world.” Alex Winder (’09) Teaching Award, the school’s pluralism and interfaith work as a conflict advisor to NGOs completed his PhD in history highest honor for teachers. by Canadian senator Mobina responding to the Syrian crisis. and Middle Eastern and Islamic Ahmed El Shamsy (’09) has Jaffer. Following former secre- In February 2017, Caroline studies at New York University been awarded tenure at the tary of state John Kerry’s 2016 Williams (’66) revisited 225 and will begin a postdoctoral University of Chicago and will address at Rice, she hosted Cairo monuments for a seventh fellowship in Palestine and spend the 2017–18 academic the State Department’s Office edition revision of her book, The Palestinian studies at Brown year as a Senior Fellow at the of Religion and Global Affairs Islamic Monuments of Cairo: University in the fall. Sarah Islamic Legal Studies Program leadership, civil society part- The Practical Guide. “It was a Yerkes (’03) published a at Harvard Law School. Carter ners, and Rice faculty to explore bitter-sweet experience,” she monograph with the Brookings V. Findley (’69) announces the collaborations on religious writes. “The monuments are Institution, where she was a creation of the Carter V. Findley literacy and tolerance through (continued on page 22)

2016–17 | CMESNEWS 19 NEWS AND NOTES

Q&A WITH EMRAH YILDIZ, PhD ’16 academic programming and campus. This evening series degree options do you offer? held in downtown Evanston Emrah Yildiz is Assistant Northwestern more broadly. It is indeed a relatively new pro­ represents one aspect of our Professor of Anthropology My colleagues in MENA as gram. Northwestern’s Middle community outreach and our and Middle East and North well as in anthropology have East and North African Studies commitment to helping foster African Studies at Northwestern been incredibly generous with Program (MENA) is committed dialogue around the complex, University. He completed their time, ideas and advice to offering students and the frequently misunderstood, his PhD in Anthropology and as I make my transition to my community at large an in-depth and ever fascinating region we Middle East Studies at Harvard position here. I could not have understanding of the region study and teach about. in 2016. asked for a more intellectually that stretches from Morocco to stimulating, generous and the Gulf States and Iran, and In addition to teaching, How was your first term on collaborative environment! from the Mediterranean into do you have specific the faculty at Northwestern? the Sahara and beyond. The responsibilities in terms My first two quarters on What are you teaching? MENA faculty is comprised of growing the program or the faculty at Northwestern This year I am teaching two of twelve core members, six recruiting students? have been truly wonderful. undergraduate seminars: language instructors, six I serve on the Executive Com- Although I was hired as a “Breaking the Law in the affiliates, and four visiting mittee for the MENA program. tenure-track faculty member, Middle East: The Illicit” and scholars. They are drawn from I am also an affiliated faculty holding a joint appointment “Producing Territory: People, the disciplines of anthropology, member of the Keyman Modern in Anthropology and Middle Commodities, and Values art history, comparative Turkish Studies Program and a East and North African Studies, on the Move.” Next year I literature, history, political member of the Global Politics this year I was generously will be offering “Informal science, religion, and film and and Religion Research Group offered a College Fellowship Economies: Conditions and media studies among others. at Buffett Institute for Global with the Judd A. and Marjorie Critiques of Late Capitalism” Undergraduate students Studies. In my departmental Weinberg College of Arts and and “Frontiers, Borders, have the option of majoring or home in anthropology, I am also Sciences. The fellowship is and Boundaries: States of minoring in MENA Studies. On involved in graduate admis- designed for incoming faculty Sovereignty” as well as the graduate level, the MENA sions, as are all of my colleagues members who have not held two graduate seminars in Program offers a PhD certificate in the department. post-doctoral positions prior anthropology and Middle in Middle East and North to Northwestern and comes East and North African African Studies and a PhD When did you first know you with two course releases to Studies respectively: “Migrant cluster in the Interdisciplinary wanted to pursue a PhD and allow new faculty members to Sexualities and Queer Travelers: Cluster Initiative offered by the focus on Middle East studies? acclimate to the University and Translocations” and “History, Graduate School. After having graduated from focus on their research projects Anthropology, and Mobility The MENA Program Wesleyan University with a BA before they get immersed in across the Middle East.” recently formed a partnership in anthropology and German a full teaching schedule. This with the Evanston Public studies, I was fortunate enough year so far has afforded me the The Program in Middle East Library to expand its successful to receive a DAAD research opportunity to get involved in and North African Studies programming—associated with fellowship to conduct fieldwork the intellectual life of Weinberg is relatively new. How is the our weekly lecture series called on alternative education College specifically and program structured? What MENA Monday—beyond the programs in creative industries

20 CMESNEWS | 2016–17 —namely music, film, and social anthropology brought theater—that target Turkish-, me to Harvard. I was fortunate Kurdish-, and Iranian-German enough to work with Afsaneh youth in Berlin. Based on that Najmabadi and Cemal Kafadar research I completed my MA at CMES, which helped me gain thesis, also at Wesleyan, titled an appreciation for historical “Post-Migrant Sounds: Creative inquiry while empirically and Industries of Otherhood in historically grounding my Weltstadt Berlin.” Both my time project on mobility across the as a visiting research fellow Middle East in Middle East at the Institute for European Studies in addition to history Ethnology of Humboldt and anthropology. Working University and my fieldwork with Steve Caton, another experience convinced me that CMES faculty member, further I wanted to pursue a PhD in strengthened my footing both anthropology. Having observed in anthropology and Middle the ambiguous place Turkey has East Studies. The joint PhD precious gift of my years at in trans-regional political occupied in European Studies program in Anthropology and Harvard has been the intellec- economy. My first book project on the one hand, and having Middle East Studies offered me tual companionships I have based on my dissertation started learning Persian thanks the best of two worlds: I was developed with fellow graduate research, “The Ways of Zaynab: to the Iranian youth I worked able to develop and complete students. There are too many Genealogical Geographies and with in Berlin on the other, I an interdisciplinary project names to mention here, but Arrested Mobilities between became increasingly interested that relied almost as much on let me just acknowledge Naor Iran and Syria,” brings these in movements of people, goods, historical methods as it did Ben-Yehoyada, my intellectual areas of scholarship into and ideas between Iran and on ethnographic ones, while partner in crime, as one of those conversation as it follows the Turkey. I wanted to explore staying grounded in the disci- who sustained me over my pathways of a ziyarat (visita- the equally ambiguous and pline of anthropology. I cannot years at Harvard. Without their tion) route, often referred to as historically sedimented place thank my advisor, Ajantha support, graduate school and Hajj-e Fuqara’ (pilgrimage of Turkey occupied in the Middle ­Subramanian, enough for mak- my dissertation project simply the poor) from bus stations in East, particularly vis-à-vis Iran. ing my time at Harvard truly would not have been. Iran, through informal bazaars wonderful. She allowed me to in Turkey, to shrines in Syria. What brought you to Harvard develop my take on historical What is the focus of your I am also interested in studies and CMES? How did your anthropology, taught me how to current research? of gender and sexuality in the own academic focus develop attend to the minute details of My research lies at the inter- Middle East. I am currently at while you were here? an argument while keeping the section of historiography and work on a second project, which The opportunity to work with bigger and historical picture in ethnography of borders and studies the spatial trajectories many distinguished scholars mind. She also single-handedly their states; ritual practice, and lived experiences of LGBT in Iranian as well as Ottoman/ picked me and my dissertation saints, and heresiography in and queer Iranian asylum-­ Turkish Studies at CMES, while up on several occasions of free Islam; as well as paper currency seekers at the United Nations receiving rigorous training in fall. Last but not least, the most and contraband commerce High Commission in Turkey. •

2016–17 | CMESNEWS 21 NEWS AND NOTES diplomacy and development in “Indian Friends, Iranian Warren Wilson College in VISITING the United States and abroad. Selves, Persianate Modern,” Asheville, North Carolina, for RESEARCHER NEWS Jamal sits on Houston mayor in Comparative Studies of ten years. Asher Orkaby’s Sylvester Turner’s Welcoming South Asia, Africa and the (’14) book Beyond the Arab Visiting Scholar Maribel Houston Task Force to better Middle East 36, no. 3 (2016), a Cold War: The International ­Fierro delivered the 2017 engage Houston’s thriving ­special issue, titled “After the History of the Yemen Civil War, H.A.R. Gibb Arabic and Islamic immigrant and refugee Persianate,” that she co-edited 1962–68, is forthcoming in Studies Lectures at CMES in community, and works with with Afshin Marashi. John June from Oxford University March (see story p. 34). This Houston Endowment to ad- Limbert (’73) continues as Press. Daniel Pipes (’78) had spring she gave the talks “The dress hate crimes in Houston Class of 1955 Professor of an excellent meeting with the Trial of a Heretic” at the Islamic through religious literacy. Middle Eastern Studies at chairman of Harvard’s history Legal Studies Program at Har- Since 2015, she has trained the US Naval Academy. With department about the current vard Law School; “Qur’anists some 7,000 civil society leaders fellow alumnus John Voll teaching of history and what in al-Andalus?” at the School across the country on engaging (’73), he spoke at an April can be done to improve it. of Historical Studies, Institute religious diversity in the program at William and Mary’s Anthony Shenoda (’10) and for Advanced Study, Prince- workplace, religious literacy in Reeves Center honoring the his family just purchased a ton University; “Why Did Ibn the classroom, understanding late Iran scholar James Bill. home on five acres of land Hazm Become a Zahiri?”at the and countering Islamophobia, Meir Litvak (’91) received a in the foothills of the Sierra symposium New Perspectives on and other issues. She is research grant from the Israel Nevada. They will be very al-Andalus: Agents and Objects featured in a 2017 UNESCO Science Foundation for his near the beautiful Greek in the Field of Cultural Produc- documentary on global ongoing book ­project, “Setting Orthodox Monastery of the tion, Real Colegio Complutense; peace, and on CBS’s Hidden Boundaries between the Theotokos the Life-Giving “The Political Mystics of al-­ Heroes. Philip S. Khoury Collective Self and the Others Spring (Dunlap, California) Andalus,” at the Mediterranean (’80) received a Doctorate in Modern Shi‘i Thought and just outside of Kings and Seminar workshop Mysticism of Humanities Honoris and Practice.” He co-edited Sequoia National Parks. They and Devotion, University of Causa from Earth University, with Meir Hatina Concepts of are looking forward to many Colorado at Boulder; “Cod- Costa Rica, in December Martyrdom in Modern Islam: outdoor adventures in the ifying the Law: The Case of 2016, and will receive the Political and Social Perspectives coming years. Leonard Wood the Medieval­ Islamic West,” Distinguished Alumni Award of Sacrifice and Death (I.B. (’11) published Islamic Legal Shari‘a Workshop, Columbia from the Sidwell Friends Tauris, 2016). His edited vol- Revival: Reception of European University; and “Christian School in Washington, DC, ume Constructing Nationalism Law and Transformations Relics in al-Andalus,” with Luis in May 2017. He continues as in Iran: from the Qajars to the in Islamic Legal Thought in Molina, at the conference The Ford International Professor Islamic Republic is forthcom- Egypt, 1875–1952 (Oxford ­Medieval Iberian Treasury in the of History and Associate ing from Routledge. Paul University Press, 2016). The Context of Muslim–Christian Provost at MIT. Mana Kia Magnarella (’71) has returned book studies the displacement Interchange, Princeton Univer- (’11) is Assistant Professor in to the University of Florida, of Egyptian and Islamic law sity. In June she will present the Department of Middle where he assumed the position by European codes and the “Narratives on Translation in Eastern, South Asian, and of Adjunct Professor of Law, resulting evolution of move- al-Andalus” at the workshop African Studies at Columbia after directing the Peace and ments to revive Islamic law Judaism, Christianity, and University. She published Justice Studies Program at in the modern Middle East. Islam: Religious Communities

22 CMESNEWS | 2016–17 and Communities of Knowledge, ing Middle East: New Islamic School of Historical Studies, Media, POMEPS Studies 23 Institute for Advanced Study, (February 2017) and “Strength- Princeton University. Visiting ening the Family through Fellow Hatice Kahya presented Television: Islamic Broadcast- “The Question of Substitution ing, Secularism, and the Politics (Istibdal) in Ottoman Pious of Responsibility in Turkey,” Endowments,” at the History, Anthropological Quarterly Memory, Identity Graduate (forthcoming 2017). He gave

Student Colloquium on Middle talks at CMES, “Governing the Hikmet Kocamaner Ümit Kurt Eastern and Islamic Studies, co-­ Family through Religion: Family organized by Diyanent Islamic and Religious Counseling Research Institute and Ali Vural Bureaus and the Politics of the Ak Center for Global Islamic Family in the New Turkey,” and Studies at George Mason Uni- at Brandeis University, “­Female versity, and “The Heated Debate Religious Authority and the Topic of Empires: Istibdal,” at Politics of the Family in the the McGill University Islamic New Turkey,” in February 2017, Studies Graduate Students and at Bates College, “Whither Symposium, both in April 2017. Turkish Secularism? The Direc-

Visiting Postdoctoral Fellow torate of Religious Affairs and Avigail Noy Elizabeth Shlala Lorenzo Kamel won first prize the Politics of the Family in Er- of the academic­ section of the dogan’s New Turkey,” in March, Palestine Book Award 2016 and and he participated in work- 1315 (April 2017), and had four in Aintab on the Eve of 1915,” received the habilitation as an shops at Stanford University additional articles accepted for April 2017, and a WCFIA/CMES Associate Professor by the Ital- and George Washington Uni- publication. He was awarded a Seminar on Turkey in the ian Ministry of Education and versity. Starting in August, he European Holocaust Research Modern World talk, “Robbing University. He edited The Frailty will be a tenure-track Assistant Infrastructure Fellowship; a Na- the Armenians and the Making of Authority. Borders, Non-State Professor in the Anthropology tional Association for Armenian of the Gaziantep Urban Bour- Actors and Power Vacuums in Department at the University Studies and Research grant; and geois Elites in the Republic of a Changing Middle East (EMC, of North Carolina, Wilmington. an Armenian Studies Scholar­ Turkey (1923–1931),” February 2017). Visiting Postdoctoral Visiting Postdoctoral Fellow ship, Calouste Gulbenkian 2017. He gave talks at Colum- Fellow Hikmet Kocamaner Ümit Kurt published “Christian Foundation. He gave two talks bia University, UC Berkeley, published “Transformation of Gerlach’s Notion of ‘Extremely at CMES, “Theaters of Violence Princeton­ University, UT Islamic Television in Turkey Violent Societies’: Societal in the Ottoman Periphery: Trac- Austin, Fresno State University, from the Era of Secularist State Character of Violence and Its ing the Local roots of Armenian and the National Association Monopoly to Family-Focused ‘Participative’ Character,” Jour- Genocide in Aintab,” October for Armenian Studies and Programming under the nal of Varlık 1314 (March 2017) 2016, and “The Curious Case of Research. He gave the talk Conservative-Muslim­ AKP and “Halide Edip: A Turkish Ahmed Necmeddin Bey: A Look “The Breakdown of a Previ- Government,”­ Islam in a Chang- Nationalist,” Journal of Varlık into the Sociopolitical Climate ously Peaceful Coexistence:­

2016–17 | CMESNEWS 23 NEWS AND NOTES

The Aintab Armenian­ Mas- AT THE CENTER and the BSRC will encourage sacres of 1895,” organized the the examination of Byzantine panel “Reform, Violence, and CMES LAUNCHES BYZANTINE STUDIES culture in relationship to Revolutionary Organizations in INITIATIVE WITH BOĞAZIÇI UNIVERSITY other societies of the Eastern the Late Nineteenth-­Century Mediterranean world. A Ottoman East,” and was a The Center for Middle Eastern at both institutions who are comparative approach will discussant in the panel titled Studies and the Byzantine interested in the study of the open up new perspectives “New Issues, Perspectives and Studies Research Center Byzantine Empire and its for scholars and students Sources in Armenian Studies,” (BSRC) at Boğaziçi University relations with Islamic and studying Byzantine civilization at the annual meeting of the in Istanbul have been awarded medieval Turkish cultures. and/or its relations with its Middle East Studies Associa- a three-year research grant Most importantly, it will neighbors such as Sassanid tion in November 2016. Visiting from the Andrew W. Mellon help foster interdisciplinary Iran, Islamic Arab polities, postdoctoral fellow Avigail Foundation to fund a joint research and contribute to the medieval Turkish cultures, the Noy presented “‘Abd al-Qahir initiative providing enhanced training of future scholars in Crusaders, and the Ottomans. al-Jurjani as a Marginal Literary and extended opportunities a field that has until recently Harvard’s resources in Theorist” for the conference for teaching and research remained largely neglected in Byzantine studies include Outcast Voices: Reflections on on the Byzantine Empire, Turkey, once the heart of the Dumbarton Oaks Professors the Marginalized, the Exiled, placed in the larger context Byzantine Empire. and other faculty in Byzantine and the Secondary in Classical of the medieval Eastern The Byzantine Empire history, art, and literature— and Modern Arabic Literature, Mediterranean world, with a occupies a special position in in addition to faculty with University of Haifa, January strong focus on cross-cultural the shaping of the medieval research interests in fields 2017. She also gave a talk on contacts and comparative Eastern Mediterranean thanks related to Byzantium, many the notion of Bayan and ‘Ilm perspectives. to the role it played in the of whom are affiliated with al-Bayan at the annual meet- One of the primary goals formation of Christianity CMES; a vibrant and growing ing of the Middle East Studies of the collaboration is to and by virtue of its political, community of graduate Association in November 2016. contribute to the development economic, and cultural students; and seminar Visiting Scholar Mohammed of the newly established institutions and practices series across different Omer gave a talk, “The Crisis in BSRC, with support from that defined the Middle departments and academic Gaza: Examining Current Con- Harvard’s strong tradition and Ages and served as a model units open to both Harvard ditions and Future Possibilities,” rich resources in Byzantine for neighboring cultures. and visiting scholars. The at CMES in December 2017. Vis- studies. Boğaziçi University The traditional approach book holdings of Widener iting Scholar Elizabeth Shlala’s has played a pioneering role in to Eastern Mediterranean Library are well suited for book The Late Ottoman Empire the development of Byzantine history as the story of the research in Byzantine studies, and Egypt: Hybridity, Law, and studies since the early 1990s, coexistence of self-contained and Houghton Library Gender is forthcoming from the and the BSRC, founded in 2015, linguistic, religious, and has a wealth of Byzantine School of Oriental and Asian is the only center of its kind at cultural communities that manuscripts and early printed ­Studies/Routledge Studies on a Turkish state university. were hostile to each other books, including rare editions the Middle­ East this summer. The initiative will benefit has obscured cross-cultural of Byzantine texts that cannot She gave a talk on the book at the growing number of contacts and confluences. The be found elsewhere. Harvard’s CMES in April. • students, scholars, and faculty collaboration between CMES Dumbarton Oaks Research

24 CMESNEWS | 2016–17 Library and Collection in STAFF UPDATES Washington, DC, maintains close links with Harvard’s This January CMES welcomed Cambridge campus, and Sihem Lamine in her formal the Fogg Museum and the appointment as administra- Dumbarton Oaks Byzantine tive manager for the newly Collection hold among the inaugurated CMES Tunisia finest collections of Byzantine Office. For the past year, Sihem artifacts, including 30,000 has worked as a consultant for coins and seals in the Thomas CMES and Harvard Global Sihem Lamine Carol Ann Litster Young Whittemore Collection. Research and Support Services The collaboration will and has played a major role provide opportunities for in the transformation of the highest honors from the Ecole graduate program to Cunda, Harvard faculty and graduate office space in Tunis from an Spéciale D’Architecture, Paris. Turkey, as trip co-leader with students to participate in joint empty shell to a functional Carol Ann Litster Young PhD candidate Jesse Howell. research projects, seminars, and beautiful multi-purpose has been promoted to Ad- With her background as a high workshops, conferences, facility ready to welcome stu- ministrative and Academic school educator and a master’s summer school programs, and dents, faculty, and visitors. She Support Coordinator at CMES. degree in teacher education other activities at the BSRC. helped plan and coordinate the Carol Ann joined CMES in from Brigham Young Univer- Harvard College students will official launch and registration 2014 in the role of Staff As- sity, Carol Ann was a perfect fit be able to conduct senior thesis of the Tunis office and is the sistant, and since her arrival to help keep a CMES outreach research in Istanbul under the local co-representative of the she has worked to expand presence active after the guidance of Boğaziçi faculty Tunisia Office legal entity. the reach of her position both formal closing of the CMES and graduate students. Visiting Sihem meticulously organized in volume and scope. With Outreach Program in 2014. She Harvard scholars and students the 2016 and 2017 Winter increased CMES funding op- is the CMES representative on will be able to broaden their Term programs for Harvard portunities for student travel the Global Studies Outreach familiarity with the topography graduate students and the to the MENA region, Carol Committee, and along with and material remains of the 2016 summer Arabic language Ann’s role as the primary con- her colleagues at the Davis Byzantine imperial capital, program. She is currently tact for Winter Term, spring Center, DRCLAS, Asia Center, including fortifications, working to build the Tunisia break, and summer travel Center for African Studies, and shipwrecks, and examples of Office website and social media grants for undergraduates has the Global Health Education Byzantine art and architecture. presence and is preparing correspondingly increased. and Learning Incubator helps The Harvard portion of for the 2017 summer Arabic She publicizes travel op- plan and execute an annual the program will be housed language cohort’s arrival. portunities, coordinates the summer workshop for high at CMES, under the faculty Sihem has a master’s degree in application process, organizes school and community college leadership of Dimiter Angelov, the history of Islamic art and pre-­departure orientations, teachers as well as ad hoc Dumbarton Oaks Professor of architecture with distinction and insures that students outreach events. She has also Byzantine History, and Cemal from the School of Oriental register with Harvard safety worked to expand the number Kafadar, Vehbi Koç Professor of and African Studies, London, systems. She has twice traveled of art exhibits that CMES sup­ Turkish Studies. and an architect diploma with with our Winter Term under­ ports throughout the year. •

2016–17 | CMESNEWS 25 EVENT HIGHLIGHTS

SEPTEMBER 2016 King Salman’s Saudi Arabia: Quo Vadis? The Failed How Much Change? A talk Coup and the Future of with F. Gregory Gause III, Turkey: A talk with Aykan John H. Lindsey ’44 Chair Erdemir, Assistant Professor, and Head of the International Political Science and Public Affairs Department, Bush Administration, Bilkent School of Government and University, Ankara, and Senior Public Service, Texas A&M

Fellow, Foundation for Defense University. Co-sponsored F. Gregory Gause and Lenore G. Martin of Democracies, Washington, with the Weatherhead Center DC; Former Turkish MP for International Affairs. 2011–15. Co-sponsored with the Weatherhead Center How Does Gender Matter for International Affairs. in Politics? Reflections of a Parliamentarian: A talk Violence in the Arab with Gulay Yedekci, Member Authoritarian Republics: of Parliament, Turkish Grand A talk with Joseph Sassoon, National Assembly, People’s Associate Professor and Al- Republican Party. Co-sponsored Sabah Chair in Politics and with the Weatherhead Center Political Economy, Georgetown for International Affairs.

University. Co-sponsored Aykan Erdemir Raihan Ismail with the Weatherhead Center Gendering Salafi Authority: for International Affairs. A CMES Director’s Series presentation by Richard Human Rights, Columbia Prize. Co-sponsored with Return to Point Zero: Nielsen, Assistant Professor University. Co-sponsored the Weatherhead Center Turkey’s Democratic of Political Science, MIT. with the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs. Breakdown, Remaking, and for International Affairs. the Turkish and Kurdish Turkey: An Uncertain OCTOBER 2016 Question: A talk with Murat Ally—Enhancing Security Turkey, the Gülen Movement, Arabic Modernism: Somer, Associate Professor Cooperation between and the AKP: After the Adonis, Elegies, and of Political Science and the US and Kurds in the Coup Attempt: A talk with World Literature: A CMES International Relations, Koç Region: A talk with David Ahmet Şık, investigative Director’s Series presentation University. Co-sponsored Phillips, Director, Program on journalist, writer, and winner by Robyn Creswell, Assistant with the Weatherhead Center Peace-Building and Rights, of UNESCO’s Guillermo Professor, Comparative for International Affairs. Institute for the Study of Cano World Press Freedom Literature, Yale University.

26 CMESNEWS | 2016–17 Khaled Fahmy, Roger Owen, Mona Makram-Ebeid, and William Granara Khalid Albaih

The Syrian Refugee Crisis: of Jewish History, University talk with Fatma Müge Göçek, work. Co-sponsored with Weathering the Storm in of Toronto; Stanley Lewis Professor, Department of the Weatherhead Center Turkey and Beyond: A talk by Visiting Professor of Sociology and the Program in for International Affairs. Ahmad Mamdoh Tarakji, MD, Modern Israel Studies, Women’s Studies, University President, Syrian American Oxford University; Visiting of Michigan. Co-sponsored Saudi Clerics and Shi‘a Medical Society. Co-sponsored Professor of History, Harvard; with the Weatherhead Center Islam: An Arabian Peninsula with the Weatherhead Center designated William Lee Frost for International Affairs. Studies lecture by Raihan for International Affairs. Chair in Jewish History, Ismail, Lecturer, Centre for Harvard, beginning 2018. NOVEMBER 2016 Arab and Islamic Studies, Why Cannot Turkey Get The WAFD Years 1919–1952: Australian National University. It Right? The Saga of Egypt: A Look to the Future A Time of Ideas: A talk by the Democratization in Turkey: Prospects and Challenges: Honourable Mona Makram- #Khartoon!—@Khalidalbaih A talk by Ersin Mahmut A talk by the Honourable Ebeid, former Egyptian MP at Harvard: A talk with Kalaycıoğlu, Professor of Mona Makram-Ebeid, former and Senator; Distinguished political cartoonist and artist Political Science, Sabançi Egyptian MP and Senator; Lecturer, Political Science, Khalid Albaih in conjunction University, Istanbul. Distinguished Lecturer, American University in Cairo. with an exhibition of his work. Co-sponsored with the Political Science, American Weatherhead Center for University in Cairo. The 1979 Hostage Crisis: Politics after Islamism: International Affairs. Reflections on Iran— The Changing Rhetoric of Trajectories of Collective Then and Now: A talk by Conservatism in the Gulf: Theodor Herzl, Race, and Violence in Turkish History: photojournalist Randy H. An Arabian Peninsula Studies Empire: A talk by Derek From the Armenian Genocide Goodman, in conjuction lecture by Ahmed Dailami, Penslar, Samuel Zacks Professor to the Kurdish Massacres: A with an exhibition of her independent scholar.

2016–17 | CMESNEWS 27 EVENT HIGHLIGHTS

Fitna: Civil War or Sectarian The July 15 Coup Attempt Conflict? Understanding and the Transformation of Political Violence within the Civil–Military Relations Post-Mandate Arab States: A in Turkey: A talk by Koray workshop organized by Roger Çalışkan, Associate Professor, Owen, A.J. Meyer Professor of Department of Political Science Middle East History Emeritus, and International Relations, Harvard. Co-sponsored with Boğaziçi University. the Department of History. ■■ Panel I: The Idea of Civil War Egyptian Clothes between in Arabic. Religious Ideology and Social ■■ Panel II: Civil War Change: A talk in Arabic as Delayed Conflict in by Zeinab Taha, Associate

History or a Time of Professor, Arabic Linguistics, Roger Owen, Sreemati Mitter, and William Granara Postcolonial Violence. American University in Cairo. ■■ Panel III: Summing Up. Participants: Muhamed DECEMBER 2016 Almaliky, Weatherhead Center Oman’s Foreign Policy and for International Affairs, US–Oman Relations: A talk Harvard; Betty S. Anderson, by Hunaina Sultan Ahmed Boston University: David Al-Mughairy, Ambassador of Armitage, Harvard; Melani the Sultanate of Oman to the Cammett, Harvard; Khaled United States. Co-sponsored Fahmy, Harvard and American with the Weatherhead Center University in Cairo; William for International Affairs Granara, Harvard; Sreemati Mitter, Brown University; Hugh JANUARY 2017 Hunaina Sultan Ahmed Roberts, Tufts University; Nadim Population, Generation Al-Mughairy Fareed Yasseen Shehadi, Tufts University. and Nation: Understanding the Arab World through After the Arab Spring in Demography: A talk with Yasseen, Ambassador of Iraq to FEBRUARY 2017 Morocco: Reflections on Philippe Fargues, Professor, the United States. Co-sponsored Egypt: Unfinished Revolution? Historiography, Cultural Robert Schuman Centre, with the Weatherhead Center A conversation with Jack Diversity, and Human Rights: European University Institute; for International Affairs. Shenker, journalist and author of A talk with Susan Gilson Associate, Harvard Kennedy The Egyptians: A Radical History Miller, Professor, Department School. Co-sponsored with the A Reporter’s Perspective: of Egypt’s Unfinished Revolution, of History, University of Middle East Initiative, HKS. Assad, Trump, and the and Khaled Fahmy, Harvard California, Davis. Co-sponsored Failure of US Syria Policy: and American University in with the Weatherhead Center Iraq: From Dictatorship to A talk with veteran foreign Cairo. Co-sponsored with ILSP: for International Affairs. What? A talk with Fareed correspondent Reese Erlich. SHARIAsource, HLS.

28 CMESNEWS | 2016–17 Turkey and the European Union: From Full Membership to Strategic Partnership: A talk by Sinem Akgül Açıkmeşe, Professor of International Relations, Kadir Has University, Istanbul; Visiting Researcher, Center for Middle Eastern Studies. Co-sponsored with the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs.

Prospects for Peace in Syria: Can the New Administration Pascal Menoret Henri Barkey Help? A talk with Ambassador Robert S. Ford, Senior Fellow, Middle East Institute; Fellow, Associate Professor and Jean Why the Turkish Model Imagining the New Jackson Institute for Global Monnet Chair of European Failed: A talk by Mustafa Turkey: Consequences Affairs, Yale University; US Studies, Department of Political Akyol, Senior Visiting Fellow at and Contradictions of the Ambassador to Syria, 2010–14; Science and Public Admin- the Freedom Project, Welles- Constitutional Referendum: US Ambassador to Algeria, istration, Bilkent University; ley College; Guest Opinion A talk by Henri Barkey, 2006–08. Co-sponsored with IPC-Stiftung Mercator Senior Writer, New York Times and Director, Middle East the Weatherhead Center for Research Fellow, German Al-Monitor.com. Co-sponsored Program, Woodrow Wilson International Affairs. Institute for International and with the Weatherhead Center International Center for Security Affairs; Stanley J. for International Affairs. Scholars. Co-sponsored with MARCH 2017 ­Seeger Research Fellow, Prince­ the Weatherhead Center for Graveyard of the Clerics: Is- ton University. Co-sponsored New Visions and ­Strategies International Affairs. lamism in Saudi Suburbia: An with the Weatherhead Center for Resolving the Israeli– Arabian Peninsula Studies lec- for International Affairs. Palestinian Conflict: A Examining the Egyptian– ture by Pascal Menoret, Renée conversation with Hilik Saudi Dispute over the Red and Lester Crown Professor in Preventing Palestine: How Bar, Deputy Speaker of the Sea Islands: Political and Modern Middle East Studies, Diplomacy Curtailed State­ Knesset, and Husam Zomlot, Legal Implications for the Crown Center for Middle East hood: A talk by Seth Anziska, Ambassador-at-large, Palestin- Middle East: A talk by Khaled Studies, Brandeis University. Assistant Professor, University ian Government. Co-sponsored Fahmy, Shawwaf Visiting College London; Postdoctoral with the Weatherhead Center Professor of Modern Middle Democratic Transition and Research Fellow, Taub for International Affairs. East History, CMES; Professor the Rising Tide of Majori- Center, New York University, of History, American University tarianism: Comparing the 2016–17. Co-sponsored with A Talk in Arabic: With Yemeni in Cairo. Co-sponsored with Cases of Greece and Turkey: the Weatherhead Center for novelist Habib Sarori, Univer­ the Weatherhead Center for A talk by Ioannis Grigoriadis, International Affairs. sity Professor, INSA de Rouen. International Affairs. (continued on page 32)

2016–17 | CMESNEWS 29 EVENT HIGHLIGHTS

THE MIDDLE EAST AND THE ISLAMIC WEST: MARIBEL FIERRO’S VIEW OF MEDIEVAL SPAIN

Maribel Fierro, Research by, among others, the Italian Fierro—widely acclaimed, in when he was only ten years Professor at the Centre for Renaissance humanist Pico Roy Mottahedeh’s words, as the old, his family became migrant Human and Social Sciences of Della Mirandola and influenced doyen of current scholarship refugees for nearly two decades, the Spanish National Research the English Enlightenment on the medieval Islamic West— spending time in Fez near the Council, and Visiting Scholar at philosopher John Locke. It pointed out in the first of her Almohad heartland and briefly CMES and Senior Scholar at the may be a perfect example of two Gibb Lectures at Harvard in Jerusalem, ruled then by the Islamic Legal Studies Program what is nowadays considered this spring: they were Andalusi Frankish crusader kingdom, at HLS in spring 2017, was the “world literature.” Ibn Tufayl’s in origin, that is, they hailed before eventually settling in distinguished speaker this year famous colleague Ibn Rushd from “Islamic Spain.” This Cairo during the last days of for the H.A.R. Gibb Arabic and (d. 1198), called Averroes in detail alone testifies to the the Fatimids. Between Europe Islamic Studies Lecture Series, Latin, was known in medieval significance of al-Andalus not and the Middle East, this was a established in 1964 in honor of Europe as simply “the Com­ only in European intellectual world far more interconnected Sir Hamilton A.R. Gibb, who mentator” to Aristotle. His history but crucially in the than we might assume. was a director of CMES as well exact contemporary Musa bin development of both the The far-reaching conse- as University Professor and Maimun (d. 1204), known by Jewish and Islamic traditions. quences of political upheavals James Richard Jewett Professor his Latinized name Maimonides Averroes and Maimonides were and regional crises, and the of Arabic at Harvard. Arafat or the acronym Rambam in natives of Córdoba; Ibn Tufayl often unexpected long after- Razzaque, PhD candidate in Hebrew, likewise needs no was born in Guadix, and Ibn lives of intellectual activity History and Middle East Studies, introduction. One of the most Arabi in Murcia. Local origin, originating in rather specific covered the lectures for CMES. important rabbinical authorities however, says little otherwise circumstances, are especially in Jewish history, Maimonides about the trajectory of their highlighted by the case of the The twelfth century CE was also a philosopher and lives. Ibn Arabi’s largest work, Almohads—who continue to produced four major scholars medical doctor, and served for al-Futuhat al-Makkiya (“The intrigue historians today, and writing in Arabic who had a time as royal physician at the Meccan Revelations”), was who have been the subject immense, lasting influence court of Saladin. Lastly, Ibn inspired by his pilgrimage of Fierro’s research for over throughout the world. The Arabi (d. 1240), the mystic, poet, in 1202 but took thirty years twenty years. physician and philosopher Ibn and philosopher, was revered to finish while he wandered The theme for Fierro’s Tufayl (d. 1185) was the author by many Muslims as Shaykh al- throughout the Middle East, Gibb Lectures was “Scholars of Hayy ibn Yaqzan, the tale Akbar or “the greatest master,” including a sojourn in Konya and Rulers in al-Andalus.” of a child who grows up alone whose enormous corpus of before eventually settling in Her first talk, on March 7, was in a desert island but acquires writings have inspired spiritual Damascus, where he died and titled “Averroes’s Disgrace in knowledge and eventual communities from West Africa remains buried in a mosque- Context,” referring to an enig- enlightenment through the all the way to Southeast Asia, shrine complex built three matic episode toward the end observation of nature and the making him the single most centuries later by the Ottomans. of his life when he was publicly use of reason. Arguably the influential Sufi in history. Maimonides’s biography reflects denounced as a heretic, ex- most frequently published Remarkably, all four of a similarly itinerant life: exiled pelled from the great mosque of Islamic text in early modern these figures share one simple from Córdoba in the wake of Córdoba, and exiled to Lucena. Europe, the book was translated fact in common, as Maribel the Almohad conquest of 1147 The incident seems to have

30 CMESNEWS | 2016–17 been mired in the complexities of the Almohad era. Regarded by some scholars as precursors to a kind of “fundamentalism,” the ­Almohads (al-­Muwahhidun) were a Berber dynasty and a Mediterranean empire that began as a revolutionary state based in the High Atlas mountains. Overthrowing the Almoravids (al-Murabitun), also Berbers but of different tribal origins, the Almohads ­initiated a new era with a renewed theology. As indicated by the appellation al-Muwahhidun, meaning “the people of tawhid” or divine unity, the move- ment capitalized on a central doctrine inspired by the mes- Roy P. Mottahedeh, Maribel Fierro, and William Granara

sianic figure of the mahdi Ibn Martha Stewart Photo: Tumart (d. 1130). His successor Abd al-Mu’min waged fierce new titles and slogans, and a viewing them as barbarians There are still many military campaigns that saw distinct architectural style. who ruined traditional unanswered questions about the founding of a vast empire Other changes had serious Andalusi society, Fierro has the Almohads. Fierro has uniting the Islamic West, com- social ramifications, most noted the irony that some of wondered, for example, prising what are now Morocco, notably the “puzzling” decision, the most original thinkers of about their attitudes to other Algeria, Tunisia, northwest as Fierro has described it, medieval Iberia, including the Muslims, given evidence that Libya, and southern Spain. to abolish the conventional four scholars named above, they did not consider non- Claiming legitimacy through Islamic protection (dhimma) were products of the Almohad Almohad mosques properly a projected Arab genealogy of Jews and Christians living period. Indeed, both Ibn Tufayl Islamic. The issue speaks linked back to the Prophet, as under Muslim rule. This and Averroes wrote under to a key theme of Fierro’s Fierro has documented­ through persecution was precisely what the patronage of the caliphal academic career, which pain­staking research, Abd led Maimonides into exile court in Marrakech, and it features a recurring interest in al-Mu’min established his own from Spain. On the other hand, has been suggested that Ibn the problem of orthodoxy in caliphal dynasty. rather strikingly, the Almohads Tufayl’s Hayy ibn Yaqzan may religious history. But the caliphate also seem to have encouraged be an allegorical meditation signaled its break with the the pursuit of philosophy. on the political and social role → To read the full article and past through symbols like Compared to an earlier of philosophy in light of the watch video of the lectures, visit cmes.fas.harvard.edu. square coins instead of circular, generation of Spanish Arabists Almohad context.

2016–17 | CMESNEWS 31 EVENT HIGHLIGHTS

Arabic Curses and Their Harvard; Haci Osman journalist. Co-sponsored with Assistant Professor of Uses: Devin Stewart, Professor Gunduz, Harvard. Keynote the Journal of Middle Eastern Landscape Architecture and of Arabic and Islamic Studies; Address: Elias Khoury, Politics and Policy, Harvard Senior Research Associate, Chair, Department of Middle novelist, Lebanon. Kennedy School. Harvard Graduate School of Eastern and South Asian ■■ Panel II: Chair: Roger Owen, Design (GSD), and William Studies, Emory University. Harvard; Betty Anderson, APRIL 2017 Granara, Professor of Arabic, Boston University; Bassam Dynamics of Human Director, Center for Middle The Naksa Fifty Years Later: Haddad, George Mason Occupations and Evolution of Eastern Studies. Co-sponsored New Sources, Questions, University; Sherene Seikaly, Settlements in the Bukhara with the Aga Khan Program and and Approaches to the ’67 University of California, Oasis: A talk by Rocco Rante, the Department of Landscape War: A conference organized Santa Barbara; Yoav di Capua, archaeologist, Louvre Museum. Architecture, GSD. by William Granara, Professor University of Texas, Austin. ■■ Panel I: Nocturnal Activities of Arabic, Director, Center ■■ Panel III: Chair: Sara Roy, The Weakened State of in Public Spaces. Moderator: for Middle Eastern Studies; Harvard; Hazem Kandil, Turkey: A talk by Simon A. Ahmed Kanna, University of and Khaled Fahmy, Shawwaf Cambridge University; Waldman and Emre Çalışkan, the Pacific; Farah Al-Nakib, Visiting Professor in Modern Khaled Fahmy. co-authors, The New Turkey and American University of Middle Eastern History, ■■ Closing Conversation: Its Discontents. Co-sponsored Kuwait; Yasser Elsheshtawy, Harvard; Professor of History, Khaled Fahmy and Derek with the Weatherhead Center UAE University; Pascal American University in Cairo. Penslar, Harvard. for International Affairs. Menoret, Brandeis University. ■■ Panel I: Transformations ■■ Panel II: Designing for in Literature. Chair: Ilham Talking Tehran: In After Dark: Nocturnal Darkness. Moderator: Makdisi, Northeastern Conversation with the Landscapes and Public Spaces Belinda Tato, GSD; Nasser University; William Granara; Rezaians: A talk with Jason in the Arabian Peninsula: An Abulhasan, Joaquin Perez- Laila Parsons, McGill Rezaian, American journalist, interdisciplinary symposium Goicoechea, AGi Architects, University; Daniel Behar, and Yeganeh Rezaian, Iranian organized by Gareth Doherty, Kuwait and Madrid; Todd

Devin Stewart Participants in the Naksa Fifty Years Later conference

32 CMESNEWS | 2016–17 Reisz, Yale University; Anna Partnership; Ahmed Through a Camera Obscura: MAY 2017 Grichting, Qatar University; Al-Ali, Farid Esmaeil, Economic Science and the Ottoman Perception of the Maha al-Dhaheri, Urban X Architects, Dubai; Emergence of the Market Ukrainian Cossack Uprising Planning Council, Abu Dhabi. Mohsen Mostafavi, GSD. in Colonial Egypt: A talk by against the Polish–Lithuanian ■■ Panel III: Narratives of the Casey Primel, Volkswagen Commonwealth (1648–1657): Night. Moderator: Nasser Refugees and Migrants: Postdoctoral Fellow, A talk with Sait Ocakli, Eugene Rabbat, MIT; Wilmot Kidd, A Comparative Study Weatherhead Initiative on and Daymel Shklar Research photographer and filmmaker, of Response—The UN, Global History, Harvard. Co- Fellow, Harvard Ukrainian New York; Hussam Dakkak, Government, and Civil sponsored with the Center for Research Institute. Studio Bound, London, Society: A talk by Karen European Studies. Kuwait, Riyadh; Cristiano AbuZayd, Commissioner, Saudi Arabia’s Development Luchetti, American UN Human Rights Council Syria—What Next? A Model, 1950–2016: A Critical University of Sharjah. Commission of Inquiry on discussion about recent events Analysis: An Arabian Peninsula ■■ Panel IV: New Nocturnal Syria; former Special Adviser in Syria with Roger Owen, A.J. Studies lecture by Abdulaziz M. Landscapes. Moderator: to the Secretary General for the Meyer Professor of Middle Aldukheil, Chairman, Aldukheil Silvia Benedito, GSD; Steven Global Summit on Refugees and Eastern History Emeritus, Financial Group; former Saudi Velegrinis, Perkins+Will, Migrants, 2016. Co-sponsored Harvard; and Melani Cammett, Deputy Minister of Finance. Dubai; Abdulatif Al-Mishari, with the Weatherhead Center Professor of Government, Associated Architects for International Affairs. Harvard. Why France Fears Islam: Religion, Democracy, and Human Rights in the Time of Elections: A talk with Jocelyne Cesari, Professor of Religion and Politics, Director of Research, Edward Cadbury Centre for the Public Understanding of Religion, University of Birmingham; Director, Islam in the West program, Harvard.

“No Place to Raise a Daughter”: My Life and Work in the Middle East—A Woman’s Perspective: The 2017 Hilda B. Silverman Memorial Lecture, delivered by Martha Myers, former

Steven Velegrinis Country Director, Save the Children—Syria.

2016–17 | CMESNEWS 33 EVENT HIGHLIGHTS

HOPE AND LOSS MADE VIVID ­Picasso’s “Guernica,” is vomit- refugee Alan Kurdî, depicts Arab-American Artist Reflects on Middle East Unrest in Exhibition ing the flowers into the sky. a pair of small, kaleidoscopic Abaya is the star of children’s shoes abandoned A selection from Helen Zughaib’s into civil war. After earning a Zughaib’s exhibition “Arab on the corner of a dark prayer “Arab Spring/Unfinished bachelor’s degree in fine arts Spring/Unfinished Journeys,” rug. The piece, a silk-screen Journeys,” presented by the from the College of Visual and a reflection on the optimism commissioned during Zughaib’s CMES Middle East Forum, Performing Arts at Syracuse and despair of that time. Nearly residency at George Mason was on view in the CGIS South University, she relocated to every work has a dominant University, was the culmination Concourse this spring. Harvard Washington, DC, to work on figure, usually Abaya, but of an installation of painted correspondent John Michael art full time. In 2002, she came children are also present, children’s shoes. Baglione talked with Zughaib to national attention when or in the case of one piece, “I kept thinking of the Dr. and wrote this article, originally she donated “Prayer Rug for conspicuously absent. Seuss book ‘Oh, the Places published February 7 in the America” to the Library of “Unfinished Journeys,” You’ll Go!’—the sad irony of Harvard Gazette. Congress. A response to 9/11, whose debut coincided with that,” said Zughaib. She would the piece combines American international outrage over the ultimately name the installation Layered over a cloaked woman flags and colors with traditional 2015 drowning of 3-year-old after the book. on a sandy background, dozens motifs related to Islamic of brightly colored flowers worship and architecture. twist and blossom, filling every After 35 years away, Zughaib available space from corner returned to Lebanon just as the to corner. The woman is seen Arab Spring—the explosion of from behind, almost a shadow, revolutions from 2010 to 2013— her neutral color helping to was sweeping the Middle East. accentuate the Technicolor Soon she started on portraits brilliance of the flora of Abaya, named for the surrounding her. It is, as the traditional black cloak worn by piece’s title suggests, a literal many Middle Eastern women. interpretation of “Arab Spring.” In some pieces Abaya is star- “Initially [there was] the ing at her audience, but in most hope and optimism,” says artist she is seen from behind, stand- Helen Zughaib, “which is why I ing in fields of flowers, Arabic used that motif of the flower . . . script, and newspaper clippings. that carried on through even as As the dates on the title cards the situation deteriorated.” climb from 2011 to 2015, the It is a subject matter close flowers go from raining down to her heart. Born in Beirut on her to constricting her, until to naturalized Americans, she is nothing but a bouquet Zughaib was evacuated with of baby’s breath. By the end of her family to Europe in late the series, Abaya, rendered in Helen Zughaib

1975 as Lebanon descended the style of the Madonna from Photographer Staff Mitchell/Harvard Stephanie photos: All

34 CMESNEWS | 2016–17 “Veiled Secrets,” 2013 “Arab Spring,” 2011 “Arab Spring Quilt,” 2015

Viewed together, the two little shoe so you can start to re- The sole triptych of “Arab crease.” A Westerner, however, title works tell the bitter- late on a very small, micro level Spring/Unfinished Journeys,” might read the progression from sweet story of the unrest that this problem that is worldwide.” titled “di/as/pora,” presents left to right, as though the fig- engulfed the Middle East at the One great strength of an interesting experiment in ures were gathering protesters, beginning of the decade. One Zughaib’s work lies in the cultural perceptions. A gather- such as in Cairo’s Tahrir Square. moment, hope for democracy conflict between her distinctive ing of women, each wearing a It is this very split within is everywhere the eye can see; style and tragic subject matter, striped abayat, crowds the right herself that Zughaib consid- the next, that hope has been a dynamic heightened through panel but sparsely fills the left. ers her greatest asset. As an swept aside by violence and her use of gouache, a sump- As the title suggests, the piece observer of Arab and American ­displacement. tuous watercolor, to depict deals with the mass exodus of cultures, at home in both and “Despite the fact that people fraught moments. Perhaps the war, focusing not on those who neither, she aims to create art think my work is political, best example of the effect is in flee but those who remain to that can speak to both sides. it’s really on a human level,” “Generations Lost,” in which pick up the pieces. And at a time when distrust Zughaib said. “Because who women wearing extravagantly “When I exhibited it to a darkens relations between the is paying the price? It’s the patterned, multicolored abayat primarily Arab-American com- US and many Middle Eastern women and children. You’re wave sheets of paper with the munity, they read from right countries, her art insists that looking at this one individual faint hints of men’s silhouettes, to left . . . so as the troubles got there is still much we can learn person or you’re looking at the photos of lost loved ones. worse, the exodus began to in- from each other. •

2016–17 | CMESNEWS 35 Winter Term excursion to Turkey

Kim Quarantello, Ben Leibowitz, Feryal Hijazi, and Becca Wadness

Melani Cammett AT A GLANCE

CMES OPENS TUNISIA OFFICE FACULTY NEWS ROGER OWEN MEMOIR STUDENT NEWS MARGAUX FITOUSSI ON THE HARA OF TUNIS ALUMNI NEWS Q&A WITH EMRAH YILDIZ VISITING RESEARCHER NEWS EVENT HIGHLIGHTS MARIBEL FIERRO’S VIEW OF MEDIEVAL SPAIN THE ART OF HELEN ZUGHAIB