Book Reviews

quite normal that these areas compete and where large numbers of Muslims interact with each other. Moreover, the au- do not believe or follow the official view thor claims that Muslim laws cover a legal of Islam. For example, in Turkey, the gov- pluralism within itself with well-developed ernment once obliged people to donate the hermeneutical techniques. leather from the sacrificial animal during The plurality of Muslim laws is firstly the Eid ul-Adha only to the Turkish Aero- due to the main schools of laws (Madhabs), nautical Association. However, people re- and along with these four great schools fused and continued to donate the leather, (Hanafee, Shaafi’ee, Hambelee, Maalikee), an enormous source of financial income, to other small sects all have somewhat differ- the traditional institutions and to Muslim ent views on the non-fundamental princi- NGOs, such as mosques, orphanages, and ples and practices of Islam. The second rea- tareekat (religious sect) associations. son for plurality, according to the author, It is clear that the author has referred is the differences between the written and to an enormous list of literature written on customary rules of Islam. These don’t al- this issues and he has presented the main ways completely coincide with each other. points of discussion about the subject mat- The third reason for plurality is the differ- ters. Therefore, this book is a significant ences between official Islam and folk Islam contribution for researchers and academ- which means that the understanding of Is- ics who study legal plurality and alternative lamic rules and principles is rather different applications of the official legal systems. between the population and official institu- tions. This fact can be clearly identified in Kemal Özden, Fatih University

German Orientalism: The Study of the Middle East and Islam from 1800 to 1945

By Ursula Wokoeck London, New York, Routledge, 2009, 333 pp., ISBN 9780415464901.

Ursula Wokoeck’s book is a disserta- universities wrote on the Middle East and tion written at the School of History, Tel treated modern Oriental studies. Wokoeck Aviv University. Known by her articles looked into differentiations in Sanskrit on Ibn Khaldun, Theodor Noeldeke, and and Semitic languages and the emergence Middle Eastern modernity, this historian of Assyriologie and Islamic studies. She researched the development of Middle offers insights into political factors in the Eastern studies as part of a wider discipline: Third Reich and draws basic conclusions. Oriental studies, then still a minor disci- The overviews with the names of sholars of pline at the faculty of philosophy within the universities are most valuable. modern German university system. The author illuminates us on how the After the introduction, she deals in new discipline of Oriental studies and the eight chapters with how modern German institutional separation between faculties

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of theology and philosophy emerged. In In that same year, Carl Henirich Beck- her conclusions, she points out the sup- er started to lecture on main issues facing porting role of the German Oriental Soci- modern Middle Eastern policy. All this ety toward the related scholars since 1845. came ten years after the Kaiser began an In addition to this self-oganized support, official policy on Islam by his visit to the the German Empire developed a practical Ottoman caliph. Three trends converged: need to equip the diplomats with skills in ’s needs in world policy, Islam as a foreign languages since 1871. global power, and the expansion of modern Indeed, the Germans followed either German research facilities. However, all French or British examples on Orientalist who were involved were plunged into the studies. The striking difference was Berlin’s First World War and lost their innocence. non-imperial policy and lack of colonies in This included traditional academics of the Middle East. Nevertheless, the rise of universities, who supported the concerted Islamic studies was closely connected to co- German-Ottoman jihadization of Islam lonial possessions in East and West Africa. from 1914 to 1918. Wokoeck mentions the gradual attempt to In Berlin, the Orientalist trend involved introduce the study of the modern Middle many institutions, clubs, and societies like East as an academic field in German uni- the German Orient Institute of 1918, the versities. Martin Hartmann, a renown Ara- Orient Club in 1920 or the Islam Institute bist at the turn of the Century, led this effort in 1927. Wokeock’s conclusion that Middle which remained, according to the author, a Eastern studies, defined as Arabic and Is- minor trend due to limited travel opportu- lamic studies, were not properly established nities after World War One until 1926. in the first half of that century, is disput- But the most progress made toward able. On the one hand, we see continuity modern Middle Eastern studies was in the study of the Middle East and Islam achieved in research institutions, which did from the to the Third not belong to universities like the Seminar Reich. On the other hand, some Muslims, of Oriental Languages (since 1887) in Ber- who served Berlin during the First World lin and the Colonial Institute in . War, remained in and were thus, Carl Heinrich Becker, Hugo Grothe, Eugen connected to the German scholars. Other Mittwoch, and Max von Oppenheim –the important groups of Muslim immigrants latter was not an Orientalist– drove this arrived in the big wave of 1920, reinforcing process ahead. Although most German the earlier trend of joint research between scholars were not directly involved in colo- them and the German academics. nial administration, a need grew as well as These groups of Muslims joined the a willingness to train civil servants working German scholars also in establishing their in zones under German control in Africa institutes and societies or enlarging them. with Muslim populations. Thus, the Colo- This led in Berlin to the reconstitution of nial Institute of Hamburg was founded in the Islamic Central Institute in 1939. The 1908. Carl Heinrich Becker, the father of Palestinian Grand Mufti Amin al-Husaini modern Islamic studies in Germany, held managed to establish his “Jewish” Institute the first chair of Oriental history and cul- there in 1943. Nazis supported a wide range ture. of Islamic and “Jewish” studies, not to for-

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get the training courses for mullahs in the working on the Middle East after 1945. This army and Nazi troops. At the same time, means that modern Middle Eastern stud- academics drove their Jewish colleagues ies in Germany had a Nazi heritage, which out and many perished in the ever-growing needs to be recognized and investigated, in- system of concentration camps. cluding what impact that heritage actually Wokoeck is generally correct in her had on German academia in the years that conclusions, however one point needs to be followed the World War II. Usually, it was clarified. Firstly, the assumption that most assumed that scholars did define research scholars in Middle Eastern studies, who topics on their own. The author claimed that stayed and worked in Germany, kept their the establishment of Middle Eastern studies distance from the regime was wrong (even and its major stages were determined by fac- today we find scholars discussing this and tors outside the discipline. We add that the not mentioning the Nazi party’s member- Muslims living in Germany since 1900 also ship of their subjects). Furthermore, most had an impact on the unfolding of those academics became Nazis: cooperation was studies. The networks between Muslims liv- the rule rather than the exception. Contrary ing in Germany throughout the earlier part to the author’s claim, the Nazis did not seem of the 20th Century and the German scholars to have any longer term plans to conquer of that same time period are the missing di- Middle Eastern lands. The Nazis followed mensions in the research of this topic. How- chancellor Otto von Bismarck’s tradition ever, Wokoeck’s solid study opens the door of not having colonies but regional rulers to further research on German Orientalism to do the job on their own in a pyramid of and Middle Eastern Studies for this crucial global power sharing. The Nazis regarded time period in world history. Historically the Middle East only as a battleground as grounded, well balanced and highly insight- long as other European rivals like the Brit- ful, this analysis is a significant contribution ish stayed there but not as an area to build to a long lasting discussion, which since the settlements for “Aryans.” millennium has become a subject of great Secondly, the author maintains that international interest. many of the very same scholars who worked during the period of Nazi Germany contin- Wolfgang G. Schwanitz ued to be employed at academic institutions Gloria Center, Israel

The Obama Moment: European and American Perspectives

Edited by Alvaro de Vasconcelos and Marcin Zaborowski Paris: European Union Institute for Security Studies, 2009, 248 pp., ISBN 9789291981601.

When Barack Obama became president Obama had proven his ability to inspire the of the United States in January 2009, ex- world, still at the end of 2009 the President pectations were unprecedented. Although said that “change…takes time.”

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