i Houses built on sand ii Series editors: Simon Mabon, Edward Wastnidge and May Darwich After the Arab Uprisings and the ensuing fragmentation of regime– society relations across the Middle East, identities and geopolitics have become increasingly contested, with serious implications for the ordering of political life at domestic, regional and international levels, best seen in conflicts in Syria and Yemen. The Middle East is the most militarised region in the world, where geopolitical factors remain predominant in shaping political dynamics. Another common feature of the regional landscape is the continued degeneration of communal relations as societal actors retreat into substate identities, while difference becomes increasingly violent, spilling out beyond state borders. The power of religion – and trans- state nature of religious views and linkages – thus provides the means for regional actors (such as Saudi Arabia and Iran) to exert influence over a number of groups across the region and beyond. This series provides space for the engagement with these ideas and the broader political, legal and theological factors to create space for an intellectual reimagining of socio- political life in the Middle East. Originating from the SEPAD project (www.sepad.org.uk), this series facilitates the reimagining of political ideas, identities and organisation across the Middle East, moving beyond the exclusionary and binary forms of identity to reveal the contingent factors that shape and order life across the region. iii Houses built on sand Violence, sectarianism and revolution in the Middle East Simon Mabon Manchester University Press iv Copyright © Simon Mabon 2020 The right of Simon Mabon to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. This electronic version has been made freely available under a Creative Commons (CC-BY-NC-ND) licence, which permits non-commercial use, distribution and reproduction provided the author(s) and Manchester University Press are fully cited and no modifications or adaptations are made. Details of the licence can be viewed at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ Published by Manchester University Press Altrincham Street, Manchester M1 7JA www.manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk British Library Cataloguing- in- Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN 978 1 5261 2646 7 hardback ISBN 978 1 5261 2647 4 open access First published 2020 The publisher has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for any external or third- party internet websites referred to in this book, and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate. Typeset by Newgen Publishing UK v This book is dedicated to my wife, meri douniyeh, Swarnalatha. It is also dedicated to my family: my parents Sally and George, and my in- laws, Padmavati and Sumohan. Deda, you remain with us, forever. vi vii Contents Foreword viii Acknowledgements x Introduction 1 1 The politics of sovereignty and space 9 2 Letters and declarations 32 3 Ink on paper 62 4 The dawla and the umma 92 5 Building Beirut, transforming Jerusalem and breaking Basra 125 6 The people want the fall of the regime 149 7 The regime fights back 181 8 Houses built on sand 211 Conclusion: The end of the dream 235 Selected bibliography 245 Index 248 viii Foreword Mehran Kamrava Scholars have long had a tendency to operate in silos, and those focusing on the Middle East have been no exception. Seldom, in fact, has there been fruitful dialogue between related disciplines. Area studies, including Middle Eastern studies, has been particularly guilty of this sin of omission, as very rarely has it engaged broader theoretical debates about some of the core concepts it employs in its analysis. Concepts such as ‘state’, ‘sovereignty’, ‘legitimacy’, ‘revolution’ and many others are often employed freely and with little or no attention to their genealogies, their meaning and use in other disciplines and some of the theoretical discussions surrounding them. The present volume is an exception to the rule, situating its subject of study firmly at the crossroads of Middle Eastern area studies and political theory, deftly also drawing from international relations, history and political sociology. In the pages to come, answers to three key questions are explored: what are the roots of sovereign power and the supporting logic of governmentality in the Middle East; the timing, means and reasons why sovereign power is contested; and implications of the fragmentation of sovereign power for the ordering of space across the Middle East. This ambitious task of interrogating the centrality of sovereignty at the heart of the political history of contemporary Middle East is achieved through meticulous employment of analytical tools from several disciplines. The manuscript begins with an exploration of the links between domestic and regional developments, pointing particularly to the importance of linkages of sovereignty, agency and human action, and the state. Investigations of the region’s political history, the role of religion in shaping politics and sovereignty, and pent-up social and political pressures and their eruption in the 2010–11 mass uprisings follow. To bring the journey to a conclusion, the book ends with the responses of local states to the uprisings, and how the ensuing domestic repercussions continue to reverberate and to shape the region’s politics. Trauma can be intergenerational, and from the earliest days of pan-Arabism in the 1950s up until today, the political history of the Middle East has been marked by one traumatic experience after another. Structures and states are important, but so are the memories of the individuals who experience and respond to them. Across the Middle East, the states and political structures that proliferated were invariably authoritarian, shaping both the ways the states sought to legitimise their rule and the responses they elicited in their legitimation efforts. One of the most potent of the responses came from the domain of religion and its articulation of competing claims to authority. Agency, structures, states and conceptions of legitimacy at variance with each other have been the defining forces of Middle East politics, giving rise to geo-sectarian politics and creating zones of possibility and restriction. ix Foreword ix These zones, and the unfolding of politics more generally, occur in urban areas. Urban design and architecture, intentional or accidental, and transformative processes such as gentrification, shape both the ways in which life can be regulated and the popular responses that structures and sources of authority elicit. These responses have led to a long history of urban political unrest across the region, culminating with unsurpassed contagion in what optimistically came to be called the Arab Spring. The Spring was not to be, however, soon reversed by the forces of violence, war and army coups. The outcome, ultimately, was no better than what had been replaced: houses built on sand, geopolitical sectarianisation, realignments and an American president globally plying his trade of commerce, his only trade, along with a young and ambitious prince determined to put his mark on Middle Eastern history. Indeed ‘end of a dream’, as the book soberly concludes. What we have before us here is a rich text, informed by meticulous scholarship, extensive fieldwork and meaningful engagement with existing scholarship in the field. More importantly, the volume is theoretically informed, presenting new insights and interpretations, and examines, in both subtle and overt manners, the struggle over sovereignty, and its meaning and consequences, that has shaped so much of contemporary politics in the Middle East. One only hopes the present volume becomes a model for future generations of scholars to follow. As such, it serves as an excellent inaugural volume for the Identities and Geopolitics in the Middle East series. x Acknowledgements Although this book has been four years in the making, its roots date back to my time as a philosophy undergraduate student where I encountered a paradox that articulates problems with defining vague predicates. As my journey into academia progressed, I later returned to the sorites paradox in an attempt to work through problems of borders, contestation and the limits of sovereign power in the Middle East where state power was becoming increasingly contested. It is the memory of a paradox that set me on this journey. While focusing on the Middle East, this book was written in countless countries where I have had the benefit of engaging with many people from different backgrounds whose continued support has enriched the project and although some may disagree, kept me sane. I have been fortunate to have spent a good deal of time travelling across the region where I have, on the whole, been met with incredible kindness. A number of people gave up time to be interviewed and I am incredibly thankful for to everyone who spoke with me. I have been lucky enough to present parts of this work at a range of institutions including Oxford, Harvard, St Andrews, King’s College, Georgetown Doha, George Mason, the LSE, Aarhus, Brookings, People’s College Nanded, Stockholm, Copenhagen and others, where I have received invaluable feedback. I am grateful to Carnegie Corporation for funding ‘Sectarianism, Proxies and De- Sectarianisation’ (SEPAD) and allowing me to explore particular aspects of this project, the wonderful team of SEPAD fellows whose presence on the project has facilitated my intellectual development and provided huge levels of emotional support. At Lancaster University, I have been able to count on a number of wonderful colleagues and a cohort of incredible PhD students who have read parts of this work. In particular, I must thank Rashed Al Rasheed, Meysam Tayebipour, Ali Seyadrazaghi, Adel Ruished, Amel Houna, Bekir Varoglu, Thanos Trappelides, Elias Ghazal, Ana Kumarasamy, Samira Nasirzadeh, Sukru Cildir, Eyad Al Refai, Mike Todman and David Waines who worked through the book in a reading group.