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Globalization, the State, and Narrative Plurality: Historiography in Saudi Arabia

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Globalization, the State, and Narrative Plurality: Historiography in Saudi Arabia Determann, Jorg Matthias (2012) Globalization, the state, and narrative plurality: historiography in Saudi Arabia. PhD Thesis. SOAS, University of London http://eprints.soas.ac.uk/14244 Copyright © and Moral Rights for this thesis are retained by the author and/or other copyright owners. A copy can be downloaded for personal non‐commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge. This thesis cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the copyright holder/s. The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders. When referring to this thesis, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given e.g. AUTHOR (year of submission) "Full thesis title", name of the School or Department, PhD Thesis, pagination. Globalization, the State, and Narrative Plurality: Historiography in Saudi Arabia Jorg Matthias Determann Thesis submitted for the degree of PhD in History 2012 Department of History School of Oriental and African Studies University of London 1 Declaration for PhD thesis I have read and understood regulation 17.9 of the Regulations for students of the School of Oriental and African Studies concerning plagiarism. I undertake that all the material presented for examination is my own work and has not been written for me, in whole or in part, by any other person. I also undertake that any quotation or paraphrase from the published or unpublished work of another person has been duly acknowledged in the work which I present for examination. Signed: ____________________________ Date: _________________ 2 Abstract This thesis examines historiography in modern Saudi Arabia. Many students of modern Arab historiography have focused on the development of historical professions and the historiographical legitimation of regimes. In contrast, this thesis seeks to explain the emergence of a plurality of historical narratives in the kingdom in the absence of formal political pluralism. It thus pays special attention to amateur and unofficial histories. Since the 1920s, texts about local, tribal and Shiite communities emerged that diverged from, and contested, the histories focusing on the royal family. They emphasized the communities’ historical independence from the Al Saud or asserted the communities’ importance in Saudi national history. Since the 1970s, distinct social and economic histories also developed. These histories described important historical events as the result of wider social and economic factors rather than the actions of individual rulers or communities. The thesis argues that this narrative plurality was the product of the building and expansion of the Saudi state in the context of globalization. The state subsidized not only dynastic histories, but also many texts on local, social and economic history. It also provided an increasing number of its citizens with education and employment in the expanding public sector. It thus empowered a variety of previously illiterate and relatively poor sections of Saudi society, including former Bedouin tribespeople, to produce conformist, but also dissenting histories. Globalization not only facilitated narrative plurality by putting Saudi historians in contact with different ideologies, methodologies, and source material from abroad, it also allowed authors to publish their works abroad and online beyond governmental censorship. But state expansion and globalization have not been restricted to Saudi Arabia, and this thesis suggests that these processes may also have led to narrative plurality in Arab historiography more generally, even under the conditions of authoritarianism. 3 Table of Contents Abstract .............................................................................................................................. 3 List of Figures ..................................................................................................................... 6 List of Abbreviations and Glossary....................................................................................... 7 Acknowledgments ............................................................................................................. 10 Note on Transliteration, Translation and References.......................................................... 13 1. Introduction ................................................................................................................... 14 Narrative plurality .......................................................................................................... 16 State expansion ............................................................................................................ 29 Globalization ................................................................................................................. 33 Sources ......................................................................................................................... 37 Overview of the thesis ................................................................................................... 41 2. Histories of a Muslim Arab Dynasty, Early Beginnings to 1960s ..................................... 44 The Ibn Ghannām School and the Saudi state ............................................................... 46 Foreigners and dynastic exclusivism .............................................................................. 62 Arab nationalism............................................................................................................ 77 3. Particularistic Local Histories, 1920s to 1970s ............................................................... 91 Narrating local political, religious and social traditions .................................................... 93 Perennialism ............................................................................................................... 106 Muslim pasts ............................................................................................................... 119 4. The Saudization of Dynastic Historiography, 1960s to Present ..................................... 136 King Abdulaziz and the foundation of Saudi Arabia ...................................................... 139 Unification, not jihad .................................................................................................... 155 Development ............................................................................................................... 168 5. Asserting Towns, Tribes and the Shiites in National History, 1970s to Present ............. 184 Local contribution histories .......................................................................................... 185 Tribes entering the arena ............................................................................................. 199 4 Shiite histories from revolution to contribution .............................................................. 219 6. Social and Economic Histories, 1970s to Present ........................................................ 230 From student missions to social history........................................................................ 232 Contextualizing the Wahhabi mission .......................................................................... 247 Theorizing the Saudi state ........................................................................................... 261 7. Conclusion .................................................................................................................. 277 An empowering state ................................................................................................... 279 Globalization and pluralization ..................................................................................... 282 Narrative plurality beyond Saudi Arabia ....................................................................... 284 Epilogue: The Saudi opening and historiography ......................................................... 289 Appendix ......................................................................................................................... 295 Bibliography .................................................................................................................... 299 Interviews .................................................................................................................... 299 Primary sources .......................................................................................................... 301 Secondary sources ...................................................................................................... 328 5 List of Figures Figure 1: Cover of Nāṣir al-Saʿīd, Tārīkh [1983/84]. ............................................................ 86 Figure 2: The Saudi coat of arms, adopted in 1950. ........................................................... 87 Figure 3: Official logo of the centenary in 1999 ................................................................ 155 Figure 4: Official logo of Fahd’s twentieth anniversary as king in 2001/2 .......................... 178 Figure 5: Map of Saudi Arabia ......................................................................................... 295 Figure 6: Provinces of Saudi Arabia ................................................................................. 296 Figure 7: Ban of The Entertainer’s
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