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Volume 7 - Number 9 June - July 2011 £4 | €5 | US$6.5 THIS ISSUE » NORTH AFRICA » PROTEST ON THE ROCKS BY HUGH ROBERTS » LIBYA: TRIBAL WAR OR POPULAR REVOLUTION? » TUNISIA, EGYPT… IS ALGERIA NEXT? » THE REVOLUTION WILL BE TELEVISED: THE ROLE OF MEDIA » LITTLE MOROCCO IN THE HEART OF NORTH KENSINGTON » BRITISH-MOROCCAN MUSICAL EXCHANGES » PLUS » POETRY, BOOKS AND EVENTS IN LONDON THIS ISSUE » NORTH AFRICA » PROTEST ON THE ROCKS BY HUGH ROBERTS » LIBYA: TRIBAL WAR OR POPULAR REVOLUTION? » TUNISIA, EGYPT… IS ALGERIA NEXT? » THE REVOLUTION WILL BE TELEVISED: THE ROLE OF MEDIA » LITTLE MOROCCO IN THE HEART OF NORTH KENSINGTON » BRITISH-MOROCCAN MUSICAL EXCHANGES » PLUS » POETRY, BOOKS AND EVENTS IN LONDON A Tunisian father and son with a placard that reads ‘Free Tunisia’, January 21, 2011 © Wassim Ben Rhouma About the London Middle East Institute (LMEI) Volume 7 - Number 9 June-July 2011 Th e London Middle East Institute (LMEI) draws upon the resources of London and SOAS to provide teaching, training, research, publication, consultancy, outreach and other services related to the Middle Editorial Board East. It serves as a neutral forum for Middle East studies broadly defi ned and helps to create links between Nadje Al-Ali individuals and institutions with academic, commercial, diplomatic, media or other specialisations. SOAS With its own professional staff of Middle East experts, the LMEI is further strengthened by its academic Narguess Farzad SOAS membership – the largest concentration of Middle East expertise in any institution in Europe. Th e LMEI also Nevsal Hughes has access to the SOAS Library, which houses over 150,000 volumes dealing with all aspects of the Middle Association of European Journalists East. LMEI’s Advisory Council is the driving force behind the Institute’s fundraising programme, for which Najm Jarrah it takes primary responsibility. It seeks support for the LMEI generally and for specifi c components of its George Joff é programme of activities. 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Co-ordinating Editor Anabel Inge LMEI Staff: Editorial Assistant Rhiannon Edwards Director Dr Hassan Hakimian Listings Deputy Director and Company Secretary Dr Sarah Stewart Vincenzo Paci-Delton Executive Offi cer Louise Hosking Designer Events and Magazine Coordinator Vincenzo Paci-Delton Shahla Geramipour Th e Middle East in London is published six times a year by the London Middle Disclaimer: Letters to the Editor: East Institute at SOAS Opinions and views expressed in the Middle East Please send your letters to the editor at Publisher and in London are, unless otherwise stated, personal the LMEI address provided (see left panel) Editorial Offi ce views of authors and do not refl ect the views of their or email [email protected] Th e London Middle East Institute School of Oriental and African Studies organisations nor those of the LMEI or the Editorial University of London Board. 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Contents LMEI Board of Trustees 4 16 23 Professor Paul Webley (Chairman) EDITORIAL POETRY LISTINGS: JUNE-JULY Director, SOAS Abu al-Qasim Al-Shabi and EVENTS H E Sir Vincent Fean KCVO Mohammed Bennis Consul General to Jerusalem Dr Ben Fortna, SOAS 5 Professor Graham Furniss, SOAS INSIGHT Professor Robert Hillenbrand Protest on the rocks 17 Edinburgh University Hugh Roberts REVIEWS: BOOKS Dr Karima Laachir, SOAS An Ottoman Traveller: Selections Mr Charles Richards from the Book of Travels of Evliya Professor Annabelle Sreberny, SOAS Çelebi translated and edited by Professor Sami Zubaida 7 Robert Dankoff and Sooyong Kim Birkbeck NORTH AFRICA Benjamin Fortna LMEI Advisory Council Libya: tribal war or popular revolution? Lady Barbara Judge (Chair) Igor Cherstich Professor Muhammad A. S. Abdel Haleem Near and Middle East Department, SOAS 18 H E Khalid Al-Duwaisan GVCO Tablet and Pen: Literary Ambassador, Embassy of the State of Kuwait Landscapes from the Modern Mrs Haifa Al Kaylani Middle East by Reza Aslan Arab International Women’s Forum 8 Th e revolution will be televised Atef Alshaer Dr Khalid Bin Mohammed Al Khalifa President, University College of Bahrain Dina Matar Professor Tony Allan King’s College and SOAS Dr Alanoud Alsharekh LMEI and Fellow, St Antony’s College 19 10 My Father’s Paradise: a Son’s Mr Farad Azima Iran Heritage Foundation Tunisia, Egypt… Algeria? Search for his Family’s Past by Professor Doris Behrens-Abouseif Youcef Bouandel Ariel Sabar Art and Archaeology Department, SOAS Luay Abdulilah Dr Noel Brehony MENAS Associates Ltd. Mr Charles L. O. Buderi Curtis, Mallet-Prevost, Colt & Mosle LLP 12 Dr Elham Danish Crossing cultural boundaries 20 Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia through music? BOOKS IN BRIEF Professor Nasser D. Khalili Carolyn Landau Nour Foundation Mr Kasim Kutay Moelis & Company Ms Heidi Minshall Middle East & North Africa Research Group, Foreign & Commonwealth Offi ce 14 22 Little Morocco in the heart of PROFILE Mr Rod Sampson Barclays Wealth, Dubai North Kensington Eberhard Kienle, research Dr Mai Yamani Myriam Cherti professor, Centre National de la Carnegie Middle East Centre Recherche Scientifi que, France Founding Sponsor and Member of the Advisory Council Sheikh Mohamed bin Issa al Jaber MBI Al Jaber Foundation June-July 2011 » The Middle East in London » 3 EEDITORIALDITORIAL DDearear RReadereader A demonstration in front of the Interior Ministry in the main street of Tunis, Habib Bourghuiba Avenue, January 2011 George Joff é, MEL Editorial Board he extraordinary events that have holiday habits of Britons, for Britain stands Africans will be more prominent factor in taken place in the Arab world during alongside France in NATO-led operations the growing ethnic diversity that shapes the Tthe last fi ve months began in North to protect civilians in Libya. Th e Foreign capital, whatever happens in the region. It Africa, so it is appropriate that this issue of and Commonwealth Offi ce is taking a great will also mean that, for us, the ‘Middle East’ Th e Middle East in London should focus on interest in the outcome of the Tunisian will expand westwards and we will take an that region. revolution. Increasing attention is being ever-greater interest in North Africa, which North Africa has normally received far paid at a national and European level as to was, until the start of this year, a neglected less attention in Britain than the rest of the how the Moroccan monarchy restructures part of the Arab world. Arab world. Britain has rarely been at the its relations with an increasingly vocal forefront of engagement with the south- opposition. And there is expectation about On behalf of the Editorial Board, I would west Mediterranean – that was traditionally the ability of Algeria’s Boutefl ika regime like to congratulate Shahla Geramipour on left to France, particularly in the wake of to engage popular expectations to avoid the birth of her son, Aptin, and Kathryn the Entente Cordiale of 1904, which set the another political collapse. Spellman Poots on the birth of her son, pattern of British and French policy in the Th ese events also have resonance here Th omas. We would also like to thank Hugh region throughout the 20th century. Libya in London, which has long-standing, Kennedy for his input while on the Editorial was something of an exception because of albeit relatively small, North African Board. It is with regret that we announce the Second World War and, latterly, because communities, concentrated in discrete the departure of Anabel Inge from the of British interest in Libyan oil and gas. parts of the city – North Kensington for magazine and thank her for all the work Yet, apart from tourism, the region never the Moroccans and Finsbury Park for the that she has done over the past three years penetrated British political or economic Algerians. in her capacity as Co-ordinating Editor – a horizons. Despite the British Government’s role she has performed with great skill and Since January, however, North Africa determination to avoid ‘burden-sharing’, it enthusiasm. She will be missed and we wish is no longer of marginal interest. It is not is inevitable that many new migrants will her all the best in her research. only the eff ect of recent events on the arrive here. Th at, in turn, means that North 4 » The Middle East in London » June-July 2011 IINSIGHTNSIGHT Hugh Roberts analyses the diff ering political contexts and consequences of the popular movements sweeping North Africa PProtestrotest oonn tthehe rrocksocks A man crouches near candles lit during the protests in Tunisia in January 2011 © Wassim Ben Rhouma (fl ickr.com/photos/ wassimbenrhouma) he protest movements that have then the Democratic Constitutional Rally) and, of course, the unemployed and urban arisen across North Africa are was created by freely acting nationalists poor.