North Africa » Protest on the Rocks by Hugh Roberts »

ROBERTS THIS ISSUE MUSICAL EXCHANGES LITTLE MOROCCO IN THE HEART OFNORTH KENSINGTON IS ALGERIANEXT? » LIBYA: TRIBAL WAR ORPOPULAR REVOLUTION? » »

THE REVOLUTION WILL BE TELEVISED: THE ROLEOFMEDIA NORTH AFRICA » PLUS

» POETRY, BOOKS AND EVENTS INLONDON

PROTEST ON THE ROCKSBY HUGH » BRITISH-MOROCCAN » TUNISIA, EGYPT… TUNISIA, 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 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. Cambridge University Max Scott Stacey International Sarah Searight Mission Statement: Society for Arabian Studies Kathryn Spellman Poots Th e aim of the LMEI, through education and research, is to promote knowledge of all aspects of the Middle AKU and LMEI East including its complexities, problems, achievements and assets, both among the general public and with Sarah Stewart LMEI those who have a special interest in the region. In this task it builds on two essential assets. First, it is based Ionis Th ompson in London, a city which has unrivalled contemporary and historical connections and communications with Society for Arabian Studies, the Middle East including political, social, cultural, commercial and educational aspects. Secondly, the LMEI Saudi-British Society is closely linked to SOAS, the only tertiary educational institution in the world whose explicit purpose is to Shelagh Weir SOAS provide education and scholarship on the whole Middle East from prehistory until today.

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. Although all advertising in the magazine is Th ornaugh Street, Russell Square London WC1H 0XG carefully vetted prior to publication, the LMEI does United Kingdom not accept responsibility for the accuracy of claims T: +44 (0)20 7898 4490 made by advertisers. F: +44 (0)20 7898 4329 E: [email protected] www.lmei.soas.ac.uk SSubscriptions:ubscriptions: ISSN 1743-7598 To receive Th e Middle East in London regularly, please refer to the LMEI affi liation form inside the back cover of this magazine. 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. Talready having diff erent fortunes before they took power and has been the With regard to democratic potential, and generating diff erent outcomes. primary source of power in Tunisia since the most serious movement has been the Although they may seem to constitute independence in 1956. Qaddafi ’s Libya Tunisian one. Th e emergence of the mass a single, relatively uniform, movement, is something else again, a fact refl ected protest had no precedent in independent they have developed in distinct national in its offi cial name. It is not a republic – Tunisia and was a historic moment that contexts. While observers may speak of an jumhuriyya – but a ‘state of the masses’ marked a revolutionary change in the social undiff erentiated wave of protest, this wave – jamahiriyya, and has no counterpart consciousness. Under the leadership of has been dashing against very diff erent elsewhere. sections of the trade union movement and rocks. Th e wave itself consists of diverse intelligentsia from early on, it has been the Th e rocks are the regimes that have elements. Th e unifying element has been most socially coherent movement. And by ruled the states of North Africa since opposition to despotic and arbitrary securing not only the fall of Ben Ali but independence. While only one of these, government, articulated in the single, also the dissolution of the ruling party and Morocco, is a monarchy and has been the negative demand that the despot ‘clear off ’ the abandonment of the long-standing least troubled by popular protests, the others (‘Ben Ali, dégage!’, ‘Mubarak, irhal!’). With constitution, it has precipitated political are by no means all alike. Egypt since 1952 regard to their positive outlook, however, change with genuinely revolutionary and Algeria since independence in 1962 the movements have been undeveloped implications because it is taking Tunisian have both been ruled by military-based and divided, a fact that refl ects their society into wholly unknown territory – regimes fronted by façade parties that have social heterogeneity, comprising as they though with no guarantee, of course, of a not been real parties but state apparatus do an unstable alliance of Westernised happy outcome. performing secondary legitimating intelligentsias and middle classes, Islamists While the scale of the Egyptian protests functions for the army-dominated power structure. Tunisia has been a genuine one-party state, despite the tolerance of In Egypt, the weakness of the protesters’ agenda will impotent ‘opposition’ parties in recent make it diffi cult to develop substantial parties out of years. Its ruling party (the Néo-Destour, renamed the Destourian Socialist Party the forces that combined in the demonstrations

June-July 2011 » The Middle East in London » 5 – without precedent since 1919 – also Th e political experience and refl exes that enabled Tunisian marked an historic change in the social consciousness, the political transformation and Egyptian protesters to remain mostly non-violent in prospect is more limited. Th is is not only because the protesters were fi xated were radically absent from the Libyan case on the negative demand that Mubarak go immediately and lacked a unifying others consider that his departure would exhibits three features that have made a positive agenda, but also because it took change little and that the way the oligarchy Tunisian or Egyptian scenario impossible. army intervention to secure Mubarak’s as a whole misgoverns the country cannot It has a very low level of institutionalisation, fall. What has happened, in eff ect, is a easily be remedied. In addition, Algeria has with informal relations and alliances military coup on the back of a popular been experiencing public protests for years, outweighing formal channels and protest. Th e fact that the army is back to and the regime has learned how to weather procedures, no political parties at all and political centre stage implies that change them. Moreover, whereas the Tunisian little ‘civil society’. A constitutive principle of will fall short of the democratisation of protest began on the periphery then moved the jamahiriyya, as explained in Qaddhafi ’s the state. Th e partial reforms in prospect towards the capital, gaining coherence Green Book, is the prohibition of any kind will modify the form of government by and focus en route, the January protests of formal political representation, whereas replacing the presidential absolutism of in Algeria began in the cities then spread all other North African states have allowed the Mubarak era with a more limited outwards across the country, becoming this in principle and, to a degree, in practice. presidentialism, subject to term limits more diff use in the process. Furthermore, Both state and society accordingly lack any and legitimated by more open elections. the destructive aspects of the initial riots, experience of formal political articulation, But this leaves a fundamental problem to expressing simply the fury of unemployed let alone negotiation, of signifi cant political be addressed: how Egyptian political life urban youth, alienated middle class opinion diff erences. Th e political experience and can be invigorated by the emergence of and inhibited the emergence of a trans-class refl exes that enabled Tunisian and Egyptian genuinely representative political parties. alliance against the authorities. President protesters to remain mostly non-violent Th e weakness of the protesters’ positive Boutefl ika’s decision on February 24 to lift and seek and fi nd possible interlocutors agenda means that it will be very diffi cult to the state of emergency in force since 1992 within the power structure were radically develop substantial parties out of the forces was not a concession to the protesters, but absent from the Libyan case. As a result, the that combined in the demonstrations. It also a move to pre-empt the development of the protest movement exhibited a violent aspect means that, outside the presidency, politics nascent democracy movement. early on, and the regime, seeing the state will be largely dominated by remnants of Libya is diff erent in another way. Th e itself menaced, reacted by violent repressive the former ruling party and the Muslim crucial point is that the distinction between refl ex, and the logic of civil war quickly set Brothers in what could become a tense the regime and the state – a distinction in. political rivalry but also a largely sterile one. made in Tunisia and Egypt, which explains Already the prospect is an ominous one, Algeria is a case apart. Th e regime is not why the army in both cases could remain since the overthrow of the Qaddhafi regime an autocracy but an oligarchy, with power neutral between protesters and presidency will mean the collapse of the state itself, divided between the army command and arbitrate the confl ict – simply does not which could permit the emergence of a and intelligence services, as well as the obtain in Libya. Qaddhafi led the revolution vacuum similar to Somalia or Afghanistan presidency. President Boutefl ika has held that destroyed the monarchy and founded aft er the fall of Najibullah. A catastrophic offi ce only since 1999, and while some the present state. In a real sense, l’état, c’est development of this kind would be Algerians blame him for their frustrations, lui. Moreover, Qaddhafi ’s jamahiriyya destabilising for the whole region, gravely prejudicing the democratic prospects in Tunisia and Egypt while also causing problems to the north, given that Libya is located on Europe’s southern doorstep. Only if the two sides come to accept the need to negotiate a compromise formula for an orderly political transition can there be a good outcome for Libya and the region as a whole.

Based on a presentation to a public meeting on ‘Egypt, Tunisia and Beyond: Democracy in the Arab World Now’, organised by the London Review of Books, March 3, 2011

Hugh Roberts is Director of the North Africa Project of the International Crisis Group

Demonstration in front of the Egyptian Embassy

6 » The Middle East in London » June-July 2011 NNORTHORTH AFRICAAFRICA Libya:Libya: tribal war or popular revolution?

Libyan society may be tribal, but the confl ict is not, says Igor Cherstich © Nasser Nouri ibyan society is tribal. Th e Libyan uprising, however, is not a tribal Lconfl ict. Th is equation might appear contradictory, but it is not. Tribal dynamics have played and will play an important role in the Libyan confl ict, but tribalism is not the only factor to take into account. Th e leadership of the Warfalla, together with some sections of the Magariah – two Rebel fi ghters during heavy shelling by of the most infl uential tribes of Western forces loyal to Qaddhafi near Bin Jawad, March 2011 Libya – have publicly defected from the government’s side, declaring that Qaddhafi connections in their everyday lives, do not and affi liations. However, they do not refer ‘is no longer a brother’. Th is declaration is know who their tribal leaders are. In this to Libya as a geographical space occupied by particularly important as the two groups sense, tribalism is not a static and clear-cut tribes but as a recognisable entity, a country had an established fi delity (though not network of fi xed relationships, but rather a whose history is rooted, among other continuous) to the regime, and today language that people use in everyday life for things, in precise symbols of anti-colonial the interim prime minister appointed by diff erent purposes. Th is fl exibility explains resistance. Th e protagonists of the struggle the anti-Qaddhafi forces is eff ectively a not only how a member of a historically against the Fascist colonisers, though Warfalla: Mahmud Jibril. Nonetheless, a minor tribe like Qaddhafi was able to stage members of specifi c tribes, are described view of the uprising as a confl ict regulated a coup in 1969, but also how, in the minds as national heroes. Bearing this in mind, purely by tribal motivations is misleading of many Libyans, tribal affi liation does not the Libyan uprising cannot be reduced to a and, more importantly, is based on a necessarily contradict national identity. tribal aff air. Th e two camps involved in the simplistic understanding of what tribes are Without doubt, ‘tribe’ and ‘nation’ are fi ghting are making use of tribal affi liations, about in Libya. concepts that have been combined in a but this does not necessarily imply that It is important to clarify that tribal links specifi c way by the Qaddhafi propaganda. Libyans are unable to think nationally. in Libya are signifi cant, but they are also Th e Green Book explains how the As soon as the anti-Qaddhafi forces fl exible. Th ere are about 140 tribal groups jamahiriyya, (the ‘state of the masses’, managed to liberate the east of the country, in the country. However, some Libyan the current political system in Libya) is a they summoned a tribal council in the tribes are not geographically homogeneous national entity that is modelled on the idea city of Al Baydha that called immediately entities that can easily mobilise people of ‘tribe’ as form of natural organisation and for the creation of a transitional national when required. In other words, though not on the notion of ‘state’, which is seen as council. Th is should not be taken to mean they have zones of infl uence, they count an artifi cial construction. However, far from that those that sided against Qaddhafi are, members in diff erent areas of the country. being mere rhetorical tools adopted by the in fact, tribes that pretend to be part of a Th e Fwatir tribe, for instance, though regime, ‘tribe’ and ‘nation’ are also concepts national organisation. On the contrary, it is historically attached to the area of Zliten, is that play an important role in the language simply that Libyans are able to discern when diff used in small groups all over Libya. Th is of self-determination of the Libyan people, the language of tribal affi liation is enough, is relevant particularly in light of the fact and this has to be considered when looking and when the national connotation that is that many Libyans, even those that value at the uprising. part of ‘being Libyan’ has to be re-affi rmed. their tribal membership and rely on tribal Libyans might be aware of tribal divisions Libyans are not fi ghting a tribal war, but a popular revolution through tribal means.

Tribalism is not a static and clear-cut network of fi xed Igor Cherstich is a Doctoral Candidate relationships, but rather a language that people use in in Social Anthropology at SOAS. He has conducted extensive ethnographic fi eldwork everyday life in diff erent ways and for diff erent purposes in both Eastern and Western Libya

June-July 2011 » The Middle East in London » 7 NNORTHORTH AFRICAAFRICA Dina Matar analyses the role of the media © Paul Keller – old and new – in the uprisings across the Arab world

TThehe revolutionrevolution wwillill bebe televisedtelevised

he role of media in the momentous of media in these changes. Likewise, it seller, the former regime of Zine el-Abidine uprisings that shook many parts of would be a mistake to ignore the fact that Ben Ali allowed no opposition of any kind, Tthe Arab world at the beginning of these uprisings took place in the age of no criticism of the president, hardly any 2011 remains a subject of intense debate. digital media which, in their various forms civil society, banned much of the foreign It is too early to make statements on how and formats, can provide platforms for and Arab press and whatever part of the these revolutions happened and where they oppositional discourses and novel forms of internet it deemed even remotely dangerous are leading to, or how the masses rebelled in politics, and in an age in which formal or – including Facebook and similar social contexts where rebellion seemed impossible. state media are no longer the only game in media. Th e consensus is that these are broad-based town and no longer can provide legitimacy In Egypt, which followed Tunisia with popular movements fuelled by, among other to unpopular authoritarian regimes, even surprising speed, the regime of ousted concerns, state repression, a lack of basic under the pretexts of national security, president Hosni Mubarak followed a more human rights and freedoms – including the stability or resistance to Israel, such as the ambiguous and dangerous position in its right to free speech – economic deprivation, case of Syria. bid to suppress public dissent, allowing wealth disparities and widespread Most of the Arab countries experiencing some criticism of government in fi lm, corruption. mass protests against repressive regimes, literature, the independent media and in It would be a mistake to make from Morocco to Bahrain, have exercised an expanding blogosphere. At the same generalisations about these events without and continue to exercise excessive control of time the regime used its powerful security extensive grounded study of the specifi c media, suggesting rulers themselves deem apparatus to clamp down on activists and historical, political, economic and cultural media an important structure of power opponents when it deemed this necessary. contexts under which long-standing and a key institution for the control of the However, these strategies collapsed as soon structures of power break down and novel masses and for managing discourse. In as the daunted security system did, due to forms of politics emerge, and it would be Tunisia, where the fi rst unprecedented mass relentless popular pressure that eventually problematic to privilege a technologically protests followed a simple act of sacrifi ce unhinged Mubarak’s 30-year rule in just deterministic argument about the role and defi ance by a previously unknown fruit- 18 days. Crucially, the defi ning moment signalling the end of the regime came Most of the Arab countries experiencing mass protests have on January 28, when all communication technologies, including most internet exercised and continue to exercise excessive control of media services and phones, were barred, arguably

8 » The Middle East in London » June-July 2011 All revolutions write their own narratives, their own narrative, on the ground and in the media, mobilising television, new media and media are part of this process and protest spaces to convey their demands to other nationals and to the outside world. In this respect, the protesters, just as in their encouraging people to mobilise and engage and liberalisation processes though these use of social media, participated in framing in ‘street’ rather than ‘cyber’ politics. measures were not suffi cient to quench the events by communicating directly with Networked digital activists came anger in many instances. Signifi cantly, in audiences, as well as with their opponents together with various opposition groups, Egypt, media reforms and a total overhaul (governments) through the television many of which were not organised under of state media remain at the top of the cameras and in their own homemade formal structures or political parties, agenda of the coalition of the forces for language. to contest power in symbolic spaces in change. All revolutions write their own narratives, the polis. Street politics became a grand Th e uprisings were undoubtedly the and media are part of this process. In spectacle of togetherness as protesters televised formative events par excellence such contexts, we have to remember that fended off frenzied attacks by security for the millions of youth who spearheaded communication and politics are not (and forces and managed to disseminate their them in Tunisia, Egypt and elsewhere. have never been) inseparable acts: changing own narrative in creative, disciplined, Arab satellite channels, most notably Al- the public mood, mobilising opinion and organised and subversive ways, using social Jazeera, in turn provided them with a grand people, encouraging participation and networking sites, such as Facebook and spectacle of the type that had shaped the the birth of novel forms of politics are all Twitter. Crucially, they also used age-old political consciousness of every generation communicative acts that are central to forms of communication, such as leafl ets, before them in modern Arab history. Al- doing politics and to being political within communiqués and even door-to-door visits. Jazeera stood out in its populist reporting diff erent contexts. Media, in the end, are not Th e language of the emerging informal of events in Egypt, in particular, with some the message, but part of these contexts. politics was a simple and catchy one: ‘Th e dubbing it ‘the channel of the revolution’, as people want to overthrow the regime,’ a it provided a non-stop mediated connection Dina Matar is Senior Lecturer in Arab Media mantra replicated in almost every other to Tahrir Square, the site of some of the and Political Communication at SOAS Arab protest that followed, from Yemen most moving and powerful street politics to Morocco, and a message that resonated and protest language to come out of the with Arab populations unused to witnessing uprisings. Al-Jazeera English, broadcasting opposition to power of this type. 24 hours a day and free to view throughout In Libya, where protests that began on the world, became a primary news source February 17 turned into an armed rebellion, for Western audiences and demand for media reporting of the regime’s intended its online services grew even in the US, (Opp0site) The Al-Jazeera English newsroom at brutal assault against civilians was largely where offi cials for the fi rst time praised the broadcast centre in Doha, Qatar credited with precipitating the international the channel’s reporting, in stark contrast to intervention in the crisis, irrespective of its the criticism of the channel following the (Below) A tweet that was transmitted during the protests, retweeted by over 100 people, using long-term objective. Th e regime’s backlash September 11 attacks. But in the end it was the popular hashtag of the Egyptian protests against the media and the condemnation the protesters themselves who controlled ‘Jan25’ of non-state media as foreign agents and traitors – a well-worn tactic all the Arab regimes seemed to follow, despite its failure to deter the masses – with links to outside powers, fundamentalist Islamist groups and even Israel, only served further to discredit the state media and regimes. In almost all the Arab uprisings, Facebook pages were created by what was generally referred to as the youth of the revolution(s) with the simple aim of communicating information about dates for mass protests and places to meet, or reporting developments, thus serving to mobilise large numbers of people empowered by small gains made every day through determination, solidarity and the creative use of public space. Many governments, such as Morocco, Algeria, Bahrain and Syria, moved swift ly to introduce reforms promising more freedoms, including press freedoms, again suggesting media institutions are seen as central to reforms

June-July 2011 » The Middle East in London » 9 NNORTHORTH AFRICAAFRICA Algeria’s history of anti-regime demonstrations has led some to predict that it, too, will fall prey to the ‘domino eﬀ ect’. Yet such an event is unlikely, provided that promised reforms materialise, says Youcef Bouandel TTunisia,unisia, © Magharebia EEgypt…gypt… AAlgeria?lgeria?

he fi rst quarter of 2011 has world were experienced by Algeria in 1988. pressure the then President Chadli seen a series of events that were In October of that year, demonstrators Bendjedid to resign. In February a state Tunthinkable at the start of the took to the streets of the major cities to of emergency was declared, and a month year – namely, the demise of the Tunisian demand economic and political reforms to later the FIS was banned and thousands of and Egyptian presidents. Lives have been improve living conditions. Th e riots led to its members and supporters were unjustly lost in violent demonstrations in Yemen, a series of political reforms that ended the jailed. Th ese actions have resulted in Syria and Bahrain, while Libya has been one-party rule and established a multiparty some of the most unspeakable atrocities witnessing what can only be termed a civil system, with plural elections at local and independent Algeria has ever witnessed. war. Demonstrations have also occurred regional levels in 1990s and the fi rst round In addition to the internal displacement of in Morocco, Jordan, Iraq and Algeria. of legislative elections in 1991. hundreds of thousands of people, mostly Despite the diff erences between the Against all expectations, the fi rst round from rural areas, about 200,000 people respective experiences of these countries saw an overwhelming win for the Islamic were killed, 20,000 disappeared and half and the demands of groups, what these Salvation Front (FIS), which won 188 of a million, mostly Algeria’s best-qualifi ed demonstrations have in common is the the 232 seats decided in the fi rst round, professionals, left the country. call for an end to corruption and for so needed just 28 of the remaining 198 In 1999 President Abdulaziz Boutefl ika the opening up of the political space. seats in the National Assembly to form a was ‘elected’ president. He managed to halt Nonetheless, despite predictions that government. Th e second round, scheduled the violence through a series of conciliatory Algeria might be next aft er Tunisia and for January 16, 1992, would have seen the measures, and received overwhelming Egypt – especially given its history of FIS competing in over 150 of the seats support in a referendum in September that demonstrations against the regime over the and was certain to win the party a very year. Nonetheless, despite the return of past decade or so, and particularly the riots comfortable majority suffi cient to form peace and the strong health of the Algerian in early January 2011 – the country has a government. Th is prospect prompted economy, the country still suff ers from acute generally remained peaceful and further the military to nullify the results of the socioeconomic conditions. Th e realisation reforms have been promised. fi rst round – abruptly halting the electoral of mega-projects, such as the East-West Th e so-called revolutions in the Arab process – cancel the second round and Highway and the building of many dams in diff erent corners of the country, has certainly created thousands of jobs, but it What Algerians have revolted against is their contemptuous has also led to corruption allegations in both areas of economic activity, as well as treatment by bureaucrats, security forces and ‘elected’ in Sonatrach, the government oil and gas representatives who are there to serve them company.

10 » The Middle East in London » June-July 2011 Demonstrations are a feature of Algerian daily life; over the past decade, Algeria already experienced a ‘revolution’ in the late hardly a month has passed by without a 1980s and it resulted in a level of violence that demonstration being recorded somewhere, consisting of groups ranging from teachers left the country and its citizens scarred and university professors to doctors and students, among others. Perhaps the most important were the 2001 demonstrations parties have been engaged in opposing media, television and radio stations up to in Algiers and those in the Berber region each other, instead of presenting a united the private sector is still a distant hope. in 2001-03, as well as the most recent ones front to the authorities. Th e recent heated Finally, because of the fi nancial muscles since January 2011. Until recently, these exchange of mutual accusation between of the pouvoir, several increases in salaries demonstrations, at least on the surface, did Louisa Hannoune, leader of the Workers’ have been approved, as well as generous not have any specifi c political demands for Party, and Noureddine Ait Hamouda, a loans for the unemployed to start their own regime change, nor for specifi c political member of the National Assembly for the businesses. However, these fi nancial steps reforms. On the whole, they have centered Rally for Culture and Democracy, is an have been taken without any consideration on the improvement of socioeconomic example par excellence of the role of the for the economic implications, such as conditions – housing, employment, salaries Algerian opposition. Th ese factors go far infl ation; they were hastily introduced to and working conditions – as well as an end in explaining the failure of the National ease already volatile economic and social to corruption. What Algerians have revolted Coordination for Change and Democracy, conditions. against is el hogra – a concept that has been established on January 21, 2011, to gather Yet it does not automatically follow that overused in the Algerian vocabulary over suffi cient support to pressure the regime to Algeria is immune from the changes that the past decade – that is, the contemptuous introduce reforms. have been seen in the Middle East and treatment to which ordinary Algerians are Fourthly, while in Tunisia and Egypt North Africa. Th e pouvoir has a chance to subjected by bureaucrats, security forces the systems were clearly identifi ed with initiate a series of reforms that would ensure and ‘elected’ representatives who are there to the presidents and their parties, this is a smoother transition to a more democratic serve them. not the case in Algeria. Th e system here, and open system – indeed, the president Th e riots of January 2011 have on the known locally as le pouvoir (‘the powers outlined some of the proposed reforms in a surface been a reaction to the increases in that be’), includes the military, which, speech on April 15. But if the regime fails to the prices of basic food stuff , such as sugar whether Boutefl ika stays or goes, would initiate this process, it will be forced to do so and oil. But they also highlight the deeper not change the nature of the political in time. problems in Algerian politics, such as the system. Additionally, the lift ing of the state absence of representative and credible of emergency on February 24 has been Dr Youcef Bouandel, a graduate of the elective institutions that not only represent well received and represents a step upon Universities of Algiers and Glasgow, is the interests of the people, but also act as a which further political reforms can be built. Associate Professor of International Aff airs at watchdog over the actions of the executive. However, it seems to be the only concession Qatar University Furthermore, political parties, as well as that the pouvoir has made. Legalising civil society, are too small and fragmented more political parties and opening the

to make a major diff erence. In general, © Magharebia it seems that these institutions, far from representing the interests of the people, are more instruments for social mobility and access to the privileges that membership of such institutions bring. At fi rst glance, the seeds of a Tunisian and / or Egyptian-style uprising do exist in Algeria. However, such an event is unlikely, at least for the foreseeable future. Firstly, Algeria already experienced a ‘revolution’ in the late 1980s and, in addition to a façade democracy, it resulted in a level of violence that left the country and its citizens scarred. Secondly, unlike in Tunisia and Egypt, the Algerian military has a history of actually shooting at people. Th e riots of December 1988 resulted in about 500 people being killed in less than four days. Th irdly, Algerian opposition

(Opposite) Algerian protesters in 2008 (Right) Algerian security services clash with youth demonstrating over high unemployment and food prices in January 2011

June-July 2011 » The Middle East in London » 11 NNORTHORTH AFRICAAFRICA

Carolyn Landau on the BBC Symphony Orchestra’s education and outreach project and its place in the developing musical relationship between Morocco and Britain © Simon Jay Price CCrossingrossing cculturalultural bboundariesoundaries tthroughhrough mmusic?usic?

lone musician from Meknes, central striking. Once recovered from the initial held in the British Library, for example, Morocco, steps on to the colourfully shock of unexpected sonic bombardment, reveals that musical exchanges between Alit stage at Notting Hill’s trendy and the audience begin to clap and ululate the two countries go back at least half a intimate concert venue, the Tabernacle. enthusiastically, while the members of century: from the rock ‘n’ roll forays of Holding a pair of trance-inducing iron the orchestra make their way through the the Rolling Stones into the foothills of the castanets (known as qaraqeb – traditionally auditorium and on to the stage. Rif Mountains in north-west Morocco used by the Gnawa Brotherhood in their all- Th us began the ‘overture’ to the to collaborate with the Master Musicians night healing ceremonies), he lift s his arms BBC Symphony Orchestra’s (BBCSO) of Jajouka in the Sixties; to ethnographic in the air, counts to four and gesticulates ‘Diverse Orchestras 2011: Morocco and recording expeditions by ethnomusicologist enthusiastically towards the back of the its Neighbours’ community concert. Th e Jean Jenkins for the Horniman Museum’s auditorium. Th e audience’s puzzlement concert, which also featured performances 1976 World of Islam Festival; to visits turns quickly to surprise as a ‘family by the Fez Andalusian Orchestra, a ‘Fusion to London by an Arabo-Andalusian orchestra’ comprising over 50 amateur Project’, and the Elgin String Trio, was one ensemble from Tetouan as part of the same musicians ranging in age from seven to of several events that took place in mid London-wide festival; to the numerous 70, together with another 12 professional January this year as part of an ongoing other musicians who have travelled from musicians, begin to play a syncopated BBCSO project, partly funded by the British all over Morocco to perform at concerts rhythm from south-west Morocco on an Council, focusing on Morocco. and festivals across Britain subsequently; array of un-tuned percussion instruments Th is is not the fi rst time that Britain and to those who have remained in Britain and from the back of the concert hall. Th e sound Morocco have explored each other’s musical gradually created a lively Moroccan music is deafening and the look of determination traditions. A quick glance at the thousand scene. and delight on the performers’ faces or so audio recordings of Moroccan music Th e broader relationship between the

12 » The Middle East in London » June-July 2011 two countries does, of course, go back much further than these audio-musical Th e sound is deafening. Once recovered from the initial documents might suggest, long predating shock of unexpected sonic bombardment, the audience the birth of sound recording. Diplomatic and economic links between Morocco begin to clap and ululate enthusiastically and Britain date back to the 13th century when King John of England sent envoys young violinist – to perform with maestro with the Moroccan Royal Symphony to Morocco to ask for the aid of the fourth Abdessadak Chekara and his Arabo- Orchestra, whose general manager spent Almohad ruler, Mohammed El-Nasir. And Andalus orchestra from Tetouan at the a week in January observing the BBCSO migration from Morocco to Britain began Queen Elizabeth Hall in 1987, the broadcast and their education and outreach activities. as early as the 19th century, with traders recording of which is archived in the British He was impressed by the diverse activities in silverware and textiles coming from Library. Since then, Mustapha Serbout of the orchestra during its North Africa the Imperial city of Fez to Manchester in has continued to perform this ancient week – in rehearsal, recording sessions and around 1830. Documentation suggests repertoire, considered the ‘classical’ music of performances of repertoire composed by that this community had grown to 150 the Maghreb, at weddings, parties, concerts North African composers and compositions during the 1890s but returned to Morocco and festivals around Britain. Th is particular inspired by the region; watching the BBCSO in 1930 due to competition from Japanese performance fuses together elements Learning Team at work with members traders. It was another 30 years before of Mustapha’s musical heritage with an of the general public collaboratively a more signifi cant phase of migration Egyptian folk song and a 12-beat Indian composing ‘North African fl avoured’ pieces from Morocco to Britain began. During Raga. Th e eight musicians (fi ve members of and conducting drumming and story- the 1960s, just as the Rolling Stones were the BBCSO and three London-based North telling workshops in local primary schools. beginning to spend time with the expatriate African musicians) have composed the Th ere is now talk of taking orchestral community in Tangiers while exploring piece collaboratively in the week running members and recording technicians to the ear-piercing sound of the double-reed up to the performance under the direction Rabat to deliver a series of workshops as (ghaita) ensembles, so unskilled workers of ‘animateur’, composer and pianist, Fraser they attempt to ‘revive Western Classical from this same region in north-west Trainer. Th e Fusion Project has become a music in Morocco’. Whether or not this Morocco came to work in the service tradition of the BBCSO’s Diverse Orchestras particular relationship blossoms, the eff ects industries in Britain, many hired by Spanish week, allowing members of this prestigious of the week of workshops, concerts, radio nationals. Th is was followed, in the 1970s, Western symphony orchestra, along broadcasts and ongoing conversations by a phase of family reunifi cation; in the with their various non-Western musical organised by the BBCSO is surely engrained 1980s by young, semi-skilled professionals collaborators, to ‘explore alternative ways into each participant’s memory. From the and entrepreneurs migrating from large of making music and to cross cultural and chaotic and energetic performance by the cities across Morocco; and from the 1990s musical boundaries during the process’. Family Orchestra to the world première onwards, the migration of highly skilled So where next for this ever-modulating of English composer Anne Dudley’s professionals. Anglo-Moroccan musical conversation? arrangement of a traditional Andalusi song Back at the Notting Hill gig, one of the One possibility, following a couple of for the Fez Andalus Orchestra and the Moroccan musicians taking part in the fact-fi nding trips to Morocco by the Chief BBCSO, audiences and performers seemed ‘Fusion Project’ tells me how his initial Producer of the BBCSO since 2009, is the equally moved and delighted and eager to migratory journey to Britain was as a development of a mentoring relationship continue encountering and exploring each other’s music.

For details of the Moroccan audio recordings in the British Library, visit www.bl.uk/ wtm and www.moroccanmemories.org.uk/ jean_jenkins

Carolyn Landau is the Leverhulme Early Career Fellow in the Department of Music at King’s College London, researching the nature, role and impact of music in Muslim communities in London

(Opposite) The Fez Andalusian Orchestra, led by Maestro Mohamed Briouel, performs music from the Arabo-Andalusian repertoire, January 2011 (Left) Lincoln Abbots leads the BBCSO Family Orchestra and Chorus in a performance of new music based on traditional North African texts

June-July 2011 » The Middle East in London » 13 NNORTHORTH AFRICAAFRICA Myriam Cherti assesses the culturally proliﬁ c yet statistically invisible Moroccan community in London LLittleittle MoroccoMorocco iinn tthehe hhearteart ooff NNorthorth KKensingtonensington © M Cherti

f Manchester was the primary reference were hired by Spanish patrons to work in England was the large number of women for early Moroccan migration in the 19th service industries, such as hotels and small who arrived as independent migrants in Icentury, north Kensington has become businesses that started to prosper in the the early 1970s. Th ey were single, widows, the reference for this community’s more climate of economic growth at that time. divorcees or female heads of households recent migration in the 20th century. Th is A small minority was also hired to fi ll job who supported their families with migration has remained fairly invisible, both vacancies in the National Health Service. their earnings. Th is indicates an earlier statistically and historically. Th e majority of immigrants were unskilled feminisation of migration, in contrast to Th e presence of Moroccans in London, workers originating mostly from the common descriptions of migrant labour especially, can be seen in their many northern part of Morocco, more specifi cally in which females fi rst come into view in mosques, grocery stores, cafes, restaurants, the Jbala region (Khmiss Sahel, Beni connection with family reunifi cation. In voluntary organisations and supplementary Gharfet, Beni Arouss), Larache, Tetouan, the Moroccan case, many wives came fi rst schools. Yet this community remains Tangiers and the surrounding areas, with with work permits and were joined later by offi cially and statistically relatively a smaller community from Meknes and their husbands and children. Th e absence of invisible. A precise estimate of the size Oujda. Most settled in London and other bilateral international agreements indirectly of the Moroccan community in England large cities, others in towns such as Slough, enabled this process of early female is not available, mainly because British Crawley and Trowbridge. migration. Th e recruitment of potential Government statistics are not a particularly A key feature of Moroccan migration to Moroccan migrants was not restricted by helpful resource in this sense. Unoffi cial fi gures estimate the number of Moroccans In contrast to common descriptions of migrant labour… in Britain to be over 60,000, with at least 30,000 in London alone. many wives came fi rst with work permits, to be Most Moroccans who came in the 1960s joined later by their husbands and children

14 » The Middle East in London » June-July 2011 the British government. Th e minimal state interest in steering this immigration also Th e relatively low educational and skill means that it can hardly be traced in offi cial levels of the fi rst generation have allowed statistics. Th e great majority of those originating little upward mobility for many Moroccans from the north of Morocco ended up living in a specifi c part of London – Golborne group are able to secure important positions Moroccans in England are part of a Road in north Kensington, which became within diff erent sectors of the economy, community which, in social terms, is commonly known as ‘Little Morocco’. the rest face diffi culties in accessing the job still very young; oft en communities pass Cheap housing, as well as the local councils’ market and oft en experience signifi cant through a number of development stages policy in housing allocation, also played a levels of unemployment. in order to reach full emancipation and key role in infl uencing this geographical Moroccans in London maintain close a sizeable representation at the social, distribution of Moroccans. ties with their home country. Th e majority, economic and political levels of the host Most Moroccans were recruited to fi ll whether from the fi rst, second or even country. Th is process of growth takes time vacancies in the English labour market, third generation, all go back to Morocco at but it is starting to be perceptible, especially mainly in the hotel and catering businesses. least once a year; it has almost become an among some members of the second However, because of their limited skills and essential part of being a Moroccan living generation who are becoming more civically lack of English, they almost inevitably took abroad. For the fi rst generation, the yearly and politically involved than their parents. the lowest paid jobs, providing little scope visits to Morocco indicate an essential trip Th e more recent phases of Moroccan for career mobility. Th e fl uency of some in to see the part of their immediate family migration to England in the mid 1980s, with Spanish, especially those who originated who stayed behind. Th is summer ritual is young entrepreneurs, and the early 1990s, from the north of Morocco, infl uenced to also an essential medium through which with highly skilled migrants, are also playing a great extent their choice of job, as many parents attempt not only to instil in their an instrumental role in this development purposely chose Spanish employers to children a love of Morocco, but also to pass process. overcome their language barrier. In a similar on that Moroccan identity to their off spring. pattern, the same networks of friends and Th e second and third generations’ Myriam Cherti is Senior Research Fellow relatives that have encouraged migrants to trip back to Morocco has become a way at the Institute for Public Policy Research come to England also assisted several in of constructing a new, shared identity and author of the dissertation ‘Paradoxes of their job search. with other Moroccans living abroad. Th e Social Capital: a cross generational study of Moroccans in England, especially those regularity of the trip and the length of stay Moroccans in London’ who came in the 1960s, oft en display a for some is almost an indicator of their strong tendency for self-containment, ‘Moroccan-ness’. mutual support and an ability to face up to the diffi culties of displacement and © M Cherti migration. Over the years, they had to strive hard to establish their own religious and social facilities, mosques and Qur’anic and Arabic classes for members of the younger generation. In London alone there are more than 15 Moroccan voluntary organisations catering for the needs of their local communities by providing advice and support in accessing services, especially to the fi rst generation, which still remains relatively isolated because of the language barrier and lack of knowledge of how the system works. Th e relatively low educational and skill levels of the fi rst generation have allowed little upward mobility for many Moroccans. For the younger generation of Moroccans, an increasing diff erentiation in educational careers is taking place. A small group is (Opposite) A woman gaining access to higher professional and walks her son through university education, while there is another the streets of North group that does not get past secondary Kensington, passing shops and cafés set education and lower vocational education. up by the Moroccan Between these two extremes there is a community large group who graduate from the highest (Right) A work permit level of vocational education and college issued to a Moroccan education. While members of the fi rst migrant in 1950

June-July 2011 » The Middle East in London » 15 PPOETRYOETRY

And fi nally, Mohammed Bennis, the contemporary and award-winning Moroccan poet, born in Fez in 1948. He is an honorary member of the International Association of Haiku in Tokyo and was awarded ‘Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres’ by France. Bennis is one of the most infl uential literary voices in the Arab world and is associated with the modernisation of Arabic poetry. He was the founding member of the magazine Al Thaqafa Al Jadida (‘the new culture’), which played an active role in the cultural life of Morocco until it was closed down by the government in When considering the poetry of Algeria, Morocco or Tunisia, 1984, after unrest in Casablanca. He was also one of the the selector is faced with the diffi culty of which means of driving forces behind the establishment of an international expression to choose from, French or Arabic? The French poetry day and, fi nally, in 1999 the UNESCO declared March colonial educational system, particularly in Algeria but to a 21 as International World Poetry Day. Below are extracts lesser extent in Tunisia, meant that many of the renowned from his poem ‘Seven Birds’. and socially engaged poets of these countries wrote in French – often not as a choice but of necessity, simply because their Arabic was not good enough to express the depth of their feelings. One such poet is Malek Haddad SSeveneven Biirrddss (1927-1978), whose two anti-colonial collections of poems are entitled Trouble in Danger (1956) and Listen and I Will By Mohammed Bennis, Translated by Fady Call (1961) – both written in French. When Algeria became independent in 1962, Haddad refused to write any more in Joudah the language of the ‘enemy’ and, incapable of producing the A White Bird same quality of verse in Arabic, he ended his days in ‘poetic A breath condenses silence’. Whether the Tunisian uprising will be completely Even density can be pleasant successful in ushering in the reforms that the people long Each wall widens its cracks for remains to be seen, but as every week unfolds, its And retains the call A height that remains a height ripples travel far and wide across the Arab world. Many of Springs that have gathered the winds of the fi elds the young in the region, who have reclaimed the streets, recite and fi nd inspiration from the following well-known A Green Bird poem of the Tunisian poet Abu Al-Qasim Al-Shabi (1909- Th ere are sleeping feathers before me 1934), opening with the lines: Feathers that blast me with the fi re of distance And feathers without a body that bend And collect In a point TThehe TTyrantsyrants ooff tthehe Between us speech is fl uttering A Black Bird Each thing wants to emulate it WWorldorld Water in the pots Words on their birthdays Caravans across borders By Abu Al-Qasim Al-Shabi, translated by A girl not yet wet with dew But the thrush Abdul Iskander Emulates only Itself It stays on branches of joy Oppressive tyrant, lover of darkness, enemy of life You have ridiculed the size of the weak people A Yellow Bird Your palm is soaked with their blood Th at window remains open for it as You have deformed the magic of existence they sit face to face and the bird stays And planted the seeds of sorrow in the fi elds because of an approaching silence until without even pecking the grains Wait – don’t be fooled by the spring it soars just as its past did just as its Th e clearness of the sky or the light of dawn future will at dawn For on the horizon lies the horror of darkness, Rumble of thunder, and blowing of wind Beware, for below the ash there is fi re And he who grows thorns reaps wounds Look there, for I have harvested the heads of mankind And the fl owers of hope And I have watered the heart of the earth with blood I soaked it with tears until it was drunk Th e river of blood will sweep you And the fi ery storm will devour you.

Poems introduced and selected by Narguess Farzad Mohammed Bennis

16 » The Middle East in London » June-July 2011 RREVIEWS:EVIEWS: BOOKSBOOKS

AN OTTOMAN AAnn OOttomanttoman Traveller:Traveller: TRAVELLER the Selectionsfrom BookofTravels EvliyaÇe le b i SSelectionselections ffromrom tthehe BBookook of ooff TTravelsravels ooff EEvliyavliya ÇÇelebielebi Translated and edited by Robert Dankoﬀ and Sooyong Kim

Eland, 2010. £25

Editedby Translatedand Robert Dankoff &SooyongKim Reviewed by Benjamin Fortna

irst the companion, then the road.’ Evliya both intercession and permission to might envy. But for Evliya, the point was Evliya Çelebi (1611-c.1685), the wander. Th e next day, Evliya visits a friend never exactitude but rather the marvellous ‘F incomparable 17th-century traveller who, by divinely ordained coincidence, variety of life and contrasts of region and of the Ottoman lands and beyond, deploys happens to be planning a trip to Bursa. Just individuality. Th e reader is thankful that these words in describing the fi rst of his shy of his 30th birthday, Evliya eagerly joins instead of stopping to record the precise many voyages. Like many a would-be the group as they assemble their party. number of niches in a particular building, traveller, Evliya’s early inclinations to hit Bursa was just the beginning. Evliya he carried on to detail the competition of the road had been frustrated by family and Çelebi’s travels took in almost all of the the tightrope walkers in Ankara, to describe other obligations. Making the pilgrimage Ottoman realms in Anatolia, the Balkans the linguistic characteristics of, say, the to Mecca was his fi rst objective, but he and the Arab provinces. But he went further Gypsies of Anatolia, or the Jews of Safed had to make do in the meantime with still, into the lands of Safavid Iran, Hapsburg or the colourful procession of the guilds of exploring the many worlds of his native Austria and the Crimean Tatars. Th ey thus Istanbul. Istanbul, not a bad start for any travel provide an unparalleled record of the 17th- Evliya described himself as ‘a world writer. Th e observations he recorded in century social and cultural life of the rich traveller and boon companion to mankind’, the process became the fi rst of what would mix of peoples he encountered. What makes and he was well placed to fi ll these self- become the 10 volumes of his monumental the Book of Travels especially noteworthy is appointed functions. Well educated and Seyahatname (Book of Travels), one of the his consistent curiousness and keen powers at home in various milieus, literatures and most remarkable works of literature, travel of observation. Always attuned to regional traditions, both religious and secular, Evliya or otherwise, ever written. Th e handsome diff erences and curiosities, whether, for could serve as scribe, soldier, prayer leader and elegantly illustrated volume under example, moral, linguistic, musical or (imam), Qur‘an-reciter, entertainer and review is the fi rst abridged translation of culinary, Evliya’s is a lively narrative, peopled raconteur. Over his lifetime, he attached Evliya’s masterpiece; Robert Dankoff and with characters and the virtues and foibles himself to several patrons whom he served, Sooyong Kim have expertly selected the of humanity. He possessed a sharp sense of with whom he travelled and whose ups contents to highlight its topical and stylistic humour and a keen interest in wordplay and and downs he shared. Given his learning range, while preserving the sequence and verbal jousting, all of which come through and wit, he was surely the ideal travel structure of Evliya’s 10-volume opus. strongly thanks to Dankoff and Kim’s companion, and his Book of Travels is in Typically for an Ottoman of his era, versatile translation, by turns earthy and many ways the ideal accompaniment. ‘First Evliya’s family-versus-travel dilemma was high-minded, depending on the context. the companion, then the road.’ solved by a dream. When the Prophet Evliya was not always particular about Muhammad appeared before him in details. He is thought to have made some Dr Benjamin Fortna is Senior Lecturer in the his sleep, Evliya meant to ask him for sections up all together and embellished Modern History of the Middle East at SOAS intercession (şefaat), but by a pre-Freudian others. His text leaves blanks that he, slip of the tongue asked for travel (seyahat) perhaps, intended to fi ll in later on, a instead. Th e Prophet conveniently grants practice that many a contemporary scholar

June-July 2011 » The Middle East in London » 17 RREVIEWS:EVIEWS: BOOKSBOOKS TTabletablet andand PPen:en: LLiteraryiterary LLandscapesandscapes ffromrom tthehe MModernodern MMiddleiddle EEastast By Reza Aslan

Norton, 2011. £25

Reviewed by Atef Alshaer

ablet and Pen is remarkable in the eff ects of colonisation, de-colonisation, insights. In Th e Blind Owl, the beautifully expansive scope of regions and independence and globalisation; all these styled story by Sadegh Hedayat, the Tlanguages it covers, a rich feat of historical currents have left their imprints narrator’s portrayal of the eyes of one girl literature from the vast and diverse Middle on the literature of the Middle East, giving that he came across evokes passion and East. Academically, the Middle East has long voice to indigenous thoughts, traditions and absorption by what had befallen her and suff ered from vilifi cation and simplifi cation aspirations. In the insightful story by the the arduous journey he had to take upon in the form of crude categorisation that Egyptian writer Tawfi q Al-Hakim, Diary of discovering her death: ‘It was then that I does not capture its complexity. Reza Aslan A Country Prosecutor, the narrator refl ects fi rst beheld those frightening, magic eyes, has, with evident skill and insight, gathered on the legal system under which Egyptians those eyes that seemed to express a bitter varied literary genres starting from the endured life, a remark that could still be said reproach to mankind, with their look of beginning of the 20th and running into of many Th ird World countries today: ‘Th ey anxiety and wonder, of menace and promise the 21st century and ably contextualised were left to live like cattle all their lives and – and the current of my existence was them, noting: ‘At the very least, the writings yet were required to submit to a modern drawn toward those shining eyes charged contained in these pages may help move our legal system imported from abroad.’ with manifold signifi cance and sank into consciousness of the region away from the Beside the obvious political dilemmas their depths.’ ubiquitous images of terrorist and fanatics and problems that authors deal with, there Muhammad Iqbal, the celebrated poet and towards a new, more constructive set are also pressing social and economic woes of Pakistan, raises the torch of aspiration of ideas and metaphors – wrought by the shaping the contours of their lives and for his people and the world at large in his region’s artists, poets and writers – with countries. Th e Turkish author, Aziz Nesin, reconciliatory poem Th e Houri and the which to understand the struggles and in excerpts from his memoir Istanbul Boy, Poet: ‘As soon as my gaze comes to rest on a aspirations of this restless and multifaceted demonstrates the power of creativity as fair face, my heart begins to yearn for still a part of the world’. an antidote to the deprivation caused by fairer one.’ Iqbal’s sentiment seems to guide Indeed, there can hardly be a better way wide chasms between social classes in the the literary path of Middle Eastern literature to open Westerners’ eyes to the Middle Istanbul of his day. He writes: ‘Most of us in this world, as the author Reza Aslan East than through its literature and the are ashamed of our poverty as if it were our thoughtfully suggests. creators of it, the visionary writers whose own fault… upon beginning my work as a contributions make up this priceless writer, I fi nally understood that in a country Atef Alshaer is a post-doctoral and teaching volume. We meet authors from the Arab where the majority is poor, it isn’t poverty fellow at SOAS world, Turkey, Iran and Pakistan, writing that is to be ashamed of, but wealth.’ in their mother tongues and grappling with Alongside the political and social issues diverse issues connected to their countries’ that overlap and are interspersed among histories but meeting on common ground. the authors at many levels, the book is also Th e book opens with remarks on the crowded with existential and aesthetic

18 » The Middle East in London » June-July 2011 RREVIEWS:EVIEWS: BOOKSBOOKS MMyy FFather’sather’s PParadise:aradise: a SSon’son’s SSearchearch fforor hhisis FFamily’samily’s PPastast By Ariel Sabar

Algonquin Books, 2009. £9.99

Reviewed by Luay Abdulilah

merican author Ariel Sabar traces guiding the reader through 2000 years of awarded a scholarship to Yale, he moved his father’s life from its beginnings Kurdish history. fi rst to New Haven where he met his now Ain an isolated Jewish community in Beginning around 600 AD, the fi rst wife, and then to Los Angeles, where he Iraqi Kurdistan, through to his immigration leg of this historical journey concludes worked as an academic and compiled a to Israel and eventual settlement in Los in the 1950s, when 18,000 Jewish Kurds comprehensive dictionary of New Aramaic. Angeles in the early 1970s. It was here that – including a 13-year-old Sabagha (the Th e author attributes his father’s his father, born Yona Sabagha, worked as author’s father, Sabar was a name given attachment to New Aramaic to the deep a professor at UCLA and made a name to him by the Israeli register) – emigrated sense of loss he felt aft er leaving his for himself as a leading authority on New from their Iraqi homeland to the newly hometown of Zakho for Israel. For his Aramaic. established Israel. Sabar recounts how life Kurdish peers, forgetting Aramaic and Growing up as a child of LA, Sabar was was for them, the oldest Jewish community learning Hebrew was a way to survive in oft en embarrassed by his father’s foreign in the Middle East, for thousands of years their new home, but for Sabagha, survival accent, frugality and lack of style – not to before the mass migration. depended on staying connected to tradition mention his obsession with a nearly dead ‘In the mountains, hundreds of miles and the past. As Sabar puts it: ‘[My father] language. With this book, the author fi nally from the religious fanaticism and nationalist sublimated homesickness into career.’ embraces his father’s legacy and comes to movements of big cities, the Kurdish Jews As he grows older, Sabar starts to make terms with what it means to be a new parent faced almost none of the virulent anti- sense of his father’s ways and begins to himself. He writes: ‘A turning point was a Semitism that hounded Jews in Europe or appreciate him as many of his students chilly night in December 2002, when my even, to a far less extent, Baghdad. Th ey and colleagues have done for so long. By wife gave birth to our fi rst child, a boy with went to work, prayed to a Jewish God, and preserving the language that was spoken by fi ne dark hair and eyes like soft ly burning spoke their own language without major Jesus and the lingua franca of the Middle lanterns. Would Seth break with me as I disruption for some twenty- seven hundred East for centuries, Sabagha built a bridge had with my own father? Would he, too, years.’ He also points out that a spirit of between the past and the present. In a think he had nothing to learn and his father, religious tolerance existed across the entire similar way, his son has embarked on a nothing to teach?’ region. ‘In Kurdistan, religions from Islam, journey to preserve the past by bringing it to In order to unlock his father’s stories and Christianity, and Judaism to Sufi mysticism, life on the page, and in the imaginations of place them in a wider sociopolitical context, Bahaism, and Yezidism fl ourished alongside many in this captivating book. Sabar interviewed relatives, family friends, one another, and extremism was rare.’ scholars and anyone else who could shed Th e second leg of the book’s journey Luay Abdulilah is an Iraqi novelist and short light on the past. He researched extensively follows Sabagha to his new home in Israel, story writer. His latest novel, Comedy of and visited signifi cant settings in Iraq, where he worked temporary jobs and Divine Love, was published in Damascus in Israel and across the US. In this way, Sabar studied in the evening, while also watching 2008 combines history with fi ctional narrative, the status of his family decline. Aft er being

June-July 2011 » The Middle East in London » 19 BBOOKSOOKS ININ BRIEFBRIEF PPoliticalolitical JJourneys:ourneys: TThehe oopenDemocracypenDemocracy EEssaysssays

by Fred Halliday A METAHISTORY Saqi Books, March 2011. OF THE CLASH £14.99 OF CIVILISATIONS Us and Them Beyond Orientalism ARSHIN ADIB-MOGHADDAM A MMetahistoryetahistory FFromrom MMissionission ooff tthehe ttoo Modernity:Modernity: CClashlash ooff EEvangelicals,vangelicals, CCivilisations:ivilisations: RReformerseformers aandnd UUss andand TThemhem EEducationducation iinn BBeyondeyond NNineteenth-ineteenth- OOrientalismrientalism CCenturyentury EEgyptgypt by Arshin Adib- by Paul Sedra Moghaddam Hurst & Co, February 2011. I B Tauris, May 2011. £54.50 his book, which is a collection of Fred Halliday’s columns written for £30 TopenDemocracy between 2004 and 2009, is a testament to the late professor’s his book seeks to dispel the myth his book comprises an account of expansive knowledge of international of the ‘clash of civilisations’. Adib- Egyptian educational history during relations and his sharp analysis. During Moghaddam takes the reader through th T Tthe 19 century. Paul Sedra, assistant his time researching the Middle East, a history that begins with the wars between professor of history at Simon Fraser Halliday wrote 20 books and established ancient Persia and Greece and traces university in Canada explores how modern wide connections with, among others, through the Crusades, Colonialism and the forms of education brought to Egypt by Arab and Iranian intellectuals and activists, Enlightenment to the contemporary ‘war evangelical missions helped the state to and travelled widely in the region. Political on terror’ to demonstrate that there really forge a new relationship with its children. Journeys, as the introduction written by is no ‘us’ and ‘them’. Th e author presents a Sedra argues that the educational reforms Stephen How suggests, is a taste of Halliday’s frontal attack on the current cultural reality introduced by the state served to create expansive and well-respected contribution of Islamist-Western agitation against each new forms of political identity that had not to his subject. From big headline topics other. In doing so, he considers important previously existed. – such as the Iraq war and the Danish thinkers, such as Adorno, Derrida, Farabi, cartoons – to unexpected comparisons Foucault, Hegel, Khayyam, Marcuse, Marx, between Tibet and Palestine or Afghanistan Said, Ibn Sina and Weber, while attempting and the Falklands, Halliday is a perennially to pinpoint where ideas about the ‘clash of surprising and enlightening guide to the civilisations’ come from and by whom they major issues of the period. are perpetuated.

20 » The Middle East in London » June-July 2011 BBOOKSOOKS ININ BRIEFBRIEF

WWhathat IItt Clive Holes & Said Salman Abu Athera VirtualVirtual MMeanseans ttoo bbee The WWater:ater:

PPalestinian:alestinian: of the United Arab Emirates TTacklingackling tthehe TThreathreat Selected poems ttoo ourour PPlanet’slanet’s SStoriestories ooff annotated and translated into English

PPalestinianalestinian Accompanied by a CD containing recordings of MMostost PreciousPrecious twenty-two of the poems in the original Arabic PPeoplehoodeoplehood RResourceesource

by Dina Matar by Tony Allan

Literature / Poetry I B Tauris, December 2010. Middle East Studies I B Tauris, April 2011. £14.99 £12.99

TThehe NNabatiabati PPoetryoetry ooff tthehe UUnitednited AArabrab EEmiratesmirates

edited by Clive Holes and Said Salman Abu Athera Ithaca Press, June 2011. £30

his book describes how the old tradition of Nabati poetry is used Tto provide a commentary on hat It Means to be Palestinian contemporary society and politics. Th e is a collection of stories tradition for the poetry, historically the ony Allan reveals how all the goods Wfrom Palestinians, gathered descendant of the pre-Islamic classical we buy have a water cost in the by the author through interviews and Arabic poetry of antiquity, is exemplifi ed Tform of ‘virtual water’ – a concept conversations. Th eir stories are told by English verse translations of 53 poems he has created that shows how much chronologically through particular phases of by 25 diff erent poets covering the last water we really use by taking into account the Palestinian national struggle, providing half century. Th e original Arabic poems production, packaging and transportation a composite autobiography of Palestine are also included, with brief notes on of goods. Allan explains how making a cup through conversations with its people. Th e their language, rhyme and scansion. Th e of morning coff ee can use an alarming 140 book begins with the 1936 revolt against book is accompanied by a CD containing litres of water and how a pair of jeans uses British rule in Palestine and ends in 1993 recordings of 22 of the poems in the original an unbelievable 11,000 litres. Th e author with the Oslo peace agreement that changed Arabic. Th is is the second collaborative also attempts to show how we as individuals the nature and form of the national struggle. book from Clive Holes, professor for the and governments globally can make a vital It is based on in-depth interviews and study of the contemporary Arab world at contribution to managing our water use in a conversations with Palestinians in Jordan, the University of Oxford, and Said Salman more sustainable and planet-friendly way. Lebanon, Syria, Israel and the Occupied Abu Athera, an independent researcher Territories, who provide a picture of what it into Bedouin poetry, lore and customs. Th e means to be Palestinian in the 21st century. authors are both well-respected scholars of Arab linguistic and literary culture.

June-July 2011 » The Middle East in London » 21 PProroﬁ lele EEberhardberhard KKienleienle Research professor, Centre National de la Recherche Scientiﬁ que, France

to me. Rather, cultural features have to be useful initiatives to strengthen liberties and seen not only as causes but also as eff ects. to look yet more critically at others. What struck me far more than ‘cultural Back at the CNRS, now in Grenoble, I diff erence’ was change that aff ected all walks am more convinced than ever that there is of life. New neighbourhoods sprang up no Arab or Western world, but that we all with concrete buildings, hamburger places live in one world and that we are all part and posh restaurants. Some people became of history. Th e recent popular uprisings in increasingly wealthy, others voiced protest, Tunisia and Egypt no doubt support this were arrested and disappeared in prison. claim (once again), even though the history Th ough intellectually exciting, of France and other places has also shown Archaeology could no longer compete that even great revolutions may be followed with the promise of contemporary History, by periods of restoration. Possibly the old Sociology, Politics and Economics. By the political order may not disappear entirely, early 1980s, I had changed track, left the but people treated as mere subjects by their Sorbonne, and decided to take a PhD in rulers have become active citizens. Politics from the Free University in Berlin. I My publications include A Grand then spent a marvellous time at St Antony’s Delusion: Democracy and Economic Reform College in Oxford and in 1989 moved to in Egypt (2001) and Democracy Building the Politics Department at SOAS, where I and Democracy Erosion: Political Change fi rst came to the Middle East in 1974 as later chaired the Centre of Near and Middle North and South of the Mediterranean a student traveller. Like many others, East Studies (which was later to give way (2009). A monograph based on extensive II was keen to fi nd out what the world to the London Middle East Institute in fi eldwork in Egypt, the former seeks to looked like far from home. My visits 2003). In 2000, the Centre National de la demonstrate that in Egypt, economic became slightly more purposeful when I Recherche Scientifi que (CNRS) approached liberalisation entailed political ‘de- returned as a young archaeologist in 1979 me to become the new director of Institut liberalisation’, rather than liberalisation. to live and work in Egypt. Still, they left me de recherches et d’études sur le monde Th e latter, an edited volume, attempts to with enough time to watch street life and arabe et musulman (IREMAM), a Middle explain why European policies towards the meet people in popular cafés, in their homes East-related area studies centre in Aix-en- Southern Mediterranean failed to promote and sometimes in the places where they Provence. democracy. Together, they help to identify earned their livelihood. No doubt, there Increasingly, political economy issues the conditions under which economic were many surprises, oft en pleasant and came to dominate my research; in liberalisation favours or impedes the growth entertaining, sometimes less so; however, particular, I wondered about the negative of political liberties in the Middle East, as none of them made me think of myself impact that ‘liberal’ and ‘orthodox’ well as in the global North. as a stranger. People wept about loss and economic reforms oft en had on political laughed about political jokes, struggled to liberalisation and democracy in the global survive or, already, measured prestige by the South. A three-year stint as programme size of their cars. Ever since, predominantly offi cer for Civil Society and Governance culture-based explanations of personal, at the Cairo Offi ce of the Ford Foundation social and political life have remained alien (2007-10) allowed me to support some

22 » The Middle East in London » June-July 2011 LISTINGS EEventsvents iinn LLondonondon

HE EVENTS and Israel in Israeli politics and their organisations listed below place in a confl ict in which they are Tare not necessarily endorsed oft en caught between the state of or supported by The Middle East in their citizenship and the nationality London. The accompanying texts of their people. Admission free. and images are based primarily Th ai Th eatre/Room LG.03, New on information provided by the Academic Building, LSE. T 020 organisers and do not necessarily 7955 6198 E [email protected] W reflect the views of the compilers www2.lse.ac.uk/middleeastcentre or publishers. While every possible effort is made to ascertain the 7:45 pm | Adel Salemeh and accuracy of these listings, readers Naziha Azzouz Live (Performance) are advised to seek confirmation Organised by: Dash Arts. Part of the of all events using the contact Dash Arabic Series Café. Admission details provided for each event. free. Rich Mix, Bethnal Green Road, Submitting entries and updates: London, E1 6LA. E polly@dasharts. please send all updates and org.uk W www.dasharts.org.uk submissions for entries related to future events via e-mail to Zindeeq (Liverpool Arabic Film Festival, see Events Outside London, p. 28) [email protected] or by fax to Th ursday 2 June 020 7898 4329. 2:00 pm | Bling and Beads in BM – British Museum, Great Ancient Egypt (Family Event) See Social Scientists (AMSS UK), Th e looking at items which illustrate the Russell Street, London WC1B 3DG listing for Wednesday 1 June for Democracy and Islam Programme, world of stories in Mesopotamian SOAS – School of Oriental and details. Centre for the Study of Democracy, mythology. Admission free. BM African Studies, Th ornhaugh Street, University of Westminster and (meet in the Great Court beside the Russell Square, London WC1H 0XG 6:00 pm | Dress like an (Ancient) HRH Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Information Desk). W www.zipang. LSE – London School of Economics Egyptian Organised by: Petrie Centre of Islamic Studies, University org.uk and Political Science, Houghton Museum of Egyptian Archaeology. of Cambridge. Admission free (Pre- Street, London WC2 2AE A practical demonstration of registration required). Board Room, 2:00 pm | West Beyrouth (Film) dress and jewellery by Egyptology University of Westminster, 309 Part of the 13th Mosaiques Festival clothing expert Janet Johnstone. Regent Street, London W1B 2UW. E of World Culture: Th ursday 2 - Drop in - demonstrations every 30 elkouemo@staff .westminster.ac.uk / Th ursday 9 June. Dir Ziad Doueiri JUNE EVENTS minutes until 8.00pm. Admission [email protected] (1999), France/Norway/Lebanon/ free. Petrie Museum of Egyptian Belgium, 105 min. In Arabic with Archaeology, Malet Place, London 8.00 pm | Th e Ziggurat Builders English subtitles. Beirut, April Wednesday 1 June WC1. T 020 7679 4138 E events. – Premiere (Concert) Organised 13, 1975: fi rst offi cial day of the [email protected] W www.ucl.ac.uk/ by: Banipal and supported by the Lebanese Civil War. Tarek and 2:00 pm | Bling and Beads in museums/petrie PRS for Music Foundation. A new Omar, determined to make the most Ancient Egypt (Family Activity) composition for voice, oud and of their youth, pretend to ignore the Organised by: Petrie Museum 6:30 pm | Ancient Turkey (Lecture) cello by Marcus Davidson exploring tragedy unfolding before their eyes. of Egyptian Archaeology. Until Martin Worthington. Organised the music of the voice and the oud. Tickets: £9/£6.50 conc. Rich Mix, 4.30pm. Pick up a trail about by: Yunus Emre Turkish Cultural Voice: Victoria Couper, Clemmie 35–47 Bethnal Green Road, London jewellery in ancient Egypt, then Centre London. Admission free. Franks and Emily Burn; Oud: E1 6LA. W www.institut-francais. make your own beads in the Yunus Emre Turkish Cultural Khyam Allami; Cello: Tara Franks. org.uk/mosaiques museum. Admission free. Petrie Centre London, 10 Maple Street, Tickets: £10/£5 conc. St Ethelburga’s Museum of Egyptian Archaeology, London W1T 5HA. T 020 7387 Centre for Reconciliation and Peace, 3:30 pm | Discover Mesopotamia Malet Place, London WC1. T 020 3036 E londra@yunusemrevakfi . 78 Bishopsgate, London EC2N 4AG. through Storytelling ZIPANG Day 7679 4138 E [email protected] com.tr W www.facebook.com/ T 020 7832 1350 W www.banipal. Out Organised by: Th e Enheduanna W www.ucl.ac.uk/museums/petrie yunusemrelondon co.uk/news/index.cfm?newsid=53 Society. Doors open at 3.00pm. Storytelling workshop where you 6:00 pm | Th e Outsiders Inside: will hear a professional storyteller Palestinian Citizens of Israel, their Friday 3 June Saturday 4 June tell a Mesopotamian story and can Context and Contests (Lecture) have a go at telling the story yourself Tilde Rosmer, University of Oslo and 6:00 pm | Europe and the Near 11:30 am | Discover Mesopotamia with live Iraqi music. Admission LSE Global Governance.Organised East (Lecture) Jack Goody, through Storytelling on a ZIPANG free. Poetry Cafe, 22 Betterton by: LSE’s Middle East Centre. A look University of Cambridge. Organised Day Out Organised by: Th e Street, Covent Garden WC2H 9BX. at the role of Palestinians citizens of by: Th e Association of Muslim Enheduanna Society. Guided tour W www.zipang.org.uk

June-July 2011 » The Middle East in London » 23 5:50 pm | A Separation (Film) of Education, Russell Square, 20 the underground arts scene. Tickets: English and Turkish with English Part of the 13th Mosaiques Festival Bedford Way, London WC1H 0AL. £9/£7 conc. Ciné lumière at the subtitles. Afghanistan-born director of World Culture: Th ursday 2 T 0207 832 1321 W www.caabu.org Institut français, 17 Queensberry Burhan Qurbani off ers a bold - Th ursday 9 June. Dir Asghar Place, South Kensington, London feature debut about the lives of Farhadi (2011), Iran, 133 min. 8:00 pm | Reem Kelani (Concert) SW7 2DT. W www.institut-francais. three young German-born Muslims In Persian with English subtitles. Alongside her Egyptian songs, Reem org.uk/mosaiques living in today’s Berlin. Tickets: When his wife leaves him, Nader will perform some of her favourites £9/£7 conc. Ciné lumière at the hires a young woman to take care from her fi rst album ‘Sprinting 7:10 pm | Rainy Seasons (Film) Institut français, 17 Queensberry of his suff ering father. But he doesn’t Gazelle – Palestinian Songs from Part of the 13th Mosaiques Festival Place, South Kensington, London know his new maid is not only the Motherland and the Diaspora’. of World Culture: Th ursday 2 - SW7 2DT. W www.institut-francais. pregnant, but also working without Tickets: £8 in advance/£11 door. Th ursday 9 June. Dir Majid Barzegar org.uk/mosaiques her unstable husband’s permission. Rich Mix, 35 - 47 Bethnal Green (2010), Iran, 90 min. In Persian with A Separation is the fi rst ever Iranian Road, London E1 6LA. T 020 7613 English subtitles. Sina experiences a fi lm to be awarded the Golden Bear. 7498 E boxoffi [email protected] new life on the verge of his parents’ Monday 6 June Tickets: £9/£7 conc. Ciné lumière at W www.richmix.org.uk divorce. Alone and a bit of a dreamer, the Institut français, 17 Queensberry he fi nds the domestic situation quite 6:00 pm | Th e People Reloaded: Th e Place, South Kensington, London tough and demanding and is forced Green Movement and the Struggle SW7 2DT. W www.institut-francais. Sunday 5 June to make daring choices.Tickets: for Iran’s Future (Panel Discussion) org.uk/mosaique £9/£7 conc. Ciné lumière at the Ziba Mir-Hosseini London Middle 4:40 pm | Microphone (Film) Part of Institut français, 17 Queensberry East Institute; Nader Hashemi, 6:00 pm | Call of Freedom - From the 13th Mosaiques Festival of World Place, South Kensington, London University of Denver; Scott Lucas, Tahreer Square to Jerusalem Culture: Th ursday 2 - Th ursday 9 SW7 2DT. W www.institut-francais. University of Birmingham; Roger (Concert) Organised by: Caabu in June. Dir Ahmad Abdalla (2010), org.uk/mosaiques Cohen, New York Times; Ali association with Al-Carmel. Artists Egypt, 120 min. In Arabic with Alizadeh, Kingston University and include Amal Murkus (Singer/ English subtitles. Khaled returns 9:00 pm | Shahada (Film) Part of the Middlesex University. Iran’s Green Songwriter); Ayman Safi eh (Ballet home to Alexandria aft er a few years 13th Mosaiques Festival of World Movement is back. What does its Performance) Nizar al-Issa (Oud in the US and discovers that times Culture: Th ursday 2 - Th ursday 9 reappearance mean for the future Master). Tickets: £25/£20 Caabu have changed. He wanders the city June. Dir Burhan Qurbani (2010), of the Islamic Republic, and how Members. Logan Hall, Institute and soon stumbles into a new world: Germany, 90 min. In German, does ‘Iran’s resilient rebellion’ relate

NEW YEMEN DIVIDED The Story of a Failed State in South Arabia Noel Brehony

‘Noel Brehony is a veteran commentator on that oxymoron of a place, known as modern Yemen, and he has produced a work that manages to be comprehensive and critical, but never disdainful.’- Philip Robins, University of Oxford

‘A timely account of an important period in Yemen's modern history.’ - Ginny Hill, Chatham House

‘If you want to understand the southern dimension to the various conﬂicts that currently threaten to turn Yemen into a failed state, you could not ﬁnd a better guide to the background and underlying issues than Noel Brehony.’ - Michael Crawford CMG, International Institute of Strategic Studies, London

28824 pages» The 216Middle x 134mm East HB in London 9781848856356 » June-July £35.00 2011 www.ibtauris.com to the wave of uprisings roiling the ‘burner’ is someone who is ready conc./Students £5. Ciné lumière at – Egypt at the Crystal Palace Middle East? Admission free. Room to accept anything in order to get the Institut français, 17 Queensberry (Lecture) Organised by: Petrie G2, SOAS. T 020 7898 4490 E vp6@ away: someone who is prepared to Place, South Kensington, London Museum of Egyptian Archaeology. soas.ac.uk W www.soas.ac.uk/ burn their papers and their identity. SW7 2DT. W www.institut-francais. Discover more about the Ancient iranianstudies/ Admission free. Iniva at Rivington org.uk/mosaiques Egyptian Court at the Crystal Palace Place, Rivington Place, London in South London. Admission free. 8:00 pm | Rebetiko Jam Sessions EC2A 3BA. W www.institut- 7:00 pm | Mecca’s First Meet at Penge Gate at Crystal Palace of the SOAS Ad Hoc Rebetiko francais.org.uk/mosaiques Photographers (1880-1890): lives, Park SE20 8DT. T 020 7679 4138 E Band Organised by: Ed Emery. activities and work (Lecture) Jan [email protected] W www. Every fi rst Monday of the month. 6:30 pm | Moris Farhi: Songs from Just Witkam, Leiden University. ucl.ac.uk/museums/petrie With musicians from the Greek two Continents (Poetry Reading) Organised by: Islamic Art Circle community along with musicians Organised by: Yunus Emre Turkish at SOAS. Part of the Islamic Art from Turkey, Iran and other areas Cultural Centre London. Admission Circle at SOAS Lecture Programme. Sunday 12 June of the Middle East also taking part. free. Yunus Emre Turkish Cultural Chaired by Doris Behrens-Abouseif, All welcome. Admission free. Th e Centre London, 10 Maple Street, SOAS. Admission free. Khalili 8:00 pm | Jewish Women’s Voices Horseshoe Pub, 24 Clerkenwell London W1T 5HA. T 020 7387 Lecture Th eatre, SOAS. T 0771 408 of the East (Reading/Meeting) Close, London EC1. E ee11@soas. 3036 E londra@yunusemrevakfi . 7480 E [email protected] Organised by: Exiled Writers Ink, ac.uk com.tr W www.facebook.com/ W www.soas.ac.uk/about/events/ Spiro Ark and Harif: Association yunusemrelondon of Jews from the Middle East 8:30 pm | Bad Faith / Mauvaise foi 7:00 pm | Islamic Textiles (Lecture) and North Africa. Th ree women (Film) Part of the 13th Mosaiques 6:30 pm | Why Egypt and Tunisia Organised by: Oriental Rug and poets with roots in the Middle Festival of World Culture: Th ursday and not Iran (yet)? (Lecture) Nader Textile Society. Th e author, traveller, East come together to read their 2 - Th ursday 9 June. Dir Roschdy Hashemi, Josef Korbel School of lecturer and textile fanatic, John work and discuss issues of identity, Zem (2006), France, 88 min. In International Studies, University of Gillow, will bring Islamic textiles womanhood and their relationships French with English subtitles. Denver; Danny Postel, editor of Th e and talk to us. He has just published with their countries of birth. Clara is Jewish, Ismaël is Arab. Common Review and co-editor with what has been called the defi nitive Chaired by: Jennifer Langer, Exiled When Clara becomes pregnant, it’s Hashemi of Th e People Reloaded: Th e text on Islamic Textiles. Tickets: Writers Ink. Tickets: £8. Spiro the happiest day of their lives..But Green Movement and the Struggle £6. Swedenborg Hall, 20/21 Ark Centre, 25 -26 Enford Street, when it comes to approving their for Iran’s Future. Organised by: Bloomsbury Way, London WC1A London W1H 1DW. T 020 7723 marriage with their families things LSE’s Middle East Centre. Why did 2TH. T 020 8886 3910 E penny@ 9991 E [email protected] W get complicated... Tickets: £9/£7 Iran’s Green Movement fail, despite orientalrugandtextilesociety. www.harif.org / www.spiroark.org / conc. Ciné lumière at the Institut its earlier manifestation, while org.uk W www. www.exiledwriters.co.uk français 17 Queensberry Place, similar democratic movements in orientalrugandtextilesociety.org.uk South Kensington, London SW7 Tunisia and Egypt have been largely 2DT. W www.institut-francais.org. successful? Admission free. Room Monday 13 June uk/mosaiques G108, LSE. T 020 7955 6198 E Th ursday 9 June [email protected] W www2.lse. 6:00 pm | Iranian Foreign Policy: 8:30 pm | Shahada (Film) See listing ac.uk/middleeastcentre 6:30 pm | Th e Copts of Egypt Continuity and Change (Lecture) for Sunday 5 June for details. Rich (Lecture) Organised by: Petrie Mahdi Ahouie, University of Mix, 35 – 47 Bethnal Green Road, 8:30 pm | Marock (Film) Part of the Museum of Egyptian Archaeology. Tehran. Organised by: LSE’s Middle London E1 6LA. 13th Mosaiques Festival of World Vivian Ibrahim presents a fresh and East Centre. Ahouie will discuss Culture: Th ursday 2 - Th ursday 9 alternative account of the Coptic Iran’s foreign policy and changing June. Dir Laïla Marrakchi, (2005), community in Egypt, drawing on role in the Middle East and globally. Tuesday 7 June Morocco/France, 105 min. In Arabic newly discovered archival resources. Admission free.Th ai Th eatre/Room and French with English subtitles. Admission free. Petrie Museum of LG.03, New Academic Building, 5:30 pm | The Arab ‘Democratic’ Casablanca. Rita, aged 17, falls in Egyptian Archaeology, Malet Place, LSE. T 020 7955 6198 E d.c.akkad@ Uprisings: Can Algeria Be the love for the fi rst time and comes up London WC1. T 020 7679 4138 E lse.ac.uk W www2.lse.ac.uk/ Exception? (Lecture) Yahia Zoubir, against the traditions of her country. [email protected] W www. middleeastcentre Euro-Med Management, Marseille. Followed by Q&A with the director. ucl.ac.uk/museums/petrie Organised by: Society for Algerian Tickets: £9/£7 conc. Ciné lumière at Studies. Refreshments from 5.00pm. the Institut français, 17 Queensberry Tuesday 14 June Admission free. Room G50, SOAS. Place, South Kensington, London Friday 10 June W www.algerianstudies.org.uk SW7 2DT. W www.institut-francais. 5:30 pm | Th e Gender of org.uk/mosaiques 6:30 pm | Contemporary Turkey Democracy: Why it Matters in the 6:15 pm | Microphone (Film) See (Talk) Andrew Mango. Organised Middle East (Lecture) Valentine listing for Sunday 5 June for details. by: Yunus Emre Turkish Cultural M Moghadam, Purdue University. Rich Mix, 35 – 47 Bethnal Green Wednesday 8 June Centre London. Admission free. Organised by: London Middle Road, London E1 6LA. Yunus Emre Turkish Cultural East Institute, SOAS (LMEI) and 6:00 pm | In Conversation with Centre London, 10 Maple Street, the Centre for Gender Studies at 6:15 pm | And Th e Snow Was Gone Abdellatif Kechiche (Talk) Part of London W1T 5HA. T 020 7387 SOAS. A conceptual framework, | Tangier, the Burner’s Dream the 13th Mosaiques Festival of World 3036 E londra@yunusemrevakfi . comparative perspective, and a (Double Bill) (Film) Part of the Culture: Th ursday 2 - Th ursday 9 com.tr W www.facebook.com/ focus on the Middle East/North 13th Mosaiques Festival of World June. Born in Tunisia and raised yunusemrelondon Africa region will illustrate the Culture: Th ursday 2 - Th ursday in France, fi lmmaker Abdellatif democratising nature of women’s 9 June. Tangier, the Burner’s Kechiche has devoted much of his movements and variations in Dream, Dir Leila Kilani (2002), work detailing the daily life of the Saturday 11 June gendered outcomes of democracy France, 53 min. In Arabic and richly diverse communities made movements. Chaired by Nadje Al- English with English subtitles. A up by French Arabs. Tickets: £9/£7 11:00 am | Sphinxes in the Park Ali, SOAS. Admission free. Room

June-July 2011 » The Middle East in London » 25 G2, SOAS. T 020 7898 4490 E vp6@ of the Institute and Recollections 020 7235 5122 E info@iransociety. / 8772 E [email protected] W soas.ac.uk W www.soas.ac.uk/lmei/ of Archaeology in Iran (Lecture) org W www.iransociety.org www.planetegypt.co.uk events/ David Stronach, OBE, MA, FSA, University of California at Berkeley and Honorary Vice-President of the Friday 24 June EVENTS OUTSIDE Th ursday 16 June British Institute of Persian Studies. LONDON Organised by: British Institute of 6:00 pm | Understanding 4:00 pm | Th e First Shepherds: Persian Studies (BIPS). lecture Consciousness: From Eastern th Neolithic Herders in the Southern to celebrate the 50 Anniversary & Western thought (Lecture) Wednesday 1 June Levant (Lecture) Louise Martin, of the British Institute of Persian Max Velmans; Shanida Nataraja; Institute of Archaeology, UCL. Studies. Lecture to be followed by Jay Lakhani; Seyed Azyamesh. 5:00 pm | Islamic Archaeology in Organised by: Palestine Exploration a reception. Admission free (Pre- Organised by: Inter Cultural Centre Arabia (Seminar) Andrew Petersen, Fund. AGM from 3.30pm, lecture registration required by 20 June). in association with the London University of Wales. Part of the from 4.00pm. Admission free. Lecture Th eatre, British Academy, Middle East Institute, SOAS (LMEI). History, Politics and Economies in Stevenson Lecture Th eatre, BM. T 10 Carlton House Terrace, London Tickets: £5 (Pre-registration the Muslim World seminar series. 020 7935 5379 E [email protected]. SW1Y 5AH. T 020 7969 5203 E required) E presentation_org@ Admission free. Oxford Centre uk W www.pef.org.uk [email protected] W www.bips. yahoo.com for Islamic Studies, George Street, ac.uk Oxford OX1 2AR. T 01865 278 730 E [email protected] Friday 17 June 7:00 pm | In the Footsteps of Moses: Th ursday 30 June W www.oxcis.ac.uk Egypt Th en and Now (Lecture) 6:00 pm | Explorations of an Organised by: Project Mosaic. Th e 7:00 pm | Planet Egypt Showcase Ottoman Traveller - Th e Travels of Award Ceremony of the Project (Performance) Organised by: Evliya Çelebi (Lecture) Organised Mosaic Young Filmmakers YouTube Planet Egypt. Monthly bellydance JULY EVENTS by: Th e Royal Asiatic Society and Competition ‘We Are Britain’ showcases held on the last Th ursday Business Network. Robert Dankoff , will open with a talk by Project of every month. Tickets: £12 on the Saturday 2 July University of Chicago. Admission Mosaic Adviser and Egyptologist door. Darbucka, 182 St John Street, free, to reserve a place: W http:// Ahmed Abd-Elghany. Admission London EC1V 4JZ. T 020 7490 8295 11:30 am | Discover Mesopotamia evliyacelebi.eventbrite.com. Th e free (Pre-registration required). Royal Asiatic Society, 14 Stephenson Ramada Jarvis Hyde Park Hotel, 150 Way, London NW1 2HD. T 0207 Bayswater Road, London W2 4RT. Majed Shala,‘Motherhood Under Siege’, 2010 (Breathing the Air - An 3884539 E info@royalasiaticsociety. E [email protected] W www. Exhibition by Majed Shala, see Exhibitions, p. 30) org W www.royalasiaticsociety.org / projectmosaic.net www.biznet-uk.org Th u 23 June

Monday 20 June 6:00 pm | Poverty, Food and De- development in the Middle East Time TBC | Th e Jews of Morocco (Lecture) Rami Zurayk, American (Th ree-Day Conference: Monday University of Beirut. Organised 20 - Wednesday 22 June) Organised by: LSE’s Middle East Centre. by: Institute of Jewish Studies, UCL. Admission free. Alumni Th eatre/ A rare opportunity to fi nd out more Room LG.09, New Academic about the rich and varied culture of Building, LSE. T 020 7955 6198 E Moroccan Jews and their history. [email protected] W www2.lse. Admission free. University College ac.uk/middleeastcentre London, Gower Street WC1E 6BT. T 020 7679 3520 E [email protected] W 6:30 pm | Still an angry Nation? www.ucl.ac.uk/ijs Turkey’s politics under scrutiny (Lecture) Kerem Oktem, European Studies Centre, St Antony’s College, Tuesday 21 June Oxford. Organised by: Th e British Institute at Ankara. Admission free. Time TBC | Th e Jews of Morocco Lecture Th eatre, British Academy, (Th ree-Day Conference: Monday 10 Carlton House Terrace, SW1Y 20 - Wednesday 22 June) See listing 5AH. T 020 7969 5204 E biaa@ for Monday 20 June for more britac.ac.uk W www.biaa.ac.uk information. Wednesday 22 June Th ursday 23 June

Time TBC | Th e Jews of Morocco 7:00 pm | Th e Azarbaijan Crisis of (Th ree-Day Conference: Monday 1945-46: the catalyst of the 50-year 20 - Wednesday 22 June) See listing Cold War (Lecture) Fereydoun Ala, for Monday 20 June for more Private Historian. Organised by: Th e information. Iran Society. 6.30pm for 7.00pm. Admission free. Canning House, 2 5:30 pm | 1961-2011: Memories Belgrave Square, London SW1. T

26 » The Middle East in London » June-July 2011 British Centre. In the wake of Organised by: Th e Arab British momentous developments across Centre in partnership with Caabu the Arab world, Eugene Rogan and the support of Banipal and the will give an historical insight into London Middle East Institute, SOAS the region so that we can better (LMEI). Th ree Arab authors join MIDDLE EAST BRIEFINGS understand the political and social Brian Whitaker for a conversation context of today’s extraordinary about the momentous events events. Admission free. Foyles of the ‘Arab Spring’ and what it The London Middle East Institute offers tailored brieﬁngs Bookshop, 113-119 Charing means for literary life in their home on the politics, economics, cultures and languages of the Middle East. Cross Road, London WC2H 0EB. countries. Admsision free. Khalili Previous clients include UK and foreign governmental bodies T 020 7832 1310 E imogen@ Lecture Th eatre, SOAS. E www. and private entities. arabbritishcentre.org.uk W www. arabbritishcentre.org.uk W www. Contact us for details. arabbritishcentre.org.uk caabu.org Tel: 020 7898 4330 E-mail: [email protected] Th ursday 14 July Th ursday 28 July through Storytelling on a ZIPANG [email protected] W www. Day Out Also at 3.30pm. Monthly ucl.ac.uk/museums/whats-on/ 6:00 pm | Looking at Egypt Today: 7:00 pm | Planet Egypt Showcase event. See listing for Saturday 4 June petrie_listings Contemporary Egyptian Film (Performance) See listing for for details. Night (Film) Organised by: Petrie Th ursday 30 June for details. 6:00 pm | Alexander’s Wall or the Museum of Egyptian Archaeology. Moat of Peroz? Western Asia’s A selection of fi lms from Monday 4 July most elaborate ancient frontier contemporary Egypt. Admission EVENTS OUTSIDE defences (Lecture) Eberhard W free. Petrie Museum of Egyptian LONDON 8:00 pm | Rebetiko Jam Sessions of Sauer, University of Edinburgh; Archaeology, Malet Place, London the SOAS Ad Hoc Rebetiko Band Hamid Omrani Rekavandi, Iranian WC1. T 020 7679 4138 E events. Every fi rst Monday of the month. Cultural Heritage, Handcraft and [email protected] W www.ucl.ac.uk/ Friday 1 July See listing for Monday 6 June for Tourism Organisation. Nineteenth museums/petrie details. Vladimir G Lukonin Memorial 8:00 pm | Mokhalad Rasem: Iraqi Lecture. Followed by an informal Ghosts (Performance) Part of the reception. Admission free (Pre- Friday 15 July Liverpool Arabic Arts Festival 2011. Wednesday 6 July registration required). BP Lecture Production is spoken in Arabic, Th eatre, BM. T 020 7323 8308 E 7:00 pm | Live Music Event with English, French, German and Time TBC | Dash Café A night of [email protected] W Planet Egypt (Performance) Flemish. Iraqi director Mokhalad fi lms and live music with Phatwa www.britishmuseum.org/whats_ Organised by: Planet Egypt. Rasem and his 5-strong company and Slingshot Hiphop. See listing for on/events_calendar/july_2011/ Tickets: £15 in advance & £20 portray the anarchy of human lives Wednesday 1 June for contact and lukonin_memorial_lecture.aspx on the door. Darbucka, 182 St at war. Tickets: £12/£10 conc. Unity venue details. John Street, London EC1V 4JZ. E Th eatre, 1 Hope Place, Liverpool [email protected] W www. L1 9BG. T 0151 702 5324 E info@ 6:00 pm | An Evening of Film from Friday 8 July planetegypt.co.uk arabicartsfestival.co.uk W www. Yemen (Film) To coincide with the arabicartsfestival.co.uk exhibition ‘A Way of Life Preserved 9:00 am | Afghanistan, Good in Amber’ (See Exhibitions) this Governance and the Media Saturday 16 July Saturday 2 July special fi lm evening off ers an (Seminar) An international opportunity to preview some of seminar to bringing together 11:00 am | Beyond London – Egypt Various | Tania El Khoury: Jarideh the latest work by a wide range key communications strategists, in Richmond (Tour) Organised (Newspaper) (Performance) of fi lm-makers responding to the policy makers, academics, and by: Petrie Museum of Egyptian Part of the Liverpool Arabic Arts Yemen landscape, its rich heritage media practitioners to discuss how Archaeology and the Museum Festival 2011. Also on Sunday 3 July. and contemporary culture. Tickets: the media in Afghanistan could of Richmond. Walking tour with Lebanese performance artist Tania £10 (including refreshments). Royal be brought in to play a key role some public transport. Explore the El Khoury presents work in unusual Geographical Society (with IBG), in improving good governance. infl uence of ancient Egypt in Greater sites including the British Museum 1 Kensington Gore, London SW7 Followed by concert of music London. Tickets: £10/£7 Friends of and a Beirut church which used to 2AR. T 020 7591 3044 E Showcase@ and new fi lms from Afghanistan. the Petrie Museum or Friends of be a military base. Tickets: £4. Th e rgs.org W www.rgs.org Convened by Annabelle Sreberny, the Richmond Museum (booking Bluecoat, School Lane, Liverpool L1 SOAS and Massoumeh Torfeh, advised). Museum of Richmond, 3BX. See listing for Friday 1 July for SOAS. Tickets: £150. Concessions Old Town Hall, Whittaker Avenue, contact details. Th ursday 7 July for students. Khalili Lecture Th eatre Richmond-upon-Th ames, Surrey & Brunei Gallery Lecture Th eatre, TW9 1TP. T 020 7679 4138 E events. 1:00 pm | Th e Freedom Hour (Panel 5:00 pm | Alexander and the Greeks SOAS. T 020 7898 4832 E ch29@ [email protected] W www.ucl.ac.uk/ Debate) Until 9 July. Part of the in Egypt: more than trade and sex soas.ac.uk W www.soas.ac.uk/ museums/petrie Liverpool Arabic Arts Festival 2011. trail (Lecture) Organised by: Petrie mediaandfi lm/events Daily debates on current aff airs, Museum of Egyptian Archaeology. freedom and culture. Listen and Find out how Greek culture became Th ursday 21 July speak up at the open forum for ideas, Egyptian and the impact of Egypt Wednesday 13 July opinions and visions for the future on Greece, in particular Macedonia. 6:30 pm | Th e Arab Spring: A with artists and commentators Admission free. Petrie Museum of 6:30 pm | Th e Arabs: A History Literary Perspective (Lecture) from Festival. Admission free. Th e Egyptian Archaeology, Malet Place, (Talk) Eugene Rogan, University Giuma Bukleb; Khaled al-Berry; Bluecoat, School Lane, Liverpool L1 London WC1. T 020 7679 4138 E of Oxford. Organised by: Th e Arab Ghalia Qabbani; Brian Whitaker.

June-July 2011 » The Middle East in London » 27 3BX. See listing for Friday 1 July for (Newspaper) (Performance) Part of 7:30 pm | Arts for Palestine Poetry evocative voice of Palestinian poet contact details. the Liverpool Arabic Arts Festival Evening (Lecture) Part of the Mahmoud Darwish. Tickets: £10/£8 2011. See listing for Saturday 2 July. Liverpool Arabic Arts Festival 2011. conc. Unity Th eatre, 1 Hope Place, 2:00 pm | Th e Big Saturday Part of Contemporary poetry readings Liverpool L1 9BG. See listing for the Liverpool Arabic Arts Festival 12:30 pm | Dia Batal Calligraphy from across the Arab world. Friday 1 July for contact details. 2011. An inspiring day of music, Workshop Part of the Liverpool Admission free. Quaker Meeting debate, exhibitions, fi lms, food and Arabic Arts Festival 2011. A House, 22 School Lane, Liverpool more. Includes a rare showing of workshop on the process of using L1 3BT. See listing for Friday 1 July Wednesday 6 July shortlisted Yemeni fi lms from the poetry and words with design. for contact details. ZOOM Short Film Competition. Tickets: £25/£22.50 including 7:00 pm | Anatomy of a Admission free. Th e Bluecoat, all materials and refreshments. Time TBC | Trade Routes and Disappearance: Hisham Matar in School Lane, Liverpool L1 3BX. See Bluecoat Display Centre, Th e Seafaring in the Ancient Near East conversation with Suzi Feay (Talk) listing for Friday 1 July for contact Bluecoat, College Lane Entrance, (Four-Day Conference: Monday Part of the Liverpool Arabic Arts details. Liverpool L1 3BZ. See listing for 4 - Th ursday 7 July) Organised Festival 2011. Hisham Matar, whose Friday 1 July for contact details. by: Aram Society for Syro- fi rst novel In the Country of Men 8:00 pm | Khyam Allami (Oud) Mesopotamian Studies. Tickets: was shortlisted for the Man Booker & Andrea Piccioni (Percussion) See contact details below for tickets. Prize, discusses his life and writing (Concert) Part of the Liverpool Monday 4 July University of Oxford OX1 2LE. T with fi ction reviewer Suzi Feay. Arabic Arts Festival 2011. Khyam 01865 514 041 E [email protected]. Tickets: £3/£2 conc. Th e Bluecoat, Allami joins forces with Italian Until 10 July | Liverpool Arabic uk W www.aramsociety.org School Lane, Liverpool L1 3BX. See master percussionist Andrea Film Festival (Lecture) Part of listing for Friday 1 July for contact Piccioni. Tickets: £10/£8 conc. Th e the Liverpool Arabic Arts Festival details. Bluecoat, School Lane, Liverpool L1 2011. A broad programme of Tuesday 5 July 3BX. See listing for Friday 1 July for new fi lms alongside re-mastered contact details. classics. Tickets: £6/£5 conc. FACT 8:00 pm | Hafi z Dhaou & Aicha Th ursday 7 July (Foundation for Art and Creative M’Barak: Kawa (Coff ee) – A Solo Sunday 3 July Technology), 88 Wood Street, for Two (Performance) Part of 6:00 pm | Embroidery Workshop Liverpool, L14DQ. See listing for the Liverpool Arabic Arts Festival at Landbaby Part of the Liverpool Various | Tania El Khoury: Jarideh Friday 1 July for contact details. 2011. Featuring the words and Arabic Arts Festival 2011. Workshop

‘20 Million Man Army’, 2009, mixed media and collage on canvas (My Beautiful Iranian Childhood, see Exhibitions, p. 29)

28 » The Middle East in London » June-July 2011 inspired by Palestinian embroidery. 15 - Saturday 16 July) Organised Tickets: £20. Landbaby at Th e by: Cameron Petrie, Cambridge Bluecoat, Th e Bluecoat, School and Hassan-Ali Hakemi, Jacob Lane, Liverpool L1 3BX. See listing Dahl, Oxford. A workshop for Friday 1 July for contact details. commemorating A Hakemi’s work at Shahdad, a major Bronze Age 7:30 pm | Syriana with Th e centre discovered at the edge of the Liverpool Philharmonic Dasht-e-Lut in 1968, and 40 years Orchestra (Concert) Part of the of excavations in southeast Iran. Liverpool Arabic Arts Festival Admission free (Pre-registration 2011. A unique evening of musical required). McDonald Institute for exploration that crosses cultural Archaeological Research, University boundaries. Tickets: £20/£15 conc. of Cambridge, Downing Street, Liverpool Philharmonic Hall, Hope Cambridge CB2 3ER. T 01223 339 Street, Liverpool L1 9BP. See listing 001 E [email protected] W www. for Friday 1 July for contact details. arch.cam.ac.uk/shahdad/

Time TBC | Ninth Biennial Friday 8 July ASTENE Conference (Four-Day Conference: Friday 15 - Monday 7:00 pm | Ahmed El Attar: on 18 July) Organised by: Association the importance of being an Arab for the Study of Travel in Egypt (Performance) Also at 8.00pm. and the Near East. Th e Conference Part of the Liverpool Arabic Arts will continue to explore the impact Festival 2011. Performance by of travellers – and the impact on Ahmed Al Attar that is drawn travellers – of Egypt and the Near from his personal archive of love East from earliest times to the letters, offi cial documents and his middle of the twentieth century. Revolution Diaries detailing recent Tickets: £35. St Anne’s College, events in Tahrir Square.Tickets: Woodstock Road, Oxford OX2 £10/£8 conc. Th e Bluecoat, School 6HS. E [email protected] W www. Lane, Liverpool L1 3BX. See listing astene.org.uk for Friday 1 July for contact details. Saturday 16 July

1:30 pm | Baladi Boutique Saturday 9 July Rozita Shara ahan, ‘Sixth Desire’, 2010, digital print and embroidery on (Concert) Part of the Liverpool canvas (Breakfast in Tehran, see Exhibitions, p.30) 3:00 pm | Samuel Shimon in Arabic Arts Festival 2011. Live conversation with Eckhard music and dance experience with Th iemann (Talk) Part of the Cairo dancer Yasmina and Th e listing for Friday 1 July for contact prices. Room 35, BM. T 020 7323 Liverpool Arabic Arts Festival Baladi Blues Band. Various ticket details. 8299 W www.britishmuseum.org 2011. Assyrian Iraqi author Samuel prices. Mollington, Backford & Shimon will discuss his fascinating District Village Hall, Station Road, Until 7 July | Hamad & Ali - Pop life and work with the Festival’s Backford CH1 6NT. See listing for EXHIBITIONS Icons Kuwaiti pop art duo Hamad Guest Curator Eckhard Th iemann. Friday 1 July for contact details. Al Saab and Ali Sultan are exhibiting Tickets: £3/£2 conc. Th e Bluecoat, their work outside of the Middle East School Lane, Liverpool L1 3BX. See Monday 18 July Wednesday 1 June for the fi rst time bringing historical listing for Friday 1 July for contact and cultural fi gures from the Arab details. Time TBC | Th e Western world to an international audience. Missions in the Levant (Th ree- Until 25 June | My Beautiful Iranian Childhood Painting exhibition Admission free. Lahd Gallery, 92 Day Conference: Monday 18 - Heath Street, London NW3 1DP. T Monday 11 July Wednesday 20 July) Organised by Parisa Aminolahi based on the disparity between the lifestyle of 020 7435 7323 W www.lahdgalery. by: Aram Society for Syro- com Time TBC | Th e Amorites (Th ree- Mesopotamian Studies.Tickets: See a typical middle class family in Tehran and the religious-political Day Conference: Monday 11 - contact details below for tickets. Until 11 September | Adornment Wednesday 13 July) Organised University of Oxford OX1 2LE. T atmosphere of Iran during the 1980s aft er the Islamic revolution. and Identity: jewellery and by: Aram Society for Syro- 01865 514 041 E [email protected]. costume from Oman A unique Mesopotamian Studies. Tickets: uk W www.aramsociety.org Admission free. Brunei Gallery, SOAS. T 020 7898 4046 / 4915 E display featuring a selection of 20th See contact details below for tickets. century silver jewellery, weaponry University of Oxford OX1 2LE. T Saturday 23 July [email protected] W www.soas. ac.uk/gallery and male and female dress from 01865 514 041 E [email protected]. Oman. Admission free. BM. T 020 uk W www.aramsociety.org 8:00 pm | Merseyside Arabic Dance Until 3 July | Surviving Treasures 7323 8299 W www.britishmuseum. Showcase (Performance) Part of the org Friday 15 July Liverpool Arabic Arts Festival 2011. from the National Museum of Afghanistan Th e exhibition will An evening of music and dance Until 16 December | Flinders Petrie Time TBC | Shahdad and the from North Africa and beyond. highlight some of the most important archaeological discoveries from and Francis Galton Exhibition Bronze Age in Southeast Iran Tickets: £9/£7 conc. Unity Th eatre, of some of the photographs that (Two-Day Conference: Friday 1 Hope Place, Liverpool L1 9BG. See ancient Afghanistan. Various ticket

June-July 2011 » The Middle East in London » 29 Until 10 July | Hassan Darsi: Toit du Monde (Roof of the World) & Le Piege (Th e Trap)Part of the Liverpool Arabic Arts Festival 2011. Hassan Darsi, is one of Morocco’s leading artists and director of artists’ space L’Atelier de la Source du Lion. Admission free. Th e Bluecoat, School Lane, Liverpool L1 3BX. T 0151 702 5324 E info@ arabicartsfestival.co.uk W www. arabicartsfestival.co.uk

Saturday 2 July

Until 3 September | Dia Batal Part of the Liverpool Arabic Arts Festival 2011. Exhibition by the Beirut born designer Dia Batal featuring furniture and textiles infused with poetic texts in Arabic calligraphy. Admission free. Bluecoat Display Centre, Th e Bluecoat, College Lane Entrance, Liverpool L1 3BZ. T 0151 702 5324 E info@arabicartsfestival. co.uk W www.arabicartsfestival. co.uk

Monday 4 July

Until 8 July | Breathing the Air - An Exhibition by Majed Shala Th is series of powerful paintings is Palestinian artist Majed Shala’s response to the confl ict and confi nes which govern him but do not defi ne him; a message which reaches out to the world well beyond Nizar Issa (Syriana with The Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, see Events Outside London, p. 29) Gaza. Admission free. Th e Arab British Centre, 1 Gough Square, London EC4A 3DE. W www. arabbritishcentre.org.uk / www. Francis Galton commissioned Tehran A chance to see a selection Gallery by the Yemeni Tourism artscanteen.com Flinders Petrie to take of diff erent of drawing, collage, photography Ministry. On Friday 24 June at ‘racial types’ in ancient Egypt and printmaking from a group 2.30pm there will be a showcase in 1886. Admission free. Petrie of new and established Iranian from the Society’s Collections Th ursday 21 July Museum of Egyptian Archaeology, artists who will be exhibiting their including early photographs, maps Malet Place, London WC1. T 020 work in London for the fi rst time. and watercolours. Admission free. Until 25 September | Th e Jameel 7679 4138 E [email protected] Admission free. Janet Rady Fine Art Th e Pavilion, Royal Geographical Prize 2011 Th e V&A’s £25,000 W www.ucl.ac.uk/museums/petrie @ Frameless Gallery, 20 Clerkenwell Society (with IBG), 1 Kensington international art prize awarded to Green, London EC1R 0DP. T 0795 Gore, London SW7 2AR. T 020 a contemporary artist or designer Ongoing | Th e Baghdad Car 728 4370 E janet@janetradyfi neart. 7591 3000 W www.rgs.org / www. inspired by Islamic craft and design. Installation by the artist Jeremy com W www.janetradyfi neart.com yementourism.com Ten artists and designers have Deller of a car salvaged from been shortlisted and the exhibition the bombing of the historic Al- will display works ranging from Mutanabbi street book market Monday 20 June Friday 1 July felt costumes to sculpture made in Baghdad on 5 March 2007 from hand-made terracotta bricks. which killed thirty-eight people. Until 8 July | ‘A Way o f L i fe Until 10 July | Wael Shawky: Admission free.Victoria & Albert Admission free. Imperial War Preserved in Amber’ - Yemeni Drawings and fl ags from ‘Cabaret Museum, Cromwell Road, London Museum London, Lambeth Road, Cultural Exhibition Eight Crusades’ Part of the Liverpool SW7 2RL. T 020 7942 2000 W www. London SE1 6HZ. T 020 7416 5000 European artists including Charles Arabic Arts Festival 2011. vam.ac.uk W http://london.iwm.org.uk Foster-Hall and Philip Braham Admission free. Walker Art Gallery, share their experiences of Yemen William Brown Street, Liverpool Monday 13 June aft er they were invited to the L3 8EL. T 0151 702 5324 E info@ Sana’a Summer Festival to put on arabicartsfestival.co.uk W www. Until 26 June | Breakfast in an exhibition at the Bab Al-Yemen arabicartsfestival.co.uk

30 » The Middle East in London » June-July 2011 LLONDONONDON MMIDDLEIDDLE EEASTAST IINSTITUTENSTITUTE SSchoolchool ooff OOrientalriental aandnd AAfricanfrican SStudiestudies

IInternationalnternational IIranianranian EEconomicconomic AAssociationssociation

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9-10 September 2011 Brunei Gallery Lecture Theatre, SOAS

Enquiries & Bookings: 020 7898 4490 [email protected]; www.lmei.soas.ac.uk

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