Before the intifada began, Joost Hiltermann had already looked at local organizations in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip and seen there the main elements that would eventually be used to mobilize the Palestinian masses. In the first comprehensive study of these organizations, Hiltermann shows how local organizers provided basic services unavailable under military rule, while recruiting for the cause of Palestinian nationalism.

This intensive social biography of a rural Moroccan judge discusses Islamic education, the concept of knowledge it embodies, and its communication from the early years of colonial rule in twentieth-century Morocco to the present. The work sensitively combines the outlooks and perceptions of the author and those of the shrewd and reflective Abd ar-Rahman, supplementing our knowledge of resurgent militant Islamic movements by describing other popularly supported Islamic attitudes toward the contemporary world.

Emphasizing the interaction between political organizations and social forces, Ervand Abrahamian discusses Iranian society and politics during the period between the Constitutional Revolution of 1905-1909 and the Islamic Revolution of 1977-1979. Presented here is a study of the emergence of horizontal divisions, or socio-economic classes, in a country with strong vertical divisions based on ethnicity, religious ideology, and regional particularism. Professor Abrahamian focuses on the class and ethnic roots of the major radical movements in the modem era, particularly the constitutional...

The book traces growing state intervention in the rural areas of Tunisia and Libya in the middle 1800s and the diverging development of the two countries during the period of European rule. State formation accelerated in Tunisia under the French with the result that, with independence, interest-based policy brokerage became the principal form of political organization. For Libya, where the Italians dismantled the pre-colonial administration, independence brought with it the revival of kinship as the basis for politics.

Originally published in 1986.

The Princeton Legacy...

This survey of North African history challenges both conventional attitudes toward North Africa and previously published histories written from the point of view of Western scholarship. The book aims, in Professor Laroui's words, "to give from within a decolonized vision of North African history just as the present leaders of the Maghrib are trying to modernize the economic and social structure of the country."

The text is divided into four parts: the origins of the Islamic conquest; the stages of Islamization; the breakdown of central authority from the sixteenth to the eighteenth...

In interviews with 170 politically active Iranians, the author reveals that politics in Iran are based on interpersonal relationships marked by insecurity, cynicism, and mistrust. He then assesses the significance of these characteristics for Iran's future development.

Originally published in 1971.

The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting...

Under the energetic but confused prodding of the activist ruler Ahmad Bey, Tunisia made its first effort to institute European-inspired political and military reforms. L. Carl Brown's book on the reign of Ahmad Bey is thus a case study in modernization as well as a historical survey of Tunisia in the mid-nineteenth century. Professor Brown explains the workings of the traditional political system, an elaborate blend of Hafsid and Ottoman governmental ideas and practices. He explores the ways in which the changes imposed on Tunisia by the West made this system unworkable. Turning to the...

A loyal servant of the Ottoman Empire in his early career, Sati' al-Husri (1880-1968) became one of Arab nationalism's most articulate and influential spokesmen. His shift from Ottomanism, based on religion and the multi-national empire, to Arabism, defined by secular loyalties and the concept of an Arab nation, is the theme of William Cleveland's account of "the making of an Arab nationalist."

Originally published in 1972.

The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished...

For over four centuries the principal source of Christian European knowledge of Islam stemmed from a project sponsored by Peter the Venerable, ninth abbot of Cluny, in 1142. This consisted of Latin translations of five Arabic works, including the first translation of the Koran in a western language. Known as the Toledan Collection, it was eventually printed in 1543 with an introduction by Martin Luther. The abbot also completed a handbook of Islam beliefs and a major analytical and polemical work, Liber contra sectam Saracenorum; annotated editions of these texts are included in...

In occupied Egypt, British governmental programs were closely related to England's needs as an imperial power since Egypt was occupied because of its strategic position along the route to India. British presence there, however, inevitably led to modernization during the 32 years of British rule. During the first period the British were preoccupied with the prospect of imminent withdrawal. The second period emphasized programs for such reforms as hydraulic and agricultural modernization, wider education, and urban development. The final period covered the emergence of Egyptian nationalism,...