The Persatuan Islam (Islamic-Union) was a small group of Indonesian Muslim activists during the period from 1923-1957. Their efforts involved them in the great disputes of the time, namely the shape of the emerging Indonesian state as the region broke loose from colonial control, and the direction of Islamic discourse in that new nation. Deeply ideological, these activists called themselves "radical-revolutionaries." Their outlook, starting as a manifestation of Islamic Modernism, later became a form of Islamic Neo-Fundamentalism. The views raised by the group were not generally accepted, as...

This book comprises a collection of articles and essays published in a variety of journals during the past decades, which seek to identify and analyze mainly the internal forces which transformed the Ottoman State into a variety of national states in the Balkans and the Middle East. Kemal H. Karpat studies the transformation of miri (state) lands into private property, the subsequent rise of a new propertied middle class in the countryside with its own stratum of intellectuals and notables as preparing the rise of a civil order which embraced or rejected as the situation demanded the...

This volume deals with aspects of orality and oral traditions in ancient Greece, and is a selection of refereed papers from the fourth biennial Orality and Literacy in Ancient Greece conference, held at the University of Missouri Columbia in 2000. The book is divided into three parts: literature, rhetoric and society, and philosophy. The papers focus on genres such as epic poetry, drama, poetry and art, public oratory, legislative procedure, and Simplicius' philosophy. All papers present new approaches to their topics or ask new and provocative questions.

This volume discusses how the multifaceted reality of Turkey's Alevis impinges on society and politics in contemporary Turkey. The book provides readers with a vigorous discussion of the origins and history of the Alevis, examines their ethnic identity and cultural representation, as well as appraising their political life and the effect that this had on Turkey's polity, the Turkish Left and the Kurdish National Movement, and upon the emergence of civil society. It analyses Alevi cultural manifestations and even looks at how Alevi diaspora communities in Europe effect Turkey in various ways....

This book investigates the objectives, activities, and a decade of success and failure by Islamist military officers and civilians to create the first Islamic government in Africa after the coup d'etat by Brigadier Omar Hasan Ahmad al-Bashir. It describes and analyzes the role played by Hasan al-Turabi in the Sudan, the world, and the revolutionary government from its relative isolation on the frontiers of Islam and the margins of the Arab World. It follows the activities of this ideological and activist leader of the revolution who used his influence as a charismatic Muslim scholar to...

This book is about the laissez-faire strategy for economic development, a strategy inspired by neoclassical/mainstream economics, advocated by the "Washington Consensus," and implemented by the Bretton Woods institutions. Mainstream economics has taken legitimacy from the historical failure of command economies. But this view has not been balanced by an examination of the performance of laissez-faire economies, the closest to the pure market model. Lebanon provides a unique test case in this regard. The book assesses Lebanon's development during 1948-2002, including its industrial and...

This collection represents the first large scale attempt to discuss the Middle Eastern mandates as a totality. It compares the application and effects of this very specific form of late colonialism from a variety of different disciplinary perspectives, including anthropology, architecture, archival conservation, economics, history, law and sociology. It contains analyses at both micro and macro levels, including specific instances of revolt or collaboration, studies of particular individuals, of professional groups and their contributions to "nation-building," comparisons between the various...

Dealing with New Order perceptions of the past this study gives insights into how the past can be used for purposes of national-building and regime legitimization and into the nature of the New Order. The Suharto regime created a coherent history that is reflected in recent archaeological and historical research, in popular histories and biographies, in monuments and in school textbooks. The author describes an official history stretching from the proto-Indonesia of Majapahit, through the Indonesian Revolution up to the birth of the New Order in 1965. He also gives a counterview to this...

Dealing with New Order perceptions of the past this study gives insights into how the past can be used for purposes of national-building and regime legitimization and into the nature of the New Order. The Suharto regime created a coherent history that is reflected in recent archaeological and historical research, in popular histories and biographies, in monuments and in school textbooks. The author describes an official history stretching from the proto-Indonesia of Majapahit, through the Indonesian Revolution up to the birth of the New Order in 1965. This past emphasized political stability...