Lords of the Lebanese Marches looks at relations between different forms of power, violence and hierarchy in Akkar, the northernmost province of Lebanon, during the 1970s. Often regarded as ""backward"" and ""feudal,"" in reality this area was controlled mainly by groups with important roles in government and business in Beirut. Using both material collected during his stay in Akkar and a variety of historical sources, Gilsenan analyzes the practices that guaranteed the rule of the large landowners and traces shifts in the discourses of domination in the area. He also examines the...

Islam is more than a set of laws, rites and beliefs presented as a religious and social totality. As a word it covers a multitude of everyday forms and practices that are interwoven in complex, sometimes almost invisible ways in daily existence. Drawing exclusively on his own fieldwork in Egypt, South Arabia and the Lebanon, the author explores the nature of Islam and its impact on the daily lives of its followers; he shows that all the Western stereotypes of Islam and its practitioners need to be treated with considerable scepticism.

He demonstrates also that the understanding of...

Islam is more than a set of laws, rites and beliefs presented as a religious and social totality. As a word it covers a multitude of everyday forms and practices that are interwoven in complex, sometimes almost invisible ways in daily existence. Drawing exclusively on his own fieldwork in Egypt, South Arabia and the Lebanon, the author explores the nature of Islam and its impact on the daily lives of its followers; he shows that all the Western stereotypes of Islam and its practitioners need to be treated with considerable scepticism.

He demonstrates also that the understanding of...