Minorities in the Middle East
Subtitle: A History of Struggle and Self-Expression
Edition: 2nd edition
Publisher: McFarland & Company
Published: September 2002
Language: eng
Format: Paperback
Number of pages: 351
ISBN-13: 9780786413751
Subjects: Asian / Middle Eastern history; Ethnic studies; History of specific racial & ethnic groups; Middle East; History - General History; History: World; Middle East - General; Anthropology - Cultural; Minority Studies - General; History; Judaism - General; Ethnology; Minorities
Table of contents: title: Introduction : the Middle Eastern mosaic. States and nations -- Minorities in the Middle East -- The debate about minorities -- Principles and means of conflict resolution -- Kurds : a legacy of struggle and suffering. Kurdish life under Islam -- Toward independence in Kurdistan -- The Mahabad episode -- Liberation as rebellion -- Kurdish persistence and powerlessness -- Self-rule and national division in the 1990s -- Berbers : between rebellion and submission. Religiously syncretic, communally exotic -- The French invasion and Berber militancy -- The episode of Riffian independence -- Kabylia and the Front de Libération National (FLN) -- Arab statehood and the Berbers -- New circumstances and old problems -- Baluch : from obscurity to geostrategic importance. Toward independence in Baluchistan -- State repression and international opportunity -- Between Afghanistan and the Persian Gulf -- Druzes : freedom without independence. Religion and its precepts -- Druze warfare within and without -- Druze particularity in Mideast states -- Survival without sovereignty -- ‘Alawites : to power and the unknown. Mysterious sectarianism -- ‘Alawite statehood and the French -- Military professionalism, political pretensions -- The Assad regime -- An uncertain gamble -- Copts : from majority people to minority religion. Religious and communal identity -- During the French and British years -- Facing Islam, Arabism, and Egyptian independence -- Insecurity and abandonment -- Armenians : talent, tragedy, and territorial loss. Christianity and national character -- Toward independence in Armenia -- The first genocide of the twentieth century -- Dispersion and statehood -- Revenge, not revolution -- Assyrians : an ancient people, a perennial struggle. Facing antiquity, Christianity, and Islam -- The church, facing east and west -- Toward Assyrian independence and failure -- Dispersion and revitalization -- Maronites : sophistication and missed opportunities. Lebanon’s European connection -- Ottoman days, Maronite nights -- Toward independence in Lebanon -- Between statehood and sectarianism -- Maronite decline and the Lebanese war -- Syrian occupation and Israeli withdrawal -- Sudanese Christians : tribulations and war in black Africa. Christianity in the jungle -- Southern subjugation and slavery -- British rule : toward southern freedom and back -- Sudanese independence and southern rebellion -- War : religious, regional, and Russian factors -- Change and continuity in the southern struggle -- Jews : Zionist achievement, lingering question. Judaism : a religion and a nationality -- The everlasting homeland -- Survival despite dispersion -- Toward Jewish independence in Eretz-Israel -- The key to Zionist success -- The Dhimmi syndrome -- The problematics of Arab opposition -- Jews, Israel, and the minorities. The Middle Eastern minority equation -- Mythology and memorabilia -- Minority connections -- Conclusions. The elusiveness of political rule : a comparison -- Minority mobilization and the crusader case -- Minority particularity and the Israeli case -- Peoples and state across the region -- The Middle East and the world.