Patronage and Poetry in the Islamic World
Jocelyn Sharlet
I B Tauris (hardcover), 2011
PRs 10,700
Arabic and Persian panegyric poetry was one of the most important genres of literature in the medieval Middle East and Central Asia. Jocelyn Sharlet argues that panegyric poetry is important not only because it provides a commentary on society and culture in the medieval Middle East, but also because panegyric writing was one of the key means for individuals to gain social mobility and standing during this period. This is particularly so within the context of patronage, a central feature of social order during these times. Sharlet places the medieval Arabic and Persian panegyric firmly within its cultural context, and identifies it as a crucial way of gaining entry to and movement within this patronage network. This is an important contribution to the fields of pre-modern Middle Eastern and Central Asian literature and culture.
Review
‘This is a work of very wide, very thorough and very impressive scholarship. Dr. Sharlet’s use of primary sources is exemplary in its scope and in its ability to identify what is apposite to illustrate a given argument. Work on praise poetry is the great lacuna of modern scholarship on Middle Eastern medieval verse; it is an absolutely crucial genre (and indeed much of the rhetoric of other poetic genres in these cultures demonstrably derives from the rhetoric of praise poetry), and yet there are virtually no good discussions of what poets in this genre did, or how and why they did it. Dr. Sharlet’s book is easily the most important contribution to our understanding of this important genre that I am aware of.’ - Dick Davis, Chair and Professor of Persian, Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures, Ohio State University; ‘Unlike many of her predecessors, who have studied patronage in the context of panegyric poetry or in passing as part of their analysis of narrative texts, in this book Sharlet undertakes to dissect the interplay of risk and success as the stuff not only of sponsored literature within a literary patronage system, but also as the instantiation of a form of social order. This is an ambitious, original, and important text - one that will set the bar higher for all who work in medieval Arabic and Persian literature.’ - Margaret Larkin, Professor of Arabic Literature, Department of Near Eastern Studies, University of California, Berkeley.
Counterterrorism and International
Power Relations
Anna Cornelia Beyer
Tauris Academic Studies (hardcover), 2010
PRs 10,150
Why do states and international relations organizations participate in the “global war on terrorism”? This book asks this question within a broad framework, exploring the mechanisms and causes for participation in global governance and taking counterterrorism as a pertinent case. Challenging the assumption of egalitarian structures of global governance, the author argues that power relations and the use of power (influence, coercion and force) play a more important role than previously suggested. Providing a critical assessment of the counterterrorism policies of EU, US and ASEAN, the book identifies a number of causes of participation in hegemonic governance, including asymmetric interdependence with the US, open and informal pressure in the case of the EU, and the authority and legitimacy of the leading actors.
Reviews
“Throughout the early twenty-first century, state governments have worked to develop policies and mutual understandings which advocates claim will improve their collective ability to protect themselves from terrorism. In this book, Anna Cornelia Beyer demonstrates that their efforts conform to a pattern of organisation and power relations which she describes as “hegemonic governance”. Using data gathered from primary source documents and original interviews with recognised authorities, she contributes meaningful knowledge to several bodies of scholarly literature. In addition to this, her work also contains a useful approach to policy-oriented studies of counterterrorism.” — Dr. Tom Kane, Senior Lecturer, Department of Politics and International Relations, University of Hull.
“Anna Cornelia Beyer argues in this book for a “hegemonic global governance” perspective, rather than pure unilateralism or multilateralist global governance, to explain participation in the Global War on Terrorism. In particular this is represented by unprecedented forms of cooperation in the area of counterterrorism, which may have had a transformative impact on global governance, which she successfully tests through regional case studies of the EU and ASEAN. This book finesses the relationship between power and governance, and raises a number of interesting questions. Beyer’s broader ambition to inform security governance is of particular value, with interesting and helpful use of interviews with key figures in the field, in addition to those with relevant policy figures to underwrite the case studies of regional collective actors.” — Dr. Hugh Dyer, Senior Lecturer, Department of Politics and International Relations, University of Leeds.
Sleepwalking to Surrender: Dealing with
Terrorism in Pakistan
Khaled Ahmed
Penguin Viking (hardcover), 2016
PRs 1,295
Pakistan is still on the brink of becoming a failed state as a consequence of its decades-old practice of using proxy warriors in the region. Because of the weakening of the writ of the state, neither governance nor the economy can function normally; in fact, some say the two strong entities in today’s Pakistan are the Taliban and the army.
Non-state actors, and the extremist terror outfits they control, pursue extortion, kidnapping and murder to fund their activities, and receive ideological, financial and logistical support from the deep state. The army continues to use them in its India-centric agenda. Civilian institutions are intimidated and individuals who speak out against the terror outfits become targets of their retribution. Violence, not law, increasingly commands human conduct, and the state’s willingness to enter into ‘peace talks’ with the Taliban is viewed as a form of surrender to extremism.
Khaled Ahmed is Pakistan’s most respected columnist, and his formidable expertise on the ideologies of extremism is internationally acknowledged. In Sleepwalking to Surrender, he analyses the terrible toll terrorism has taken on Pakistan and appraises the portents for the future.
The Birth of Tajikistan: National Identity
and the Origins of the Republic
Paul Bergne
I B Tauris (hardcover), 2007
PRs 4,600
A vivid history of the birth of a nation. When the Russian Revolution broke out in October 1917, much of Central Asia was still ruled by autonomous rulers such as the Emir of Bukhara and the Khan of Khiva. By 1920 the khanates had been transformed into People’s Republics, and, in 1924, Stalin re-drew the frontiers on ethno-linguistic lines creating, amongst other statelets, the Soviet Socialist Republic of Uzbekistan - the land of the Uzbeks. But the Uzbeks were not the only significant ethnic group within the new Uzbekistan’s frontiers. An older people, the Tajiks, formed a considerable part of the population. This book describes how, often in the teeth of Uzbek opposition, the Tajiks gained, first an autonomous oblast within Uzbekistan, then an autonomous republic, and finally, in 1929, the status of a full Soviet Union Republic. Once the Tajiks had acquired their own republic, they began to acquire a national identity and national pride. The new government had not only to survive the civil war that followed the revolution but then to build an entirely new country in an immensely inhospitable terrain. New frontiers had to be wrested from neighbours, and a new cultural identity, “national in form but socialist in content”, had to be created. This book is the first documentation of how the idea of a Tajik state came into being.
Refugee Status in Islam
Arafat Madi Shoukri
I B Tauris (hardcover), 2010
PRs 10,150
What are the views, principles and regulations of the Islamic tradition concerning refugee status? Are there any similarities between the Islamic tradition relating to the laws of aman (safe conduct) and the 1951 Geneva Convention relating to the status of refugees? In this book, Arafat Shoukri delves into fifteen centuries of Arab and Islamic history examining hundreds of ancient sources to establish Islam’s position on refugees. This is the first examination of the 1951 Geneva Convention on refugees from an Islamic perspective. In adopting this approach, Shoukri is able to compare and contrast the principles of international law with those of the Islamic tradition.
Review
‘Public debate on immigration has run hot and cold in the west for more than 100 years. Today, the increasing flow of refugees has given rise to a renewed sense of urgency to this debate often defined by economic insecurity and xenophobic sensitivities. This book offers a cogent and compelling insight into the Islamic perspective - largely unknown, overlooked and dismissed. Here Dr Shoukri offers an enlightened understanding that would better facilitate the integration of Muslim refugees, guarantee their rights and preserve the paramount interests of the states concerned. He furthermore unearths a wealth of tradition which forcefully outlines a new and viable approach to this thorny issue.’ - Dr Daud Abdullah, Director of the Middle East Monitor