i Middle Fast.aPreface Note on Transliteratio. Anthropology, The Midd The Middle East and Central Asia: Shifting _ Frontiers 1 First Approxinations Anthropology Today: Practical Further Readings 2 sumptions 19 Intellectual Predecessors: East and Wes Bonaparte’s Expedition to Egypt, 1798-1801 28 Explorers: John Lewis Burckhardt (1784-1817) a Edward Lane (1801-1876) 29 Scholars: W. Robertson Smith (1846-1894) 33 Scholarly Inquiry and Imperial Interests 37 Further Readings 42 PARTI LOCATIONS: REG! ION, ECONOMY, AND SOC! Village and Community Village and Community Studies Economy ané Village Society 57 Further Readings 62 Pastoral Nomadism Pastoral Norradism: Changing Political Conte: Arabian Penixsula Pastoral Nomads: The Rwala Bedouin 72 ‘The Ideology of Equality: Further C Further Readings 82 nsiderations 80Cities in Their Place aa “ City in the Middle East 88 islamic’ Colonial Cities and Their Legacy Cities Now 101 turther Readings 112 PART Ill CONSTRUCTED MEANINGS 115 What Isa Tribe? The Concept of Tribe 115 The Principle of Segmentation 120 A Moroccan Example: The Bni Bataw 126 jeologies 1 Further Readings 137 Personal and Family Relationships 40 Why Study Kinship? 140 Practical Kinship 144 Analytical Considerations 151 Marriage 158 ‘The Importance of Kin and Family 163 Further Readings 166 Change in Practical Ideologies: Self, Gender, and Ethnicity 168 Naming 170 Women, Men, and Sexuality 176 Ethnicity and Cultural Identity 192 Further Readings 212 The Cultural Order of Complex Societies Worldview 215 Language and Etiquette 218 Iran 22 Morocco: God’s Will, Reason, and Obligation 226 North Africans in Israel: Continuity and Change 232 ‘Tournaments of Value: Women, Men, and Social Honor 235 Further Readings 239e “Religions of the 10 ss World Religions in the Middl 2 241 Producing Orthod afi Tradition 265 jus Ones” and Religious Orders 272 The Authority Reform and Debate 285 Parallels: Christianity and Judaism i East 298 ‘urther Readings 306 f Learning 278 enewal and Internal jicalism: the Midi PART V THE SHAPE OF CHANGE 313 YL] State Autherity and Society 313 Popular ané Elite Conceptions 313 Problems of Authority and Interpretation 323 Colonial Authority 326 tate Authority: Trad onomy and on and the Present 334 Wailing Midule East Further Readings 359 1Anthuopology 336 APPENDIX: Internet Resources for the Middle East and Central Asia 361 Glos: IndexPREFACE book is intended as an anthropé tral Asia. A second, compl: iddle ntary goal is, antral Asia is making those that relate to the analysi and tion that the stuey of the N currents of anthropology, ¢ societies. As anthropolos ‘world has reached a critical intensity, different themes have emerg; region that have ‘hen influenced ideas elsewhere. Because of the Mi complexity and diversity, several interrelated themes prevail. One g sues is suggested by the study of Islam, Judaism, and Christianity and how these world religions are understood both as global movements and in their rich local manifestations in the Middle East. How do local understandings slam, for exampl wider currents of social thought and practice? How does a world religious tradition such as Islam shape, and become shaped by, the rapidly evolving economic and political contexts in which it is main- tained and reproduced? What are the implications of mass higher education, the proliferation of media, and the greater ease of travel and rapid communi- cation for the ways in which people think about religion and politics? ‘Another set of issues concerns ideas that people hold about their cultural, and personal identities. In a region as complex as the Middle East, with its overlapping linguistic, ethnic, national, kin, gender, and class distinctions, the problems of how personal and collective identities are asserted and what they mean in differing historical and political contexts are especially crucial. With the rise of ethnonationalism and ethnoreligious nationalisms, such identities are at times more plastic and at other times seemingly more fixed than many earlier assumptions concerning their cultural bases have allowed. ‘A third theme concerns the political contexts and consequences of eco- nomic activities—the production, allocation, and consumption of goods and services, Together with practitioners of other disciplines, anthropologists ana- lyze the social and cultural impact of developments such as massiv igration from poorer countries, the accrual of oil and mineral weal urbanization, agricultural innovation, and competition over scarce 1 scholarship on the major civilizational areas of the in each such as water. Anthropologists, like their colleagues in other disciplines, are in the concerned with what happens to cultural values and social relatio: context of rapid economic and political change, and with the prospe: more “civil” societies and greater tolerance in the Middle East and CeA fourth theme concerns cl Central Asian societies and cultu and Central Asians then his issu one related only indirectly to “real” anth ered implicit in any problem in the human constitutes valid description and interpretation of a changed dramatically over the pological inquiry has ceased to son of this fourth edition with the first one, which af suggests how anthropology and our understanding of changed over the past two decade ‘The first two editions of this book lenging task in itself, For all practical purpo nging interpretations of were a world apart daring the period of Soviet domination, sealed off from ac joining Middle Eastern countries. By the late 1980s, this situation had begun to change. Cross-borde: cultural and commercial ties between Middle Eastern and Central Asian countries were rapidly created or renewed, and Russian and Central Asian scholars intensified their cooperation with , American colleagues, often working collaboratively with them. Central Asia and the Muslim-majority regi cidedly different profi East, but many questions and issues applicable to the Middle East serve as useful poir parture for understanding Central Asia. Islam remains a basic (although no! clusive) element of identity for most people in Central Asia, as did Judaism fo a significant (although rapidly declining) minority, in spite of vigorous anti- religious campaigns during much of the Soviet era. The priv Ruscian language, the “gla the former Soviet bureaucracy, end an economic system weighted toward extracting re- sources from the region rather than cleveloping it bears many similarities to the colonial situation that prevailed in parts of the Middle East. Finally, exploring the interpretive framework by which Soviets and Russians sought to under- stand Central Asia and comparing developments in Central Asia with what Moscow-based scholars called the “ better the strengths and w The third edition su tanding tral Asia, especially the rising significance of ethnonational polities and the lated “rewriting” of national and ethnic histories by some of the intellectuals. This fourth edition brings the account up to date, and fo time incorporates World Wide Web resources and invites r this text by using them as well This book is intended both as a textbook and as an interpretive ess: ss from most countries in the Middl ed sta or Central Asians in much 0 foreign Muslim East” help us understand nesses of our own interpretive framework: .ggested points of departure for under introduces students, colleagues, and general Central Asia and to the questions that have been ai being developed e being devescholars and writers concerned with the two regions. Although this book i necessarily a synthesis of major research, I seek to develop a particular style of anthropological inquiry and show its contribution to the study of these two plementary regions. Many textbooks are derivative and unco: that the logical inquiry. I nope that this book contains the sense of disc ting it and keeping it up-to-date, and that readers will b f icles, a nelude with an anni rarely convey the sense of discovery that leaps from the p: aphs that constitute the central substance of line resour pplore son the text and footnotes rence materials. The glossary, containing provides a for comparison. An entirely new element in this edition is a guide to World for the Mid graph hapters places where terms are discussed in the t fide Web resources, “Internet ‘The manuscript for the first edition of this b nplete able typewriter in the Sultanate of Oman in late 1979, In that politically turbu- mal group of oasis dwellers in a small provincial capital, ly lent year, a often including myself, met almost daily for afternoon coffee in the rela we compared notes on what we heard and cool date understood of regional politics from shortwave broadcasts i ous lan guages and from what we ourselves saw and heard. These afternoon “news” to regional and international politics, were as integral a part, property and water rights. Topics at that time in- on of Afghanistan, revolutionary Iran, and the Novem- -ca by militant Muslim radicals. Most sperience of war and rebellion and wer alm tree gardens. Thei sessions, devote oasis life “daded the ber Great Mosque in Mi of the older tribesmen had firsthan fully aware of the fragile political environment in which they lived. It was no luxury to take fragments of information and “news,” often recogni: perfect or suspect, and to assess critically their basic and long-term impli: nfamiliar to good anthropological reporting and analysis. These “news” sessions, and similar ones conducted during return visits to Oman (and elsewhere) since then, underscored just how intertwined ‘ocal” political and economic events were with regional and global ones in the view of Middle Easterners (and Central Asians) from all walks of life. Political and economic dev tained and augmented interest in the Middle East, and interest in Central Asia has blos- somed since the end of the Soviet era. Anthropological studies tha peared since the 1980s reflect more directly than their predecessor: “background” themes of religious understandings and institutions, kinship and family, loyalty and trust, lations, political authority—and # linkages regions, and states—are linked to the hard surfaces of politics and economics. elopments since that time have s \derMy approach is not encyclope easons of historical accident an rapidly shifting political climates for research, A Japanese, Iranian, Arab, Pakistani, Central and others have been better able to conduct field studies in some areas tha others. Likewise, the hi ical development of some countries has focused at- tention on specific issues. Thus many of gical studies of Tu by both indigenous and foreign researchers have concentrated on the of modernization and nation building, while those of North Africa ha’ concerned with the continuing impact of tl if the various countries of the Middle East were known equally well anthropological studies, there would be little point in attempting a si posite of these materials, any more than such an effort for Africa America would be intellectually rewarding. In general, my procedure is to develop specific topics on the basis best available documentation for a particular country or region and th: sketch as far as possible Fow patterns of kinship, political comportment, the like compare with simlar patterns elsewhere in the Middle East. Fo ple, Chapter 4 discusses romadism, especially through an examination Al Rashid of Saudi Arabia and the Rwala bedouin of Saudi Arabia an They are chosen not because they represent a “lowest common denomina for nomads in the Middle East but because they have been the subject o thropological studies sufficiently detailed to form a basis for understanding the role of nomads and tribal peoples elsewhere in the region. This fourth edition has been extensively revised and rewritten. Even with the addition of Internet citations and durable. Earlier editions, in addition to being used in courses in anthropo have been adopted for courses in history, politics, religious studies, urba planning, international relations, and Middle Eastern civilizations in United States, Australia, Canada, Great Britain, France, Germany, Italy (ji translation), Japan (in translation), Russia, and the Middle East. In revising, have sought to take the diversity of this audience into account, and I have bes efited from the comments of many readers. Reviewers, colleagues, friends, journalists, and students at my own wi versity and others have offered numerous helpful comments and suggestions, many of which have been incorporated into this edition. In particular, I wish to thank Ismail Abu Shehadeh, Jon W. Anderson, Marjo Buitelaar, Christine elman, William Fierman, Willi Jansen, Anatoly Khazanov, William and Fi Lancaster, Ruth Mandel, Annalise Moors, Kazuo Ohtsuka, Lynn Rainvi Angeles Ramirez, Fernéndez, Richard Tapper, Martin van Bruinessé Gabrielle vom Bruck for comments that have directly contributed to this edition. ‘The Wissenschaftskolleg (Institute for Advanced Study) of B vided the library and work facilities critical to putting this fourth edition into ssources, the overall structure remadan Fund of final form, and the Claire logy at Dartmouth edition. I particularly wish to at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem for his assistance in evaluating cating Web res ropriate to this b colleagues a lishers have generously allowed the use of photograp! and they are acknowledged at appropriate places in the text. viewers whi 10k. Numero: ‘The colleagues, for the first three editions of this book are not listed here again, b smains as strongANTHROPOLOGY, THE MIDDLE EAST, AND CENTRAL ASIA We need to think beyond the limits of existing political and geographic fron- tiers to grasp the subtle links among economic and political currents, religious movements, and che movement of people and ideas. An older notion of geog- raphy as physical frontiers still provides a significant point of departure for understanding the societies and politics of the Middle East and Central Asia However, traditicnal notions of frontier must be placed alongside the complex transnational commercial, economic, religious, and intellectual links that con- tribute to creating national, religious, ethnic, and state identities. The increased pace of labor migration and the growing ease of travel and communication have played an important part in eroding the significance of physical frontiers. In particular, the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1990-1991 rapidly led to the d s between the former Soviet republics of Central Asia and the Middle East, boundaries that had been almost impermeable for m of the twentieth century. ssolution of boundar THE MIDDLE EAST AND CENTRAL ASIA: SHIFTING FRONTIERS The terms “Middle East” and “Central Asia” appear clear when they are em- ployed in general comm: in contemporary usage the Middle East encomp. region stretching from Rabat to Tehran, a distanc sense contex2 wTropuction roughly 3400 miles (equal to the distance from New York City to Fairba Alaska). To give another indication of its vastness, the Middle East include: territory on three continents—Africa, Asia, and Europe (th on of Turkey), When zertain features ofthe linguistic, religious, polit torical complexities of the region are emphasized, the term is of include Afghanistan and Pakistan. The boundaries of Central Asia, across which the caravai Silk Route brough: luxury goods from China to Europe in similarly indistinc. They have become more so since the dissolu viet Union and the growing diversity of Centra cal links with the outside world. For purpo includes the former Soviet states of Uzbekistan, Turk gyzstan, and Kazakhstan (see Figure 1-1). Azerbaijan is not po ‘Asia, but because ofits Muslim majority population and a partially ‘ministrative and political heritage, itis discussed in this book wi text of Central Asia. If the limits of Central Asia appear indistinct today, they we before the expansion of the Russian Empire and the influx in the latter half of the nineteenth century. Until then, the regic known as Turkestan or, as in a mid-nineteenth dent Tartary," a region of independent khanates, or principalities from the borders of present-day Iran in the south to northeast o Sea.' Central Asian history has been neglected because the region exists, * double periphery”—betveen the spheres of Inner Asian and Islamic civiliza- tions, where Perso-Islamic and Turko-Mongolian traditions have converged since the Mongol invasions of the thirteenth century. Today s are f entury Britis thinking the concensus has yet emerged.? Although Central Asia and the Middle East lack clearly d frontiers, the sense of frontiers is intimately linked to the dynan and political context. Robert Canfield argues that the traditional sense of studies” inadvertently perpetuated a division of the world i made sense more for displaying artifacts in museums of an earlier era than for understanding changing political, social, and economic fields Assessing mits of the region, although, as Adecb Khalid writes, Mark Katz, personal communication, July 15,1996 JovAn Gross, “Introduction: Approaches tothe Problem of Identity Formation,” in. Muslins in Contra. Asin: Expressions of ‘Ann Gross, Central Asia. Bo0 (Durham, NC, and Lendon: Duke University Pres, 1992), pp. 1, 16-17. The phrase "double pe riphery” originates wth the Russian historian Yuri Brege. Fora discussion ofthe definition of ‘Central Asia and of Central Asian studies, see the thoughtful essay by Adeeb Khalid, "Your Asta for Mine? Central Asian Studies in Post-Soviet Times,” NewsNe! 39, no, 5 (November 1998), 1-3. Robert Canfield,“ ial Perspective ed, Robert L. Canfield (New York: Cambridge University Press, 31), pp. xl-xSasa A uU SAUDI ARABIA4 wrroot developments in the Turkic- and P ind C long-term histori of the Middle East “culture area” with ec aking areas central Asia, he suggests that we replace the older ter in order to emphasize the hi and flow of political, economic, ethnic, and ices that characterized Central Asia and th >rior to the twentieth century and that characterize them again in e Iranian and Anatolia cently unsealed and porous Azerbaijan, a country of 77 million people situated betw nia, Turkey, the Caspian Sea, and Russia, provides an example ating zones of infuence. Geographically, oil-rich Azerbaijan is Cau jon, which includes Armenia, Georgia, and parts of is a Turkic language that significantly overlaps with Turkish. In gion, native Azeris are overwhelmingly Muslim, unlike Christiar and Georgia. Azerbaijanis share much in common with the nn Iran, a region where Azeri Turkish, not Persian, remains the firs of much of the population. Like several of its neighbors, includ Azerbaijan's political boundaries have been redrawn or sign lenged several times since the late nineteenth century Changes in script also suggest shifting political and social fields. I Azerbaijan converted from the Arabic to the Latin alphabet, two years the change was made official in Turkey; but in 1940 Stalin ordered Latin script abandoned in favor of Cyrillic. In November 1992, Azerbaijan officially de- creed a return to tre Latin script, a move implicitly facilitating its ties with Turkey, which also uses the Latin alphabet, and the West. Of the 20 telephones arrayed next to the desk of Azerbaijan's president, Ayaz Mutaliboy, in Septem- ber 1991, three were direct connections to the Turkish telephone network. Busi- ness school teachers were already commuting regularly from Istanbul to Bak, and in 1991, 600 Azeri students were studying business and management in ‘Turkey Azeris say that this latest alphabet shift restores links with their na- tional past. In 1993, the other Central Asian republics decided officially to im- plement the transition from the Cyrillic to the Latin alphabet, for Tajikistan, which opted instea xr, Russian and the Cyrillic alphabet as the dominant larguage and script for the elite and the socially mol The frontiers of post-Soviet Central Asia look fixed on the map main ambiguous in practice. Many observers write of “Central Asia and and Azer « See Tadeus Swietochowshi,R orderland in Transition (New York: Colum. bia University Press, 1955) ‘Author's interviews, aku, September 18 Jacob M. Landay From Ie diana University Pre 7 (Bloomington and Indianapdering Kazakhstan as separate from Centra between Central Asia and Kazakhstan, notably in numt ¢ in the northern part of the other Central Asian countries 's population, an a majority of Xazakhsta , composing 42 percent of the p ad Slavs, including deported population: the population o populati fuch of the ulation, including Russians, a mineral-tich northern regions (oblasts), giving file from th :ge urban c mic, linguistic, and political is predominate in all but the la blasts have Russian names, although Kazakh has b 5 1989, In 1996, Kazakhstan announced plans to m utheast, to the north in order t language since 1m Almatay, in the s center of population and symbolically to undersc Vhen Kazakhstan edopted a new constitution in January the spelling of its capital city from Alma-Ate to Almaty, bringing it mity with “the rules of the Kazakh language.”8 ‘The flux in the names of cities, provinces, and countrie names designating 2roader areas also; and these names are not pol tral. The specialist's reluctance to speak of the “Middle East si without providing extensive glosses is due to the circumstances surroundin the terms’ origins. The region’s inhabitants did not coin the term “the Middle East.” Like older, geographically restricted labels such as “the Near “the Levant,” it originated with nineteenth-century European stra is unabashedly Durocentric, In the geopolitics of the British military, ple, the “Middle East” meant the command responsible for thi he lands to the east of the C Nile to the Oxus rivers; mmand.? In terms of civilizational boundaries, such a sense because it cut the historically united (or at le ined with scholars in mind th Africa make plateau in two, but the term was not co he terms mest commonly used to describe Ni against the backdrop of the pattern of nineteenth- and twentieth-century pean colonial domination. Thus the term “North Africa” does not i is), p. 158; Pili, Gillet, "Ethnic or 0,3 (1998), 17-23, Anatoly M, Khazanow, After the USSR: Esknicity,N (Maditon: University of Wisconsin Pre= and Imbalance in Kazakhstan’ s Regions,” C ® Gillette, "Ethic Balance," p18 The Venture of slam, vo. 1 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 197), Marshall G.S. Hodgso pp. 60-61I 1 Arabic-speakers, thi mn, excl ets,” This term reflects the geopolitics of an earl fi aves jim invaders came from the Arabian Peni and e enturies. “Maghrib” is popularly u au \quered by Italy jorthern Morocco ( ) was under of Mauritania as part of the Maghrib. However, Mauritania was rench West Africa and administered from Dakar during the considered part of the Middle fact that the majcrity of its population is Muslim and Arabi rule. Asa result, it is often n ity. Largely due to the accident of colonial rule, th of the Middle East. It fell under Egyptian rule in 1830 and governed by what was formally an Anglo-Egyptian ‘The arbitrariness of colonial boundaries becomes esp sia under Soviet rule. Figure 1-2 offers a snapshot and Central Asian frontiers as they appeared in 1930. Under Soviet rule, the political boundaries throughout the region were frequently altered, beginning with Russia's 1917 revolution and extending until the late 0s, years mediately after the revolution, boundaries were often rearranged to reduce wr remove the threat of secession. Between 1924 and 1936, the region was di- vided into arbitrarily designated autonomous republics in which @ majority of the population shared the same nationality, but which also contai of peoples of other ethnic groups (ethnies) gathered into “homela: of the People’s Commissariat for Nationality Affairs ( after 1917, Joseph Stalin (1879-1953) played a major role in elaborating Soviet nationality policy. Beginning in the 1920s, censuses we lu : people often were forced to choose a nationality, and these choices, de, had significant political consequences. Thus an inhabitant of da ‘Tajikistan might not have had a distinct consciousness at the tir union-wide census of being an Uzbek or a Tajik but was forced to A category or the ocher." % For an assessment of these policies, see Robert J Kaiser Geography SBR (Princeton, NJ Princeton University Pres, 1994) esp. pp. 102-38, 1 See the newspaper drawings reproduced in Edward Allworth, The Hoover Institution Pess, 1980), pp. 202-203 Stanford,nald not be taken to indicate a p The shifting cultural and historical realities mus meaningful study of these regions. In any case, th employed in a fairly neutral, descriptive sense by Middle Easter selves and is used in the same way in this b ary an k. In Arabic, itis also thi a London-based daily newspaper, similar manner. FIRST APPROXIMATIONS Geography As a whole, the Middle East is se variations); since antiquity it has b 8.) and empire; and it lacks shai ral boundaries. Although jon is partially cut off from sub-Saharan Africa and the Indo-Pakista continent by mountains and deserts, its northern boundaries with Azer Turkmenistan, Uzbekisten, and Tajikistan are primarily political, and v end of the Soviet era, al. these countries have become increasingly ac from the “Middle Eastern” south. The Middle East has always been acce to conquest by land and sea, and it has long served as a crossroads of distance trade. These characteristics do not serve to distinguish the Middle East, from other major sociocultural areas, but they do constitute relevant factors for historical developments and the kinds of lives lived in the region. Similarly, Central Asia has few natural frontiers, as attested by the Mon- gol invasions of Central Asia, parts of Russia and eastern Prussia, F Mesopotamia in the thirteenth century. It is a region of arid and semiarid sed with fertile valleys, The northernmos! republic, Kazakhstan, isa vast steppe region with a higher (although irregular) rainfall than in the regions to the south. Once the almost exclusive domain of steppe nomads, since the 1930s it has been given over to wheat cultivation, just as Soviet-era central planners converted areas of Uzbi irrigated cotton fields. As Figure 1-3 indicates, few places in the Middle ceive the 40 to 50 inches of rainfall that is characteristic of the east States and of the riche: agricultural regions of Europe. Some c mountain areas receive up to 20 inches annually, but many other regions re: ceive as little as 4 to 8 inches annually (Saudi Arabia) or less than 1 inch a y arid (although there are important local en a region of agriculture grasslands and mountains inters kistan grasslands into ast or Central Asia (southern Egypt). Nonirrigated farm possible only in relatively narrow belts of Syria, Turkey, Lebanon, Iran, Jordan, the Maghrib, and Uzbekista Farghana Valley. Even in these cases, the amount of rain varies substantially from year to y ear. The timing of rain is also erratic, making what rain there is,‘cavations of new areas at Harappa, an important archaeologic Pakistan's Sindh province, reveal new information about the vast train networks established during the heyday of the Indus Valley cities (2600-1900 ne,, especially 2450-2200 .c). These trading networks eross the frontiers between major world regions as they are generally unde stood today. In the photograph above, J. Mark Kenoyer (seated left, Uni Versity of Wiconsit, Madison). codirector of the Harappa Archaeological arch Project with Harvard University’s Richard H. Meadow vating an important craft production area at the site. Assist student archaeologists and local workers, he is mapping the newly ex posed structures. The site area (Mound FT) is located just inside a major gateway and appears to have been a craft quarter or bazaar area. Traded, materials included lapis lazuli and pottery from the highlands of Baluchis- tan and Censral Asia; shells from Oman, Gujarat, and Pakistan's Makran coast; and copper from Rajastan, Baluchistan, and Oman. Each new season, of excavation raises questions and significantly changes our understani ing of the sorial and economic dynamics of the Indus Valley and its rela- tion to other major regions. [Photograph by William Miller} od by Pakistani for farming. Wher as in the Rif 1 the sc cultural yields.jopulation (relial are unavailable for Cen a) 1 derives its livelihood from agricul < a f the total land surface is arable.”? Thus the popular al Asia as a region of steppe nomads, or of the Middle East as a land of nomads a ween desert oases, is misleading. Toa l ‘ pendent on irrigation. Many of the cent: ter of water for agriculture. 01 is «: few miles on either side of the Nile River. Tl h a the Tigris and Euphrates river tai cate webs of tion channels that support dense popul in the Middle East there are of h traditional and modern, adapted to local circumstance ce of water, although in Iran and in regions of Morocco suc there are elaborate underground canals (called ghaftara in and affaj in Oman) that carry water from underground st wuntain regions to the rich oases of the plains. Moder greatly expanded the land that has been brought under modern wells and pumps are introduced, they aquifers faster than it can be replaced and threaten to exhaust resource. This calamity has happened in parts of Ye ment of water resources in Central Asia—the Aral S ten remove water fro ple—poses a similar threat use it is semiarid, large parts of the Middle East or ven over to a mode of livelihood that combines t crop: 2s wheat and barley with sheep and goat herdin; ually moved in fixed patterns between adjacent ecological zone ¢ of a year and graze on the stubble of cultivated fields after harvest. ach movement is called franshumant past from the mevement of nomadic groups who follow their herds (pastoral nadism). Seminomadic pastoralists and pastoral nomads form a significant but declining minority in such countries as Saudi Arabia (probably less than 3 Iran (4 percent), and Afghanistan (no more than 10 percent). They -omaprise less than 2 percent of the population in the countries of North Africa, with the exception of Libya and Mauritania, Pastoral nomad minant activity of certain group: Jay relatively rare.! Horse-riding pastoralists once steppes and the mountain pastures (with mixed herds of sheep to the full exclusion of i Peter Beaumont, Gerald H. Blake, and J, Malcolm Wagstaff, The 8 iy (New York: Wiey, 1976), pp. 160, 184-85, The limits ofthe Micile Eat, ‘mont, Blake, and Wagstaf, exclude all of the Maghrib except Libya, so these sass should ber ded as approximate. Fora geographic study that covers the entire M inthis book, see Alasdair Drysdale and Gerald H. Blake, The Middle Ex cal Geogropiy (New York: Oxford University Press, 1985). These figures are derived from Donald Powell Cole, Ni Syand Besumant, Blake, and Wagstaff, The Mil le East a it nd North Afcattle, and camels) in Central nineteenth century and Stalin's tating effects on both livestock and humans, although there post-Soviet officials ia f renewed interest in pa he significance of transl exagge fern history, alt invasions of Central Asia and parts of Europe and the Middle (Genghis) Khan (1155-ca. 1227) and his successors left a lasting impact on world history, including the sack of Baghdad and the basid caliphate in 1258. Bef vent of modern technology, nom toral grou collectivi entral Asia ar umant pastoralists and nomads has ated as a factor in Middle Eas Central government contr The same applies 0 Most Middle Easter countries also possess mountsincu esd eee ca eer eneeeegoa we tray iran and Turkey and the Berberapeang iba groupe in Algeria abhi Mountaine and Moroes Rifand Atlas nounta chains managed EE ogi sriperabity to adacet pastoris diferente much of Middle Easorn ana Cental Asian histey fom tha of Eusope, This competion be a fon suits over ine rales between them consinsed unl he 140s Tine Mideast may have been a region of gation, sgriclre, pastoris, but for many ofthe counter significant mineral wealth Ey ino has in recent times crested the potential for sigafiant econo Focand have made pose obra seraons inthe soil nm feof some ofthe mpion’s inhabitants out pcs have also : thant) contnte oat Seat, hei le renew the oll elds of Averbajan have the potent for sigan re early 1930: « Thomas J 136-44, 176. Barfield, The Nomadic Alternative (Englewood Clifs, Nj Prentice Hall, 19the Middle East is also a region of intense urban and commercial life, such as Damascus, Cairo, and Istanbul, as well as some of asablanca, C more recent origin such as Riyadh and itan urban dwellers i oppos H in 1900, and the proportion of urban dwellers to the atio (0 rise"5 Of course, the transformations occurring que to the Middle East. Central Asia shows similar pa wth, and the same rapid rate of urbanization ird World. In the chapters of this book concerned with cities, ends are consic ered, Equal emphasis is placed on the ‘ures of urban life continue to make these cities distinctly Tur ian, Muslim, or Middle Eastern and how these cultw fluence and are affected by more general proces and world n historical termrs, the area designated by the broader, conte ry usage of the term “Middle East” coincides roughly with the first of Arab inva- and with the three largest Muslim empires at their greatest exte Ummayad (661-750), the early ‘Abbasid (750-ca. 800), and the Ott mn xteenth through the eighteenth centuries). Even if not alwa tically unified, the region shows significant social and cultcral continuities. The first adherents of Islam, and its initial carriers, were from the Arabian peninsula, but thinking of the Arabian peninsula or even the wider Arab world as a “heartland” of Islam can lead to a distorted view of Islamic civil picenter of the total world Muslim population lies between Iran and Pakistan, ‘on the eastern edge of the area with which this book is concerned. Muslims today are situated in a wide band that ranges from Indonesia and the Philip: pines through the Indo-Pakistani subcontinent, Central Asia, Iran, and Turkey to the Arabic-speaking regions of the Middle East and Black Africa. Nearly If of the world’s one billion Muslims live in Southeast Asia. The political significance of Muslims in South and Southeast Asia, like that of Muslims in Europe and Nort: America, continues to grow rapidly. Population figures for Muslims elsewhere in the world are also tial. By current estimates, Indonesia alone contains almo: (140 million) as the Arab Middle East (162 million), and the dian subcontinent (272 million) outnumber those of the Arab s ‘urkey combined (254 million). The 1989 census of the former ts last—which of course included the now-independent state: and the Caucasus, indicated a Muslim population of 55 million, which gave tive (Istanbul: International lake, and Wagstaff, The Alan Duben, The Middle Easter City: A U 8 Union of Local Authorities, 1992), p. 38; and Beaumont p. 188,The polit ntative nature of demographic and population estimates and thei alimplicatons should aways be kept in mind. To ie two example Population estimates for Afghanistan in 1968 ranged from Re oficial knew the ral figures, but they all recognized tres yielded the prospect of more international aid: The only official ce fh Alghanistan—one not conducted by internationally recogni | Standands-date from 1979. census sn Said Arabia in 1962-1963, t sults of which were never oftaly recognized, revealed tha the popule- on was only 39 million as contrasted to earlier estimates of 7 mullion.The | Ssreestimate wast million. (Se Robert Lapham, “Population Policies the Middle East and North Africa” Middle Enst Studies Association Teno. [May 197716) In 1992, Saudi Arabia announced tha it had pleted a new censts, indicating a population of 169 milion, of Buus made up 123 million and foreigners 4.6 ellon, and a growth rat of between 8S and 38 percent, one ofthe highest in the world (“Saud Census Counts 1€9 Million People,” New Yor Times, Decemiber 16, 1992p. AS). The estimated population for 2000 22 million. A convenient source for current population figures forthe Midale East and Central Asa a5 r= sions, and for opacific countries, i the United States Census Bureau’ In- tEmational Dat Sase TD) This regularly updated website provides basic demographic indicators, such os birth rt, infant mortality rats, ite expectancy, rate of Po; fon growth, literacy, urban/rural population figures, and feciity rate {per woman) from 1950 to 2050 when data are available. As convenient a {EiS website ite igure sometimes lag behind information directly aval tbe from the national statistical offices. For example, the Sultanate of Sian conducted its ist census in November 1953 andl published the de- tiled results in Sltanate of Oman, Ministry of Development, Information tnd Documentation Center, Socio Economic Atlas (Museat: Ministey of ‘elopment, 1990), together with arma! updates of sforation on Slo “Sudational enraiment, healt, and economic data. None of the dem graphic information, however, appears in the IDB tables. For one of the Best examples of a published, country-specific demographic study, see | Gan WineLler, Donagraphic Developments and Population Pais ix Batis! | Syria (Brighton, UR. and Portland, OR: Sussex Academic Press, 1999), j Winckler has alse published on Jordan and other Arab states. | the former Soviet Union the fifth-largest Muslim po the world. As of 1995, there were 5 million Muslims in France, n some 5 percent of the population, and significant Muslim populations in Ger- many (2 million), Great Britain (1 million), Belgium, and the Nett The re over 4 million Muslims in the United States in 1986, and 6 Barbara A. Anders Union 1 Brian D. Silver, “Growth an Diversity of the Population ofthe So mo. 51 (uly 1950), 155in 2000, taking into account immigration, bis s Muslim prayer leader im p ‘ Most people in the Middle East are Muslim, but th s for common sentiment and identity. Currently ism b mn igion upsurge in the Middl s t always e. From the 1 a based on common Arab identity swept the Arab wor ions of rejoiced at the creation Arab Republic, joining Egypt and Syria (February 1958)—which was soon complemented by a loose federation with Yemen (March 1958), called the United Arab Sta first step toward et the federation with Yemen was never really implemented. No her states joined, and Syria seceded from the United Arab Republic in 1961 although Egypt retained th al title for many years. Although the idea of Arab unity remains a hope for many Arabs, later efforts at politica such between Libya and Tunisia, have been equally short-lived imilarly, fer over half a century the elite of Turkey stre: cir ties with Europe more than those with their Muslim neighbors. In the ars of the Ottoman Empire, European statesmen referred to it as the “sick man of Eu: " implicitly accepting the Ottoman elite’s claim to a European identity jan elites prior to the 1950s, and again by the 1990s in certain contexts, stressed their country’s Mediterranean identity rather than its Arab or Middle fern identity. The same is true for the counties of North Africa. Notwith- tanding questions of modern nationalist feeling, historians such as Fernand Braudel have persuasively argued the case for considering intries on both sides of the Mediterranean as a single society for extended historical peri- ods.18 All Central Asian countries except Kazakhstan have ov Imingly im populations, but there are few signs that this shared id emerg. ng as a significant political factor. At the same time, the Communist rule failed to suppress the region’s basic sense of "being Muslim.” slam is the dominant religion of the Middle East. The state of Isra where Jews constitute a majority of the population, is an obvio but even in those countries where the majority of the population i there are often significant Christian and Jewish minorities. In the te 82 percent of the population, lecades of Carla Power, “The New Islam,” usa islam /fact2.htm>. For Eu tion: Frustrated, Poor and Divided,” New Yo week, March 16, 1988, p. 34, and Robert A. Femea, “Ethnographic Essa,” in Nubian in Egypt: Pens People, oR wea and Georg Gerster (Austin ancl London: University of fenas Pres, 1973), pp.-garding the introduction of national language nain more symbolic than actual Aral national languag ROPOLOGY TODAY: PRACTICAL ASSUMPTIONS nthropologists are now as much at home in cities, towns, villages, encapsulated within modern and compl ppearing isolated and small-scale societies. As a result, it beco pressing question of how the microsociological technique of fiel intensive, totalistic study of social forms in smaller, face-to-face settin, tributes to understanding larger units of society. How can the microsociologi- cal study of an anthropologist contribute to the understanding of larger entities such as nation-states? As Clifford Geertz asked with characteristic rony: “Are the petty squabbles of barnyard notables really what we mean by politics? Are mud huts and goat-skin tents really where the action is?” Is there not the danger of getting lost in “mindless descriptivism’ in the study of a pilgrimage center in Morocco or a tribe in the Yemen, or at least of learning more about these entities than one really wants to know? This book cemonstrates that anthropologists, or most anthrop: not for themselves or for the love of minute de- scription of routine events in exotic places but to learn something beyond hem. Anthropologists do intensive analyses of political, economic, symbolic, anyway, study specific places See William Fie tion in Uabekistan,” in Mi es (London: Frank Css, 1995, ® Chior r otal Change in the M ed. Richard Antoun and Hiya Hark (Bloomington and London: Indiana University Press, 1972), 460. This fiscussion owes mish to Geertz’ he issues in pp. 460-67 of the Antoun 1d Havik volume. Yaacov Rol, Cummings Center Seand histor es on a sinall scale. As with 0 As Geertz. emphasiz f making hyp generalizes—but how ical te granted, shared meanings that un so familiar a part of routine that th such undramatic ba contact with the governments of such entities o emments, The petty squabbles of compelling interest, but they freque of determinin, a political style than the more generally I of parliaments and cabinet meeting ‘The link betw of the anthropologist’s study and the is not that of microcosm to macrocosm—as an earlier generat nity studies often naively assumed—but merely that of an arena o that permits the elaboration of hypotheses about certain social and c «grounds that citizens participate in nation-sta! Through the st such mundane events as patterns of naming, s ing a husband or wife, the ways in which sickness is cured, settlin selling a sheep, local elections, and religious ceremonies, anthro to grasp what is distinctly Moroccan about Moroce: Lebanese political factionalism, Alevi about Alevi conceptions of Islam, Umant about Omani notions of honor, or Egyptian about Egyptian styles of e and deference. The microsociological perspective of the anthropologis often provide valuable insights into just how participation in such laxger en ties is experienced. Through comparison of different societies and cultures and through careful attention to technique and theoretical assumptions, ani ogists seek an understanding of what is distinctive about general p erating in specific historical and cultural settings. The following cl indicates how ideas about what constitutes Eastern and Central Asian societ half, It suggests how “objective” assumptions about any s one’s own, are linked to the social contexts in which, and for whicl are produced an markets, Lebai n adequate descrip have changed over the past cent % Tid, p. 463IR READINGS For an excellent, succinct discussion of the archaeology and history of ancient Mesopotamia and its shifting regional boundaries, see Ancient Mesopo ie Eden Nas (Cambridge: Cambridge University Pr and That Neve 3s, 1999), The Mi cs sia are on the periphery of Asia Before Europe: Economy and Civili fromthe Rise of Islam to 1750 (Cambridge and New York ity Press, 1990); however, the historical “re-imagining” of conv sntiers directly contributes to understanding how the Middle Easter sian civilizations have complemented one another over long periods 0 jally the discussion of "Animals and Their Masters: Nomads and Nomadism,” pp. 6, which also pertains to Chapter of this book, Also see “Central Asia's Place in the Middle East,” in Central Asia Meets the Middle East, ed. David Menashri (Lo rank Cass, 1996), pp. 25-5. For contemporary Central Asia, see The New Con (New York: New York University Press, 2000 [French orig., 1997)). For Middle Eastern minorities, see Middle Eastern M and Conflic (Washington, DC: Washington Institute for Near Ea see Religious Minorities in Iran (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000).