COUNTER-NARRATIVES: HISTORY, CONTEMPORARY SOCIETY, AND POLITICS IN SAUDI ARABIA AND YEMEN; ED. BY MADAWI AL-RASHEED

Saudi Arabia and Yemen are two countries of crucial importance in the Middle East and yet our knowledge about them is highly limited, while typical ways of looking at the histories of these countries have impeded understanding. Counter-Narratives brings together a group of leading scholars of the Middle East using new theoretical and methodological approaches to cross-examine standard stories, whether as told by Westerners or by Saudis and Yemenis, and these are found wanting. The authors assess how grand historical narratives such as those produced by states and colonial powers are currently challenged by multiple historical actors, a process which generates alternative narratives about identity, the state and society . Saudi Arabia and Yemen are two countries of crucial importance in the Middle East and yet our knowledge about them is highly limited. This is both because many primary sources have not been used and, of at least equal importance, because standard ways of looking at the histories of these countries have impeded investigation. Counter-Narratives brings together a group of leading scholars of the Middle East to cross-examine standard stories, whether as told by Westerners or by Saudis and Yemenis, and these are found wanting. The contributors challenge established academic wisdom on state-formation, history, and contemporary politics in light of new theoretical and methodological approaches. They assess how grand historical narratives, such as those produced by states and colonial powers, are currently challenged by multiple historical actors. This process generates alternative narratives about identity, the state, and society. Saudi Arabia was never the monolithic country commonly assumed, nor was Yemen as tribally fractured as generally believed. These reconsiderations of Saudi and Yemeni history shed new light on the evolution of the modern Middle East and the dynamics underlying apparent uniformity. New approaches are offered, new interpretations suggested, focusing on the contested efforts to use symbolic politics to generate legitimacy, stability, and silence dissent. Cover 1 Contents 6 List of Maps 8 Acknowledgments 10 Notes on Contributors 11 Introduction 13 1 Arabia Incognita: An Invitation to Arabian Peninsula Studies 23 2 The `Imama vs. the `Iqal: Hadari–Bedouin Conflict and the Formation of the Saudi State 46 3 Ecology, Knowledge, and Trade in Central Arabia (Najd) during the Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries 87 4 Shifting Loyalties and Failed Empire: A New Look at the Social History of Late Ottoman Yemen, 1872–1918 113 5 Leaving Only Question-Marks: Geographies of Rule in Modern Yemen 128 6 Aramco World: Business and Culture on the Arabian Oil Frontier 159 7 The Capture of Riyadh Revisited: Shaping Historical Imagination in Saudi Arabia 190 8 Struggles Over History and Identity: “Opening the Gates” of the Kingdom to Tourism 208 9 Evacuating Memory in Postrevolutionary Yemen 236 10 Seeing Like a Citizen, Acting Like a State: Exemplary Events in Unified Yemen 253 Bibliography 290 Index 309 A 309 B 309 C 310 D 310 E 310 F 311 G 311 H 311 I 312 J 312 K 312 L 312 M 313 N 313 O 313 P 314 Q 314 R 314 S 315 T 315 U 316 V 316 W 316 Y 317 Z 317 Front Matter....Pages i-xi Introduction....Pages 1-10 Arabia Incognita: An Invitation to Arabian Peninsula Studies....Pages 11-33 The ˋImama vs. the ˋIqal: Hadari—Bedouin Conflict and the Formation of the Saudi State....Pages 35-75 Ecology, Knowledge, and Trade in Central Arabia (Najd) during the Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries....Pages 77-102 Shifting Loyalties and Failed Empire: A New Look at the Social History of Late Ottoman Yemen, 1872–1918....Pages 103-117 Leaving Only Question-Marks: Geographies of Rule in Modern Yemen....Pages 119-149 Aramco World: Business and Culture on the Arabian Oil Frontier....Pages 151-181 The Capture of Riyadh Revisited: Shaping Historical Imagination in Saudi Arabia....Pages 183-200 Struggles Over History and Identity: “Opening the Gates” of the Kingdom to Tourism....Pages 201-228 Evacuating Memory in Postrevolutionary Yemen....Pages 229-245 Seeing Like a Citizen, Acting Like a State: Exemplary Events in Unified Yemen....Pages 247-283 Back Matter....Pages 285-313 Between Africa and Asia lies a subcontinent that appears clearly on maps but only indistinctly in Western journalism and scholarship about the Middle East.