Syria: Society, Culture, and Polity (S U N Y Series in Middle Eastern Studies)

This book provides a multi-disciplinary understanding of the processes of change in contemporary Syria as well as its historical, social, and cultural underpinnings. A number of distinguished anthropologists, historians, political scientists, and literateurs examine key issues such as the changing Syrian family, political factionalism, the sedentarization of nomads, bureaucratic corruption, rural-urban migration, the development of the Ba'th Party, Syria's political isolation, religious resurgence, and the continued importance of sects in Syrian life. This book strikes a balance between examining the consequences of Syria's geographical and strategic position in international politics and the implications of its internal and highly complex ethnic and class structure and culture. It argues that the religious culture of Syria is as important as the leadership of Asad and, more generally, that an understanding of Syrian politics must be matched by an understanding of Syrian society and culture.Richard T. Antoun is Professor of Anthropology at the State University of New York at Binghamton. He is the author of Arab Village; Low-Key Politics, also published by SUNY Press; and Muslim Preacher in the Modern World. Donald Quataert is Associate Professor of History and Director of the Southwest Asia and North Africa Program at the State University of New York at Binghamton. He is the author of Social Disintegration and Popular Resistance in the Ottoman Empire. Contents Preface Donald Quataert Note on Transliteration Glossary Ethnicity; Clientship, and Class: Their Changing Meaning Syrian Political Culture: A Historical Perspective Class and State in Ba’thist Syria The Alawis of Syria: Religious Ideology and Organization Land Reform and Class Structure in Rural Syria Land Reform and Class Structure in Rural Syria The Emancipation of Women in Contemporary Syrian Literature Asad: Between Institutions and Autocracy The Nature of the Soviet-Syrian Link under Asad and under Gorbachev Notes Introduction Chapter I. Syrian Political Culture Chapter 2, Class and State in Ba’thist Syria Chapter 3. The Alawis of Syria Chapter 4. Land Reform and Class Structure in Rural Syria Chapter 5. The Emancipation of Women in Contemporary Syrian Literature Chapter 7. The Nature of the Soviet-Syrian Link Bibliography Contributors Index