scholarly journals The New Mamlukes

2002 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 126-129
Author(s):  
Imad A. Ahmad
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Arab World ◽  
Islamic Revival ◽  
State Capitalism ◽  
Popular Discourse ◽  
The People ◽  
Ruling Elites ◽  
Egyptian Government ◽  
The Military ◽  
Partial Success

Amira El-Azhari Sonbol has written an outstanding socio-politico-eco­nomic analysis of the Egyptian government and society over the last threecenturies. This book brilliantly debunks the oriental despot model ofanalysis that has been imposed on scholarly studies of Muslim societies.She achieves this with the aid of a "study of popular discourse." Sheemphasizes the need to relearn what culture is all about by examining howEgyptians see themselves and their own relationships. She finds thatEgyptian society has not been static, waiting to be transformed from theoutside, but dynamic, following its own cultural evolution. Along the way,she notes the importance of distinguishing Islamic revival from radicalismand terrorism.Sonbol argues that eighteenth-century Egypt has been misunderstood,forced into the absolutist mold that more properly characterizes today'sEgypt. Eighteenth-century Egypt reflected "social maneuverability" andthe "rule of law." In the 19th and 20th centuries the Egyptian state sought,with partial success, to establish itself as the "active creator" of law andorder. A new form of mercantilism emerged that went beyond the mere controlof imports and exports to the manipulation of all aspects of productionand exchange to the benefit of the elites. In the Nasser era, elements ofsocialism and nationalism were employed in the advancement of what wasactually a form of state capitalism, in which the elites sought to extract rentfrom their hold on power. It was a feudal compact, in which the state's"right" to political allegiance was "reciprocated by the state's 'duty' toguarantee the security of the nation and provide its people with" the necessitiesof life.Sonbol critiques the translation of khassa as elite and 'ammah as generalpub I ic. The khassa are the people of power, wealth, and distinction, onlyone part of which retains hegemony at any given time. The khassa are toodiverse (ruling elites, the military, and the business classes) to be consideredan aristocracy. From time to time the ulema, the intellectuals and the pro­fessionals have been their allies in legitimizing their power. The so-calledmodernization of the Arab world has only been a strengthening of ...

The Politics and Poetics of the ‘Scottish Gothic’ from Ossian to Otranto and Beyond

2017 ◽  
pp. 28-41
Author(s):  
Carol Margaret Davison
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Great Britain ◽  
Culture Wars ◽  
Theatrical Production ◽  
Cultural Productions ◽  
The People ◽  
Private Correspondence ◽  
The Military

As Murray Pittock has cogently argued, the eighteenth century was ‘the historic battleground of the formation of Great Britain’ (1997: 1). In terms of Anglo-Scottish relations during this era, a shift occurred that saw the military battlefields of Culloden and Prestonpans give way to more intellectual battlefields and ‘culture wars’ (Moore 2003a: 46) where the question of national superiority rested upon the quality and innovation of cultural productions both ancient and modern, some of which, like James Macpherson’s Ossian, notably chronicled martial struggles. Nationalist statements proliferated about literature, especially at mid-century, such as David Hume’s comment in private correspondence in 1757 in the wake of the theatrical production of John Home’s Douglas (1756), that Scots had become, despite the devastating losses of their ‘Princes, … Parliaments, … Independent Government’, in combination with the fact that they spoke ‘a very corrupt Dialect of the [English] Tongue’, ‘the People most distinguish’d for Literature in Europe’ (1932, vol. 1: 255).

Aristocracy about 1760: Theory and Practice

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. R. Palmer
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Social Rank ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Political Freedom ◽  
Social Utility ◽  
Class Consciousness ◽  
General Consensus ◽  
The People ◽  
Important Sense

This chapter considers the prevailing notion in the eighteenth century that nobility was a necessary bulwark of political freedom. Whether in the interest of a more open nobility or of a more closed and impenetrable nobility, the view was the same. Nobility as such, nobility as an institution, was necessary to the maintenance of a free constitution. There was also a general consensus that parliaments or ruling councils were autonomous, self-empowered, or empowered by history, heredity, social utility, or God; that they were in an important sense irresponsible, free to oppose the King (where there was one), and certainly owing no accounting to the “people.” The remainder of the chapter deals with the uses and abuses of social rank and the problems of administration, recruitment, taxation, and class consciousness.

The Many-Colored Cloak

2010 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-27
Author(s):  
Malik Mufti
Keyword(s):  
Political Thought ◽  
Arab World ◽  
Political Authority ◽  
Electoral Participation ◽  
Critical Questions ◽  
Ibn Rushd ◽  
The People ◽  
Democratic Principles ◽  
The Many ◽  
Religion And Democracy

This articles argues (a) that democratic discourse has already become hegemonic among mainstream Islamist movements in Turkey and the Arab world; (b) that while this development originated in tactical calculations, it constitutes a consequential transformation in Islamist political thought; and (c) that this transformation, in turn, raises critical questions about the interaction of religion and democracy with which contemporary Islamists have not yet grappled adequately but which were anticipated by medieval philosophers such as al-Farabi and Ibn Rushd. The argument is laid out through an analysis (based on textual sources and interviews) of key decisions on electoral participation made by Turkey’s AK Party and the Muslim Brotherhoods in Egypt, Jordan, and Syria. Particular attention is focused on these movements’ gradual embrace of three key democratic principles: pluralism, the people as the source of political authority, and the legitimacy of such procedural mechanisms as multiple parties and regular elections.

The State versus the People

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew Rendle
Keyword(s):  
French Revolution ◽  
Effective Means ◽  
State Control ◽  
Scarce Resources ◽  
Soviet State ◽  
The People ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Complex Picture ◽  
The Military

This book provides the first detailed account of the role of revolutionary justice in the early Soviet state. Law has often been dismissed by historians as either unimportant after the October Revolution amid the violence and chaos of civil war or even, in the absence of written codes and independent judges, little more than another means of violence. This is particularly true of the most revolutionary aspect of the new justice system, revolutionary tribunals—courts inspired by the French Revolution and established to target counter-revolutionary enemies. This book paints a more complex picture. The Bolsheviks invested a great deal of effort and scarce resources into building an extensive system of tribunals that spread across the country, including into the military and the transport network. At their peak, hundreds of tribunals heard hundreds of thousands of cases every year. Not all ended in harsh sentences: some were dismissed through lack of evidence; others given a wide range of sentences; others still suspended sentences; and instances of early release and amnesty were common. This book, therefore, argues that law played a distinct and multifaceted role for the Bolsheviks. Tribunals stood at the intersection between law and violence, offering various advantages to the Bolsheviks, not least strengthening state control, providing a more effective means of educating the population on counter-revolution, and enabling a more flexible approach to the state’s enemies. All of this adds to our understanding of the early Soviet state and, ultimately, of how the Bolsheviks held on to power.

Israeli Intelligence: Organization, Failures, and Successes

2010 ◽  
pp. 805-822
Author(s):  
Ephraim Kahana
Keyword(s):  
Arab World ◽  
Intelligence Community ◽  
Technical Data ◽  
Intelligence Gathering ◽  
Intelligence System ◽  
Foreign Countries ◽  
Future Challenges ◽  
Occupied Territories ◽  
Foreign Ministry ◽  
The Military

The State of Israel was established only in 1948, but in its fifty-seven years of existence, its intelligence community has been one of the most professional and effective in the world. The Israel Mossad has become the leading agency in Israel's success in the conflict with the Arab states. Its mission not only includes that of ascertaining the plans and strengths of the Arab military forces opposing Israel but also the work of combating Arab terrorism in Israel and abroad against Israeli and Jewish targets, collecting sensitive technical data, and conducting political-liaison and propaganda operations. The Israel intelligence community is composed of four separate components: the Mossad is responsible for intelligence gathering and operations in foreign countries; the Israeli Security Agency controls internal security and intelligence within the occupied territories; the Military Intelligence is responsible for collecting military, geographic, and economic intelligence, particularly in the Arab world and along Israel's borders; and the Center for Political Research in the Foreign Ministry prepares analysis for government policymakers based on raw intelligence and analytical papers. This article discusses the organization, failures, and successes of the Israeli intelligence. Particular attention is given to the huge mistakes and failures of the Israeli intelligence. Discussions included herein are: the evolution of the Israeli intelligence and the future challenges of the intelligence system.

scholarly journals Slaves and Peasants in the Era of Emancipation

2020 ◽  
Vol 59 (3) ◽  
pp. 495-520
Author(s):  
Padraic X. Scanlan
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Labor Force ◽  
The People ◽  
Tenant Farmers ◽  
Plantation Labor ◽  
Plantation System ◽  
Low Wages

AbstractFrom the middle of the eighteenth century until the late 1830s, the idea of enslaved people as “peasants” was a commonplace among both antislavery and proslavery writers and activists in Britain. Slaveholders, faced with antislavery attacks, argued that the people they claimed to own were not an exploited labor force but a contented peasantry. Abolitionists expressed the hope that after emancipation, freedpeople would become peasants. Yet the “peasants” invoked in these debates were not smallholders or tenant farmers but plantation laborers, either held in bondage or paid low wages. British abolitionists promoted institutions and ideas invented by slaveholders to defend the plantation system. The idea of a servile and grateful “peasant” plantation labor force became, for British abolitionists, a justification for the “civilization” and subordination of freedpeople.

scholarly journals Jan Sobieski’s latifundium and the soldiers (1652-1696)

2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 62-69
Author(s):  
Magdalena Ujma
Keyword(s):  
Economic Activity ◽  
Military Service ◽  
18Th Century ◽  
Geographic Location ◽  
The State ◽  
Necessary Condition ◽  
Economic Market ◽  
The People ◽  
Actual Strength ◽  
The Military

Abstract An analysis of the relationship between Jan III Sobieski and the people he distinguished shows that there were many mutual benefits. Social promotion was more difficult if the candidate for the office did not come from a senatorial family34. It can be assumed that, especially in the case of Atanazy Walenty Miączyński, the economic activity in the Sobieski family was conducive to career development. However, the function of the plenipotentiary was not a necessary condition for this. Not all the people distinguished by Jan III Sobieski achieved the same. More important offices were entrusted primarily to Marek Matczyński. Stanisław Zygmunt Druszkiewicz’s career was definitely less brilliant. Druszkiewicz joined the group of senators thanks to Jan III, and Matczyński and Szczuka received ministerial offices only during the reign of Sobieski. Jan III certainly counted on the ability to manage a team of people acquired by his comrades-in-arms in the course of his military service. However, their other advantage was also important - good orientation in political matters and exerting an appropriate influence on the nobility. The economic basis of the magnate’s power is an issue that requires more extensive research. This issue was primarily of interest to historians dealing with latifundia in the 18th century. This was mainly due to the source material. Latifundial documentation was kept much more regularly in the 18th century than before and is well-organized. The economic activity of the magnate was related not only to the internal organization of landed estates. It cannot be separated from the military, because the goal of the magnate’s life was politics and, very often, also war. Despite its autonomy, the latifundium wasn’t isolated. Despite the existence of the decentralization process of the state, the magnate families remained in contact with the weakening center of the state and influenced changes in its social structure. The actual strength of the magnate family was determined not only by the area of land goods, but above all by their profitability, which depended on several factors: geographic location and natural conditions, the current situation on the economic market, and the management method adopted by the magnate. In the 17th century, crisis phenomena, visible in demography, agricultural and crafts production, money and trade, intensified. In these realities, attempts by Jan III Sobieski to reconstruct the lands destroyed by the war and to introduce military rigor in the management center did not bring the expected results. Sobieski, however, introduced “new people” to the group of senators, who implemented his policy at the sejmiks and the Parliament, participated in military expeditions and managed his property.

Recent Changes in German Governmental Organization

1945 ◽  
Vol 39 (1) ◽  
pp. 97-100
Author(s):  
Heinz Guradze
Keyword(s):  
Local Level ◽  
Military Government ◽  
Governmental Organization ◽  
The Public ◽  
The People ◽  
Regional Labor ◽  
Economic Regions ◽  
The Military ◽  
Delegation Of Powers ◽  
Dominant Part

Within the last few years, changes have been carried out in the public administration of Germany which will affect the military government to be established during and after Germany's defeat. Their general trend has been to subordinate state (i.e., Reich, regional, and local) administration to the Party, which has been vested with more and more power. This is of particular interest in the light of the present “total mobilization,” in which the Party plays a dominant part. To some extent, the changes discussed in this note show a definite trend toward decentralization, although there has been no actual delegation of powers to smaller units, since all power remained in the hands of the Party—this being, of course, the reason why the Nazis could afford to “decentralize.” On the local level, the reforms aimed at tying together the loosening bonds between the régime and the people. Only the most recent emergency measures of “total mobilization” are touched on in this note.1. Gauarbeitsaemter. When the Reichsanstalt was created in 1927–28, the Reich was organized in 13 economic regions, each having one regional labor office (Landesarbeitsamt). The idea was to establish large economic districts containing various industries so that a crisis in one industry could be absorbed by the labor market of another within the same district, thus creating “ausgleichsfaehige Bezirke.”

R2P's Missing Link, Culture

2011 ◽  
Vol 3 (4) ◽  
pp. 451-472 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rama Mani ◽  
Thomas G. Weiss
Keyword(s):  
Arab World ◽  
Local Population ◽  
Global South ◽  
Responsibility To Protect ◽  
Religion And Spirituality ◽  
Dominant Culture ◽  
Cultural Perspectives ◽  
The North ◽  
The Military ◽  
Universal Norm

AbstractCulture has been absent from analyses and debates about the responsibility to protect (R2P) norm. The use of the military to enforce a no-fly zone in Libya and to protect civilians took place with support from the local population and more widely across the Arab World even when the dominant 'culture' supposedly made outside interference unthinkable. As R2P enters its second decade, a deeper understanding of culture is desirable, as is the incorporation of cultural perspectives in framing responses to mass atrocities. UN debates and resolutions have helped dispel myths about R2P and reaffirmed its validity as a universal norm that is close to a 'tipping point'. Instead of an 'emerging' norm (the original contention in 2001 by the International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty), R2P has 'emerged' as consensus continues to widen and deepen across the North and the global South. This essay shares insights from research about cultural perspectives in the global South from local researchers who explore three themes (religion and spirituality, philosophy and ethics, and art and aesthetics) and three country cases (Rwanda, Kosovo, and Nepal).

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