Table Of ContentExtremism, Ancient and Modern
Near Eastern archaeology is generally represented as a succession of empires
with little attention paid to the individuals, labelled as terrorists at the time,
that brought them down. Their stories, when viewed against the backdrop of
current violent extremism in the Middle East, can provide a unique long-term
perspective.
Extremism, Ancient and Modern brings long-forgotten pasts to bear on the
narratives of radical groups today, recognizing the historical bases and specific
cultural contexts for their highly charged ideologies. The author, with exper-
tise in Middle Eastern archaeology and counter-terrorism work, provides a
unique viewpoint on a relatively under-researched subject.
This timely volume will interest a wide readership, from undergraduate and
graduate students of archaeology, history and politics, to a general audience
with an interest in the deep historical narratives of extremism and their impact
on today’s political climate.
Sandra Scham is Adjunct Associate Professor of Archaeology and Anthro-
pology at the Catholic University of America and a countering violent extrem-
ism specialist who works with USAID and the Department of State. She lived
in the Middle East for over seven years, teaching and implementing Israeli–
Arab exchange and peace-building projects. She is the Co-Editor of the Journal
of Eastern Mediterranean Archaeology and Heritage Studies, served as Editor of Near
East Archaeology, published by the American Schools of Oriental Research,
and is a contributing editor to Archaeology magazine. She has taught courses on
archaeology, politics and the heritage of the Middle East at the University of
Maryland and Stanford University.
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Extremism, Ancient
and Modern
Insurgency, Terror and Empire
in the Middle East
Sandra Scham
First published 2018
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2018 Sandra Scham
The right of Sandra Scham to be identified as author of this work has been
asserted by her in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright,
Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in
any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing
from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered
trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without
intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record for this book has been requested
ISBN: 978-0-415-78840-3 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-415-78839-7 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-22532-6 (ebk)
Typeset in Bembo
by Deanta Global Publishing Services, Chennai, India
Contents
Acknowledgment vii
Prologue: The Middle East and me 1
SECTION 1
Narrativity, agency and emplotment 15
1 The Passion will play: Narrativity and resistance 17
2 Gunpowder, treason and emplotment: Narrative and agency 33
SECTION 2
Tragic emplotments 51
3 “The fanged serpents of the mountain”: Kurdish separatism in
the context of the ancient past 53
4 “A true people like so many others the world has seen”:
Bedouin resistance past and present 74
5 “Their hearts were confident, full of their plans”:
Philistines and Palestinians 96
SECTION 3
Romantic emplotments 121
6 “There was no king in Israel”: Early Israel in settler
movement narratives 123
vi Contents
7 “Realm like his was never won by mortal king”: Huthis,
Himyarites and hard-lines 150
8 “Our place here is but a deception”: Al-Andalus in modern
Islamic ideology 171
Epilogue: “Those who do not remember history
are condemned to retweet it” 194
Index 204
Acknowledgment
I wish to acknowledge the invaluable contributions of some very important
individuals, not necessarily to this book—in which I do not purport to repre-
sent anyone’s views except my own—but to my knowledge of the Middle East
and its people. Ann Killebrew, without whom I would understand so much
less about the Ancient Middle East than I do now, enabled me to experience
Turkey, Israel and Palestine in a new way. I am also indebted, more than I can
tell, to Ken Holum and Adel Yahya, peace be upon them both. Ken set me on
the path of Middle East archaeology and Adel opened my eyes to the meaning
of the past in the present.
I dedicate this book to them and to my husband, Paul, and my daughters,
Petra and Anat.
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Prologue
The Middle East and me
As a junior in high school, I heard Barry Goldwater’s famous exposition that
“extremism in defense of liberty is no vice” on television which, in that same
year, was dubbed a “cool medium” by Marshall McLuhan (MacLuhan 1964).1
Although it can be argued that television has “heated up” since that time, I
watched it with the detachment of a young person who found politics boring.
Nevertheless, I do remember that election in general because it was the first
one in which my parents could vote. No, they weren’t immigrants—we lived
in the District of Columbia, capital of the nation—which, before that time,
was inexplicably disenfranchised.
I later discovered that the anarchist Karl Hess, who once wrote admiringly
about “men who suddenly tire of palaver and reach for the rifle on the wall”
(Perlstein 2009: 315), penned this controversial speech. Apparently, it per-
suaded my father to vote for Goldwater, one of the few who did in that year
of a historic election landslide, while my mother preferred Lyndon Johnson. I
suppose that, using the same roundabout logic that is now applied by counter-
terrorism analysts, one might say that would make my father, who clearly
responded to this narrative, a supporter of extremism (Hoffman 2006; Smith
1994). Because I witnessed what surely must have been the first time the word
entered into the lexicon of modern American politics—in this case as a credo
for a Republican nominee, later, the idea of associating extremism with reli-
gion seemed unusual. After all, I never thought of Barry Goldwater as religious
and later read that he was even suspicious of religion.
After years of lecturing at university, I now understand that millennials have
really experienced no other context for it and, despite the fact that President
Obama demurred against associating extremism with “any one religion,”
invariably linked the word with Islam. Unlike those days when an agnostic
Jewish-Episcopalian could run on the Republican ticket, now all candidates
for high public office in the United States have to lay claim to piety, including
the current President of the United States, whose life up to that point had been
about as profane as one could imagine. He was quick to adopt at least one of
the tenets of “old-time religion”—that is, regarding a designated “other” reli-
gion as the incarnation of evil. Growing up surrounded by Southern Baptists,
I remember that our bête noire was Catholicism. Clearly, there was only one
