historiography in Saudi Arabia. PhD

349 Pages·2012·3.11 MB·English

Determann, Jorg Matthias (2012) Globalization, the state, and narrative plurality: historiography in 
Saudi Arabia. PhD Thesis. SOAS, University of London 
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Globalization, the State, and
Narrative Plurality:
Historiography in Saudi Arabia

Jorg Matthias Determann

Thesis submitted for the degree of PhD in History

2012

Department of History
School of Oriental and African Studies
University of London

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Declaration for PhD thesis

I have read and understood regulation 17.9 of the Regulations for students of the School of
Oriental and African Studies concerning plagiarism. I undertake that all the material
presented for examination is my own work and has not been written for me, in whole or in
part, by any other person. I also undertake that any quotation or paraphrase from the
published or unpublished work of another person has been duly acknowledged in the work
which I present for examination.

Signed: ____________________________ Date: _________________
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Abstract
This thesis examines historiography in modern Saudi Arabia. Many students of modern Arab
historiography have focused on the development of historical professions and the
historiographical legitimation of regimes. In contrast, this thesis seeks to explain the
emergence of a plurality of historical narratives in the kingdom in the absence of formal
political pluralism. It thus pays special attention to amateur and unofficial histories. Since the
1920s, texts about local, tribal and Shiite communities emerged that diverged from, and
contested, the histories focusing on the royal family. They emphasized the communities’
historical independence from the Al Saud or asserted the communities’ importance in Saudi
national history. Since the 1970s, distinct social and economic histories also developed.
These histories described important historical events as the result of wider social and
economic factors rather than the actions of individual rulers or communities.
The thesis argues that this narrative plurality was the product of the building and
expansion of the Saudi state in the context of globalization. The state subsidized not only
dynastic histories, but also many texts on local, social and economic history. It also provided
an increasing number of its citizens with education and employment in the expanding public
sector. It thus empowered a variety of previously illiterate and relatively poor sections of
Saudi society, including former Bedouin tribespeople, to produce conformist, but also
dissenting histories. Globalization not only facilitated narrative plurality by putting Saudi
historians in contact with different ideologies, methodologies, and source material from
abroad, it also allowed authors to publish their works abroad and online beyond
governmental censorship. But state expansion and globalization have not been restricted to
Saudi Arabia, and this thesis suggests that these processes may also have led to narrative
plurality in Arab historiography more generally, even under the conditions of
authoritarianism.
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Table of Contents
Abstract .............................................................................................................................. 3
List of Figures ..................................................................................................................... 6
List of Abbreviations and Glossary....................................................................................... 7
Acknowledgments ............................................................................................................. 10
Note on Transliteration, Translation and References.......................................................... 13
1. Introduction ................................................................................................................... 14
Narrative plurality .......................................................................................................... 16
State expansion ............................................................................................................ 29
Globalization ................................................................................................................. 33
Sources ......................................................................................................................... 37
Overview of the thesis ................................................................................................... 41
2. Histories of a Muslim Arab Dynasty, Early Beginnings to 1960s ..................................... 44
The Ibn Ghannām School and the Saudi state ............................................................... 46
Foreigners and dynastic exclusivism .............................................................................. 62
Arab nationalism............................................................................................................ 77
3. Particularistic Local Histories, 1920s to 1970s ............................................................... 91
Narrating local political, religious and social traditions .................................................... 93
Perennialism ............................................................................................................... 106
Muslim pasts ............................................................................................................... 119
4. The Saudization of Dynastic Historiography, 1960s to Present ..................................... 136
King Abdulaziz and the foundation of Saudi Arabia ...................................................... 139
Unification, not jihad .................................................................................................... 155
Development ............................................................................................................... 168
5. Asserting Towns, Tribes and the Shiites in National History, 1970s to Present ............. 184
Local contribution histories .......................................................................................... 185
Tribes entering the arena ............................................................................................. 199
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Shiite histories from revolution to contribution .............................................................. 219
6. Social and Economic Histories, 1970s to Present ........................................................ 230
From student missions to social history........................................................................ 232
Contextualizing the Wahhabi mission .......................................................................... 247
Theorizing the Saudi state ........................................................................................... 261
7. Conclusion .................................................................................................................. 277
An empowering state ................................................................................................... 279
Globalization and pluralization ..................................................................................... 282
Narrative plurality beyond Saudi Arabia ....................................................................... 284
Epilogue: The Saudi opening and historiography ......................................................... 289
Appendix ......................................................................................................................... 295
Bibliography .................................................................................................................... 299
Interviews .................................................................................................................... 299
Primary sources .......................................................................................................... 301
Secondary sources ...................................................................................................... 328

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List of Figures
Figure 1: Cover of Nāṣir al-Saʿīd, Tārīkh [1983/84]. ............................................................ 86
Figure 2: The Saudi coat of arms, adopted in 1950. ........................................................... 87
Figure 3: Official logo of the centenary in 1999 ................................................................ 155
Figure 4: Official logo of Fahd’s twentieth anniversary as king in 2001/2 .......................... 178
Figure 5: Map of Saudi Arabia ......................................................................................... 295
Figure 6: Provinces of Saudi Arabia ................................................................................. 296
Figure 7: Ban of The Entertainer’s Pleasure (page 1)....................................................... 297
Figure 8: Ban of The Entertainer’s Pleasure (page 2)....................................................... 298
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List of Abbreviations and Glossary
Aramco—Arabian American Oil Company
BJMES—British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies
BRISMES—British Society for Middle Eastern Studies
CUP—Cambridge University Press
DMA—Dārat al-Malik ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz (cf. KAFRA)
EI2—Encyclopaedia of Islam: New Edition
ḥaḍar—sedentary people
IJMES—International Journal of Middle East Studies
Imam University—Imam Muhammad ibn Saud Islamic University
IRO—Islamic Revolution Organization (Munaẓẓamat al-Thawrah al-Islāmīyah)
jāhilīyah—an ‘age of ignorance’ that represents the opposite of Islam
JESHO—Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient
JIMSI—Jāmiʿat al-Imām Muḥammad ibn Suʿūd al-Islāmīyah (cf. Imam University)
JMA—Jāmiʿat al-Malik ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz (cf. KAU)
JMS—Jāmiʿat al-Malik Suʿūd (cf. KSU)
JTS—al-Jamʿīyah al-Tārīkhīyah al-Suʿūdīyah
KAFRA—King Abdulaziz Foundation for Research and Archives (cf. DMA)
KAU—King Abdulaziz University
KSU—King Saud University
MEJ—Middle East Journal
MES—Middle Eastern Studies
MMFW—Maktabat al-Malik Fahd al-Waṭanīyah
OUP—Oxford University Press
SOAS—School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London
takfīr—declaring somebody an unbeliever
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UCLA—University of California, Los Angeles
WI—Die Welt des Islams
WM—Wazārat al-Maʿārif
WTT—Wazārat al-Tarbiyah wa-al-Taʿlīm

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To my family, with many thanks
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