Pluto Journals

La Fascination de l'Islam by Maxime Rodinson; Iran Under the Safavids by Roger Savory; Social Life Under the Abbasids, 170-289 AH/786-902 AD by Muhammad Manazir Ahsan Review by: Richard W. Bulliet Arab Studies Quarterly, Vol. 3, No. 4 (Fall 1981), pp. 411-414 Published by: Pluto Journals Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/41857585 . Accessed: 01/02/2014 00:02
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Book Reviews III

41 1

of I pointed At theoutsetofthisreview, out thefundamental problematics the the science of Palestiniology. Lesch's and Nashifs studies, Excepting Arabsfigure in any narration Palestinian oftheQuestionof onlyincidentally Palestine. Two recent publications,that of Sara Graham-Brown, The and thatofJonathanDimbleby, and TheirSociety Palestinians , 1880-1946, The Palestinians[Reviewed on page 422- Editor], alert us to the rich on Palestiniancultureand society. potentialthat lies ahead of researchers That to theanalysisand narration. For inboth,thePalestinian Arabis central to the is the way it should be. When scholarsbeginto address themselves inPalestineor inthe and institutions evolution ofPalestinian culture, history, then in a to will the reader be position appreciatethedynamics Diaspora, only of the Palestinians forself-fulfillment. of the struggle

Maxime Rodinson. La Fascinationde l'Islam. Paris: Maspro, 1980. 159 pp. Roger Savory, Iran Under the Safavids. Cambridge: Cambridge Press, 1980. 227 pp. $34.50. University Muhammad Manazir Ahsan. Social Life Under the Abbasids, 170289 AH /786-902 AD. London: Longman, 1979. 316 pp. $30.00. Reviewed by Richard W. Bulliet La fascination de Vislm is sure to become a favoriteof American scholars of the Middle East. It is short, succinct,erudite, and greatly Set in the contextof the debate over Orientalismprovokedby reassuring. Edward Said's book of that titlepublishedin 1978, Rodinson's work is "Les tapes du essay entitled composed of threeparts:(1) a hundred-page regard occidental sur le monde musulman,"which is actually the fully developed French text of his essay "The Western Image and Western ColumbiaUniversity. is Professor of History, W. Bulliet Richard

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412

Arab Studies Quarterly

Studies of Islam" writtenin 1968 and included in truncated formin J. Schacht and C. E. Bosworth's second edition of The Legacy of Islam "Les tudesarabes et entitled publishedin 1974; (2) an essay halfitslength en which as a lecture islamiques Europe," originated givenin Leydenin 1976 for a meetingof the Dutch Middle East and Islamic Studies Association; and (3) an eleven-pageintroduction theseessayswritten beforethe relating of Said's book to the that has publication controversy subsequently emerged. The effect of this"beforeand after" is very pleasingsincethe composition harshnessand defensiveness that pervadesmuch of what has been contributed to the debate by variousauthorsis absentfromthe main body of the textwhilethe introduction statesquiteclearly whereRodinson'sfeelings lie. There is a deceptiveaspect to thispleasantimpression, that needs however, to be pointed out. Althoughthe introduction injects the book into an in whichthe author findsmuch to criticize in Said's ongoing controversy - or perhapsexpose- on Orientalism, attack thetwo longeressayswerenot conceived with Said's thesisin mind and hence fail to address it directly. It is precisely thissubtleavoidance of awkwardquestionsthatmakesthe book so reassuring to a scholartrained in Middle East or OrientalStudiesin the 1960s or before.In the first drawn essay,the broadlybut convincingly outlineof theWestern viewsofand scholarship on theIslamicworldpassing througha series of stages frommedievaltimes to the twentieth century - right thatthatis thewayour forerunners saw things or conveysthe feeling wrong, for good or ill. There is no sinister,undiscoveredpurpose or been unaware and to whichwe manipulationof which we have hitherto remain, consciously or unconsciously,in thrall. Said's perceptionof a malevolentimperialist undercurrent the ninesteadilyat workthroughout teenth and twentieth centuries and Middle East specialOrientalists tugging ists willy-nilly into a maelstrom of racism,black fantasy, and subservience to political schemes simplydoes not appear. How pleasant. In the same fashion,the second essay surveysthe past and presentof European scholarship on Islam and the Middle East and finds much to criticize. It also findsmuchto praise.The sinsand failures oftheforefathers are sympathetically their achievements are recognized, and the understood, readeris urged not to throwout the baby withthe bathwater by becoming The assessmentof current hypercritical. scholarlytrendsin various Eurocountries leads, in a final section entitled"Quelques thses pour pean and essentiallyunalarming conclure," to some judicious, constructive, recommendations. of the Said attackpasses by without Again, the ferocity effectbecause it is a ghost of the future. Is it fair,then,to warnthereaderin the introduction about thedangerof the attack upon Orientalismdegenerating into a Lysenkoistmyopia in which Said's anti-Orientalism becomes as much an ideational construct

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Book Reviews

413

Orientaldivorcedfrom and serving reality politicalends as Said maintains a to ism to be? After such threat amount a shouldn't defense all, against more than a masterclass in shadowboxing? In thisparticular thegloveshave been often controversy enoughremoved to pass as fair,but the reader would alreadyto permitalmost anything the servedifthebook had been publishedwithout probablyhavebeenbetter and introduction. The essays could still be read with profit, satisfaction, betweenrounds of the heavyweight enjoyment duringthe intermissions Said head to head. fight.Or else Rodinson should have confronted The attraction oftheheavyweight division of itself, course,is thatartistry, are and fearof seeinga and overshadowed skill, beauty by power,thethrill forthe massiveknockoutpunch.Lesser divisionsmay be more engrossing in their more and the be of contenders aficionado, may worthy praise their but of there is a that art; application always feeling something bigger and more important is absent. It is plainthattheOrientalism debateis a heavyweight contest.A fieldof that had come to savor the with and skill which small study elegance were to excitement asked and answered has been reawakened the questions of big questionsdemanding The answers. sensation is that big something to move the feet are earth from beneath one's is there and trying startling, If one big many who preferthe doldrums. But it is also invigorating. be as well. heated others can and a can be asked debate, question provoke of stimulates new announcement now book anticipation big, new Every defended.This was not the case ten ideas boldlyset forth and vigorously then. years ago. Small was beautiful of now. It is just that the recentreinvigoration And small is beautiful new chalthe revelation that Middle Easternscholarship through major traditionworkswithin has made good and useful lengesare indeedexciting al genresseem less satisfying than theymighthave a few years ago. A case in pointis Iran UndertheSafavidsby RogerSavory. Anticipation of a major workon a vital subjectalmostentirely unanalyzedin Englishwas perhaps greaterthan it should have been. But language scholarship - the establishment of Shi'ism,the Safavid Iran poses immense questions - and of sense of nationalcultural the character Sufism Qizilbash identity, valuable translationof a major on the heels of his huge and immensely ' Safavid chronicle under the title History of Shah Abbas the Great (Westview,1978), ProfessorSavory's views on these issues were eagerly awaited. theSafavidsis a good and neededbook butnota Iran Under Regrettably, issues.The mainthemesare ones thatwill of outstanding major rethinking to those who have read Savory's earlierarticles.The already be familiar betweenstate Shi'ism conflict of Turkomanand Tajik, the contradictions from and theprosand cons ofthetransition and theSufismoftheSafaviya,

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414

Arab Studies Quarterly

a nomadic armyof Qizilbash tribesmen granted byland revenues supported to the tribes to a standing army of Georgian and Armeniangholams are three supportedby land revenuescollectedby the centralgovernment such themesthat are usefully a in the context of general brought together narrative. Yet verylittle thatis new is presented. Even at $34.50 thebook is essential reading for any serious historianof Iran and can be strongly recommended to anyone interested in the history of the Middle East as a whole. But at a timewhenappetitesare whetted formajorstatements, wellconventional leaves one unsatisfied. presented thought M. M. Ahsan's Social Life Underthe Abbasids is a case in point of a different nature.The lore extracted fromscoresof medievalArabicsources and crammedintothisencyclopedic ofdata pertaining to daily compendium life in the eighthand ninthcenturies in its detail and in the is remarkable author'ssound explicationof it. As a reference work,it willfinda welcome it is essentially a in the libraries of medievalists. Nevertheless, place many Its major book of possible answersto questionsthatare neverformulated. indoor and divisions,for example, are costume,food, housing,hunting, outdoor games, and festivals and festivities. Why?Is thisthe sum total of social life?And what does "underthe Abbasids" mean? Data is included about mosque tilesin Qairawan and buildingmaterials in Bukhara,but the vast preponderanceof the work pertainsto Iraq and more specifically to Baghdad. Nowhereis thereany discussionof regionalor ethniccustomsor of the degree to whichthe Abbasid caliphs presidedover a homogeneous culture. As Rodinson has effectively worth is muchofenduring reminded us,there in the work alreadydone and stillbeingdone along traditional Orientalist lines. But the study of the Middle East is in ferment with overdue and and without. hopefully productive Reading new works critiquefromwithin with one's expectationsthus aroused can therefore be a somewhat disus withgood and appointingexperience.Savory and Ahsan have presented useful books, but it would have been more satisfying if the formerhad broken throughto a newerand more penetrating in thisgeneral synthesis work and the latter had developed a knack for asking fundamental questionsabout the societywhose details he so conscientiously catalogues.

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