Project Group A: Frontiers and Transitions, Project A3

The tribal confederation of the 'Anaza: Social actors between the centres of change

Programme

The project examines the history of the `Anaza Bedouin in Syria from the late Ottoman period to the present. Our conception of history includes the documentary evidence as well as the historical narratives of members of the `Anaza themselves. Accordingly, the project is designed as a collaborative endeavour of anthropologists and historians. The complementary approaches of the two disciplines help to understand different perceptions and forms of expression.

Exploring of the competitive relationship of nomadic entities and different political regimes, the project aspires to re-consider the development of modern statehood in the Middle East from the perspective of the steppe. The tribal confederation of the `Anaza represented the most important groups of camel breeders in late Ottoman Syria. Several sub-groups of the confederation were involved in the establishment of the Arab nation states as politically and militarily important actors. Around the middle of the twentieth century, the `Anaza experienced processes of substantial social and political change that diminished their autonomy and access to markets, yet also opened up new economic and political possibilities. The project explores in which ways these changes have been reflected in discourse and practice and in how far diverging interests and strategies have led to mutually opposed alignments and conflicts among sub-groups of the `Anaza.

We focus on two sub-groups: the Sba`a, who until the 1930s belonged to the most important camel breeders in Syria, and the Hasana, a smaller group which during the late nineteenth century switched from camel to sheep rearing. Both researchers, the anthropologist and the historian, shall at first be working individually and later compare their data from the study of written sources and ethnographic fieldwork in a comparative effort.

The project builds on previous research within the Research Centre, which covers centuries of interaction between nomadic and sedentary populations in the Syrian steppe. Against this background, it seeks to understand how the deeply-entrenched concept of a dichotomy between nomads and sedentary groups was played out under the conditions of modernity and how the categories “Bedouin” and “tribe” were used in different political environments.

Publications

Prof. Dr. Stefan Leder

Beduinentum, Araber, Nomadenmythos in der Montage von Ibn Khaldûn. In: A. Weiß (ed.): Der imaginierte Nomade. Formel und Realitätsbezug bei antiken, mittelalterlichen und arabischen Autoren. Wiesbaden 2007 (Nomaden und Sesshafte 9), 69–101.

Bedouin Arabs – Origin and Signification of a Khaldunian Concept. In: Ibn Khaldoun aux sources de la modernité. Tunis 2007 (in print).

Religion, Gesellschaft, Identität. Ideologie und Subversion in der Mythenbildung des arabischen "Volksepos". In: C. Schmitz (ed.): Mensch – Heros – Gott. Weltentwürfe und Lebensmodelle im Mythos der Vormoderne. Stuttgart 2007 (in print).

Nomadic and Sedentary Peoples. A Misleading Dichotomy? In: S. Leder/B. Streck (ed.): Shifts and Drifts in Nomad-Sedentary Relations. Wiesbaden 2005 (Nomaden und Sesshafte 2), 401–419 .

Nomadische Lebensformen und ihre Wahrnehmung im Spiegel der arabischen Terminologie. In: Die Welt des Orients 34 (2004), 72–104.

The 'Udhrî Narrative in Arabic Literature. In: F. Pannewick (ed.): Martyrdom in Literature. Wiesbaden 2004 (Literaturen im Kontext 17), 162–189.

Postklassisch und vormodern. Beobachtungen zum Kulturwandel in der Mamlûkenzeit. In: S. Conermann/A. Pistor-Hatam (ed.): Die Mamlûken. Studien zu ihrer Geschichte und Kultur. Zum Gedenken an Ulrich Haarmann (1942–1999). Schenefeld 2003 (Asien und Afrika 7), 289–312.

Wathâ'iq as-samâ'ât li-Mu'jam as-samâ'ât ad-dimašqîya al-muntakhaba min sanati 550 ilâ 750. Receuil de documents fac-similée des certificats d’audition à Damas, 550–750 h./1155 à 1349. Damaskus 2000.

(ed.) Story-telling in the framework of non-fictional classical Arabic literature. 2. Johann-Wilhelm-Fück Kolloquium Halle 1997. Wiesbaden 1998.

Mu'jam as-samâ'ât ad-dimašqîya al-muntakhaba min sanati 550 ilâ 750. Les certificats d’audition à Damas, 550–750 h./1155 à 1349. Damaskus 1996.

Das Korpus al-Haitham ibn 'Adî (st. 207/822). Herkunft, Überlieferung, Gestalt früher akhbâr-Texte. (Habilitationsschrift Frankfurt 1988.) Frankfurt 1991.

Die arabische Ecloga. Das vierte Buch der Kanones der Könige nach Makarios. Frankfurt 1985 (Forschungen zur Byzantinischen Rechtsgeschichte 12).

Ibn al-Gauzî und seine Kompilation wider die Leidenschaft. Der Traditionalist in gelehrter Überlieferung und originärer Lehre. Wiesbaden 1984 (Beiruter Texte und Studien 32).

Prof. Dr. Annegret Nippa

Unterwegs am Golf. Zu den Photographien und Reisebeschreibungen von Hermann Burchardt 1904. Berlin (in print).

West-Himalaya – Christen und Buddhisten. In: Ethnographie und Herrnhuter Mission. Herrnhut 2003, 72–88.

Luxus auf dem Lande – Eine Reise in den Alltag der arabischen Welt. In: Leben unter dem Halbmond. Die Wohnkulturen der arabischen Welt. Weil am Rhein 2003, 128–167.

Forschen in Grauen Zonen und Weißen Flecken. Die Zeit der Expeditionen ist zu Ende. In: Orientale 1. Recherchen, Expeditionen, Handlungsreisen. Weimar 2001, 44–57.

Tugendreiche Männer – Beduinenforschung. In: G. Teichmann/G. Völger (ed.): Faszination Orient. Max von Oppenheim, Forscher, Sammler, Diplomat. Köln 2001, 140–175.

The Curious Mosque of Gabral Jaba, Swat-Kohistan. Reading the Drawings of Robert Powell. In: M. Oppitz (ed.): Robert Powell. Himalayan Drawings. Zürich 2001, 77–90.

with P. Herbstreuth: Eine kleine Geschichte der Synagoge aus dreizehn Städten. Hamburg 1999.

Dr. Johann Büssow

Monographs

(with Khaled Safi) Damascus Affairs: Egyptian Rule in Syria through the Eyes of an Anonymous Damascene Chronicler, 1831-1841. Würzburg: Ergon (in print; to be published 2012).

Hamidian Palestine: Politics and Society in the District of Jerusalem, 1872-1908. Leiden/Boston: Brill 2011.

Edited Volumes

(with David Durand-Guédy und Jürgen Paul) Nomadic Peoples 15 (2011), 1. Special issue on Nomads in the Political Field.

(with David Durand-Guédy und Jürgen Paul) Eurasian Studies 11 (2011), 1-2. Special issue on Nomads in the Political Field.

Articles

“Bedouin Historiography in the Making: An Indigenous History of the Hasana Tribe in Syria”, in: Laila Prager (ed.), Repräsentationen von Nomaden und Sesshaften in der ‘Alten Welt’. Münster: Lit-Verlag, 2011. pp. 160-83.

“Negotiating the Future of a Bedouin Polity in Mandatory Syria: Political Dynamics of the Sba`a-`Abada during the 1930s”, in: Nomadic Peoples 15 (2011), 1. pp. 68-92.

„Kooperation und Konflikt: Die Stammeskonföderation der Anaza und die Etablierung moderner Staatlichkeit in der syrischen Steppe“, in: Sandra Calkins/Jörg Gertel (eds.), Nomaden in unserer Welt. Stuttgart: Reichert, 2011. S. 214-25.

Articles in Encyclopedias and Handbooks

(with Astrid Meier) art. “Anaza”, in: Encyclopedia of Islam Three. Leiden: Brill, 2012.

art. „Osmanisches Reich“, in: Kleines ABC des Nomadismus. Hamburg: Museum für Völkerkunde, 2011, S. 152-154.

art. „Postnomadische Lebensweise“, in: Kleines ABC des Nomadismus. Hamburg: Museum für Völkerkunde, 2011, S. 164.

(with Angelika Berlejung and Stefan Leder) art. „Stamm“, in: Kleines ABC des Nomadismus. Hamburg: Museum für Völkerkunde, 2011, S. 200-201.

Conference Reports

(with Christian Hoffmann) ‘Die Syrische Steppe: Innen- und Außenansichten eines Geschichtsraums’. Werkstattgespräch des Sonderforschungsbereichs 586 „Differenz und Integration“ in Zusammenarbeit mit der Berlin Graduate School Muslim Cultures and Societies. 16.05.2011, Berlin, H-Soz-u-Kult, 20 June 2011, http://hsozkult.geschichte.hu-berlin.de/tagungsberichte/id=3688.

‘The Role of Bedouin and Tribes in the Formation of the Modern State in the Arab East: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives, 10.06.2010-11.06.2010, Beirut’, H-Soz-u-Kult, 22 July 2010, http://hsozkult.geschichte.hu-berlin.de/tagungsberichte/id=3207.