Editorial Preface

We are happy to present our readers with the 48th volume of The New East. This volume covers a wide range of subjects from the dawn of Islam to the present day. It also incorporates a new structure which is open and eclectic in contrast to the old and well worn structure based on the annual conference program. Accompanying the new structure is a simplified format of the transcript with a refreshing new design and book cover. We hope that the new structure will continue to make an important contribution to Israeli discourse in its study of historical issues and current affairs in the Middle East, as well as enrich knowledge of the various disciplines ranging from Philology to Anthropology and Literature.

In the current edition there are five central themes, the first of which discusses the culture of beauty. Islam and Judaism are customarily viewed as holistic religions, embracing all areas of human existence: law, society and politics, beauty and aesthetics. Generally speaking, aesthetics - of people, objects or structures - is concealed in the shadow of religious law and politics; however, here it is brought front stage in two opening articles. Hadas Hirsch's article focuses on physical appearance and personal body care in ancient Islam, and follows the religious laws that refer positively to the body care of both women and men. In the case of women, the permission to adorn and beautify themselves, was drawn from their gender role, but there were imposed restrictions on their appearance in order to prevent moral perversion and undermining the hierarchy of gender relations. As for men, their permission stems from the wish to please the god who demands that his grace be viewed in public, including dress and adornment. Here too, limitations were imposed in order to heighten the distinction between Muslims and adherers to other faiths, who were a controlled group or prot?g?s. The specific preoccupation with the physical appearance of both genders reflected the ability of those knowledgeable of religious law to confront the influences from outside Islamic law, and was part of an attempt to set gender barriers and provide a normative framework of desired behavior.
Hanah Taragan's article deals with the modern era, and the emphasis shifts from aesthetics of the body to aesthetics of structures, and from society's Muslim majority to its Jewish minority. In doing so, it raises questions of identity and cultural interaction. The article focuses on the architectural and visual foundations of the "Sha'ar Hashamayim" (Gate of the Heavens) synagogue in Cairo, built in the years 1898-1905. The synagogue provided an opportunity for scrutiny: both the urban development of Egypt's large metropolis against the backdrop of colonial, European and Egyptian national influence, and the self-perception of eminent members of the Jewish community who strove to weave a harmonious tapestry in which everyone would live together in religious unity with an Egyptian identity and cosmopolitan openness. This aim, as other studies have shown, did not come to fruition due to the radicalization in the ideology of Egyptian discourse (such as the rise of the political Islam and Pan-Arabism) and in light of a deterioration in the conflict in Palestine in the 1930's and 40's, the development of which brought an end to the Jewish presence in Egypt.

The second theme is devoted to two historical players: the elitists and the masses. The former traditionally constitutes the headstone of classical, political and social historiography; the latter - relatively new to the research arena (since the 1960's) and against the background of the intellectual uprising against determinist doctrine (a version of Marxism or structuralism) - tended to explain human phenomenon in general and fundamental terms, alongside the development of more humanistic trends that preferred to focus on the reality of the lives and culture of the masses rather than preoccupation with the history of kings, wars and contentions among the ruling powers. These historiographical developments also left their mark on the study of Middle East realism. The reciprocal bonds between state and society, the elite and the masses, are analyzed in two articles by Michael Nizri and Moshe Aharonov.

Nazri focuses on the involvement of the religious elite in Ottoman politics of the late 17th century and early 18th century. Throughout Muslim history, religious scholars preserved the body of knowledge and passed it on to future generations. However, there was no literacy (except among those responsible for the legal and educational systems), so this knowledge was not written down. The religious authority of the scholars became the leverage by which they accumulated influence and prestige in the community and in politics. This gained further validation under the Mamlukes and the Ottomans of Turkish origin, whose ethnic and cultural alienation encouraged them to demonstrate more loyalty and respect to Islam and its spokespersons. As Nizri's article points out, senior scholars in Istanbul in the middle of the 17th century enjoyed a unique relationship with the ruling powers. Some of them even succeeded to establish a houshold (similar to those holding senior military or administrative positions) through patron-prot?g? relations, blood relations or foreigners, enabling their integration into the Ottoman elite. An interesting case is cited in the biography of ¡eyh?lislam Feyzullah Efendi who served as al-Islam in the years 1695-1705, expanded his authority through nepotism and proximity to authoritative bodies within the palace, the army and the administration, thus fortifying his leadership in the houshold. Nevertheless, his political ambitions were short lived. He aroused hostility among political circles that incited a rebellion against him in Istanbul in 1703, which led to his dismissal and execution. The rebellion against Feyzullah gave rise to the role of the masses in Muslim history. Generally speaking, the simple believers lacked political expression, but the governing body took charge of their well-being due to Islam's belief in social justice (similar to the "moral economy"in Christian Europe). Physical or economic injustice on the part of the ruling body, or their representatives, incited sporadic uprisings in the village or city led by religious leaders, heads of guilds or merchants.

The masses as an opposing force is discussed in Moshe Aharonov's article which shifts from the Sunni Ottomans to the Iranian Shiites. An analysis of the turbulent politics in the city of Shiraz in the first half of the 19th century enables Aharonov to draw a dynamic picture of a meeting between "the politics from above" - central and city government representatives and respected locals, and the "politics from below" - small merchants, artisans, the poor and those on the fringes of society. The latter frequently expressed bitterness towards the authorities on economic and social issues, and more than once the authorities were forced, via local middlemen, to respond to their claims and fire those leaders who transgressed the law. The ability of the population to negotiate and organize themselves against the authorities is chronicled in the historical writings of Egyptian, Syrian, Tunisian or Algerian cities of the Middle Ages and the modern era. These chronicles shed additional light on the subordinates' "history from below", and reveals the limitations of power of the central government, all the more so in outlying regions far away from direct contact with parliament, thus further undermining the myth of "Oriental despotism" whether of the Iranian Shah or the Ottoman sultan.

The third theme in the manuscript is largely devoted to the Palestinian Arabs and their relations with Israel. Three articles illuminate different and challenging historical view points on the issue. Yair Bauml's article discusses the connection between economy and politics. It examines the various patterns of activity implemented by the Israeli establishment in the years 1958-1967 as a means of preventing the development of an independent Arab economy in the State and to subjugate it to the needs of the Israeli economy through the expropriation of land, the gaining control of agricultural means of produce (primarily water and land), the prevention of industrialization in the Arab sector, and so forth. Ya'akov Tobi's article moves the discussion to the connection between demographics and politics. It examines the delicate issue of family unity in the first half of the 1950's. The practice of family reunification was the product of an initiative taken by Israel, as a result of pressure from the West to neutralize the problem of Palestinian repatriation, which involved developing a system of moderate and controlled permission for the offspring of refugees to return to their relatives within the borders of the State. This project of family reunification involved a negligible number of the Palestinian refugee population, and as such the neighboring Arab countries did not respond favorably to it. It remained within the realms of a humanitarian gesture and did not severely harm the Palestinian struggle in Israel. In this struggle, Islamic faith fulfilled an important role in the political induction and design of the Palestinian's collective memory. This was also true for the period during which Fatah, the rescue unit of the Palestinian Liberation Movement (PLO) was created, in the years 1959-1968. During this period, as Ido Zelkovitz writes in his article, Fatah also allocated Islam a place of respect in the fostering of the ethics of Jihad and sacrifice, in its immortalization of figures and events in modern Palestinian history. The use of religion was intended to improve the status of Fatah against the established PLO, led by Ahmad al Shukri and to sustain the armed struggle against Israel. Looking ahead, the recruitment of Islam to the service of Palestinian nationalism would strengthen against the background of a wave of religious revival in the 70's, that left its mark in the territories of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, and adversaries sprouted up, namely the Islamic Jihad and Hamas. The fate of Fatah illustrates the complexity of the modern national phenomenon, in which religious factors (alongside territorial, ethnic, linguistic and mythical elements) also continued to play an important role in its framework. This is true concerning countries such as Iran, Egypt, and Algeria, and all the more so concerning movements fighting for freedom from the yoke of strangers. In this sense, "Islam, in one form or another, has always constituted part of the modern political field," in the words of Sami Zubaida in his book Islam: the People and the State (p. 156).

The Islamic revival in the 20th century objected to the decline in the power of faith and the lagging behind of the Arab and Muslim world in the race for progress and power. The main emphasis in modern Islamic discourse turned to the causes of this laxity and endorsed radical changes that would restore to Islam its vitality and grant its believers their rightful status in the human experience. Alongside the almost obsessive preoccupation with the social malaise, it developed an additional stance in the Arab-Muslim cogitation that transferred the emphasis to the other side: to the adversary and the rival, in the image of the West. The fourth theme of the book deals with this issue: the relationship between Islam and the West. Uriya Shavit's article investigates Sunni and Neo-Salafi prophesies in Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Western Europe that crowned western civilization on its cultural and social values, as an empty illusion that would eventually shatter. These predictions were intended to sharpen the Islamic message and to lift the dividers between the two civilizations and instill tolerance in the hearts of believers, for western supremacy of the West would be temporary while Islam's renewed assault on the West was merely a matter of time.

The fifth and last theme ties literature to politics. Its focus, the different representations of the Arab-Israeli conflict in novel Yasmin by writer Eli Amir (Tel Aviv, 2005). Yasmin deals with the delicate fabric of Jewish-Arab relations in East Jerusalem since the 1967 war. The love affair that was nipped in the bud between Nuri - an adviser on Arab affairs in East Jerusalem - and Yasmin, a Palestinian nationalist and graduate of Sorbonne University in Paris who arrives in Israel for a visit to her native land, is a miniature depiction of the wider story of the national struggle, saturated in suspicion, hostility and bloodshed. The affair is in the form of a journey to get acquainted with someone different to yourself: the stranger and the enemy with its fears and dilemmas. It exposes the struggles of national identity and social and cultural divides on the part of both the Israeli and the Palestinian Arab. It carries a political statement concerning the need to understand those conquered around us and to find paths of dialogue with them. These aspects were the focus of a symposium held at the Hebrew University in March, 2006 with the participation of the writer of the romance, Eli Amir and the academics: Amnon Cohen, Meir Bar Asher, Sasson Somekh, Yaron Zur, Mari Tutari, Elie Podeh and Meir Hatina. The issue seals a new section, a movie column seeking to illuminate various issues in the fields of the Middle East and Islam via the important audio-visual medium of the big screen, which besides its artistic value, makes profound statements on issues of society, culture and politics. This medium, which does not receive enough attention in Israeli discourse, usually prefers to focus on local or western film-making despite the fact that Israel is both geographically and culturally a part of these areas. Middle-Eastern cinema has been (especially in the last decade) important and prolific to the sphere of research in its historical documentation and in tracing the schisms and hopes of local society. In Israel, a young generation of researchers is preserving this medium. One of them is Sariel Birenbaum, whose short article points to the marginal significance given to Iraq in Egyptian cinematography after America's occupation of Iraq in 2003. This marginality expresses domestic withdrawal and preoccupation with the troubles of the simple Egyptian citizen. Likewise, the loss of hope in positive change in the bleeding and divided Iraqi arena.

The current volume has been published exactly a year after the publication of the last volume, and as such, the declared intention of the Middle East and Islamic Studies Association of Israel (MEISAI) and the Open University has been fully realized: to publish a periodical every year. We thank our predecessors Elie Podeh and Haim Gerber, who managed the task of editing previous editions of The New East under no easy circumstances. Many labored at the task of publishing this volume. The editorial staff thanks the Open University's publishing staff for their professional care and devotion in the production of this edition: Yonah Leshed, the publishing manager, Ruthie Shalem, Nave Shankman, Reuma Shahor, Tse'ela Klein-Birenbaum, Ruthie Appleburg and Dalit Solomon. Special thanks go to Karin Hezekiah for her careful and beautiful linguistic editing, and to Haim Nissim who also worked hard on the edition. Shai Zohar, the periodical secretary is also worthy of praise for his decisiveness and efficiency during the work on the volume. Congratulations to you all!

Bat-Zion Eraqi Klorman and Meir Hatina
May 2009