Minorities in West Asia and North Africa – serie

This book explores the ways in which democratizing Muslim countries treat their ethnic minorities’ requests of inclusiveness and autonomy.

This book investigates the forgotten years of Kurdish nationalism in Iran, from the fall of the Kurdish republic to the advent of the Iranian revolution.

This book investigates the forgotten years of Kurdish nationalism in Iran, from the fall of the Kurdish republic to the advent of the Iranian revolution.

This book describes and compares the circumstances and lived experiences of religious minorities in Tunisia, Morocco, and Israel in the 1970s, countries where the identity and mission of the state are strongly and explicitly tied to the religion of the majority.

This book describes and compares the circumstances and lived experiences of religious minorities in Tunisia, Morocco, and Israel in the 1970s, countries where the identity and mission of the state are strongly and explicitly tied to the religion of the majority.

This book offers fresh insights to enhance and diversify our understanding of the modern history of the state and societies in today’s Jordan, while also providing examples of why and how scholars can challenge the static and discursively government-minded approaches to minorities and minoritisation – especially the traditional emphasis on demographic balances. Despite its small size and initial appearance of homogeneity, Jordan provides an excellent case of a dynamic, relational, historically contingent and fluid approach to ethnic, political and religious minorities in the context of the imposition of a modern state system on complex and varied traditional societies. The editors and contributors present dynamic and relational perspectives on the status of and historical processes involved in the creation and absorption of minority groups within Jordan.

This book offers fresh insights to enhance and diversify our understanding of the modern history of the state and societies in today’s Jordan, while also providing examples of why and how scholars can challenge the static and discursively government-minded approaches to minorities and minoritisation – especially the traditional emphasis on demographic balances. Despite its small size and initial appearance of homogeneity, Jordan provides an excellent case of a dynamic, relational, historically contingent and fluid approach to ethnic, political and religious minorities in the context of the imposition of a modern state system on complex and varied traditional societies. The editors and contributors present dynamic and relational perspectives on the status of and historical processes involved in the creation and absorption of minority groups within Jordan.

The book therefore highlights the necessity of de-ethnicizing and decolonizing unitary nation-states that are based on the politico-cultural supremacy of a single, “core” ethnicity as the sovereign legislator ofthe rules and regimes of national belonging and un-belonging.

The book therefore highlights the necessity of de-ethnicizing and decolonizing unitary nation-states that are based on the politico-cultural supremacy of a single, “core” ethnicity as the sovereign legislator ofthe rules and regimes of national belonging and un-belonging.

This book, first ethnographic attempt, examines negated spaces, practices, and relationships that have been intentionally or unintentionally dismissed from academic and non-academic studies, articles, reports, and policy papers that investigate and debate the experiences of Coptic Orthodox Christians in Egypt. By taking the Coptic identity and faith to bars, liquor stores, coffeehouses, weed gatherings, prisons, casinos, night clubs, brothels, dating applications, and porn sites, this book argues that airing out this “dirty laundry” points to the limits of victimhood and activist narratives that shape the representation of Coptic grievances and interests on both national and international levels. By introducing misfits who exist in the shadows of the well-studied Coptic rituals, traditions, miracles, saints’ apparitions, and street protests, the book highlights the contradiction between the centrality of sin to the (Coptic) Christian tradition and theology, on one hand, and on the other hand the dismissal of lives that are dominantly labelled as sinful while simultaneously studying Copts as agents or victims of history and in today’s Egyptian society.Drawing on many years of fieldwork accompanied and preceded by periods the author spent as a student and a lay servant in different forms of services in the Coptic Orthodox Church, the book acknowledges the recent anthropological work that is critical of how the secular West and its academia misrepresent God and His believers in the Middle East. However, the fact that this book extends its arguments from “ethnographic confessions” collected from who deal with God on a daily basis since their childhood, it investigates the implications and consequences of inviting God to be part of an anthropological study that complicates aspects of repentance and salvation among the largest Christian minority in the Middle East.

This book, first ethnographic attempt, examines negated spaces, practices, and relationships that have been intentionally or unintentionally dismissed from academic and non-academic studies, articles, reports, and policy papers that investigate and debate the experiences of Coptic Orthodox Christians in Egypt. By taking the Coptic identity and faith to bars, liquor stores, coffeehouses, weed gatherings, prisons, casinos, night clubs, brothels, dating applications, and porn sites, this book argues that airing out this “dirty laundry” points to the limits of victimhood and activist narratives that shape the representation of Coptic grievances and interests on both national and international levels. By introducing misfits who exist in the shadows of the well-studied Coptic rituals, traditions, miracles, saints’ apparitions, and street protests, the book highlights the contradiction between the centrality of sin to the (Coptic) Christian tradition and theology, on one hand, and on the other hand the dismissal of lives that are dominantly labelled as sinful while simultaneously studying Copts as agents or victims of history and in today’s Egyptian society.Drawing on many years of fieldwork accompanied and preceded by periods the author spent as a student and a lay servant in different forms of services in the Coptic Orthodox Church, the book acknowledges the recent anthropological work that is critical of how the secular West and its academia misrepresent God and His believers in the Middle East. However, the fact that this book extends its arguments from “ethnographic confessions” collected from who deal with God on a daily basis since their childhood, it investigates the implications and consequences of inviting God to be part of an anthropological study that complicates aspects of repentance and salvation among the largest Christian minority in the Middle East.

The monograph contributes to MENA studies, Middle Eastern history, nationalism, minority studies, late Ottoman studies, post-colonialism, national and transnationalism, and the history of epistemology.

How do spatial dynamics and narrated identities shape each other? How do the ongoing processes of inclusion and exclusion construct individual and group self-perceptions within the Kuwaiti and Jordanian societies?In this book, the author explores these questions through a spatial lens, examining the evolving narrated identities within Kuwait and Jordan. The monograph contributes to MENA studies, Middle Eastern history, nationalism, minority studies, late Ottoman studies, post-colonialism, national and transnationalism, and the history of epistemology.

This book asks how democratic values and civic culture can take shape without equal rights, and even without a state. Focusing on the Kurdish experience across Iraq, Iran, Syria, and Turkey, it draws on fieldwork, survey research, and historical analysis to explore how people respond to authoritarian rule and long-term statelessness. The first part offers a data-driven look at Kurdish attitudes toward democracy, autonomy, and authority. The second situates these patterns in a broader history of political resistance. Rather than turning to authoritarian or religious extremes, many Kurdish movements have embraced more egalitarian, inclusive models of resistance. The Kurdish Case for Democracy makes the case for bottom-up democratization in the Middle East and challenges the idea that universal values must follow Eurocentric templates. It contributes to wider debates on nationalism, resistance, and the political cultures shaping the region.

This book explores the ways in which democratizing Muslim countries treat their ethnic minorities’ requests of inclusiveness and autonomy.