Deja vu: Medieval Motifs in Modern Arab Political Life

The article analyzes specific elements of the Arab societies’ political life which distinguish it from political relations in the Western nation-states. Admitting the existence of a large number of such kind of elements, the authors focus only on three of them which are related to the sources of pow...

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Autores principales:	V. V. Naumkin, V. A. Kuznetsov
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN RU
Publicado:	MGIMO University Press 2019
Materias:	arab world fityan militias sultan caliph armies medievalism civilizationalism International relations JZ2-6530
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/17b5a8d4c1e34cb481c95ddff3127551
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:17b5a8d4c1e34cb481c95ddff31275512021-11-23T14:50:41ZDeja vu: Medieval Motifs in Modern Arab Political Life2071-81602541-909910.24833/2071-8160-2019-4-67-38-53https://doaj.org/article/17b5a8d4c1e34cb481c95ddff31275512019-09-01T00:00:00Zhttps://www.vestnik.mgimo.ru/jour/article/view/995https://doaj.org/toc/2071-8160https://doaj.org/toc/2541-9099The article analyzes specific elements of the Arab societies’ political life which distinguish it from political relations in the Western nation-states. Admitting the existence of a large number of such kind of elements, the authors focus only on three of them which are related to the sources of power and its distribution. Emphasizing that these elements are deeply rooted into the Arab-Muslim political tradition, so that they have tended to be present throughout the whole Islamic period of the region, the authors find out that each of them has its own medieval countertype. Thus, the article addresses the dichotomy of the supreme power of caliphs and sultans, formed in the IX – XI centuries and manifested today both in Jihadist organizations (i.e. ISIS, Al-Qaeda) and in the political strategies of moderate Islamist movements, such as Tunisian party Al-Nahda. The second example is the urban militias, which are correlated with the medieval phenomenon of «young hero» or «chivalry» communities – fityan. The fityan communities have seven specific traits, which not only are characteristic of the militias, but also demonstrate fundamental difference between the militias and urban criminal groups. Major attention is paid to Libyan militias, which are studied on the materials of field research conducted by one of the authors. Finally, the third element discussed is the particular role of the army and other security forces in the Arab political systems.The authors provide three possible interpretations of all the revealed coincidences. According to the first one, they are presented as aberrations of the researcher’s scientific consciousness, which make them look for historical equivalents to contemporary issues. Second interpretation belongs to the tradition of «the new medievalism». According to it, the described phenomenon is in fact the revival of some medieval practices, caused by the end of the Modernity era. The last interpretation views the analyzed elements as distinctive civilization traits of the Arab world.V. V. NaumkinV. A. KuznetsovMGIMO University Pressarticlearab worldfityanmilitiassultancalipharmiesmedievalismcivilizationalismInternational relationsJZ2-6530ENRUVestnik MGIMO-Universiteta, Vol 12, Iss 4, Pp 38-53 (2019)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN RU
topic	arab world fityan militias sultan caliph armies medievalism civilizationalism International relations JZ2-6530
spellingShingle	arab world fityan militias sultan caliph armies medievalism civilizationalism International relations JZ2-6530 V. V. Naumkin V. A. Kuznetsov Deja vu: Medieval Motifs in Modern Arab Political Life
description	The article analyzes specific elements of the Arab societies’ political life which distinguish it from political relations in the Western nation-states. Admitting the existence of a large number of such kind of elements, the authors focus only on three of them which are related to the sources of power and its distribution. Emphasizing that these elements are deeply rooted into the Arab-Muslim political tradition, so that they have tended to be present throughout the whole Islamic period of the region, the authors find out that each of them has its own medieval countertype. Thus, the article addresses the dichotomy of the supreme power of caliphs and sultans, formed in the IX – XI centuries and manifested today both in Jihadist organizations (i.e. ISIS, Al-Qaeda) and in the political strategies of moderate Islamist movements, such as Tunisian party Al-Nahda. The second example is the urban militias, which are correlated with the medieval phenomenon of «young hero» or «chivalry» communities – fityan. The fityan communities have seven specific traits, which not only are characteristic of the militias, but also demonstrate fundamental difference between the militias and urban criminal groups. Major attention is paid to Libyan militias, which are studied on the materials of field research conducted by one of the authors. Finally, the third element discussed is the particular role of the army and other security forces in the Arab political systems.The authors provide three possible interpretations of all the revealed coincidences. According to the first one, they are presented as aberrations of the researcher’s scientific consciousness, which make them look for historical equivalents to contemporary issues. Second interpretation belongs to the tradition of «the new medievalism». According to it, the described phenomenon is in fact the revival of some medieval practices, caused by the end of the Modernity era. The last interpretation views the analyzed elements as distinctive civilization traits of the Arab world.
format	article
author	V. V. Naumkin V. A. Kuznetsov
author_facet	V. V. Naumkin V. A. Kuznetsov
author_sort	V. V. Naumkin
title	Deja vu: Medieval Motifs in Modern Arab Political Life
title_short	Deja vu: Medieval Motifs in Modern Arab Political Life
title_full	Deja vu: Medieval Motifs in Modern Arab Political Life
title_fullStr	Deja vu: Medieval Motifs in Modern Arab Political Life
title_full_unstemmed	Deja vu: Medieval Motifs in Modern Arab Political Life
title_sort	deja vu: medieval motifs in modern arab political life
publisher	MGIMO University Press
publishDate	2019
url	https://doaj.org/article/17b5a8d4c1e34cb481c95ddff3127551
work_keys_str_mv	AT vvnaumkin dejavumedievalmotifsinmodernarabpoliticallife AT vakuznetsov dejavumedievalmotifsinmodernarabpoliticallife
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Deja vu: Medieval Motifs in Modern Arab Political Life

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