Paolo Maggiolini

Sorto in maniera quasi inaspettata all'epilogo del primo conflitto mondiale sulla scorta della fase di ricomposizione dello spazio mediorientale post-ottomano, lo Stato (trans)giordano e la sua storia politico-istituzionale sono tra i temi meno di-battuti e analizzati dalla storiografia di area. Spesso compresso all'interno di letture alquanto rigide, il Regno hashemita è stato più frequentemente descritto alla luce delle capacità personali dei suoi monarchi, della loro legittimazione religiosa e del valore del suo ceto politico di riferimento. Ciononostante, la nascita e il consolida-mento dello Stato giordano raccontano di un ben più intricato confronto tra forze e interessi spesso contrastanti. Il volume si propone di decostruire queste " tradizionali " categorie con l'intento di offrire una lettura analitica del Paese dai primi del Novecento fino alle più recenti " rivolte arabe " sia alla luce della storia mediorientale sia dell'incessante dialettica tra il regime politico giordano e la sua società. Esso intende così tracciare un cammino lungo le molteplici frontiere, i confini e le sfere socio-politiche e spaziali che sono state create, delineate, compresse e finanche rifiutate nel corso della storia delle istituzioni e della politica regionale. Fin dalla fondazione dell'Emirato durante gli anni Venti, la Giordania è stata pienamente protagonista di questa complessa dinamica politica, esempio della capacità di fondare la propria longevità sulle debolezze endemiche e i punti di forza del contesto regionale, grazie anche al costante interesse da parte dei principali attori internazionali.

Beyond the conceptual barriers between religious minority and majority within the Near East, the historical events marking the experience of the Christian Arab tribes of Transjordan clarifies the meaning and scope of the modernization process that took place within this land during the 19th century. A fundamental legacy on which the Hashemite state was erected during the first half of the 20th century. The result of this process was the intertwine and overlap of tribal culture and religious community, a dynamic triggered by different socio-political actors such as Ottoman officials, Christian missionaries and merchants from Syria and Palestine. Nonetheless, modernity was not only the result of an imposition from outside and from above, but was produced by a constant dialectical relationship of cooperation, mediation and reaction between natives and the external actors who began operating within Transjordan from the mid-19th century. Accordingly, analyzing the development of the institution of the religious community within Transjordan addresses the issue of transition “from the tribe to the religious community” within the broader dynamic “from the tribes to the state”, providing a non-culturalist explanation of how tribalism was able to reproduce its logics within the Ottoman political field during the mid-19th century and then within the Hashemite state during the early decades of the 20th century.
The prologue “Arab Christians and Arab Muslims in the history of Transjordan” details the longue durée historical presence of Arab Christians within Transjordan and their socio-political relationship with Arab Muslims through the centuries. The paragraph “The legal relationship between Arab Christians and Arab Muslims in the history of Transjordan” reconsiders the legal and administrative aspects of the cohabitation between Muslims and Christians. The analyzes points out the original bond between Christianity and tribalism within the land of Transjordan. Before Islam, tribalism already represented the common cultural dimension of most of the inhabitants of this territory which distinguished them from the roman-byzantine citizens of Decapolis. Being tribes, allowed them to reach a mutual agreement with Muslim tribes outside religious matters. During the Abbasid Caliphate, the land of Transjordan experienced a period of economic crises. Most of the settlements disappeared and this territory became a land of tribes. Isolated and economically marginal, the land of Transjordan gave birth to semi-autonomous local tribal systems. Accordingly, the traditional legal institute of dhimma was not imposed within this isolated land. Tribal custom – ‘urf – was predominant, a shared cultural system of values which favoured the emersion of mixed tribal socio-political allies where both Muslim and Christian Arab tribes cooperated or clashed outside their specific religious affiliations.
The first chapter “Transjordan at the time of the sheikh” details the salient aspects of the tribal culture within Transjordan at the beginning of the 19th century. Ottoman administrative divisions and local tribal systems and allies are analyzed. The chapter describes the significant aspects of the Tanzimat Reforms within the territory. Moreover, the revival of the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem, the foundation of Protestant missionary activities within the Holy Land and the condition of the Greek-Orthodox Patriarchate are reconsidered in order to give an insight into the socio-political and cultural aspects which characterized some of the actors of the development that took roots within Transjordan during the second half of the 19th century. Finally, the chapter analyses the imposition of the Ottoman direct authority within Transjordanian districts. The role of external socio-political actors, such as missionaries, merchants and Ottoman officials, are detailed as that of the local Muslim and Christians tribes. The development process of the mid-19th century was not only triggered from above, thanks to non-Transjordanian actors, but it was also influenced by local tribes which opposing or participating to this period of change introduced their logics within a new socio-political field. 
The second and the third chapters “Tribes and Christian missionaries within the Ottoman Transjordan” and “The end of an era. Christian missions and the tribes of Transjordan during the First World War” detail the most important aspects of the encounter between missionaries and local Christian tribes through a micro-historical analysis of the Transjordanian districts from the mid-19th century till the out-break of the First World War. The chapters analyze different stages of transition in which the local socio-political spaces were reconfigured according to logics of power “old” and “new”. From one side, the missionaries developed and spread the institution of the religious community, founding missionary establishments where they offered health care and educational services. From the other, the local tribes that opposed or hosted them in order to influence and headed their activities. The overlapping and intertwining process describes this encounter, a dialectical relationship that involved local population, Christian missionaries and Ottoman officials.
Finally, the forth chapter “The Great War of 1914-1918. Transjordan at the dawn of the Hashemite Emirate” analyses post-war period during which Transjordan became part of the Kingdom of Syria under Emir Faysal. The chapter concludes with the Ma‘an’s meeting when Emir ‘Abdallah entered within the land of Transjordan, sanctioning the beginning of a transition period from which would emerge the Hashemite Emirate of Transjordan. The fall of the Ottoman Empire favoured the re-emersion of past tribal systems. Local tribes re-conquered their military power and begun to re-impose autonomously their authority. Nonetheless, during this period local tribal systems showed to have been deeply affected by the previous decades of change under the direct authority of Istanbul. Tribalism returned to be politically dominant, notwithstanding, tribes displayed to be perfectly aware about the new political conditions within Near East. The fall of Damascus brought the end of this experience. Great Britain gained the right to mange the territory. London tried to administrate indirectly Transjordan. Autonomous local government were recognized within the past Ottoman districts. The failure of this system and the arrival of Emir ‘Abdallah opened Transjordan to a new political phase, the state building process of the Hashemite Emirate of Transjordan. The overlapping process started again and a new dialectical confrontation began between the local population, British officials and the Hashemite entourage. This chapter concludes pointing out the most important results of the overlapping and intertwining process of the 19th and 20th century. The socio-political role of Christian religious minority within the land of Transjordan from the Ottoman state to the Hashemite Emirate is analyzed.
The book adopts an historical approach using archival documents and memories of some relevant Transjordanians collected during field work carried out in Jordan between 2008 and 2009.

L’introduction du principe moderne de reconnaissance et de protection des minorités dans l’émirat de Transjordanie est étroitement liée aux conditions dans lesquelles l’État hachémite a été fondé au lendemain de la Première Guerre mondiale, et se comprend en fonction des exigences politiques spécifiques de la puissance mandataire britannique et du système de pouvoir de l’émir Abdallah après son installation sur cette terre dans les années 1920. En ce sens, le cas transjordanien confirme la nécessité de reconsidérer le concept de minorité et son application contemporaine dans la perspective ouverte par les études sur l’État moderne comme phénomène politique et culturel. Il nous paraît souhaitable de souligner la modernité qui s’attache au fait de prendre sa mesure, d’en reconnaître la diversité ou de lui accorder un statut spécifique dans le cadre de la «nation» et de l’«État», en la percevant comme politiquement significative et en lui attribuant des conséquences juridico-institutionnelles en matière de représentation et de citoyenneté. À la différence des autres pays du Proche-Orient, le thème de la «minorité» n’a jamais suscité de confrontations sectaires en Transjordanie ni clairement constitué l’instrument d’une politique consistant à diviser pour mieux régner. D’une part, le législateur britannique et le régime hachémite ont manifesté leur volonté d’intégrer autant que possible les divers sujets résidant dans le pays, avec l’intention de donner stabilité et légitimité à un système étatique déjà perçu dans l’après-guerre comme l’un des plus «artificiels» de la région. De l’autre, le territoire transjor- danien s’est avéré beaucoup plus homogène du point de vue ethnico- religieux que ses voisins. La composition démographique était simple et connue de tous, l’arabité et le tribalisme demeurant clairement dominants. Sous l’angle interconfessionnel, on constatait l’indiscutable supériorité des sunnites malgré la présence de chrétiens qui partageaient du reste la même identité tribale que les sunnites. Enfin on y trouvait des composantes ethniques non-arabes récemment installées et peu nombreuses. Ces communautés de réfugiés ne présentaient jamais de demandes politiques précises tendant à la reconnaissance de leur spécificité culturelle et ethno- linguistique, et n’entraient pas en conflit avec le pouvoir central. Cette contribution se propose d’examiner le processus par lequel s’est constituée la notion de «minorité» en Transjordanie à propos des chrétiens en général et des catholiques en particulier, tout en formulant quelques observations sur les protestants et les Grecs orthodoxes pour mieux centrer l’analyse.

Survey data from the ArabTrans 2014 survey contains a unique battery of questions pertaining to the perception of the European Union. This report builds on those questions to analyse perceptions of the EU, its development cooperation programmes, its promotion of democracy, the appropriateness of its response to the Arab Uprisings, and the perception of the EU as an international actor. Overall, the data suggests low levels of awareness and relatively negative opinions of the EU’s actions both in general and in the specific context of its response to the Arab Uprisings. However, respondents’ preferences also suggest avenues for policy development for the Union such that it might simultaneously achieve its interests and meet the demands of MENA populations. Throughout, the paper also takes note of specific patterns and conditions found in individual countries which present particular challenges for the EU.

Andrea Plebani e Paolo Maggiolini affrontano nel secondo capitolo il tema del rapporto tra IS, nemico e comunicazione. Appare evidente come IS sia riuscito a far risuonare prepotentemente il suo messaggio proprio attraverso l’abile rappresentazione del nemico, della sua umiliazione, uccisione e sconfitta. IS ha dimostrato di saper utilizzare i tempi e gli strumenti della comunicazione contemporanea sincronizzando le sue attività in una dimensione locale, regionale e internazionale. Il nemico e la sua manipolazione divengono lo strumento di quest’operazione nella prospettiva di una continua campagna di reclutamento e per la diffusione del terrore a tutti i livelli.

This chapter provides an analytical path through two different periods in the history of the Hashemite state focusing on the following, interconnected, spheres: the intra/inter- denominational dimension, local politics and the state-church relationship. This systematisation allows the chapter to analyse Christians in the Emirate, contextualising their history within the broader development of the state-building process in Transjordan as well as pointing out ruptures and transitions in their conditions and roles. For each sphere, the chapter analyses, first, the 1920s as the decade during which the minority configurations were gradually introduced. At that time, local politics were still essentially dominated by traditional tribal logics and balances of powers. Yet, at the state level, Christians had begun to be accommodated according to the category of religious minority. During these years, church institutions were still recovering from the damages of war. They were strongly affected by local political conditions, but they had also begun to establish an acquaintance and dialogue with the new sources of authority and power in the country. In this framework, the chapter reconsiders the impact of the Organic Law (April 1928) as the turning point in their history.
Second, the chapter looks at the 1930s. It was during these years that the principles enunciated in the Organic Law found their concrete execution thanks to specific regulations; especially those pertaining to religious councils of non-Muslim communities, private schools and representation in the Municipal Councils. In both the interwar decades, the paper analyses both the British-Hashemite act of categorising and accommodating religious diversity as well as local Christians’ and ecclesiastical institutions’ reactions to this operation. The Hashemite act of categorisation and minoritisation imposed precise and functional institutional boundaries to the Christian presence. These boundaries have provided a protecting legal stopgap; granting them security and access to the state and the public dimension. At the same time, they have also gradually circumscribed their room for manoeuvre. As legacies of the British Mandate period, minoritisation and confessionalisation have proved to be far more than simply colonial aftereffects. Rather, they have positioned Christians’ presence as a potential resource in the pocket of the Hashemite political field.

The paper reconsiders the Latin Patriarchate’s efforts to develop and defend the Catholic community’s interest in Palestine according to the notion of cultural diplomacy and cultural outreach. These perspectives are employed as an analytical tool for reconsidering the Latin Patriarchate’s project for devising specific instruments and strategies especially after the 1929 riots in Palestine. The paper focuses on an initiative dedicated to establishing a solid relationship of cooperation between local and international Catholic dimensions through the dissemination of ad hoc content in newspapers and thematic conferences, with the aim of supporting the Latin Patriarchate’s commitment to promote and defend the Catholic community’s presence in Palestine. The paper develops its analysis according to two precise perspectives. On the one hand, it looks at the Latin Patriarch’s efforts in promoting the defence of Catholic interests in Palestine through cultural outreach to a Western Catholic audience. On the other, it focuses on the role of the Latin Patriarchate in this field as the manifestation of its aim to adapt to and influence the changing political conditions and balances of power in the Mandate.
With this in mind, the paper analyses an absolutely unique initiative promoted by Latin Patriarch Luigi Barlassina in 1930: the foundation of the International Centre for the Protection of Catholic Interests in Palestine, officially established in 1933 in Brussels but with its central or operative “office” located in Jerusalem under the direct control of the Patriarch. Although it existed for only a few years, being active from 1933 till 1935 (or most probably concluding its work in 1937, the year of the last communication on this topic preserved in the local archives of the Patriarchate) this project won interest in Rome and was considered by the Pope, the Vatican’s Secretary of State and that of the Congregation for Extraordinary Ecclesiastical Affairs to be a useful tool for campaigning for the interests of Catholicism in Palestine. The Centre was conceived as an instrument of dissemination, for fostering awareness, mobilization and pressure, but also as a resource for the exchange of ideas in a time of profound reconfiguration of the balances of power in the Mandate. In this regard, it was a unique and peculiar initiative to promote the interests of the local Catholic Church of Palestine. At the same time, the Centre remained nothing more than an experiment. In fact, it immediately suffered from clear shortcomings. This initiative was essentially a top-down measure elaborated by Barlassina. It did not involve local Arab Catholics. It substantially upheld a very narrow interpretation of what should have been considered the Catholic interests in Palestine. Finally, it was organized according to complex and intricate procedures that limited its capacity of outreach and dissemination.

Reconsidering the relationship between the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem and the Melkite Catholic Church, the paper aims to analyze the changes and developments of the Catholic Church’s presence in post-World War I Palestine and Transjordan. It specifically examines how the dialectic and debate on the issue of Arabization and Latin-Melkite competition during the Mandate period went beyond the traditional inter-Church rivalry, epitomizing the progression of a complex process of reconfiguring the Catholic ecclesiastical and missionary presence in the Holy Land in efforts to amal- gamate and harmonize its “national-local” and “transnational” scopes and characters. The paper will specifically look at the local Catholic dimension and its religious hier- archies to understand the logic behind their positioning in regard to such issues. This perspective makes it possible to reveal how local religious Catholic leaderships (of both the Latin Patriarchate and Melkite Catholic Church) sought to interpret and promote the reconfiguration of their respective Church and religious community organizations and structures in these two lands during the Mandate. The intra-Catholic perspective will help us understand how intra-denominational as well as inter-denominational competition acted as tools for missionary, ecclesiastical and community development as well as a catalyst of change, anticipating most of the issues that still characterize the complex position and condition of the Church in this territory.

L’introduction du principe moderne de reconnaissance et de protection des minorités dans l’émirat de Transjordanie est étroitement liée aux conditions dans lesquelles l’État hachémite a été fondé au lendemain de la Première Guerre mondiale, et se comprend en fonction des exigences politiques spécifiques de la puissance mandataire britannique et du système de pouvoir de l’émir Abdallah après son installation sur cette terre dans les années 1920. En ce sens, le cas transjordanien confirme la nécessité de reconsidérer le concept de minorité et son application contemporaine dans la perspective ouverte par les études sur l’État moderne comme phénomène politique et culturel. Il nous paraît souhaitable de souligner la modernité qui s’attache au fait de prendre sa mesure, d’en reconnaître la diversité ou de lui accorder un statut spécifique dans le cadre de la «nation» et de l’«État», en la percevant comme politiquement significative et en lui attribuant des conséquences juridico-institutionnelles en matière de représentation et de citoyenneté.
À la différence des autres pays du Proche-Orient, le thème de la «minorité» n’a jamais suscité de confrontations sectaires en Transjordanie ni clairement constitué l’instrument d’une politique consistant à diviser pour mieux régner. D’une part, le législateur britannique et le régime hachémite ont manifesté leur volonté d’intégrer autant que possible les divers sujets résidant dans le pays, avec l’intention de donner stabilité et légitimité à un système étatique déjà perçu dans l’après-guerre comme l’un des plus «artificiels» de la région. De l’autre, le territoire transjor- danien s’est avéré beaucoup plus homogène du point de vue ethnico- religieux que ses voisins. La composition démographique était simple et connue de tous, l’arabité et le tribalisme demeurant clairement dominants. Sous l’angle interconfessionnel, on constatait l’indiscutable supériorité des sunnites malgré la présence de chrétiens qui partageaient du reste la même identité tribale que les sunnites. Enfin on y trouvait des composantes ethniques non-arabes récemment installées et peu nombreuses. Ces communautés de réfugiés ne présentaient jamais de demandes politiques précises tendant à la reconnaissance de leur spécificité culturelle et ethno- linguistique, et n’entraient pas en conflit avec le pouvoir central. Cette contribution se propose d’examiner le processus par lequel s’est constituée la notion de «minorité» en Transjordanie à propos des chrétiens en général et des catholiques en particulier, tout en formulant quelques observations sur les protestants et les Grecs orthodoxes pour mieux centrer l’analyse.

The purpose of this essay is neither to suggest that the present crisis could be reduced to a simple list of various minority issues nor to critique the idea of minority per se. Similarly, although inevitably centred on the collective and community levels, the study does not intend to underrate the tension existing between individual and group dimensions and the importance of assessing such dynamics in order to fully appreciate the significance of current minority issues. Quite the contrary: since the future stability of the MENA region will inevitably be based on new understandings of most of the concepts bound to this political grammar of diversity and demography, it seems necessary to proceed in efforts to research its historical and conceptual roots as well as its normative implications and institutional adaptations in the attempt to explain why the idea of minority, both as a concept and institution, has become so pivotal again in today’s regional and international politics.

During the first Intifada (1987-1993) the established Churches in Jerusalem set aside their traditional divisions and rivalries in a series of joint initiatives on behalf of justice, peace and human rights. They also publicly testified to the development of a committed attempt to reconfigure the relationship between religion, nation and territory within the local Christian dimension of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. This was an effort to reinvigorate and strengthen Palestinian Christian self-perception and identity from both the political and religious perspectives. These unprecedented ecumenical actions brought the Christian Churches of the Holy Land from the margins of society into public life. However, this historical development was not simply a reaction or an adaptation to a political dynamic that was mobilizing a large part of the Palestinian people. It was, first of all, the result of a process that began in the 1967 post-war era thanks to the clergy's increasing engagement in social and political issues and growing coordination amongst the local hierarchies with regard to Israeli policies and theinternal demographical balance, as well as the future status of the Old City of Jerusalem.

During the 1980s, the appointments of Bishop Samir Kafity (Anglican) in 1984, of Archbishop, and Patriarchal Vicar in Jerusalem, Lutfi Laham (Greek Catholic) in 1981 and of Latin Patriarch Michel Sabbah in 1987 (the first Arab and Palestinian Patriarch in the history of the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem), along with the formulation of a 'Palestinian theology of liberation' led by Naim Ateek and the work of the al-Liqa' center and Sabeel Ecumenical Liberation Theology Centre, had strong effects on local established churches and their communities. These factors favoured a search for new understandings of the role of Palestinian Christians through an innovative exegetical interpretation of the Holy Scriptures in relation to the on-going political dynamics within both Israel and Palestine. The need, first, to ponder and engage with the significance of the Intifada and then the chance Oslo offered with the foundation of the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) and the Israeli-Palestinian peace process (which, a few years later, suffered a tragic setback with the eruption of the second Intifada) made these theological, exegetical, ecclesiastical and, therefore, religious dynamics closely related to the on-going political process.

Today, the entropic spread of violence within the region has again turned the spotlight on the condition of non-Muslims within the Middle East. In particular, the ongoing conflicts in Iraq and Syria – where the self-proclaimed Islamic State (IS) sensationalises suffering and spurs hundreds of thousands of people to flee – multiply concerns. However, the imperilling of non-Muslims is only a symptom of the deeper crisis involving the populations of the whole Middle East and not just a new instance of what is erroneously considered the inescapable confrontation between Islam and Christianity. In fact, that which is striking is not merely the magnitude of this crisis, but the complexity of the ongoing conflict where local, regional and international interests deeply intertwine, resulting in a vicious circle of violence and confrontation without any foreseeable end. In this framework there is an increasing temptation to promote ethnicity and religious factors as the only lens through which to explain this enduring fragmentation. These factors, however, are not the real drivers of the conflict: instead it is their exploitation which feeds the ongoing struggle.

Il ğihād militare o armato (ğihād al-askarī o meglio ğihād secondo l'accezione di guerra, combattimento o scontro fisico, che invece è più propriamente del termine arabo qitāl) e i suoi fautori rappresentano senza dubbio tra gli argomenti più trasversalmente analizzati e dibattuti del nostro tempo. Le ragioni di tale interesse sono molteplici, nonostante sia evidente come l'uso strategico della violenza e della comunicazione abbiano significativamente contribuito ad amplificarne fama e attenzione. Diffuso inizialmente nell'ambito delle ricerche di area, il tema incomincia a interessare platee più ampie durante gli anni Settanta, entrando a far parte dell'immaginario generale in seguito alla guerra in Afghanistan contro la presenza sovietica (1979-1989). È però solo a partire dagli anni Novanta e ancor di più dopo gli attacchi alle Torri Gemelle che il crescente attivismo di gruppi terroristici come al-Qāʿida (la Base) ha fatto sì che questa tematica si inserisse stabilmente nel dibattito pubblico a livello globale. Da questo momento tale argomento si salda quasi indissolubilmente con l'orizzonte della minaccia terroristica rappresentata da quel fenomeno che oggi chiamiamo jihadismo. Il contributo si propone di ripensare agli attuali paradigmi di ğihād armato e jihadismo concentrandosi sul significato che questi termini hanno assunto nella contemporaneità. Di fronte alla vastità del tema e ai molteplici livelli comparativi che si potrebbero stabilire, il presente studio si articola secondo un preciso percorso analitico. In una prima parte si avanzano alcune osservazioni generali sul tema del ğihād armato e del jihadismo nella contemporaneità all'interno della sfera sunnita. Si ritiene, quindi, che abbia senso approcciare lo studio dell'attivismo radicale militante di matrice islamica attraverso l'utilizzo di entrambe queste categorie, proponendo tipologie autonome seppur intrinsecamente collegate. Come emerge nel corso del presente volume il ğihād armato si è tradotto in molteplici esperienze e pratiche nel corso dei secoli, pur mantenendo un'apparente coerenza. Ciò è ancor più evidente guardando alle iniziative contemporanee che lo invocano e lo praticano. In tal senso, la categoria «jihadismo» non deve essere intesa come un semplice sinonimo di ğihād armato, bensì essa rappresenta una 'classificazione' autonoma che raggruppa organizzazioni con proprie caratteristiche e specificità tanto nella postura che assumono nei confronti di quelli che ritengono essere i loro nemici quanto nell'atteggiamento e nelle logiche che adottano nel relazionarsi con la sfera musulmana. Il jihadismo quindi si sviluppa parallelamente ad altre iniziative militanti nel comune solco del ğihād armato o dell'arte della guerra di matrice islamica. È così che l'orizzonte del discorso sul e del ğihād bellico nella contemporaneità si complica e frammenta, spesso confondendo e disorientando. Al fine di mettere in luce le connessioni e le differenze tra questi due orizzonti, nella seconda parte di questo studio si realizza una breve ricognizione dei principali approcci e delle classificazioni fornite per stabilire l'origine e la traiettoria di evoluzione del termine jihadismo. Al di fuori del suo valore eminentemente epistemico, questa rapida indagine si propone di rispondere all'ideale domanda di come possa essere pensata e decostruita la storia del jihadismo contemporaneo, o almeno come è stata sostanzialmente proposta fino ad oggi da alcuni dei suoi principali studiosi. Nel fare ciò, si delinea in essenza una possibile descrizione dei suoi contenuti e significati.

The paper aims to offer a wide and dynamic overview of the development of the Melkite Catholic Church during the late Ottoman Empire up to extension of the Mandate system. The analysis will focus on detailing the relationship between ‘tradition’ and ‘modernity’ through specific cases and examples of the relations between the Melkite Church and the Holy See. This dynamic exerted a great influence on the ecclesial identity of the Melkite Catholic Church and its position and role within both the late Ottoman Empire and the Middle East of the Mandate system, offering a complementary explanation of the vicissitudes experienced by Ottoman Arab Christians during those decades. The paper analyses this issue through the archival documents, part of the Siria, Greci Melchiti and Melkiti series, preserved in the Congregations de propaganda fide and pro Ecclesia Orientali Archives.

This study aims at reconsidering the current position of Christian Churches and Arab Christians in Jordan, by analyzing the specific issues of ecclesiastic identity, citizenship and political roles while contextualizing this study within the broader Jordanian state and “nation” building process of the 20th century. The objective of this study is to offer an analytical overview of these recent historical vicissitudes, by identifying the developments and changes experienced by Christian Churches and Arab Christians as an integral part of contemporary Jordanian history. This inevita- bly entails the analysis of the community dimension and how it has been structured and integrated within the Hashemite state system. The overall aim of this paper is to highlight possible new paths of analysis regarding the Christian presence as part of the history of the Hashemite state.

The paper aims to analyze the development of the Melkite presence within the territory of the Hashemite Emirate of Transjordan between the two World Wars. Encompassing the religious meaning of this dynamic, studying the development of Melkite missionary institutions helps to point out important aspects of how the Hashemite Emirate’s state-building process affected the ecclesial development of Christian Church institutions within Transjordan. The project of creating a new Melkite diocese or a vicariate in Transjordan represented an important event in the history of the Melkite Church within the Near East, describing the interaction and confrontation between the Holy See and the Melkite Church regarding the reconfiguration and development of the regional Melkite ecclesial organization according to the new socio-political balances of power, modern state boundaries and the Holy See’s hierarchical system.

The paper aims to reconsider the development of decentralization/centralization dynamics during the Ottoman Empire, focusing on the Ottoman-Montenegrin borderlands of Northern Albania with particular reference to the Mirdite territory inhabited by Catholic tribes. First, the paper describes the local socio-political system and balance of power in Mirdite territory before the enactment of the Gulhane decree. Secondly, the paper focuses on the developments and changes occurring in this land during the Tanzimat. Interaction, intertwining and overlapping between different strategies and policies are analyzed in regard to the relationship between Catholic tribes, missionaries and Ottoman officials. Because of them, the changes and developments in the local administrative system occurring in both the religious and the political dimensions during the last part of the 19th century were expressions of the process of decentralization/centralization triggered by Istanbul from the third decade of the 19th century on.

Rich in historical details and artistic illustrations of the Near East and the Holy Land, the selected accounts of journeys and pilgrimages written by European and American Christians (Catholic and Protestant) provide numerous and broad sets of views, landscapes, sketches and scenarios. This article analyses them in order to define and point out the structure and the ratio of organizing and cataloguing these “epic” stories, and their relationship and connection with the socio-political dimension of the time. In particular, this article analyses the concept and the image produced by Christian missionaries and travelers of various affiliations, thus identifying similarities and differences between their visions of the Holy Land and pointing out to what extent they contributed to the creation of an univocal “Christian” image of the Holy Land during the 19th century and/or there were perceptible and significant divergences.

The aim of this article is to analyze the development of the relationship between the Melkite and the Latin Patriarchates within the Holy Land between the second half of the 19th century and the third decade of the XX century as a part of a wider dynamic of confrontation and interaction between the West and the East. The purpose is to underline the consequences of Latin-Melkite relations in the land of Transjordan with regard to the development and stratification processes in local society during the Tanzimat era and the first decades of the Hashemite Emirate of Transjordan. The rebirth of the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem (1847) and enactment of the encyclical In Suprema Petri by Pius IX (1848) gave new strength to the Uniate programme, opening another phase in the ecumenical dialogue between the Vatican and Eastern rite churches. Uniatism implied two different issues. On the one hand, it characterized official relations between the Vatican and the Apostolic See of the East. On the other, regarding the territories of Palestine and Transjordan, it influenced the rebirth of the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem, inspiring the Latin missionary programme within these lands that triggered a reaction from the Melkite Church, which considered Uniatism a form of Latinization and not ecumenism.

Between 1829 and 1830 the official recognition of the Armenian Orthodox and Catholic Churches as separate denominations drastically changed the traditional relationship between ecclesial and temporal powers, triggering a controversial development in the ecclesial identity of the Eastern Churches within the Empire and the socio-political condition of Christian Ottoman subjects. This dynamic involved two different issues. First, the Armenian Catholic Church legally had the chance to reunite ecclesial and civil power under a single authority, an important proof of its socio-political emancipation within the Ottoman system. Second, recognition of an Armenian Bishop as Bishop to all Catholic subjects and attribution of the title of “Civil patriarch” to this prerogative legally established that Melkites, Maronites, Syriacs and Chaldeans would be placed under his authority. Accordingly, for the first time in the history of Catholicism in the Ottoman Empire, the Sacred Congregation de propaganda fide was obliged to deliberate the possibility of reuniting all Catholic Ottoman subjects under a single civil authority.

The aim of this paper is to analyze the development of Catholic and Protestant missionary establishments within Transjordan during the mid-19th century, with particular reference to the district of Karak. The purpose is to reconsider the role of Western missionaries and through their accounts evaluate local Christian Arab culture during its meeting with these foreign actors. The paper specifically examines the experiences of the first Western missionaries that entered Karak during the mid-19th century: Catholic Father Maccagno and the Protestants affiliated with the Wesleyan Methodists, the Lethabys and Forders.
Firstly, the paper describes the development of missionary establishments within Transjordan, explaining their functioning and role. Secondly, the paper analyses the peculiarities of the Catholic and Protestant establishments within the town of Karak, pointing out their different strategies of evangelisation and cultural values. Finally, the consequences of the meeting between them and the local tribes are analysed from the perspective of the mission as a “learning process” in which people acquire knowledge of each other. The resulting partial image of this land and of its people is the product of the intertwining between personal, spiritual and cultural dimensions, which gives a clear description of a socio-political system and the role of the Christian Arabs in that particular environment.

The paper aims to reconsider the 19th century history of Transjordan, with particular reference to the condition of the local Christian minority.
Firstly, the paper briefly describes the main aspects of the Transjordanian socio-political field at the beginning of the 19th century.
Secondly, the paper reconsiders the course of the process of modernization that took root during the second part of the 19th century, and it explains how the overlapping process between different cultural logics worked. The socio-political development of Transjordan is not only a direct consequence of foreign activities, but also the result of the effective overlap between these elements – modern - with the particular tribal political and social cultural structure of Transjordan – pre-modern. The paper points out the development of the Christian religious communities within Transjordanian society under the auspices of Western missionaries and the reactions of the local population to their activities. The religious communities represented a bridge favouring the transition from the tribal dimension to the state, both at the time of the Ottomans and of the Emirate.
Finally, the paper evaluates the most important consequences produced by the overlapping process on the local socio-political field before the fall of the Ottoman Empire on which the Hashemite Emirate of Transjordan was later founded.

The article aims to reconsider the history of Ottoman Transjordan during the second half of the nineteenth century. Istanbul's decision to impose its direct control over this province triggered a process of evolution and change within local political spaces. The traditional balance of power was altered and tribes were forced to accept the authority of the Ottoman Empire. States and tribes were not the only political actors. Christian religious institutions also participated in the dynamics of change. The article reconsiders the history of a Christian village of Transjordan, Madaba, to describe the complex relationship between tribes and Christian religious communities during this period of change and evolution. The section Karak highlights the main aspects that characterized the refoundation of Madaba. In the section The Exodus and the Rebirth of Madaba, the exodus of several Christian tribes from Karak to Madaba is analyzed to explain the overlap and intertwinement between the different cultural horizons and sociopolitical logics of the two actors. The section The Village of Madaba analyzes some episodes of daily life in Madaba to detail the consequences of the interaction between tribes and religious communities. Finally, the functioning of the local sociopolitical space on which the Hashemite emirate was later founded is explained. The religious community-tribe dyad was, in fact, part of the transition from “the tribe to the state.”

The revival of the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem (1847) under the auspices of Uniatism represented another dimension of the meeting between the West and the East that encompassed the specific religious meaning of the enterprise. In 1872, the first pastoral visit that Mgr. Valerga paid to his diocese between Palestine and Transjordan represented the complexity of this encounter quite well. Besides the spiritual and religious significance of the journey, Mgr. Valerga’s tour of the Holy Land gave him the chance to get acquainted with this land and its inhabitants, bringing back to Jerusalem and to the West the results of this experience: studies and memorabilia. Firstly, the essay analyzes the socio-political and cultural implications of the revival of the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem within the Holy Land. Aiming at permanently reunifying the East and the West, the initial interpretation of the revival project involved cultural acquaintance with this land to bridge the gap between different times and spaces in order to anchor this “new” institution within the Holy Land. The interactions between memory, historical past and imagined future are analyzed. Secondly, the essay reconsiders Mgr. Valerga’s journey and his narration under the perspectives of “narrative as form of power”, focusing on the relation between Mgr Valerga, his biographer and their audience. Finally, the essay reconsiders the consequences of creating a specific image of the Holy Land deeply rooted in its Biblical and pre-modern past, a land to be saved and revived.

This article aims to analyse the modern image of the Holy Land as it emerges from the accounts of several missionaries who visited this territory during the 19th century. The article will specifically examine the biography of William Lethaby (1910), who, with his wife, was affiliated with The Wesleyan Methodists, and the manuscripts of Father Jaussen (1908, 1927), a Catholic missionary from France. The experiences of these people, crystallised in the historical texts that portray their lives, tell us about the encounter between two different cultural worlds. The missionaries or travellers immersed themselves in the local field, took possession of it and rebuilt it according to their personal cultural sensibility, making it accessible to a wider Western audience. Thanks to this very act of force based on the written word, they reconstructed the image of the Holy Land, of its heart, Jerusalem, of its inhabitants and of the rights of the three monotheistic religions. They rewrote the local history and suggested the future of this land. The Holy Land and Jerusalem do not exist per se, but they are constructed according to the personal perception of these people through the conviction of their moral and cultural superiority. Firstly, regarding the view of the Holy Land by Orientalists, the analysis of these sources gives an insight into the historical meaning and scope of the cultural acquisition process of the Holy Land and Jerusalem by the West. Secondly, the study of these sources helps to reconfigure some modernist interpretations of the socio-political evolution of this land. Finally, understanding the dynamics behind this encounter between different cultural perspectives explains the complexity of the consequences of Western activities within the Holy Land and Jerusalem, which gave rise to a specific image of this land that is still employed to describe and communicate it.

The aim of this paper is to analyze the course of state building during the Mandate period as a dynamic process which gave rise to a new socio-political field, both modern and traditional at the same time: the Hashemite state of Transjordan (1923). The state-building process was not only a direct consequence of the interaction between Hashemite and British interests in the Near East, but rather the result of the interaction and effective overlap of these elements with the particular socio-political tribal system of Transjordan. Firstly, the paper will describe the local socio-political structure of Transjordan during the 19th century. It was during that period that the process of intertwining and overlapping between the logic of the ‘tribe’ and that of the ‘state’ began. Secondly, the paper describes the particular administrative structure of the Hashemite Emirate of Transjordan, which was based on a division between tribal administration and modern European administration. Thirdly, the paper describes how British colonial policies worked with the Hashemite method of rule and how the Muslim and Christians tribes of Transjordan reacted, raising the first political national movement and signing the National Pact (1929-1936). Finally, the paper describes the achievements of the British-Hashemite and National Pact.

Marco Demichelis, Research Fellow in History of Middle East and Islamic Studies within the Department of Religious Studies at the Catholic University of Milan, and Paolo Maggiolini, Teaching Assistant the Catholic University, Department of Political Studies, are assembling an Edited Volume on the relation between religion and nationalism within the wider context of the so-called “Islamic World” and along the wide time frame that goes from the first half of the 20th century until the most recent events of the Arab Spring.

The choice to embrace a wide span of time is considered necessary to overcome contingencies and grasp the essence of this relationship, stressing the incremental and progressive trend in development of the phenomena of the ‘nationalization’ of religion and ‘religious nationalism’. Similarly, the decision to deal with cases in North Africa, the Middle East, the Indian Subcontinent and Southeast Asia (frequently defined as the “Islamic World”) is considered necessary in order to point out analogies and differences in ways of articulating and developing such a relationship, overcoming essentialist approaches or views, setting the analysis within the field of world history through the analysis of specific and relevant case studies.
Although this relationship has been studied within the Western context (for example the Protestant Reformation’s contribution to the development of religious national identity), a comprehensive study along this path that focuses on the Islamic world, and its different ethnic, linguistic and religious components, has yet to be written and, therefore, this is the main object and topic of the book.

The book seeks to directly challenge these notions, investigating the blind spots in the contemporary relationship between religion and nationalism and more widely between politics and religion. Although without negating the intrinsic universalistic and supra-national frameworks of religion, the imposition of the logic of the modern nation-state triggered and still sustains the development of redefining and repositioning religious institutions and movements according this schema, giving birth to a process of “nationalizing” religion and/or of religious nationalism. At the same time, this could be the uneven result of the influence and impact of religion on the structuring of the ideal and concept of nation. This is the thesis that inspires the analyses and that the research seeks and aims to evaluate.

We are looking for chapters from across the disciplines, theoretical and empirical inputs, WHICH are particularly interested in contributes on specific countries within North Africa, Middle East and South East Asia.

The edited book will be divided in three main section: the first related to the Arab World (different case studies also concerning Arab Christians), the non Arab world of Middle East (INTRO + case studies on Iran, Turkey and Israel) and Islam in South East Asia (Intro + case studies on Indonesia, Bangladesh and Malay), there would be also an ending section on Global Jihad (the question is if it would be still global).

The famous and renowned Brill Publishing House (Leiden) has already manifested his interest in the call for articles proposal, suggesting us to submit the entire manuscript for the Series "Numen".  A second and final approval for publication may be reached by Brill, only after having read the final version of the entire manuscript.

With the hope to have instilled a certain interest, I thank you in advance for your attention and I invite you to submit a 300 words/abstract, an academic cv and a short biography (ten lines maximum) no later then the 15th of July 2014.