A New Old Damascus: Authenticity and Distinction in Urban Syria

Notes

Notes Introduction 1. A strong local liquor distilled from grapes and flavored with anise. 2. I define elite groups, broadly, as those with control of or access to material and/or intellectual resources (Pina-Cabral 2000: 2). 3. The return to “tradition” is widespread in the Middle East. See, for example, Montigny (1998) on Qatar, Stokes (2000) on Istanbul, and Khalaf (2001) on Dubai. 4. For more on the importance of marriage ceremonies among the upper strata of Damascene society, see Tapper (1998/99). 5. All quotations, except where noted, are from fieldwork interviews and personal communication. The translations, except where noted, are my own. 6. For a detailed discussion of this problem, see Dresch 2000. 7. For example, Nabati poetry in the Gulf, and the use of colloquial dialogue in Egyptian fiction. 8. One asked how my advisor had approved my topic, lacking as it was in “deep structure”; another dismissed television as “mere diversion.” 9. Writing of an Andean community, Rudi Colloredo-Mansfield puts it succinctly: “In 1994, the most commonly used object in an Ariasucu home was a loom; the second most common thing was a television” (1999: xi). 10. Interviews were conducted primarily in Arabic, sometimes in English , and sometimes in a mixture of Arabic, English, and French. 11. For historical treatments of Damascene notables, see Schilcher 1985 and Khoury 1983. 12. For a concise treatment of >Alawi belief and religious hierarchy, see F. Khuri 1991. 13. Following the demise of the Ottoman Empire, the League of Nations granted France a mandate to govern Syria. French occupation forces ruled Syria from 1920 to 1946. 14. Rabo describes a similar tension between the native inhabitants of the northeastern Syrian town of Raqqa and the rural migrants who have politically and economically displaced them (1999). 15. See, for instance, Rabinovich 1972; Van Dusen 1972, 1975; Devlin 1976; Batatu 1978, 1981, 1999; Picard 1980; Drysdale 1981; Roberts 1987; Hinnebusch 1989, 1990, 1991; Sadowski 1988; Van Dam 1996. 16. Some analysts stress >Alawi domination. Batatu notes that all of Asad’s chief advisors and heads of the all-powerful security forces are not only >Alawi, but also members of the Asads’ tribal group, the al-Matawira (1981: 331–332). More recently, Wedeen argues that the Ba>th Party created a new political elite drawn “especially from the >Alawi sect” (1999: 8). AlKhalil sees “a combination of constrained universalism and sectarianism in practice” as the hallmark of Ba>th pan-Arabism (1989: 189). In contrast, Hinnebusch emphasizes the Ba>th Party’s popular base, demonstrating how it has mobilized a coalition of peasants, educated villagers, small rural landowners, urban lower middle classes, and trade unionists, expanding the regime’s initially narrow base to “outflank its rivals in the old urban center” (1991: 35). Likewise, Waldner stresses the salience of class over sect in the allocation of state resources (1999: 75). For Sadowski, a system of patronage in which all groups engage is the key mechanism of the Syrian polity (1988). 17. Lailat al-Qadr, the twenty-seventh of Ramadan, the night the Quriat Asdiqathist government. 7. Aleppines refer to an insincere invitation as an “>azimeh shamiyyeh,” a “Damascene invitation.” I am grateful to Jonathan Shannon for pointing this out. 4. Ramadan Lived and Consumed 1. Some non-Damascenes living in Damascus—including >Alawis—do in fact fast during Ramadan. Yet public displays of fast-related activities are generally associated with Damasceneness. 2. Literally “upside down,” a rich dish of layered lamb pieces, rice, fried eggplant, and nuts, which is turned out onto a plate after cooking and resembles a layer cake. 3. Vegetable availability in Syria remains seasonal. 4. An Arab lute. 5. A special prayer said during Ramadan, which involves the bending of the torso and then prostration (Yamani 1987: 89). 6. This was very much true in 1993, but by the end of the following year middle-class households were gaining access to satellite dishes. 7. For more on Shaykh al-Buti, see Christmann 1998, 2000. 8. The term musalsal (pl. musalsalat) is sometimes translated as “soap opera.” Yet musalsalat are closer to short dramatic miniseries like Roots or North and South than they are to the long-running daytime dramas of American television. The word musalsal literally means “chained” or “continuous .” I have rendered it as “series.” For material on Egyptian musalsalat, see Armbrust (1996) and L. Abu-Lughod (1993, 1995). 9. For a discussion of Hilmiyya Nights, see L. Abu-Lughod 1995. 10. This practice is mentioned...