Literature and Violence in North Arabia

Abstract

Preface Part I. The Epoch of Near-Eastern Pastoral Nomadism in Arabia: 1. The ethnography of Near-Eastern tribal societies 2. The personal voice and the uncertainty of relationships 3. The composition of the voice and the popular investment in political adventures Part II. The Narratives of Raiding and Warfare: 4. Cautious and sensible chiefs and the strategic use of aggressive resources 5. Political authority, the metaphor of scriptural signification and the metaphor of a domestic covering 6. Rwala monotheism and the wish for authority Part III. The Poems of Raiding and Warfare: 7. Heroic skills and beastly energies 8. Poetic structure and the pressure of heroic interests 9. Shadows and echoes of the priority of the concrete Part IV. Segmentary Politics and the Cult of Saints in North Africa: 10. The forms of segmentary politics and their relative absence among the North Arabian Bedouins 11. Political wildness and religious domesticity among the Cyrenaican Bedouins 12. Narratives of the mystical power of saints in Morocco Appendices Notes Bibliography Index.