In progress:
Go East, young man
By
Amina Elbendary
Mustafa El-Labbad, 37, is an independent researcher and editor-in-chief of Sharqnameh, a periodical concerned with Iran, Turkey and Central Asia and published by Dar Al- Mustaqbal Al-Arabi, Cairo. He earned his PhD in 1994 from Humboldt University, Berlin, where he also taught for several years. His dissertation, on the political economy of the greater Middle East, was published by Kovaè Publishers, Berlin, in 1995. El-Labbad is fluent in German, Farsi as well as Turkish. He is also economic editor at the Middle East News Agency (MENA) and a regular commentator on Turkish and Iranian affairs.
Right now I am busy putting the final touches on the next -- fourth -- volume of Sharqnameh. The name literally means the message of the East, and as its name implies it is concerned with our East: Iran, Turkey and Central Asia. In fact it is the only Arab journal concerned with this region as a coherent geographical and cultural area. Sharqnameh is better known outside Egypt even though it's in Arabic. I have a dream to publish it in both English and Arabic in the future. But we first have to surmount obstacles in publishing in the Arabic edition. Also most of the periodicals on the region that appear in Western languages tend to be very narrowly specialised: in ethnicity, for example, or conflict resolution and the like. None deals with the region comprehensively.
There are many ties that bind Egypt's identity to the East. Given the current global assault it is not enough to be simply anti-globalisation; because there are many benefits, in fact, to globalisation; it is not all evil, but we must also have an identity. And I believe the common grounds between Egypt and the Arab world on the one hand and Turkey, Iran and Central Asia on the other are stronger than is prevalent in media discourse or even in popular consciousness. For example, any [Egyptian] child today knows that Manhattan is in New York and so on, but most probably does not know Baku, or Bukhara or Samarqand or Ashqabad; won't know where to place them on a map. This is actually a big defect in Arab consciousness.
Also, the reference to the Sharq in the title is because the periodical does not have a religious content -- it is a secular periodical. At first glance, people might think that a periodical that combines Iran, Turkey and Central Asia will have a religious tone, but it's more about the cultural ties.
A typical issue is divided into a number of sections dealing with politics, geo-politics, culture, news and arts. So in previous issues we had articles on Turkish calligraphy, Iranian cinema, theatre and so on. The articles are not exactly news oriented in the superficial sense --we are not a newspaper -- and it aims not to be so dryly academic, either. The targeted readers are intellectuals who read in Arabic and are interested in this region. We also target the decision-makers because these are our geographical neighbours (Iran, Turkey), we don't choose our neighbours. Our relationship necessitates that we understand their discourse. In Egypt, we think of ourselves as a regional power, and these countries are rivals of sorts to us, so even from that logical point, decision-makers should be interested in such a periodical. We also target academics -- professors, researchers and students -- who study oriental languages, history, political sciences, geo-politics.
After 11 September, and even before, think tanks in the West and in particular in the US, have been regarding the Middle East as a coherent region. The Middle East is no longer simply about Egypt and the Arab world and the Arab-Israeli conflict. No, Turkey and Iran and Central Asia have become an essential part of the definition of Middle East. Some think tanks in the US also add India and Pakistan to the formula. Since they themselves look at the region from a more comprehensive viewpoint, then the region should at least be conscious of that viewpoint to be able to deal with it. We should be aware of our classifications.
I myself am enamoured with the civilisation of the East. I believe that if one is to be a global citizen then one should at least not limit oneself and first become a citizen of one's region. Even from the point of view of religious history, we cannot imagine Islam (as a culture) without the most prominent of the classical hadith scholars and the most authoritative of hadith compilers and editors Al-Bukhari. And he was from Bukhara. Avicenna, Al-Isfahani, Al-Khawarizmi, Al-Zamakhshari: many of the classical and mediaeval Muslim scholars were from Central Asia. And your friends, the Mameluks, many of them were from Central Asia. There is a big part of our history that we cannot understand without understanding those ties. This place where we are now, Al-Ahram Building, is part of Al-Ezbekiyya quarter, which is derived from Uzbek.
This coming issue will be concerned with a number of issues. Firstly, we have an article by the Pakistani professor Azmat Hayat Khan dealing with the Islamic question in Russia -- a bomb waiting to explode. We will also deal with the current situation in Iran. We will have an article on the political economy of the pension system in Turkey by Nuran Topal Assil Bey, a PhD graduate of Manchester University. Turkey is the most Westernised and developed state in the region and the problem it is facing with pensions and its effects on various social sectors is worthy of study, especially given the importance of the Turkish model that many are trying to emulate. We will have an article on Ottoman cookery, with special emphasis on aubergines, and its relationship to the social history of Istanbul by the Turkish columnist Ali Saraman. You know aubergines are to Turkey what the cedar tree is to Lebanon; they have over 30 recipes in Istanbul alone and in some of the provinces they make sweet preserves out of aubergines. His study is quite interesting. And I am writing a study on the effect of hydrocarbons -- oil and gas -- from the Caspian Sea on Arab national security. We will also have a selection of book reviews, including one of a book on the Dorma Jews whose ancestors emigrated from Andalusia, many of whom have become decision-makers in modern Turkey, like the former Foreign Minister Ismail Cem for example. In this and the past issue we have tried to include articles by writers from outside Egypt as well; from Turkey, Italy, Greece.
I am also working on two separate books that will be published shortly. The first deals with the evolution of the concept of wilayat al-faqih [trusteeship of the jurisprudent] in Iran especially since the death of Khomeini. We don't really understand the theology of wilayat al-faqih and many people here have this irrational fear of the spread of Shi'ism. But this theory has a historical context in which it developed that should be understood. The second book is on the formation of the political elite, also in Iran.
