Overview

Saudi Arabia is generally and justifiably viewed as a country with some of the fewest democratic institutions and the weakest traditions of pluralism. It is therefore surprising to learn that at least in one corner of the Saudi world, there can be found a plurality of opinions and lively debate. Jorg Matthias Determann brings this element to light by analysing an important field of cultural activity in Saudi Arabia: historical writing. Since the 1920s local, tribal, Shi'i and dynastic histories have contributed to a growing plurality of narratives. Paradoxically, this happened because of the expansion of the Saudi state, including state provision of mass education. It was also due to globalizing processes, such as the spread of the internet. In challenging the widely-held perception of Saudi Arabia as an irredeemably closed and monolithic society, Historiography in Saudi Arabia provides a deeper understanding of modern Arab historiography, the Saudi state, and education and scholarship in the Middle East.

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Jorg Matthias Determann is Assistant Professor of History at Virginia Commonwealth University in Qatar. He was previously Postdoctoral Fellow at the Zentrum Moderner Orient and the Berlin Graduate School of Muslim Cultures and Societies, Freie Universitat Berlin, and holds a PhD in History from SOAS, University of London. In 2013, he was one of the two joint winners of the BRISMES Leigh Douglas Memorial Prize for the best PhD dissertation on a Middle Eastern topic.

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