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I.B.TAURIS
Publishers
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Cradle of Islam
The Hijaz and the Quest for
an Arabian Identity
by Mai
Yamani
Myfat her
was born in Mecca and much of what I have read here
reminds me of
my father, grandfather and relations. Mai Yamani has
provided us with a unique
perspective on the Hijaz. This is an invaluable
contribution to the social and
political history of a hitherto largely unknown, ignored
and unrecognised people.
An irreJistably powerful argument for the preservation
of cultural identity, respect
for human dignity and a celebration of our human
diversity.
— HRR Prince
Hassan of Jordan
Mai Yamani is consistently the sharpest observer of
modern Saudi Arabia and
paints a vivid picture of the cauldron of political and
religious divisions that are
tearing it apart. This is a major contribution to the
study of Arab diversity —
at a time when the West urgently needs to understand
it.
— Tim Sebastian, BBC Hard Talk
With Saudi Arabia the focus of international attention
and constantly making the headlines, Cradle of Is lam
is an extraordinarily original book that makes a
crucial contribution to a better understanding of the
dilemmas facing the Saudi State.
In 1932, the Al Saud family officially incorporated the
Kingdom of the Hijaz into the new Kingdom of Saudi
Arabia. The Hijazis became a people without a country of
their own. Cradle of Is lam focuses on
contemporary Hijazi life and culture made subservient to
the dominant national rules of Saudi Arabia, as dictated
by a political and religious elite rooted in the central
Najd region of the country. But centralisation was not
enough to assimilate or tame Saudi Arabia’s distinct
regional cultures. The Al Saud family could rule but not
fully integrate. This book is an insider’s account of
the hidden world of the Hijazis including their rituals
that have helped to preserve Hijazi identity until now.
Mai Yamani is a research fellow at the Royal Institute
of thternational Affairs (Chatham House) in London and
has written and broadcast widely on her native Saudi
Arabia. She was the first Saudi woman to receive a D.
Phil from Oxford University where she conducted the
research for this book. She studied at Bryn Mawr College
in Pennsylvania and taught at King Abdul Aziz University
in Jeddah and the School of Oriental and African Studies
at London University
Publication: 9TH SEPTEMBER 2004 For more
information please contact:
PRICE: £29.50 HARDBACK Benjamin Usher, Publicist
SIZE: 234 X 156MM Tel: 020 7243 1225
PAGES: 224 Fax: 020 7243 1226
ISBN: 1 85043 710 6 Publicity@ibtauris.com
www.ibtauris.com
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