Academic literature on the topic 'Americans – Saudi Arabia – Biography'

Anyone familiar with Bruce Lawrence’s oeuvre knows that the book under review is the culmination of his long and serious engagement with Islam’s foundational texts. His earlier publication, The Qur’an: A Biography (2006), traces the central place of divine revelation in Muslim life and thought for many centuries. The Qur’an inspired its most faithful believers to become predominant in much of the medieval world and, in the process, it was a book that captured the interest and imagination of non-Muslims. Law- rence’s own translation of the Qur’an into English is now in the works. Be- fore completing this admirable feat at the prime of his scholarly life, he offers us an inventory of a number of influential and no less creative—some polemical—attempts at untying the Gordian knot of rendering classical Ar- abic into lucid English. But can God’s eternal word, revealed to Prophet Muhammad in the seventh century, be translated into English at all given the deep-seated differences between the two linguistic worlds in space and time? The answer to this question is not a simple yes or no, as Lawrence explains in this slim but indispensable volume. Unlike scriptures of other world religions, the Qur’an stakes a claim on its linguistic authoritativeness from the onset. Its self-image, as specialists such as Daniel Madigan, Toshi- hiko Izutsu, and Fazlur Rahman have it, was rooted in its unique language. The Qur’anic language is thus not merely one language among others of its time (or anytime) but is the distinctive language of God to be read, stud- ied, memorized and disseminated in the original form. From this angle of vision, no translation of the Qur’an is regarded by the majority of Muslims as the Qur’an itself. Lawrence acknowledges this longstanding credo, or the dominant “filter of orthodoxy,” as he puts it (xxi). The translated Qur’an is, to him, best referred to as a “Koran”. Not that the Arabic and translated texts are radically different in terms of their central messages and moral injunctions, but that the Koran was a historical and not an eternal artefact. The Koran was a product of a human endeavor to make the language of God accessible in the world of man. The filter of orthodoxy was however confronted with an ever-growing and cosmopolitan ummah which, for the most part, consisted of non-Ar- abs who knew little but a rudimentary form of Arabic. Translations became inevitable, as Lawrence informs us. The Arabic Qur’an in its pure form gen- erated Korans in other Muslim languages (Persian, Turkish, Malay, etc.) as Islam grew to become a juggernaut after the death of Muhammad (Chapter 1). And yet, as Islam emerged triumphant as a world-conquering faith, its adversaries saw the urgent need to fully discern the scriptures that made Muslims so powerful. Translations into Latin and then English from the twelfth through the eighteenth centuries were largely born out of hate en- meshed with fear and the passionate desire among translators to convince fellow Christians of “falsehood of the Qur’an” (33). Such adverse motives however turned into an emphatic understanding of what the Qur’an actu- ally stood for, as seen in George Sale and Edward Henry Palmer’s transla- tions. The Orientalists were not all cut from the same cloth. What Lawrence does not show quite clearly was how these early English translations provided the raison d’etre for Muslims to produce their own Korans as a corrective project against the biases of Western Orientalism. In South Asian translations by Muhammad Ali, Abdul Majid Daryabadi, Mar- maduke Pickhall, and Abdullah Yusuf Ali, allusions were made, be it direct- ly or obliquely, to the problems of earlier (non-Muslim) translations, just as they sought (for example) to undo use of the terms “Mohammedan” or “Mohametan” to describe Muslims. Granted that these translators belonged to different Muslim sects, their overriding concern was that the Qur’an suf- fered from imprecise translations into English. South Asian Muslims, in my view, were not only translating the Qur’an. They were arresting the march of a prejudiced form of Orientalism by producing English Korans of their own. In hindsight, their efforts were successful, at least for a while, until the advent of the digital age. The coming of the internet and the expansion of English as a lingua franca of most of the world, as Lawrence handsomely points out, has led to the proliferation of Korans, both online and offline, by Muslims and non-Muslims, conservatives and liberals, orientalists and their detractors, Sunnis and Shi’ites, feminists and artists. To Lawrence, most translations produced in an era of abundance fail to capture the Qur’an’s rhythmic prose, with the exception of a handful. Contemporary Korans are so often contorted by the politics of ideological hegemony and nationalist parochi- alism that hinder scholarly endeavor (Chapters 4-5). Lawrence singles out Saudi translations that purvey a puritanical strand of Islam. Interestingly, there are, within Saudi Arabia itself, less literalist Korans. One wonders whether the current political transition in Saudi Arabia will give rise to newer, state-sponsored translations of the Qur’an. I certainly believe it will. For now, Lawrence shows that Salafism in Saudi Arabia (as elsewhere in the Muslim world, as many analysts have pointed out) is not by any means monochrome and homogenous. It is therefore unsurprising that different Korans have been produced in a highly controlled and conservative state. Meantime, the market is flooded with highly popular alternatives in the likes of those by Thomas Cleary, Muhammad Abdul Haleem, and Tarif Khalidi. Spoilt for choice, Muslims and non-Muslims have now the liberty to choose which translation squares with their respective lingustic tastes, spiritual quests, and worldviews. Lawrence ends the book with the latest and most innovative venture at translating the Qur’an, by artist Sandow Birk. It is a translation that comes in the form of inventive expressions, a graphic Koran, so to speak, intended for an American audience whom Birk believes can discern how the Qur’an addresses their everyday trials and tribulations. The linguistic beauty of the Qur’an, in Birk’s formulation, is best expressed in colorful images. An American himself, Lawrence is most impressed by Birk’s project, couching it as “visual and visionary, it is a hybrid genre designed to reach a new audience not previously engaged either by the Koran or by Islam” (137). Had George Sale and Henry Palmet lived to this day, they would perhaps shudder over such an Americanization of the Qur’an. In displaying art with a Qur’anic glaze, Birk does more than translating the Qur’an to English. He demonstrates how the Qur’an can be embedded and normalized into Anglo-American lives and sensibilities. Provocatively-written, deftly-researched, and a pleasure to read, The Koran in English opens up many promising pathways and novel directions for future research. The specter of the Palestinian-American scholar, Is- mail al-Faruqi, came to mind as I was reading the book. Al-Faruqi once envisioned English becoming an Islamic language, or a language that can express what Islam is more accurately. Al-Faruqi held that this could be achieved by incorporating Arabic terms into the English corpus. Reading The Koran in English tells us that Al-Faruqi’s vision is currently realized in ways he barely imagined, or perhaps, in ways that are more subtle and sublime. In translating the Koran to English—an enterprise that is now undertaken by scholars, popular writers, and artists, and that will undoubt- edly grow exponentially in the years to come—English has been (or is) Ko- ranized. Or, to borrow and inflect Lawrence’s syllogism in the opening of the book: If you don’t know Arabic, you can still understand the Qur’an. By understanding the Qur’an, you can choose to become a Muslim. And if you do not become a Muslim, you may still appreciate and derive much benefit from the Qur’an. Therefore, the Qur’an, or the Koran, is not only for Muslims but for those who care to think and reflect about life and about the divine. Indeed, “He gives wisdom to whom He wills, and whoever has been given wisdom has certainly been granted much good. And none will grasp the message except the people of intellect” (al-Baqara: 269). Khairudin AljuniedMalaysia Chair of Islam in Southeast AsiaGeorgetown University

Anyone familiar with Bruce Lawrence’s oeuvre knows that the book under review is the culmination of his long and serious engagement with Islam’s foundational texts. His earlier publication, The Qur’an: A Biography (2006), traces the central place of divine revelation in Muslim life and thought for many centuries. The Qur’an inspired its most faithful believers to become predominant in much of the medieval world and, in the process, it was a book that captured the interest and imagination of non-Muslims. Law- rence’s own translation of the Qur’an into English is now in the works. Be- fore completing this admirable feat at the prime of his scholarly life, he offers us an inventory of a number of influential and no less creative—some polemical—attempts at untying the Gordian knot of rendering classical Ar- abic into lucid English. But can God’s eternal word, revealed to Prophet Muhammad in the seventh century, be translated into English at all given the deep-seated differences between the two linguistic worlds in space and time? The answer to this question is not a simple yes or no, as Lawrence explains in this slim but indispensable volume. Unlike scriptures of other world religions, the Qur’an stakes a claim on its linguistic authoritativeness from the onset. Its self-image, as specialists such as Daniel Madigan, Toshi- hiko Izutsu, and Fazlur Rahman have it, was rooted in its unique language. The Qur’anic language is thus not merely one language among others of its time (or anytime) but is the distinctive language of God to be read, stud- ied, memorized and disseminated in the original form. From this angle of vision, no translation of the Qur’an is regarded by the majority of Muslims as the Qur’an itself. Lawrence acknowledges this longstanding credo, or the dominant “filter of orthodoxy,” as he puts it (xxi). The translated Qur’an is, to him, best referred to as a “Koran”. Not that the Arabic and translated texts are radically different in terms of their central messages and moral injunctions, but that the Koran was a historical and not an eternal artefact. The Koran was a product of a human endeavor to make the language of God accessible in the world of man. The filter of orthodoxy was however confronted with an ever-growing and cosmopolitan ummah which, for the most part, consisted of non-Ar- abs who knew little but a rudimentary form of Arabic. Translations became inevitable, as Lawrence informs us. The Arabic Qur’an in its pure form gen- erated Korans in other Muslim languages (Persian, Turkish, Malay, etc.) as Islam grew to become a juggernaut after the death of Muhammad (Chapter 1). And yet, as Islam emerged triumphant as a world-conquering faith, its adversaries saw the urgent need to fully discern the scriptures that made Muslims so powerful. Translations into Latin and then English from the twelfth through the eighteenth centuries were largely born out of hate en- meshed with fear and the passionate desire among translators to convince fellow Christians of “falsehood of the Qur’an” (33). Such adverse motives however turned into an emphatic understanding of what the Qur’an actu- ally stood for, as seen in George Sale and Edward Henry Palmer’s transla- tions. The Orientalists were not all cut from the same cloth. What Lawrence does not show quite clearly was how these early English translations provided the raison d’etre for Muslims to produce their own Korans as a corrective project against the biases of Western Orientalism. In South Asian translations by Muhammad Ali, Abdul Majid Daryabadi, Mar- maduke Pickhall, and Abdullah Yusuf Ali, allusions were made, be it direct- ly or obliquely, to the problems of earlier (non-Muslim) translations, just as they sought (for example) to undo use of the terms “Mohammedan” or “Mohametan” to describe Muslims. Granted that these translators belonged to different Muslim sects, their overriding concern was that the Qur’an suf- fered from imprecise translations into English. South Asian Muslims, in my view, were not only translating the Qur’an. They were arresting the march of a prejudiced form of Orientalism by producing English Korans of their own. In hindsight, their efforts were successful, at least for a while, until the advent of the digital age. The coming of the internet and the expansion of English as a lingua franca of most of the world, as Lawrence handsomely points out, has led to the proliferation of Korans, both online and offline, by Muslims and non-Muslims, conservatives and liberals, orientalists and their detractors, Sunnis and Shi’ites, feminists and artists. To Lawrence, most translations produced in an era of abundance fail to capture the Qur’an’s rhythmic prose, with the exception of a handful. Contemporary Korans are so often contorted by the politics of ideological hegemony and nationalist parochi- alism that hinder scholarly endeavor (Chapters 4-5). Lawrence singles out Saudi translations that purvey a puritanical strand of Islam. Interestingly, there are, within Saudi Arabia itself, less literalist Korans. One wonders whether the current political transition in Saudi Arabia will give rise to newer, state-sponsored translations of the Qur’an. I certainly believe it will. For now, Lawrence shows that Salafism in Saudi Arabia (as elsewhere in the Muslim world, as many analysts have pointed out) is not by any means monochrome and homogenous. It is therefore unsurprising that different Korans have been produced in a highly controlled and conservative state. Meantime, the market is flooded with highly popular alternatives in the likes of those by Thomas Cleary, Muhammad Abdul Haleem, and Tarif Khalidi. Spoilt for choice, Muslims and non-Muslims have now the liberty to choose which translation squares with their respective lingustic tastes, spiritual quests, and worldviews. Lawrence ends the book with the latest and most innovative venture at translating the Qur’an, by artist Sandow Birk. It is a translation that comes in the form of inventive expressions, a graphic Koran, so to speak, intended for an American audience whom Birk believes can discern how the Qur’an addresses their everyday trials and tribulations. The linguistic beauty of the Qur’an, in Birk’s formulation, is best expressed in colorful images. An American himself, Lawrence is most impressed by Birk’s project, couching it as “visual and visionary, it is a hybrid genre designed to reach a new audience not previously engaged either by the Koran or by Islam” (137). Had George Sale and Henry Palmet lived to this day, they would perhaps shudder over such an Americanization of the Qur’an. In displaying art with a Qur’anic glaze, Birk does more than translating the Qur’an to English. He demonstrates how the Qur’an can be embedded and normalized into Anglo-American lives and sensibilities. Provocatively-written, deftly-researched, and a pleasure to read, The Koran in English opens up many promising pathways and novel directions for future research. The specter of the Palestinian-American scholar, Is- mail al-Faruqi, came to mind as I was reading the book. Al-Faruqi once envisioned English becoming an Islamic language, or a language that can express what Islam is more accurately. Al-Faruqi held that this could be achieved by incorporating Arabic terms into the English corpus. Reading The Koran in English tells us that Al-Faruqi’s vision is currently realized in ways he barely imagined, or perhaps, in ways that are more subtle and sublime. In translating the Koran to English—an enterprise that is now undertaken by scholars, popular writers, and artists, and that will undoubt- edly grow exponentially in the years to come—English has been (or is) Ko- ranized. Or, to borrow and inflect Lawrence’s syllogism in the opening of the book: If you don’t know Arabic, you can still understand the Qur’an. By understanding the Qur’an, you can choose to become a Muslim. And if you do not become a Muslim, you may still appreciate and derive much benefit from the Qur’an. Therefore, the Qur’an, or the Koran, is not only for Muslims but for those who care to think and reflect about life and about the divine. Indeed, “He gives wisdom to whom He wills, and whoever has been given wisdom has certainly been granted much good. And none will grasp the message except the people of intellect” (al-Baqara: 269). Khairudin AljuniedMalaysia Chair of Islam in Southeast AsiaGeorgetown University

This review article aims to provide broader nuances about Saudi Arabia amid the rapid developments taking place in the Middle East in general and Saudi Arabia in particular, following the rise of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS). This article begins with Salman’s Legacy, edited by Madawi al-Rasheed, and subsequently, takes up Madawi al-Rasheed’s The Son King and Ben Hubbard’s biography of MBS. It provides a brief summary of the books under review and analyzes their different themes while critically examining their prevailing shortcomings. The rise of MBS has brought about visible changes, not only in the political body of Saudi Arabia but in the wider Arab world as well. Salman’s Legacy: The Dilemmas of a New Era in Saudi Arabia, edited by Madawi al-Rasheed, seeks to highlight these challenges and provide a broad overview of Saudi Arabia, ranging from domestic affairs to foreign affairs and exploring the factors that drive the Saudi regime.

Abstract: the article gives a brief description of a unique document – the 1927 diary entries of Musa Bigeev with a translation into Russian. It reveals a little-studied page in the biography of the Tatar theologian and introduces the reader to the scholar’s view of the socio-political situation in the 1920s in Republican Turkey, Saudi Arabia and the Muslim world as a whole.

The world of Saudi Arabia and Islam in the perspectives of Indonesians: The narrative of migrant workers in Pelukis Gurun Pasir (2018) by Fuad AbdurahmanThe world of Saudi Arabia in the diaspora experiences of Fuad Abdurahman is written in a novel entitled Pelukis Gurun Pasir (2018). The problems discussed in this study are: (1) the position of subject or author in the narrative structure of the text, (2) the author's relationship with the country of origin, and (3) the voices that appear within the migrant subject in dealing with Saudi Arabian tradition. The theory used is diaspora poetics, which emphasizes the concept of language expression as part of the subject's identity. The object of the research is Pelukis Gurun Pasir (2018) and the author's response to traditions in Saudi Arabia. The data include the narrative structure of the novel’s text, the ideas in the text, the author's biography, and diaspora discourse or social situations. The results show that the image of Saudi Arabian society tends to be evaluated negatively by emphasizing on the chaotic sexuality description of Arabic men, making Saudi Arabia a masculine country. In addition, the author finds tolerant Islamic values in Indonesia, which causes his longing to return to Indonesia.Keywords: diaspora, atuhor, Saudi Arabia, narrative structureDunia Arab Saudi dan Islam dalam pandangan orang Indonesia: Narasi pekerja migran dalam novel Pelukis Gurun Pasir (2018) karya Fuad AbdurahmanDunia Arab Saudi dalam pengalaman diaspora Fuad Abdurahman dituliskan dalam Pelukis Gurun Pasir (2018). Masalah yang dikaji dalam penelitian ini adalah (1) posisi subjek atau pengarang dalam tata naratif teks (2) hubungan pengarang dengan negeri asal, dan (3) suara-suara yang muncul dalam diri subjek migran dalam menghadapi tradisi Arab Saudi. Teori yang digunakan adalah puitika diaspora yang menekan pada konsep ekpresi bahasa sebagai bagian dari identitas subjek. Objek kajian penelitian adalah novel Pelukis Gurun Pasir (2018) dan tanggapan pengarang terhadap tradisi di Arab Saudi. Data yang digunakan adalah tata naratif teks novel, gagasan yang muncul dalam teks, riwayat pengarang, dan wacana diaspora atau situasi sosial. Hasil penelitian ini adalah bahwa citra masyarakat Arab Saudi cenderung dinilai secara negatif dengan menekankan pada deskripsi seksualitas yang kacau dari laki-laki Arab sehingga Arab Saudi adalah negeri maskulin. Selain itu, pengarang justru menemukan nilai-nilai keislaman yang toleran berada di Indonesia sehingga pengarang merindukan pulang ke Indonesia.Kata Kunci: diaspora, pengarang, Arab Saudi, tata naratif

This research assesses the relationship between intercultural exposure variables—the length of time spent in the United States, the length of previous experience outside Saudi Arabia, the length of time studying English as a second language, and the frequency and nature of interactions with Americans—and intrapersonal identity conflict. To assess this relationship, the researcher conducted a survey of Saudi Arabian students studying in the United States, which collected information on exposure variables, as well as employing Leong and Ward’s (2000) Ethno-Cultural Identity Conflict Scale (EICS). A Pearson correlation test was conducted to examine the relationship between the Saudi sojourners’ intercultural exposure and their identity conflict scores to conclude that there is not a relationship between exposure and identity conflict.

We identify public opinion polls from other countries as an important form of indirect exposure to outgroups, and an important source of intergroup metaperceptions, outgroup perceptions, and support for group-level behavior towards outgroups. Three experiments demonstrate a two-step process through which such exposure affects support for ingroup behaviors that facilitate peaceful or violent intergroup relations. When indirectly exposed to national outgroups, Americans inferred intergroup metaperceptions (Step 1), which, in turn, shaped outgroup perceptions (Step 2). This effect and its underlying process occurred in relation to both fictitious (Experiment 2) and real outgroups (Iran, Experiment 1; Germany, Saudi Arabia, Experiment 3), as well as those similar (Germany) and dissimilar (Saudi Arabia) to the ingroup (Experiment 3). Further, this effect occurred beyond ingroup perceptions (Experiments 1–3), perceived intergroup threat (Experiments 2–3), and intergroup similarity (Experiment 3). Contributions to the literatures on cross-group contact, intergroup perceptions and attitudes, and image theory are discussed.

In this biography, the life of William Hugh Isbister is traced through three continents, where he planted the seeds of academic surgery into a generation of leaders in colorectal surgery. This ultimately improved the care for thousands of patients. His last station in Saudi Arabia made a huge impact on the country. I hope this article inspires others to write about their mentors who were important in their development as surgeons and physicians. Short biographies of these important figures will serve as a valuable historical record for generations to come.

This study aims to investigate how television talk shows are politically employed, especially in times of political conflict between Qatar on one side and Saudi Arabia on the other. Its focus is on AlLewan program that was broadcast on Rotana Khalejia channel during Ramadan 2019. The program includes 29 episodes. The study finds that Alshawa [the awakening] Movement, Qatar, the Saudi opposition, and the Muslim Brotherhood are the top issues addressed in the program. Main actors of the discourse in the program include Osama bin Laden, Saudi opposed Saad Al-Faqih and Mohammed Almasa’ari, and the Saudi crown prince. The most emotionally loaded words and phrases are used to construct a call for facing the state, to ascertain the domination of Allah, and to impose awakening guardianship on the society. The program uses a number of communication strategies and techniques, including communication process strategy, confrontation and accusation, and the showing of clips from previous videos. The program applies several argumentative tools related to the Alshawa, Muslim Brotherhood, Qatar, Islamic cassette tape, the Saudi Crown Prince. These tools include the narrative technique, the use of historical narratives, citations from Qur'anic verses as well as hadiths and prophetic biography.

Abstract Abstract 1621 Sickle cell disease (SCD) is common in the Eastern and Southwestern (SW) Provinces of Saudi Arabia. Patients from the SW Province have many complications of this disease but they have phenotypic differences from African Americans that include a high prevalence of splenomegaly, rare CNS disease and absence of leg ulcers. In contrast, Eastern Province patients have a milder phenotype that is related to a nearly uniformly high fetal hemoglobin (HbF) level that is associated with the Saudi-Indian haplotype of the HBB gene-like cluster. SW Province patients have variable HbF levels and do not have the Saudi-Indian haplotype. We studied patients from the SW Province to determine the associations of known HbF quantitative trait loci (QTL) with HbF concentration. Seventy-seven Saudi patients, aged ≥4 yrs, with SCD were studied, 53 HbS homozygotes and 24 with HbS-β0 thalassemia. Their age was 17.7±10 (range 4–46) yrs and 45% were on hydroxyurea. HBB gene cluster haplotypes were 58 (75%) Benin, 17 (22%) Bantu, 1(1.5%) Senegal/Bantu, and 1(1.5%) Senegal. HbF level was measured by capillary electrophoresis and we used the lowest HbF level after age 4 yrs, the age where HbF levels stabilized, for analysis. Genotyping was done by TaqMan SNP genotyping assays, and included SNPs in BCL11A (rs4671393, rs766432), HBS1L-MYB (rs28384513, rs9399137, rs4895441), and OR51B5/6 (rs5006884). Results are summarized in the Table. QTLs showed similar trend in their effects on HbF level when patients on hydroxyurea were excluded from analysis. BCL11A was the sole QTL associated with HbF level in Saudi patients from the SW Province whereas the HBS1L-MYB and OR51B5/6 loci had no effect. For comparison, we selected cases from 2 studies of African American with SCD. All were HbS homozygotes and none took hydroxyurea, and we compared them to Saudi patients who were HbS homozygotes and not on hydroxyurea (n=29). Compared with African Americans with similar HBB haplotypes, and after adjusting for the BCL11A genotype, Saudi cases from SW Province had HbF levels almost twice that of African Americans (p <0.0001). Given that Saudi and African American patients had a nearly identical distribution of HBB gene cluster haplotypes, we examined ancestral origin of Saudi and African American patients. Using a genome-wide set of SNPs, we performed a principal component analysis with the Saudi, the African Americans with SCD and African, Arab, Asian and European populations from the Human Genome Diversity Project. We estimated the Fst statistic between these populations which is defined as the proportion of genetic diversity due to allele frequency differences among populations and can be interpreted as the distance between populations. African American cases were in close proximity to Yoruban, Mandenka and Bantu populations while Saudi patients resembled Arab populations. African American patients were the farthest from Saudi patients as compared with Asian and European populations. The commonality of HBB haplotypes in these Saudi cases and African Americans, coupled with the genetic distance between these populations suggest that genetic modifiers remote from the HBB cluster or unknown environmental influences are likely to account for the higher HbF in these Saudi patients. Disclosures: No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.

This chapter discusses the twentieth-century history of Saudi Arabia through the biography of Hamad al-Jāsir. More than any other single person, al-Jāsir was responsible for shaping the modern genealogical culture of Saudi Arabia. The chapter examines al-Jāsir's life from his birth in 1909 in a central Arabian village to the beginnings of his genealogical project in the 1970s. It considers al-Jāsir's sometimes tumultuous relationship with his patrons in the Wahhabi religious establishment, his contributions to the development of the Saudi press and public culture, and his views on Arabia's bedouin populations and on the Arabic language. It also explores al-Jāsir's turn toward scholarship and the documenting of Saudi lineages in the last third of his life.

This chapter details how Saudi Arabia and the United States gradually regained trust in each other through joint projects that utilized Saudi petrodollars. This system of petrodollar interdependence met immediate concerns of both parties, such as providing the Saudis with secure places to invest and appreciate their revenues while providing the United States with needed funds. More broadly, however, Riyadh and Washington sought to develop petrodollar interdependence between each other in the service of indirect goals, most prominently Saudi oil supply and price policies for the Americans and US action on Arab demands regarding Israel for the Saudis. Saudi–US petrodollar interdependence would take time to develop, and petrodollar ties did not guarantee a meeting of minds. But pursuing petrodollar interdependence went a long way in restoring Saudi Arabia to the system of US empire while radically transforming the former's role within the latter, as Saudi Arabia's importance shifted from providing the West with low-priced oil to supplying the United States with large sums of petrodollars that provided vital funds to the US economy.

Back home, first a dramatic inner Cabinet meeting and then the full government overruled the army’s opposition and endorsed the Clinton peace parameters. The Palestinians, however, declared a total war on each and every aspect of the plan. Nor was the American performance particularly edifying. They gave in to Arafat’s irritating pressure for “clarifications,” and let him meet the president ten days after the deadline for an answer. Calls from world leaders pleading with him to give Clinton a yes and Arab envoys from Saudi Arabia and Egypt offering him their respective leaders’ encouragement were all ignored. Arafat’s reservations amounted to a resounding no. The Americans’ peace hopes faded away, and they shifted their attention to a “reduction of violence” or to some kind of presidential declaration that would enshrine the achievements of the process.

Chapter 4 offers analyses of several images from Lalla Essaydi’s photographic series Converging Territories (2004), Les Femmes du Maroc (2006-2008), and Harem (2009), in which she exclusively depicts women from Morocco or the Moroccan diaspora. The chapter focuses on the feminist transnational discourse that emerges from Essaydi’s inscription of her biography—more specifically her experience growing up in a harem and living as an adult woman in Saudi Arabia and the United States—and her training in Western art. The chapter is structured around a set of key questions. Does Essaydi’s juxtaposition of Orientalist tropes and poses from canonical nineteenth-century European Orientalist paintings with the veil, calligraphy, henna tattoos, and Moroccan architecture disrupt or reinforce stereotypes in the depiction of Arab and Muslim women? Can Essaydi’s hybrid language be read as a form of feminist ‘double critique’ that resists Western and Islamic patriarchy? How do Essaydi’s images intervene in relation to the transnational and transcultural discourse and positioning of the ‘Muslimwoman’? What is the economy between the transnational, transglobal and translocal, and the simply local in Essaydi’s images? How do Essaydi’s photographs contribute to the critical (re)thinking of gender in the context of globalization?

Geographical and racial differences in the incidence of thrcmbo-embolisn could be related to basic dissimilaritiesin the haemostatic system in different ethnic groups. However reliable comparative population studies in haemostatic parameters is lacking. The large expatriate ccmnunity in Saudi Arabia offers such a chance.Subjects tested were all healthy blood donors (aged 20-50 years) and were classified on the basis of ethnic origininto three categories (1) Arabs n=750, (2) Westerns (Americans and Europeans) n=400, and (3) S.E. Asians (Filipinos) n=570. The measurements done included PT, PTT, TT, Reptilase time, Plasma fibrinogen, AT III, Plasminogen, F.VIII:C, FX, α-2 Antiplasmin and Platelet aggregation in response to ADP (20.0, 2.0, 1.0, 0.5 & 0.25 uM), Collagen, Arachidonic acid, Adrenaline and Ristocetin (1.5, 1.2 & 1.0 mg/ml).There were no significant ethnic differences in the measured plasmatic clotting tests. This contrasts the finding of many smaller studies. Besides no significant ethnic differences were noted in platelet aggregation response to high doses of ADP (20 uM) or Ristocetin (1.5 mg/ml) and to Collagen. However, 45% of the S.E. Asians displayed abnormally inhibited responses to Adrenaline when compared to Arabs (34%) and Westerns (35.2%). Asians also displayed more inhibited responses to lower doses of ADP (2.0 & 1.0 uM) . On the other hand, S.E. Asians showed the lowest incidence of inhibited Arachidonic acid responses (9%) when compared to Arabs (24%) and Westerns (26%) . Similar racial differences were noted in response to low doses of Ristocetin (1.2 & 1.0 mg%) where Arabs and Asians showed high incidence of abnormally reduced responses (26-28%) when compared to Westerns (15%). No evidence of enhanced aggregation could be detected in Westerns. Changes of climate and/or dietary habits could be important factors influencing the haemostatic system in such a way that reduces ethnic dissimilarities.