Annals of Japan Association for Middle East Studies
Online ISSN : 2433-1872
Print ISSN : 0913-7858
Volume 27, Issue 2
Displaying 1-6 of 6 articles from this issue
  • Ruth KARK, Seth J. FRANTZMAN
    Article type: Article
    2011 Volume 27 Issue 2 Pages 1-27
    Published: January 05, 2012
    Released on J-STAGE: March 30, 2018
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
    This paper focuses on two examples of territorial division by missionary societies in Japan and the Middle East. We examine issues of territoriality as they affect church and state as well as in the context of colonialism. Our research focuses on the role of Protestant missions in Japan and the Middle East in the nineteenth century and sheds light on the way in which culturally close missionary societies, such as English and Americans, divided the regions between themselves to avoid competition. We examine the maps produced by the missions in the Middle East and Japan. By bringing to light archival documents and maps of the division of land and people by missionary societies, we show that cooperation between missionary societies took place between culturally and religiously proximate societies. In addition, we expand the scholarly interest on the role of mapping and theory of boundary delimitation and help to formulate further discussion on the role of missionaries as agents of empire.
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  • Shingo HAMANAKA
    Article type: Article
    2011 Volume 27 Issue 2 Pages 29-56
    Published: January 05, 2012
    Released on J-STAGE: March 30, 2018
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
    Palestinians have suffered greatly under the occupation of Israel, the expanded construction of settlements around Jerusalem, the fighting between Fatah and Hamas after the 2006 election, and the Israeli military attack on Gaza in the December 2008 and January 2009. It might be assumed that these pressures would cause the Palestinian people to lose hope for the future. But historically, Palestinians have overcome many difficulties, just like the ones they face now. They persevere and remain focused on regaining their sovereignty and dignity. Therefore, it is clear that many Palestinians hold their own opinions about Middle Eastern politics, even under such difficult conditions. Our research project team developed a method to illustrate a typical population’s perception of international relations in the Middle East. It is a Political Mental Map, which relies on public opinion data on the subjects of the contributions that their own government, other Arab states, and Western countries have made toward political stability in the Middle East. With the cooperation of the Jerusalem Media & Communication Centre, our project team conducted a poll in the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, and occupied Jerusalem, in May 2009. The study attempts to sketch a broad outline of how Palestinians regard the image of the “Middle Eastern regional system,” based on their responses to our questions. The result is our “Political Mental Map of the Palestinians,” which examines Palestinian responses to the international contributions of 23 nations with regard to political stability in the Middle East. This Political Mental Map shows the relative positions of the Arab states, the neighboring non-Arab states (Turkey, Iran, and Israel), and the major powers outside the Middle East. The map shows us the relationship between Palestine and other countries, and gives us a visualization of Palestinians’ thoughts on Middle Eastern politics.
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  • Masako SHIMIZU
    Article type: Article
    2011 Volume 27 Issue 2 Pages 57-81
    Published: January 05, 2012
    Released on J-STAGE: March 30, 2018
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
    The aim of this paper is to explore the backgrounds and implications of the electoral participation of Hamas. This paper adopts the following approaches: an analytical framework for the electoral participation of Islamist organizations, an explanation in the light of the period before the establishment of the PA and the concrete political processes, and reading of primary sources. When the supporting social branches that were interacted with Palestinian nation-building, came under a centralized organization by the establishment of Hamas, it influenced the internal discussion of electoral participation. Then the agreement that Hamas, which overwhelmed the PA incumbents in terms of provision of public goods, could achieve equivalent negotiations with the PA enabled political opening, and Hamas finally chose to participate in the PLC elections. The implication of the electoral participation of Hamas on Palestinian politics was that it created one phase of the democratic transition in Palestine. On the basis of the remarks of Hamas, the implication of the “Change and Reform” on the organizational transformation of Hamas was that Hamas tried to encompass all its activities including its participation in the PA within the consistent program of resistance and to present itself as political party representing the whole nation.
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  • Masayuki MIYAMOTO
    Article type: Research Note
    2011 Volume 27 Issue 2 Pages 83-101
    Published: January 05, 2012
    Released on J-STAGE: March 30, 2018
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
    This article aims at presenting the outline of the form of the Ḥassaaniyya poetry (HP) and its classification. Ḥassaaniyya is the Arabic dialect which is used mainly in Mauritania, where people have developed a distinguished poetry named “laġna” by using their daily tongue. Faced with the lack of comprehensiveness and clearness in previous studies about the subject, the author intends to put in order various previous explanations and expand them through analyzing some sample poems, assisted by a Mauritanian prominent scholar in the HP, Dr. Muḥammad Wuld Ḥẓaana. The paper starts with explaining sounds of the Ḥassaaniyya and the basic terms to analyze the HP. Secondly, it presents the key concepts characterizing the HP; gaaf and ṭalaεa, a variety of the meters, gadaε and sarm, and others. Gaaf or ṭalaεa is decided by the number of the hemistiches and the position of the rhyme. The HP has a variety of meters, basically determined by the number of the syllables in one hemistich, which varies from 1 to 12. Further, the existence of the adjoining two consonants widens the variety of the forms of the poetry. Thirdly, it explains two cases of the mixture of two different types; the mixture of gaaf and ṭalaεa, and the mixture of different meters and/or gadaε and sarm. Fourthly, it presents a long poem and the special form for women. Lastly, it attempts to make a classification of various poems, with detailed description of each form defined by the key concepts. The paper is not but an introduction of the study of the HP, which presents the framework of its form. There remain a lot of aspects that are to be studied.
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  • Taro TSURUMI
    Article type: Research Note
    2011 Volume 27 Issue 2 Pages 103-123
    Published: January 05, 2012
    Released on J-STAGE: March 30, 2018
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
    This research note is an introductory study for an exploration of the historical-sociological and not political origins of the definition of the state of Israel as a “Jewish and democratic state.” It is hypothesized that some of these origins can be found in the Jewish and Zionist experience in the Russian Empire, where a majority of Zionists were born. Even before the emergence of Zionism, some East European Jewish enlighteners believed that the West European concept of civil rights denied nationality (nationhood or peoplehood) of the Jews. At the time of the 1905 Russian Revolution, political issues emerged in which nationality played a significant role. The Zionists then considered that every nationality should be secured by a democratic state, on the grounds that access to one’s nationality should be included in individual rights. The Zionists believed that any democracy should protect the nationality of its citizens. The Zionists also held that the survival of every nation inevitably depends on sociological laws, demographic and socioeconomic conditions in particular. This standpoint would require the nation to have a territory in which the nation constitutes a majority, providing a background for the norm that approves the privilege of the Jewish nationality in Israel.
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  • AJAMES Editorial Committee
    Article type: Middle East Studies in Japan
    2011 Volume 27 Issue 2 Pages 125-141
    Published: January 05, 2012
    Released on J-STAGE: March 30, 2018
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
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