Islam, Memory, and Morality in Yemen Ruling Families in Transition

Islam, Memory, and Morality in Yemen tells a story of a Yemeni hereditary elite which was overthrown in the 1962 revolution in North Yemen. For over a millennium, they had enjoyed exclusive rights to the leadership of the Imamate, the religiously sanctioned state. Following the violent removal from power of King Faysal of Iraq in 1958, the overthrow of the Yemeni Imamate - the longest lasting Hashimite rule in the Middle East - confirmed the decline of Hashimite power (held by ruling generations claiming descent from the Prophet Muhammad). However, rather than concentrating on recent political history, Islam, Memory, and Morality in Yemen highlights the personal predicament of those targeted by the revolution, in which they served as the foil for the new regime's moral and political ascendancy. Focusing on the cultural politics of memory, the book explores how members of the elite remember in the process of making sense of their current lives and formulating responses to adversity.

List of Figures and Illustrations Acknowledgements Foreword; F.Halliday Glossary Introduction: Locating Memory: The Politics of Incorporation and Differentiation PART I: FRAMINGS The House of the Prophet The Zaydi Elite during the 20th Century Imamate The Anatomy of Houses PART II: GROWING TO BE 'ALID Snapshots of Childhood Performing Kinship PART III: SELF-FASHIONING IN THE IDIOM OF TRADITION The Politics of Motherhood Marriage in the Age of Revolution "Ulama of a Different Kind" The Moral Economy of Taste PART IV: ENGAGING DIFFERENCE Defining through Defaming Memory, Trauma, Self identification History through the Looking-Glass Conclusion: Frontiers of Memory Appendices Notes Bibliography Index

GABRIELE VOM BRUCK lectures in the Anthropology of the Middle East, Department of Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies, University of Edinburgh, UK.