More about the programme
Questioning the position of the individual in one society or another means asking how this system functions in relation to its most central point. There are, in fact, very few variables around which groups of human beings organise themselves. These variables essentially depend upon the importance given to the individual. Going beyond a global theory of society based on a series of opposing terms (hierarchical organisation, egalitarianism, individualism, holism), Muslim societies give examples of different combinations. They may be egalitarian, yet holistic, as in certain tribal groups; they may also be unequal in terms of political power, but equal in religious terms. Studying the position attributed to the individual in fact comes back to asking ourselves about the totality of social mechanisms. As a unit of reference, the individual is at the core of both sociological thinking and historical analysis. The evolution of contemporary historiography towards a histoire de mentalité open to micro-history and historical anthropology has brought with it the logical reappraisal of the individual as a privileged object of historical investigation. The time has come to apply the methodological questions and tools used to study European societies to the Muslim world. Second, at present we know how to re-examine the great classical Islamic texts to identify both the individual and the practical functioning of an era, in spite of the conventions and stereotypes in which they are woven. The new developments in methods of investigation constitute an important step in the implementation of a programme which seeks to open new horizons of research on Muslim societies A study of a long chronological period (from the Muslim expansion to the XIX th Century) must be desirable, it is necessary to focus on a number of significant key periods. These will have to be defined for each selected theme by the project teams. Nevertheless, the teams may wish to reflect on the probability, that the periods of emergence and assertion of the individual were cyclical. The geographical area chosen as a field of inquiry only constitutes a single region when viewed from outside. It is Europe which gives it the sort of unity that the "I" gives to its "Other". Seen from inside, this "region" reveals itself to be composed of three distinct parts: the Maghrib, the Mashriq and Turkey. Each of these entities has its own history and socio-cultural characteristics. While they have certainly had interrelations at all levels, their histories have not had common "key periods" susceptible to being the object of a generalising vision.
Publications
The programme started publishing a series of books. The list of books already published can be consulted below.
Pauvreté et richesse dans le monde musulman méditerranéen
Edited by Jean-Paul Pascual
ISBN 2-7068-1719-4
Maisonneuve et Larose 15, rue Victor-Cousin 75005 Paris France
Outside In: on the margins of the Modern Middle East 2002
Edited by Eugene Rogan
ISBN 1-86064-698-0
IB Tauris & Co Publishers, 6 Salem Road,
London W2 4BU, UK
Money, land and trade: an economic history of the Muslim Mediterranean 2002
Edited by Nelly Hanna
ISBN 1-86064-699-9
IB Tauris & Co Publishers, 6 Salem Road,
London W2 4BU, UK
Writing the Feminine - Women in Arab sources 2002
Edited by Manuela Marin and Randi Deguilhem
ISBN 1-86064-697-2
IB Tauris & Co Publishers, 6 Salem Road,
London W2 4BU, UK
Conversions islamiques - Identités religieuses en Islam méditerranéen January 2002
Edited by Mercedes Garcia-Arenal
ISBN 2-7068-1574-4
Maisonneuve et Larose 15, rue Victor-Cousin 75005 Paris France
Marginal Voices in Literature and Society January 2001
Edited by Robin Ostle.
ISBN 2-9512731-1-8
Imprimerie Paul Roubaud 16, rue du Maréchal Joffre
13100 Aix-en-Provence France
+33 (0)4 42 38 22 52 .
Paroles d’Islam - Individus, sociétés et discours dans l’Islam contemporain Avril 2000
Edited by Felice Dassetto.
ISBN 2-7068-1437-3
Maisonneuve et Larose 15, rue Victor-Cousin 75005 Paris France
Individual and Society in the Mediterranean Muslim World - Issues and Sources June 1998
A research programme of the European Science Foundation
Chaired by Robert Ilbert.
Edited by Randi Deguilhem
ISBN 2-9512731-0-X
Imprimerie Paul Roubaud 16, rue du Maréchal Joffre
13100 Aix-en-Provence France
+33 (0)4 42 38 22 52 .
