Parution : Simon Wolfgang Fuchs, Thomas Pierret, Utopianism in the Middle East and North Africa, Edinburgh University Press, 2025
Utopianism in the Middle East and North Africa
Edited by Simon Wolfgang Fuchs, Thomas Pierret
The first comprehensive overview of utopianism in the modern Middle East and North Africa
- Studies utopian projects inspired by liberalism, nationalism, socialism, modernism, secularism, Islamic revivalism, urbanism, atomic energy, and artificial intelligence
- Discusses cases from Egypt, Turkey, Iran, Syria, Tunisia, and Saudi Arabia
- Highlights both the transformative potential of utopias, and their role in the consolidation of authoritarian regimes
- Brings together researchers from the fields of history, politics, anthropology, literature, art history, and urban studies
This is the first systematic exploration of the diversity of utopian thought and practice in the modern Middle East and North Africa. Beyond intellectual debates, utopianism has infused the many ideologies that have shaped contentious politics and governance in the region, from state formation to revolutionary transformations, conflicts, and the recent authoritarian resurgence. Drawing on case studies from Egypt, Turkey, Iran, Syria, Tunisia and Saudi Arabia, contributors address a broad array of utopian visions pertaining to political ideologies such as liberalism, secularism, Islamic revivalism, and socialism, but also to fields of expertise and technologies such as urbanism, the atom, and artificial intelligence. Likewise, they acknowledge the diversity of players that partake in the production of utopias, including writers, ideologues, activists, statesmen, experts, artists, and social media users. Moreover, authors consider both imaginaries promoted by challengers to the incumbents, and visions that serve the consolidation of authoritarianism.
List of Figures and Tables
Acknowledgements
Notes on Contributors
Introduction: The Three Ages of Utopianism in the Modern Middle East and North Africa
Thomas Pierret and Simon Wolfgang Fuchs
I. Aspirations of the Liberal Age
1. The Persian Dreams: The Constitutional Revolution and Fantasising over Lost and Envisaged Utopias
Behzad Zerehdaran
2. Egypt 3105 CE: Salama Musa’s Views on Utopia
Ruben Schenzle
II. Visions of High Modernity
3. The Idea of Secularism in Transcendent Turkish Utopias
Rahime Çokay Nebioğlu
4. The City is an Educator: Utopianism, Urbanism and the Creation of Republican Ankara
Isaac Hand
5. Atomic Utopias in Egypt: Decolonisation, Techno-nationalism and Popular Science, 1945-50
Hebatalla Taha and Pelle Valetin Olsen
III. The City of God: Islamic Perspectives
6. Paradise on Earth: How the Muslim Brotherhood Built a ‘Virtuous City’ (Madina Fadila) in ‘Abd al-Nasir’s Prisons
Mathias Ghyoot
7. The Utopian Caliphate: What Does the Caliphate Mean for the People?
Mujtaba Ali Isani
IV. Revolutionary Horizons and Authoritarian Dreams after the Radical Age
8. Practicing Utopia – Governing Effects of Democratic Confederalist Discourse in North and East Syria
Julia Wartmann
9. Democracy Imagined from Below: An Analysis of the Revolutionary Imaginaries of the Tunisian Uprisings after 2011
Nabila Abbas
10. Borrowing Faces, Re-enacting Modernity: On a Photonovel by Fehras Publishing Practices
Yazan Alloujami
11. Saudi’s NEOM: A New ‘Utopian City’ Gluing the Jewel to the Crown
Hend Aly
Conclusion: From Utopian Dreams to Pragmatic Alter-citizenship and Low-key Utopias?
Stéphanie Latte Abdallah and Simone Spera
Selected Bibliography
Index
À retrouver sur le site de l’éditeur
OpenEdition vous propose de citer ce billet de la manière suivante :
Chargé de diffusion scientifique (21 mars 2025). Parution : Simon Wolfgang Fuchs, Thomas Pierret, Utopianism in the Middle East and North Africa, Edinburgh University Press, 2025. IISMM. Consulté le 20 avril 2025 à l’adresse https://doi.org/10.58079/13jfu