Toby Matthiesen
Biographic Data
| ID | 4104730 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Toby Matthiesen |
| GIVEN NAMES | Toby |
| FAMILY NAME | Matthiesen |
| SIGNATURE | MATTHIESEN T |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Cambridge |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-7877-3519 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 13 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 41 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 13 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2008 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2023 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
British India and Orientalism
This chapter tackles how Orientalism was intertwined with British rule in India, where a large part of the British Empire’s Muslim subjects lived. Due to the academic discipline of Orientalism, religion was viewed as backward and invoked to justify why colonised peoples should remain as such. Moreover, modern states turned religion into an object of political struggles by declaring the majority and minority between religious groups. The chapter c…
The Caliph and the Imam
Introduction to themed section on ‘Belonging to Syria. National identifications before and after 2011
The five papers in this themed section seek to explain national identifications with Syria using diverse methods and focusing on various state and societal actors before and after 2011. Each contribution engages with the distinction of national identities into their ‘ethnic/primordial’ and ‘civic/constructed’ elements and examines their meaning within Syria in different times and contexts. Since its independence in 1946, Syria experienced strong …
The Cold War and the Communist Party of Saudi Arabia, 1975–1991
The Communist Party of Saudi Arabia was a pro-Soviet Marxist-Leninist party that existed from 1975 until the early 1990s. Its roots lay in the labor movement of the 1950s in the oil-producing Eastern Province. The history of this province is a hitherto almost unknown aspect of modern Saudi history, Arab Marxism, and the broader Cold War. The Saudi Communist Party helped to launch an uprising in 1979 in the Eastern Province and was particularly ac…
Shiʿi Historians in a Wahhabi State
This article analyzes how Saudi Shiʿi historians have adapted tools associated with nationalism to create distinct historical narratives for the Shiʿa of Eastern Arabia. State-sponsored narratives have either left out Shiʿi Muslims or cast them as unbelievers and alien to the Saudi body politic. In contrast, historical narratives written by Shiʿi authors emphasize the Shiʿa's long history of sedentarization, their cultural heritage, and their str…
The Other Saudis
Toby Matthiesen traces the politics of the Shia in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia from the nineteenth century until the present day. This book outlines the difficult experiences of being Shia in a Wahhabi state, and casts new light on how the Shia have mobilised politically to change their position. Shia petitioned the rulers, joined secular opposition parties and founded Islamist movements. Most Saudi Shia opposition activists profited fro…
Centre–Periphery Relations and the Emergence of a Public Sphere in Saudi Arabia
This article examines the introduction of municipal elections in Saudi Arabia during the reign of King Saʿud. The elections from 1954 to the early 1960s constituted important political arenas that have hitherto been overlooked in scholarship on Saudi Arabia. Grievances and political aspirations of the Saudi population were publicly voiced during these elections, which coincided with an emerging radical press and a labour movement at the ARAMCO oi…
Migration, Minorities, and Radical Networks
This article shows how ideas of Arab nationalism, socialism, and communism spread to the Arab Gulf states. It outlines how migrant workers, teachers, students returning from abroad, and the emergence of a print culture filled with Arab nationalist and leftist ideas in the 1940s created the basis for widespread political mobilization in the oil-rich Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia. After major strikes in 1953 and 1956 and a harsh crackdown, lefti…
Mysticism, Migration and Clerical Networks
Ahmad al-Ahsaʾi (1753–1826), the spiritual father of the mystical strand of Twelver Shiism, known as the Shaykhiyya, became an important religious figure in Iraq and Iran. But the Shaykhiyya also spread in his birthplace in Eastern Arabia and among migrants from al-Ahsa in Kuwait and Basra. The quietist and apolitical teachings of al-Ahsaʾi suited the Shia in Eastern Arabia, who periodically suffered from political insecurity and religious persec…
Sectarian Gulf
"A "Saudi Spring
Since 2011, Saudi Arabia experienced the largest and longest protest movement in its modern history. This article outlines how small protests inspired by the so-called “Arab Spring” and in solidarity with the uprising in neighboring Bahrain developed into a sustained youth protest movement with its own particular demands and frames of references. At the local level, the article shows how the emergence of this protest movement affected the politic…
Hizbullah al-Hijaz
This article discusses the emergence, ideology, and activities of the Saudi Shi‘a opposition group Hizbullah al-Hijaz and its clerical wing, the Tajamu‘ ‘Ulama’ al-Hijaz. The group has played a significant but little known role in Saudi-Iranian relations since 1987 following its creation as a rival to the other Saudi Shi‘a opposition group, the Islamic Revolution Organization. Hizbullah al-Hijaz was pro-Iranian and followed the Marja‘iyya of Ayat…
The Shi'is of Saudi Arabia by Fouad Ibrahim
Migration, Minorities, and Radical Networks
This article shows how ideas of Arab nationalism, socialism, and communism spread to the Arab Gulf states. It outlines how migrant workers, teachers, students returning from abroad, and the emergence of a print culture filled with Arab nationalist and leftist ideas in the 1940s created the basis for widespread political mobilization in the oil-rich Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia. After major strikes in 1953 and 1956 and a harsh crackdown, lefti…
Hizbullah al-Hijaz
This article discusses the emergence, ideology, and activities of the Saudi Shi‘a opposition group Hizbullah al-Hijaz and its clerical wing, the Tajamu‘ ‘Ulama’ al-Hijaz. The group has played a significant but little known role in Saudi-Iranian relations since 1987 following its creation as a rival to the other Saudi Shi‘a opposition group, the Islamic Revolution Organization. Hizbullah al-Hijaz was pro-Iranian and followed the Marja‘iyya of Ayat…
"A "Saudi Spring
Since 2011, Saudi Arabia experienced the largest and longest protest movement in its modern history. This article outlines how small protests inspired by the so-called “Arab Spring” and in solidarity with the uprising in neighboring Bahrain developed into a sustained youth protest movement with its own particular demands and frames of references. At the local level, the article shows how the emergence of this protest movement affected the politic…
Shiʿi Historians in a Wahhabi State
This article analyzes how Saudi Shiʿi historians have adapted tools associated with nationalism to create distinct historical narratives for the Shiʿa of Eastern Arabia. State-sponsored narratives have either left out Shiʿi Muslims or cast them as unbelievers and alien to the Saudi body politic. In contrast, historical narratives written by Shiʿi authors emphasize the Shiʿa's long history of sedentarization, their cultural heritage, and their str…
Centre–Periphery Relations and the Emergence of a Public Sphere in Saudi Arabia
This article examines the introduction of municipal elections in Saudi Arabia during the reign of King Saʿud. The elections from 1954 to the early 1960s constituted important political arenas that have hitherto been overlooked in scholarship on Saudi Arabia. Grievances and political aspirations of the Saudi population were publicly voiced during these elections, which coincided with an emerging radical press and a labour movement at the ARAMCO oi…
Mysticism, Migration and Clerical Networks
Ahmad al-Ahsaʾi (1753–1826), the spiritual father of the mystical strand of Twelver Shiism, known as the Shaykhiyya, became an important religious figure in Iraq and Iran. But the Shaykhiyya also spread in his birthplace in Eastern Arabia and among migrants from al-Ahsa in Kuwait and Basra. The quietist and apolitical teachings of al-Ahsaʾi suited the Shia in Eastern Arabia, who periodically suffered from political insecurity and religious persec…
Introduction to themed section on ‘Belonging to Syria. National identifications before and after 2011
The five papers in this themed section seek to explain national identifications with Syria using diverse methods and focusing on various state and societal actors before and after 2011. Each contribution engages with the distinction of national identities into their ‘ethnic/primordial’ and ‘civic/constructed’ elements and examines their meaning within Syria in different times and contexts. Since its independence in 1946, Syria experienced strong …
The Cold War and the Communist Party of Saudi Arabia, 1975–1991
The Communist Party of Saudi Arabia was a pro-Soviet Marxist-Leninist party that existed from 1975 until the early 1990s. Its roots lay in the labor movement of the 1950s in the oil-producing Eastern Province. The history of this province is a hitherto almost unknown aspect of modern Saudi history, Arab Marxism, and the broader Cold War. The Saudi Communist Party helped to launch an uprising in 1979 in the Eastern Province and was particularly ac…
The Shi'is of Saudi Arabia by Fouad Ibrahim
Hizbullah al-Hijaz
This article discusses the emergence, ideology, and activities of the Saudi Shi‘a opposition group Hizbullah al-Hijaz and its clerical wing, the Tajamu‘ ‘Ulama’ al-Hijaz. The group has played a significant but little known role in Saudi-Iranian relations since 1987 following its creation as a rival to the other Saudi Shi‘a opposition group, the Islamic Revolution Organization. Hizbullah al-Hijaz was pro-Iranian and followed the Marja‘iyya of Ayat…
"A "Saudi Spring
Since 2011, Saudi Arabia experienced the largest and longest protest movement in its modern history. This article outlines how small protests inspired by the so-called “Arab Spring” and in solidarity with the uprising in neighboring Bahrain developed into a sustained youth protest movement with its own particular demands and frames of references. At the local level, the article shows how the emergence of this protest movement affected the politic…
Sectarian Gulf
The Other Saudis
Toby Matthiesen traces the politics of the Shia in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia from the nineteenth century until the present day. This book outlines the difficult experiences of being Shia in a Wahhabi state, and casts new light on how the Shia have mobilised politically to change their position. Shia petitioned the rulers, joined secular opposition parties and founded Islamist movements. Most Saudi Shia opposition activists profited fro…
Centre–Periphery Relations and the Emergence of a Public Sphere in Saudi Arabia
This article examines the introduction of municipal elections in Saudi Arabia during the reign of King Saʿud. The elections from 1954 to the early 1960s constituted important political arenas that have hitherto been overlooked in scholarship on Saudi Arabia. Grievances and political aspirations of the Saudi population were publicly voiced during these elections, which coincided with an emerging radical press and a labour movement at the ARAMCO oi…
Migration, Minorities, and Radical Networks
This article shows how ideas of Arab nationalism, socialism, and communism spread to the Arab Gulf states. It outlines how migrant workers, teachers, students returning from abroad, and the emergence of a print culture filled with Arab nationalist and leftist ideas in the 1940s created the basis for widespread political mobilization in the oil-rich Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia. After major strikes in 1953 and 1956 and a harsh crackdown, lefti…
Mysticism, Migration and Clerical Networks
Ahmad al-Ahsaʾi (1753–1826), the spiritual father of the mystical strand of Twelver Shiism, known as the Shaykhiyya, became an important religious figure in Iraq and Iran. But the Shaykhiyya also spread in his birthplace in Eastern Arabia and among migrants from al-Ahsa in Kuwait and Basra. The quietist and apolitical teachings of al-Ahsaʾi suited the Shia in Eastern Arabia, who periodically suffered from political insecurity and religious persec…
Shiʿi Historians in a Wahhabi State
This article analyzes how Saudi Shiʿi historians have adapted tools associated with nationalism to create distinct historical narratives for the Shiʿa of Eastern Arabia. State-sponsored narratives have either left out Shiʿi Muslims or cast them as unbelievers and alien to the Saudi body politic. In contrast, historical narratives written by Shiʿi authors emphasize the Shiʿa's long history of sedentarization, their cultural heritage, and their str…
The Cold War and the Communist Party of Saudi Arabia, 1975–1991
The Communist Party of Saudi Arabia was a pro-Soviet Marxist-Leninist party that existed from 1975 until the early 1990s. Its roots lay in the labor movement of the 1950s in the oil-producing Eastern Province. The history of this province is a hitherto almost unknown aspect of modern Saudi history, Arab Marxism, and the broader Cold War. The Saudi Communist Party helped to launch an uprising in 1979 in the Eastern Province and was particularly ac…
The Caliph and the Imam
Introduction to themed section on ‘Belonging to Syria. National identifications before and after 2011
The five papers in this themed section seek to explain national identifications with Syria using diverse methods and focusing on various state and societal actors before and after 2011. Each contribution engages with the distinction of national identities into their ‘ethnic/primordial’ and ‘civic/constructed’ elements and examines their meaning within Syria in different times and contexts. Since its independence in 1946, Syria experienced strong …
British India and Orientalism
This chapter tackles how Orientalism was intertwined with British rule in India, where a large part of the British Empire’s Muslim subjects lived. Due to the academic discipline of Orientalism, religion was viewed as backward and invoked to justify why colonised peoples should remain as such. Moreover, modern states turned religion into an object of political struggles by declaring the majority and minority between religious groups. The chapter c…
Political science (11 works) · History (10 works) · Law (10 works) · Politics (10 works) · Islamic Studies and History (8 works) · Ancient history (7 works) · Law (7 works) · History (6 works) · Jewish and Middle Eastern Studies (6 works) · Middle East and Rwanda Conflicts (6 works)