Introduction
1. Born a Shaykh
2. From Maverick to Powerful Shaykh
3. The Decade of Power and Glory
4. Between Tent, Camp, and House
5. Times of Crisis
6. Disgruntled Accommodation
Epilogue: Jordan after Mithqal
Yoav Alon is Senior Lecturer in Middle Eastern History at Tel Aviv University. He is the author of The Making of Jordan: Tribes, Colonialism, and the Modern States (2009).
"Yoav Alon removes Shaykh Mithqal from the realm of Orientalist
stereotype and rightfully places him at the center of Jordanian
history. Mithqal was a complicated, charismatic man, and Alon shows
us how he thought and maneuvered, how he adapted to radical
socioeconomic change, and how he lived in public and private.
Vividly told and grounded in meticulous archival and oral
historical research, The Shaykh of Shaykhs will transform the way
we understand the tribal leaders who shaped the contemporary Middle
East. A rare and fascinating study."—Andrew Shryock, University of
Michigan
"An outstanding study of leadership and authority in Bedouin
society. Mithqal was one of the last great Arab shaykhs, and in
Yoav Alon he found the perfect biographer. A remarkable
achievement."—Eugene Rogan, University of Oxford, author of The
Arabs: A History and The Fall of the Ottomans: The Great War in the
Middle East
"The Shaykh of Shaykhs is remarkable, persuasive, and a good read.
Yoav Alon persuasively spells out how understanding tribal
leadership in Jordan's past remains essential for understanding the
political and social realities and constraints following the 'Arab
Spring.'"—Dale F. Eickelman, author of The Middle East and Central
Asia: An Anthropological Approach
"In telling Mithqal's story, Alon strikes a delicate balance
between empathy and objectivity. His account is entertaining, full
of anecdotes and fsacinating personal, political and sociological
details."—Sally Bland, Jordan Times
"Alon has done an outstanding job....The many anecdotes with which
Alon peppers the story make this book a joy to read. In fact, while
this is a book that will certainly offer a lot of new information
to scholars of Jordanian tribal life, it is written in a very
accessible way."—Joas Wagemakers, Die Welt Des Islams
"[A] well-written and often richly descriptive picture of the
patriarch of one of Jordan's most notable political families that
serves as a lens for both specialist and nonspecialist readers to
consider the crafting of a state, the narratives that are made to
frame it and its modernity, and the intersection of interpersonal
and state politics in both....With The Shaykh of Shayks, Yoav Alon
has given us another piece of critical scholarship with which to
foster better, critical understanding of complex histories with
immediate relevance."—Elena D. Corbett, International Journal of
Middle East Studies
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