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How to read German state archives differently: the case of the "Iraqi traveller" Yūnis Bahrī (ca. 1901-1979) in a global frame
[working paper]
Corporate Editor
Leibniz-Zentrum Moderner Orient (ZMO)
Abstract This essay is the first stage in a larger project that investigates an inter-imperial history of knowledge production through the prism of Baḥrī's activities and networks at various imperial sites in the Dutch, British and German empires as well as the French imperial nation-state. In this essay, I ... view more
This essay is the first stage in a larger project that investigates an inter-imperial history of knowledge production through the prism of Baḥrī's activities and networks at various imperial sites in the Dutch, British and German empires as well as the French imperial nation-state. In this essay, I begin by asking how we can tell the history of the nationalist, journalist, author and traveller Yūnis Baḥrī (ca. 1901-1979) - once known in Arab-speaking populations from Europe across the Middle East to South East Asia as the "Iraqi traveller" (Arabic al-sāʾiḥ al-ʿirāqī) - by acknowledging his inter-imperial life and activities. Taking the archives of the German Foreign Office as examples, I seek to render these inter-imperial coordinates of his life visible. Previous research on Baḥrī has neglected these inter-imperial connections. Due to this reduction, Baḥrī's case could be described as a dualistic story of "Middle Eastern-German" relations. Thus, he could be a symbol for an ideological proximity of Arab nationalists and National Socialism. In this essay, I want to move away from the civilizational lens underlying such arguments by developing a broader methodological outlook. If Baḥrī's story forms part of the historical relationship between Arab nationalists and National Socialism, it is also an element of wider inter-imperial histories. To bring out these histories requires reading practices of the archives that do not follow civilizational or national logics. I therefore take what the archives of the German Foreign Office tell about Baḥrī as a starting point to tease out how his activities transgress civilizational historio graphical frameworks. In conclusion, I explain how the conceptual shift involved in my argument leads to a both broader and denser account of the politics that governed Baḥrī's life and other actors like him.... view less
Keywords
Netherlands; imperialism; intellectual; Islam; nationalism; Nazism; historical development; archives; history of science; propaganda; France; Arab countries; Great Britain; German Reich
Classification
General History
Sociology of Science, Sociology of Technology, Research on Science and Technology
Free Keywords
Baḥrī, Y.
Document language
English
Publication Year
2017
City
Berlin
Page/Pages
14 p.
Series
ZMO Working Papers, 18
ISSN
2191-3897
Status
Published Version; reviewed
Licence
Deposit Licence - No Redistribution, No Modifications