Historically, Ancient Arabia has been pictured as a vast, empty desert. Yet, for the last 40 years, by digging buried cities out of the sand, archaeological research has challenged this image. From the second half of the 1st millennium BC to the eve of Islam in East Arabia, and as early as the 8th century BC in South Arabia, the settlement process evolved into urban societies. This study aims at reviewing this process in South and East Arabia, highlighting the environmental constraints, the geographical disparities and the responses of the human communities to ensure their subsistence and to provide for their needs. Evolution was endogenous, far from the main corridors of migrations and invasions. Influences from the periphery did not cause any prominent change in the remarkably stable communities of inner Arabia in antiquity. The settlement process and the way of life was primarily dictated by access to water sources and to the elaboration of ever-spreading irrigation systems. Beyond common traits, two models characterise the ancient settlement pattern on the arid margins of eastern and southern Arabia. In South Arabia, the settlement model for the lowland valleys and highland plateaus results from a long-term evolution of communities whose territorial roots go back to the Bronze Age. It grew out of major communal works to harness water. Into a territory of irrigated farmland, the south-Arabian town appeared as a central place. Settlements constituted networks spread across the valleys and the plateaus. Each network was dominated by a main town, the centre of a sedentary tribe, the capital of a kingdom. In East Arabia, the settlement pattern followed a different model which emerged in the last centuries BC along the routes crossing the empty spaces of the steppe, in a nomadic environment. Each community spread over no more than one, two or three settlements. These settlements never grew very large and the region was not urbanised to the same degree as in the southwest of the Arabian Peninsula. Permanent settlements were places for exchanges and meetings, for craft productions, for worship, where the political elites resided, where the wealth from long-distance trading was gathered, and where surplus from the regional economy was held. Each town was isolated, like an island in an empty space.

This book traces the development of Oman's inclusive agreements and highlights their importance for international negotiations, dealing with issues most relevant to humanity's own survival today, nuclear weapons or climate change. In Oman, a historical seafaring nation on the south-eastern corner of the Arabian Peninsula, a culture of agreement that accommodates the interests of everyone has developed around the division of scarce water resources. Life in the arid inland of the Omani Hajar mountains would not have been possible without water. Irrigation channel (falaj) construction is extremely old and skilful therein. Local practices evolved around the division of water and land on the basis of fairness. The community would be best served by inclusion and the avoidance of conflict. A specific Islamic school called Ibadi arrived at Oman early on in the eighth century. Ibadi scholars conserved local practices. Consultation and mediation by sheikhs and the religious leader, Imam, became the law of the land. The Omanis were known as the People of Consultation, Ahl Al Shura. In time, the practice of inclusive agreements would extend far beyond the village level, affecting Oman ́s foreign policy under Sultan Qaboos. Oman ́s water diplomacy succeeded in uniting the contestants of the Middle East Peace Process in the 1990s to work together on common problems of water desalination.

The result of twenty-five years of research with different tribal groups in the Arabian peninsula, this study focuses on ethnographic descriptions of Arab tribal societies in five regions of the peninsula, with comparative material from others. Having become aware of the depth in time of Arab tribal structures, the authors have developed a view of Arabic tribal discourse where 'tribe' is seen as essentially an identity that confers access to a social structure and its processes.

Water, an essential resource in all cultures, is at the heart of human power structures. Utilizing a diverse range of theoretical perspectives, the contributors to Water and Power in Past Societies provide a broad introduction to the archaeology of water-related power structures. The studies herein explore the long history of water politics in human society, offering new insights into the power structures and inequalities surrounding irrigation systems, the collection of rainwater as a component of ancient industrial production, and sea water as a facilitator of communication, trade, and aggression. In addition to examining the role of different types of water in creating power relationships, the volume presents case studies from a variety of climatic regions, ranging from the very dry to the tropical. This geographical breadth facilitates cross-cultural comparison, making Water and Power in Past Societies an essential resource for instructors and students of the archaeology of water. Finally, in addition to reaching conclusions with significant implications for archaeologists and anthropologists, the volume has real contemporary relevance, often drawing explicit parallels with issues of current and future water management.

How can we explain the over-exploitation and degradation of natural resources in the countries of the South? Population growth, poverty and problems associated with common property resource management have been common themes in this debate, yet insufficient attention has been paid to how traditional political relations and local perceptions affect natural resource capture and resource allocation. This is especially evident with respect to groups and communities at the political and geographical peripheries of state influence and control for whom self-identity is constructed around notions of autonomy and food self-sufficiency. This informative book addresses this omission by discussing water resource allocation and management. It focuses in particular on the socio-economic and political contexts which influence approaches to and determine practices of water management. Taking the example of the tribal communities of the Sa’dah basin in the northern Yemen, it analyzes the politics of environmental change, with particular reference to groundwater resource degradation, within the conceptual framework of political ecology .

The purpose of this book is to draw attention to the sites of life, politics and culture where current and past generations of the Islamic world have made their mark. Unlike many previous volumes dealing with the city in the Islamic world, this one has been expanded not only to include snapshots of historical fabric, but also to deal with the transformation of this fabric into modern and contemporary urban entities. Salma Khadra Jayyusi was awarded Cultural Personality of the Year by the Sheikh Zayed Book Award for her profound contribution to Arabic literature and culture in 2020. The paperback edition of The City in the Islamic World was published to celebrate the occasion.