Toby Matthiesen

Illuminates with clarity and insight a centuries-old sectarian division that continues to shape events in the Middle East and around the world. In 632, soon after the prophet Muhammad died, fights broke out among his followers as to who would succeed him. A small number of Muslims--who would become known as the Shia -- believed only members of Muhammad's family should lead. The majority, however--the Sunnis--insisted that the leader should be elected by the community's elite. This initial dispute marks the origin of the Sunni-Shia split in Islam. In The Caliph and the Imam Middle East scholar and expert Toby Matthiesen explores this hugely significant division from its origins to the present day. Moving chronologically, Matthiesen sheds light on how this initial divide has shaped and continues to influence current events in the Middle and Near East. His book spans from the 7th century to the present, and in particular focuses on one of the key moments in the conflict--the Saudi-Iranian

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 from an amnesty in 1993 and subsequently found a place in civil society and the public sphere. However, since 2011 a new Shia protest movement has again challenged the state. The Other Saudis shows how exclusionary state practices created an internal Other and how sectarian discrimination has strengthened Shia communal identities. The book is based on little-known Arabic sources, extensive fieldwork in Saudi Arabia and interviews with key activists. Of immense geopolitical importance, the oil-rich Eastern Province is a crucial but little known fac

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 from an amnesty in 1993 and subsequently found a place in civil society and the public sphere. However, since 2011 a new Shia protest movement has again challenged the state. The Other Saudis shows how exclusionary state practices created an internal Other and how sectarian discrimination has strengthened Shia communal identities. The book is based on little-known Arabic sources, extensive fieldwork in Saudi Arabia and interviews with key activists. Of immense geopolitical importance, the oil-rich Eastern Province is a crucial but little known fac

As popular uprisings spread across the Middle East, popular wisdom often held that the Gulf States would remain beyond the fray. In Sectarian Gulf, Toby Matthiesen paints a very different picture, off

Ronald P. Toby argues that this isolationism was by no means so complete as traditionally supposed. He demonstrates that the Tokugawa shoguns conducted a foreign policy that established the shogunate'

Ronald P. Toby argues that this isolationism was by no means so complete as traditionally supposed. He demonstrates that the Tokugawa shoguns conducted a foreign policy that established the shogunate'

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