New Books in Middle Eastern Studies Yossef Rapoport, "Becoming Arab: The Formation of Arab Identity in the Medieval Middle East" (Princeton UP, 2025)
Jan 29, 2026
Yossef Rapoport, historian of the medieval Arabic-speaking Middle East and professor at Queen Mary University London, explains how rural peasants, land rights, taxation, religion, and clan networks reshaped identity across the region. He traces linguistic, social, and political shifts, the role of peasant revolts, and how Arabness was claimed, performed, and contested over centuries.
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Arabness Formed In Villages
- Medieval 'Arab' identity didn't arrive only by migrating tribes settling cities and villages.
- Yossef Rapoport argues clan identities formed within villages in response to political and fiscal changes.
Iqtāʿ Reshaped Rural Society
- A major 11th-century shift turned many cultivators from landowners into tenants under the iqtāʿ system.
- This fiscal change centralized land and encouraged peasants to form clan-led units with headmen negotiating leases.
Use Micro-Sources For 'History From Below'
- To study marginalized medieval communities, prioritize micro-sources like tax and fiscal documents over elite chronicles.
- Use court records, autobiographies, and monastery complaints to reconstruct village social structure.
