History
The Ethiopia Book of Travels
In many of my critiques of books written about Qatar I have focused on the almost exclusive reliance upon the British colonial record for history making, despite other sources being available (notably Ottoman records in that case). I was directed to an interesting translation of a travel dairy of an Ottoman dignitary, sent by the Sultan, […]
Tags: #Decolonial #Ethiopia #Ethiopia Book of Travels #History #Ottomon
The End of Empire and the Birth of Neoliberalism
“Globalists: The End of Empire and the Birth of Neoliberalism” (2018) by Slobodian (Harvard Press) is a detailed history of the people and ideas neoliberalism, and the institutions they created. The book is historical and delved into the deep end. One reflection, which is somewhat counter intuitive, is that neoliberals are not opposed to government […]
Masters of the Pearl
From the many historical books of Qatar, one of the newest is “Masters of the Pearl: A History of Qatar” (2020) by Michael Quentin Morton. The author has written a history of the UAE, oil in the Middle East, Buraimi, his father’s life as an oil geologist, and this book on Qatar (where he spent […]
The Creation of Qatar
The classic history of Qatar was written by Rosemarie Said Zahlan in 1979, titled The Creation of Qatar. The author is the sister of Edward Said (yes, the Edward Said), and she also wrote a history of the UAE (in 1978) and the region (in 1998). Zahlan’s book is a reference / source book for […]
Tags: #Creation of Qatar #History #Qatar #State of Qatar #Zahlan
Qatar’s Modern and Contemporary Development
One of the benefits of being in Qatar, when reading books written on the country, is the ability to walk the shelves of the Qatar National Library and stumble upon gems that almost certainly would not be available outside of Qatar. One example of this is “Qatar’s Modern and Contemporary Development: Chapters of Political, Social […]
Tags: #Books #Development #Doha #History #Qatar
The Emergence of Qatar
Of all the potential topics covered in books about Qatar, history takes a prominent role. One of these books is Habibur Rahman’s “The Emergence of Qatar: The Turbulent Years 1627-1916”, which was first published in 2005. At the time of its first publication, this book was one of the few histories of Qatar (after Zahlan’s […]
Classifications of Nations
In 1068 Said al Andalusi wrote Kitaab Tabaqaat al ‘Umam, which was translated as “Book of the Categories of Nations”, which the translators of the 1991 version should be better translated as “Classifications of Nations” but kept with the norms of titling for this work. The book is a sort of reference for scholars, publications, […]
Tags: #Categories of Nations #Classifications of Nations #History #Knowledge #Science
Jassim the Leader
In their books on the history of Qatar, Fromherz and Harkness do not include Arabic, Turkish, or Farsi sources, interestingly they also do not include English books that have been translated, such as Al-Ejli’s book, or original English books, as in Jassim the Leader, Founder of Qatar (2012) by Mohamed A. J. alThani (the author […]
Founder of Qatar
In searching for alternative voices telling the history of Qatar, I found a copy of “Sheikh Jassim al-Thani: Founder of Qatar – A Historical Study of a Nineteenth Century Gulf and the Arabian Peninsula” (2015). The book was written in Arabic by Dr Omar al-Ejli, then translated into English by Abdul Salam Idrisi. The book […]
Tags: #Books #Colonial gaze #History #Jassim al Thani #Qatar
On the Genealogy of Morality
In looking for ideas about how to present the history and connectivity of ideas, I returned to Nietzsche’s On the Genealogy of Morality, published in 1887. Sharing a few notes with that interest in reading (and only a periphery interest in the arguments of the book). In the Introduction of the version I read (by […]
Tags: #Genealogy #Genealogy as method #History #Nietzsche #On the Genealogy of Morality
About me
Logan Cochrane
Logan is a Professor at HBKU in the College of Public Policy. He is an Associate Fellow of the Ethiopian Academy of Sciences and an Adjunct Professor at Hawassa University (Institute for Policy and Development Research). Over the last twenty years, he has worked in Afghanistan, Benin, Burundi, Canada, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda. Logan acts as a consultant for governmental agencies and non-governmental organizations, seeking to create bridges between research and practice.
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