Richard Landes

Last updated

Richard Allen Landes (born 1949)[ citation needed ] is an American historian and author who specializes in medieval millennial thinking. Until 2015 he taught at Boston University, and then began working at Bar-Ilan University.

Contents

Biography

Landes is the son of Harvard Professor of Economics and History David Landes. [1] His early publications were concerned with hagiography; his first published monograph was a translation of the vita of Saint Martial; [2] his second on the scribe and forger Adémar de Chabannes. [3] Until 2015 he was a professor in the Department of History at Boston University, and the director of Boston University's Center for Millennial Studies. Since 2015, he has been a Senior Fellow at the Center for International Communication at Bar-Ilan University, in Ramat Gan, Israel. [4]

Landes was formerly married to historian Paula Fredriksen. [5] He lives with his wife in Jerusalem. [6]

Academic work

Landes specializes in millennial thinking in the Middle Ages, particularly around the year 1000. [7] In 2000, Landes published what was said to be the first encyclopedia on the topic of millennial movements in Europe, the Encyclopedia of Millennialism and Millennial Movements. [8] Landes also published "Celebrating Orientalism " wherein he argues that the Palestinian critic Edward Said and Arabs in general do not like to be orientalized because of honour-shame culture. [9] [ better source needed ]

In " Orientalism , a Thousand and One Times" [10] and "Warientalism, or the Carrier of Firewood," [11] Landes' discourse is labelled Warientalist, a concept that refers to a discourse defined by power and sentiment rather than knowledge.

Pallywood

Since the Muhmmad Al Durrah incident in the Second Intifada, he has defended the politics of Israel apologetically in the light of what he alleges to be media manipulation by Palestinian Journalists and affiliates. Landes coined the term Pallywood (a portmanteau for "Palestinian Hollywood"), described by Ruthie Blum as referring to alleged "productions staged by the Palestinians, in front of (and often with cooperation from) Western camera crews, for the purpose of promoting anti-Israel propaganda by disguising it as news." [12]

Larry Derfner in +972 Magazine has described "Pallywood" as an ethnic slur. "It not only mangles the name of an entire people, it does so in the most contemptuous context – it links the name Palestinian with the telling of lies, and not just any lies, but lies about Palestinian deaths at the hands of their conquerors." [13] Some western media have cited evidence for the term beginning three decades ago.[ as of? ] [14]

From a cultural view, Landes said that the persistence of the Arab–Israeli conflict is due not to injustice or partiality, but to an honor-shame culture in both the Arab and Palestinian cultures. [15] [16]

Books

Monographs

Edited books, collections

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Palestinians</span> Ethnonational group of the Levant

Palestinians or Palestinian people, also referred to as Palestinian Arabs, are an Arab ethnonational group native to Palestine.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Palestinian Christians</span> Religious minority of the Palestinian people

Palestinian Christians are a religious community of the Palestinian people consisting of those who identify as Christians, including those who are cultural Christians in addition to those who actively adhere to Christianity. They are a religious minority within the State of Palestine and within Israel, as well as within the Palestinian diaspora. Applying the broader definition, which groups together individuals with full or partial Palestinian Christian ancestry, the term was applied to an estimated 500,000 people globally in the year 2000. As most Palestinians are Arabs, the overwhelming majority of Palestinian Christians also identify as Arab Christians.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Zionism</span> Movement supporting a Jewish state in Palestine

Zionism is an ethno-cultural nationalist movement that emerged in Europe in the late 19th century and aimed for the establishment of a Jewish state through the colonization of a land outside of Europe. It eventually focused on the establishment of a Jewish homeland in Palestine, a region corresponding to the Land of Israel in Judaism, and of central importance in Jewish history. Following the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, Zionism became the ideology supporting the protection and development of Israel as a Jewish state, in particular, a state with a Jewish demographic majority, and has been described as Israel's national or state ideology.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1033</span> Calendar year

Year 1033 (MXXXIII) was a common year starting on Monday of the Julian calendar.

Millenarianism or millenarism is the belief by a religious, social, or political group or movement in a coming fundamental transformation of society, after which "all things will be changed". Millenarianism exists in various cultures and religions worldwide, with various interpretations of what constitutes a transformation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Adémar de Chabannes</span> 11th-century French monk, composer, scribe and literary forger

Adémar de Chabannes was a French/Frankish monk, active as a composer, scribe, historian, poet, grammarian and literary forger. He was associated with the Abbey of Saint Martial, Limoges, where he was a central figure in the Saint Martial school, an important center of early medieval music. Much of his career was spent copying and transcribing earlier accounts of Frankish history; his major work was the Chronicon Aquitanicum et Francicum.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Music of Palestine</span>

The music of Palestine is one of many regional subgenres of Arabic music. While it shares much in common with Arabic music, both structurally and instrumentally, there are musical forms and subject matter that are distinctively Palestinian.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peace and Truce of God</span> Massive medieval Catholic-led peace movement

The Peace and Truce of God was a movement in the Middle Ages led by the Catholic Church and was one of the most influential mass peace movements in history. The goal of both the Pax Dei and the Treuga Dei was to limit the violence of feuding in the western half of the former Carolingian Empire – following its collapse in the middle of the 9th century – using the threat of spiritual sanctions. The eastern half of the former Carolingian Empire did not experience the same collapse of central authority, and neither did England. This movement was also marked by popular participation, with many commoners supporting the movement as a solution to the famines, violence, and collapse of the social order around them.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Palestine (region)</span> Geographic region in West Asia

The region of Palestine, also known as Historic Palestine, is a geographical area in West Asia. It includes modern-day Israel and the State of Palestine, as well as parts of northwestern Jordan in some definitions. Other names for the region include Canaan, the Promised Land, the Land of Israel, or the Holy Land.

Pallywood, a portmanteau of "Palestine" and "Hollywood", is a derogatory label used to describe supposed media manipulation, distortion or fraud to win the public relations war with Israel. The term came into currency following the killing of Muhammad al-Durrah in 2000 during the Second Intifada, involving a challenge to the veracity of photographic evidence. Israeli pundits have used the term to dismiss videos showing Israeli violence or Palestinian suffering. During the Israel–Hamas war, it has been used to dismiss Palestinian suffering, and is regarded by some news sources as a conspiracy theory.

The Arab Mind is a non-fiction cultural psychology book by Hungarian-born, Jewish cultural anthropologist and Orientalist Raphael Patai. He also wrote The Jewish Mind. The book advocates a tribal-group-survival explanation for the driving factors behind Arab culture. It was first published in 1973, and later revised in 1983. A 2007 reprint was further "updated with new demographic information about the Arab world".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Edward Said</span> Palestinian-American academic (1935–2003)

Edward Wadie Said was a Palestinian-American philosopher, academic, literary critic, and political activist. As a professor of literature at Columbia University, he was among the founders of post-colonial studies. As a cultural critic, Said is best known for his book Orientalism (1978), a foundational text which critiques the cultural representations that are the bases of Orientalism—how the Western world perceives the Orient. His model of textual analysis transformed the academic discourse of researchers in literary theory, literary criticism, and Middle Eastern studies.

Andrew of Fleury was a Christian monk and contemporary historian of the Peace and Truce of God movements.

The Book of Joshua lists almost 400 ancient Levantine city names which refer to over 300 distinct locations in Israel, the West Bank, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria. Each of those cities, with minor exceptions is placed in one of the 12 regions, according to the tribes of Israel and in most cases additional details like neighbouring towns or geographical landmarks are provided. It has been serving as one of the primary sources for identifying and locating a number of Middle Bronze to Iron Age Levantine cities mentioned in ancient Egyptian and Canaanite documents, most notably in the Amarna correspondence.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Handala</span> Symbol and personification of the Palestinian people

Handala, also Handhala, Hanzala or Hanthala, is a prominent national symbol and personification of the Palestinian people.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Palestinian displacement in East Jerusalem</span> East Jerusalem demographic engineering

Palestinian displacement in East Jerusalem is the transfer of Palestinian residents from the city due to Israeli policies aimed at an Israeli-Jewish demographic majority. Many Palestinian families in East Jerusalem have been affected by "forced relocation processes or been involved in lengthy legal procedures to revoke an eviction order." According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), between a third to a half of East Jerusalem's houses do not have permits, potentially placing over 100,000 Palestinian residents of the city at risk of forced displacement and forcible transfer as a result of demolitions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Zionism as settler colonialism</span>

Zionism has been described by several scholars as a form of settler colonialism in relation to the region of Palestine and the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. This paradigm has been applied to Zionism by various scholars and figures, including Patrick Wolfe, Edward Said, Ilan Pappe, Noam Chomsky, and others who view Zionism as a form of settler colonialism. Many of Zionism's founders and leaders described their project as a colonial project, and major Zionist organizations and agencies central to Israel creation held names reflecting colonial identity.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Death to Arabs</span> Anti-Palestinian/anti-Arab slogan

"Death to Arabs" or "Death to the Arabs" is an anti-Arab slogan commonly used by Jewish extremists across Israel, the West Bank, and to a lesser extent, the Gaza Strip. Depending on the person's temperament, it may specifically be an expression of anti-Palestinianism or otherwise a broader expression anti-Arab sentiment, which includes non-Palestinian Arabs. It is widely condemned, with some observers asserting that it manifests genocidal intent.

<i>The Hundred Years War on Palestine</i> 2020 book by Rashid Khalidi

The Hundred Years' War on Palestine: A History of Settler Colonialism and Resistance, 1917–2017 is a 2020 book by Rashid Khalidi, in which the author describes the Zionist claim to Palestine in the century spanning 1917–2017 as late settler colonialism and an instrument of British and then later American imperialism, doing so by focusing on a series of six major episodes the author characterizes as "declarations of war" on the Palestinian people. In the book, Khalidi—historian and Edward Said Professor of Modern Arab Studies at Columbia University—argues that the struggle in Palestine should be understood, not as one between two equal national movements fighting over the same land, but rather as "a colonial war waged against the indigenous population, by a variety of parties, to force them to relinquish their homeland to another people against their will."

Nakba denial is a form of historical denialism pertaining to the 1948 Palestinian expulsion and flight and its accompanying effects, which Palestinians refer to collectively as the "Nakba". Underlying assumptions of Nakba denial cited by scholars can include the denial of historically documented violence against Palestinians, the denial of a distinct Palestinian identity, the idea that Palestine was barren land, and the notion that Palestinian dispossession were part of mutual transfers between Arabs and Jews justified by war.

References

  1. Martin, Douglas (September 8, 2013). "David S. Landes, Historian and Author, Is Dead at 89". The New York Times . Retrieved November 17, 2015.
  2. Burke, Tony (2016). Forbidden Texts on the Western Frontier: The Christian Apocrypha in North American Perspective. ISD. p. 327. ISBN   9780227905517.
  3. 1 2 Jones, Anna Trumbone (2008). "Discovering the Aquitanian Church in the Corpus of Adamar of Chabannes". In Morillo, Stephen; Morillo, Stephen R.; North, William (eds.). The Haskins Society Journal 19: 2007. Studies in Medieval History. Boydell & Brewer. pp. 82–96. ISBN   978-1-84383-393-2.
  4. "Richard A. Landes, CV". 27 January 2010. Retrieved October 30, 2021.
  5. "Paula Fredriksen (name)". John Bulow Campbell Library. Retrieved 1 March 2024.
  6. "Richard Landes". Institute for the Study of Global Anti-Semitism and Policy. Retrieved 1 March 2024.
  7. Cohen, Paul A. (1999). "Time, Culture, and Christian Eschatology: The Year 2000 in the West and the World". The American Historical Review . 104 (5): 1615–1628. doi:10.2307/2649354. JSTOR   2649354.
  8. Buss, Carla Wilson (2001). "Reviewed Work(s): Encyclopedia of Millennialism and Millennial Movements; Routledge Encyclopedias of Religion and Society by Richard A. Landes". Reference & User Services Quarterly. 40 (4): 381. JSTOR   41241416.
  9. Landes, Richard (Winter 2017). "'Celebrating' Orientalism". Middle East Quarterly.
  10. Madiou, Mohamed Salah Eddine (30 September 2020). "Orientalism, a Thousand and One Times: A Tale of Two Perspectives". Islamic Studies. 59 (3): 285. ProQuest   2535247374.
  11. Madiou, Mohamed Salah Eddine (1 April 2021). "Warientalism, or the Carrier of Firewood". Arab Studies Quarterly. 43 (2): 121–145. doi: 10.13169/arabstudquar.43.2.0121 . JSTOR   10.13169/arabstudquar.43.2.0121. S2CID   235849344.
  12. One on One: Framing the debate, Jerusalem Post
  13. Larry Derfner. "‘Pallywood’: A particularly ugly ethnic slur." +972 Magazine , November 15, 2014. https://www.972mag.com/a-particularly-ugly-ethnic-slur-pallywood/
  14. CBS, 60 Minutes. "Pallywood - truth in the middle east hollyland, what goes behind the scenes and for the cameras". YouTube .{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  15. Landes, Richard (2007). "Edward Said and the Culture of Honour and Shame: Orientalism and Our Misperceptions of the Arab–Israeli Conflict". Israel Affairs. 13 (4): 844–858. doi:10.1080/13537120701445315 via Taylor & Francis.
  16. Landes, Richard (2019). "Oslo's Misreading of an Honor-Shame Culture". Israel Journal of Foreign Affairs. 13 (2): 189–205. doi:10.1080/23739770.2019.1678314 via Taylor & Francis.
  17. Lifshitz, Felice (2004). "Review of The Apocalyptic Year 1000: Religious Expectation and Social Change, 950-1050". Speculum . 79 (4): 1110–1112. doi:10.1017/S0038713400087133. JSTOR   20463117.
  18. Appleby, David (2009). "Review of The Apocalyptic Year 1000: Religious Expectation and Social Change, 950-1050". The Catholic Historical Review . 95 (1): 120–122. doi:10.1353/cat.0.0320. JSTOR   27745469. S2CID   143497390.