The Shaykh of Shaykhs is remarkable, persuasive, and a good read. Yoav Alon persuasively spells out how understanding tribal leadership in Jordan's past remains essential for understanding the political and social realities and constraints following the 'Arab Spring.'
Dale F. Eickelman
author of The Middle East and Central Asia: An Anthropological Approach
An outstanding study ... Read moreof leadership and authority in Bedouin society. Mithqal was one of the last great Arab shaykhs, and in Yoav Alon he found the perfect biographer. A remarkable achievement.
Eugene Rogan
University of Oxford, author of The Arabs: A History and The Fall of the Ottomans: The Great War in the Middle East
[A] well-written and often richly descriptive picture of the patriarch of one of Jordan's most notable political families that serves as a lens for both specialist and nonspecialist readers to consider the crafting of a state, the narratives that are made to frame it and its modernity, and the intersection of interpersonal and state politics in both....With The Shaykh of Shayks, Yoav Alon has given us another piece of critical scholarship with which to foster better, critical understanding of complex histories with immediate relevance.
Elena D. Corbett
International Journal of Middle East Studies
In telling Mithqal's story, Alon strikes a delicate balance between empathy and objectivity. His account is entertaining, full of anecdotes and fsacinating personal, political and sociological details.
Sally Bland
Jordan Times
Alon has done an outstanding job....The many anecdotes with which Alon peppers the story make this book a joy to read. In fact, while this is a book that will certainly offer a lot of new information to scholars of Jordanian tribal life, it is written in a very accessible way.
Joas Wagemakers
Die Welt Des Islams
Yoav Alon removes Shaykh Mithqal from the realm of Orientalist stereotype and rightfully places him at the center of Jordanian history. Mithqal was a complicated, charismatic man, and Alon shows us how he thought and maneuvered, how he adapted to radical socioeconomic change, and how he lived in public and private. Vividly told and grounded in meticulous archival and oral historical research, The Shaykh of Shaykhs will transform the way we understand the tribal leaders who shaped the contemporary Middle East. A rare and fascinating study.
Andrew Shryock
University of Michigan
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