A Diasporic Middle East

Movement, migration and diasporisation lie at the heart of the Middle East, in the past and in the present day. Historically, the region has been a heterogeneous site where distinct communities, differentiated by origin and orientation, have coexisted through many periods of conflict and longer times of peace. Some of these displaced communities have been threatened and persecuted; others have kept their difference discreet and maintained low profiles in order to blend in. At different points, some communities rose to positions of prominence and power, while, for others, their very existence was precarious. From the late nineteenth century, dynamic political changes meant that many of these groups have struggled to claim and negotiate a space for themselves, and, increasingly, to protect and sustain it.

Although there has been substantial interest in Middle Eastern immigrant communities in the West, diasporic and minority communities within the Middle East have been relatively neglected in recent academic scholarship.2 As an ancient concept, diaspora has proven remarkably durable, resonating with both old and new communities created through war and displacement, shaped by the forces of repressive politics and global capitalism, yet allowing for creative and dynamic articulations and mobilisations within. The Middle East provides fertile ground in which to explore the concept and lived reality of diaspora. Rich in communities of religious belief and ethnic identity, affiliations to territory, and human societies that have bound empires and nations but also identified outsiders, the Middle East can be regarded as central to the concept and configuration of diasporic communities.

This collection brings together eleven case studies that look at how diasporic groups have been organised and sustained, balancing an attachment to a ‘homeland’ – real or imagined – and living in the diasporic space, or settled in ‘host states’, that are, in practice, their homes. They offer collectively a sustained engagement and exploration of how diasporic communities are vital, even volatile, sites of political, social and cultural expression that must be understood within their specific context. Regardless of their varying circumstances, we posit that these communities are nevertheless embedded in the region, and, therefore, entangled in the politics of the wider Middle East, sometimes being at the very centre of conflicts, sometimes its peripheral victims.