0021-1818_islam_98-1-2-i-259

Reviews 221
delved into this level of detail with the people of the western 0ajar Mountains
themselves and then re-presented their words and thoughts in English.
The book was based on an archive assembled by the authors for His Highness
Shaykh Sultan b. Saqr al-Qasim\, deputy ruler of the emirate of Ra#s al-Khaima in
the United Arab Emirates (UAE) between October 1997 and April 2005. Well over
500 pages in length, it is organized partially by geography and partially by
broader political or economic subjects. An introductory chapter lays out notions
of tribe, identity and space and is then followed by four chapters on specific regions
and the associated methods of living prior to the era of oil in the western
0ajar Mountains and adjacent locales in the UAE and Oman’s Musandam Peninsula.
Subsequent chapters address specific political and social issues, such as the
commercial economy, notions of rulership, and the social impact of economic development
and urbanization accompanying the signing of oil concessions. These
are key to understanding the complex histories and social terrains of the modern
nation-states of the UAE and Oman.
In terms of the social history of the UAE, texts similar in content would include
Frauke Heard-Bey’s From Trucial States to United Arab Emirates: A Society
in Transition, originally published in 1996, 1 although the ethnographic depth of
Honour is in Contentment is unrivaled and based on primary research, rather than
Heard-Bey’s references to older texts like John Gordon Lorimer’s Gazetteer of
the Persian Gulf 2 first published in 1907. Aqil Kazim 3 and Christopher Davidson 4
have written histories of the UAE that touch on the tribal formations described by
the Lancasters. Jane Bristol-Rhys recently wrote Emirati Women: Generations
of Change, 5 which goes over some of the same issues, albeit from a gender-specific
perspective, and Mohammed Al Fahim’s From Rags to Riches 6 provides an insider’s
anecdotal account of life in Abu Dhabi prior to the era of oil concessions.
However, none approaches Honour is in Contentment in terms of ambition, scope
and scale.
1 Frauke Heard-Bay, From Trucial States to United Arab Emirates: A Society in Transition, Dubai:
Motivate Publishing, 2005.
2 J. G. Lorimer, The Gazetteer of the Persian Gulf, Oman and Central Arabia: Volumes 1–9. London:
Archive Editions, 1994.
3 Aqil Kazim, The United Arab Emirates A.D. 600 to the Present: A Socio-Discursive Transformation
in the Arabian Gulf, Dubai: Gulf Book Centre, 2000.
4 Christopher M. Davidson, The United Arab Emirates: A Study in Survival, Boulder, Co.: Lynne
Reinner, 2005.
5 Jane Bristol-Rhys, Emirati Women: Generations of Change, London: C. Hurst and Company,
2010.
6 Mohammed Al Fahim, From Rags to Riches: A Story of Abu Dhabi. London: The Centre of Arab
Studies, 1995.