In 1918, Ottoman sovereignty over geographic Syria ended. In less than two years, Faisal’s Arab Kingdom rose and fell, and France received a mandate to instruct the art of self-governance. In this turbulent period emerged the Arab Majmac (al-Majma‘ al-‘Ilmi l-‘Arabi): a government-established coterie, staffed with intelligentsia whose agenda was to write and proliferate the narrative of the modern, nation-state of Syria. This paper examines the vision of Mu?ammad Kurd ‘Ali, the Majma‘’s first president, to de-Ottomanize and subsequently forge an Arabized, Syrian cultural identity. This paper intends to fill the lacuna on what academia frequently mentions in passing as merely the ‘distinguished’ Arab Majma‘ of Damascus. Based on excerpts from his Memoirs and the Majma‘ Journal, this paper contends that the political activist and language reformer Kurd ‘Ali capitalized on political connections and intellectual networks to secure autonomy in implementing his Arabization project. He effectuated his objectives through the Majma‘, which implemented language policies within the nascent bureaucracy and educational system of Syria. Under the auspices of the flagship Majma‘, the Zahiriyah Library worked to preserve and redact the written records of the nation-state’s new, correct identity. Also within Kurd ‘Ali’s control was the Antiquities Museum, which became a public space for the masses to interact with their corrected history through a process Carol Duncan labels “a ritual of citizenship” (Watenpaugh 2004: 189). This paper concludes that Kurd ‘Ali built his vision of Arabization upon Orientalists models of nationhood and he attempted to situate his Arab Majmac as an essential branch of the European universities and academies. Future research should diagram the social networks of local intellectuals and examine their roles in forging nationalist narratives in the region. Additional work begs inquiries into the varied missions of the several, regional Majma‘s in proliferating Arabic and Arabness.

The Harkis, the Algerians who sided with France and/or served as auxiliaries in the French army during the Algerian War of Independence (1954-1962), offer a prime example of a community in limbo. As margins are sometimes used to define "the center", the Algerian government used the Harkis to create the "imagined Algerian community" and solidify its national identity, by violently banishing members of this group as "traitors", figuratively and practically. At the same time, the Harkis faced marginalization, abuse, discrimination, neglect, and oblivion in France, where many of them found refuge after the war. They remained generally silent about their past, but a certain group among their children and grandchildren launched a kind of 'collective memory work' during the 1990s in France. Much of the scholarship about the Harkis focuses on this memory work, which it generally describes as striving to create a Harki identity within the larger French national identity, and find a place of honor for the community in French society. Using Harki associations' websites, Algerian media outlets, and other carriers of collective memory (memoirs, films, exhibitions, colloquia), this study will compare the strong voice of "second generation Harkis" in France, who work to create their collective memory and identity, with the silence of Harkis in Algeria. I will trace how the Algerian state built the image of the Harki to serve its nationalist narrative, how and why these attitudes changed during the past two decades, and why a rehabilitation of this image, let alone the creation of a distinct community, did not materialize in Algeria. In contrast, I will show how the memory work of the community in France includes and excludes "potential members" of the community, and how their efforts are connected to changing social conditions and political interests in France, as well as to a larger memory work concerning the Algerian War that has gained rapid momentum in France since the 1990s. Finally, I will address certain issues in collective memory studies, suggesting that a collective identity of a marginalized, "other" group could be created only by an extensive memory work that taps into, or allowed to operate by, the hegemonic narrative.

This paper is a socio-cultural study of North African (maghribi) Jewish immigrants to the State of Israel during the first decade after the establishment of the state. I am interested in the way these immigrants narrated their experience, and in the way this experience came to construct a unique collective identity in Israel. To tap into the sentiments of this subaltern group, I will study the personal letters these immigrants wrote their families in North Africa and the letters family members in North Africa sent their relatives who immigrated to Israel. To complement my study I will also examine letters by Ashkenazi citizens of Israel, depicting Jews from Arab lands. All these letters were secretly intercepted and copied by the Israeli state apparatuses which wanted to spy on the soldiers and civilians in order to maintain control over them. The cultural affinity of Jews from Arab lands to the other native (Arab) population of these lands, both Muslim and Christians, was amply demonstrated by scholars. Besides language, many elements of housing style, garb, food etc. were shared across religious communities in the Arab world. However, more than a shared lived experience, the letters by North African Jews used for this study suggest that a collective identity developed among immigrants from Arab lands subsequent their arrival to Israel. The shaping of this Mizrahi or Arab Jewish identity in Israel took form in opposition to another hegemonic identity Jews from Arab lands encountered upon their immigration to Israel—that of the Ashkenazi Zionists. Although the term Mizrahim ("easterners") only appeared in the public discourse in the 1980s and 1990s in opposition to the condescending term bnei edot hamizrah ("descendants of the oriental ethnicities") which was used by the Ashkenazi group, I suggest we can locate the budding of this new identity immediately after Israel was created. Both the letters of the hegemonic Ashkenazi group within the IDF describing soldiers from Arab lands, and the letters by the immigrants themselves, show that discrimination, racism and Orientalization were key in shaping the new Mizrahi identity. This is not to suggest that the Mizrahi or Arab Jewish identity was a passive or a reactive one. On the contrary, the letters show that an oppressive Ashkenazi-Zionist approach towards the immigrants from Arab lands stirred several distinct actions, all pivotal in shaping the new collective identity.