Abdelahad Sebti, Ph.D.

Project

The Time of Landmark Years. Memory, Culture and the Moroccan Historiographical Tradition

The starting point of this project is a listing of memorable years used in texts belonging to different historiography genres (chronicle, biography, hagiography). These are years generally associated with natural disasters or with notable military events. A study of such a corpus would allow a better understanding of the tradition of historiography in Morocco and in the Arab and Islamic world, in general, by focusing on the following tasks:
1. Question the commonly accepted dichotomy between written and oral memory
2. Redefine various ways of presenting time: dating, chronology, sequencing of information
3. Redefine the status of the event
This project fits in with my research interest in a topical re-reading of the discourse of historiography from the point of view of the interaction between genres, the multiple significations of texts, and the heuristic relations between social history and cultural history.

Recommended Reading
Sebti, Abdelahad. "Au Maroc: Sharifisme citadin, charisme et historiographie." Annales ESC, Paris (March-April 1986): 433-457.
-. "Insécurité et figures de la protection au XIXe siècle: La ztata et son vocabulaire." Signes du Présent, Rabat, SMER (1992): 47-69.
-. Le Livre du thé à la menthe: Coutume et histoire (in Arab, together with Abderrahmane Lakhsassi). Rabat, Publications de la Faculté des Lettres et des Sciences Humaines de Rabat, 1999.

Colloquium, 29.04.2003

Historiography Revisited: Event, Time, and Historical Culture

This project is based on a group of texts of varying length that cover Morocco's entire historiographic tradition, from the "Middle Ages" to the mid-twentieth century. From time to time the historian - often as a chronicler, sometimes as biographer or hagiographer - will mention that a given year was commonly known by a certain name, the designation generally referring to a salient event, a natural disaster, a notable economic situation or an important military clash.
I see the phenomenon of landmark years as a starting point for grasping the relationship between event, time and memory within the framework of a traditional culture.
My talk will first trace the changes in the event's status over the years in the sphere of modern historiography, then I will sketch out the main lines of my approach:

1) Situating the narrative tradition in Arab-Islamic historiography
2) The naming of years
3) The sign-event
4) The concept of "crisis"

My methodology is informed by two theoretical concerns: the terms of the discourse regarding time - chronometric, chronological, chronographic or chronosophical (K. Pomian) - and the relationship between oral and written cultures, in particular regarding depictions of the past.

Publications from the Fellows' Library

Sebti, Abdelahad (Mīlānū, 2022)

Min ʿām al-fīl ilá ʿām al-mārīkān : al-dhākirah al-shafawīyah wa-al-tadwīn al-tārīkhī

Sebti, Abdelahad (al-Dār al-Bayḍāʼ [etc.], 2012)

al-Tārīk̲h wa-al-d̲hākira : awrāš fī tārīk̲ al-Maġrib

Sebti, Abdelahad (Casablanca, 2003)

Ville et figures du charisme

Sebti, Abdelahad (1999)

Cherifisme, symbole et histoire

Sebti, Abdelahad (1999)

Reisroutes van de muntthee

Sebti, Abdelahad (Brussel, 1999)

Tea for 2 : theerituelen van over de hele wereld ; [... Galerie van het Gemeentekrediet, Brussel van 7 oktober 1999 tot 30 januari 2000]

Sebti, Abdelahad (Rabat, 1999)

Mina-l-shây ila-l-atây : al-'âda wa-l-târîkh Manshurat Kulliyat al-Adab wa-al-'Ulum al-Insaniyah bi-al-Rabat ; Silisat Buhuth wa-dirasat

Sebti, Abdelahad (Ar-Ribat, 1994)

Historiographie et crise : etudes historiographiques et culturelles : actes de la journée d'études organisée par L'Association Marocaine pour la Recherche Historique (Rabat, 25 février 1989) Mansurat Kulliyat al-Adab wa'l-Ulum al-Insaniya bi'r-Ribat : Silsilat: Nadawat wa-munazarat ; 34

Sebti, Abdelahad (Rabat, 1992)

Histoire et linguistique : texte et niveaux d'interprétations ; actes de la table ronde Marrakech 25.-26. Mai in Marrakech Colloques et Séminaires ; 20

Sebti, Abdelahad (1989)

Histoire sociale et problèmes de méthodes : remarques préliminaires