Alon K. Raab
Alon is a writer, university teacher, and dreamer who teaches Religious Studies at the University of California, Davis. His true religions are football and bicycles. Playing, riding, writing books and articles about, co-hosting radio shows, and dreaming of them are among the things that make his heart sing. His books include The Global Game: Writers on Soccer (University of Nebraska Press) and Soccer in the Middle East (Routledge.)
Project
During his month-long stay at CeRCCa Alon worked on his forthcoming book Faster than Al-Burāq: The History and Culture of Cycling in the Middle East. (Al-Burāq is the heavenly horse that carried the prophet Muhammad on his night journey from Mecca to Jerusalem.)
The book examines the varied connections between cycling and society in the Middle East and looks at intersections with religion, class, gender, and individual and social transformation. Colonial journeys, a vehicle of modernity and women’s independence, rides in the service of peace but also war, and a place in the literary imagination- these are some of the aspects of cycling in the Middle East that are explored in the book.
First appearing with European and American adventurers, missionaries and colonial administrators, bicycles gained popularity during Ottoman, British and French rule, their use encouraged in elite schools as embodying western ideals of progress. In the early decades of the 20th century they played, here as elsewhere, an important role as a vehicle for women overcoming patriarchal barriers and as a gateway for independence. National liberation movements emphasized, via political and athletic clubs and associations, the importance of cycling in fostering physical and mental health, building the “new man and woman” of the nation, and resisting foreign invaders. For over a century armies, resistance movements, and suicide bombers deployed bicycles but they also have long been a bridge between cyclists of warring nations. Influenced by political and social developments such as colonialism, the rise of modern political Islam, and globalization, bicycles have also shaped these developments. They have long captured the imagination of indigenous writers, artists and filmmakers who have incorporated them into their works and sang their praises.
Alon’s plan to organize a community event centered on this vehicle of personal and societal transportation and transformation did not materialize. He would love to return and bring to fruition a meeting of local cyclists who will discuss cycling in Catalunya (both personal stories and considerations of cycling in the region), and his own research on cycling and social change in the Middle East. A community ride is also planned.
