Food is Freedom: The Evolution and Raison d’être of Cooperatives in Kuwait

Abstract

Kuwait’s cooperative societies (“co-ops”) are vital institutions that are a hub for social, economic, and political activities. In this article we focus on the purpose of co-ops from a socio-political perspective. We argue that co-ops function both as bottom-up organizations and as a means of upholding citizen autonomy versus the state. Historically they emerged as grassroots initiatives in the pre-oil era and have played a significant role in the country’s socio-political arena. Due to their role in securing citizens’ autonomy and thereby upholding the social contract between the ruler and the citizen, the co-ops contribute to legitimizing the regime. Co-ops have not been studied closely and a new research agenda studying these organizations in Kuwait and the region is necessary.

Keywords:

• cooperative societies
• Kuwait
• food security
• grass roots organization

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Khouja and Sadler, The Economy of Kuwait: Development and Role in International Finance (1979), pp. 130–131.

2 Kamrava, Qatar: Small State, Big Politics (2015), p. 114; Al-Khayal, “Obstacles Facing Cooperative Work in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Proposed Solutions to Confront Them”, Social Service Magazine 51 (2017), pp. 185, 227; Moosa, “The Cooperative Movement in the United Arab Emirates: Objectives and Obstacles”, Journal of Interdisciplinary Economics 3. 2 (1990), pp. 131–143; Alsowaidi, “Consumer Cooperatives in Qatar: Their Development and Effects”, The Journal of Interdisciplinary Economics 3.2 (1990), pp. 112–113; Aboul Kheir, “Cooperation in the Arab Countries: An Overview”, The Journal of Interdisciplinary Economics 3.2 (1990), pp. 83–100; Shehab, “Bahrain’s Experience in the Field of Cooperation”, presented at the Arab Organization for Education, Culture and Science Seminar at the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs, Bahrain (1978); Interview with Bahraini citizen, Manama, 2 February 2017.

3 Abduljader, “Kuwaiti Cooperative Societies as the Principal Retailers in the National Economy”, The Journal of Interdisciplinary Economics 3.1 (1990), pp. 145–154.

4 Tétreault, Stories of Democracy: Politics and Society in Contemporary Kuwait (2000), pp. 59–75; Al-Ghanim, “Do Elections Lead to Reform? Assessing the Institutional Limits of Representative Bodies in Bahrain, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia”, Contemporary Arab Affairs 3.2 (2010), pp. 138–147; Muḥammad Mahdī Al-ʿAjmī, ʿUqūd al-taswīq wa mahfaẓatihi fi-l-jamʿiyyāt al-taʿāwuniyya al-Kuwaytiyya, PhD diss. (2012).

5 Abulof, “‘Can’t Buy Me Legitimacy’: The Elusive Stability of Mideast Rentier Regimes”, Journal of International Relations and Development 20.1 (2017), pp. 55–79.

6 Geoffrey Martin conducted his fieldwork during January–December 2016, April–September 2018, and April–December 2019. Zoltan Pall (who was based in Kuwait at the time) conducted his field research during January–May 2016 and December 2017–December 2020.

7 Crystal, Kuwait: The Transformation of an Oil State (2016), pp. 157–158; Tétreault, Stories of Democry, p. 88.

8 Al-ʿAjmī, ʿUqūd al-taswīq wa mahfaẓatihi fi-l-jamʿiyyāt al-taʿāwuniyya al-Kuwaytiyya, PhD diss. (2012); Al-ʿAzimi, Al-jamʿiyyāt al-taʿāwuniyya al-istihlākiyya fi-dawlat al-Kuwayt: dirāsa min manẓūr iqtisādī Islāmī, MA diss. (2013).

9 Al-Otaibi, “Consumer Cooperative Societies in the State of Kuwait”, Journal of Gulf and Arabian Peninsula Studies 21.1 (1996), pp. 15–66; Atif, “Social Aspects in the Marketing Activity of Consumer Cooperative Societies in Kuwait”, Journal of Gulf and Arabian Peninsula Studies 12 (1986), pp. 15–54; Al-Ajmi, The Role of Members of the Boards of Directors of Kuwaiti Consumer Cooperative Societies in Assessing Their Performance, MSc diss. (2008), p. 1–134.

10 Menaldo, “The Middle East and North Africa’s Resilient Monarchs”, The Journal of Politics 74.3 (2012), p. 710; Freer, Rentier Islamism: The Influence of the Muslim Brotherhood in Gulf Monarchies (2018).

11 Herb, All in the Family: Absolutism, Revolution, and Democracy in Middle Eastern Monarchies (1999); Freer, Rentier Islamism (2018).

12 Tétreault, “Looking for Revolution in Kuwait”, Middle East Report, 1 November 2012.

13 Tavana and York, “Cooptation in Practice: Measuring Legislative Opposition in an Authoritarian Regime”, OSFPreprints (2020), pp. 3–5.

14 Ottaway and Muasher, Arab Monarchies: Chance for Reform, Yet Unmet (2011), p. 21.

15 Boodrookas, “Crackdowns and Coalitions in Kuwait”, MERIP, 18 June 2018.

16 Ibid.; Azoulay, Kuwait and Al-Sabah: Tribal Politics and Power in an Oil State (2020), pp. 227–231, 233.

17 Menoret, Graveyard of Clerics: Everyday Activism in Saudi Arabia (2020).

18 Krause, Women in Civil Society: The State, Islamism, and Networks in the UAE (2008), p. 188.

19 Foley, Changing Saudi Arabia (2019), p. 7.

20 Simmons, “Agricultural Cooperatives and Tunisian Development”, Middle East Journal 24.4 (1970); Springborg, “New Patterns of Agrarian Reform in the Middle East and North Africa”, Middle East Journal 31.2 (1977), pp. 127–142.

21 Offe, “Challenging the Boundaries of Institutional Politics: Social Movements since the 1960s”, in Maier (ed.), Changing Boundaries of the Political (1987), p. 93.

22 Jones, “Fantasy or Reality: The Cooperative Commonwealth in the 21^st Century – An Introduction and Debate”, Journal of Co-operative Studies 36.2 (2003), pp. 81–89.

23 Sira and Craig, “Dilemmas in Cooperative Development in Third World Countries”, Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics 60. 2 (1989), p. 245; Holmén, State, Cooperatives and Development in Africa (1990).

24 Fuccaro, Histories of City and State in the Persian Gulf: Manama since 1800 (2009).

25 Beaugrand, “Deconstructing Minorities/Majorities in Parliamentary Gulf States (Kuwait and Bahrain)”, British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies 43.2 (2016), pp. 1–17; Al-Nakib, “Revisiting Hadar and Badu in Kuwait: Citizenship, Housing and the Construction of a Dichotomy”, International Journal of Middle East Studies 43.2 (2014), pp. 5–30.

26 Lacroix, Awakening Islam: The Politics of Religious Dissent in Contemporary Saudi Arabia (2011).

27 Boodrookas and Keshavarzian, “Giving the Transnational a History: Gulf Cities across Time and Space”, in Moloch and Ponzini (eds), The New Arab Urban: Gulf Cities of Wealth, Ambition, and Distress (2019), p. 38.

28 Al-Nakib, Kuwait Transformed: A History of Oil and Urban Life (2016), p. 77.

29 Ibid., p. 78.

30 Hijji, Kuwait and the Sea: A Brief Social and Economic History (2010), p. 103.

31 Bishara, A Sea of Debt: Law and Economic Life in the Western Indian Ocean, 1780–1950 (2017), p. 256.

32 Al-Nakib, Kuwait Transformed, pp. 125–126.

33 Ibid., p. 78. Rulers did have other forms of income, including revenues from date farms, weapons smuggling, and the slave trade, although these revenues were episodic and unsustainable [see: Bishara, A Sea of Debt].

34 Kuwari, Oil Revenue of the Arabian Gulf Emirates: Patterns of Allocation and Impact on Economic Development (1974), pp. 10, 15.

35 Ibid.

36 Al-Nakib, Kuwait Transformed, p. 92.

37 Ibid., p. 82.

38 Ibid., p. 71.

39 Aboul Kheir, “Cooperation in the Arab Countries: An Overview”, p. 83.

40 Kuwait Ministry of Finance, “The Coop Society Experiment in Kuwait and its Relevance to the Current Five-Year Plan”, Report 1993–94, Kuwait National Library, 309.1532RTQ.

41 Ittihad al-jamaʿiyyāt al-taʿāwuniyya al-isthlākiyya, “Taʾrīkh al-ḥaraka al-taʿāwuniyya”.

42 Al-ʿAjmī, ʿUqūd al-taswīq wa mahfaẓatihi fi-l-jamʿiyyāt al-taʿāwuniyya al-Kuwaytiyya, p. 32.

43 Al-Nakib, Kuwait Transformed, pp. 91–94.

44 Al-Saif, The Kaifan Cooperative Society: A Historical Documentary Study (2011), p. 14.

45 Ibid., pp. 14–15.

46 Ibid., pp. 15–6.

47 In 2016, 95,025 KD would be roughly 335,400 KD if controlling for inflation [Kuwait Local, “Retail Sector Essential Factor in Economic Growth Despite Competition”, 27 September 2017].

48 Al-Raʾy, “Miliyār dīnār mabiʿāt jamʿiyyāt al-taʿāwuniyya sanawīyan”, 6 December 2021.

49 Kuwait Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor, “Coop Annual Financial Statements” (2017), Kuwait National Library, 01114012.

50 The authors could not find the relevant data for 1998 to 2009. Data for co-op revenues is difficult to obtain. All data was collected by various MOSAL reports in the Kuwait National Library.

51 Kuwait Government Online, “Shurūṭ al-musāhama bi-l-jamʿiyyāt al-taʿāwuniya”.

52 Al-Saif, The Kaifan Cooperative Society: A Historical Documentary Study (2011), pp. 9, 22, 65–66, 79, 82–83.

53 Kuwait Ministry of Finance, “The Coop Society Experiment in Kuwait and its Relevance to the Current Five-Year Plan”, Report 1993–94, Kuwait National Library, 309.1532RTQ.

54 Albaqshi, “Kuwait Latent Sustainable Urbanity”, Sustainable Architecture and Urban Development (2010), pp. 113–114.

55 Kuwait Ministry of Commerce, “Consumer Coop Society Unions”, Report 1985, Kuwait National Library, H14071406.

56 Kuwait Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor, “Coop Annual Financial Statements” (2017), Kuwait National Library, 01114012.

57 Khallaf, “The State of Kuwait”, in Ibrahim and Sherif (eds), From Charity to Social Change: Trends in Arab Philanthropy (2008), pp. 131–148, 139.

58 Ibid., p. 145.

59 Kuwait Ministry of Finance, “The Coop Society Experiment in Kuwait and its Relevance to the Current Five-Year Plan”, Report, 1993–94, Kuwait National Library, 309.1532RTQ.

60 Al-Anbāʾ, “Al-Saddānī: al-ḥaraka al-taʿāwuniyya al-Kuwaytiyya rāʾida”, 5 July 2021.

61 Al-Saif, The Kaifan Cooperative Society: A Historical Documentary Study, p. 128.

62 Ibid., p. 70.

63 Ibid., p. 18–94.

64 Tétreault, Stories of Democracy, p. 88.

65 Alajmi and Somerset, “Food System Sustainability and Vulnerability: Food Acquisition during the Military Occupation of Kuwait”, Public Health Nutrition 18.16 (2015), p. 3063.

66 Al-Saif, The Kaifan Cooperative Society, p. 100.

67 Alajmi and Somerset, “Food System Sustainability and Vulnerability: Food Acquisition during the Military Occupation of Kuwait”, p. 3062.

68 Ibid., p. 3063.

69 Tétreault, Stories of Democracy, p. 88.

70 Alajmi and Somerset, “Food System Sustainability and Vulnerability: Food Acquisition during the Military Occupation of Kuwait”, p. 3064.

71 Al-Makhlif, “The Role of Cooperative Societies during the Iraqi Occupation Period”, panel discussion on the Kuwaiti economy under occupation, Kuwait Economic Society and Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Sciences (1995).

72 Interview with Muḥammad Al-Fajjī, (one of the leaders of the Kuwaiti resistance), Salmiya, 19 March 2018.

73 Tétreault, Stories of Democracy, p. 88.

74 Arab Times, “Cooperatives in Kuwait Ready with Stocks for More than 6 Months of Basic Commodities”, 26 May 2019.

75 Geoffrey Martin was present in Kuwait during the entirety of the pandemic starting from February 2020 onwards and personally observed these events at co-ops and used the mentioned services on a weekly basis.

76 Arab Times, “Kuwait Cooperative Societies Don’t See Panic Buying, Situation Normal”, 28 December 2020.

77 Kuwait Chamber of Commerce and Industry, “Cooperative Societies”, Report 1994, Kuwait National Library, 01104156.

78 Ministry of Finance, “The Coop Society Experiment in Kuwait” (1993–94).

79 Kuwait Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor, “Report on the Consumer Cooperative Societies” (October 19940, Kuwait National Library, 01113092.

80 Al-Faḍlī, “Al-jamʿiyyāt al-taʿāwuniyya bi-ḥāja ilā 7 ʾālāf muwāṭin”, Al-Qabas, 20 December 2019.

81 Garcia, “Subsidized Food Hot Item in Kuwait’s Makeshift Markets”, Kuwait Times, 3 November 2020.

82 Arab Times, “Bid to Smuggle ‘Ration’ Food by an Egyptian Foiled”, 7 February 2018.

83 Salem, “Kuwait: Politics in a Participatory Emirate”, Carnegie Middle East Center, 16 July 2007, p. 10; Khallaf, “The State of Kuwait”, p. 141.

84 Al-Saif, The Kaifan Cooperative Society (2011), p. 18.

85 Kuwait Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor, “Consumer Coop Society Unions”, Report 1986, Kuwait National Library, H14071406.

86 Al-ʿAjmī, ʿUqūd al-taswīq wa mahfaẓatihi fi-l-jamʿiyyāt al-taʿāwuniyya al-Kuwaytiyya, p. 47.

87 Al-Nakib, Kuwait Transformed, p. 126.

88 Ibid.; confirmed by an interview with Nuzha Coop member, Kuwait, January 2018.

89 Al-Nakib, Kuwait Transformed, p. 126.

90 Al-Saif, The Kaifan Cooperative Society.

91 Kuwait Ministry of Finance, “The Coop Society Experiment in Kuwait and its Relevance to the Current Five-Year Plan”, Report 1993–94, Kuwait National Library, 309.1532RTQ.

92 Interview with Nuzha Coop member, Kuwait, January 2018.

93 Ibid.

94 This clause is only relevant after Law 1979. During a general meeting co-op members need to agree by majority vote to allow board members to take profits.

95 Al-Kuwait al-Yawm, “Marsūm bi-l-qānūn raqm 24 li-sanat 1979 fī shaʾn al-jamʿiyyāt al-taʿāwuniyya” (1979).

96 Kuwait Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor, “Consumer Coop Society Unions”, Report 1986, Kuwait National Library, 66415.568.

97 Al-Saif, The Kaifan Cooperative Society, p. 18.

98 Kuwait Chamber of Commerce and Industry, “Cooperative Societies”, Report 1994, Kuwait National Library, 01104156.

99 Karamat Watan (dignity of the homeland) marchers were the largest mass mobilization in Kuwaiti history demanding the reform of the system of governance [Martin, “The Failure of Karamat Watan State Legitimacy and Protest Failure in Kuwait”, Partecipazione e Conflitto 14.2 (2021), pp. 702–726].

100 Interview with Nuzha co-op member, Kuwait, January 2018.

101 Kuwait Politics Database, “Al-aghlabiyya al-barlamāniyya 2012”, 22 June 2012.

102 Kuwait News Agency, “Social Affairs Min. Issues New Resolutions for Regulating Cooperative Societies”, 6 August 2014.

103 Al-Nahār, “Ittiḥād al-taʿāwuniyyāt bi-rafḍ ilghāʾ al-ʿUmra li-l-jamʿiyyāt”, 7 August 2016.

104 Al-Qabas, “Maghārat al-taʿāwuniyyāt … al-fasād … arfāf … afrāʿ … wa-l-shuʾūn shāhid zūr”, 27 April 2014.

105 Cultural societies and student organizations are the other examples. See: Peterson, “The Political Status of Women in the Arab Gulf States”, Middle East Journal 43.1 (1989), p. 43.

106 Kuwait Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor, “Consumer Coop Society Unions”, Report 1986, Kuwait National Library, 66415.568.

107 Tétreault, Stories of Democracy; Coates Ulrichsen, “Politics and Opposition in Kuwait: Continuity and Change”, Journal of Arabian Studies 4.2 (2014); Herb, All in the Family (1999).

108 Al-Kuwait al-Yawm, “Qānūn raqm 118 li-sanat 2013 bi-tʿādīl bʿaḍ aḥkām al-marsūm bi-l-qānūn raqm 24 li-sana 1979 fī shaʾn al-jamʿiyyāt al-taʿāwuniyya” (2013).

109 Interview with a head of majlis al-idāra who asked for anonymity, Kuwait City, 24 January 2018. This is often a central topic of political debates on the co-ops; see Kuwait News Agency, “Majlis al-umma yabdaʾ munāqashat al-istijwāb al-muqajjah min al-nāʾib Tana li-l-wazīra al-Ṣabīḥ”, 27 October 2015.

110 Al-Qabas, “Maghārat al-taʿāwuniyyāt”, 27 April 2014.

111 Kuwait News Agency, “Profile of Members of New Kuwaiti Cabinet”, 11 December 2017.

112 Kuwait Politics Database, “Natāʾij al-intikhābāt 2008”, 17 May 2008.

113 Interview with ʿAbd al-Laṭīf Al-ʿUmayrī (former Salafi MP and co-op politician), Qurtuba, 2 February 2018.

114 Kuwait Politics Database, “Al-intikhābāt 2016”, 26 November 2016.

115 Al-Tāliʿa, “Mādhā ḥadatha fi-intikhābāt jamʿiyyat al-Rawḍa wa Ḥawallī al-taʿāwuniyya?”, 19 March 2014.

116 These tribes are the Shammar, Mutran, ʿAnizza, and Rashayida. The president of the co-op asked for anonymity.

117 Interview with a co-op president who asked for anonymity, Rigai, Farwaniyya, Kuwait, 14 January 2018.

118 Sadiki, “A Unique Case Study: Kuwait’s Upcoming Parliamentary Election”, Al Jazeera English, 15 July 2013.

119 Interviews with Nuzha co-op board members, Nuzha, Kuwait, December 2017 – February 2018.

120 Manshūr, “Al-jamʿiyyāt al-taʿāwuniyya: ḥaṭṭā lā yafūz raʾs al-māl mujaddadan”, 3 April 2018.

121 Al-Anbāʾ, “Al-ʿAqīl taḍrob ʿalā yad al-fasād”, 16 May 2020; Interviews with Bayan Board member, Bayan, Kuwait, 21 November 2018.

122 Interview with Daiya Co-op Board member, Daiya, Kuwait, 14 January 2020.

123 Al-Qabas, “Al-taʿāwuniyyāt bayn raghbāt al-ḥaṣḥaṣa wa-ʾāthār al-Ṣawt al-Wāḥid”, 15 March 2016.

124 Interview with members of majlis al-idāra of Qurtuba co-op, Kuwait City, 21 January 2018.

125 Al-Muzaini, Al-Zamil, and Al-Azimi, “Struggling! The Board of Directors in Achieving the Goals and Targets”, presented at the SAM International Business Conference in Las Vegas, Nevada (April 2005), p. 5.

126 Kuwait Ministry of Finance, “The Coop Society Experiment in Kuwait and its Relevance to the Current Five-Year Plan”, Report 1993–94, Kuwait National Library, 309.1532RTQ; Kuwait Chamber of Commerce and Industry, “Cooperative Societies”, Report 1994, Kuwait National Library, 01104156.

127 Arab Times, “Public Funds Manipulations Aplenty”, 15 November 2021.

128 Freer, “Exclusion-Moderation in the Gulf Context: Tracing the Development of Pragmatic Islamism in Kuwait”, Middle Eastern Studies 54.1 (2018), pp. 1–21, 6.

129 Tétreault, Stories of Democracy, pp. 33–34.

130 Interviews with Kuwaiti citizens who asked for anonymity, Kuwait, 14 March 2016 and 15 May 2017.

131 Aldousari and El-Sayed, “Factors Influencing Consumers’ Patronage Intentions in Kuwait”, Journal of Business and Retail Management Research 11.3 (2017), pp. 144–153.

132 Al-Otaibi, “Consumer Cooperative Societies in the State of Kuwait”, Journal of Gulf and Arabian Peninsula Studies 21 (1996).

133 Al-Qabas, “Al-taʿāwunīyāt.. ʾurūḍ tanāfusiyya wa ʾarbāḥ bi-ʿasharāt al-malāyīn”, 31 March 2018.

134 Oxford Business Group, “Large-Format Retail Chains Expand in Kuwait” (2015).

135 Arab Times, “Yearly Sales of Co-ops Touch Billions of Dinars … Profits more than Banks”, 12 July 2021.

136 Currently, the board of the KCCI is dominated by the Al Ghanem, Al Sager, and Al Wazzan families.

137 KCCI, “Consumer Cooperative Societies in Kuwait: Analysing and Developing View” (October 1994), Kuwait National Library, 0112321.

138 Arabian Business, “Time to Privatise Kuwait’s Coops, Says Mohammed Alshaya”, 18 May 2018.

139 Interviews with Bayan co-op Board member, Bayan, Kuwait, 4 May 2016; with Nuzha co-op board member, Nuzha, Kuwait, 7 June 2017; and with Fahaheel co-op board member, Fahaheel, Kuwait, 9 November 2018.

140 For example, see: Al-Dayhanī, “Al-Jamʿiyāt al-taʿāwuniya … fasād wa tajāwuz ”, al-Jarīda, 28 July 2020; Interview with Nuzha Co-op Board member, Nuzha, Kuwait, 5 April 2019.

141 Raghu, “Privatization and the Kuwaiti Economy”, Forbes Middle East, 4 July 2016.

142 Kuwait Supreme Council for Planning and Development, Kuwait National Mid-Range Development Plan 2015/2016–2019/2020 (May 2015), p. 42.

143 Arab Times, “Government Preparing Study on Privatization of Co-op Societies – ‘Violations Increasing’”, 30 July 2017.

144 Arab Times, “City Centre Inaugurates News Store in Dasma”, 24 May 2017.

145 Arab Times, “Three Cooperative Societies Lose KD 13 MLN Due to Financial Improperties”, 4 June 2016.

146 Al-Qabas, “Al-Shuʿūn: lam nantahij al-khaskhasa wa tarknā istithmār al-Dasma”, 15 March 2016.

147 Interview with Fahaheel co-op board member, Fahaheel, Kuwait, 9 November 2019.

148 Al-Qabas, “Khubarāʾ qanūniyūn taʿlīqan ʿalā khakhaṣat al-taʿāwuniyāt”, 15 March 2016.

149 Al-Dayhanī, “Mulāḥaẓa sarīʿa ʿalā khaṣkhaṣat al-jamʿiyyāt al-taʿāwuniya”, Al-Taqaddumiya, 2 February 2016.

150 Interview with board members of Bayan Cooperative Society, 7 March 2016.

151 Ibid.

152 Arab Times, “Panel Takes up Anti-Money Laundering Law: MPs Eye Overseas Medical Treatment”, 7 March 2016; Interview with a Bayan co-op board member, Kuwait, 21 January 2019.

153 Faḥimān, “Ṣaliḥ ʿAshūr: lā yuḥaqq al-ḥukūma khaṣkhaṣat al-jamʿiyyāt al-taʿāwuniya”, Al-Qabas, 14 March 2016.

154 Kuwait Times, “Lawmakers Slam Co-op Dissolution”, 25 September 2017.

155 Kuwait News Agency, “‘No Damage’ to Affect Consumers by Co-op Privatization - Min”, 6 January 2015.

156 Kuwait Times, “Kuwait Eyes Major Long-Term Plan to Privatize 38 State Departments”, 13 December 2021.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Geoffrey Martin

Geoffrey Martin is a PhD candidate in the Department of Political Science, University of Toronto, 27 King’s Circle M5S, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, [email protected]

Zoltan Pall

Zoltan Pall is a researcher at the Institute for Social Anthropology at the Austrian Academy of Sciences, 11–13 Hollandstrasse, 1020 Vienna, Austria, and the Avicenna Institute of Middle Eastern Studies, Fő út 2/A H–2081 Piliscsaba, Hungary, [email protected].