2012/04/16 by Edith Szanto · 16 citations
Social Sciences · #Islamic Studies and History #Middle East Politics and Society #Multiculturalism, Politics, Migration, Gender #State of exception #Nothing #Nazism #State (computer science) #Sovereignty #Refugee #Sovereign state #Order (exchange) #Philosophy #Law #History #Political science #Epistemology #Politics
paper · doi:10.1017/s0020743812000050
published in International Journal Middle East Studies 44(2), 285-299 (Cambridge University Press)
openalex publication_date 2012/04/16 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/05/23
Abstract According to Giorgio Agamben, a “state of exception” is established by the sovereign's decision to suspend the law, and the archetypical state of exception is the Nazi concentration camp. At the same time, Agamben notes that boundaries have become blurred since then, such that even spaces like refugee camps can be thought of as states of exception because they are both inside and outside the law. This article draws on the notion of the state of exception in order to examine the Syrian refugee camp cum shrine town of Sayyida Zaynab as well as to analyze questions of religious authority, ritual practice, and pious devotion to Sayyida Zaynab. Though Sayyida Zaynab and many of her Twelver Shiʿi devotees resemble Agamben's figure of homo sacer , who marked the origin of the state of exception, they also defy Agamben's theory that humans necessarily become animal-like, leading nothing more than “bare lives” (or zoē ) in states of exception.