Any scholar interested in Arab immigration to Brazil is familiar with the narrative: intrepid immigrants from Syria and Lebanon crossed an ocean in search of a better life, got their start as peddlers, and within a generation had transformed themselves into prosperous, respected Brazilian citizens. “From peddlers to doctors,” as Oswaldo Truzzi put it in the title of his 1992 book.
José D. Najar's ambitious monograph challenges received narratives about Arab immigration to Brazil through three major interventions. First, the author traces the development of Orientalist tropes as applied to Arab immigrants from the Ottoman Empire (and later Syria and Lebanon). Second, he seeks to definitely answer the question of the racial classification of Arab immigrants. And third, Najar introduces gender as a category of analysis to the topic. In contrast with most other studies, which have relied on oral and community histories, Najar makes ample use of Portuguese-language documentary...