History of the Middle East in the Modern Period

An Introduction to the History of the Middle East in the Modern Period

Dr. Brandon Friedman

Course Description:
Writing in the New York Review of Books in 2012, Robert Malley and Hussein Agha noted that in today's Middle East, "Games occur within games: battles against autocratic regimes, a Sunni–Shiite confessional clash, a regional power struggle, a newly minted cold war. Nations divide, minorities awaken, sensing a chance to step out of the state’s confining restrictions. The picture is blurred. These are but fleeting fragments of a landscape still coming into its own, with only scrappy hints of an ultimate destination. The changes that are now believed to be essential are liable to be disregarded as mere anecdotes on an extended journey." This course will explore the roots of these high stakes "games within games," and attempt to identify the important questions to ask about the roots of this blurry picture of the new Middle East landscape. Together, we will begin to delve into the history of the region in order to provide important context for the sea-changes that have taken place since 2011.
 

Grading:
Class preparation, attendance and participation – 15%
Midterm essay – 15%
Final Exam – 70%
 

Introduction
Robert Malley and Hussein Agha, “This is not a Revolution,” The New York Review of Books, November 8, 2012.
Dror Ze'evi, "Back to Napoleon? Thoughts on the Beginning of the Modern Era in the Middle East," Mediterranean Historical Review 19: 1 (2004), 73-94.
 

I. The Fertile Crescent: Iraq-Lebanon-Syria
Tareq Y. Ismael and Jacqueline S. Ismael, Government and Politics of the Contemporary Middle East: Continuity and Change (Routledge, 2011), pp. 186-279 (Chapters 6 &7)
William L. Cleveland, A History of the Modern Middle East, Second Edition (Westview Press, 2000), pp. 385-409 (Chapter 19)
Phillippe Droz-Vincent, “State of Barbary” (Take Two): From the Arab Spring to the Return of Violence in Syria,” The Middle East Journal 68:1 (Winter 2014), 33-58.
 

II. The Islamic State (also known as ISIS, ISIL, and Da‘sh)
Michael Weiss and Hassan Hassan, ISIS: Inside the Army of Terror (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2015), TBA.
Michael W.S. Ryan, Decoding Al-Qaeda’s Strategy (Columbia University Press, 2013), pp. 147-192 (Chapter 4).
 

III. The Sunni-Shi‘i Divide
Phillip Smyth, The Shiite Jihad in Syria and Its Regional Effects (The Washington Institute for Near East Policy, 2015), pp. 37-47 (Chapter 5).
Yusri Hazran, “The Rise of Politicized Shi‘ite Religiousity and the Territorial State in Iraq and Lebanon,” The Middle East Journal 64:4 (Autumn 2010), 521-541.
Fanar Haddad, “A Sectarian Awakening: Reinventing Sunni Identity in Iraq After 2003,” Current Trends in Islamist Ideology, Vol. 17. (The Hudson Institute)
 

IV. Turkey and Iran
Ismael, pp. 75-181 (Chapters 5 & 6)
Cleveland, pp. 267-292 (Chapter 14)
S. Gulden Ayman, “Turkey and Iran: Between Friendly Competition and Fierce Rivalry,” Arab Studies Quarterly 36:1, 6-26.
Aaron Stein, “Stumbling in Iraq and Syria, 2011-2013,” in Turkey’s New Foreign Policy: Davutoglu, the AKP and the Pursuit of Regional Order, Whitehall Papers 83:1, 60-87 (Chapter IV).
 

V. The Kurds
David Romano, “Iraqi Kurdistan: challenges of autonomy in the wake of US withdrawal,” International Affairs 86:6 (2010), 1345-1359.
Ofra Bengio, “Will the Kurds Get Their Way?,” American Interest (November/December 2012), 47-53.
 

VI. Egypt-Jordan-GCC
Ismael, pp. 341-435 (Chapters 9 & 10)
Nathan J. Brown, Egypt’s Failed Transition, Journal of Democracy 24: 4 (October 2013), 45-58.
Asher Susser, “Jordan –in the Maze of Tribalism, Jordanianism, Palestinianism, and Islam,” in Challenges to the Cohesion of the Arab State (The Moshe Dayan Center, Tel Aviv University, 2008), Asher Susser, ed., pp. 103-120.
Sean Yom, “Tribal Politics in Contemporary Jordan: The Case of the Hirak Movement,” The Middle East Journal 68:2 (Spring 2014), 229-247.
Matteo Legrenzi, The GCC and the International Relations of the Gulf (I.B. Tauris, 2011), pp. 27-39, 113-137 (Chapters 1 & 7).
Emile Hokayem, “Iran, the Gulf States, and the Syrian Civil War,” Survival: Global Politics and Strategy 56:6 (2014), 56-86.
 

VII. Muslim Brotherhood vs. Salafis
Hazim Kandil, Inside the Brotherhood (Polity Press, 2014), pp. 1-80 (Chapter 1).
Roel Meijer, ed., Global Salafism (C. Hurst & Co., 2009), pp. 1-32.
Marc Lynch, “Islam Divided Between Salafi-jihad and the Ikhwan,” Studies in Conflict & Terrorism 33:6 (2010), 467-487.
 

VIII. Israel and Palestine
Asher Susser, “Israel’s Place in a Changing Regional Order,” Israel Studies 19:2 (Summer 2014), 218-238.
Asher Susser, “Israel, Jordan & Palestine: The Imperative of the Two State Solution (Brandeis University Press, 2012), pp. 24-113 (Chapters 2 & 3).