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21H.601

Islam, the Middle East, and the West

Undergraduate · Historical course

Fall 2006

This course aims to provide students with a general overview of basic themes and issues in Middle Eastern history from the rise of Islam to the present, with an emphasis on the encounters and exchanges between the "Middle East" (Southwest Asia and North Africa) and the "West" (Europe and the United States).

Readings

  • Goody, Jack. Islam in Europe . Cambridge, UK: Polity Press, 2004. ISBN: 9780745631936.
    Listed reading
  • Maalouf, Amin. The Crusades Through Arab Eyes . New York, NY: Schoken, 1985. ISBN: 9780805240047.
    Listed reading
  • Matar, N. I. In the Lands of the Christians: Arabic Travel Writing in the Seventeenth Century . New York, NY: Routledge, 2002. ISBN: 9780415932288.
    Listed reading
  • Al-Saffar, Muhammad. Disorienting Encounters: Travels of a Moroccan Scholar in France in 1845-1846: The Voyage of Muhammad as-Saffar . Translated and edited by Susan Gilson Miller. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1992. ISBN: 9780520074620.
    Listed reading
  • Salih, Tayeb. Season of Migration to the North . Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 1991. ISBN: 9780435909741.
    Listed reading
  • SES #: 1 · READINGS: Middle East, historiographical issues, and geography.
    Reading assignment
  • Discussion: Lockman, Zachary. “In the Beginning.” In Contending Visions of the Middle East . New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 2004, pp. 7-37. ISBN: 9780521629379.
    Listed reading
  • SES #: 3 · READINGS: Goody, Jack. “The West’s Problem with the East.” In The East in the West . New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 1996, pp. 1-10. ISBN: 9780521556736.
    Reading assignment
  • SES #: 4 · READINGS: Berkey, Jonathan. “The Religions of Late Antiquity.” In The Formation of Islam . New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 2002, pp. 10-38. ISBN: 9780521588133.
    Reading assignment
  • Discussion: Maalouf, Amin. The Crusades Through Arab Eyes . Prologue pp. xiii-xvi, pp. 3-55, and pp. 59-81.
    Listed reading
  • SES #: 6 · READINGS: Goody, Jack. “Introduction,” and “Past Encounters.” In Islam in Europe . pp. 10-24 (until the end of first paragraph).
    Reading assignment
  • SES #: 7 · READINGS: Guichard, Pierre. “The Social History of Muslim Spain.” In The Legacy of Muslim Spain . Edited by Salma Khadra Jayyusi. New York, NY: E.J. Brill, 1992, pp. 679-708. ISBN: 9789004095991.
    Reading assignment
  • SES #: 8 · READINGS: Discussion: Maalouf, Amin. The Crusades Through Arab Eyes . pp. 82-158.
    Reading assignment
  • SES #: 9 · READINGS: Goody, Jack. “Past Encounters.” In Islam in Europe . pp. 24-49.
    Reading assignment
  • SES #: 10 · READINGS: Discussion: Maalouf, Amin. The Crusades Through Arab Eyes . pp. 159-259, epilogue, and discussion.
    Reading assignment
  • SES #: 11 · READINGS: Goody, Jack. “Past Encounters.” In Islam in Europe . pp. 49-83.
    Reading assignment
  • Discussion: Brotton, Jerry. “A Global Renaissance.” In The Renaissance Bazaar: From the Silk Road to Michelangelo . New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2002, pp. 33-61. ISBN: 9780192802682.
    Listed reading
  • Dursteller, Eric R. “An Urban Middle Ground.” In Venetians in Constantinople. Nation, Identity, and Coexistence in the Early Mediterranean . Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2006, pp. 151-185. ISBN: 9780801883248.
    Listed reading
  • SES #: 13 · READINGS: Goody, Jack. “Past Encounters.” In Islam in Europe . pp. 83-109.
    Reading assignment
  • SES #: 14 · READINGS: Discussion: Matar, N. I. In The Lands of the Christians . Introduction (xiii-xxxviii) and selection of chapters (chapters 1 and 4 [pp. 5-44, 197-214] or chapter 2 [pp.45-111]).
    Reading assignment
  • SES #: 15 · READINGS: Ayalon, David. “The Historian al-Jabarti and his Background.” Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London 23, no. 2. (1960): 217-249.
    Reading assignment
  • Al-Jabarti, Sheik. Napoleon in Egypt: Al-Jabarti’s Chronicle of the French Occupation, 1798 . Translated by Schmuel Moreh. Princeton, NJ: Markus Wiener Publishing, Inc., 1993. Selection (13 pages). ISBN: 9781558760707.
    Listed reading
  • Film: Selections from Chahine, Youssef. Adieu, Bonaparte! Egypt/France, 1985. ↗
    Listed reading
  • SES #: 17 · READINGS: Discussion: Matar, N. I. In The Lands of the Christians . Chapter 3, pp. 113-195.
    Reading assignment
  • SES #: 18 · READINGS: Hourani, Albert. “Islam in European Thought.” In Islam in European Thought . New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 1991, pp. 32-60 (sections 6 to 11). ISBN: 9780521392136.
    Reading assignment
  • SES #: 19 · READINGS: Said, Edward. Orientalism . New York, NY: Pantheon Books, 1978, pp. 1-9, 31-49. ISBN: 9780394428147. Film: Anderson, Alexandra, and Tariq Ali. A Conversation with Edward Said . 1994.
    Reading assignment
  • SES #: 20 · READINGS: Discussion: Saffar, Muhammad. Disorienting Encounters . pp. 3-69.
    Reading assignment
  • Goody, Jack. “Bitter Icons and Ethnic Cleansing.” In Islam in Europe . pp. 110-132.
    Listed reading
  • Hobsbawm, Eric. “Introduction: Inventing Traditions.” In The Invention of Tradition . Edited by E. Hobsbawm and T. Ranger. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 1983, pp. 1-14. ISBN: 9780521246453.
    Listed reading
  • Bayly, Susan. “Racial Readings of Empire: Britain, France, and Colonial Modernity in the Mediterranean and Asia.” In Modernity & Culture: From the Mediterranean to the Indian Ocean . Edited by Leila T. Fawaz and C. A. Bayly. New York, NY: Columbia University Press, 2001, pp. 285-313. ISBN: 9780231114271.
    Listed reading
  • SES #: 23 · READINGS: Discussion: Saffar, 1992: 73-150.
    Reading assignment
  • Zürcher, Erik J. “The Ottoman Legacy of the Turkish Republic.” Die Welt des Islams 32 (1992): 237-253.
    Listed reading
  • SES #: 25 · READINGS: Discussion: Saffar, Muhammad. Disorienting Encounters . pp. 150-212 (end).
    Reading assignment
  • Jankowski, James. “Arab Nationalism in ‘Nasserism’ and Egyptian State Policy, 1952-1958.” In Rethinking Nationalism in the Arab Middle East . Edited by J. Jankowski and I. Gershoni. New York, NY: Columbia University Press, 1997, pp. 150-167. ISBN: 9780231106955.
    Listed reading
  • Salih, Tayeb. Season of Migration to the North . pp. 1-69.
    Listed reading
  • Films: Selections from Chahine, Youssef. Salah al-Din the Victorious . Egypt, 1964. or, ↗
    Listed reading
  • Fadel, Mohamed. Nasser 56 . Egypt, 1996. ↗
    Listed reading
  • SES #: 28 · READINGS: Reading: Salih, Tayeb. Season of Migration to the North . pp. 1-69.
    Reading assignment
  • Benin, Joel. “Post-populist Reformation of the Working Class and Peasantry.” In Workers and Peasants in the Modern Middle East . New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 2001, pp. 114-141. ISBN: 9780521629034.
    Listed reading
  • Humphreys, Michael. “Migrants, Workers and Refugees: The Political Economy of Population Movements in the Middle East.” Middle East Report 181, Radical Movements: Migrants, Workers and Refugees (March-April 1993): 2-7.
    Listed reading
  • SES #: 30 · READINGS: Discussion: Salih, Tayeb. Season of Migration to the North . pp. 70-169 (end).
    Reading assignment
  • SES #: 31 · READINGS: Mirsepassi-Ashtiani, Ali. “The Crisis of Secular Politics and the Rise of Political Islam in Iran.” Social Text 38 (Spring 1994): 51-84.
    Reading assignment
  • Russet, Bruce, John Oneal, and Michaelene Cox, “Clash of Civilizations, or Realism and Liberalism Déjà vu? Some Evidence.” Journal of Peace and Research 37, no. 5 (September 2000): 583-608.
    Listed reading
  • Abrahamian, Ervand. “The U.S. Media, Huntington and September 11.” Middle East Report 223 (Summer 2002): 62-63.
    Listed reading
  • Huntington, Samuel P. “The Clash of Civilizations.” Foreign Affairs 72, no. 3 (Summer 1993).
    Recommended
  • Goody, Jack. “Islam and Terrorism,” and “The Taliban, the Bamiyan and Us.” Chapters 3 and 4 in Islam in Europe . pp. 146-160 and 133-145.
    Recommended
  • Film: Frei, Christian. The Giant Buddhas . 2005. ↗
    Recommended
  • Al-Saffar, Muhammad. Disorienting Encounters: Travels of a Moroccan Scholar in France in 1845-1846 . Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1992. ISBN: 9780520074620.
    Listed reading
  • Cleveland, William. A History of the Modern Middle East . 3rd ed. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 2004. ISBN: 9780813340487. A good reference for the 20th century.
    Recommended
  • Lapidus, Ira M. A History of Islamic Societies . 2nd ed. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 2002. ISBN: 9780521779333. An elaborate and extensive history that includes Sub-Saharan Africa and Far East Asia, from the incipience of Islam to the 20th century.
    Recommended
  • Gelvin, James L. The Modern Middle East: A History . New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2004. ISBN: 9780195167894. Concise topical account with good summaries.
    Recommended
Sources