Modern Middle East Research Articles

The Ottoman Empire and Safavid Iran, 1639–1682: Diplomacy and Borderlands in the Early Modern Middle East, written by Selim Güngörürler

The Ottoman Empire and Safavid Iran, 1639–1682: Diplomacy and Borderlands in the Early Modern Middle East, written by Selim Güngörürler

Decentering the Center: Dialogues with Zeynep Çelik

Review of Susan Slyomovics, ed., Ordering Imperial Worlds: From Late Medieval Spain to the Modern Middle East, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2023, 328 pages, 14 b&w illustrations, 49 color illustrations. ISBN 9781399517867. In this volume of essays in honor of Zeynep Çelik, scholars engage with her rich corpus on built environments of the Mediterranean. Utilizing transdisciplinary and often innovative methods, they draw on diverse voices across space and time to interrogate the idea of empire.

Reconceptualizing Security and Political Economy in the Modern Middle East

Abstract We prioritize reorienting prevailing concepts of security within the contemporary Middle East and North Africa through a critical political economy framework. The practices of both waging war and preparing for war – that is, war-making – generate profound consequences for regional societies, but they also remain poorly understood. We advance a more reflexive paradigm that emphasizes how political actors define notions of security on their own terms, and then make appropriate choices based upon their own understandings. In turn, those choices can generate long-term implications, which must be carefully understood by exploring how governments and social communities respond to conflict.

Nationalism and the Ottoman-Arab Dynamic: From Cultural Renaissance to Political Revolt

This paper delves into the intricate relationship between the Ottoman Empire and its Arab Muslim subjects amidst the backdrop of rising nationalist sentiments during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It traces the historical evolution of Arab nationalism, examining its cultural origins and political dimensions, while also dissecting the Ottoman administration's response to nationalist aspirations. Through an analysis of historical documents, scholarly works, and contemporary accounts, the study illuminates how nationalist movements reshaped the political, social, and cultural dynamics within the empire, leading to increased tensions between the central government and Arab nationalists. The paper highlights key events such as the Tanzimat reforms and the Young Turk Revolution, which exacerbated these tensions, culminating in the Arab Revolt of 1916 supported by the British. It also explores the impact of World War I on Ottoman-Arab relations and the subsequent dissolution of the empire, as reflected in treaties like the Treaty of Sèvres and the Treaty of Lausanne, which paved the way for the establishment of modern Arab states under European mandates. Through a comprehensive examination of historical sources and scholarly literature, the paper elucidates the multifaceted nature of nationalism's influence on the Ottoman Empire's relationship with its Arab Muslim subjects, underscoring its profound and enduring significance in shaping the modern Middle East.

The End of the Ottoman Empire: A Century after the Fall

A century ago, the Ottoman Empire finally ceased to be after a long reign that stretched back to the late medieval period, and, ostensibly, nobody really missed it. It was once possible to write about the fall of the Ottoman Empire as the overdue culmination of a process that gave rise to independent nation–states. But, increasingly, the empire casts a long shadow on the historiography of the Middle East, and its last days emerge among its most consequential for the future of the region. The same political actors who reshaped late Ottoman politics were integral to the struggle for the post-Ottoman landscape. These individuals included provincial elites from nondominant ethnic groups who, rather than embracing ethnic nationalism, remained Ottomanist in their vision of the region's future until the final moment. Newer scholarship rejects the teleology of the nations that emerged from postwar fracturing, demonstrating that the map was not redrawn by the victors in an instant. It was forged, instead, through armed struggles against European imperial powers and among rival movements that lasted for years. One hundred years after the Ottoman Empire's collapse, historians are still excavating its long-ignored relevance for understanding the modern Middle East, which was buried under the weight of nationalist and Orientalist metanarratives that never questioned the inevitability of its demise.

Gender: History, Women and Gender in the Modern Middle East: From Orientalism to the Arab Spring, by Lisa Pollard and Mona L. Russell (book review)

History, Women and Gender in the Modern Middle East: From Orientalism to the Arab Spring, by Lisa Pollard and Mona L. Russell. London: Routledge, 2023. 312 pages. $140 cloth; $48.99 paper, e-book.

Locusts of Power: Borders, Empire, and Environment in the Modern Middle East by Samuel Dolbee (review)

Locusts of Power: Borders, Empire, and Environment in the Modern Middle East by Samuel Dolbee (review)

Ordinary Ottomans: post-World War I settlements and experiences of the end of empire

ABSTRACT In the introduction to this special issue, we address the concepts of ordinariness and Ottomanness, and how they intersect within the general context of the disintegration of the Ottoman Empire. 1 Given the already existing scholarship on ordinary groups or individuals in the history of the Middle East, we first position ordinariness as context-specific; that is, we understand it as subjected to various forms of exclusion from the elite. Second, within the framework of the major political changes that characterise the end of Empire we explore ordinariness and how it is embedded in everyday life and practices. We interrogate the capacities of individuals to maintain regularity through ordinary practices, after or despite a disruptive episode. We argue that persisting with everyday life practices despite crisis can serve as a strategy to reclaim spaces of autonomy from power structures. However, we also demonstrate that ordinary individuals, being vulnerable subjects or citizens, are also subject to change. These questions eventually lead us to rethink the debate on ‘continuities and ruptures’ within the post-Ottoman context. We suggest that framing Ottomanness as a time-marker, rather than as an identity-marker (Ottoman-era), allows us to focus on how groups and individuals coped with these changes, rather than attempting to define them.

AI-Enhanced Digital Learning: Revolutionizing Middle East History Education

This abstract highlights the transformative impact of AI-enhanced digital learning on Middle East history education. By integrating artificial intelligence technologies into educational platforms, personalized learning experiences are offered, catering to diverse student needs and preferences. Through dynamic content delivery, interactive activities, and real-time feedback, learners engage more deeply with complex historical narratives, fostering critical thinking skills and a nuanced understanding of the region’s cultural, political, and social dynamics. This innovative approach not only enhances accessibility to historical knowledge but also revolutionizes traditional pedagogical methods, ushering in a new era of engaging and effective history education in the Middle East.

Mark Sanagan. Lightning through the Clouds: ʿIzz Al-Din Al-Qassam and the Making of the Modern Middle East.

Mark Sanagan. <i>Lightning through the Clouds: ʿIzz Al-Din Al-Qassam and the Making of the Modern Middle East</i>.

Exploring business history of the Middle East and North Africa region

Exploring business history of the Middle East and North Africa region

Tourism and the making of the modern Middle East

ABSTRACT Since its inception the Journal of Tourism History has sought to expand the interdisciplinary field of tourism history to include scholarship from and about regions such as the Middle East. This special issue on ‘Tourism and the Making of the Modern Middle East’ is based on a conference sponsored by the Southeast Regional Middle East and Islamic Studies Society (SERMEISS) and held at the University of Alabama in 2022. While mostly focused on developments in Lebanon and Iraq before they gained independence from France and Britain, the essays explore how national actors used tourism to integrate populations within the newly formed political entities of the Mandate era into viable nation-states and to position these emerging states within the international framework defined by expanding tourism economies. Together these studies show how tourism and its impacts in the Middle East are multilayered, transnational processes within and across the emerging territorial nation-states of the region.

Sociodemographic Characteristics of the Iranian Revolutionary Community in Syria and Lebanon in the 1970s.

The article is devoted to the comprehensive sociodemographic analysis of the local community of Iranian Islamists acting in Syria and Lebanon in the decade preceding the Islamic revolution of 1978-79. Thus far, history of everyday life and the multitudinous activities of the Iranian Islamic opposition in Syria and Lebanon in the 1970s has never become the principal subject of a historic research and has barely received attention from Western specialists in the history of the Islamic Revolution and modern Middle Eastern history, as well as from Iranian historians, scholars and researchers working in the field of the modern history of Iran. However, for a more comprehensive understanding of the Islamic Revolution, revolutionary processes and their logical premises and outcomes, it is highly necessary to carefully consider the sociodemographic characteristics of the active representatives of the Iranian opposition movement in the pre-revolutionary period namely in the 1970s. Throughout the comparative historical analysis of the reliable memories of longtime supporters of the Iranian Islamic movement acting in Syria and Lebanon, the fundamental sociodemographic characteristics of the active members of Iranian revolutionary movement abroad (e.g. gender, age, birthplace and place of living, educational and religious background, social marital status, etc.) are thoroughly highlighted, properly described and analyzed and their sociodemographic portrait is carefully created. The received sociohistorical data may properly serve as a valuable source on the social history of the Iranian society in the pre-revolutionary period, as well as on the complex history of Iranian revolutionary movement and the modern history of the Middle East region.

The Lutheran Experience in the Ottoman Middle East: Stephan Gerlach (1546–1612) and the History of Lutheran Accommodation

Abstract This article examines what it meant to be Lutheran in the early modern Middle East. Its point of departure is a letter in which Stephan Gerlach, a sixteenth-century Lutheran chaplain to the imperial ambassador in Istanbul, asked his superiors about the type of behaviour that befitted him as a Lutheran. Was he allowed to wear a Turkish turban to see mosques and learn about Islam? Was it permissible for him in exceptional circumstances to accept communion under both kinds from a Roman Catholic monk? Was he allowed to postpone the Sunday sermon to attend Greek Orthodox ceremonies? Reconstructing how sixteenth-century Lutherans who had business in the early modern Middle East tried to resolve such issues not only affords new insights into the Lutheran experience in the Ottoman Empire; it also raises a set of fundamental questions about late sixteenth-century Lutheranism itself. Did Lutherans in this period develop forms of religious accommodation similar to those of early modern Catholics? Did travel in the Eastern Mediterranean demand a more flexible and more fluid form of Lutheranism? Could one even adhere to Lutheranism’s core principles so far away from the place where the movement had first taken root? Through an examination of various Lutheran treatises and travelogues, I show that sixteenth-century Lutheranism did not develop an official policy of accommodation. Instead, Lutheran responses to questions about accommodation, (dis)simulation and conformity were often makeshift and idiosyncratic, because Lutheranism formulated little to no official guidance on the movement as a lived religion.

MASA PERADABAN DINASTI MAMLUK DI MESIR

The birth of the Mamluk dynasty in Egypt in the 13th century marked an important period in the history of the Middle East. This dynasty was born from a military slave system which then took over political power. The Mamluk lifestyle was manifested by great military power, a prosperous economy, and a rich cultural heritage. The Mamluk dynasty also had an influence on Islamic civilization, including in the fields of architecture, art, science, science, and others. But before giving its glor to Islamic civilization The Mamluk dynasty went through a very long and difficult process. The destruction of Baghdad by the Mongol army made the Mamluk dynasty the savior of Islamic civilization with the success of the Mamluk troops who were able to repel the threat of destruction from the Mongol troops which ultimately made Egypt, Iraq and the surrounding areas intact and safe. So that Islamic civilization can develop religious values. The end of the Mamluk dynasty’d rule came in the 16th century when they faced external pressure and internal upheaval, ending their dominance in the region. Based on the background above, the focus of this article is: (1) the birth of the Mamluk Dynasty. (2) lifestyke of the Mamluk Dyasty (3) the collaps of the Mamluk Dynasty. This article uses a qualitative method, namely by collecting information or darta from literature and journal analysis as a reference. The purpose of this article (1) to find out the history of the founding of th Mamlu dynasty? (2) what wasthe lifestyle of the Mamluk dynasty? (3) how did the reign of the Mamluk dynasty end? The fina step that the author obtains the results of the research and writes the results into a scientific work so that readers know the history of the founding of te Mamluk kingdom until the collapse of the dynasty. The Mamluk dynasty was a dynasty that was founded in the 13th century in Egypt and this dynasty had a fairly lon history which resulted in the enthusiasm of the Mamluk to eradicate the threat from the Mongols.

Modern and Contemporary History of the Middle East - Causes of the Palestine-Israel Crisis as Perceived by Israeli Muslims

Modern and Contemporary History of the Middle East - Causes of the Palestine-Israel Crisis as Perceived by Israeli Muslims

Unraveling the Enigmas: Deciphering the Causes of Discord in the Middle East: A Review

Turbulence and conflict are part of the Middle East's history. It's often impossible to say where the present rumbles came from--or why they won’t go away. This is not a single area, but rather a magnificent mosaic that harbors an assortment of cultures, religious traditions, and customs. Here the history spans many thousand years, and so we are unable to describe it as a simple theme but rather as a complex pattern: People from different places with differing religious and cultural beliefs mean an eternal fight that can only exist under heaven. How can one come face to face with the Middle East? The hole that this region is spiraling down can make for a series. To cover the numerous aspects of the Middle East would require far more than several articles. Some key components of conflict in the area that we will look at here to try and make them clear. May carry in abundant hope, we can look at these factors and as they interact with each other both in terms of cause-effect relationships or symptom management for a set visit. At the least, may we keep a few honest records? Hopefully we can create still greater understanding and peace throughout this region.

ТАРИХИ КАРТАЛАР ЖӘНЕ ГЕОСАЯСАТ: БАЙЫРҒЫ МӘДЕНИЕТ, МЕМЛЕКЕТТІК МҮДДЕ ЖӘНЕ ШЕКАРАЛЫҚ ШИЛЕНІСТЕР ТҰРҒЫСЫНДА

The article discusses a scientific definition, function, and history of the emergence of geographical maps and their importance in the history of human development. Information is provided about the oldest maps of the Earth currently found, about the cities and countries in which they were created. The art of mapping in ancient Egypt, the map of Chatalhoyuk in Mesopotamia, the latest scientific research on it, and the map of the Babylonian world are also described, as well as the meaning of its objects. It provides an overview of the history of the ancient Middle East. An overview of the contributions of ancient Greek philosophers in the history of cartography, and did a comparative analysis of the Anaximander, Eratosthenes, Strabo, Ptolemy, and ancient Roman maps. In the article, the authors examines the importance of the map "Al-Mamun" during the time of the caliph Al-Mamun and the map "Image of the Earth" by Al-Idrisi, which are examples of the cartographic development that came with the Islamic civilisation. Many historical names of the Caspian Sea are explained based on the Al-Idrisi map. A unique map due to our historical statehood is the map of Abraham Ortelius. This map is comprehensively considered in the article. Brief descriptions of the way of life, economy and culture of Tumens, Kazakhs, Nogais and Muslim Turks on the map have been translated into Kazakh. Especially on the map, the inscription of the country "Cassakia" in the region called "Tartaria", where the Turkic peoples lived at that time, is emphasized as a historical and scientific proof of the continuous statehood of Kazakhstan. The influence of historical maps on modern geopolitics is demonstrated by the example of Israel and Palestine.

FALB KALISMAN Hilary, Teachers as State-Builders: Education and the Making of the Modern Middle East

FALB KALISMAN Hilary, Teachers as State-Builders: Education and the Making of the Modern Middle East

Beyond Borders: The Complexities of Israel-Palestine Antagonism in the Modern Middle East

This paper offers a detailed examination of modern geopolitical dynamics in the Middle East, with a focus on the complex and continuing Israel-Palestine conflict. The paper reveals the region's dynamic terrain through an examination of new powers, shifting alliances, and the activities of important state and non-state actors. Turkey, Iran, and the Gulf States have emerged as powerful powers, threatening established power structures. The conflict's complexity is exacerbated by major entities motivated by national interests and security concerns. The theoretical framework of realism is used to understand these actors' intentions and acts. The paper seeks to provide a detailed knowledge of the Middle East's geopolitical developments by diving into historical and current factors. Despite certain limits in data dependence and conflict complexity, this study provides valuable insights into the complicated tapestry of the Israel-Palestine conflict within the larger domain of international politics.