Modern Middle East History

Department of History                   University of Michigan
History 443                      Winter, 2008

SYLLABUS

Course Title: Modern Middle East History            Office Hours: Th 1:30 - -2:30
Instructor: Juan Cole                  Telephone: 763-1599; e-mail:

This course treats the emergence of the modern Middle East in the modern period, roughly from the late 18th century to the present. It deals with reformist attempts to meet the European challenge, the age of colonialism, the rise of nationalism, development strategies of socialism and capitalism, the impact of Israeli and Palestinian nationalism, the petroleum factor, the Islamic Revolution in Iran, Saddam Hussein's Iraq, the Gulf War and the war on terror. Grading is based upon a midterm, a short paper and a final.

Required texts: (Available at Shaman Drum, 313 S. State St., tel. 662-7407, and at Reserve Reading Room, Shapiro Undergraduate Library):

Feroz Ahmad. Turkey: The Quest for Identity. Oxford: Oneworld, 2003.

Nikki Keddie. Modern Iran: Roots and Results of Revolution. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2006.

Afaf Lutfi al-Sayyid Marsot. A History of Egypt: From the Arab Conquest to the Present. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007. .

Charles C. Smith. Palestine and the Arab-Israeli Conflict. 6th Rev. Edn. Palgrave Macmillan, 2007. A balanced examination of the Palestine issue that employs both Israeli and Arab sources to construct a synthetic narrative.

Charles Tripp. A History of Iraq (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, rev. edn. 2007).

A short coursepack will be available at: Dollar Bill

Lecture Topics

Jan. 3            Orientation

Part One: Background to the Modern Middle East

Jan. 8            Historical Background and Islamic Civilization

Marsot, Egypt, chapters 1-2
Keddie, Modern Iran, pp. 1-21
Smith, Palestine & Arab-Israeli, pp. 1-10

Jan. 10            The Early Modern Ottoman Empire and the Arab World

Ahmad, Turkey, pp. 1-24 .
Marsot, Egypt, chapter 3
Smith, Palestine, pp. 10-22

Part Two: Economic Transformation and Bureaucratic Reform 1800-1914

Jan. 15             Ottoman Reform to World War I

Ahmad, Turkey, pp. 25-53

Jan. 17             From Ottoman Egypt to British Egypt

Marsot, Egypt, chapter 4.

Elizabeth Sirriyeh, Wahhabis, "Unbelievers and the Problems of Exclusivism." Bulletin (British Society for Middle Eastern Studies, Vol. 16, No. 2. (1989), pp. 123-132. Stable URL: http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0305-6139%281989%2916%3A2%3C123%
3AWUATPO%3E2.0.CO%3B2-C

Jan. 22            The Levant in the 19th Century

Leila Fawaz, "The City and the Mountain: Beirut's Political Radius in the Nineteenth Century as Revealed in the Crisis of 1860 International Journal of Middle East Studies, Vol. 16, No. 4. (Nov., 1984), pp. 489-495. Stable URL: http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0020-7438%28198411%2916%3A4%
3C489%3ATCATMB%3E2.0.CO%3B2-%23

Smith, Palestine, chs. 2 & 3

Jan. 24             Iran: Qajars to the Constitutional Revolution

Keddie, Modern Iran, pp. 22-72

Jan. 29             Ottoman Baghdad

Tripp, Modern Iraq, pp. 8-57

Juan R. I. Cole; Moojan Momen, "Mafia, Mob and Shiism in Iraq: The Rebellion of Ottoman Karbala 1824-1843," Past and Present, No. 112. (Aug., 1986), pp. 112-143. (Stable URL: http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0031-2746%28198608%290%
3A112%3C112%3AMMASII%3E2.0.CO%3B2-U)

Part Three: European Colonialism and Nationalist Response, 1914-1979

Jan. 31             Turkey: Kemalism and the Military Cycle

Ahmad, Turkey, pp. 54-148

Feb. 5             Egypt from Monarchy to Republic

Marsot, Egypt, chapters 5 & 6; chapter 7 to Sadat's assassination

Margot Badran, "The Feminist Vision in the Writings of Three Turn-of-the-Century Egyptian Women." Bulletin (British Society for Middle Eastern Studies. Vol. 15, No. 1/2. (1988), pp. 11-20. Stable URL, http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0305-6139%281988%2915%3A1%2F2%3C11%3ATFVITW%
3E2.0.CO%3B2-V

Ziad Munson , "Social Movements within Islam: Islamic Mobilization: Social Movement Theory and the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood.". Sociological Quarterly, Vol. 42, No. 4. (Autumn, 2001), pp. 487-510. Stable URL: http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0038-0253%28200123%2942%3A4%3C487%3AIMSMTA
%3E2.0.CO%3B2-9

Feb. 7             Iran: Capitalist Dictatorship

Keddie, Modern Iran, pp. 73-213

Feb. 12             Rise of Israel and Palestinian Response

Smith, Palestine, pp. 111-225

Feb. 14             Class Discusssion

Feb. 19             Midterm Examination

Feb. 21             Iraq: Colonialism, Monarchy and Revolution

Tripp, pp. 57-82; 97-185

Mar. 4             Israel and the Arab-Israeli Conflict to 1967

Smith, Palestine, chs. 6 & 7

Mar. 6             Israel and Palestine 1967-1984

Smith, Palestine, chs. 8 & 9

Part Four: Globalization: Marxism, Imperialism, Islam 1979-2001

Mar. 11             The Rise of Political Islam

William Ochsenwald , "Saudi Arabia and The Islamic Revival," International Journal of Middle East Studies, Vol. 13, No. 3. (Aug., 1981), pp. 271-286. Stable URL: http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0020-7438%28198108%
2913%3A3%3C271%3ASAATIR%3E2.0.CO%3B2-5

Saad Eddin Ibrahim. "Egypt's Islamic Activism in the 1980s." Third World Quarterly, Vol. 10, No. 2, Islam & Politics. (Apr., 1988), pp. 632-657. Stable URL: http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0143-6597%28198804%
2910%3A2%3C632%3AEIAIT1%3E2.0.CO%3B2-V

Ziad Abu-Amr. "Hamas: A Historical and Political Background." Journal of Palestine Studies, Vol. 22, No. 4. (Summer, 1993), pp. 5-19. Stable URL: http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0377-919X%28199322%2922%3A4%
3C5%3AHAHAPB%3E2.0.CO%3B2-E

Andrew Hartman. 'The Red Template': US Policy in Soviet-Occupied Afghanistan. Third World Quarterly, Vol. 23, No. 3. (Jun., 2002), pp. 467-489. Stable URL: http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0143-6597%28200206%2923%3A3%
3C467%3A%27RTUPI%3E2.0.CO%3B2-I

Mar. 13             Petroleum Revolutions in the Middle East

Robert B. Barsky; Lutz Kilian, "Oil and the Macroeconomy since the 1970s." The Journal of Economic Perspectives, Vol. 18, No. 4 (Autumn, 2004), pp. 115-134 Stable URL: http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0895-3309%28200423%2918%3A4%3C115%3AOATMST%
3E2.0.CO%3B2-H

Gerd Nonneman, " Saudi-European Relations 1902-2001: A Pragmatic Quest for Relative Autonomy," International Affairs (Royal Institute of International Affairs Vol. 77, No. 3, Changing Patterns of European Security and Defence (Jul., 2001), pp. 631-661 Stable URL: http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0020-5850%28200107%2977%3A3%3C631%3ASR1APQ%
3E2.0.CO%3B2-6

Joshua S. Goldstein; Xiaoming Huang; Burcu Akan, "Energy in the World Economy, 1950-1992," International Studies Quarterly Vol. 41, No. 2 (Jun., 1997), pp. 241-266 Stable URL: http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0020-8833%28199706%2941%3A2%3C241%3AEITWE1%
3E2.0.CO%3B2-0

Roy Licklider, "The Power of Oil: The Arab Oil Weapon and the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Canada, Japan, and the United States," International Studies Quarterly, Vol. 32, No. 2 (Jun., 1988), pp. 205-226 Stable URL: http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0020-8833%28198806%2932%3A2%3C205%3ATPOOTA%
3E2.0.CO%3B2-X

Mar. 18             Iran: Revolution and Islamic Republic

Keddie, Modern Iran, pp. 214-297; 302-316; 323-346

Mar. 20             Baathist Iraq

Tripp, Modern Iraq, pp. 186-276

Mar. 25             Mubarak's Egypt

Marsot, chapter 7.

***6-8 PAGE PAPER DUE 2:30 PM TUESDAY MARCH 25

Mar. 27             Oslo, the Second Intifada and the Oslo Process

Smith, Palestine, chs. 10, 11

Apr. 1             Nationalism and Sectarianism in Lebanon and Syria

John F. Devlin. "The Baath Party: Rise and Metamorphosis." The American Historical Review, Vol. 96, No. 5. (Dec., 1991), pp. 1396-1407 Stable URL: http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0002-8762%28199112
%2996%3A5%3C1396%
3ATBPRAM%3E2.0.CO%3B2-L

Elaine C. Hagopian. "Maronite Hegemony to Maronite Militancy: The Creation and Disintegration of Lebanon." Third World Quarterly, Vol. 11, No. 4, Ethnicity in World Politics. (Oct., 1989), pp. 101-117. Stable URL: http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0143-6597%28198910%2911%3A4%
3C101%3AMHTMMT%3E2.0.CO%3B2-C

Dona J. Stewart. "Economic Recovery and Reconstruction in Postwar Beirut." Geographical Review, Vol. 86, No. 4. (Oct., 1996), pp. 487-504. Stable URL: http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0016-7428%28199610%2986%3A4%3C487%
3AERARIP%3E2.0.CO%3B2-B

Augustus Richard Norton, "Hizballah and the Israeli Withdrawal from Southern Lebanon," Journal of Palestine Studies, Vol. 30, No. 1. (Autumn, 2000), pp. 22-35. Stable URL: http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0377-919X%28200023%2930%3A1%
3C22%3AHATIWF%3E2.0.CO%3B2-A

Apr. 3             Turkey: Secularism, Capitalism, Ethnic Conflict and Islam

Ahmad, Turkey, pp. 149-184

Part Five: The Middle East in the Age of the War on Terror

Apr.. 8             Al-Qaeda and Muslim Radicalism

Robert S. Snyde, "Hating America: Bin Laden as a Civilizational Revolutionary," The Review of Politics, Vol. 65, No. 4. (Autumn, 2003), pp. 325-349
. (Stable URL: http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0034-6705%28200323%2965
%3A4%3C325%3AHABLAA%3E2.0.CO%3B2-J )

Apr. 10             The Middle East after George W. Bush

Charles Tripp, Modern Iraq, pp. 277-322
Smith, Palestine, ch. 12

Apr. 15 Class Review