Course Title: Modern Middle East History
This syllabus is available on the World Wide Web at http://www-personal.umich.edu/~jrcole/syl/443syl99.htm
Required tests: (Available at Shaman Drum, 313 S. State
St., tel. 662-7407,
Robert O. Freedman, ed. The Middle East and the
Peace Process. Gainsville: UP Florida, 1998.
Kahlil Gibran. Broken Wings. Ashland: White
Cloud Press, 1998.
Nikki R. Keddie. Roots of Revolution: An Interpretive
History of Modern Iran. Yale University Press,
1981. Survey of 19th and 20th century Iran with emphasis
on social history and coverage of politics.
Bernard Lewis. The Emergence of Modern Turkey.
Oxford U. Press, 1975. A post-war British Orientalist
view of the Ottoman Empire's transformation into modern
Turkey.
Nageeb Mahfouz. Midaq Alley. Trans. Trevor
LeGassick. Novel of Cairo life in the 1940s by the
Egyptian Nobel Prize winner.
Afaf Lutfi al-Sayyid Marsot. A Short History of
Modern Egypt. Cambridge Univ. Press, 1985. Ties
political and diplomatic history in with economic developments.
Charles C. Smith. The Arab-Israeli Conflict.
St. Martin's, 3nd edition, 1997. A balanced examination
of the Palestine issue that employs both Israeli and
Arab sources to construct a synthetic narrative.
A short coursepack will be available at: Accucopy.
Resources for the study of the Middle East can be found on the World Wide Web at Juan Cole's
Middle East Links--http://www-personal.umich.edu/~jrcole/mideast.htm.
Office Hours: 3615 Haven Hall, T 12-1, Th 2-2:30
Instructor: Juan Cole
Telephone: 763-1599; e-mail: jrcole@umich.edu
This course treats the emergence of the modern Middle
East from the empires of the 16th and 17th centuries.
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, and
Saddam Hussein's Iraq. Grading is a midterm, a 10-page term
paper and a final. Class attendance and participation are
also important in grading, and students are required to submit
a Web link or graphic illustration on the topic of each lecture,
as a class project in building a useful syllabus/Web site for
the course. Students are expected to carry out the assigned
reading, and a preponderance of questions on
the examinations will be based on assigned texts.
and at Reserve Reading Room, 3rd Floor, Shapiro Undergraduate
Library):
Sept. 9 Orientation
PART ONE: BACKGROUND TO THE MODERN MIDDLE EAST
Sept. 14 Historical Background and Islamic Civilization
Marsot, Modern Egypt, 1-39, Smith, Palestine,
5-9
Relevant Web Links and Images:
http://www-personal.umich.edu/~jrcole/syl/443link/443link1.htm
Sept. 16 The Ottoman Empire in the Arab World to Bonaparte
Marsot, Modern Egypt, 40-53
Smith, Palestine, pp. 10-13
Relevant Web Links and Images:
http://www-personal.umich.edu/~jrcole/syl/443link/443link2.htm
PART TWO: ECONOMIC TRANSFORMATION AND BUREAUCRATIC REFORM 1800-1880
Sept. 21 Viceregal-Ottoman Egypt 1805-1882
Marsot, Egypt, pp. 54-74
Sept. 23 Ottoman Reform
Lewis, Modern Turkey, pp. 74-174
Sept. 28 The Levant in the 19th Century
Fawaz, Occasion for War (Coursepack)
Sept. 30 Iran: Qajars to the Constitutional Revolution
Keddie, Roots, pp. 1-62.
Oct. 5 Abdulhamid II and Ottoman Absolutism
Lewis, Modern Turkey, pp. 175-207
PART THREE: EUROPEAN COLONIALISM AND NATIONALIST RESPONSE, 1880-1950
Oct. 7 Egypt: British Colonialism and Islamic Reformism
Marsot, Egypt, pp. 74-81
Oct. 12 The Young Turks
Lewis, Modern Turkey, pp. 207-238
Oct. 14 The Arab Revolt and the Palestine Issue
Smith, Palestine, pp. 25-108
Oct. 16 The Kemalist Republic and Secularism in Turkey
Lewis, Modern Turkey, 239-293
Oct. 19 Class Discusssion
Oct. 21 Midterm Examination
Oct. 26 Liberals and Landlords in Egypt
Marsot, Egypt, pp. 65-74
Oct. 28 Iran: From Constitutional Revolution to Reform
Dictatorship
Keddie, Roots, pp. 63-112.
Nov. 2 Class Discussion
Nageeb Mahfouz, Midaq Alley
PART FOUR: DECOLONIZATION: MARXISM, CAPITALISM, ISLAM 1950-2000
Nov. 4 Iran: From Mosaddeq to Pahlavi Absolutism
Keddie, Roots, pp. 113-182, 198-230
Nov. 9 The Egyptian Revolution and the Egyptian
Republic
Marsot, Egypt, 107-145; Cantori, “Egypt at the
Crossroads,” in
Freedman, pp. 154-167.
Nov. 11 Israel and the Arab-Israeli Conflict to 1967
Smith, Palestine, pp. 112-205
Nov. 16 Israel and Palestine 1967-1990
Smith, Palestine, 206-306
Nov. 18 The Iranian Revolution and the Islamic Republic
Keddie, Roots, 231-276; Bakhash, “Iran since
the Gulf War,” in Freedman,
pp. 241-264; Coursepack reading.
Nov. 23 The Baath Party and Arab Nationalism in Syria
and Iraq
Hinnebusch, “Syria,” in Freedman, pp. 134-153;
Marr, “Iraq after the Gulf War,” in Freedman, pp. 213-240
Nov. 30 Post-War Turkey: Secularism, Capitalism,
and Islam
Lewis, Emergence, pp. 294-319; coursepack reading,
“The Second Turkish Republic”; Gruen, “Turkey,” in
Freedman, pp. 169-212.
Dec. 2 Women in the Modern Middle East
Coursepack readings on Saadawi & Women
Gibran, Broken Wings
TERM PAPERS DUE DEC. 2
Dec. 7 The Middle East in the 1990s
The following readings in Freedman:
Aronoff & Aronoff, “Domestic Determinants,” pp. 11-34
Muslim, “Palestinian and other Arab Perspective,”
pp. 81-100
Gause, “The Arabian Peninsula,” pp. 265-292
Dec. 9 Class Discussion
Examination: Weds., December 15, 4-6 p.m.