Modern Middle East History

Department of History                   University of Michigan
History 443                      Winter, 2010

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):

Ervand Abrahamian. A History of Modern Iran. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008.

Afaf Lutfi Al-Sayyid Marsot, A History of Egypt: From the Arab Conquest to the Present. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2nd edn., 2008.

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).

Erik J. Zurcher, Turkey: A Modern History, London: I. B,. Tauris, 2005, rev. edn. .

A short coursepack will be available at: Dollar Bill

Lecture Topics

Jan. 7            Orientation

Part One: Background to the Modern Middle East

Jan. 12            Historical Background and Islamic Civilization

Marsot, pp. 1-47

Jan. 14            The Early Modern Ottoman Empire and the Arab World

Marsot, pp. 48-64.
Zurcher, pp. 9-29

Part Two: Economic Transformation and Bureaucratic Reform 1800-1914

Jan. 19             Ottoman Reform to World War I

Zurcher, pp. 30-111

Jan. 21             From Ottoman Egypt to British Egypt

Marsot, "The Beginnings of the State System, pp. 65-97

Elizabeth Sirriyeh, Wahhabis, "Unbelievers and the Problems of Exclusivism." Bulletin (British Society for Middle Eastern Studies, Vol. 16, No. 2. (1989), pp. 123-132.

Jan. 26            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.

Smith, Palestine, chs. 2 & 3

Jan. 28             Iran: Qajars to the Constitutional Revolution

Abrahamian, Modern Iran, pp. 1-62

Feb. 2             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. (

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

Feb. 4             Turkey: Kemalism to 1950

Zurcher, Turkey, pp. 111-220

Feb. 9             Egypt from Monarchy to Republic

Marsot, Egypt, pp. 98-155

Feb. 11             Iraq: Colonialism, Monarchy and Revolution

Tripp, pp. 57-82; 97-185

Feb. 16             Rise of Israel and Palestinian Response

Smith, Palestine, pp. 111-225

Feb. 18             Israel and the Arab-Israeli Conflict to 1967

Smith, Palestine, chs. 6 & 7

Feb. 23             Class Discusssion

Feb. 25             Midterm Examination

Mar. 9             Iran: Capitalist Dictatorship

Abrahamian, Modern Iran, pp. 63-154

Mar. 11             Israel and Palestine 1967-1984

Smith, Palestine, chs. 8 & 9

Mar. 16 Turkey: Militarism versus Democracy, 1950-1980

Zurcher, Turkey, pp. 221-277

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

Mar. 18             Iran: Revolution and Islamic Republic

Abrahamian, Modern Iran, pp. 155-195

***6-8 PAGE PAPER DUE 2:30 PM TUESDAY MARCH 23

Mar. 23             Petroleum Revolutions in the Middle East

Gwenn Okruhlik , "Rentier Wealth, Unruly Law, and the Rise of Opposition: The Political Economy of Oil States," : Comparative Politics, Vol. 31, No. 3 (Apr., 1999), pp. 295-315. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org.proxy.lib.umich.edu/stable/pdfplus/422341.pdf

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

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

Mar. 25             The Rise of (Sunni) 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. 30             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. 1             Baathist Iraq

Tripp, Modern Iraq, pp. 186-276

Apr. 6             Oslo, the Second Intifada and the Oslo Process

Smith, Palestine, chs. 10, 11

Apr.. 8             Mubarak's Egypt

Marsot, Egypt, pp. 156- end

Apr. 13             Turkey 1980- : Secularism, Capitalism, Ethnic Conflict and Islam

Zurcher, Turkey, pp. 278- end
R. Quinn Mecham, "From the Ashes of Virtue, a Promise of Light: The Transformation of Political Islam in Turkey," Third World Quarterly, Vol. 25, No. 2 (2004), pp. 339-358
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org.proxy.lib.umich.edu/stable/pdfplus/3993685.pdf

Part Five: The Middle East in the 21st Century

Apr. 15             Al-Qaeda and Muslim Radicalism

Robert S. Snyder, "Hating America: Bin Laden as a Civilizational Revolutionary," The Review of Politics, Vol. 65, No. 4. (Autumn, 2003), pp. 325-349.

Apr. 20 Class Review