Middle East History : oso

Water on Sand

Alan Mikhail — 2013-01-24

Author:: AlanMikhailYale University
ISBN:: 9780199768677
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: History, Middle East History
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199768677.001.0001
Published in print:: 2012
Published Online:: 2013-01-24

This book is a holistic environmental history of the Middle East and North Africa over the last half millennium. It shows how the intimate connections between peoples and environments shaped political, economic, and social history in startling and often unforeseen ways. Nearly all political powers in the region based their rule on the management and control of natural resources, and nearly all individuals were in constant communion with the natural world. To grasp how these multiple histories were central to the pasts of the Middle East and North Africa, the chapters in this book demonstrate the power of environmental history to open up new avenues of historical research and understanding. The book furthermore traces how the Middle East and North Africa deeply affected the global histories of climate, disease, trade, energy, environmental politics, ecological manipulation, and much more. At the intersection of three continents and as many seas, the Middle East and North Africa have been central to world history for millennia. Studying the ecological implications of these global connections, both for the region itself and for the rest of the world, helps bring the Middle East and North Africa into global history and shows how the region must be an essential part of any understanding of the environments of Eurasia over the last five hundred years.

Routes and Realms

Zayde Antrim — 2013-01-24

Author:: Zayde Antrim
ISBN:: 9780199913879
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: History, Middle East History
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199913879.001.0001
Published in print:: 2012
Published Online:: 2013-01-24

This book explores the ways in which Muslims expressed attachment to land from the ninth through the eleventh centuries, the earliest period of intensive written production in Arabic. The conceptual innovation at the heart of the book is its identification of a “discourse of place,” a framework for approaching formal texts devoted to the representation of territory across genres. The discourse of place included such varied works as topographical histories, literary anthologies, religious treatises, world and regional geographies, poetry, travel literature, and maps. By subjecting these works to close reading and analysis, this book argues that their authors imagined plots of land primarily as homes, cities, and regions and associated them with a range of claims to religious and political authority. The discourse of place constitutes evidence of the powerful ways in which the geographical imagination was tapped to declare loyalty and invoke belonging in the early Islamic world. Now more than ever, when the competing forces of nationalism and globalism inspire new notions of rootedness, it is vital to ponder the changing ways in which land has mattered over the centuries.

Suez 1956

Wm. Roger Louis and Roger Owen — 2011-10-03

Author:: Wm. RogerLouisUniversity of TexasRogerOwenSt Antony's College, Oxford
ISBN:: 9780198202417
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: History, British and Irish Modern History, Middle East History
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198202417.001.0001
Published in print:: 1991
Published Online:: 2011-10-03

This is an analysis of the Suez crisis of 1956, its origins, and its consequences. The contributors are all leading authorities, and some were active participants in the events, offering personal reflection as well as an analysis of the decisions made.

Saddam's Word

Ofra Bengio — 2011-10-03

Author:: Ofra Bengio
ISBN:: 9780195114393
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: History, Middle East History
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195114393.001.0001
Published in print:: 1998
Published Online:: 2011-10-03

This book attempts to understand modern Iraq through a close examination of the political discourse used by the Baʿth regime and its leader, Saddam Hussein. By analysing political terms, concepts, and idioms as disseminated through the official Iraqi mouthpieces, the book illuminates Iraq's political culture and the events that these expressions have both reflected and shaped. Not only does this study hope to add to our understanding of the “Saddam enigma,” but it also hopes to offer a more universal truth: that under any regime or political culture is built on public discourse.

Rise of the Bourgeoisie, Demise of Empire

Fatma Müge Göçek — 2011-10-03

Author:: Fatma Müge Göçek
ISBN:: 9780195099256
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: History, Middle East History
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195099256.001.0001
Published in print:: 1996
Published Online:: 2011-10-03

The book examines the process of Westernization and social change during the 18th and 19th centuries in the Ottoman Empire. Using empirical analysis of archival documents and historical chronicles, the book questions the prevailing scholarly interpretation that Westernization leads to social change. Rather, it argues that social change precedes and contributes to the process of Westernization.

Race and Slavery in the Middle East

Bernard Lewis — 2011-10-03

Author:: Bernard Lewis
ISBN:: 9780195053265
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: History, Middle East History
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195053265.001.0001
Published in print:: 1992
Published Online:: 2011-10-03

From the time of Moses up to the 1960s, slavery was a fact of life in the Middle East. But if the Middle East was the last region to renounce slavery, how do we account for its — and especially Islam's — image of racial harmony? This book explores these questions. The research presented in this book was first undertaken as part of a group project on tolerance and intolerance in human societies. The group project was never completed but the material gathered for the project on Islam stimulated the book's study of race and slavery in the Middle East, a subject that appears to have so far encouraged scant study.

The Press in the Arab Middle East

Ami Ayalon — 2011-10-03

Author:: Ami Ayalon
ISBN:: 9780195087802
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: History, Middle East History
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195087802.001.0001
Published in print:: 1995
Published Online:: 2011-10-03

Newspapers and journalism began in the Middle East in the nineteenth century and evolved during a period of accelerated change which shaped their unique political, social and cultural role. Drawing on a wealth of sources, this study for the first time explores the press as a Middle Eastern institution. It focuses on the circumstances that influenced the growth of the Arab press, its own impact on local historical developments, and the long-term effects that early patterns of its emergence have had on later evolution.

Pan-Arabism Before Nasser

Michael Doran — 2011-10-03

Author:: Michael Doran
ISBN:: 9780195123616
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: History, Middle East History
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195123616.001.0001
Published in print:: 1999
Published Online:: 2011-10-03

This book aims to profoundly alter the accepted version of the history of post-World War II pan-Arabic foreign policy. To this end, it demonstrates the absence of any true pan-Arabic front from the very beginning of the Arab League. Reconsidering Cairo's policy decisions during the critical years from 1944 to 1948, it proves that Egyptian national interests were always placed before the united Arab front against Israel. Even while participating in the 1948 war with Israel, Egypt regarded Zionism and the Palestine Question as less important than achieving independence from Britain and thwarting the expansionist aims of Iraq and Jordan. Ultimately, this study is a rethinking of twentieth-century Middle Eastern politics and history, with key implications for both the study of the ongoing Arab-Israeli conflict and the volatile politics of the Middle East in general.

The Great Game of Genocide

Donald Bloxham — 2011-10-03

Author:: Donald Bloxham
ISBN:: 9780199273560
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: History, Middle East History
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199273560.001.0001
Published in print:: 2005
Published Online:: 2011-10-03

This book addresses the origins, development, and aftermath of the Armenian genocide in a reappraisal based on primary and secondary sources from all the major parties involved. Rejecting the determinism of many influential studies, and discarding polemics on all sides, it founds its interpretation of the genocide in the interaction between the Ottoman empire in its decades of terminal decline, the self-interested policies of the European imperial powers, and the agenda of some Armenian nationalists in and beyond Ottoman territory. Particular attention is paid to the international context of the process of ethnic polarization that culminated in the massive destruction of 1912–23, and especially the obliteration of the Armenian community in 1915–16. The book examines the relationship between the great power politics of the ‘eastern question’ from 1774, the narrower politics of the ‘Armenian question’ from the mid-19th century, and the internal Ottoman questions regarding reform of the complex social and ethnic order under intense external pressure. It presents detailed case studies of the role of Imperial Germany during the First World War (reaching conclusions markedly different to the prevailing orthodoxy of German complicity in the genocide); the wartime Entente and then the uncomfortable postwar Anglo-French axis; and American political interest in the Middle East in the interwar period which led to a policy of refusing to recognize the genocide.

Cultures in Conflict

Bernard Lewis — 2011-10-03

Author:: Bernard Lewis
ISBN:: 9780195102833
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: History, Middle East History
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195102833.001.0001
Published in print:: 1996
Published Online:: 2011-10-03

This book uses the climatic year of 1492, a year laden with epic events and riven by political debate, to explore a clash of civilizations — between the Jews, Christendom, and Islam, as well as that between the New World and the Old. In the same year that Columbus set sail across the Atlantic, the book reminds us, the Spanish monarchy captured Granada, the last Muslim stronghold on the peninsula, and also expelled the Jews. It uses these three epochal events to explore the nature of the European-Islamic conflict, placing the voyages of discovery in a new context. It traces Christian Europe's path from being a primitive backwater on the edges of the vast, cosmopolitan Caliphate, through the heightening rivalry of the two religions, to the triumph of the West over Islam, examining the factors behind their changing fortunes and cultural qualities. The book provides a new understanding of the distant events that gave shape to the modern world.

Cross-Cultural Encounters and Conflicts

Charles Issawi — 2011-10-03

Author:: Charles Issawi
ISBN:: 9780195118131
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: History, Middle East History
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195118131.001.0001
Published in print:: 1998
Published Online:: 2011-10-03

Among the forces shaping today's international landscape, those of cultural differences and conflicts are perhaps the most prominent. This collection of chapters has been written in the belief that a study of past encounters and conflicts between the world's major cultures can shed light on their nature and importance. Ranging in scope from the great ancient civilizations to Shelley's passion for the Middle East, from the economics of the Ottoman empire to the pre-eminence of English as an international language, this collection reflects the many interests of its author, with an emphasis on the Middle East, whose cultural conflict with the West is of concern to us today.

Colonial Land Policies in Palestine, 1917–1936

Martin Bunton — 2011-10-03

Author:: Martin Bunton
ISBN:: 9780199211081
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: History, Middle East History
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199211081.001.0001
Published in print:: 2007
Published Online:: 2011-10-03

This book focuses on the way in which the Palestine Mandate was part of a broader British imperial administration — a fact often masked by Jewish immigration and land purchase in Palestine. The book's research reveals clear links to colonial practice in India, Sudan, and Cyprus amongst other places. It argues that land officials’ views on sound land management were derived from their own experiences of rural England, and that this was far more influential on the shaping of land policies than the promise of a Jewish National Home. The book reveals how the British were intent on preserving the status quo of Ottoman land law, which (when few Britons could read Ottoman or were well grounded in its legal codes) led to a series of translations, interpretations, and hence new applications of land law. The sense of importance the British attributed to their work surveying and registering properties and transactions is captured in the efforts of British officials to microfilm all of their records at the height of the Second World War. Despite this, however, land policies remained in flux.

Fezzes in the River

Sarah D. Shields — 2011-05-01

Author:: Sarah D. Shields
ISBN:: 9780195393316
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: History, Middle East History, European Modern History
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195393316.001.0001
Published in print:: 2011
Published Online:: 2011-05-01

When the young Republic of Turkey claimed the Sanjak of Alexandretta in 1936, France resisted, insisting that the province was part of the French mandate for Syria. The contest over territory pitted Turkey and her irredentist claims against both the French colonial regime and the government of Syria that was engaging in its own efforts to construct a political community that conformed to European notions of nationalism. The League of Nations was called in to broker an agreement between the contending parties that would be consistent with the spirit of the ideology of self-determination. But self-determination was predicated on the existence of a dominant collective self, and efforts to implement the League’s solution led to violence as Turkish and Syrian activists struggled against each other to demonstrate the predominance of their own group. In the end, however, self-determination gave way to the needs of outside powers as Europe’s crisis of democracy deepened during the late 1930s. The struggle over the Sanjak reverberated far beyond the chambers of the League of Nations, encouraging the irredentist and revisionist movements that threatened the stability of post World War I Europe, forcing France to reconsider her commitments in the eastern Mediterranean, and introducing new kinds of identity politics into the Middle East.

The Ottoman Age of Exploration

Giancarlo Casale — 2010-05-01

Author:: Giancarlo Casale
ISBN:: 9780195377828
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: History, Middle East History
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195377828.001.0001
Published in print:: 2010
Published Online:: 2010-05-01

In 1517, the Ottoman Sultan Selim nullthe Grimnull conquered Egypt and brought his empire for the first time in history into direct contact with the trading world of the Indian Ocean. During the decades that followed, the Ottomans became progressively more engaged in the affairs of this vast and previously unfamiliar region, eventually to the point of launching a systematic ideological, military, and commercial challenge to the Portuguese Empire, their main rival for control of the lucrative trade routes of maritime Asia. This study is the first comprehensive historical account of this century-long struggle for global dominance, a struggle that raged from the shores of the Mediterranean to the Straits of Malacca, and from the interior of Africa to the steppes of Central Asia. Based on extensive research in the archives of Turkey and Portugal, as well as materials written on three continents and in half a dozen languages, it presents an unprecedented picture of the global reach of the Ottoman state during the 16th century. It does so through a dramatic recounting of the lives of sultans and viziers, spies, corsairs, soldiers-of-fortune, and women from the imperial harem. Challenging traditional narratives of Western dominance, it argues that the Ottomans were not only active participants in the Age of Exploration, but ultimately bested the Portuguese in the game of global politics by using sea power, dynastic prestige, and commercial savoir faire to create their own imperial dominion throughout the Indian Ocean.

Western Imperialism in the Middle East 1914-1958

D. K. Fieldhouse — 2010-01-01

Author:: D. K. Fieldhouse
ISBN:: 9780199540839
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: History, Political History, Middle East History
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199540839.001.0001
Published in print:: 2008
Published Online:: 2010-01-01

The term ‘Fertile Crescent’ is commonly used to refer to the group of territories extending around the Rivers Tigris and Euphrates. In this book, it is assumed to consist of Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq, and Palestine. Much has been written on the history of these countries, which originated from the Ottoman Empire after 1918 and became Mandates under the League of Nations. This book provides a comparative overview of how Britain and France came to rule these five portions of the Ottoman empire during 1914-1958 and how they dealt with them. It examines contrasting imperial techniques for controlling these temporary dependencies, as well as the interaction between western imperialism in its final phase and the power of nascent Arab nationalism. Essentially, these European powers converted what had been relatively quiescent provinces of the Ottoman empire into some of the least stable and internationally explosive states in the world. This was certainly not the intention of the mandatory powers, and the reasons for this outcome are specific to each of the five territories. This book investigates why it happened.

Dwelling in the Archive

Antoinette Burton — 2010-01-01

Author:: Antoinette Burton
ISBN:: 9780195144253
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: History, Middle East History
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195144253.001.0001
Published in print:: 2003
Published Online:: 2010-01-01

This book uses the writing of three 20th century Indian women to interrogate the status of the traditional archive, reading their memoirs, fictions, and histories as counter-narratives of colonial modernity. Janaki Majumdar was the daughter of the first president of the Indian National Congress. Her unpublished “Family History” (1935) stages the story of her parents' transnational marriage as a series of homes the family inhabited in Britain and India — thereby providing a heretofore unavailable narrative of the domestic face of 19th century Indian nationalism. Cornelia Sorabji was one of the first Indian women to qualify for the bar. Her memoirs (1934 and 1936) demonstrate her determination to rescue the zenana (women's quarters) and purdahnashin (secluded women) from the recesses of the orthodox home in order to counter the emancipationist claims of Gandhian nationalism. Last but not least, Attia Hosain's 1961 novel, Sunlight on Broken Column, represents the violence and trauma of partition through the biography of a young heroine called Laila and her family home. Taken together, their writings raise questions about what counts as an archive, offering insights into the relationship of women to memory and history, gender to fact and fiction, and feminism to nationalism and postcolonialism.