This collection of ten essays focuses on the way major schools and individuals have narrated histories of the Middle East. The distinguished contributors explore the historiography of economic and intellectual history, nationalism, fundamentalism, colonialism, the media, slavery, and gender. In doing so, they engage with some of the most…
Edited by Martin S. Kramer, Ph.D. 1982
A dialogue on the role of biography and the interpretation of self-narrative in the Middle East. The dearth of intimate source materials, the discrepancy between public and private personae of Muslim intellectuals and the sense of propriety challenge this genre.
Şuhnaz Yılmaz, Ph.D. 2000
Online resource.
The terms “middle powers” and “regional powers” are increasingly used by politicians, pundits, and scholars, even though both words remain vague and their meanings are contentious. Middle powers often refer to states that occupy a middle-level position in the international power…
The Militant Ideology Atlas identifies the most influential thinkers in the Jihadi Movement and delineates the movement’s key ideological vulnerabilities. It situates the Jihadi Movement within the various Muslim constituencies that Jihadi leaders seek to influence and persuade. Each constituency is responsive to leaders in the broader…
A stunning collection of annotated plates of thirty military ranks and roles in the early nineteenth-century Imperial Ottoman army
English writings on the Ottoman Empire grew in the seventeenth century, following the establishment of official commercial relations between London and the…
Co-edited by Luke Yarbrough, Ph.D. 2012.
An alternative perspective on minority encounters in the medieval Mediterranean.
What is a minority? How did members of minority groups in the medieval Mediterranean world interact with contemporaries…
The Ottoman Empire was a multi-ethnic, multi-religious state encompassing most of the modern Middle East, and for much of its 600-year existence it managed to rule effectively its diverse peoples. The essays of this work move beyond the traditional state- and community-centered approaches and instead seek to explore the unknown terrain that…
Edited by Ami Ayalon, Ph.D. 1980.
Co-authored by Ehud Toledano, Ph.D. 1979.
Ehud R. Toledano, Ph.D. 1979
Covering the period from the early nineteenth century to the present day, Modern Iran: A History in Documents brings together primary sources in translation that shed light on aspects of the political, social, cultural, and intellectual history of modern Iran. It makes use of a combination of…
James L. Yarrison, Ph.D. 1982
The modern Louisiana Maneuvers (LAM) were neither maneuvers per se, nor were they held in Louisiana. The original Louisiana Maneuvers were pre-World War II General Headquarters exercises initiated by General George C. Marshall t o prepare the Army for World War II. They featured the field-testing of new…
The Modern Middle East presents a wide-ranging and varied collection of translated sources covering the period from 1700 to the present. These sources include official and private archives, the…
Leor Halevi, B.A. 1994
In cities awakening to global exchange under European imperial rule, Muslims encountered all sorts of strange and wonderful new things—synthetic toothbrushes, toilet paper, telegraphs, railways, gramophones, brimmed hats, tailored pants, and lottery tickets. The passage of these goods across cultural frontiers…
M. Fuat Koprulu Prize, Turkish Studies Association, 2002–2003
Albert Hourani Book Award, Middle East Studies Association of North America
In this skillful analysis, Leslie Peirce delves into the life of a sixteenth-century Middle Eastern community, bringing to light the ways that women and men used their local law court to…
Edited by Eric L. Ormsby, Ph.D. 1981
A collection of Essays on the Philosophy of Moses Maimonides.
Annotated and trans. by Norman Itzkowitz, Ph.D. 1959, and Max Mote.
This work presents the sefaretname of Abdülkerim Pasha written by Nahifi Mehmet Efendi and the account of the Russian embassy to Constantinople in 1776 by Prince N. V. Repnin.
Translated by David Selim Sayers, Ph.D. 2014.
“In the midst of the daily toil for food and shelter, the struggle for survival and their daily bread, in indescribably harsh conditions, the Turkish-speaking Anatolian refugees penned poetry whose inner depths portray it all. The death of loved ones during the flight from their…
Edited by Boaz Shoshan, Ph.D. 1978
Translation of The Prophet and the Age of the Caliphates
Just over a sixth of the world's population subscribes to the Muslim belief that 'there is no god but God, and Muhammad is his Messenger'. Michael Cook gives an incisive account of the man who inspired this faith, drawing on the traditional Muslim sources to describe Muhammad's life and teaching. He also attempts to stand back from this…
Fred McGraw Donner, B.A. 1968, Ph.D. 1975.
The origins of Islam have been the subject of increasing controversy in recent years. The traditional view, which presents Islam as a self-consciously distinct religion tied to the life and revelations of the prophet…
David S. Powers, Ph.D. 1979
The Islamic claim to supersede Judaism and Christianity is embodied in the theological assertion that the office of prophecy is hereditary but that the line of descent ends with Muhammad, who is the seal, or last, of the prophets.
While Muhammad had no natural sons who reached the age of maturity,…
Leor Halevi, B.A. 1994
Winner of MESA’s 2007 Albert Hourani Award
Winner of the American Academy of Religion 2008 Award for Excellence in the category of Analytical-Descriptive studies
Winner of Phi Beta Kappa Society’s 2008 Ralph Waldo Emerson Award
In the years leading up to World War I, the Great Powers of Europe jostled one another for control over Morocco, the last sovereign nation in North Africa. France beat out its rivals and added Morocco to its vast colonial holdings through the use of diplomatic intrigue and undisguised force. But greed and ambition alone do not explain the…
Focusing on idealists and visionaries who believed that Justice could reign in our world, this book explores the desire to experience utopia on earth. Reluctant to await another existence—another form, or eternal life following death and resurrection—individuals with ghuluww, or exaggeration, emerged at the advent of Islam, expecting…
Fred McGraw Donner, B.A. 1968, Ph.D. 1975.
How and why did Muslims first come to write their own history? The author argues in this work that the Islamic historical tradition arose not out of "idle curiosity," or through imitation of antique models, but as a response to a variety of challenges facing the…
Winner of the 2013 Reuven Chaikin Prize, University of Haifa
One of Choice's Outstanding Academic Titles for 2013
Nasser's Gamble draws on declassified documents from six countries and original material in Arabic, German, Hebrew, and…
Yaron, Ayalon, Ph.D. 2009.
This book explores the history of natural disasters in the Ottoman Empire and the responses to them on the state, communal, and individual levels. Yaron Ayalon argues that religious boundaries between Muslims and non-Muslims were far less significant in Ottoman society than commonly believed. Furthermore,…
Farouk A. Dablan, Ph.D. 1979
Aḥmad Ṭāhir Ḥasanayn, Ph.D. 1977.
Although Iraqi Jews saw themselves as Iraqi patriots, their community—which had existed in Iraq for more than 2,500 years—was displaced following the establishment of the state of Israel. New Babylonians chronicles the lives of these Jews, their urban Arab culture, and their hopes for a democratic nation-state. It studies their ideas…
Translated by Victoria Rowe Holbrook, Ph.D. 1985
The New Cultural Climate in Turkey is a beautifully written collection of essays by a leading Turkish intellectual. It presents a compelling analysis of cultural politics in Turkey, arguing that the dominant clichéd dualities of East/West and secular/sacred mask a reality of…
A selection of articles addressing those fundamental questions that define the agenda for the Jewish state in the 21st century. Among the authors one can find key figures in the Israeli public dialogue, such as Ruth Gavison, Yoram Hazony, Michael Oren, Amnom Rubinstein, and Natan Sharansky.
The first…
Translated from the German by Eric Ormsby, Ph.D. 1981
In Rethinking Islam, Katajun Amirpur argues that the West’s impression of Islam as a backward-looking faith, resistant to post-Enlightenment thinking, is misleading and—due to its effects on political discourse—damaging. Introducing readers to key thinkers and activists…