Why did the Ottoman Empire enter the First World War in late October 1914, months after the war's devastations had become clear? Were its leaders 'simple-minded,' 'below-average' individuals, as the doyen of Turkish diplomatic history has argued? Or, as others have claimed, did the Ottomans enter the war because War Minister Enver Pasha,…
This book contains the papers that were presented at the Isfahan International Congress on Islamic Arts and Crafts. The papers are on various subjects including Islamic architecture, the art of calligraphy, arts and cultural dialogue, Islamic paintings and miniature, the influence of Islamic arts and crafts on…
“In a book with a bold new view of medieval Jewish history, written in a style accessible to nonspecialists and students as well as to scholars in the field, Marina Rustow changes our understanding of the origins and nature of heresy itself. Scholars have long believed that the Rabbanites and Qaraites, the two major Jewish groups under Islamic…
Ashraf `Ali Thanawi (1863-1943) was one of the most prominent religious scholars in Islamic history. Author of over a thousand books on different aspects of Islam, his work sought to defend the Islamic scholarly tradition and to articulate its authority in an age of momentous religious and political change. In this authoritative biography,…
Co-editor Abderrahmane El Moudden, Ph.D. 1992
The Other Iraq challenges the notion that Iraq has always been a totalitarian, artificial state, torn by sectarian violence. Chronicling the rise of the Iraqi public sphere from 1921 to 1958, this enlightening work reveals that the Iraqi intellectual field was always more democratic and pluralistic than historians have tended to…
The Iranian revolution of 1979 overhauled not only the foundations of Iranian society, religion and politics, but also our understanding of the role of religion in modern government. Here Behrooz Ghamari-Tabrizi takes us on an enlightening journey, showing that the revolution unintentionally opened up the public sphere to competing…
Explore the life and accomplishments of the Mongol conqueror who established the largest empire in history. Age Range: 11 to 17 years.
Eric L. Ormsby, Ph.D. 1981
This fascinating work profiles Abu Hamid al-Ghazali (1058–1111), the foremost Islamic scholar and mystic of the medieval period. Attracting the patronage of the vizier Nizam al-Mulk early in his career, he was appointed head of the Nizamiyyah College at Baghdad, and attracted audiences from across the…
Edited by Fred McGraw Donner, B.A. 1968, Ph.D. 1975.
This volume presents a selection of the key studies in which leading scholars since the beginning of the 20th century attempt to explain the phenomenally rapid expansion of the early Islamic state during the 7th century CE. The…
Since 2007, five volumes of the collection of Modarressi's early (pre-1979) Persian articles have been published. These include volumes entitled Ijtima'iyat, Qummiyat, Sanadiyat, Kitabiyat, and Tarikhiyat. Having access to these reprints is most welcome given the fact that most of the articles…
In this seminal study, Jane Hathaway presents a wide-ranging reassessment of the effects of Ottoman rule on the Arab Lands of Egypt, Greater Syria, Iraq and Yemen - the first of its kind in over forty years.
Challenging outmoded perceptions of this period as a demoralizing prelude to the rise of Arab nationalism and Arab nation…
Co-editor Vassilios Christides, Ph.D. 1970.
Co-editor Joseph Norment Bell, Ph.D. 1971.
The earliest major Islamic treatise on mystical love, this work reflects a moderate version of the ecstatic mysticism of the Sufi martyr al-Hallaj. Writing around 1000 C.E., the author summarizes the views of lexicographers, belletrists, philosophers, physicians, theologians, and mystics on…
Eric L. Ormsby, PhD 1981
Bringing together all of the poems from Eric Ormsby’s five previous collections alongside a healthy selection of previously unpublished poems, this volume collects the work of one of the most important poets writing today in Canada — or elsewhere. Beautifully crafted, both complex and delicate, intelligent,…
High rates of divorce, often taken to be a modern and western phenomenon, were also typical of medieval Islamic societies. By pitting these high rates of divorce against the Islamic ideal of marriage,Yossef Rapoport radically challenges usual assumptions about the legal inferiority of Muslim women and their economic dependence on men. He argues…
Imarets have long been recognized as one signature institution of the Ottoman Empire. These public kitchens were typically located in mosque complexes or multi-structured complexes, which included some or all of the following buildings: mosque, medrese, mekteb, tomb, caravansaray, sufi tekke (or tekye) , hospital,…
Ehud R. Toledano, Ph.D. 1979
This groundbreaking book reconceptualizes slavery through the voices of enslaved persons themselves, voices that have remained silent in the narratives of conventional history. Focusing in particular on the Islamic Middle East from the late eighteenth to the early twentieth century, Ehud R. Toledano…
John H. Lorentz, Ph.D. 1974.
Iran is a country with a deep and complex history. Over several thousand years, Iran has been the source of numerous creative contributions to the spiritual and literary world, and the site of many remarkable manifestations of material culture. The special place that Iran has come to hold in contemporary…
Identity and Identity Formation in the Ottoman World is a collection of articles authored by the students and colleagues of Norman Itzkowitz. The contributors include Engin Deniz Akarli, Karl K. Barbir, Cornell H. Fleischer, Jane Hathaway, Cemal Kafadar, Metin Kunt, Rudi Paul Lindner, Heath W. Lowry, Scott Redford, Vamik D. Volkan, and…
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
Looks at the emergence of Shiism as a distinct communal identity within Islam.
The Charismatic Community examines the rise and development of Shiite religious identity in early Islamic history, analyzing the complex historical and intellectual processes that shaped the sense of individual and communal religious vocation. The…
Since the Taliban seized Kabul in 1996, the public has grappled with the relationship between Islamic education and radical Islam. Media reports tend to paint madrasas — religious schools dedicated to Islamic learning — as medieval institutions opposed to all that is Western and as breeding grounds for terrorists. Others have claimed that…
Co-authored by Norman Itzkowitz, Ph.D. 1959.
From property forfeiture to public flogging to burning at the stake, persecution and torture were all in a day's work for Tom?s de Torquemada-- a monk without mercy for anyone who broke the laws of the Church. Age Range: 11 to 17 years.
This volume argues that legislation on abortion, adultery, and rape has been central to the formation of the modern citizen. The author draws on rights literature, biopolitical scholarship, and a gender-studies perspective as a foundation for rethinking the sovereign relationship. In approaching the politicization of reproductive space from…
Bridging the pragmatic and the theoretical, leading scholars and policy analysts delve into the critical issues facing Afghanistan today. Their exploration of questions relating to security and peacekeeping, the rule of law, institutional design, mobilization of the economy,…
Based on an award-winning thesis, this volume is a pioneering study of musical theatre and popular culture and its relation to the production of identity in Lebanon in the second half of the twentieth century.
In the aftermath of the departure of the French from Lebanon and the civil violence of 1958, the Rahbani brothers (Asi and…
Power, Faith, and Fantasytells the remarkable story of America's 230-year relationship with the Middle East. Drawing on a vast range of government documents, personal correspondence, and the memoirs of merchants, missionaries, and travelers, Michael B. Oren narrates the unknown story of how the United States has interacted with this…
Positioned at the crossroads of the maritime routes linking the Indian Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea, the Yemeni port of Aden grew to be one of the medieval world's greatest commercial hubs. Approaching Aden's history between the eleventh and thirteenth centuries through the prism of overseas…
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…
“From its beginnings in the wake of the anti-Soviet jihad in Afghanistan, al-Qa’ida has been at war with itself. In disputes that have largely been invisible to the broader public, its leadership has been in a constant battle over what al-Qa’ida should be, what strategy it should pursue, even who its real enemies are. Very early in al-Qa’ida’s…
The heat of the Negev desert is captured in this collection of three novels by author-diplomat-historian Michael Oren. In House of Bondage, an escaped murderer holds a young woman hostage. “In The Maestro of Yerucham”, a Russian violinist finds a girl he believes to be the heir to his talents. In Sand Devil, the adolescent son of a…
Since 2007, five volumes of the collection of Modarressi's early (pre-1979) Persian articles have been published. These include volumes entitled Ijtima'iyat, Qummiyat, Sanadiyat, Kitabiyat, and Tarikhiyat. Having access to these reprints is most welcome given the fact that most of the articles…
Vassilios Christides, Ph.D. 1970.
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…
Collection of articles previously published in Zaman newspaper.
This book examines the most important writings of a tenth century Islamic theologian and jurist who was one of the most original thinkers of his period. It argues that Qadi al-Nu'man's works constituted new and vital genres in Ismaili Shi'i literature, an emergence necessitated by the Fatimids' transition from revolutionary movement to…
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…
This is a comparative study dealing with the maritime practices which prevailed in the Byzantine and Islamic worlds around the Mediterranean from 7-10 centuries C.E. and consists of seven chapters. The first chapter describes the physical and legal significance of the ship, computation of capacity, and the importance of naming commercial…
Joseph Evan LeBaron, Ph.D. 1980
This study explores the relationship between economic development and political evolution during a decisive period of modern Sudanese history. During the first half of the 20th century, Mahdists competed with nationalists in shaping politics and…
Khaled Abou El Fadl's book represents the first systematic examination of the idea and treatment of political resistance and rebellion in Islamic law. Pre-modern jurists produced an extensive and sophisticated discourse on the legality of rebellion and the treatment due to rebels under Islamic law. The book examines the emergence and…
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…
Fatwas of condemnation : Islam and the limits of dissent examines a particularly rich and relatively untapped source for Islamic intellectual history, namely the genre of legal writing represented by the compendia of Islamic legal response to examine the limits of dissent in Islam. Not confining himself to a particular period of history, but…
Table of Contents
Map of the Ottoman Balkans ca. 1800
Frederick F. Anscombe, “Introduction”
Antonis Anastasopoulos, “Crisis and State Intervention in Late Eighteenth-Century Karaferye (mod. Veroia)”
Michael R. Hickok, “Homicide in Ottoman Bosnia”
Virginia H. Aksan, “Whose…