12229 - History and Institutions of the Middle East

Course contents

Week 1

Defining the Middle East: analytical framework. Patterns of change in the Ottoman Empire in the XVIII and XIX Centuries.

1a- Identity dilemma and forms of community ( Islam and other religious identities; different meanings of asabiyyah)

1b- Notion of ‘ Ottoman Decadence' and Tanzimat reforms

1c- Ottomanism and Panislamism

 

Week 2

The First World War and the Disintegration of the Ottoman Empire

2a- The Young Turks' Coup . 1908-1918 Reforms. Turkism. The Origins of Arab Nationalism and the related historiographical Debate.

2b- Nation-States in the Middle East. British Mandates in Palestine, Jordan and Iraq and Frech Mandates in Syria and Lebanon. Egypt and the Maghreb.

2c- Zionism and Jewish immigrant waves to Palestine ( aliot)

 

Week 3- The Palestinian Question and the Making of Israel.

3a- The origins of Palestinian nationalism. The Great Arab Revolt of 1936-1939. Palestinian politics under the Mandate.

3b- Israeli unilateral Independence, 1948 War and its aftermath in the Arab World. Relationship between the Palestinian Diaspora and local Arab elites. UN Resolution 194. UNRWA ( United Nations Relief and Work Agency)

 

Week 4- Military Regimes in the Middle East

4a- Kamal Ataturk's Turkey

4b- The Arab State's self- referentiality: Nasser's Egypt and Houari Boumedienne's Algeria.

4c- The primacy of ‘Politics' on ‘Religion': Nasser and the Muslim Brethren. Sayyid Qutb's thought as a tenet of contemporary radical Islamism.

 

Week 5- Conflicts: the Suez Crisis, the Six Day War and their consequences on Arab States and Israel

 

5a- Nasserism, Panarabism, the Nonaligned Movement, 1956 Suez Crisis and the Cold War in the Middle East.

5b –The Six Day War, Israel conquests , the Allon Plan and the colonization of the Occupied Territories.

5c – Palestinian politics in Diaspora. The P.L.O., Arafat's presidency, Black September in Jordan, Palestinian terrorism in the 1970s and the 1980s. The P.L.O. in Beirut. 

 

Week 6- 1973 Yom Kippur War and the Oil Shock

6a- The Yom Kippur War and its consequences in Israel and in the Arab countries. Anwar el-Sadat's Egypt and Syria under Hafez el-Asad.

6b- Gulf Oilmonarchies and Rentier States.

6c- The Lebanese Civil War: the role of Syria and Israel. 1982 Israeli Invasion of Lebanon and its aftermath. 1989 Ta'if Accords.

 

Week 7- 1979 Iranian Revolution and the ‘exportation' of the Islamic Revolution.

7a- Iran under the Pahlavi and the causes for the Revolution. Re-reading ‘Karbala's paradigm': Shi'a Islam in its revolutionary version. Ali al-Shariati. Velayet e-Faqih and the Iranian Republic of Iran.

7b- The ‘exportation' of the Islamic Revolution. Hezbollah in Lebanon. 1979 Assault upon Mecca's Great Mosque. Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan (1979-1989) and the role played by the Superpowers, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Iran.

7c- Saddam Hussein's Iraq and the Iran –Iraq War (1980-88).

 

Week 8- The end of the Cold War and its aftermath in the Middle East

8a- The First Intifada and the Algeri Convenant in 1988. The Algerian FIS and the Civil War (1992-1998). The Iraqi Invasion of Kuwait. Desert Storm Operation . 1991 Madrid Conference.

8b- Oslo Accords and their red-lines. The failure of the peace process.

8c- The Second Intifada and Hamas islamonationalism . Israeli unilateral withdrawal from Gaza and Hamas electoral victory (2006).

 

Week 9- Islamism and Global Terrorism

9a- 9/11 2001 and its aftermath in the Middle East. ‘al-Qaeda' and the global Islamic terrorism.

9b- The Afghan War ( 2001) and the War on Iraq ( 2003)

9c- Democratization in the Middle East

Readings/Bibliography

 Set texts for students who are attending class lectures:

M. Campanini, Storia del Medio Oriente, il Mulino, Bologna, 2006

R. Owen, Stato, potere e politica nella formazione del Medio Oriente moderno, Il Ponte, Bologna, 2005

M. Emiliani, La terra di chi? Geografia del conflitto arabo-israeliano-palestinese, Il Ponte, Bologna, 2007

B. Lewis, Il linguaggio politico dell'Islam, Laterza, Roma-Bari, 2005

Students who are not attending class lectures MUST study ALL the following books:

 1 - B. Lewis, Il linguaggio politico dell'Islam, Laterza, Roma-Bari, 2005

2- M. Campanini, Storia del Medio Oriente, Bologna, il Mulino, 2006

3 - R. Owen, Stato, potere e politica , Bologna: il Ponte,  2005

4 -M. Emiliani, La terra di chi? Geografia del conflitto arabo-israeliano-palestinese, bologna, Il Ponte 2007

5 - B. Morris, Vittime. Storia del conflitto arabo-sionista 1881-2001, Milano, Rizzoli, 2001

6 - M. Emiliani (acd),Hamas alla prova del governo. La palestina sull'orlo della guerra civile, Bologna, Il Ponte, 2007

7- G. Kepel, Jihad. Ascesa e declino , Roma : Carocci, 2001

8 - G. Kepel, Fitna. Guerra al cuore dell'Islam , Roma-Bari: Laterza, 2004

9 - M. Emiliani, M. Ranuzzi de' Bianchi, E. Atzori, Nel nome di Omar. Rivoluzione,clero e potere in Iran, Odoya, Bologna, 2008

Electronic Resources and Journals:

Some useful sites for documentation about Middle Eastern historical and political themes are:

http://w3fp.arizona.edu/mesassoc/  [MESA homepage]

http://www.albawaba.com/ [Albawaba Middle East gateway]

http://www.mideasti.org/ [Middle East Institute]

http://www.AISIsraelstudies.org/ais.htm [Association for Israel studies]

http://www.merip.org/ [MERIP]

http://menic.utexas.edu/menic.html [Centre for ME Studies, Univ of Texas at Austin]

http://www.ahram.org.eg/weekly/ [Al-Ahram Weekly]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/middle_east/ [BBC World Service]

Some scholarly journals that can be accessed electronically through the University of Bologna Server are:

British Journal of Middle East Studies

Bulletin (British Society of Middle Eastern Studies)

Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies

International Journal of Middle East Studies

Journal of Palestine Studies

MERIP Middle East Report

You can access these publications via an electronic archive called JSTOR, www.jstor.org . As a University of Bologna student having an userID and a password, you can access JSTOR and many more thematic data-bases :

1. On campus, from any PC on the University premises
2. off campus, by configuring a proxy connection to the University Server. Follow the instruction on http://w3.cib.unibo.it/internet/proxy-almanet/

 

Find here a list of links to some Middle Eastern journals' on-line editions listed by country, useful for the preparation of weekly presentations on regional press:

  Algeria

North Africa Journal      http://www.north-africa.com/    ( English and French version, analysis, reports ans comments on Maghreb politics, economy and finance)

Algeria Interface                http://www.algeria-interface.com/    

Algerie Press Service            http://www.aps.dz/fr/welcome.asp    (English and French versions )

  Saudi Arabia

Arab News  http://arabnews.com/

Saudi Gazette    http://www.okaz.com.sa/sgazette/

  Bahrain

Gulf Daily News      www.gulf-daily-news.com

Bahrain Tribune      www.bahraintribune.com

Bahrain Post           www.bahrainpost.com

  Egypt

 Al-Ahram Weekly       http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/

Business Today           http://www.businesstodayegypt.com/

Cairo Times                 http://www.cairotimes.com/   (weekly, useful for in-depth reports on political and cultural themes)

Egypt Today      http://www.egypttoday.com/   (good to learn a bit more about aspects of Egyptian political, cultural and social life)

Middle East Times            http://metimes.com/    (weekly, covering politics, finance, culture and religion)

Middle East New Agency   (MENA)   http://www.mena.org.eg/

  UAE

 Gulf News                    http://www.gulf-news.com/

The Gulf Today           http://www.godubai.com/gulftoday/main.asp

 Khaleej Times             http://www.khaleejtimes.co.ae/

 

Jordan

Jordan Times    http://www.jordantimes.com     ( it calls itself an independent daily on Arab politics)

The Star            http://star.arabia.com/                (weekly, it covers politics, economy and culture )

  Iran

Iran Daily             http://www.iran-daily.com/

The Iranian           http://www.iranian.com/        ( progressive, interesting because it is especially concerned with cultural and social topics , with particular attention for gender issues).

Iranic Republic News Agency  (IRNA)       http://www.irna.ir/

Teheran Globe     http://www.tehranglobe.com/

Teheran Times     http://www.tehrantimes.com/

  Iraq

Baghdad Bullettin      http://www.baghdadbulletin.com/

 Iraq Daily                  http://www.iraqdaily.com/

  Israel

 Ariga                          http://www.ariga.com/      ( Pacifist Left, very critical of establishment politics)

Debkafile                  http://www.debka.com/       (it covers political analysis, intelligence, security and terrorism )

Globes                      http://www.globes.co.il/serveen/    ( interesting for in-depth economic and financial analysis, it covers business and technology )

Ha Aretz                   http://www.haaretzdaily.com    

Israel Insider              http://web.israelinsider.com/bin/en.jsp?enPage=HomePage     ( Nationalist Right)

Arutz Sheva-  Israel National News    http://www.israelnationalnews.com/           ( religious nationalist Right)

Jerusalem Newswire                http://www.jnewswire.com/     (rightist )

Jerusalem Post                          http://www.jpost.com/servlet/    (right-wing)

Jerusalem Report                      http://www.jrep.com/                  (on-line magazine covering Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish World, right-wing )

Maariv                                      http://www.maarivenglish.com/   ( high-circulation newspaper)

Our Jerusalem                           http://ourjerusalem.com/index.html   (Nationalist Right )

  Kuwait

 Arab Times              http://www.arabtimesonline.com/arabtimes/index.asp

 Kuwait Times          http://www.kuwaittimes.net/

  Lebanon

The Daily Star (Lebanon)      www.dailystar.com.lb/     

East West Record     http://www.eastwestrecord.com/           ( Independent on-line weekly, specialized in politics and economy)

Monday Morning         http://www.mmorning.com/   

  Lybia

Al- Fajr al-Jadid    http://www.alfajraljadeedeng.com/    ( beweekly , in English, , pure propaganda)

Morocco ( As for Algeria and Tunisia, you have a wider choice of publications in French)

Morocco Today                 http://www.morocco-today.com/

  Oman

 Oman Observer                  http://omanobserver.com/

Times of Oman                   http://www.timesofoman.com/

Oman News  Agency (ONA)     http://www.omannews.com/

  Palestine

Jerusalem Times              http://www.jerusalem-times.net/             (Independent Palestinian Weekly)

Palestine Times                  http://www.ptimes.org/                           ( monthly, published in London)

Other on-line resources, to collect information about the Arab-Israeli Conflict and the latest developments on the ground:

Palestine Chronicle                    http://www.palestinechronicle.com/  

Electronic Intifada                      http://electronicintifada.net/

Bitter Lemons                             http://bitterlemons.com/

Arabic Media Internet Network  http://amin.org/eng

Ali Abunima   http://abunima.org/

Palestine Media Watch   http://pmwatch.org/

Jerusalem Media and Communication Centre (JMCC)       http://jmcc.org/

  Qatar

 Al- Jazeera                 http://english.aljazeera.net/HomePage   ( al-Jazeera satellite channel's web-site)

Gulf Times                    http://www.gulf-times.com/

The Peninsula                http://www.thepeninsulaqatar.com/index00.asp

  Syria

 Syria Times               http://www.teshreen.com/syriatimes/

 Syria News Agency       http://www.sana.org/

  Tunisia

  Tunisia Daily                     http://www.tunisiadaily.com/

Yemen

Yemen Observer         http://www.yobserver.com/

  Yemen Times            http://yementimes.com/

 

Teaching methods

Lectures. One weekly seminar of 1 hour will be devoted to analysis and comment of current Middle Eastern news taken from national, international and Middle Eastern press. Students are encouraged to serf the web-sites enlisted above to gather information from the Middle East, to engage actively in class discussions.

Assessment methods

Assessment Methods for attending students
During the course, two written examinations will be held with the aim of testing students' knowledge resulting from both in-class activities and independent study. The Examination paper will consists of ten questions with short open answers and it will count towards the 50% of the final mark.

Evaluation Criteria: 3 points will be assigned for any correct answer. 18 points are required to pass the test. At the end of the course, an oral examination will take place, during which students will be required to discuss some of the main topics in Middle Eastern history dealt with during the course.

The final mark will be constituted by the average mark resulting from written and oral examinations.

Assessment Methods for non-attending students

Oral examination based on set texts.

Teaching tools

Maps, slides and videos will be used during lectures.

Office hours

See the website of Marcella Emiliani