Books in the Studies in Middle Eastern History series

Middle Eastern newspapers evolved in the 19th century and were shaped during a period of accelerated change into a unique political, social and cultural role. Drawing on a wealth of sources, this study explores the press as a fundamental Middle Eastern institution.

The book explores the affairs of Mount Lebanon and its surrounds through fourteen centuries, beginning with the emergence of its Christian, Muslim and Islamic-derived communities between the sixth and eleventh centuries. Against this backdrop, it interprets the modern republic of Lebanon from Ottoman antecedents to present day crises.

From the beginning of the reign of Suleyman the Magnificent in 1520 until the mid-17th century, high-ranking women of the Ottoman dynasty enjoyed a degree of political power. This text examines the sources of their power and assesses the reactions of their male contemporaries.

This collection of essays 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. Topics range from the ancient civilizations to the pre-eminence of English as an international language.

The Iranian revolution still baffles most Western observers. Few considered the rise of theocracy in a modernized state possible, and fewer thought it might result from a popular revolution. This book provides a thoughtful and intelligible account of the turmoil in Iran, revealing the importance of this singular event for our understanding of revolutions.

This study of the rise of modern Arabic shows nineteenth-century linguistic changes in the eastern Arab world to mirror changing perceptions and responses to the West, and to act as a guide to the emergence of modern Arabic concepts, institutions, and practices.

Robert Satloff studies the six-year period in modern Jordanian political history when the Hashemite kingdom was in crisis. Based on exclusive interviews and newly-released archival resources, this stylish political history is the first scholarly study of the early years of King Hussein's rule when power rested in the hands of the King's advisers.

Examines Syria's religious, intellectual and political history during a period of transformation before World War I, focusing on an attempt to reform Islamic belief and practice at the turn of the century.

Professor Issawi, a widely known authority on the Middle East, has compiled this first systematic economic history of the Fertile Crescent in the 19th century. The book comprises a comprehensive selection of documents from sources in Englsih and seven other translated languages, the majority of which have never before been published.

Aiming to alter the accepted history of post-World War II Pan-Arabic foreign policy, the author demonstrates the absence of any true pan-Arabic front from the very beginning of the Arab League. He shows that Egyptian national interests were always placed before the united Arab front against Israel.

The figure of the eunuch in non-Western cultures has long been an object of mystery and mystification to the West. This book goes beyond sensationalism and stereotypes and offers a sensitive reconstruction of the historical role of the eunuch in Islam.

Kostiner tells the story of how Saud, with British backing, expanded the Saudi state to embrace most of the Arabian peninsula and establish a family monarchy that survives to this day. Drawing on an impressive range of materials, this is the most complete study of the creation of the Saudi state to date.

Uriel Dann explores the political history of the formative years of the Jordanian state, uncovering the sources of its durability against forces seeking to alter fundamentally the traditional bases of Arab politics.

In this study of the development of Egyptian nationalism durin g the early part of this century, the authors argue that it was slow to evolve because Islam constituted both a religious and a political community that did not recognize territorial boundaries.

Seeking to understand modern Iraq through its political discourse, this study examines political terms, concepts and idioms as disseminated through official Iraqi mouthpieces. The author illuminates Iraq's political culture and the events that these expressions both reflected and shaped.

This title is a re-evaluation of the Young Turk Revolution of 1908, a seminal event in the late Ottoman Empire and in the emergence of the modern nation-states in the Middle East and Balkans.

Based on the account of an Ottoman ambassador's expedition to France in 1720, Goecek's study reveals the complex and differential impact these two societies had on each other.

This book analyzes the transformation of the Ottoman Empire over the 19th and 20th centuries. It focuses on Muslim revivalist-fundamentalist movements which were contained by the Ottoman government's Islamist ideology and whose ideas fuelled a new kind of nationalist-religious ideology.

A detailed study of the Turkish secret society known as CUP (Committee of Union and Progress), a movement which continues to influence the thinking of Turkish intellectuals. It also provides insights into diplomatic relations between the Ottoman Empire and Europe in the early 20th century.