Politics in North Africa and the Middle East

Required Books
1. Wael B. Hallaq, An Introduction to Islamic Law
2. Gilles Kepel, Jihad: The Trail of Political Islam
3. Tamim Al-Barghouti, The Umma and the Dawla: The Nation State and the Arab Middle East
4. Roy Anderson, Robert Seibert, and Jon Wagner, Politics and Change in the Middle East

Part 1: Introduction to the MENA

I. Introduction

-Questionnaire and Orientation Quiz

II. Epistemic issues surrounding the study of the MENA

Read: Edward Said, “Preface to Orientalism,” al-Ahram Weekly, August 7, 2003

Bernard Lewis, ‘’The Question of Orientalism’’, The New York Review of Books, August 12, 1982

Edward Said, ‘’Orientalism: An Exchange’’, The New York Review of Books, June 24, 1983

III. Geography of the MENA: Living Conditions and Lifestyles

Read: Albert Hourani, A History of the Arab Peoples, pp. 98-109

Anderson, Seibert, and Wagner, Politics and Change in the Middle East, pp.1-10

IV. A Political History of the MENA: 7th-19th century

Read: Hourani, pp. 1-21, 147-157

Andersen, Seibert, and Wagner, pp. 26-42

Watch: Islam: Empire of Faith

Recommended: Ibn Khaldun, The Muqaddimah, pp. 5-9, 91-101, 123-166, 230-255

V. Law, Government, and Society in the MENA: 7th-19th century

Read: Hallaq, pp. 1-82

Patricia Crone, God's Rule: Six Centuries of Islamic Political Thought, pp. 259-314, 393-398

Recommended: Alexis de Tocqueville, First Letter about Algeria

Part II. Modernity and Ruptures

VI. The Demise of the Ottoman Empire and the Advent of the Colonial Era: 1800-1914

Read: Andersen, Seibert, and Wagner, pp. 43-56

Hallaq, pp. 93-114

Recommended: Antony Black, The History of Islamic Political Thought: From the Prophet to the Present, pp. 255-307

VII. The Rise of the State System and the Drive for Self-Determination: 1914-1950

Read: Andersen, Seibert, and Wagner, pp. 56-67

Hallaq, pp. 115-139

VIII. Regime structures in the MENA

Read: Andersen, Seibert, and Wagner, pp. 156-180

Ghassan Salame, "'Strong' and 'Weak' States: A Qualified Return to the Muqaddimah," in The Arab State, pp. 29-64

Eva Bellin, “The Robustness of Authoritarianism in the Middle East: A Comparative Perspective,” Comparative Politics, vol. 36, no. 2, Jan, 2004, pp. 139-157.

Recommended: Lee Smith, The Strong Horse: Power, Politics, and the Clash of Arab Civilizations

James T. Quinlivan, “Coup-proofing: Its Practices and Consequences in the Middle East,” International Security, Vol. 24, No. 2, 1999, pp. 131-165.

IX. Israel and the Arabs: Sixty Years of Conflict and Counting (I)

Read: Andersen, Seibert, and Wagner, pp. 67-70, 89-104, 110-114, 122-129, 266-270, 302-308

Hillel Cohen, Army of Shadows: Palestinian Collaboration with Zionism, 1917-1948, pp.1-21

E. Kaufman, “Israel and Palestine” in Regional and Ethnic Conflicts: Perspectives from the Front Lines

Recommended: Ruth Gavson, "The Jews' Right To Statehood: A Defense", Azure Summer 2003

Ya'akov Meron, Why Jews Fled the Arab Countries, Middle East Quarterly, September 1995

X. Israel and the Arabs: Sixty Years of Conflict and Counting (II)

Read: Daniel Pipes, Solving the "Palestinian Problem", Jerusalem Post, January 7, 2009

Tony Judt, “Israel: The Alternative”, The New York Review of Books, September 25, 2003

Carlo Strenger, ‘’One-state solution is a blueprint for a nightmare’’, Haaretz,

Part III: The Politics of Religion, Ethnicity, and Gender in the MENA

XI. The Origins of Islamism in the Arab World

Read: Hallaq, pp. 140-170

Gilles Kepel, Jihad: The Trail of Political Islam, pp.1-60

Recommended: Charles E. Butterworth, Political Islam: The Origins, Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Vol. 524, Political Islam (Nov., 1992), pp. 26-37

Aziz Al-Azmeh, Islamist Revivalism and Western Ideologies, History Workshop, No. 32 (Autumn, 1991), pp. 44-53, Oxford University Press

XII. Crisis of Legitimacy and the Post-Colonial State

Read: Tamim Al-Barghouti, The Umma and the Dawla: The nation-state and the Arab Middle East

XIII. The Rise of Islamism

Read: Kepel, pp. 61-88

Mir Zohair Husain, Global Islamic Politics, pp. 131-219

XIV. Islamism: A Typology

Muhammad Ayoob, The Many Faces of Political Islam, pp. 1-44

Recommended: Guilain Denoeux, The Forgotten Swamp: Navigating Political Islam, The Journal of Middle East Policy, Vol. IX. June 2002

XIV. Islamism, Democracy and the Prospects for Reform

Read: Vali Nasr, The Rise of Muslim Democracy, The Journal of Democracy, p.14-27

Noah Feldman, The Fall and the Rise of the Islamic State, pp. 105-151

Recommended:

XV. Ethnic-Racial Minorities in the MENA

Read: Mirjam E. Sørli, Nils Petter Gleditsch and Håvard Strand, Why Is There so Much Conflict in the Middle East? , The Journal of Conflict Resolution, Vol. 49, No. 1 (Feb., 2005), pp. 141-165

Saad Eddin.Ibrahim, Ethnic Conflict and State-Building in the Arab World, International Social Science Journal 50 (156): 229-242.

Graham E. Fuller, The Fate of the Kurds, Foreign Affairs, Vol. 72, No. 2 (Spring, 1993), pp. 108-121

David Crawford, How "Berber" Matters in the Middle of Nowhere, Middle East Report, No. 219 (Summer, 2001), pp. 20-25

XVI. Modernity and Changing Gender Roles in the MENA

Read: Nikki Keddie, Women in the Middle East: A History, pp. 9-59

Lynne Reinner, Modernizing Women: Gender and Social Change in the Middle East pp. 79-112

Recommended: Do Muslim Women Really Need Saving? Anthropological Reflections on Cultural Relativism and Its Others, Lila Abu-Lughod, American Anthropologist, New Series, Vol. 104, No. 3 (Sep., 2002), pp. 783-790

Badran, Margot, “Between Secular and Islamic Feminism/s.” Journal of Middle East Women’s Studies 1 (1): 6-28.

Part IV. Select Country Profiles

XVII. Turkey: From Secular Republic to Conservative, Post-Islamist Democracy
Read: Long, Reich, and Gasiorowski,

Ioannis Grigoriadis, Friends No More? The Rise of Anti-American Nationalism in Turkey ,
Ziya Onis and Fuat Keyman,“Turkey at the Polls: A New Path Emerges ” Journal of Democracy, April 2003.

Recommended: Secular Law and the Emergence of Unofficial Turkish Islamic Law

XVIII. Iran

Read: Said Arjomand, "Iran's Revolution in Comparative Perspective" World Politics

The Reform Movement and the Debate on Modernity and Tradition in Contemporary IranSaid Amir ArjomandInternational Journal of Middle East Studies, Vol. 34, No. 4 (Nov., 2002), pp. 719-731

Charles Kurzman, “Critics Within: Islamic Scholars’ Protests against the Islamic State in Iran”, International Journal of Politics, Culture, and Society, vol. 15, 2001, pp. 341-359

Ervand Abrahamian, “Why the Islamic Republic Has Survived,” Middle East Report (Spring 2009): 10-16

Watch: Persepolis

Recommended: Said Arjomand, The Turban for the Crown pp. 189-211

XIX. Egypt

Read: Long, Reich, and Gasiorowski, Chapter

Mona El-Ghobashy, “The Metamorphosis of the Egyptian Muslim Brothers,” International Journal of Middle East Studies, Vol. 37, No. 3, 2005, pp. 373-395.

Recommended: Genevieve Abdo, No God But God: Egypt and the Triumph of Islam
XX. Saudi Arabia

Read: Long, Reich, and Gasiorowski, Chapter

Stéphane Lacroix, 'Between Islamists and Liberals: Saudi Arabia's New “Islamo-Liberal” Reformists', in Middle East Journal, vol. 58, no. 3, Summer 2004, pp. 345–365

Amélie Le Renard, 'Only for Women: Women, the State, and Reform in Saudi Arabia', The Middle East Journal, vol. 62, no. 4, Autumn 2008, pp. 610-29

XXI. Lebanon

Recommended: Hanin Ghaddar, The Militarization of Sex: The story of Hezbollah's halal hookups, Foreign Policy Magazine, November 25, 2009

XXI. Algeria

Read: Long, Reich, and Gasiorowski, Chapter

Kepel, pp. 159-185, 254-276

Hamou Amirouche, Algeria's Islamist Revolution, The Journal of Middle East Policy, Vol. IX. June 2002

Micheal Slackman, A Quiet Revolution in Algeria: Gains by Women, The New York Times,

Recommended: Emilie de Vialar and the Religious Reconquest of Algeria, French Historical Studies, Vol. 29, No. 2 (Spring, 2006), pp. 261-292

Women and Democracy in Algeria, Dalila Djerbal, Louisa Ait Hamou, Review of African Political Economy, No. 54, Surviving Democracy? (Jul., 1992), pp. 106-111

XXII. Libya

Read: Long, Reich, and Gasiorowski, Chapter

Jacques Roumani, From Republic to Jamahiriya: Libya's Search for Political Community, Middle East Journal, Vol. 37, No. 2 (Spring, 1983), pp. 151-168

Recommended: The Libyan Revolution in the Words of Its Leaders, Middle East Journal, Vol. 24, No. 2 (Spring, 1970), pp. 203-219

XXIII. Morocco

Read: Long, Reich, and Gasiorowski, Chapter

Bruce Weitzman, Women, Islam, and the Moroccan State: The Struggle over the Personal Status Law

Moroccan Berbers seek revival of lost freedom: Five years on family law reform, Berbers unconvinced, Al-Arabiya

Recommended:

XXIV. The MENA and the United States: Why do North Africans and Middle Easterners despise America?

Read: Akbar Ahmed, Ibn Khaldun's Understanding of Civilizations and the Dilemmas of Islam and the West Today

XXV: Course overview