An Introduction To The Modern Middle East History Introduction

Introduction
THINKING ABOUT THE MIDDLE EAST
The dim lights of the ancient city of Damascus stretch to the

horizon as the five climbers ascend Jabal al-Qassun, the
mountain range behind the city where houses and narrow
alleys cling to the steep sides of the slopes. The night makes
the climb difficult, as each step on the ancient stone paths
must be placed with care. Up beyond the dim green neon of a
mosque minaret loom massive stones above the last row of
tiny houses. Suddenly a voice cries out. “Hello, hello,
welcome,” as the surprised Americans are led to a small
patio beside a humble dwelling. Plastic chairs appear as a
man and his friend offer water and cigarettes, and the wife
appears with a plate of sweet konafa. “Welcome to my house,
although it is very small,” says the host, who wears a T-shirt
emblazoned with the words “Baseball Coach.” “I can
Copyright © 2018. Routledge. All rights reserved.
practice my English,” he continues, and the discussion

ensues, about the city, about America, about small but
memorable things until the guests somewhat awkwardly
depart, with well wishes all around. The fact that
American-Syrian relations have been chilly for decades does
not stop this humble man, his wife, and his friend from
inviting in five American strangers. He does not ask if they
are military, nor does he know that one is about to assume
command of one of the mightiest warships in the world. He
just offers traditional Arab hospitality to strangers. Indeed, as
36
Sorenson, David S.. An Introduction to the Modern Middle East : History, Religion, Political Economy, Politics, Routledge,
2018. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/bcufpb-ebooks/detail.action?docID=1457772.
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the guests descend the steep stone path back to greater
Damascus, they wonder aloud what the fate of five Syrians
climbing the hills of Boston or San Francisco or any other
city after 11:00 at night might be.
TO MANY OUTSIDERS, the Middle East seems remote, lying

almost halfway around the world from North America and
Japan, though it is closer to Europe. Middle Eastern culture
and customs seem foreign to Westerners, and few outside the
area understand its primary religion, Islam. When reports of
the Middle East filter through the American media, they are
usually negative, depicting acts of terrorism and anger toward
the United States. Literature and other forms of entertainment
rarely depict the Middle East in a positive light. Movies tell of
an American mother desperately trying to regain a child
whose father kidnapped her and took her back to his country
or depict the Delta Force combating ruthless terrorists who
brutalize passengers on hijacked planes. Most Americans are
familiar with “Islamic fundamentalism,” and the Middle
Eastern leaders most Americans recognized were Saddam
Hussein and Muammar Qadhafi, before their respective
demises. The horrific images of the attacks on September 11,
2001, only reinforced negative associations with the Middle

East, as does the continuing calamity in Iraq, where bombings
seem almost a daily occurrence. The bloodshed in Syria
generates constant pictures of mangled bodies and blackened
building shells pulverized by bombs and artillery shells.
There are few positive portrayals of the Middle East.
Yet the Middle East is a vital area for world interests, and for
reasons that go far beyond oil, its best-known commodity. Oil
is the most significant natural resource in the Middle East,
with around three-quarters of the global supply located there,
37
but petroleum is only one factor that makes the Middle East
important. World commerce today sustains the livelihood of
billions of people, and much of that commerce moves by
land, sea, and air through the Middle East. The seaborne trade
between Europe and Asia generally passes through the Suez
Canal and into the Red Sea, exiting through the Bab
al-Mandeb, while much of the world’s oil transits the narrow
Straits of Hormuz at the mouth of the Persian Gulf. Other
ocean trade moves through the Mediterranean Sea, north of
the coast of Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, Libya, and Egypt.
That makes the stability of those countries important.
Less tangible factors also connect the Middle East to the rest
of the world. It is the birthplace of the world’s three
monotheistic religions—Islam, Judaism, and Christianity.
Jerusalem best demonstrates this, a city where one can visit
the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, the Western Wall, and the
Dome of the Rock in less than an hour.1 They are, in order,
the purported site of Christ’s crucifixion, the possible remains
of the Hebrew Second Temple (destroyed by the Romans in
70 CE), and the place from which Muslims believe the
Prophet Muhammad ascended to heaven after a night journey
from Mecca.2 These places lie within a small section of the
old city of Jerusalem, no more than around five square

kilometers in size. The Western Wall (sometimes called the
Wailing Wall) is the holiest site in the world for Jews, who
come to pray there and connect to both their faith and their
past. Muslims regard the Dome of the Rock as the
third-holiest place in the world, ranking only behind the
Prophet’s Mosque in Medina and the Grand Mosque in
Mecca. Christians make pilgrimages to the holy places
representing the life and crucifixion of Jesus, including the
38
Stations of the Cross and the Church of the Nativity in nearby
Bethlehem.
The Middle East is where many of the world’s ancient

civilizations rose and fell, and their history alone covers
thousands of years of migration, urbanization,
invention, bloodshed and conquest, and ultimately decay and
disappearance under the desert sands. But reminders of its
past remain: the columns of ancient temples still standing
proudly in the desert, the remnants of Islamic design in the
walls of ancient Cairo, and the narrow dimly lit streets in
Damascus and Aleppo with wisteria climbing the delicate
wood mashrabiyya windows that date back for centuries. It is
difficult for Americans in particular to internalize the vast
time span of Middle Eastern history.
A riot of bright colors covers the fields, rare for Syria except
in March. Paper-thin red poppies, tiny blue lupine blossoms,
and yellow buttercups dot the rolling green hills. The narrow
road leads through small villages, some dominated by a white

dome marking a tomb. A lone figure emerges by the side of
the road to open a gate. This is the site of Ebla, the long-lost
city that may be mentioned in Genesis. In 1964, archeologists
dug some of the hills away here, revealing foundations and
walls made of stone carefully fitted together. “There is the
kitchen,” the man said, introducing himself as a staff
archeologist who had been excavating this area for several
years. There was nothing to tell the untrained observer that
this was a kitchen, nor could one tell that the “library” was
39
really a library. However, diggers discovered a treasure trove
of clay tablets there, revealing much about Ebla, including
the affairs of its citizens and its relations with other city-states
of the area. The hills surrounding the excavations cover other
foundations, but there is neither time nor money to dig, and
so what lies under the flowers must remain a mystery for now.
Once this was a city possibly ruled by the
great-great-great-great grandfather of Abraham. Once, the
sounds of ancient people rang out: the chisel of the mason,
the laughter of children, the call of the merchant, the sentry’s
shouted warning from the fifty-foot-high city wall alerting the
city to the arrival of the Acadians, who would lay waste to it
around 2250 BCE. The fate of Ebla’s citizens is unknown,
though the Acadian leader boasted of other conquests where
he slaughtered everyone he found, flaying them and
decorating his columns with their skins.
Today the area around Ebla is silent, except for the breeze
blowing through the low scrub brush and the distant bleating
of goats. The carpet of flowers reseeds itself each year,
although there is almost no one left to pick them. It has been
this way for forty-five centuries.
The Middle East, along with China, India, and another few
scattered places around the world, is one of those few “core
areas” where human civilization developed many thousands
of years ago. The early inhabitants of the region between the
Tigris and Euphrates Rivers who built such ancient
civilizations as Sumer and Babylon in the land known as
Mesopotamia left footprints thousands of years ago for those
who came after them to follow. While it is true that the
connection between
40
the early Mesopotamians and those who settled the land after
them was broken, the people who live there today still feel
links to those ancient cultures. Sometimes modern-day
leaders use those links to inspire their followers. For example,
former Iraqi ruler Saddam Hussein rebuilt part of the great
city of Babylon, and the former shah of Iran celebrated the
5,000th birthday of Persia (now Iran) in the ruined city of
Persepolis.
THE CURRENCY OF HISTORY
When Osama bin Laden issued his calls to Muslims to fight

against the United States and the West, he consistently
characterized his targets as “Crusaders,” referring to the
Christian occupiers of the Holy Land between the eleventh
and thirteenth centuries. Dean Abdullah Hassan Ali Barakat
of al-Azhar University in Cairo, speaking in 2006, remarked,
“He mentions the Iraq War as proof and, without irony, the
fact that medieval churches burned scientists at the stake at a
time when the Islamic world emphasized research at places
like al-Azhar. He says this as if it were yesterday and as
though nothing has changed since.”3 Such imagery is not
uncommon. As Mary-Jane Deeb explains, “Arab societies

have a very fluid sense of time. For them, events like the
Crusades a thousand years ago are as immediate as yesterday.
Moreover, they are very, very powerful events in the Arab
mind. A lot of Islamic rhetoric revolves around the
Crusades.”4 The legends live on as the centuries pass. The
result is often a strong belief that the West (and the most
powerful Western country, the United States) is once again
plotting against the Arab and Islamic world. President George
W. Bush’s unfortunate reference to his campaign against
al-Qaeda as a “crusade” after the September 11 attacks only
41
fueled such beliefs, even though the White House quickly
retracted the statement. When Pope Benedict XVI quoted a
fourteenth-century text critical of Islam in September 2006,
and a Danish newspaper published unfavorable cartoons of
the Prophet Muhammad in the same year, many Muslims
recoiled in anger. The reaction came in the face of a long
history of humiliation at the hands of Westerners, whose
influence over the past century is especially painful for the
peoples whose grandparents often recite from memory the
sights of British or French soldiers dishonoring Arabs as
though they were animals. Only those who have heard such
stories can understand the full force of disgraces like the
actions of a few Americans at Iraq’s Abu Ghraib prison and
the plight of the Palestinian population, half of which
continues to live in refugee status decades after their
expulsion from Israel. While nothing justifies the death and
destruction that followed protests of these memories and
events, it is imperative to understand their roots.
Jewish history shapes beliefs for the modern inhabitants of

Israel. The constant oppression experienced by Jews
reinforces the belief today that the paramount role of the state
of Israel is to provide physical security for the Jewish people,

who, for the first time since the Roman conquest of Jerusalem
in 70 CE, have their own state and their own security
apparatus. In modern Israel, numerous holidays
commemorate disasters that befell the Jewish people in their
long history, serving to either remind them of their
vulnerability to or burden them with the sense of perpetual
victimhood. Persian (and Iranian) history is similar, flush with
memories of historical occupations, illustrated by such things
as photographs taken around 1912 showing smiling Russian
42
officers posing in front of gallows from which hang the
bodies of Persian nationalists.
Most Westerners have little awareness of their cultural and

historic connection to the Middle East, largely because those
connections date back many centuries and have often been
filtered through European culture. However, consider the
following:
• Developments in literature, theology, science, philosophy,

medicine, mathematics, music, and other such things that
make up what is often called “Western civilization” came
from, or at least through, the Middle East. Arguably, the first
great work of literature was the Mesopotamian tale of
Gilgamesh, a Noah-like hero who survived a global flood,
written around 2000 BCE. The Babylonians developed
sophisticated mathematical skills, including geometry and the
computation of exponentials. They also developed the idea of
time measurement, dividing a day into twenty-four hours, an
hour into sixty minutes, and a minute into sixty seconds, a
concept that remains universal after 4,000 years. The ancient
Egyptians left records indicating an advanced understanding
of diseases and their causes. The concept of a college as a

place of higher learning is of Islamic origin, and the world’s
first university, al-Azhar in Cairo, dates back to the ninth
century. The idea of zero, algebra (itself an Arabic word),
trigonometry, and discoveries in medicine (including the
circulation of blood) came from the Greek and Indus River
Valley civilizations and were rediscovered and refined in the
Arab and Islamic worlds. In the eighth century, al-Uqlidisi
discovered the decimal fraction, and a Persian mathematician
may have invented the calculating machine.5 The work of
Nasiruddin Tusi on celestial motion in Persia in the thirteenth
43
century was translated into Greek and influenced Copernicus
as he developed the heliocentric theory of the solar system.6
Abu Abdallah Muhammad ibn Jabir al-Harrani, who lived in
what is now Iraq (858–929 CE), was probably the first to
calculate the solar year and the timing of the seasons. Abu
Yousuf Yaqub ibn Ishaq al-Kindi, also born in what is today
Iraq, wrote path-breaking books on a wide range of subjects
that would later inform European scientists. Abu al-Qasim
Az-Zahrawi, born around 938, known as the father of surgery,
performed tracheotomy and lithotomy operations, introduced
the use of cotton and catgut, and described extra-uterine
pregnancy, breast cancer, and the sex-linked inheritance of
hemophilia. Ibn Firnas, who lived in the ninth century,
investigated the mechanics of flight. He constructed a pair of
wings out of feathers on a wooden frame and made the first
attempt at flight, anticipating Leonardo da Vinci by 600
years. Some modern scholars consider the political theories
developed by Ibn Khaldun (1332–1405) as superior in
thought to the much better known political theories of
Machiavelli.7 The Arab philosopher al-Farabi (870–950)
analyzed Plato’s discussion of metaphysics and developed
original theories on logic.8 Other Arabs discovered and
developed knowledge from cultures they encountered in, for

example, the Indus Valley and China. The diaries of the great
traveler Ibn Battuta, who traversed much of the known
Islamic world shortly after Marco Polo’s journeys, enhanced
greatly the knowledge of geography and the culture of the
time.9 However, none of these great scholars gets much
recognition outside of the Islamic world. For example, in
December 1999, the American Discovery Channel ran a list
of the 100 most influential people of the past millennium.
While many of the great Western scientists and thinkers were
listed (Copernicus, Galileo, Bacon, Machiavelli, Locke, and
44
Newton, for example), the presentation mentioned none from
the Islamic world.
• Spanish-style architecture, so popular in places like

California or Texas, is actually Middle Eastern in origin,
coming to Spain with the Islamic armies who occupied much
of the Iberian Peninsula between 711 and 1492 CE. Arched
porticos, red tile roofs, courtyards with fountains, and stucco
walls characterized Middle Eastern and North African houses
thousands of years ago. When the Muslims crossed into
Spain, they took their architecture with them, and it flourished
there and elsewhere in Europe. Music and musical
instruments also have Middle Eastern origins. The guitar has
indirect links to the Spanish lute, which originated as the oud,
a stringed instrument still popular in the Arab world today.
The famous Turkish Janissary bands that were often part of
early European courts influenced European composers, as
reflected in Mozart’s famous piano Sonata 11, the “Turkish
March.” Soap and daily bathing were habits discovered in the
Middle East by the Crusaders and taken back to Europe after
the thirteenth century, as were eating utensils such as forks
(first used in the Middle East in the seventh century) and
knives, unknown to the Crusaders who ate mostly with their

hands, heaping their food on stale bread instead of plates.
Forks were not widely used in Italy until the sixteenth
century. Toilets flushed by running water were used in the
Middle East before the Common Era and may date back to
early Mesopotamia, while outdoor privies existed in much of
Europe and the United States until the twentieth century.
Perfumes distilled from roses came from Persia long before
they came from Paris.
45
• Common foods and beverages originated from or passed
through the Middle East to the West. Yogurt was a Mongol
dish left with the Arabs after the Mongol defeat in the
thirteenth century. Citrus trees arrived in Europe from the
Crusades. Coffee has obscure origins, but Sufi mystics in
Yemen seem to have first used the drink to stay awake for
evening religious services. The Arab word for the drink,
qahwah, became “coffee” and reached Europe through
Turkey. Middle Easterners probably popularized fast food
meat sandwiches with shwarma (roast lamb or chicken, sliced
into pita bread) long before the first McDonald’s opened. The
world’s first known cookbook appeared in Babylon almost
4,000 years ago and included a recipe for goat kid stewed
with onions, garlic, sour milk, and blood.
•
The concept of law, used today to regulate almost every
society, first appeared (at least in written form) in the
Babylon of King Hammurabi, who ruled from 1795 to 1750
BCE. His code, divided into 282 sections, defines rules and
penalties for a variety of activities, including business law,
civil relations (including marriage and divorce law), and
criminal law. Hammurabi’s Code also contains the first

known statement of the rights of women, including the right
to divorce (they got their dowry back if they could prove
cruelty, but the man suffered no additional penalty).
• Theological thought and the concept of monotheism came

from the Middle East thousands of years ago. The Hebrew
Bible, filled with prophets, kings, and events such as the
Great Flood, is a history of the ancient Middle East. Some
contend that the belief in one god originated in Egypt around
1500 BCE with Pharaoh Akhenaton, who broke with Egyptian
46
polytheism and formed the cult of Amun, the sun god. There
were also ancient Mesopotamian beliefs in such things as
immaculate conception, the story of Cain and Abel, and a
massive flood that serve as precursors to the Old and New
Testaments. Places in ancient Middle Eastern history get
constant mention in church sermons and hymns: Galilee,
Nazareth, Sodom and Gomorrah, the Street Called Straight,
the Mount of Olives, Zion, and many others. Islam and
Christianity both developed their philosophical orthodoxy
through the thought of Aristotle, as rediscovered and distilled
by early Islamic scholars such as Abul-Walid ibn Rushd,
known in the West as Averroes (1126–1198), Abu Ali
al-Hussein ibn Abdallah ibn Sina, also known as Avicenna
(980–1037), Abu Yusuf Yaqub ibn Ishaq al-Sabbah al-Kindi
(801–873), and Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Zakariya al-Razi,
known to Europeans as Rhazes (865–925), later further
developed by Christian philosophers during medieval times.10
• European languages contain many words from the Middle

East, including algebra, admiral, arsenal, alcohol, cane,
hazard, soda, salad, saffron (“yellow” in Arabic), tomato, and
a host of others. Tennis players swing a racket (from the
Arabic rahat, or palm of hand) and hit tennis balls named

after Tinnis, a town in Egypt from which linen for the balls
originated. When Egyptian Sultan Salih built quarters for his
troops along the Nile River in 1240 CE, he drew the troops’
name, Bahris, from the common name for the Nile, bahr, or
sea.11 The term evolved into “barracks” now used worldwide
to refer to military quarters. The word “salt” appears to
originate from the name of a Jordanian city, al-Salt, near
Amman. The “julep” in “mint julep” comes from the Arabic
word julab, or rosewater. The name of the famous Rock of
Gibraltar comes from the Arabic Jebel Tariq, or “Mountain of
47
Tariq,” named after the Berber general Tariq ibn Zayid, who
crossed by Gibraltar to conquer Spain in 711. The Latin
alphabet originated from the Ugaritic alphabet, dating back to
around 1200 BCE. A text from Ugarit
(now in modern Syria) containing twenty-six letters is on
display at the National Museum in Damascus.
STUDYING THE MIDDLE EAST: ORIENTALISM AND

ITS CRITICS
Some critics claim that Western scholars impose a particular

frame of reference on the Middle East, following a path set by
earlier chroniclers of the region.12 The late Edward Said
labels much of British and French literature on the “Orient”
(or “East”) as “Orientalism,” defined as “a Western Style for
dominating, restructuring, and having authority over the
Orient.”13 Said concentrated largely on nineteenth-century
writers (Ernest Renan, Gustave Flaubert, Mark Twain, and
Richard Burton, for example), who describe an Orient of
courtesans, pyramids, backwardness, and syphilis.14 Their
reductionism of Eastern people and culture opens the door for
a mythology of Western superiority and the need for Western
control, often through empire. In his final chapter, Said

singles out the Middle East Studies Association, US
government–funded institutes like the RAND Corporation
and the Hudson Institute, and scholars such as Raphael Patai
(author of The Arab Mind and other works), P. J. Vatikiotis,
and Bernard Lewis who retain, according to Said, “the
traditional Orientalist outlook which had been developed in
Europe.”15 One study argues that Orientalism continued to
influence American policy toward the region throughout the
cold war and after.16 Lockerman maintains that an Orientalist
48
thread leads to the Bush II administration’s policy on Iraq
since 2003.17
Reaction to Orientalism in the United States has been both

negative and defensive. A critique of Middle Eastern studies
argued that scholars such as John Esposito, John Voll,
Richard Bulliet, and Michael Hudson produce an academic
“whitewash” of Islam. They and others, according to Martin
Kramer, seek to varnish Islamic politics as inherently
democratic and leading to stable political systems.
Consequently, they failed to explain the resurgence of Islamic
violence characterized by September 11, 2001.18 Kramer
paradoxically joins Said as the target of critics who accuse
both of malicious persecution without much evidence,
possibly influenced too much by their own identities and
mind-sets. Said was Palestinian-born, and Kramer, although
born in Washington, DC, served for years on the faculty of
Tel Aviv University in Israel. Others sustain Said’s argument,
emphasizing the mistaken lessons from history (Lewis’s focus
on Ottoman reactions to premodern Europe, for example), or
the emphasis by Orientalists on the narrative of a static Islam
in public and private life, or an Islam marked by systemic
violence.19
The debate over Orientalism underscores the fragility of

Middle Eastern studies. There are certainly disparaging
comments about Arabs (notably in Patai’s The Arab Mind)20
and continuing charges of “neo-Orientalism” against
journalist Robert Kaplan and scholars Daniel Pipes and
Samuel Huntington.21 But if Huntington, for example, cites
clear failures of Islamic countries to maintain economic
growth rates comparable to those of non-Islamic countries, is
that “Orientalist” or is it simply true? In a similar fashion, to
49
suggest that Middle Eastern studies has “failed,” as Kramer
does, because of an oversensitivity to “Orientalism” (“Said’s
disciples govern
Middle East studies,” he claims) begs the question, Failed at
what?22 Kramer fails to demonstrate that the
“counter-Orientalists” like John Esposito are wrong; he
simply finds them guilty by association (Esposito and Said
praise each other’s work).23 Moreover, if Middle Eastern
studies “failed” to inform policy or to provide warnings about
something like September 11, was it because the discipline
“failed” or because US policy makers failed to pay attention
to what serious Middle Eastern scholars were writing and
saying? Finally, is it the duty of Middle Eastern studies (or
any other area studies, for that matter) to construct policy
foundations or to inform students and scholars who utilize the
fruits of its endeavors to enhance their own understanding of
this region?
These debates are noted to remind readers that few disciplines

are value-free no matter how neutral they profess to be. The
history profession is imbued with debates about what is and is
not true because of inherent biases and professed norms that
shackle the profession. Consider, for example, the strident

debate over Israeli modern history and responsibility for the
Palestinian exodus.24 Narratives about politics and religion
are even more laden with charges and countercharges of
favoritism or unsupported criticism or one-sidedness. Readers
should demand fairness and accuracy and nothing less, but
they must also understand that critiques in Middle Eastern
studies go beyond challenges to veracity to include emotional
reactions to perceptions (real or not) of misunderstanding and
unfairness. Some parts of this book may be labeled Orientalist
because they emphasize things that are sometimes depicted as
50
Western values. However, values such as democratization,
equality for minorities and women, and civil liberties are
increasingly esteemed around the world if not practiced, and
the very fact that most Middle Eastern and North African
countries are increasingly putting them into practice suggests
that they are well beyond worrying about Orientalism.
THE OBJECTIVES OF THIS BOOK
As the title indicates, I intend this book to serve as an

introduction to the Middle East, but I hope it does more. I
want to emphasize the complexity of the area, and the
multiple forces that shape its dynamics, politically,
economically, and socially. I want to avoid the easy answers
that too often accompany the reports that Americans in
particular too often get, both from serious and trivial media.
Instead, I want readers to ponder, to critique, to analyze, and
to question the Middle East, so as to subject it to balanced yet
rigorous scrutiny. I try to promote such scrutiny in these
chapters. Although an introductory book must contain
fundamental information about its topic, I also offer
interpretations about why things happen: why wars break out,
why countries sometimes subsidize their economies, why

women’s literacy rates are usually lower than are men’s, or
why scholars argue over the application of a particular
religious statement, for example. I hope that as readers
wrestle with these and other arguments, they will be able to
sharpen their reasoning skills, as well as their ability to think
both critically and objectively about how things in the Middle
East work. My effort is also to provide as objective a text as
possible. I have seen enough of the many sides of Middle East
issues to realize that rarely is one side “right,”
51
and that usually both sides have at least a worthy point in the
fight. I try diligently to avoid slanting my descriptions, my
information, or my analyses toward favoring any position,
country, religion, or person. Yet I say for the record that I
believe that there are certain fundamental human rights:
children should free from exploitation for labor or sex, and
women have the same fundamental rights as do men, and thus
“honor killings” (described more in Chapter 4) are not about
honor, but are about murder. If women are required to wear
restrictive clothing or are restricted from places to pray, then
impose the same restrictions on men, or eliminate them
altogether. I believe that democracy is preferable to police
states, though I accept its limits and that it must originate
internally instead of being imposed from foreign shores. Do
these things reflect “American” values? No, they are not
universally practiced or subscribed to in America either, but
they do represent values I hear expressed on the streets and in
the shops and restaurants in Cairo, Tel Aviv, Damascus,
Tunis, Ankara, Riyadh, Doha, Amman, and so many other
places where I have walked and talked over many years.
So I hope that readers come away from this book with

fundamental knowledge of its history, its religions, it political

spaces, its economic aspirations and challenges, and its
relationships with those outside its realm. More than that,
readers will see how these areas are interconnected: that
political decisions flow from historical memories that set both
goals and limits to what can be done.
LEARNING MORE
An introductory text should do more than just introduce a

region or a topic; it should also pave the way for further
52
study. I hope that this book will inspire such endeavors: travel
to the region (yes, it is mostly safe), language study, or at
least further inquiry into the subjects I cover. One way to gain
important insights into any country or region is to read its
press and watch or listen to its media. Social media like
Facebook or Twitter have numerous postings and tweets from
the Middle East (several Middle Eastern militaries have their
own Facebook page, for example). Newspapers remain
fundamental windows though which to view countries, and
there are several sites to search for native-language papers:
Arabic newspapers, at www.w3newspapers.com/arabic/
Arab news at Kidon Media Link: www.kidon.com/

media-link/arabic.php
Israeli newspapers at Onlinenewspapers.com:

www.onlinenewspapers.com/israel.htm
Turkish newspapers at Onlinenewspapers.com ,

www.onlinenewspapers.com/turkey.htm
Iranian news at World-Newspapers.com ,

www.world-newspapers.com/iran.html
53

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Introduction

THINKING ABOUT THE MIDDLE EAST

The dim lights of the ancient city of Damascus stretch to the

practice my English,” he continues, and the discussion

TO MANY OUTSIDERS, the Middle East seems remote, lying

2001, only reinforced negative associations with the Middle

old city of Jerusalem, no more than around five square

The Middle East is where many of the world’s ancient

road leads through small villages, some dominated by a white

THE CURRENCY OF HISTORY

When Osama bin Laden issued his calls to Muslims to fight

uncommon. As Mary-Jane Deeb explains, “Arab societies

Jewish history shapes beliefs for the modern inhabitants of

of Israel is to provide physical security for the Jewish people,

Most Westerners have little awareness of their cultural and

• Developments in literature, theology, science, philosophy,

of diseases and their causes. The concept of a college as a

developed knowledge from cultures they encountered in, for

• Spanish-style architecture, so popular in places like

knives, unknown to the Crusaders who ate mostly with their

criminal law. Hammurabi’s Code also contains the first

• Theological thought and the concept of monotheism came

• European languages contain many words from the Middle

Arabic rahat, or palm of hand) and hit tennis balls named

STUDYING THE MIDDLE EAST: ORIENTALISM AND

Some critics claim that Western scholars impose a particular

control, often through empire. In his final chapter, Said

Reaction to Orientalism in the United States has been both

The debate over Orientalism underscores the fragility of

These debates are noted to remind readers that few disciplines

shackle the profession. Consider, for example, the strident

THE OBJECTIVES OF THIS BOOK

As the title indicates, I intend this book to serve as an

why countries sometimes subsidize their economies, why

So I hope that readers come away from this book with

fundamental knowledge of its history, its religions, it political

An introductory text should do more than just introduce a

Arabic newspapers, at www.w3newspapers.com/arabic/

Arab news at Kidon Media Link: www.kidon.com/

Israeli newspapers at Onlinenewspapers.com:

Turkish newspapers at Onlinenewspapers.com ,

Iranian news at World-Newspapers.com ,

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