21H.601 | Fall 2006 | Undergraduate

Islam, the Middle East, and the West

Readings

This section features the texts used consistently throughout the course as well as a list of readings by session. Disscussion questions are available for Ses #2 and Ses #5.

Texts

Goody, Jack. Islam in Europe. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press, 2004. ISBN: 9780745631936.

Maalouf, Amin. The Crusades Through Arab Eyes. New York, NY: Schoken, 1985. ISBN: 9780805240047.

Matar, N. I. In the Lands of the Christians: Arabic Travel Writing in the Seventeenth Century. New York, NY: Routledge, 2002. ISBN: 9780415932288.

Al-Saffar, Muhammad. Disorienting Encounters: Travels of a Moroccan Scholar in France in 1845-1846: The Voyage of Muhammad as-Saffar. Translated and edited by Susan Gilson Miller. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1992. ISBN: 9780520074620.

Salih, Tayeb. Season of Migration to the North. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 1991. ISBN: 9780435909741.

Readings by Session

SES # READINGS
Introduction
1 Middle East, historiographical issues, and geography.
2

Discussion: Lockman, Zachary. “In the Beginning.” In Contending Visions of the Middle East. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 2004, pp. 7-37. ISBN: 9780521629379.

Discussion Questions (PDF)

Overview, “Islamic Civilization”
3 Goody, Jack. “The West’s Problem with the East.” In The East in the West. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 1996, pp. 1-10. ISBN: 9780521556736.
4 Berkey, Jonathan. “The Religions of Late Antiquity.” In The Formation of Islam. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 2002, pp. 10-38. ISBN: 9780521588133.
5

Discussion: Maalouf, Amin. The Crusades Through Arab Eyes. Prologue pp. xiii-xvi, pp. 3-55, and pp. 59-81.

Discussion Questions (PDF)

Islam in Europe: Andalusia
6 Goody, Jack. “Introduction,” and “Past Encounters.” In Islam in Europe. pp. 10-24 (until the end of first paragraph).
7 Guichard, Pierre. “The Social History of Muslim Spain.” In The Legacy of Muslim Spain. Edited by Salma Khadra Jayyusi. New York, NY: E.J. Brill, 1992, pp. 679-708. ISBN: 9789004095991.
8 Discussion: Maalouf, Amin. The Crusades Through Arab Eyes. pp. 82-158.
Europeans in Islamdom: The Crusades
9 Goody, Jack. “Past Encounters.” In Islam in Europe. pp. 24-49.
10 Discussion: Maalouf, Amin. The Crusades Through Arab Eyes. pp. 159-259, epilogue, and discussion.
Europe and the Middle East: A Shared Renaissance
11 Goody, Jack. “Past Encounters.” In Islam in Europe. pp. 49-83.
12

Discussion: Brotton, Jerry. “A Global Renaissance.” In The Renaissance Bazaar: From the Silk Road to Michelangelo. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2002, pp. 33-61. ISBN: 9780192802682.

Dursteller, Eric R. “An Urban Middle Ground.” In Venetians in Constantinople. Nation, Identity, and Coexistence in the Early Mediterranean. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2006, pp. 151-185. ISBN: 9780801883248.

Early Modern Age: The House of Osman and the Expansion of the West
13 Goody, Jack. “Past Encounters.” In Islam in Europe. pp. 83-109.
14 Discussion: Matar, N. I. In The Lands of the Christians. Introduction (xiii-xxxviii) and selection of chapters (chapters 1 and 4 [pp. 5-44, 197-214] or chapter 2 [pp.45-111]).
The Middle East in the Age of Napoleon’s Invasion
15 Ayalon, David. “The Historian al-Jabarti and his Background.” Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London 23, no. 2. (1960): 217-249.
16

Al-Jabarti, Sheik. Napoleon in Egypt: Al-Jabarti’s Chronicle of the French Occupation, 1798. Translated by Schmuel Moreh. Princeton, NJ: Markus Wiener Publishing, Inc., 1993. Selection (13 pages). ISBN: 9781558760707.

Film: Selections from Chahine, Youssef. Adieu, Bonaparte! Egypt/France, 1985.

17 Discussion: Matar, N. I. In The Lands of the Christians. Chapter 3, pp. 113-195.
Islam and the Middle East in European Thought
18 Hourani, Albert. “Islam in European Thought.” In Islam in European Thought. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 1991, pp. 32-60 (sections 6 to 11). ISBN: 9780521392136.
19 Said, Edward. Orientalism. New York, NY: Pantheon Books, 1978, pp. 1-9, 31-49. ISBN: 9780394428147. Film: Anderson, Alexandra, and Tariq Ali. A Conversation with Edward Said. 1994.
20 Discussion: Saffar, Muhammad. Disorienting Encounters. pp. 3-69.
Ethnic Representations in the Nationalist Age
21

Goody, Jack. “Bitter Icons and Ethnic Cleansing.” In Islam in Europe. pp. 110-132.

Hobsbawm, Eric. “Introduction: Inventing Traditions.” In The Invention of Tradition. Edited by E. Hobsbawm and T. Ranger. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 1983, pp. 1-14. ISBN: 9780521246453.

22

Bayly, Susan. “Racial Readings of Empire: Britain, France, and Colonial Modernity in the Mediterranean and Asia.” In Modernity & Culture: From the Mediterranean to the Indian Ocean. Edited by Leila T. Fawaz and C. A. Bayly. New York, NY: Columbia University Press, 2001, pp. 285-313. ISBN: 9780231114271.

23 Discussion: Saffar, 1992: 73-150.
When Turkey Went West: From Tanzimat to Atatürk
24

Zürcher, Erik J. “The Ottoman Legacy of the Turkish Republic.” Die Welt des Islams 32 (1992): 237-253.

Kemal, Mustafa. Excerpt.

25 Discussion: Saffar, Muhammad. Disorienting Encounters. pp. 150-212 (end).
Resistance and Independence
26

Jankowski, James. “Arab Nationalism in ‘Nasserism’ and Egyptian State Policy, 1952-1958.” In Rethinking Nationalism in the Arab Middle East. Edited by J. Jankowski and I. Gershoni. New York, NY: Columbia University Press, 1997, pp. 150-167. ISBN: 9780231106955.

Salih, Tayeb. Season of Migration to the North. pp. 1-69.

27

Films: Selections from Chahine, Youssef. Salah al-Din the Victorious. Egypt, 1964. or,

Fadel, Mohamed. Nasser 56. Egypt, 1996.

28 Reading: Salih, Tayeb. Season of Migration to the North. pp. 1-69.
Migrations
29

Benin, Joel. “Post-populist Reformation of the Working Class and Peasantry.” In Workers and Peasants in the Modern Middle East. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 2001, pp. 114-141. ISBN: 9780521629034.

Humphreys, Michael. “Migrants, Workers and Refugees: The Political Economy of Population Movements in the Middle East.” Middle East Report 181, Radical Movements: Migrants, Workers and Refugees (March-April 1993): 2-7.

30 Discussion: Salih, Tayeb. Season of Migration to the North. pp. 70-169 (end).
Islamic Revolution, Terrorism, and Us
31 Mirsepassi-Ashtiani, Ali. “The Crisis of Secular Politics and the Rise of Political Islam in Iran.” Social Text 38 (Spring 1994): 51-84.
32

Russet, Bruce, John Oneal, and Michaelene Cox, “Clash of Civilizations, or Realism and Liberalism Déjà vu? Some Evidence.” Journal of Peace and Research 37, no. 5 (September 2000): 583-608.

Abrahamian, Ervand. “The U.S. Media, Huntington and September 11.” Middle East Report 223 (Summer 2002): 62-63.

Optional reading as reference to his ideas:

Huntington, Samuel P. “The Clash of Civilizations.” Foreign Affairs 72, no. 3 (Summer 1993).

33

Goody, Jack. “Islam and Terrorism,” and “The Taliban, the Bamiyan and Us.” Chapters 3 and 4 in Islam in Europe. pp. 146-160 and 133-145.

Film: Frei, Christian. The Giant Buddhas. 2005.

Final Essays and Oral Presentations
34-36 No readings.

Course Info

Instructor
Departments
As Taught In
Fall 2006
Learning Resource Types
Written Assignments