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HIST 309/INTL 340
State and Society in the Middle East/
Governments and Politics of the Middle East
Office: SOS Z11B
Office Hours: Thursday 11-1 or by appointment e-mail: cnacar@ku.edu.tr
Course Description:
This is an introductory seminar to the politics and history of the Modern Middle East.
The course seeks to trace the history of the Middle East since the 19 th
century in the hopes of understanding its peoples, their evolution and current situation. It examines some major social and political issues transforming the lives of people in the region in a radical fashion. These issues include Ottoman and Qajar modernization efforts in the 19 th century, the First World War, the rise of colonial regimes, authoritarian reforms of local elites, increasing involvement of Cold War- era superpowers in numerous conflict areas,
Palestine-Israeli conflict, the Islamic Revolution in Iran, the American occupation of Iraq, and ‘Arab Spring’.
Course Requirements and Grading:
You are expected to do your readings before the class.
Attendance will not be taken during the semester.
There are 2 exams: 1 mid-term (April 2) and 1 final. In the examinations you will be responsible for material covered in both the lectures and the readings.
Grading will be as follows:
1-Participation: 10% (Please note that you will lose up to 10 points from your participation grade if you disturb the lectures)
2- Mid-Term: 40%
3- Final: 50%
Reading Materials:
You could purchase a reader in hardcopy from the photocopy center.
Contact:

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The best way to reach me is via e-mail. I will be checking my e-mail during the week to answer any questions you may have about the readings. Also take note of my office hours.
COURSE SCHEDULE
WEEK
1 (3-5 February)
C OURSE I NTRODUCTION
W
EEK
2 (10-12 February)
M
ODERNIZATION IN THE
O
TTOMANS AND
Q
AJARS
Donald Quataert, The Ottoman Empire, 1700-1922 (Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 2005), pp.54-74.
Ervand Abrahimian, A Modern History of Iran (Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 2005), pp. 8-33.
Juan Cole, “Of Crowds and Empires: Afro-Asian Riots and European Expansion,
1857-1882,” Comparative Studies in Society and History , vol. 31, no.1 (1989):
106-133.
W
EEK
3 (17-19 February)
W
ORLD
W
AR
I
AND THE
M
AKING OF A
N
EW
O
RDER IN THE
M
IDDLE
E
AST
Erik J. Zürcher,
The Young Turk Legacy and Nation Building: From the Ottoman
Empire to Ataturk’s Turkey
(London: I.B Tauris, 2010), pp. 167-187.
James L. Gelvin, The Modern Middle East (Oxford: Oxford University Press,
2005), pp. 175-185.
W
EEK
4 (24-26 February)
I NTERWAR P ERIOD -I: A UTHORITARIAN R EFORMISM IN T URKEY AND I RAN
Ervand Abrahimian, A Modern History of Iran, pp. 63-96.
Erik J. Zürcher, The Young Turk Legacy and Nation Building: From the Ottoman
Empire to Ataturk’s Turkey
, pp. 136-150.
W EEK 5 (3-5 March)
I
NTERWAR
P
ERIOD
-II: M
ASS
P
OLITICS IN
E
GYPT AND
P
ALESTINE

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Joel Beinin, Workers and Peasants in the Modern Middle East (Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 2001), pp. 80-81, 86-90.
Israel Gershoni and James Jankowski, Confronting Fascism in Egypt:
Dictatorship versus Democracy in the 1930s (Stanford: Stanford University Press,
2010), pp. 14-45.
James Gelvin, The Israel-Palestine Conflict: One Hundred Years of War
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007), pp. 92-116.
W
EEK
6 (10-12 March)
C OLD W AR IN THE M IDDLE E AST : I RAN , J ORDAN AND E GYPT
Rashid Khalidi, Sowing Crisis: The Cold War and American Dominance in the
Middle East (Boston: Beacon Press, 2009), pp. 159-200.
William L. Cleveland, A History of the Modern Middle East (Westview Press,
2008), pp. 301-322.
W
EEK
7 (17-19 March)
P
ALESTINE
-I
SRAELI
C
ONFLICT
I
James L. Gelvin, The Modern Middle East , pp. 206-215 and 271-281.
Juliane Hammer, Palestinians Born in Exile: Diaspora and the Search For
Homeland (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2005), pp. 10-13 and 85-98.
Hillel Frisch, “Hamas: The Palestinian Muslim Brotherhood,” in
The Muslim
Brotherhood: The Organization and Policies of a Global Islamist Movement , ed.
Barry Rubin (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010), pp. 89-102.
W EEK 8 (24-26 March)
P
ALESTINE
-I
SRAELI
C
ONFLICT
II
Film: Paradise Now (2005, 90 minutes)
The story places two close friends, Palestinians Said and Khaled, recruited by an extremist group to perpetrate a terrorist attack in Tel-Aviv, blowing up themselves. However, things go wrong and both friends must separate in the border. One of them, maintaining in his purpose of carry the attack to the end, and the other will have his doubts about it.
W EEK 9 (31 March -2 April)
I RANIAN R EVOLUTION AND A FTERWARDS -I
Ervand Abrahimian, A Modern History of Iran , pp. 155-195.

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W
EEK
10 (14-16 April)
I RANIAN R EVOLUTION AND A FTERWARDS -II
Kevan Harris, “The Rise of the Subcontractor State: Politics of Pseudo
Privatization in the Islamic Republic of Iran,” International Journal of Middle
East Studies , vol. 45, no.1 (2013): 45-70.
Kevan Harris, “The Brokered Exuberance of the Middle Class: An Ethnographic
Analysis of Iran’s 2009 Green Movement,”
Mobilization: An International
Quarterly , vol. 17, no.4 (2012): 435-455.
W
EEK
11 (21 April)
T
HE
A
MERICAN
O
CCUPATION OF
I
RAQ AND
I
TS
A
FTERMATH
Nussibah Younis, “Set Up to Fail: Consociational Political Structures in Post-War
Iraq, 2003-2010,” Contemporary Arab Affairs , vol. 4, no.1 (2011): 1-18.
Mona Damluji, “Securing Democracy in Iraq: Sectarian Politics and Segregation in Baghdad, 2003-2007,” TDSR , vol.21, no.2 (2010): 71-87.
Joost Hiltermann, “Iraq: What Remains,” Middle East Report, no. 266 (2013).
W EEK 12 (28-30 April)
T HE J OURNEY TO T AHRIR -I
Steven A. Cook, The Struggle for Egypt: From Nasser to Tahrir Square (Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 2012), pp. 155-209.
Ana Belén Soage and Jorge Fuentelsaz Franganillo, “The Muslim Brothers in
Egypt,” in The Muslim Brotherhood: The Organization and Policies of a Global
Islamist Movement , ed. Barry Rubin (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010), pp.
39-55.
W EEK 13 (5-7 May)
T
HE
J
OURNEY TO
T
AHRIR
-II
Steven A. Cook, The Struggle for Egypt: From Nasser to Tahrir Square (Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 2012), pp. 272-307.
Joshua Stacher, “Establishment Mursi,” Middle East Report , no. 265 (2012).
W
EEK
13 (12-14 May)
A D ISCUSSION ON C IVIL W AR IN S YRIA