History 109C – History of the Modern Middle East – Summer 2013

History 109C: The History of the Modern Middle East

University of California, Berkeley
Department of History
Summer Session D
July 8 – August 15, 2013

Course Instructor: Geoff Hamm

Email: hamm.geoff@gmail.com

Office: Dwinelle 3422

Office Hours: Mondays, 4:00-5:00, or by appointment

Classes: M/T/W/Th 2:00-4:00 pm

Room: Moffatt 103

History 109C examines some of the major developments in the history of the modern Middle East,
from the late 18th century, through the breakup of the Ottoman Empire and the formation of modern
nation states, to the present. Though the geographical focus is on the Arab Middle East, we will
also look at neighboring areas (Turkey, Israel, Iran) in order to offer a broader perspective. Major
themes will include: the creation of a new state system and the growth of state power, the
emergence of national consciousness, the relationship between religion, politics, and culture, the
impact of the oil industry, the role of outside powers, and recent developments connected to the
“Arab Spring.”

Course Textbooks:

Edward Saïd, Covering Islam (New York: Vintage, 1997) [Updated edition]

Roger Owen, State, Power, and Politics in the Making of the Modern Middle East, 3rd ed. (London:
Routledge, 2004)

Mehran Kamrava, The Modern Middle East (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2011)

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 History 109C – History of the Modern Middle East – Summer 2013

EVALUATION

Participation: Because many of the issues engaged in this course resonate with contemporary
events in the Middle East, at least 2 hours of class time per week will be devoted to seminar
discussion. Discussions will be based on lectures and specific readings, with the expectation that
students will come to class having already prepared the material. Where possible/appropriate
readings will engage some of the – often heated – historiographical and political debates on the
subject matter. Students must participate actively in these discussions; silent attendance will not be
rewarded.

Value: 15%

Media Analysis: Students will read Edward Saïd’s Covering Islam and write an approximately 3
page (750 word) review of a relevant film/news story/TV show/comic book etc. The review might
engage some of the following questions (though these are suggestions and are neither a checklist of
issues to discuss, nor are they the only questions students might consider): How does the “article”
‘cover Islam’? Does the “article” fit the pattern described by Saïd? Is his critique unfair? Is there
more nuance to the issue than his work allows for? Students may not write on any films shown in
class. The assignment will be due in class THURSDAY, JULY 25.

Value: 20%

Term Essay: Students must write a research essay of approximately 10 pages (2500 words) in
length. The paper must include proper source documentation and bibliography, and should attempt
to analyze a relevant topic in the history of the modern Middle East. While students are free to
choose their own topic, consultation with the instructor is encouraged. Proper citation format and
other related information will be discussed in class/posted on the course website. The essay will be
due in class THURSDAY, AUGUST 8.

Value: 40%

Final Exam: Format T.B.D. Exam will be held THURSDAY, AUGUST 15 during normal class
hours.

Value: 25%

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 History 109C – History of the Modern Middle East – Summer 2013

GUIDELINES FOR WRITTEN ASSIGNMENTS

• All assignments must be turned in as hard copy, unless special circumstances and previous
approval from the instructor mitigate.

• All assignments are due at the start of class. Late assignments will be penalized 3% per
calendar day.

• All assignments should include a title page that includes your name, student number, email,
and course.

• All assignments must be double-spaced using 12-point font (10 point font for
footnotes/endnotes).

• All assignments must, where appropriate, contain proper footnotes/endnotes and a

bibliography.

• While there is no prescribed number of footnotes and sources for the research essay,
students should make every effort to use as many sources as possible. Sources should also
be academic, whether printed or digital. Reference sources such as (but not limited to)
Wikipedia, and popular non-fiction works are not acceptable.

• All assignments must conform to the UC Berkeley Student Code of Conduct regarding
academic honesty. Details can be found in Appendix II of the Student Code of Conduct,
which can be downloaded here:

http://sa.berkeley.edu/conduct/code-of-conduct/printable

Classroom Etiquette

Students are asked to respect the decorum of the classroom and shut off their cell phones
and other electronic media devices. Under no circumstances should students be sending or
receiving phone calls or text messages during class. Students whose pockets, bags, or
backpacks begin buzzing, ringing, chirping, tweeting, or otherwise disrupting class sessions
will be asked to leave the classroom for the rest of the day. Repeated incidents of this nature
will incur a penalty of up to 10% of the student’s final grade.

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 History 109C – History of the Modern Middle East – Summer 2013

LECTURE & READING SCHEDULE

WEEK 1

Monday July 8

• Introduction/Course Policies

• The Middle East and the Muslim World in the 18th century
§ Mehran Kamrava, The Modern Middle East, Chapter 1.
§ Bernard Lewis, The Shaping of the Modern Middle East (New York: Oxford
University Press, 1994), Chapter 1. [Course Website]
§ Watch the following interview with Edward Saïd as he discusses his
landmark study, Orientalism. The interview is approximately 40 minutes
long. [Link on Course Website]

Tuesday July 9

• The “Sick Man of Europe”? The Ottoman Empire and the Great Powers
§ Roderic Davison, “Foreign and Environmental Contributions to Political
Modernization of Turkey,” in Davison, Essays in Ottoman and Turkish
History, 1774-1923 (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1990), Chapter 5.
[Course Website]
§ Winfried Baumgart, The Crimean War, 1853-1856 (London: Arnold, 1999),
pp.3-8, 211-12. [Course Website]

• Seminar

Wednesday July 10

• Ottoman Society and Politics in the Era of Reform

§ Bruce Masters, “The Political Economy of Aleppo in an Age of Ottoman
Reform”, Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient 53
(2010), 290-316. [Course Website]

• Religion, Economics and Popular Culture in the Ottoman Empire

§ Frederick Anscombe, “Islam and the Age of Ottoman Reform”, Past &
Present 208 (August 2010), 159-189. [Course Website]

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 History 109C – History of the Modern Middle East – Summer 2013

Thursday July 11

• Minorities in the Ottoman Empire

§ Daniel J. Schroeter, “The Changing Relationship between the Jews of the
Arab Middle East and the Ottoman State in the Nineteenth Century” in
Avigdor Levy, ed. Jews, Turks, Ottomans: A Shared History (Syracuse:
University Press, 2002), 88-107. [Course Website]

• Seminar

WEEK 2

Monday July 15

• Union and Progress: The Young Turk Revolution

§ Feroz Ahmad, “War and Society Under the Young Turks, 1908-1918”,
Review (Fernand Braudel Center), 11, 2 (Spring 1988), 265-286. [Course
Website]

• Film: The First Word War (PBS) Episode 5: “Jihad: The History of Turkey’s
Involvement in WWI”
§ Hew Strachan, The First World War: To Arms (Oxford: University Press,
2002) pp. 680-712. [Electronically Available through Oskicat]

Tuesday July 16

• States and Mandates: The Middle East after WWI

§ Mehran Kamrava, The Modern Middle East, Chapter 2.

• Seminar

Wednesday July 17

• Guest Lecture: The Armenian Genocide

§ “Nearly a Million Genocide Victims – Covered in a Cloak of Amnesia,”
New York Times, March 9, 2009 [Course Website]
§ G.S. Graber, Caravans to Oblivion: The Armenian Genocide, 1915 (New
York: John Wiley, 1996), Chapter 9-10. [Course Website]
§ Donald Bloxham, “Rethinking the Armenian Genocide”, History Today 55,
6 (June 2005), 28-30. [Course Website]

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 History 109C – History of the Modern Middle East – Summer 2013

Thursday July 18

• Kemal Ataturk and the birth of Modern Turkey

§ Dankwart A. Rustow, “The Army and the Founding of the Turkish
Republic”, in Touraj Atabaki and Erik J. Zürcher eds. Men of Order:
Authoriarian Modernization under Atatürk and Reza Shah (London: I.B.
Tauris, 2004), 164-208. [Electronically available through OskiCat]

• Seminar

WEEK 3

Monday July 22

• The Independence and Growth of Arab States (2 parts)

§ Roger Owen, State, Power and Politics in the Making of the Modern Middle
East, Chapter 1.

Tuesday July 23

• The Rise of Middle Eastern Strong Men: Egypt, Syria, Iraq

§ Roger Owen, State, Power, and Politics, Chapter 3.

• Seminar

Wednesday July 24

• Nasser, Pan-Arabism, and the 1967 War

§ Roger Owen, State, Power, and Politics, Chapter 4.
§ Mehran Kamrava, The Modern Middle East, Chapter 3.
§ John F. Devlin, “The Baath Party: Rise and Metamorphosis”, The American
Historical Review 96, 5 (December 1991), 1396-1407. [Course Website]

• The Ba’th Party and Authoritarian Rule in Syria and Iraq: Hafiz al-Asad and Saddam
Hussein
§ Robert Springborg, “Baathism in Practice: Agriculture, Politics, and Political
Culture in Syria and Iraq”, Middle Eastern Studies 17, 2 (April 1981), 191-
209. [Course Website]
§ Ofra Bengio, “How Does Saddam Hold On?”, Foreign Affairs 79, 4 (July-
August 2000), 90-103. [Course Website]

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 History 109C – History of the Modern Middle East – Summer 2013

Thursday July 25

• Israel: Politics and Society since 1948

§ Roger Owen, State, Power, and Politics, Chapter 5.
§ David Remnick, “The Party Faithful: The settler’s move to annex the West
Bank – and Israeli politics.” The New Yorker, January 21, 2013. [Course
Website]

• Seminar

WEEK 4

Monday July 29

• The Rise of Political Islam

§ Roger Owen, State, Power, and Politics, Chapter 9.
§ William Oschenwald, “Saudi Arabia and the Islamic Revival”, International
Journal of Middle East Studies 13, 3 (August 1981), 271-286. [Course
Website]

• Oil and Economics in the Middle East

§ Mehran Kamrava, The Modern Middle East, Chapter 8.
§ Peter Sluglett, Britain in Iraq: Contriving King and Country (New York:
Columbia University Press, 2007), Chapter 3.

Tuesday July 30

• Women, Islam, and the State

§ Nadia Hijab, “Islam, Social Change, and the Reality of Arab Women’s
Lives”, in Yvonne Yazbeck Haddad and John L. Esposito eds., Islam,
Gender, and Social Change (New York: Oxford University Press, 1998), 45-
55.
§ Margot Badran, “Islamic Feminism: What’s in a Name”, and “Islamic
Feminism Revisited”, in Badran, Feminism Beyond East and West: New
Gender Talk and Practice in Global Islam (New Dehli: Global Media,
2007), 23-45. [Course Website]

• Seminar

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 History 109C – History of the Modern Middle East – Summer 2013

Wednesday July 31

• Iran, ca. 1900-1979

§ Michael P. Zirinsky, “Imperial Power and Dictatorship: Britain and the rise
of Reza Shah, 1921-1926”, International Journal of Middle East Studies 24,
4 (November 1992), 639-663. [Course Website]

• Iran since 1979

§ Mehran Kamrava, The Modern Middle East, Chapter 5.
§ Saïd Amir Arjomand, After Khomeini: Iran under his successors (Oxford:
University Press, 2009), 149-171. [Electronically available through OskiCat]

Thursday August 1

• Film & Discussion: Persepolis

WEEK 5

Monday August 5

• The Palestinian Problem

§ Mehran Kamrava, The Modern Middle East, Chapter 7.
§ Thomas M. Ricks, “In Their Own Voices: Palestinian High School Girls and
Their Memories of the Intifadas and Nonviolent Resistance to Israeli
Occupation, 1987-2004”, NWSA Journal 18, 3 (Fall 2006), 88-103. [Course
Website]

• Office Hour: Term Paper Consultation

Tuesday August 6

• Arab-Israeli Conflict and the Middle East “Peace Process”

§ Mehran Kamrava, The Modern Middle East, Chapter 4.
§ Scott Lasensky, “Paying for Peace: The Oslo Process and the Limits of
American Foreign Aid”, Middle East Journal 58, 2 (Spring 2004), 210-234.
[Course Website]

• Seminar

Wednesday August 7

• The United States and the Middle East

§ Roger Owen, State, Power, and Politics, Chapter 12.

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 History 109C – History of the Modern Middle East – Summer 2013

§ Ussama Makdisi, “‘Anti-Americanism’ in the Arab World: An Interpretation

of a Brief History”, The Journal of American History, 89, 2 (September
2002), 538-557. [Course Website]

• The Persian Gulf Wars, 1991-2003

§ Roger Owen, State, Power, and Politics, Chapter 6.
§ Mehran Kamrava, The Modern Middle East, Chapter 6.

Thursday August 8

• Film & Discussion: TBD

WEEK 6

Monday August 12

• Islamic and Middle Eastern Terrorism

§ John L. Esposito, Unholy War: Terror in the Name of Islam (Oxford:
University Press, 2002), Chapter 1. [Electronically Available through
Oskicat]
§ Fawaz Gerges, The Far Enemy 2nd ed. (Cambridge: University Press, 2009),
119-150. [Electronically Available through Oskicat]

• Seminar

Tuesday August 13

• The Middle East in the Post 9/11 World

§ Roger Owen, State, Power, and Politics, Conclusion.
§ Bernard Lewis, “Free at Last? The Arab World in the Twenty-First
Century”, Foreign Affairs 88, 2 (March/April 2009), 77-88. [Course
Website]

• The Arab Spring

§ Lisa Anderson, “Demystifying the Arab Spring”, Foreign Affairs 90, 3
(May/June 2011), 2-7. [Course Website]

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 History 109C – History of the Modern Middle East – Summer 2013

Wednesday August 14

• Seminar

• Final Exam Review

Thursday August 15: FINAL EXAM

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