57798 - History and Institutions of the Mediterranean Countries

Learning outcomes

This course offers an introduction to the history of the modern Middle East, from the end of the 18th Century to the present day. It covers the main political, economic and cultural developments in Turkey, Iran and the Arab Middle East, with special emphasis on aspects of change and continuity in the processes of state and nation building in the area under consideration. We will look at the making of the modern Middle East by surveying and analyzing the shift from empires to colonial states, the emergence of nationalisms, the establishment of independent states, the peculiar role played by the military and conflicts in shaping the political reality of the Middle East, the de-legitimization crisis of Middle Eastern secular regimes and the revival of radical political Islam since the ‘70s. At the end of the course students should be able to articulate informed and coherent arguments about the main aspects of Middle Eastern political development since the end of the 18th Century  until present days by referring to the relevant scholarly literature.  

Course contents

  Week 1 - Introduction to the history of the Modern Middle East: basic definitions and historical background. The ‘decadence' of the Ottoman Empire at the end of the 18th Century

Readings:  W. L. Cleveland, A History of the Modern Middle East, pp. 37-56

Week 2- Centralization versus Decentralization. Reform in the Ottoman Empire and Egypt in the Nineteenth Century and Qajar Iran compared

Readings: Cleveland, pp. 61-102

Week 3-  The dissolution of the Ottoman Empire, the 1st World War and the Post-War political map

Readings: Cleveland, pp. 133-143; 149- 170; 193-215; 217-237

Week 4- Authoritarian Reforms in Turkey and Iran

Readings: Cleveland, pp. 175-193

Week 5- The Palestinian Question and the Birth of Israel

Readings: Cleveland, 239-272

Week 6- The Independent Middle East in the Cold-World Era and the Radicalization of Arab Politics 

Readings: Cleveland, pp. 275-344

Week 7- Israel and Palestine from '48 to the ‘70s

Readings: Cleveland, pp. 345-372

  Week 8-  The legitimization crisis of secular regimes in the Arab Middle East and the revival of political Islam ('70- 2000)

Readings: Cleveland, pp. 373-421; 451-472

Week 9- Khomeinism and the exportation of 1979 Iranian Revolution

Readings: Cleveland, pp. 423-450

Settimana 10- The Middle East after the Cold War

Readings: Cleveland, pp. 473-539

Readings/Bibliography

Students are required to study the following books:

W.L. Cleveland, A History of the Modern Middle East, 3rd Edition, Oxford: Westview Press, 2004

B. Lewis, Le molte identità del Medio Oriente, Bologna: Il Mulino, 2005 

 B. Lewis, Il linguaggio politico dell'Islam, Roma-Bari:  Laterza, 2005.

Students are suggested to look up the following atlases and geographical texts:

E. Barnavi, Atlante storico del popolo ebraico , Bologna, Zanichelli, 1995

P.Degradi, F.Farinelli, Geografia del mondo arabo e islamico , Torino, Utet, 1993

J. Sellier, A. Sellier, Atlas des peuples d'Orient- Moyen Orient , Caucase, Asie centrale, Paris, La Decouverte, 1993 

Further materials and optional readings will be indicated by the lecturer during the course and made available to students in the “teaching materials” of AMS CAMPUS

Electronic Resources:

As further comprehensive sources of information on a very wide range of themes and aspects of Middle Eastern history and politics, students might want to take a look at the following websites:

http://w3fp.arizona.edu/mesassoc/ [MESA- Middle Eastern Studies Association of North America  homepage]

http://www.albawaba.com/ [Albawaba Middle East gateway]

http://www.mideasti.org/ [Middle East Institute]

http://www.AISIsraelstudies.org/ais.htm [Association for Israel studies]

http://www.merip.org/ [MERIP]

http://menic.utexas.edu/menic.html [Centre for ME Studies, University of Texas at Austin]

http://www.ahram.org.eg/weekly/ [Al-Ahram Weekly]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/middle_east/ [BBC World Service]

Some scholarly journals that can be accessed electronically through the University of Bologna Server are:

British Journal of Middle East Studies

Bulletin (British Society of Middle Eastern Studies)

Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies

International Journal of Middle East Studies

Journal of Palestine Studies

MERIP Middle East Report

You can access these publications via an electronic archive called JSTOR, www.jstor.org . As a University of Bologna student having an userID and a password, you can access JSTOR and many more thematic data-bases :

a-      On campus, from any PC on the University premises

b-     off campus, by configuring  a proxy connection to the University Server. Follow the instruction on http://w3.cib.unibo.it/internet/proxy-almanet/

Non-attending students, in addition to studying the core manuals, will have to prepare a presentation on a chosen topic. Therefore, they are expected to contact the lecture during her office hours to get advice on the bibliography

Teaching methods

Lectures

Assessment methods

For students attending in-class lectures, the assessment will consist in a written exam in week 6 (maps, lexicon, multiple choice questions and short essay) counting towards 50% of the final mark and an oral examination counting toward 50% of the final mark. For non attending students, the assessment will consist in an oral exam only

Teaching tools

Pc, videos, slides and maps

Office hours

See the website of Francesca Biancani