STATE SOCIETY AND ECONOMY IN THE MIDDLE EAST (1800 – 1945)

Course Objectives:

This course aims to familiarize students with the major political, social, and economic developments of the nineteenth and first half of the twentieth-century Middle East at an introductory level. By using a wide range of primary and secondary sources, it will focus on how the Middle Eastern World was influenced by and responded to global developments like political and military rivalry and conflict, the expansion of the capitalist market, the rise of colonialism, and the spread of nationalism. The course is designed to pay attention to the agencies of a variety of local actors including notables, peasants, merchants, and nomads. At the end of the semester, students will not only have basic knowledge about the modern history of the Middle East, but also will be able to place and evaluate current political, economic, and social events of the Middle East within a larger historical perspective. 

Course Content:

This course will explore the history of the Middle East from the beginning of the nineteenth century until the end of the Second World War. The course will focus on some of the following themes: reforms in the Ottoman and Qajar Empires and Egypt; integration of the Middle Eastern economies into the world economy; the emergence of new social, political, and economic classes; social movements and revolutions; WWI and Empire; mandates and nationalism.