Religion and society in the Middle East

Critical to understanding the modern Middle East is an appreciation of the rôle that religion has played in the societies of the region since Antiquity. In this course, we will examine the way that religion has functioned in Middle Eastern societies, beginning with ancient Near Eastern cultures, including ancient Israel, the Christian Roman Empire, and the Zoroastrian Sāsānian Empire of Iran. We will study the rise of Islam and its own patchwork of religious traditions, as well as the various Islamic societies that emerged—from the earliest Islamic empires to the Ottoman and Iranian Empires. The class will conclude with a thorough look at religion in the Middle Eastern landscape today, covering topics such as religion in Turkey, Iran, and Israel, minority identities, the challenge of nationalism, the Bahāʾī faith, radical Islam, and collective memory. Throughout the course, we will touch upon several recurring themes, including states’ use and abuse of religion, the nature of religion as a primary marker of identity, and varying patterns of religious expression in the region.

This course represents a combination of a lecture and seminar approaches and individual participation in class dialogues is critical. Most classes include a discussion period for conversation about required reading. Each student will have the opportunity to present a brief review of a text, after which he/she will lead a discussion. At the end of this course, it is hoped that students will have not only a better understanding of the Middle East, but have developed better research skills, practiced critical thinking and reading, and gained experience collecting and presenting information clearly.

Course grades will be assigned on the basis of several elements:

1. in-class quizzes (15% total)—a map quiz and five 5-minute quizzes (lowest grade dropped) on critical terms (e.g., Muḥammad, Bābī revolt, Kemalism);
2. pop reading quizzes (10%)—short, random multiple-choice quizzes on major themes of assigned readings;
3. mid-term paper (20%)—take-home essay on an assigned topic, using only the class readings as sources (5 pages);
4. final research paper (30%)—each student will write a research paper (about 15 pages) on a topic of their choice relating to the course and making use of literature (at least 6 sources) not assigned as part of the class reading;
5. class participation (25%)—contribution to in-class and online discussions and attendance, critical to a successful experience (students with over three absences lose their entire participation grade; each additional two absences result in a letter-grade penalty off of the overall course grade), including also a discussion article presentation, where each student presents at least one required reading, emphasising its core argument and leading a class discussion about it.

This division of factors aims to give all students a fair chance at a good grade by avoiding too much emphasis on one examination method. Nevertheless, since a large share of the grade (25%) derives from participation and the discussion presentation, this means that you must attend and participate in class to get a good grade. The key to good participation is reading the assigned texts, so come prepared!

Each student has the opportunity to submit up to two extra credit response papers to contemporary news articles on religion and society in the Middle East. In order to receive credit, you must read and submit an article from a newspaper listed below, along with your thoughts on the article (one page). Other extra credit opportunities will be announced periodically throughout the semester; students will be allowed a maximum of five total extra credit opportunities during the term. You are also strongly encouraged to follow Middle East news during (and after!) the semester. Some mainstream newspaper sources:

• Yediʿot Aḥaronot (Israel; centre)
• Haaretz (Israel; left)
• Jerusalem Post (Israel; centre-right)
• Israel Hayom (Israel; right)
• Globes (Israel; financial)
• ash-Sharq al-Awsaṭ (London)
• Jordan Times (Jordan)
• al-Ahram Weekly (Egypt)
• Arab Times (Kuwait)
• Khaleej Times (UAE)
• New York Times (US; left)
• Wall Street Journal (US; financial; right)
• Christian Science Monitor (US; centre)

Recommended texts for further readings

The following texts are recommended for those interested in doing further reading on the subject. These books are not required for purchase.

Readings from course textbooks appear in small caps. All other readings include full bibliographical citations and are available electronically on the class Desire2Learn website. It is highly recommended that you prepare in advance by downloading and/or printing all online readings at the beginning of the course, so that you can concentrate on reading them over the semester. While ‘recommended reading’ are not obligatory, they may be useful when preparing research papers (those with an asterisk (*) are highly encouraged). Primary source readings are noted below.

I. Introduction and background

1. Introduction to the Middle East—I

Required reading:

• Arthur Goldschmidt, Jr and Aomar Boum, A Concise history of the Middle East, 11^th ed. (Boulder: Westview Press, 2015), 1–11.
• Examine the class primer (always review relevant materials and bring the primer to each class).

Recommended reading:

• Bernard Lewis, The Multiple identities of the Middle East (New York: Schocken Books, 2001), 9–24.
• Marshall Goodwin Simms Hodgson, The Venture of Islam: Conscience and history in a world civilization, vol. 1, The Classical age of Islam (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1974), 3–69, 103–145.

2. Introduction to the Middle East—II

Required reading:

• Lapidus, History, 7–21.
• Bernard Lewis, The Multiple identities of the Middle East (New York: Schocken Books, 2001), 25–39.

3. Ancient Near Eastern religions

Required reading:

• Frederick M Denny, An Introduction to Islam, 2^nd ed. (New York City: Macmillan, 1994), 3–15.
• Glenn Stanfield Holland, Gods in the desert: Religions of the ancient Near East (Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2009), 15–19, 111–114, 199–218.

4. From ancient Israelite society to Rabbinical Judaism

Map quiz

Required reading:

• Raymond P Scheindlin, A Short history of the Jewish people (New York City: Oxford University Press, 1998), 1–49.
• Berkey, Formation of Islam, 10–19.

Recommended reading:

• * Frederick M Denny, An Introduction to Islam, 2^nd ed. (New York City: Macmillan, 1994), 16–29.

5. Hellenism and Eastern Christianity

Required reading:

• Berkey, Formation of Islam, 19–26.
• Frederick M Denny, An Introduction to Islam, 2^nd ed. (New York City: Macmillan, 1994), 30–42.
• John F Haldon, Byzantium in the Seventh Century: The Transformation of a culture, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 1997), 324–355.

Recommended reading:

• * John F Haldon, Byzantium in the Seventh Century: The Transformation of a culture, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 1997), 281–323, 355–375.

6. Zoroastrianism and the Sāsānian Empire

Quiz #1

Required reading:

• Berkey, Formation of Islam, 26–38.
• Zeʾev Rubin, ‘The Sasanid monarchy’, in The Cambridge ancient history, ed. Averil Cameron, Bryan Ward-Perkins, and L Michael Whitby, vol. 14, Late antiquity: Empire and successors, A.D. 425–600 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000), 638–661.
• Josef Wiesehöfer, Ancient Persia: From 550 BC to 650 AD, transl. Azizeh Azodi (London/New York City: I B Tauris, 2001), 199–216.

Recommended reading:

• * Touraj Daryaee, Sasanian Persia: The Rise and fall of an empire (London: I B Tauris, 2012), 69–97.
• Jenny Rose, Zoroastrianism: An Introduction (London/New York City: I B Tauris, 2011), 99–134.

II. The Development of Islamic societies

7. The Birth of Islam

Required reading:

• Berkey, Formation of Islam, 39–69.
• Lapidus, History, 26–40.
• aṭ-Ṭabarī, The History of al-Ṭabarī, transl. William Montgomery Watt and Michael V McDonald, vol. 6, Muḥammad at Mecca (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1989), 67–76. [Primary source]
• Qurʾān 96.1–19 (Sūrat al-ʿAlaq). [Primary source]

Recommended reading:

• * Berkey, Formation of Islam, 3–9.
• Frederick Mathewson Denny, An Introduction to Islam, 4^th ed. (Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2011), 32–46.

8. The Arab-Islamic conquests

Required reading:

• Lapidus, History, 46–53.
• Fred McGraw Donner, ‘The Islamic conquests’, in A Companion to the history of the Middle East, ed. Youssef M Choueiri (Malden/Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 2005), 28–51.
• Fred McGraw Donner, ‘Visions of the early Islamic expansion: Between the heroic and the horrific’, in Byzantium in early Islamic Syria: Proceedings of the conference organized by the American University of Beirut and the University of Balamand (18–19 June 2007), ed. Nadia Maria El Cheikh-Saliba and Shaun O’Sullivan (Beirut: American University of Beirut Press, 2011), 9–29.

Recommended reading:

• * Ira Marvin Lapidus, ‘The Arab conquests and the formation of Islamic society’, in The Formation of Islamic law, ed. Wael B Hallaq (Aldershot, UK/Burlington: Ashgate/Variorum, 2004), 1–27.
• * Fred McGraw Donner, Introduction to The Expansion of the early Islamic state, ed. Fred McGraw Donner (Aldershot, UK/Burlington: Ashgate/Variorum, 2008), xiii-xxxi.
• Fred McGraw Donner, ‘Centralized authority and military autonomy in the early Islamic conquests’, in The Byzantine and early Islamic Near East: Papers of the First Workshop on Late Antiquity and Early Islam, ed. Averil Cameron, vol. 3, States, resources and armies (Princeton: Darwin Press, 1995), 337–360.
• * Thomas Sizgorich, ‘“Do prophets come with a sword?” Conquest, empire, and historical narrative in the early Islamic world’, American Historical Review 112.4 (October 2007), 993–1015.

9. The Early Islamic community

Quiz #2

Required reading:

• Berkey, Formation of Islam, 70–75, 102–123.
• Lapidus, History, 65–74.
• Fred McGraw Donner, ‘The Formation of the Islamic state’, Journal of the American Oriental Society 106.2 (April–June 1986), 283–296.

Recommended reading:

• Berkey, Formation of Islam, 76–82.
• Lapidus, History, 74–90.
• Fred McGraw Donner, ‘From believers to Muslims: Confessional self-identity in the early Islamic community’, al-Abḥāth 50–51 (2002–2003), 9–53.

10. Religion and state in classical Islam

Research paper proposal due

Required reading:

• Berkey, Formation of Islam, 124–129.
• Lapidus, History, 92–113.
• Ira Marvin Lapidus, ‘The Separation of state and religion in the development of early Islamic society’, International Journal of Middle East Studies 6.4 (October 1975), 363–385 (DOI 10.1017/S0020743800025344).

Recommended reading:

• Meir J Kister, ‘Social and religious concepts of authority in Islam’, Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam 18 (1994), 84–127.

11. Shīʿī and Sunnī societies—I

Required reading:

• Berkey, Formation of Islam, 83–90, 130–140.
• Lapidus, History, 114–117, 139–143.
• William Montgomery Watt, ‘The Significance of the early stages of Imami Shiʿism’, in Religion and politics in Iran: Shiʿism from quietism to revolution, ed. Nikki Ragozin Keddie (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1983), 21–32.

Recommended reading:

• Marshall Goodwin Simms Hodgson, ‘How did the early Shîʿa become sectarian?’, Journal of the American Oriental Society 75.1 (January–March 1955), 1–13.
• Etan Kohlberg, ‘The Evolution of the Shīʿa’, The Jerusalem Quarterly 27 (Spring 1983), 109–126.

12. Shīʿī and Sunnī societies—II

Required reading:

• Berkey, Formation of Islam, 141–151.
• Lapidus, History, 118–138.
• Frederick Mathewson Denny, An Introduction to Islam, 4^th ed. (Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2011), 187–208.

Recommended reading:

• Marshall Goodwin Simms Hodgson, The Venture of Islam: Conscience and history in a world civilization, vol. 1, The Classical age of Islam (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1974), 315–358.

III. From mediæval to modern societies

13. Minority communities in Islamic societies

Quiz #3

Required reading:

• Berkey, Formation of Islam, 159–175.
• Lapidus, History, 58–64.
• Shlomo Dov Fritz Goitein, ‘Minority selfrule and government control in Islam’, Studia Islamica 31 (1970), 101–116 (DOI 10.2307/1595067).
• Norman A Stillman, The Jews of Arab lands: A History and source book, 1^st ed. (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society of America, 1979), 40–63.

Recommended reading:

• Berkey, Formation of Islam, 91–101.
• Lapidus, History, 349–357.
• Norman A Stillman, The Jews of Arab lands: A History and source book, 1^st ed. (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society of America, 1979), 22–39.
• Bernard Lewis, The Jews of Islam (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1984), 67–106.

14. Religion and state in the Ottoman Empire

Required reading:

• Berkey, Formation of Islam, 261–266.
• Lapidus, History, 331–342.
• Halil İnalcık, The Ottoman Empire: The Classical age, 1300–1600 (London: Phoenix Press, 1973), 65–69.
• Benjamin Braude, ‘Foundation myths of the millet system’, in Christians and Jews in the Ottoman Empire: The Functioning of a plural society, ed. Benjamin Braude and Bernard Lewis, vol. 1, The Central lands (New York City: Holmes & Meier Publishers, 1982), 69–88.
• Kamel S Abu Jaber, ‘The Millet system in the Nineteenth-Century Ottoman Empire’, The Muslim World 57.3 (July 1967), 212–223.

Recommended reading:

• Suraiya Faroqhi, ‘Social mobility among the Ottoman ʿulemâ in the late Sixteenth Century’, International Journal of Middle East Studies 4.2 (April 1973), 204–218 (DOI 10.1017/S0020743800027458).

• Iik Arifin Mansurnoor, ‘Religious scholars and state: Patterns of recruitment among the Ottoman ʿulamāʾ’, Islamic Studies 31.1 (Spring 1992), 35–51.
• Roderic H Davison, ‘The Millets as agents of change in the Nineteenth-Century Ottoman Empire, ed. Benjamin Braude and Bernard Lewis, vol. 1, The Central lands (New York City: Holmes & Meier Publishers, 1982), 319–337.
• Daniel Schroeter, ‘The Changing relationship between the Jews of the Arab Middle East and the Ottoman state in the Nineteenth Century’, in Jews, Turks, Ottomans: A Shared history, Fifteenth through the Twentieth Century, ed. Avigdor Levy (Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 2002), 88–107.

15. Shīʿī Islam and Ṣafavid society

Mid-term paper due

Required reading:

• Berkey, Formation of Islam, 266–268.
• Lapidus, History, 377–390.
• Roger Savory, ‘The Safavid state and polity’, Iranian Studies 7.1–2 (Winter–Spring 1974), 179–212 (DOI 10.1080/00210867408701463).

Recommended reading:

• Saïd Amir Arjomand, The Shadow of God and the Hidden Imam: Religion, political order, and societal change in Shiʿite Iran from the beginning to 1890 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1984), 109–121.
• Kathryn Babayan, ‘The Safavid synthesis: From Qizilbash Islam to Imamite Shiʿism’, Iranian Studies 27.1–4 (1994), 135–161.
• Saïd Amir Arjomand, ‘Religion, political action and legitimate domination in Shiʿite Iran: Fourteenth to Eighteenth Centuries A.D.’, Archives européenes de sociologie 20.1 (May 1979), 59–109.

IV. Challenges of modernity

16. Change and dissent in Shīʿī Iran: Uṣūlīs and Bābīs

Required reading:

• Lapidus, History, 544–546.
• Hamid Algar, Religion and state in Iran, 1785–1906; The Role of the ulama in the Qajar period (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1969), 1–25. [online]
• Peter Smith, The Babi and Bahaʾi religions: From messianic Shiʿism to a world religion (Cambridge/New York City: Cambridge University Press, 1987), 48–56.
• Moojan Momen, ‘Usuli, Akhbari, Shaykhi, Babi: The Tribulations of a Qazvin family’, Iranian Studies 36.3 (September 2003), 317–337 (DOI 10.1080/021086032000139113).

Recommended reading:

• Ann K S Lambton, ‘Social change in Persia in the Nineteenth Century’, Asian and African Studies 15.1 (March 1981), 123–148.
• Ahmad Kazemi Moussavi, ‘The Establishment of the position of marjaʾiyyt-i [sic] taqlid in the Twelver-Shiʾi community’, Iranian Studies 18.1 (Winter 1985), 35–51 (DOI 10.1080/00210868508701646).
• Mangol Bayat-Philipp, Mysticism and dissent: Socioreligious thought in Qajar Iran, 1^st ed. (Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 1982), 87–131.
• Juan Ricardo I Cole, ‘Iranian millenarianism and democratic thought in the Nineteenth Century’, International Journal of Middle East Studies 24.1 (February 1992), 1–26.
• Juan Ricardo I Cole, ‘Shiʾi clerics in Iraq and Iran, 1722–1780: The Akhbari-Usuli conflict reconsidered’, Iranian Studies 18.1 (Winter 1985), 3–34 (DOI 10.1080/00210868508701645).
• Hamid Algar, Religion and state in Iran, 1785–1906; The Role of the ulama in the Qajar period (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1969), 137–151. [online]

17. Political decline and Islamic response—I

Required reading:

• Lapidus, History, 511–533, 546–548.
• Antony Black, The History of Islamic political thought: From the Prophet to the present, 2^nd ed. (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2011), 281–295, 300–302.
• Ira Marvin Lapidus, ‘State and religion in Islamic societies’, Past and Present 151 (May 1996), 3–27.

Recommended reading:

• Ann K S Lambton, ‘The Persian ʿulamā and constitutional reform’, in Le Shîʿisme imâmite: Colloque de Strasbourg (6–9 mai 1968), ed. Robert Brunschvig and Toufic Fahd, 1^st ed. (Paris: Presses universitaires de France, 1970), 245–269.

18. Political decline and Islamic response—II

Required reading:

• Frederick Mathewson Denny, An Introduction to Islam, 4^th ed. (Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2011), 324–330 (if able, read also 315–324).
• Nikki Ragozin Keddie, ‘The Origins of the religious-radical alliance in Iran’, Past and Present 34 (July 1966), 70–80.
• * Nikki Ragozin Keddie, ‘Sayyid Jamal al-Din “al-Afghani”’, in Pioneers of Islamic revival, ed. Ali Rahnema (London/New York City: Zed Books, 2005), 11–29.

Recommended reading:

• * Nikki Ragozin Keddie, ‘Religion and irreligion in early Iranian nationalism’, Comparative Studies in Society and History 4.3 (April 1962), 265–295 (DOI 10.1017/S0010417500012330).
• * Yvonne Yazbeck Haddad, ‘Muhammad Abduh: Pioneer of Islamic reform’, in Pioneers of Islamic revival, ed. Ali Rahnema (London/New York City: Zed Books, 2005), 30–63.
• John Obert Voll, ‘Foundations for renewal and reform: Islamic movements in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries’, in The Oxford history of Islam, ed. John L Esposito (New York City: Oxford University Press, 1999), 509–547.
• Mangol Bayat-Philipp, ‘Mirza Aqa Khan Kirmani: A Nineteenth Century Persian nationalist’, in Towards a modern Iran: Studies in thought, politics and society, ed. Elie Kedourie and Sylvia G Haim (London/Totowa, New Jersey: Frank Cass, 1980), 64–95.
• * Nikki Ragozin Keddie, ‘Pan-Islam as proto-nationalism’, Journal of Modern History 41.1 (March 1969), 17–28.

19. The Challenge of Arab nationalism

Required reading:

• Lapidus, History, 579–599.
• Najm Bezirgan, ‘Islam and Arab nationalism’, Middle East Review 11.2 (Winter 1978–1979), 38–44.
• Sami Zubaida, ‘Islam and nationalism: Continuities and contradictions’, Nations and Nationalism 10.4 (October 2004), 407–420 (DOI 10.1111/j.1354-5078.2004.00174.x).
• Yasir Suleiman, The Arabic language and national identity: A Study in ideology, (Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press, 2003), 131–134.
• Reading from Sāṭiʿ al-Ḥuṣrī, ‘Muslim unity and Arab unity’, in Sylvia G Haim, Arab nationalism: An Anthology (Berkeley/Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1962), 147–153. [Primary source]

Recommended reading:

• * Sylvia G Haim, ‘Islam and the theory of Arab nationalism’, in The Middle East in transition: Studies in contemporary history, ed. Walter Z Laqueur (New York City: Praeger, 1956), 280–307.
• * Elie Kedourie, ‘Religion and nationalism in the Arab world’, in Islam in the modern world and other studies (London: Mansell Publishing, 1980), 53–66.
• * Arthur Goldschmidt, Jr and Aomar Boum, A Concise history of the Middle East, 11^th ed. (Boulder: Westview Press, 2015), 164–198.
• Panayiotis J Vatikiotis, ‘Between Arabism and Islam’, Middle Eastern Studies 22.4 (October 1986), 576–586.
• * Frederick Mathewson Denny, An Introduction to Islam, 4^th ed. (Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2011), 330–340.
• R Stephen Humphreys, Between memory and desire: The Middle East in a troubled age, updated ed. (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2005), 60–82.
• C Ernest Dawn, ‘From Ottomanism to Arabism: The Origin of an ideology’, Review of Politics 23.3 (July 1961), 378–400.

20. Religion and society in modern Turkey

Quiz #4

Required reading:

• Lapidus, History, 533–543.
• Lee, Religion and politics, 125–167 (skim 141–145, 149–152, 157–160).
• Banu Eligür, ‘Turkey’s declining democracy’, Current Trends in Islamist Ideology 17 (August 2014), 151–175.

Recommended reading:

• * Ömer Taşpınar, ‘The End of the Turkish model’, Survival 56.2 (April–May 2014), 49–64 (DOI 10.1080/00396338.2014.901732).
• * Şerif Arif Mardin, ‘Religion and secularism in Turkey’, in Atatürk: Founder of a modern state, ed. Ali Kazancıgil and Ergun Özbudun (London: C Hurst & Co., 1981), 191–219.

21. Religion and society in Twentieth-Century Iran

Required reading:

• Lapidus, History, 548–552.
• Shahrough Akhavi, Religion and politics in contemporary Iran: Clergy-state relations in the Pahlavī period (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1980), 60–90.

Recommended reading:

• Hamid Algar, ‘The Oppositional role of the ulama in Twentieth-Century Iran’, in Scholars, saints, and sufis: Muslim religious institutions in the Middle East since 1500, ed. Nikki Ragozin Keddie (Berkeley/Los Angeles/London: University of California Press, 1972), 231–255.
• Mohammad H Faghfoory, ‘The Ulama-state relations in Iran: 1921–1941’, International Journal of Middle East Studies 19.4 (November 1987), 413–432 (DOI 10.1017/S002074380005649X).
• Nikki Ragozin Keddie, ‘The Roots of the ulama’s power in modern Iran’, Studia Islamica 29 (1969), 31–53.

V. The Resurgence of religion in Middle Eastern society

22. Roots of the Islamic Revolution in Iran

Required reading:

• Lapidus, History, 552–555.
• Brad Hanson, ‘The “Westoxication” of Iran: Depictions and reactions of Behrangi, Āl-e Ahmad, and Shariʿati’, International Journal of Middle East Studies 15.1 (February 1983), 1–23 (DOI 10.1017/S0020743800052387).
• Mangol Bayat-Philipp, ‘Shiʿsm in contemporary Iranian politics: The Case of Ali Shariʿati’, in Towards a modern Iran: Studies in thought, politics and society, ed. Elie Kedourie and Sylvia G Haim (London/Totowa, New Jersey: Frank Cass, 1980), 155–168.
• ʿAlī Sharīʿatī, Shariati on Shariati and the Muslim woman, transl. Laleh Bakhtiar (Chicago: ABC International Group, 1996), 117–134, 211–213. [Primary source]

Recommended reading:

• Mangol Bayat, ‘Mahmud Taleqani and the Iranian revolution’, in Shiʿism, resistance, and revolution, ed. Martin Kramer (Boulder: Westview Press, 1987), 67–94.
• Tabari, Azar [Afsaneh Najmabadi]. ‘The Role of the clergy in modern Iranian politics’, in Religion and politics in Iran: Shiʿism from quietism to revolution, ed. Nikki Ragozin Keddie, (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1983), 47–72.

23. Imagining and instituting the Islamic Republic

Required reading:

• Lapidus, History, 555–560.
• Mangol Bayat, ‘The Iranian Revolution of 1978–79: Fundamentalist or modern?’, Middle East Journal 37.1 (Winter 1983), 30–42.
• Guity Nashat, ‘Women in the ideology of the Islamic Republic’, in Women and revolution in Iran, ed. Guity Nashat (Boulder: Westview Press, 1983), 195–216.
• Rūḥ-Ollāh Khomeynī, Islam and revolution, ed. and transl. Hamid Algar, vol. 1 (Berkeley: Mizan Press, 1981), 40–54. [Primary source]

Recommended reading:

• * Lee, Religion and politics, 169–218.
• Rūḥ-Ollāh Khomeynī, Islam and revolution, ed. and transl. Hamid Algar, vol. 1 (Berkeley: Mizan Press, 1981), 126–149. [Primary source]
• Nikki Ragozin Keddie, ‘Iranian revolutions in comparative perspective’, American Historical Review 88.3 (June 1988), 579–598.

24. The Future of the Islamic Republic

Required reading:

• Homa Katouzian, The Persians: Ancient, mediæval, and modern Iran (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2009), 384–394.
• Olivier Roy, ‘The Crisis of religious legitimacy in Iran’, Middle East Journal 53.2 (Spring 1999), 201–216.
• David Menashri, ‘Iran’s revolutionary politics: Nationalism and Islamic identity’, in Ethnic conflict and international politics in the Middle East, ed. Leonard Binder (Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 1999), 131–154.

Recommended reading:

• Maziar Behrooz, ‘The Islamic state and the crisis of marjaʿiyat in Iran’, Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East 16.2 (Fall 1996), 93–100 (DOI 10.1215/1089201X-16-2-93).

25. Radical Islam

Required reading:

• Frederick Mathewson Denny, An Introduction to Islam, 4^th ed. (Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2011), 341–347.
• L Carl Brown, Religion and state: The Muslim approach to politics (New York City: Columbia University Press, 2000), 134–160.
• Quintan Wiktorowicz, ‘A Genealogy of radical Islam’, Studies in Conflict & Terrorism 28.2 (2005), 75–97 (DOI 10.1080/10576100590905057).
• Readings in Barry M Rubin and Judith Rubin, eds., Anti-American terrorism and the Middle East: A Documentary reader (New York/Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002), 27–32. [Primary source]

Recommended reading:

• * Olivier Roy, The Failure of political Islam, transl. Carol Volk (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1994), 35–47, 194–203.
• R Stephen Humphreys, Between memory and desire: The Middle East in a troubled age, updated ed. (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2005), 148–203.
• Emmanuel Sivan, Radical Islam: Medieval theology and modern politics (New Haven/London: Yale University Press, 1990), 16–49.
• Yvonne Yazbeck Haddad, ‘The Qurʾanic justification for an Islamic revolution: The View of Sayyid Quṭb’, Middle East Journal 37.1 (Winter 1983), 14–29.
• Michael Scott Doran, ‘Somebody else’s civil war’, Foreign Affairs 81.1 (January–February 2002), 22–42.

26. Zionism and the Jewish revival in the Middle East

Quiz #5

Required reading:

• Raymond P Scheindlin, A Short history of the Jewish people (New York City: Oxford University Press, 1998), 217–233.
• Anita Shapira, Israel: A History (Waltham: Brandeis University Press, 2012), 3–26.
• Shlomo Avineri, The Making of modern Zionism: The Intellectual origins of the Jewish state, (New York City: Basic Books, 1981), 3–13, 73–82.
• Readings from BILU and Lev Pinsker, in Israel in the Middle East: Documents and readings on society, politics, and foreign relations, pre-1948 to the present, ed. Itamar Rabinovich and Jehuda Reinharz, 2^nd ed. (Waltham: Brandeis University Press, 2007), 10–16. [Primary source]

Recommended reading:

• * Jacob Katz, ‘The Forerunners of Zionism’, in Essential papers on Zionism, ed. Jehuda Reinharz and Anita Shapira (New York City: New York University Press, 1996), 33–45.
• * Shlomo Avineri, The Making of modern Zionism: The Intellectual origins of the Jewish state, (New York City: Basic Books, 1981), 23–35, 112–124, 187–197.
• Yosef Salmon, ‘Tradition and nationalism’, in Essential papers on Zionism, ed. Jehuda Reinharz and Anita Shapira (New York City: New York University Press, 1996), 94–116.

27. Religion in the State of Israel

Required reading:

• Lee, Religion and politics, 79–123 (skim pp. 96–103, 115–120).
• Guy Ben-Porat Between state and synagogue: The Secularization of Contemporary Israel (Cambridge/New York City: Cambridge University Press, 2013), 27–59 (skim pp. 37–43, 53–58).
• David Ben-Gurion, ‘Status-quo agreement’, in Israel in the Middle East: Documents and readings on society, politics, and foreign relations, pre-1948 to the present, ed. Itamar Rabinovich and Jehuda Reinharz, 2^nd ed. (Waltham: Brandeis University Press, 2007), 58–59. [Primary source]

Recommended reading:

• * Alan Dowty, The Jewish state: A Century later, updated ed. (Berkeley/Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2001), 61–84. [online]
• Chaim Isaac Waxman, ‘Religion in the Israeli public square’, in Jews in Israel: Contemporary social and cultural patterns, ed. Uzi Rebhun and Chaim Isaac Waxman (Waltham: Brandeis University Press, 2004), 221–239.
• Eliezer Ben-Rafael, ‘The Faces of religiosity in Israel: Cleavages or continuum?’, Israel Studies 13.3 (Fall 2008), 89–113.
• Charles S Liebman, ‘Reconceptualizing the culture conflict among Israeli Jews’, Israel Studies 2.2 (Fall 1997), 172–189.

28. Open topic class

Research paper due

Required reading:

• Lapidus, History, 826–858.

29. Religion and Middle Eastern society today

Required reading:

• D Gershon Lewental, ‘“Saddam’s Qadisiyyah’: Religion and history in the service of state ideology in Baʿthi Iraq’, Middle Eastern Studies 50.6 (November 2014), 891–910 (DOI 10.1080/00263206.2013.870899).
• D Gershon Lewental, ‘“First”, “second”, and “third” battles of al-Qādisiyyah in Iraq, Palestine, and Syria: Early Islamic history and memory in radical Islamist discourse’, (forthcoming), 1–20.
• Mateo Mohammad Farzaneh, ‘Shiʿi ideology, Iranian secular nationalism and the Iran-Iraq War (1980–1988)’, Studies in Ethnicity and Nationalism 7.1 (March 2007), 86–103 (DOI 10.1111/j.1754-9469.2007.tb00109.x).

Recommended reading:

• Lee, Religion and politics, 259–294.
• Sami A Hanna and George H Gardner, ‘Al-Shuʿūbiyyah up-dated: A Study of the 20th Century revival of an Eighth Century concept’, Middle East Journal 20.3 (Summer 1966), 335–351.