
Workers in mother-of-pearl
Jerusalem, circa 1900-1920
Annotated Bibliography of Scholarly Sources
Here, you will find a selection of scholarly sources categorized in time period order.
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Ancient World (6)
+Black Athena: The Afroasiatic Roots of Greek Civilization, Martin Bernal, 1987
Seminal, albeit controversial, work that advances the thesis that classical Greece had strong roots in African and Asian cultures, particularly Egypt. In fields such as geometry, architecture, and philosophy, Bernal contends, the Greeks were far more indebted to the East than previous scholars have suggested.
Introduction to “Gnosticism”: Ancient Voices, Christian Worlds, Nicola Denzey Lewis, 2012
Excellent introduction to the famous Nag Hammadi texts, whose discovery in 1945 led to new interpretations of early Christian history and increased attention to “Gnostic” tendencies within the religion. The book features classroom-friendly pedagogical tools.
Roman Arabia, G.W. Bowersock, 1998
A thorough history of an important Roman province from the fourth century B.C. up through the rule of Constantine. Bowersock's book delves into the relations between Arabs and Romans in the region.
Rome in the East: The Transformation of an Empire, Warwick Ball, 2001
Filled with illustrations and photographs, Ball's work is accessible to the general reader and demonstrates the fascination ancient Romans had with the East. The book explores Syrian, Iranian, and Indian influences on Rome.
The Gnostic Gospels, Elaine Pagels, 1989
A more classic study of the Nag Hammadi texts, Pagels emphasizes that Early Christianity could have taken a very different path had Gnostic writings been incorporated into Christian orthodoxy, rather than excluded from it by church authorities.
The Orientalizing Revolution: Near Eastern Influence on Greek Culture in the Early Archaic Age, Walter Burkert, 1998
Important work on societal interconnections in the Mediterranean, and specifically the ways in which ancient Greek culture did not simply invent itself out of whole cloth, but rather was indebted to Near Eastern societies.
Late Antiquity (4)
+Between Empires: Arabs, Romans, and Sasanians in Late Antiquity, Greg Fisher, 2011
Focused on the last century prior to the advent of Islam, Fisher's book consider the formation of notions of Arab identity at this time and how they were affected by contact with the powerful Roman and Sasanid (Iran) empires.
Mosaics as History: The Near East from Late Antiquity to Islam, G.W. Bowersock, 2006
This more specialized text covers the Near East in the fifth through seventh centuries, an area in a state of relative peace compared to Rome and the West at that time. Analyzing floor mosaics from buildings owned by Jews, Christians, and Muslims, Bowersock emphasizes the mosaics' fundamentally “pagan” character, demonstrating that aspects of the classical world persisted until well after the Muslim conquests. The book is full of color images of mosaics which could be useful in the classroom.
Sasanian Persia: The Rise and Fall of an Empire, Touraj Daryaee, 2009
This is a scholarly but accessible social and cultural history of the powerful Sasanian empire of Iran, which promulgated the pre-Islamic faith of Zoroastrianism, a religion which would influence the three great monotheisms of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.
The World of Late Antiquity: AD 150-750, Peter Brown, 1989
Good introductory text by a leading scholar of Late Antiquity. Brown charts the transition away from the “classical” world toward what would be known as the Middle Ages, when Europe, Byzantium, and Islamic societies become more estranged from one another.
Byzantium (4)
+A Short History of Byzantium, John Julius Norwich, 1998
A very accessible chronological account, condensed from Norwich's three-volume work, which focuses on the political history of Byzantium.
Byzantium and Islam: Age of Transition (Metropolitan Museum of Art), Helen C. Evans, ed., 2012
A well-illustrated exhibition book from the Metropolitan Museum of Art based on high quality scholarship, the volume provides an excellent introduction to the era when the older monotheisms of began to encounter Islam.
Byzantium: The Surprising Life of a Medieval Empire, Judith Herrin, 2009
Not a standard chronological history, but still based on the most recent scholarship, Herrin explores key themes and events of the Byzantine Empire in a manner designed for a general audience. The book considers the ways in which Byzantium—situated between Western Christendom and the supposed threat of Islam—played a key role in the formation of the Modern West.
The Silk Road: A New History, Valerie Hansen, 2012
The famous Silk Road was not actually a single road but rather a series of markets where peoples from diverse cultures met and exchanged goods and ideas. Hansen shows how this important route through Central Asia linked the economies and ideologies of a number of societies.
Rise of Islam (6)
+Damascus After the Muslim Conquest: Text and Image in Early Islam, Nancy Khalek, 2011
Khalek explores the transition from a largely Christian polity in Damascus to a Muslim one after the city fell in AD 635-6. As the book demonstrates, Islamic cultural forms did not simply replace Judaeo-Christian ones, rather new Islamic identities were created in a multicultural setting where prior practices persisted.
Muḥammad and the Believers: At the Origins of Islam, Fred Donner, 2012
In this original account of the origins of Islam, Donner argues that early Islam included Jews and Christians, and that it was not for nearly a century that Muslims who emphasized the Qu'ran as the ultimate revelation and thus separated themselves from the other monotheists. The book counters assertions that was inherently anti-Semitic from its earliest period.
Seeing Islam as Others Saw It: A Survey and Evaluation of Christian, Jewish and Zoroastrian Writings on Early Islam, Robert Hoyland, 1998
A lengthy and scholarly survey of a wide range of primary sources undertaken in order to work toward a better history of early Islam. Hoyland examines non-Muslim texts of the 7th and 8th centuries in addition to Islamic ones, and argues that the traditional divide in scholarship between these sources is artificial.
The Great Arab Conquests: How the Spread of Islam Changed the World We Live In, Hugh Kennedy, 2008
In this accessible account, renowned historian Kennedy details the rapid spread of Islam in the first hundred-plus years of its existence. The book is a standard history of early Islam which contextualizes Islam's growth within the context of Late Antiquity and rival empires of the time.
The Koran: A Very Short Introduction, Michael Cook, 2000
Part of the popular and well regarded Oxford series, in this thin book Cook provides a highly accessible introduction to the holy text of Islam, drawing comparisons to other religious texts of the time and explicating the Koran's significance for believers both in early Islam and in the modern period.
The Nativist Prophets of Early Islamic Iran: Rural Revolt and Local Zoroastrianism, Patricia Crone, 2012
Crone, an influential scholar of the period, examines the persistence of Iranian religious ideas after the arrival of Islam and the way in which they contributed to revolts, particularly among mountain populations in the country. The book demonstrates that Iran had a strong religious heritage prior to Islam which did not vanish with the Muslim conquest.
"Golden Age" Islam (6)
+Islamic Science and the Making of the European Renaissance, George Saliba, 2011
The traditional view of early Islamic science is that it largely appropriated Greek and Roman scientific knowledge. Saliba argues that Islamic science was already well-established before classical Greek scientific texts were even translated into Arabic, and that the originality of Islamic scientific thought would eventually have an impact on the Renaissance.
The Church in the Shadow of the Mosque: Christians and Muslims in the World of Islam, Sidney H. Griffith, 2010
This book focuses on Christians living under Muslim rule during the era of Classical Islam, a significant population at the time. Griffith discusses ways in which the “Arabization” of Christians in the region provided them with a new language and cultural context in which to express and refine their faith.
The Formation of Islam: Religion and Society in the Near East 600-1800, Jonathan Berkey, 2002
In this broad synthesis of over a millennium of Islamic history, Berkey emphasizes that Islam did not simply emerge fully formed in the 7th century, but rather gradually over time as part of long process.
The Great Caliphs: The Golden Age of the 'Abbasid Empire, Amira K. Bennison, 2010
Bennison portrays the geographically large Abbasid Empire not as a break with “Western Civilization,” but as inheriting and perpetuating Greek and Roman traditions. The book is a general study accessible to the lay reader.
The Prophet and the Age of the Caliphates: The Islamic Near East From the 6th to 11th Century, Hugh Kennedy, 2004
Updated version of an authoritative text from Kennedy covering the origins of Islam up through the Ummayad and Abbasid Caliphates.
When Baghdad Ruled the Muslim World: The Rise and Fall of Islam's Greatest Dynasty, Hugh Kennedy, 2006
A general history of the powerful Abbasid Dynasty and a time when Baghdad was one of the leading cities of the world.
Medieval Era and Crusades (4)
+The Crusades, Christianity, and Islam, Jonathan Riley-Smith, 2011
This short text unfolds as a series of lectures which focus on nineteenth and twentieth century rhetoric about the Crusades. Riley-Smith argues that discussion of the Crusades centuries after the fact distorted the actual history and had significant (negative) effects on Western and Muslim opinion all the way down to the present.
The Crusades: Islamic Perspectives, Carole Hillenbrand, 2008
Hillenbrand inverts the approach taken by most Western scholars of the period and instead looks at the Crusades solely through medieval Islamic sources. The book focuses on ways in which the reactions of Muslims to the presence of Christian Crusaders in their lands altered the region's military, social, and cultural history.
The Crusades Through Arab Eyes, Amin Maalouf, 1989
This is another accessible account that focuses on Arab perspectives on the Crusades.
Under Crescent and Cross: The Jews in the Middle Ages, Mark R. Cohen, 2008
In this comparative study of Jews living under Muslim and Christian rule in the Middle Ages, Cohen argues that Jews under Islamic rule, while still “infidels” subjected to violence, had more opportunity and occupied a safer niche in Muslim society than they did in Christian realms.
Ottoman Empire and Early Modern Europe (7)
+Allies With the Infidel: The Ottoman and French Alliance in the Sixteenth Century, Christine Isom-Verhaaren, 2011
Isom-Verhaaren tells the story of a brief mid-16th century military alliance between the Ottomans and the French, nominal enemies at a time when memories of the Crusades were still relatively fresh.
Europe Through Arab Eyes: 1578-1727, Nabil Matar, 2008
Matar's multiarchival research shows that Arabs and Muslims were extremely engaged with and interested in Europe during its rise in the Early Modern period. The book looks at contemporary Muslim accounts of Europe that show a clear desire to establish trade routes and alliances, which was less possible due to European attitudes of the time.
Imperial Legacy: The Ottoman Imprint on the Balkans and the Middle East, L.Carl Brown, ed., 1997
This is an edited volume with chapters demonstrating the lasting influence of the Ottoman Empire on Asia, Northern Africa, and the Balkans.
Salonica, City of Ghosts: Christians, Muslims, and Jews, 1430-1950, Mark Mazower, 2006
A narrative history of a multicultural port city in Greece, known today as Thessaloniki. The city was under Ottoman rule during most of the time in question but had strong Mediterranean and Balkan influences and a diverse population. Mazower demonstrates the relative toleration that persisted among Muslims, Jews, and Christians in Salonica as he offers vivid sketches of community, work, and family life. After WWI the city returned to Greek control and in the ensuing decades lost much of its cosmopolitan character.
The Arab Lands Under Ottoman Rule: 1516-1800, Jane Hathaway, 2008
Hathaway's book challenges conceptions of the period as one of decline, an interlude preceding the rise of Arab nationalism in the 19th century, and argues instead that it was a period of profound change which helped create the modern Middle East.
The Ottoman Empire and Early Modern Europe, Daniel Goffman, 2002
In this synthesis of recent scholarship, Goffman argues that the Ottoman Empire should be thought of as part of Early Modern Europe—in terms of politics, commerce, etc.—rather than as separate from it.
The Ottoman Empire, 1700-1922, Donald Quataert, 2000
A standard survey of the later Ottoman empire with particular focus on gender and the treatment of minorities.
Renaissance (3)
+Creating East and West: Renaissance Humanists and the Ottoman Turks, Nancy Bisaha, 2006
Bisaha evaluates the (understudied) works of Renaissance Humanists, which dealt with the Ottomans and Islam, and argues that these thinkers developed a more sophisticated view of Muslims than one which merely viewed them as enemies of Christianity.
Trickster Travels: A Sixteenth-Century Muslim Between Worlds, Natalie Zemon Davis, 2007
The book follows the career of Leo Africanus, the great Renaissance writer who was born a Muslim in Granada in 1492. Africanus's book The Description of Africa was very influential in Europe, and Davis portrays him as an important figure straddling two fairly antagonistic cultures.
Venetians in Constantinople: Nation, Identity, and Coexistence in the Early Modern Mediterranean, Eric Dursteler, 2008
The book focuses on Venetian and Ottoman interactions in Constantinople, particularly involving Venetian merchants and diplomats. Dursteler emphasizes the cosmopolitan nature of the city at the time, and that identities were in flux rather than being fixed categories in conflict with one another.
Enlightenment (3)
+Islam and the English Enlightenment, 1670-1840, Humberto Garcia, 2011
Garcia takes a stance contrary to the one most famously articulated by Edward Said in Orientalism, instead arguing that Enlightenment Era writing and Romantic literature in England took a more sympathetic view of Islam than most assume. According to Garcia, prominent writers and thinkers of the period followed events in the Islamic world and used them as means to redefine English conceptions of liberty.
The Enlightenment Qur'an: The Politics of Translation and the Construction of Islam, Ziad Elmarsafy, 2009
Elmarsafy discusses the history of Qur'an translations in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and argues that key Enlightenment figures such as Voltaire were influenced by the Muslim holy text.
The Vital Roots of European Enlightenment: Ibn Tufayl's Influence on Modern Western Thought, Samar Attar, 2011
Attar shows the significant influence the 12th century Arab philosopher had on key European thinkers such as Hobbes, Locke, and Kant.
"Modern" Middle East and North Africa:
Arab Middle East (7)
+Being Modern in the Middle East: Revolution, Nationalism, Colonialism, and the Arab Middle Class, Keith David Watenpaugh, 2006
Watenpaugh discusses the formation of an Arab middle class of professionals in the early decades of the 20th century, particularly in the important city of Aleppo, and the ways in which they defined being “modern” as they created a new civil society and new forms of political engagement.
Desiring Arabs, Joseph Massad, 2008
Massad focuses not solely on “Orientalist” conceptions of Arab sexuality, but rather on how Arab writers described sexual desire in their own culture—descriptions which by the twentieth were often heavily influenced by the racist and narrow descriptions from the West.
Ordinary Egyptians: Creating the Modern Nation Through Popular Culture, Ziad Fahmy, 2011
This book examines the period from the 1870s up to 1919 and looks at the creation of a national Egyptian identity by examining sources from popular culture, both printed and visual. This approach allows Fahmy to focus not solely on intellectual elites but also on middle and working class Egyptians as they created a culture of camaraderie in resistance to British authority.
Spies in Arabia: The Great War and the Cultural Foundations of Britain's Covert Empire in the Middle East, Priva Satia, 2009
A history of British intelligence agents who traveled to “Arabia” in the early 1900s for strategic regions but who were also enthralled by romantic notions of adventure in an exotic area. Satia shows that these British agents had ethical concerns about the violence of their developing empire in the region, which saw the creation of the world's first aerial surveillance regime (in modern day Iraq).
Struggle and Survival in the Modern Middle East, Edmund Burke III and David Yaghoubian, 2006
An updated version of an earlier volume which broke ground by focusing on the lives of ordinary women and men in the modern Middle East. The authors offer 24 biographical accounts spanning a vast region and over 150 years.
The Other Iraq: Pluralism and Culture in Hashemite Iraq, Orit Bashkin, 2009
Through modern eyes, Iraq is often viewed as nothing more than an autocratic state rife with violence caused by sectarian differences. By discussing the rise of a new public sphere from the 1920s-1950s, Bashkin challenges that view and demonstrates the intellectual vibrancy in Iraq at the time, as well as the ways Iraqis constructed “hyphenated” identities which still included components of Iraqi nationalism.
Workers on the Nile: Nationalism, Communism, Islam and the Egyptian Working Class, 1882-1954, Joel Beinin and Zachary Lockman, 1998
The authors explore the connections between the Egyptian labor movement and the development of Egyptian nationalism up through the period when the military consolidated power in the 1950s.
North Africa (3)
+Arabs of the Jewish Faith: The Civilizing Mission in Colonial Algeria, Joshua Schreier, 2010
Schreier interweaves Algerian, French, and Jewish history as he demonstrates the ways in which Jewish Algerians affected the colonial French “civilizing mission,” and vice versa.
Imperial Identities: Stereotyping, Prejudice, and Race in Colonial Algeria, Patricia Lorcin, 1995
A study of Algeria which demonstrates ways in which the French created racial divisions and stereotypes—particularly between “good” Berbers and “bad” Arabs—in part as a way to further their imperialist agenda.
Rebel and Saint: Muslim Notables, Populist Protest, Colonial Encounters (Algeria and Tunisia 1800-1904), Julia Clancy-Smith, 1997
Clancy-Smith shows the ways in which North Africans both resisted and accommodated Ottoman and French colonialist rule, arguing that North Africans were not merely victims of their colonial oppressors but significant players in the world around them.
Turkey (3)
+Arabs and Young Turks: Ottomanism, Arabism, Islamism in the Ottoman Empire, 1908-1918, Hasan Kayali, 1997
This political study of the late Ottoman empire examines the policies of the government but also Arab concerns about their treatment. Kayali argues that Islamism was more prominent as an ideology than both Arab and Turkish ethnic nationalism during this time.
Empire, Architecture, and the City: French-Ottoman Encounters, 1830-1914, Zeynep Celik, 2008
Ceylik approaches this comparative study of the French and Ottoman empires in Muslim areas (North Africa in the case of the French, Arab regions for the Ottomans) largely through examining commonalities in architecture and urban design and the cross-cultural exchanges that created them. Well illustrated.
Turkey, Islam, Nationalism, and Modernity: A History, 1789-2007 Carter Vaughn Findley, 2011
Findley's book examines, over the course of two centuries, the complex interplay between a radical, secularizing current in Turkey and a conservative, Islamist one.
Iran (4)
+Britain and the Iranian Constitutional Revolution of 1906-1911: Foreign Policy, Imperialism, and Dissent, Mansour Bonakdarian, 2006
In this close look at the Iranian Constitutional Revolution of the early 1900s, Bonakdarian takes a diplomatic history approach as he explains British support for the constitutional struggle of the time.
Nationalizing Iran: Culture, Power, and the State, 1870-1940, Afshin Marashi, 2008
Marashi describes the way in which the traditional Iranian monarchy was transformed into a modern nation-state, a transformation that was facilitated in part by the state itself promoting elements of a common Iranian culture. Marashi argues for continuities with the past in key events in Iranian history that are often seen as ruptures or anomalies.
Qajar Iran and the Rise of Reza Khan, 1796-1925 Nikki Keddie, 2012
Keddie focuses on intellectual, political, and socioeconomic trends during the Qajar period, emphasizing that it was a time of critical transition where modern ideas imported from the West were adapted to an Iranian context.
The Mantle of the Prophet: Religion and Politics in Iran, Roy Mottahedeh, 2008
Mottahedeh's book is a standard, primarily intellectual history which sets the Iranian Revolution in the larger context of several millenia of Iranian thought going back to Zoroastrianism.
Palestine and Israel (8)
+Being Israeli: The Dynamics of Multiple Citizenship, Gershon Shafir and Yoav Peled, 2002
The authors trace the notion of citizenship in Israel to the early Zionist settlements of the late 19th century up to the time of the Second Intifada.
Comrades and Enemies: Arab and Jewish Workers in Palestine, 1906-1948, Zachary Lockman, 1996
This book looks at interactions between Arab and Jewish workers and worker-based political parties before and during British rule. Lockman argues that, rather than developing in isolation solely as antagonists, Arab and Jewish workers had a significant influence on one another and even engaged in joint labor actions.
Land, Labor, and the Origins of the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict, 1882-1914, Gershon Shafir, 1996
In contrast to the popular understanding of the conflict as being rooted in religious and ethnic differences, Shafir explores underlying economic forces of the late 19th and early 20th century.
Ottoman Brothers: Muslims, Christians, and Jews in Early Twentieth Century Palestine, Michelle Campos, 2010
In this study of Ottoman citizenship after the 1908 revolution, Campos looks at how Muslims, Jews, and Christians developed a collective identity as Ottoman imperial citizens together, even as Zionist and Arab nationalist sentiments were on the rise.
Overthrowing Geography: Jaffa, Tel Aviv, and the Struggle for Palestine, 1880-1948, Mark Levine, 2005
Levine examines the interactions and interdependence between the cities and residents of Jaffa and Tel Aviv by exploring evolving popular cultures and public spheres of the era.
Palestine and the Arab-Israeli Conflict: A History With Documents, Charles D. Smith, 2012
Essentially a balanced textbook overview of the topic, full of maps and primary sources for classroom use.
The Iron Cage: The Story of the Palestinian Struggle for Statehood, Rashid Khalidi, 2006
An excellent general history of the Palestinian quest for statehood beginning after the breakup of the Ottoman Empire and continuing down to the present.
The Rise and Fall of a Palestinian Dynasty: The Husaynis, 1700-1948 , Ilan Pappe, 2011
Pappe's book looks at a broad swath of history in Palestine primarily through one family, arguing for continuity in periods that are often divided as pre-modern and modern as the book connects the story of the Husaynis to larger events.
Cultural, Political, Religious, and Intellectual History of the Region
+
in the Modern Era (5)Arabic Thought in the Liberal Age, 1798-1939, Albert Hourani, 1983
This is a classic and authoritative account of modern Arab intellectual history by one of the leaders in the field.
Divided Loyalties: Nationalism and Mass Politics in Syria at the Close of Empire, James L. Gelvin, 1999
Gelvin looks at underused archival sources to focus on the ways in which non-elites helped in developing nationalist politics via popular committees in greater Syria after WWI.
Mullahs on the Mainframe: Islam and Modernity Among the Daudi Bohras, Jonah Blank, 2001
A case study of a Muslim denomination which has reconciled their Islamic beliefs with aspects of today's modern world, including relative gender equality and usage of modern technology.
The Eastern Mediterranean and the Making of Global Radicalism, 1860-1914, Ilham Khuri-Makdisi, 2010
This books shows the lively discussions about and reworking of socialist and anarchist ideas that were happening among people of various ethnicities and backgrounds in Cairo, Alexandria, and Beirut in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Khuri-Makdisi demonstrates that radical ideas and movements of the era were not merely found in the West.
The Kurds and the State: Evolving National Identities in Iraq, Turkey, and Iran, Denise Natali, 2005
Natali argues that Kurdish nationalism has not been fixed and unchanging, but rather has been altered and conditioned by affairs in the nation-states (and their diverse political spaces) in which Kurds primarily reside.
Gender and Sexuality (8)
+Before Homosexuality in the Arab World, 1500-1800, Khaled El-Rouayheb, 2009
El-Rouayheb challenges the traditional view that Arab and Islamic societies held conflicted or hypocritical views on homosexuality—decrying it on the one hand while tolerating or even celebrating it on the other—by arguing that the culture of the time essentially lacked the concept of homosexuality.
Colonial Citizens, Elizabeth Thompson, 2000
In Syria and Lebanon, as in other colonized societies after WWII, members of anti-colonial movements laid claim to the same rights enjoyed by citizens of the colony. Thompson focuses on gender as a key component of that struggle, and particularly resistance against the paternalistic policies of the French and the male leaders of the newly independent nations.
Egypt as a Woman: Nationalism, Gender, and Politics, Beth Baron, 2007
Baron shows how gender shaped Egyptian nationalism by analyzing gendered language and imagery used in nationalist discourse and discussing the activities of women nationalists in the political sphere. The book also provides a number of excellent primary sources, including excerpts from feminist press sources debating the role of women in the country, political cartoons, and photographs.
In the House of the Law: Gender and Islamic Law in Ottoman Syria and Palestine, Judith E. Tucker, 2000
Focused on the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, Tucker shows that Muslim legal thinkers of the time were very much concerned with women's roles in society and that the Islamic law they developed as a result was more flexible when it comes to gender than one might assume.
Marriage, Money, and Divorce in Medieval Islamic Society, Yossef Rapoport, 2007
According to Rapoport, divorce was not at all uncommon in medieval Islamic societies, and was just as frequently initiated by women. This reality was in contrast to Islamic theories of ideal marriage and shows that women in these societies, while still living in patriarchal systems, had a degree of legal control over their lives.
Renegade Women: Gender, Identity, and Boundaries in the Early Modern Mediterranean, Eric R. Dursteler, 2011
Defining “renegade” as any woman who crossed cultural or religious boundaries, as opposed to the traditional Western definition of a convert to Islam, Dursteller discusses three cases in order to flesh out the intersections between gender and religion in Islamic and Christian societies of the time.
Rethinking Global Sisterhood: Western Feminism and Iran, Nima Naghibi, 2007
Naghibi's book examines the connections and encounters between Iranian and Western feminists, which date back to the mid-nineteenth century.
Women With Mustaches and Men Without Beards: Gender and Sexual Anxieties of Iranian Modernity, Afsaneh Najmabadi, 2005
Najmabadi looks at nineteenth century Iran and argues that the gender system of the time was not rigid, and indeed that fluctuating gender and sexual norms were central to shaping the modernizing Iran of that era.
U.S. and the Middle East (6)
+American Christians and Islam: Evangelical Culture and Muslims from the Colonial Period to the Age of Terrorism, Thomas S. Kidd, 2008
Kidd explains how American evangelicals' anxiety about Islam goes back all the way to the colonial era, and that their portrayal of Islam as essentially evil, rather than sharing similarities with Christianity, accounts for what is largely a failure of Christian American missions to Muslim nations.
Covering Islam: How the Media and the Experts Determine How We See the Rest of the World, Edward Said, 1997
An updated version of Said's 1981 book, in which the author examines the limited and generally negative ways in which Western media portray Islam and Muslims.
Epic Encounters: Culture, Media, and U.S. Interests in the Middle East Since 1945, Melanie McAlister, 2005
McAlister considers ways in which popular culture, in addition to the more often discussed geopolitical/strategic concerns, has shaped American policies in the Middle East after WWII.
Good Muslim, Bad Muslim: America, The Cold War, and the Roots of Terror, Mahmood Mamdani, 2005
Written in part as a response to 9/11, Mamdani examines the rise of modern political Islam, connecting it with what he believes to be real and valid concerns about U.S. policy in the Middle East.
Perceptions of Palestine, Kathleen Christison, 2001
Christison focuses on the way in which false or problematic perceptions of Palestinians in the U.S. have contributed to the formation of U.S. policy vis a vis Palestine and Israel.
The Crescent Obscured: The United States and the Muslim World, 1776-1815, Robert Allison, 2000
This book is centered on a discussion of the U.S.'s encounter and conflict with the Barbary States during the early republic. In particular, Allison examines the ways in which said encounter affected Americans' definitions of their own identity, including by contributing to a questioning of the institution of slavery.
Other/Miscellaneous (8)
+A History of the Modern Middle East, William L. Cleveland and Martin Bunton, 2012
Apart: Alienated and Engaged Muslims in the West, Justin Gest, 2010
Europe and the Islamic World: A History, John Tolan et. al., 2012
Foreigners and Their Food: Constructing Otherness in Jewish, Christian, and Islamic Law, David M. Freidenreich, 2011
Just Wars, Holy Wars, and Jihads: Christian, Jewish, and Muslim Encounters and Exchanges, Sohail H. Hashmi, ed., 2012
Muslim Networks from Hajj to Hip-Hop, Miriam Cooke, ed., 2005
Muslims in Indian Cities: Trajectories of Marginalisation, Laurent Gayer, ed., 2012
Orientalism, Edward Said, 1979