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The Middle East and Islamic World Reader
The Muslim world is tremendously rich and diverse, yet few Westerners are familiar with the writings and teachings of a culture that in recent months has come to the forefront of world events. In their insightful new anthology The Middle East and Islamic World Reader, historians Marvin E. Gettleman and Stuart Schaar have assembled a broad selection of documents and contemporary scholarship to give a view of the history of the peoples from the core Islamic lands, from the Golden Age of Islam to today. With carefully framed essays beginning each chapter and brief introductory notes accompanying over seventy readings, the anthology reveals the multifaceted societies and political systems of the Islamic world. Selections range from theological texts illuminating the differences between Shiite and Sunni Muslims, to diplomatic exchanges and state papers, to memoirs and literary works, to manifestos of Islamic radicals. The anthology spans the distance from Tunisia to India through writings by such key figures as the early Muslim historian Ibn Khaldun, Turkish founding father Kemal Ataturk, Israeli statesman David Ben-Gurion, and the Iranian revolutionary leader Ayatollah Khomeini. The readings chart the effects of the Islamic world's interactions with outsiders -- from the invasions of Central Asian nomads and Crusading Europeans in the Middle Ages, to European colonization in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries -- as well as its own internal evolution, through accounts of peasants, urban workers, and the experience of Muslim women. Wide-ranging and thought-provoking, The Middle East and Islamic World Reader is a fascinating historical survey of complex societies that -- now more than ever -- are crucial for us to understand.
400 pages, Paperback
First published April 1, 2003
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
April 15, 2024
Massive read. Considerably more important than probably 95% of the appalling sewage most of us usually read. I am frankly ashamed to have been in such profound ignorance of these things, although that comes as no surprise (neither is that to say that my ignorance is altogether gone).
Mention has been made of the fact that the general drift of the book seems to be in the direction of 9/11 from the get-go (it was published in 2002), but the authors do address this in the last chapter, saying that their intention was not to make it seem as though the attacks were the direct result of the foundation of Islam or any such 1-to-1 sentential stupidity (as in: "if P then Q"). Rather, the authors "intended mainly to demonstrate the historical diversity of the Middle East, and to suggest the other histories that might have unfolded as well as explore the one that did come to pass." This is a fair point, however badly expressed.
To put it another way: whatever we know now about the Crusades, for example, has for the most part passed into the realm of the mythic past and become the stuff of romance. But the attacks of September 11th are, needless to say, modern and consequently very real. And without the context of our present world to anchor it, study of the past can often be too abstract to be appreciable to us, or of any real use in deciding the route that we must take toward the future.
There is a series of videos on Youtube, for the time being, which I certainly won't be able to link here on GR, but they're of a debate at Oxford on the motion that "Islam is a peaceful religion." Of special interest are those arguments made by Daniel Johnson (insofar as it represents an opinion common to many secular people all over the world) & Mehdi Hasan, whose warranted excitement at the time does not withstand in the least his astonishing eloquence & hugely impressive intellect. Those interested in the old, sophisticated, and prodigiously successful faith of the Arabs (which of course now is practiced by millions upon millions of Turks, Mongols, Iranians, Chinese, Chechens, Circassians, and many others) will no doubt derive some benefit from them.
But then, anyone who fits this description mustn't neglect to read, carefully and in full, the Quran, which is of course the very source of Islam, if he expects to even begin to understand the latter. And ideally, he will read it in Arabic. Maybe a particularly beautiful passage will entice:
وَهُوَ الَّذِي يُرْسِلُ الرِّيَاحَ بُشْرًا بَيْنَ يَدَيْ رَحْمَتِهِ ۖ حَتَّىٰ إِذَا أَقَلَّتْ سَحَابًا ثِقَالًا سُقْنَاهُ لِبَلَدٍ مَيِّتٍ فَأَنْزَلْنَا بِهِ الْمَاءَ فَأَخْرَجْنَا بِهِ مِنْ كُلِّ الثَّمَرَاتِ ۚ كَذَٰلِكَ نُخْرِجُ الْمَوْتَىٰ لَعَلَّكُمْ تَذَكَّرُونَ
- Surah 7.57
†'He it is who sends forth the winds between the two hands of His mercy. Once [this mercy] has gathered the clouds heavy with rain, We drive them unto a dead land, whereon causing the water to descend We make sprout all manner of vegetal life. Even so shall We raise the dead: or can it be you don't remember?'
†My translation
Mention has been made of the fact that the general drift of the book seems to be in the direction of 9/11 from the get-go (it was published in 2002), but the authors do address this in the last chapter, saying that their intention was not to make it seem as though the attacks were the direct result of the foundation of Islam or any such 1-to-1 sentential stupidity (as in: "if P then Q"). Rather, the authors "intended mainly to demonstrate the historical diversity of the Middle East, and to suggest the other histories that might have unfolded as well as explore the one that did come to pass." This is a fair point, however badly expressed.
To put it another way: whatever we know now about the Crusades, for example, has for the most part passed into the realm of the mythic past and become the stuff of romance. But the attacks of September 11th are, needless to say, modern and consequently very real. And without the context of our present world to anchor it, study of the past can often be too abstract to be appreciable to us, or of any real use in deciding the route that we must take toward the future.
There is a series of videos on Youtube, for the time being, which I certainly won't be able to link here on GR, but they're of a debate at Oxford on the motion that "Islam is a peaceful religion." Of special interest are those arguments made by Daniel Johnson (insofar as it represents an opinion common to many secular people all over the world) & Mehdi Hasan, whose warranted excitement at the time does not withstand in the least his astonishing eloquence & hugely impressive intellect. Those interested in the old, sophisticated, and prodigiously successful faith of the Arabs (which of course now is practiced by millions upon millions of Turks, Mongols, Iranians, Chinese, Chechens, Circassians, and many others) will no doubt derive some benefit from them.
But then, anyone who fits this description mustn't neglect to read, carefully and in full, the Quran, which is of course the very source of Islam, if he expects to even begin to understand the latter. And ideally, he will read it in Arabic. Maybe a particularly beautiful passage will entice:
وَهُوَ الَّذِي يُرْسِلُ الرِّيَاحَ بُشْرًا بَيْنَ يَدَيْ رَحْمَتِهِ ۖ حَتَّىٰ إِذَا أَقَلَّتْ سَحَابًا ثِقَالًا سُقْنَاهُ لِبَلَدٍ مَيِّتٍ فَأَنْزَلْنَا بِهِ الْمَاءَ فَأَخْرَجْنَا بِهِ مِنْ كُلِّ الثَّمَرَاتِ ۚ كَذَٰلِكَ نُخْرِجُ الْمَوْتَىٰ لَعَلَّكُمْ تَذَكَّرُونَ
- Surah 7.57
†'He it is who sends forth the winds between the two hands of His mercy. Once [this mercy] has gathered the clouds heavy with rain, We drive them unto a dead land, whereon causing the water to descend We make sprout all manner of vegetal life. Even so shall We raise the dead: or can it be you don't remember?'
†My translation
August 23, 2024
مرجع مهم ومفيد
October 8, 2007
Has some decent primary source material, so that's always interesting, to see the original words of major actors in a part of the world many of us (myself included) little understand. But it was compiled in the months following September 11th, 2001, and its focus seems pivoted around that time period. Thus, not really a great overview of Middle Eastern and Arab World history, just some of the trends that have dominated the Western world's recent interactions with it.
January 11, 2026
I found this at a thrift store at the cottage and decided to read it (and glad I did). It's a really good basis for understanding current and historical conflict in the middle east - the geopolitics of oil, cold war conflict, and Palestine chapters were especially interesting . 3.5/5
November 24, 2011
A decent overview for anyone who wants to read about the Middle East and doesn't have a significant academic or personal background in the region.
March 27, 2024
Hope a new edition is in the offing
About as good of a history of the region as can be put into a book of this size. As the title reveals, it is a reader- a collection of writings- that, combined with excellent contextual introductions by the authors, gives the reader an objective look at an important part of the world.
About as good of a history of the region as can be put into a book of this size. As the title reveals, it is a reader- a collection of writings- that, combined with excellent contextual introductions by the authors, gives the reader an objective look at an important part of the world.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews