New Books in Middle Eastern Studies

In this engaging conversation, James E. Montgomery, a prominent Arabic scholar and co-translator of 'Kalīlah and Dimnah,' shares insights into the timeless fables' exploration of virtue and vice. He highlights his journey into Arabic studies and the challenges of translating classic texts for modern readers. The discussion spans Ibn al-Muqaffaʿ's historical significance, the perils of distraction illustrated in the fables, and their relevance in today's political landscape. Montgomery also emphasizes the cultural importance of narratives like falconry in preserving heritage.

Wynne Dayton, a retired senior member of the U.S. Foreign Service and former Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy in Beirut, dives deep into the Middle East's escalating tensions. He sheds light on the complexities of U.S. foreign policy and past intervention challenges. Notably, Dayton discusses Elon Musk's surprising diplomatic engagement with Iran and how it could shape future relations. He also examines Israel's critical role in recent conflicts and the potential consequences for its global standing and U.S. ties, offering a compelling analysis of the region's intricate landscape.

In The Fate of the Jews in the Early Islamic Near East: Tracing the Demographic Shift from East to West (Cambridge UP, 2022), Phillip Lieberman revisits one of the foundational narratives of medieval Jewish history--that the rise of Islam led the Jews of Babylonia, the largest Jewish community prior to the rise of Islam, to abandon a livelihood based on agriculture and move into urban crafts and long-distance trade. Here, he presents an alternative account that reveals the complexity of interfaith relations in early Islam. Using Jewish and Islamic chronicles, legal materials, and the rich documentary evidence of the Cairo Geniza, Lieberman demonstrates that Jews initially remained on the rural periphery after the Islamic conquest of Iraq. Gradually, they assimilated to an emerging Islamicate identity as the new religion took shape, sapping towns and villages of their strength. Simultaneously, a small, elite group of merchants and communal leaders migrated westward. Lieberman here explores their formative influence on the Jewish communities of the southern Mediterranean that flourished under Islamic conquest. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/middle-eastern-studies

Allen James Fromherz, a historian and director at Georgia State University, discusses his latest book that redefines the Persian Gulf as a pivotal hub in global history. He explores the Gulf's role as a center for ancient trade and cultural exchange, revealing its historical significance from the Dilmun civilization to modern times. Fromherz examines colonial impacts, local resistance, and the region's contemporary geopolitical importance, especially in light of rising powers like China and India. He also reflects on his previous works and future research plans.

Masha Kirasirova, an Assistant Professor of History at NYU Abu Dhabi, dives into her groundbreaking research on Soviet anticolonial policies, linking Arabs, Central Asians, and Jews. She sheds light on how the Soviet Union shaped these groups' identities and aspirations. Masha discusses her journey from Syrian history to uncovering Soviet archives, revealing complex interwar dynamics. She also explores the contributions of figures like Egyptian student Hamdi Salem and examines the post-WWII influence of the Soviet Union in Arab states. Intrigued? Tune in!

Tribe-state relations are a foundational element of authoritarian bargains in the Middle East, and in particular in the Gulf States. However, the structures of governance built upon that foundation exhibit wide differences. What explains this variation in the salience of kinship authority? Through a case comparison of Kuwait, Qatar and Oman, in Kinship, State Formation and Governance in the Arab Gulf States (Edinburgh University Press, 2022) Dr. Scott Weiner shows that variation in tribal access to limited resources before state building can account for these differences. Its conclusions are based on seven months of archival research and interviews in Arabic and English, and reveal new details about state formation on the Arabian Peninsula.This interview was conducted by Dr. Miranda Melcher whose new book focuses on post-conflict military integration, understanding treaty negotiation and implementation in civil war contexts, with qualitative analysis of the Angolan and Mozambican civil wars. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/middle-eastern-studies

During the early medieval Islamicate period (800–1400 CE), discourses concerned with music and musicians were wide-ranging and contentious, and expressed in works on music theory and philosophy as well as literature and poetry. But in spite of attempts by influential scholars and political leaders to limit or control musical expression, music and sound permeated all layers of the social structure.Lisa Nielson here presents a rich social history of music, musicianship and the role of musicians in the early Islamicate era. Focusing primarily on Damascus, Baghdad and Jerusalem, Lisa Nielson draws on a wide variety of textual sources written for and about musicians and their professional/private environments – including chronicles, literary sources, memoirs and musical treatises – as well as the disciplinary approaches of musicology to offer insights into musical performances and the lives of musicians. In the process, Music and Musicians in the Medieval Islamicate World: A Social History (Bloomsbury, 2021) sheds light onto the dynamics of medieval Islamicate courts, as well as how slavery, gender, status and religion intersected with music in courtly life. It will appeal to scholars of the Islamicate world and historical musicologists.Lisa Nielson is an Anisfield-Wolf Fellow and Lecturer in the Department of Music at Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, USA.. She received her PhD from the University of Maine at Orono, USA and holds a bachelor's and master's degree in music performance and pedagogy.Morteza Hajizadeh is a Ph.D. graduate in English from the University of Auckland in New Zealand. His research interests are Cultural Studies; Critical Theory; Environmental History; Medieval (Intellectual) History; Gothic Studies; 18th and 19th Century British Literature. YouTube channel. Twitter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/middle-eastern-studies

How did the Algerian war of independence shape contemporary sociology? In Bourdieu and Sayad Against Empire: Forging Sociology in Anticolonial Struggle (Polity Press, 2023), Amin Perez, an Assistant Professor of Sociology at University of Quebec in Montreal, explores the sociological practice and friendship of Pierre Bourdieu and Abdelmalek Sayad. Using a range of archival and contemporary methods, the book shows the impact of anticolonialism on these key figures in sociology and demonstrates the ongoing importance of their work today. Theoretically and historically rich, as well as being accessible, the book is essential reading across the social sciences and humanities. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/middle-eastern-studies

Parker Palmer, a renowned writer, speaker, and activist, engages in a profound dialogue about the Israel-Gaza conflict. He examines the importance of empathy and understanding amid violence and how narratives shape trauma across generations. The conversation emphasizes maintaining faith in hope during crises while advocating for healing through human connection rather than violence. Palmer encourages a shift towards emotional support and education as vital tools for conflict resolution, highlighting their role in fostering dialogue and bridging divides.

On Revival: Hebrew Literature Between Life and Death (U Pennsylvania Press, 2024) is a critique of one of the most important tenets of Zionist thinking: "Hebrew revival," or the idea that Hebrew--a largely unspoken language before the twentieth century--was revitalized as part of a broader national "revival" which ultimately led to the establishment of the Israeli nation-state. This story of language revival has been commemorated in Israeli popular memory and in Jewish historiography as a triumphant transformation narrative that marks the success of the Zionist revolution. But a closer look at the work of early twentieth-century Hebrew writers reveals different sentiments.Roni Henig explores the loaded, figurative discourse of revival in the work of Hebrew authors and thinkers working roughly between 1890 and 1920. For these authors, the language once known as "the holy tongue" became a vernacular in the making. Rather than embracing "revival" as a neutral, descriptive term, Henig takes a critical approach, employing close readings of canonical texts to analyze the primary tropes used to articulate this aesthetic and political project of "reviving" Hebrew. She shows that for many writers, the national mission of language revival was entwined with a sense of mourning and loss. These writers perceived--and simultaneously produced--the language as neither dead nor fully alive. Henig argues that it is this figure of the living-dead that lies at the heart of the revival discourse and which is constitutive of Jewish nationalism.On Revival contributes to current debates in comparative literary studies by addressing the limitations of the national language paradigm and thinking beyond concepts of origin, nativity, and possession in language. Informed by critical literary theory, including feminist and postcolonial critiques, the book challenges Zionism's monolingual lens and the auto-Orientalism involved in the project of revival, questioning charged ideological concepts such as "native speaker" and "mother tongue." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/middle-eastern-studies