Assignments include: a mid-term exam, a final paper and class presentation, and several email reports on reading and class presentation.  It is essential that your reading be completed prior to the class meeting for which it is assigned.  This will permit you to take active part in the class discussions which will take up around 50% of each class session.

The Historical Background in the Middle East
Week One - January 13 - Introduction: Where, Who, What is the Middle East?
Week Two - January 20 - Foundations of Islam in 7th and 8th Century "Arabia"
Week Three - January 27 - The Ottoman Legacies in the Middle East [visitor:  Professor Carl Brown, Princeton University]
Week Four - February 3 - The "Golden Age" of Islam
Week Five - February 10 - The Ottoman System
Week Six - February 17 - British, French, Russian Colonialism and Imperialism in the Middle East
Week Seven - February 24 - The Emergence of "Islamism" and "Islamic Modernism" in the 19th and 20th centuries.
Week Eight - March 2 - The Foundations for "Secularism" and "Nationalism" in the Middle East and Islamic world - the Case of Republican Turkey.

SPRING BREAK

The Modern and Contemporary Middle East
Week Nine - March 16 - Iraq and its Shi'ite [Iran] and Baathist [Syria] neighbors [visitor: Professor Juan Cole, University of Michigan] Mid Term Exam is due in class today [take-home]
Week Ten - March 23 - The Bases of Popular Support for Political Islam - Pakistan [visitor: Professor Barbara Metcalf, University of Michigan]
Week Eleven - March 30 - Turkey and Central Asia [visitor: Professor Kemal Karpat, University of Wisconsin]]
Week Twelve - April 6 - Egypt and Saudi Arabia
Week Thirteen - April13 - Iran
Week Fourteen - April 20 - open
Week Fifteen - April 27 - oral reports

Final Exam period - Tuesday May 4 5:45-7:45 p.m.