Islamic World and Near East History Commons^™

Review Of Murat Birdal, The Political Economy Of Ottoman Public Debt: Insolvency And European Financial Control In The Late Nineteenth Century, Bedross Der Matossian

Department of History: Faculty Publications

In the second half of the nineteenth century, the Ottoman Empire along with Egypt and Iran emerged as debtor states. This was the direct result of the extensive social, political and economic transformations that were taking place in the region. Extensive reforms under the rubric of defensive modernization aimed at saving these countries from political decline. Economic reforms aimed at preventing the encroachment of European powers within the political economy of these countries. However, drastic changes in the capitalist world economy led to mounting pressure over these economies and transformed them from economically self-sufficient countries to peripheral debtor states. By …

[Chapter 1 From] The Faithful Scribe: A Story Of Islam, Pakistan, Family, And War, Shahan Mufti

Bookshelf

A journalist explores his family’s history to reveal the hybrid cultural and political landscape of Pakistan, the world’s first Islamic democracy. Shahan Mufti’s family history, which he can trace back fourteen hundred years to the inner circle of the prophet Muhammad, offers an enlightened perspective on the mystifying history of Pakistan. Mufti uses the stories of his ancestors, many of whom served as judges and jurists in Muslim sharia courts of South Asia for many centuries, to reveal the deepest roots—real and imagined—of Islamic civilization in Pakistan.

More than a personal history, The Faithful Scribe captures the larger story of …

Dual Intransigence: An Assessment Of The Us-Iran Conflict And Prospects For Rapprochement, Chad Lama

Master's Theses

In the months leading up to the 2012 Presidential Election, a number of Republican candidates that were vying for the nomination against the incumbent, Barack Obama, made sensational claims regarding the “Nuclear Iran Question”. This study discusses the issue of a nuclear Iran, what this means for regional stability, and what America’s options are in dealing with the Islamic Republic. Specifically the researcher addresses the consequences of a strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities, conducting a discourse analysis for the purposes of demonstrating the polarizing affect this issue has had on some of the leading scholars, theorists and practitioners. The central …

Unnecessary Evil: An Examination Of Abu Ghraib Torture Photographs As Postcolonial Resistance Rhetoric, Patrick Gerhardt Richey

Dissertations

The purpose of this dissertation is to examine the rhetorical nature of visual artifacts in a postcolonial context. In order to examine the nature of visual artifacts as a form of resistance against static ideologies and prevailing power structures, the author uses both media and cultural artifacts created in response to photographs taken of abused prisoners at Iraq’s Abu Ghraib Correctional Facility. The dissertation adds to scholarly knowledge of communication by addressing the intersections of iconographic visual communication and postcolonial resistance rhetoric. The dissertation provides a scholarly review of the Abu Ghraib prison scandal, as well as of literature explicating …

Power, Piety, And Rebellion In Al-Andalus: The Reception And Influence Of Al-Ghazali's Political Philosophy In Islamic Iberia, Patrick Harris

The Hilltop Review

Dissident Muslims have utilized discourses of pious rulership to justify their revolt against centralized authority at least as far back as the Kharijite rebellion in the 1st/7th century, which, in turn, resulted in the first major schism within the Islamic community. One may, indeed, interpret the very founding of Islam, in part, as a pietist response to a Meccan regime which fostered an environment of injustice and iniquity. Thus, the need for a pious rulership has been at the heart of Islamic political sensibility, if not from its very foundation, then at least from its first division. Rebels and reformers …

Creating A Nation In Adversity: Advent Of Egyptian Nationalism In British Occupation, Kathryn Louise James

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Nationalism is the process through which the groupings of ethnicity, nationhood, and statehood successfully merge into a nation-state. This study seeks to identify the cause of nationalism in Egypt and its characteristics.

The Problem With Nuclear Diplomacy: Jimmy Carter And Pakistan's Nuclear Program, Brittany Raymer

Masters Theses

A detailed history of Pakistan's attempt to build the atomic bomb in the 1970s and Jimmy Carter's reaction to the tense diplomatic situation.

Formation Of Public Sphere(S) In The Aftermath Of The 1908 Revolution Among Armenians, Arabs, And Jews, Bedross Der Matossian

Department of History: Faculty Publications

Revolutionary theories are most useful when they attempt to define and interpret the causes and mechanisms of revolutions. However, when they attempt to forecast the outcomes and the impact of revolutions on their indigenous societies, they are largely unsuccessful. This article deals with the impact of the Young Turk revolution on three non-dominant ethnic groups in the Ottoman Empire: Armenians, Arabs, and Jews. It will argue that the revolution resulted in the creation of a multiplicity of public spheres among the ethnic groupS.1 This multiplicity of public spheres became the main medium through which these ethnic groups internalized the Young …

Democratic Transitions In Divided States: The Case Of Iraq, Kara Leigh Kingma

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Many theorists have posited that democratic transitions in states divided along ethnic, racial, or religious lines are accompanied by violent conflict and thus unlikely to succeed. The end of authoritarian rule in Iraq and the introduction of democracy by the United States has been followed by many such challenges, and it has been argued that the artificial Iraqi state and its Kurdish, Sunni, and Shia communities does not possess the unity as required by democratic government. However, an informed analysis of Iraqi democracy requires attention to the role of its authoritarian leaders and war and economic hardships in making Iraq's …

The Political Economy Of Mass Printing: Legitimacy And Technological Change In The Ottoman Empire, Metin M. Coşgel, Thomas J. Miceli, Jared Rubin

Economics Faculty Articles and Research

New technologies have not always been greeted with full enthusiasm. Although the Ottomans were quick to adopt advancements in military technology, they waited almost three centuries to sanction printing in Ottoman Turkish (in Arabic characters). Printing spread relatively rapidly throughout Europe following the invention of the printing press in 1450 despite resistance by interest groups and temporary restrictions in some countries. We explain differential reaction to technology through a political economy approach centered on the legitimizing relationships between rulers and their agents (e.g., military, religious, or secular authorities). The Ottomans regulated the printing press heavily to prevent the loss it …

Partitioned Lives: Migrants, Refugees, Citizens In India And Pakistan, 1947-65, Haimanti Roy

History Faculty Publications

Partitioned States offers new perspective in the histories of Partition and its aftermath by connecting it to the long, drawn out and skewed formation of new national entities: India and East Pakistan. The book focuses on the Bengal Partition and locates its narrative within the intersection of long term cross border movement, chronic small-scale violence, the emergence of a document regime, and biased national refugee policies, all of which contributed to the formation of national citizenships in India and East Pakistan.

This book argues that minorities -- Hindus in East Pakistan, Muslims in eastern India -- and the discourse over …

Violence Against Women In Pakistan, Amina Bath

Master's Theses

No abstract provided.

Administrating The Non-Muslims And "The Question Of Jerusalem" After The Young Turk Revolution, Bedross Der Matossian

Department of History: Faculty Publications

The historiography on the Young Turk Revolution of 1908 in general has mainly concentrated on the impact of the Revolution on the Ottoman Turkish society. Rarely do we see works that deal with the impact of the Revolution on the non-dominant groups in the Empire from a comparative perspective. How did the different ethnic groups view the Revolution? How did the Revolution influence the dynamics of power inside these groups? What were the relations between the Revolution and the religious groups within the Empire? How did the local /central government view the transformations taking place among the non-Muslim communities in …

The Potential Return Of Nationalism In Iraq, Jeffrey Knapp

Political Science Theses and Capstones

Over the past decade, Iraq has experienced a tremendous amount of change from once being a dictatorial regime to becoming a new and developing democracy. Iraq is dominantly composed of three main and distinct groups known as the Shiites, Sunnis, and Kurds. This paper attempts examine whether or not, Iraqi individuals see themselves first and foremost as Iraqis or as being Muslims first. There has been little research conducted that specifically examines the relationship between nationalism and ethnic identity in Iraq. However, some research suggests that most Iraqis see themselves as being Iraqi first instead of being Muslim first. This …

Ruling With Rules: Electoral Institutions And Authoritarian Resilience In The Middle East, Andrew Barwig

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

What explains the resilience of authoritarian regimes in the face of regular competitive elections that ostensibly should promote democratic transitions? This dissertation examines both why and how parliamentary elections in Jordan and Morocco have served to reinforce these two Arab monarchies. In doing so, it develops a framework in which the degree of cohesion among incumbent and opposition elites shape electoral system design and, in turn, particular electoral rules structure mass political attitudes and elite configurations. The main argument is that lower electoral thresholds generate unique electoral environments in which patronage politics thrive and opposition-based politics falter, thus producing a …

Madrassa Education In Pakistan: Assisting The Taliban’S Resurgence, Nicole M. Warren

Pell Scholars and Senior Theses

The education received in madrassas located in Pakistan is contributing to the Taliban’s resurgence in Afghanistan.

The Pontic Armenian Communities In The Nineteenth Century, Bedross Der Matossian

Department of History: Faculty Publications

The Pontic Armenian communities of the nineteenth century were distinguished from those of previous centuries in that they were exposed to major social, economic, and political transformations. Social transformation entailed enlightenment of an emerging middle class and revival of Armenian national consciousness; economic transformation was characterized by advancement in the standard of living and growing prosperity; and political transformation entailed participation in the local administration, the adoption in Constantinople of an Armenian "National Constitution," which broadened the administration of the confessional-based Armenian millet to include the middle class, and in the latter part of the century the emergence of Armenian …

A Land With A People: Palestine Under British Mandate, Marie Gray

History Honors Projects

No abstract provided.

Jews At The Court Of The Kadi, Yaron Ben-Naeh

Early Modern Workshop: Resources in Jewish History

One of the most astonishing phenomena of Jewish life in the Ottoman state is the widespread appeal to the kadi's court - a muslim court. I intend to describe the frequency of this norm, against explicit regulations, and explain the motivation to use the kadi's services, as well as the reasons for the ban against it. I shall conclude with the social and cultural significance of this practice.

This presentation is for the following text(s):

• Mordechai Halevi, Darkei Noam (Pleasant Ways) (Venice, 1697)
• The court records of istanbul/ Istanbul sher'iyye sijilleri (1662)

A Critical Review Of Three Books Over Israel And Palestine, Stephanie Olson

Master of Arts Theses

No abstract provided.

An Army Of Housewives: Women’S Wartime Columns In Two Mainstream Israeli Newspapers, Shira Klein

History Faculty Articles and Research

At the height of Israel's 1948 war, women's columns in the newspapers Ha'aretz and Ma‘ariv offered readers advice, stories, and letters. They focused on domestic practices such as preparing food, sewing clothes, dressing fashionably and providing comfort. At first glance, they completely ignored the war raging around them. However, this essay shows that the columnists portrayed housewives' roles, no less than men's front-line fighting, as an important part of the nation's wartime effort. The columnists and their responding readers took the housewives' domestic practices, which made them seem so unfit for battle and turned them into a battlefield of their …

Egypt: A State Of Emergency, A State Of Mind, Diana Elassy

Archived Theses and Dissertations

This work attempts to explore the normalized state of emergency in Egypt. For more than two decades, Egypt has existed under the control of emergency legislation designed to curb civil and political rights. This work examines the current state of emergency within the framework of socio-economic, philosophy, and Egyptian history in order to assess the rationale of its raison d'etre.

The work commences with a brief history of Egypt under the rule of the Mamluk dynasty prior to European incursion and the development of the nation-state. It then discusses the European occupation, the rise of the nation-state, and the current …

The Formative Influence Of French Colonialism On The Life And Thought Of Malek Bennabi (Malik Bn Nabi), Phillip Chiviges Naylor

History Faculty Research and Publications

Malek Bennabi (1905–73) fut un intellectuel algérien de premier rang. Cet article étudie l’effet du colonialisme sur sa vie et ses idées. L’étude considère ses livres et offre une comparaison entre Bennabi et Frantz Fanon. Bennabi montre qu’il n’était pas « colonisable » à cause de sa formation et sa conscience historique.

Iran; Nicaragua; Cuba; An Analysis Of Revolutions, Neil Moynihan

Honors Theses

Can these revolutions be explained by the withdrawal of the United States? It seems not. Can all three revolutions fit under any one theory of revolution? The answer here will probably also be: no; each theory, however, gives valuable hints about what aspects of each revolution one should analyze.

American Indian Movement And The United Methodist Church: Presented To United Methodist General Conference, American Indian Movement

Iran and the Hostage Crisis

This nine-page typed document was written by members of the American Indian Movement addressing the United Methodist Church at a general conference held on April 22, 1980. It criticizes the way the church handles interactions with Native American groups, primarily because it does not give them administrative control over the funding for their programs. It also accuses the Church of effectively sabotaging the Hostage Mail Exchange Service due to the recall of John Adams from Tehran at a crucial moment.

The document contains a resolution in support of the Native American Study Committee and calls on the Church to establish …

Draft Call To Repentance And Prayer For Iran And The United States, United Methodist Church

Iran and the Hostage Crisis

This three page typed draft document is a call to prayer and repentance for Christians in the United States on Ash Wednesday, 1980. The first page argues that the American Church must seek repentance for its complacency and acceptance of United States support for Mohammed Reza Shah Pahlavi, who oppressed the people of Iran for many years. The following pages contain a prayer that asks for forgiveness and compassion towards the people of Iran.

Letter From William A. Means To President Abolhassan Banisadr, William A. Means

Iran and the Hostage Crisis

This is a typed one-page letter sent circa February 16, 1980 by William A. Means, member of the International Indian Treaty Council, to Abolhassan Banisadr, President of the Islamic Republic of Iran. The letter claims that the Hostage Mail Exchange Service has exposed efforts of the White House and State Department to prolong the hostage crisis for political purposes. Means seeks continued support for the Exchange Service, noting that it is useful for exposing the lies of the United States government.

Letter From John Thomas And John P. Adams To Members Of The Revolutionary Council Of Iran, John Thomas, John P. Adams

Iran and the Hostage Crisis

This is a five-page typed letter sent circa February 16, 1980 from John Thomas and John P. Adams to the President and Foreign Minister of Iran. The letter gives thanks to the Muslim students for allowing contact between the hostages and their families through the Mail Exchange Service sponsored by the International Indian Treaty Council. It requests that the hostages be released to the care of the Treaty Council and explains plans of the United Methodist Church to engage with the crisis.

Letter From James K. Mathews To John P. Adams, James K. Mathews

Iran and the Hostage Crisis

This is a one-page typed letter, circa February 11, 1980, by Bishop James K. Mathews to John P. Adams to convey a message to Imam Khomeini. Mathews sends his regards to the Iranian people on the first anniversary of their revolution. He notes that on Ash Wednesday, February 20th, many Americans will be praying for the people of Iran who have suffered due to the oppressive regime. The letter also calls for the release of American hostages under the premise of mercy, while acknowledging the injustices brought upon Iran by United States policies.

Letter From Rafeeuddin Ahmed To John P. Adams, February 7, 1980, Rafeeuddin Ahmed

Iran and the Hostage Crisis

This is a one-page typed letter from Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations Rafeeuddin Ahmed to John P. Adams, sent on February 7, 1980. Ahmed sends his thanks to Adams on behalf of Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim for the work being done with the Hostage Mail Exchange Service, sponsored by the International Indian Treaty Council.