Islamic World and Near East History Commons^™

Historical Inquiry-Based Lessons In World History Classrooms: Creating Opportunities For Historical Thinking, Melinda Thatcher Lofland

All Graduate Reports and Creative Projects, Fall 2023 to Present

This Plan B project creates inquiry-based lessons that help students investigate the global tapestry of World History with its vast threads of transregional connections and diverse cultures that color our contemporary world and help prepare them to participate as global citizens. This project uses primary and secondary sources to create evidence-based lesson plans that will help history teachers provide opportunities for students to practice historical inquiry skills in Utah’s world history classrooms. These plans employ current scholarship and best teaching practices while following national and state standards for World History. In addition, these lessons were developed using inquiry-based historical thinking …

Res Historica, Volume 4, Lynneth Miller Renberg Phd, Alpha Rho Epsilon Phi Alpha Theta

Res Historica

The 2025 journal of historical research by Anderson University students, Res Historica.

The editorial team for this edition of Res Historica was Dr. Lynneth Miller Renberg, Samuel Sanders, and Julia Ackerman. The cover art for this volume is an open access image.

Armenian Church Of Our Saviour Collection, Jennifer Krulisz-Hossain, Robyn Conroy

Strassler Center Archival Collection Finding Aids

This collection comprises of books, manuscript and volumes, and journal reviews donated by the Armenian Church of Our Saviour in Worcester, Massachusetts. The materials focus on Armenian history, culture, and literature, emphasizing the richness of Armenian heritage's intellectual and cultural aspects. These resources are preserved within the church's library and archives. The Shelved Books within the Rose Library include English-language books written by Armenian authors and translated works that explore themes of Armenian history, culture, and resilience. These texts serve as accessible educational tools for scholars, students, and the broader community. The Manuscript Volumes contain original works by Armenian authors, …

Art As A Form Of Therapy: Afghan Women And Their “War Rugs” Highlight The Trauma And Violence Of The Soviet-Afghan War, Abigail Turano

History & Classics Undergraduate Theses

HIS 490 History Honors Thesis

Political Economy Of The Middle East: Historiography And The Making Of An Episteme, Jordan Rothschild

Swarthmore Undergraduate History Journal

The Great Divergence accelerated a process of Western European states dominating the majority of the world’s geography and people economically and geopolitically. Given the stakes of this shift and its ramifications for all of the history that followed, and the significant way that the divide continues to shape our world, this phenomenon is subject to considerable debate within the historiography. This paper uses the Great Divergence as a departure point to analyze the different schools of political economic history, from the flawed sociologies of the early 20th century theorists to the World Systems Theorists and beyond. A key aspect of …

Dancers Of The Book: Yemenite, Persian, And Kurdish Jewish Dance, Quinn Bicer

Anthós

Despite the cultural significance of dance in Jewish communities around the world, research into Middle Eastern Jewish dance outside of the modern nation-state of Israel is sorely under-researched. This article aims to help rectify this by focusing on Yemenite, Persian/Iranian, and Kurdish Jewish dance and explores how these dancers have functioned and been received within the societies they have been a part of. The methods that have gone into this article are a combination of analyzing primary source recorded dances and existing secondary source research into the dance of these communities. Through these methods, this article reveals how Yemenite, Iranian, …

Res Historica, Volume 2, Lynneth Miller Renberg Phd, Alpha Rho Epsilon Phi Alpha Theta

Res Historica

The 2023 journal of historical research by Anderson University students, Res Historica.

The editorial team for this edition of Res Historica was Dr. Lynneth Miller Renberg. Johnathan Sorce, and Helen Smith. Cover art for this volume by Helen Smith.

Collaborative Constructions: Designing High School History Curriculum With The Lost & Found Game Series, Owen Gottlieb, Shawn Clybor

Articles

This chapter addresses design research and iterative curriculum design for the Lost & Found games series. The Lost & Found card-to-mobile series is set in Fustat (Old Cairo) in the twelfth century and focuses on religious laws of the period. The first two games focus on Moses Maimonides’ Mishneh Torah, a key Jewish law code. A new expansion module which was in development at the time of the fieldwork described in this article that introduces Islamic laws of the period, and a mobile prototype of the initial strategy game has been developed with support National Endowment for the Humanities. The …

The Battle Of Tours Reconsidered, Paul Aitchison

Montview Journal of Research & Scholarship

This paper examines the Battle of Tours/Poitiers in 732 between the Merovingian Mayor of the Palace, Charles Martel, and the Umayyad governor-general of al-Andalus in modern-day Spain, Abdul Rahman Al-Ghafiqi. Since the pivotal works of Sir Edward Gibbons were published in 1776, the battle has been seen as keeping Europe from falling completely to Islam. More recent scholarship highlights the battle as pivotal in Charles's quest to consolidate power in his ultimately successful bid to create a new power in western Europe, the Carolingian dynasty, which would eventually be created in the crowning as the Holy Roman Empire his grandson, …

Res Historica, Volume 1, Lynneth Miller Renberg Phd, Alpha Rho Epsilon Phi Alpha Theta

Res Historica

The inaugural journal of historical research by Anderson University students, Res Historica.

The editorial team for this edition of Res Historica was Dr. Lynneth Miller Renberg, Hunter Curlee, and Johnathan Sorce. Cover art for this volume is the Phi Alpha Theta: Alpha Rho Epsilon logo created by Dr. Lynneth Miller Renberg.

Beacons Of Peace And Tolerance: The Politics Of Memory In Judeo-Moroccan Cultural And Historical Institutions, Audrey Ming An Hirsch

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Bayt Dakira, a historical, religious, cultural, and academic institution located in the heart of Essaouira’s old medina, seeks to conserve Jewish-Moroccan memory and promote values of peace and tolerance as exemplified by the city’s history of Jewish-Muslim coexistence. As an institution dedicated to conserving the culture of a people that have all but virtually emigrated from Morocco, Bayt Dakira’s purpose is initially unclear. This study uncovers the ways in which Bayt Dakira is an example of a seemingly apolitical institution being wielded to advance national and international political agendas. As an officially apolitical place of cultural and academic exchange, Bayt …

History Of Libraries In The Islamic Period, Aam Slamet Rusydiana, Aisyah As-Salafiyah, Dewi Rahmi

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

The purpose of this study is to chart the evolution of libraries in Islamic civilization from the period of the Khulafaur-Rashidun to the Ottoman Caliphate. Using a qualitative historical approach, this study delves into the history of Islamic libraries throughout various periods of Islamic authority. The findings of this study reveal that the development of Islamic library civilization can be separated into numerous distinct phases, some of which correspond to the caliphate period. Almost all libraries in the Islamic era were waqf-based. This study is divided into thirteen periods, with each period explaining the history of Islamic libraries through a …

More Than Sectarianism: How Have State And Non-State Institutions Used Violence To Form The Current Iraqi State And What Is The Effect?, Caitlyn Perkins

Honors Theses

This thesis examines the role of violence in Iraq in establishing the current Iraqi state. My chapters provide historical and theoretical context to the subject before getting into the analysis. The goal of this thesis is to show that violence in Iraq is not only caused by sectarian differences, but has been used and influenced by leaders, outside governments, and non-state institutions for personal gain and political goals at the cost of the Iraqi people.

Playing At The Crossroads Of Religion And Law: Historical Milieu, Context And Curriculum Hooks In Lost & Found, Owen Gottlieb

Articles

This chapter presents the use of Lost & Found – a purpose-built tabletop to mobile game series – to teach medieval religious legal systems. The series aims to broaden the discourse around religious legal systems and to counter popular depiction of these systems which often promote prejudice and misnomers. A central element is the importance of contextualizing religion in period and locale. The Lost & Found series uses period accurate depictions of material culture to set the stage for play around relevant topics – specifically how the law promoted collaboration and sustainable governance practices in Fustat (Old Cairo) in twelfth-century …

Time Machine Research And Approach, Tarek Bouraque

Theses and Dissertations

Time Machine is a hybrid documentary that explores the logics of enslavement, colonialism, eurocentrism and their interconnectedness in our globalized world. Mustapha Azemmouri, born in 1502, undertakes a journey to the 21st century to recount his own story of enslavement and exploration, and reflects on a collective puzzle of 500 years of hidden history.

No Riddle But Time: Historical Consciousness In Two Islamicate Films, David Sander

Journal of Religion & Film

This article explores ways in which film expresses “internal history” in the context of Muslim cultures. As such, it enquires how film can work as both Islamic art and historical contemplation. The films discussed here, Nacer Khemir’s Wanderers in the Desert and Muhammad Rasoulof’s Iron Island, inhabit and explore the borderline between imagination and reality. The films in question offer an imaginal interspace between “modern” and “traditional” worlds. As such they open up critical perspectives on the meaning of history. What follows is a discussion of how each film offers a window onto differing perceptions of time, and what …

Islam, Emad Hamdeh

Publications

Islam, the religion of 1.2 billion people around the world, provides its followers guidance on how to live according to God’s teachings. The word “Islam” means submission, and in this context, refers to voluntary submission to will and teachings of God. The word Islam stems from the same root word as “peace” salām, by submitting to God one finds inner peace in this world and eternal peace and happiness in the next.

Images Of Kingship: Statebuilding, Patronage, And Architecture In The Capitals Of The Mughal And Ottoman Empires, Meenakshi Krishnan

Augsburg Honors Review

The Ottoman and the Mughal Empires, though widely recognized for their political prowess, military expansion, and systems of religious tolerance, are also renowned for their architectural contributions. Structures like the Topkapi Palace in Istanbul and Red Fort in Delhi immediately capture the grandeur and magnificence of the empires of the Ottomans and Mughals, simultaneously serving as symbols of their artistic patronage and testaments to their splendor. Beyond establishing the empires' greatness, however, architecture was often directly tied to a specific agenda, reflecting poiitical goals, religious doctrines, and particular ideologies. A closer analysis of three cities in each of these empires …

Understanding Muhammad's Interaction With The Church, Devonte Narde

Montview Journal of Research & Scholarship

My research focuses on understanding Muhammad’s (the Islamic prophet) interaction with what he perceived to be the Christian church to find out why his understanding of Biblical narratives and theology is incorrect. With this information, Christians should reintroduce Christian scripture and theology to Muslims since Muhammad’s rejection of Christian doctrine is based on associating wrong texts as authoritative Christian teaching. The following questions that shape this research are: What possible sources did Muhammad use to learn about biblical narratives and themes? What did the first Muslims think about the canonical gospels of Jesus? How did early Muslims view the teachings …

The Lost & Found Game Series: Teaching Medieval Religious Law In Context, Owen Gottlieb, Ian Schreiber

Presentations and other scholarship

Lost & Found is a strategy card-to-mobile game series that teaches medieval religious legal systems with attention to period accuracy and cultural and historical context. The Lost & Found project seeks to expand the discourse around religious legal systems, to enrich public conversations in a variety of communities, and to promote greater understanding of the religious traditions that build the fabric of the United States. Comparative religious literacy can build bridges between and within communities and prepare learners to be responsible citizens in our pluralist democracy. The first game in the series is a strategy game called Lost & Found …

Eisenhower Internationalism And Nasser Nationalism: The Suez Crisis Defining International Policy In Post-Colonial Egypt, Dominic Supple

Senior Theses

The nationalization of the Suez Canal by the Egyptians in 1956 was an international controversy. As history, the topic has been just as controversial among scholars; however events such as: the planning of the Aswan Dam, the Protocol of Sèvres, the Bandung Conference, and the Baghdad Pact have helped crystalize the perspective and significance of the Suez Crisis. The United States dealings in Egypt during the Suez Crisis, and subsequent relations with Abdel Nasser, cemented United States Cold War foreign policy, culminating in the passing of the Eisenhower Doctrine. While these events were the enactment of containment policy, they also …

Tourism And Representation: Digital Expressions And Implications Of Orientalism, Lily P. Ayau

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

As the tourism industry in Morocco expands, so does Morocco’s online presence. Digital representations of Morocco are often written by and geared toward Westerners; these are often projections of an imagined Morocco, one that is informed by Orientalist conceptions of the Arab/Islamic countries. This study aims to analyze a selection of online articles about touring Morocco in an effort to determine how the underlying Orientalist attitudes in these pieces fit into a larger narrative of exploitation and Western dominance.

The Price Revolution In The Ottoman Context: Economic Upheaval In The Sixteenth Century, Dylan Lawrence Russell

Middle Eastern Communities and Migrations Student Research Paper Series

The inflationary pressures of the Price Revolution had an impact on Ottoman agricultural organization, state finances, industry, and the growth of corruption. This analysis will examine the causes, effects, and scope of inflation in the sixteenth century. Inflation alone did not cause these drastic changes, as other very significant developments also contributed to the turbulent economic environment. However inflation did, in fact, influence many basic transformations, including shifts in wealth, power, and the enrichment of specific social classes at the expense of others.

Salafism, Wahhabism, And The Definition Of Sunni Islam, Rob J. Williams

Honors Program: Student Scholarship & Creative Works

My capstone deals with the historical definition of Sunni Islam, and how it has changed in approximately the past 200 years. Around 1800, Sunni Islam was pretty clearly defined by an adherence to one of four maddhabs, or schools of law: the Hanafi, Maliki, Shafi’i, and Hanbali schools and are all based in nearly a millennium of legal scholarship. Since 1800, however, numerous reform movements have sprung up which disavow previous scholarship and interpret Islamic law their own way. However, certain reformist groups, such as Traditionalist Salafis and Wahhabis, claim that their version of Islam is the only “pure” …

Explaining The Rise Of Isis, Anas Alqaed

Political Science Theses and Capstones

In this paper I study the circumstances that led to the rise the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS/Daesh) and its economic power. I use articles, testimonies before US House of Representatives and analyze economic data to generate facts and draw conclusions. All references rely on primary source documents that were not released in an official capacity by ISIS. These are documents that have been released online by pro or anti-ISIS activists or information that was gathered and analyzed by research centers and international organizations. It is worth noting that non-officially released documents were very helpful in shedding more …

Tracing Islamic Extremist Ideologies: The Historical Journey Of Jihad From The Late Antique Period To The 21st Century, Nikhil Kanade

CMC Senior Theses

Popular interpretations and academic scholarship tends to emphasize the relationship between jihad, military action, and communal violence. These reinforce a sense that violence is inherent to Islam. Investigations into the contexts where jihad has been deployed highlight how its use is often a call for unity believed to be necessary for political goals. Therefore, in order to deconstruct this belief, this thesis tackles instead the relationship between textual interpretations and historical actions, and how these varied across specific moments in time. The case studies examined range from the initial evolution of a theory of jihad in the late antique world, …

The Effect Of Refugees On Jordanian Identity, Max Yenkin

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Jordan has become known as the home for refugees from the crises that have occurred along its borders. Several waves of large groups of refugees have come to Jordan: 1948, 1967, 1991, 2003, and 2011-present, with copious amounts of refugees coming from different surrounding countries to Jordan. The Hashemite Kingdom is ruled through keeping relations between the Bedouin tribes that have lived in the area from the founding of the country. This has led to the denial of equality for former refugees who obtained citizenship as well as the other refugee populations in areas such as work and education. As …

The Integration History Of Kuwaiti Television From 1957-1990: An Audience-Generated Oral Narrative On The Arrival And Integration Of The Device In The City, Ahmad Hamada

Theses and Dissertations

This study attempts to compose an account of television history in Kuwait, one that focuses on its integration into society and is told from the audience's perspective and experience. This study represents a cultural alternative to the overwhelmingly national, institutional, and biographical focus that accompanies television history works in Kuwait and the Arab world.

The narrative is gathered and generated through the individual oral stories of 25 Kuwaitis over the age of 50, who generally represent the six geographical districts of Kuwait. Through their oral stories, the narrators examine the different areas in which television has integrated itself into society …

"The Garden Of Forking Paths": Islamic Legal Transformations In The Ottoman Empire During The Nineteenth Century, John Bugnacki

History & Classics Undergraduate Theses

In the popular imagination, misconceptions abound regarding islamic law. Many outside of the Islamic world believe that Islamic law consists of a discrete series of inviolable, unchanging commands. However, both in historical and contemporary contexts, this characterization is false. The different legal schools within Islamic law have evolved and changed over time in response to surrounding conditions and other legal traditions that have existed alongside it. In the Ottoman Empire this process was particularly evident and, during the nineteenth century, its main tradition of Islamic law underwent an unprecedented transformation that would seek to combine Islamic legal principles within statist …

A Dream Deferred: The United States' Role In The Development Of The Kurdistan Regional Government (Krg) From 1991 – 2011, John Bugnacki

History & Classics Student Scholarship

Throughout the history of the Iraqi Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), the United States has both supported and undermined Kurdish nationalism depending upon changing geopolitical realities. In particular, the U.S. has sought to mollify important regional partners such as Turkey that possess large Kurdish populations who would presumably secede if the KRG were able to demonstrate the viability of an independent, Kurdish state. Despite its general policy of realpolitick, during the Iraq War, the U.S. embarked upon a period of nearly unprecedented positive support to the KRG, which allowed it to emerge as a major force in post-Saddam Iraq. However, the …