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Notes on video lecture:
The Middle East, its Origins, and the Modern Era
Notes taken by Edward Tanguay on April 9, 2014 (go to class or lectures)


Choose from these words to fill the blanks below:
ruins, Far, middle, outsiders, Arab, Arab, vacuum, foreigners, 1967, geological, nation, Gregorian, territorial, West, conqueror, Paris, occupation, language, state, imperial, Mahan, secular, legal, Turkishness, revival, acquiescence, Tanzimat
What is the Middle East?
in the Middle East, both geography and time has been defined by
geography
if you look at cities from the perspective of Istanbul, Cairo or Tel Aviv, it's not apparent that they are in the or at the east of anything
the term Middle East makes sense if you are looking at this area of the world from , London or Washington
the Middle East is on the way to the East
even though this term was created by , the people in the Middle East use this term to describe the region in which they live
Arabic: Al-Sharq al-Awsat
Turkish: Ortadoğu
Persian: Khavar-e Miyaneh
Hebrew: HaMizrach HaTichon
the term Middle East was actually created by an American naval historian Alfred Thayer
used the term in an article in 1902
the fact that the people of this area of the world use a term created by foreigners to describe where they live is an indication of the influence that foreign powers have had on this area of the world
time
time is defined in this region according to the , Western calendar
there are also Muslim and Jewish calendars
but day to day life is not governed by these calendars but by the Gregorian, Western Christian calendars
Middle Eastern countries
all the countries in the Gulf such as Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, and Saudi Arabia
plus the three non-Arab countries: Turkey, Iran, and Israel
the countries in the Middle East is the "patchwork of foreigners", where power sat and created states where states had not existed before
countries were created with new identities which did not yet actually exist
in the Middle East it is more appropriate to speak of -nations rather than nation-states
countries in Europe were more often defined by national, linguistic and identity
in the Middle East, countries were created before these demarcations existed
e.g. Jordan, Palestine, Syria, Lebanese, and Iraq did not have one group of people who belonged to these countries when they were created
however, with the existence of these states, a kind of emerged, hence "state-nations"
one historical difference between Europe and the Middle East is that whereas in Europe throughout the centuries people tended to define themselves in terms of and territory, people in the Middle East tended to define themselves in terms of religious belief. Collective identity was about religion, and not about territory and language. It was only after the long-standing impact of the that identities began to shift and emerge towards a more European style territorial linguistic identity.
during the 19th century, the Middle East went through very important periods of reform
Ottoman reform
: reorganization of the Ottoman Empire between 1839 and 1876
Islamic reform
nationalism 19th an
speaks about sovereignty of man rather than the sovereignty of god
end of WWI
Ottoman Empire, which ruled the Arab countries for 400 years, came to an end
but it was not seen by the Arabs as an imperial and but as a legitimate Arab authority
the fact the the Ottomans were Turks was not held against them
it was not seen as a Turkish against nations
Turkish Muslims ruling over Muslims, what was important was not the or the Arabness of the peoples but their Islamic religious belief
The Ottoman Empire was not called into question until very late in its history
called into question with the emergence of Arab nationalism
with the fall of the Ottoman Empire and the creation of new states on the of the Ottoman Empire
these new states served Western imperial interests, those of France and Britain above all else
these states divided the Arabs into zones which did not necessarily have to do with how they wanted to be groups according to the Arab nationalism movement
therefore the Arab state order did not enjoy much legitimacy in the eyes of the Arabs themselves
Arab nationalism throughout 20th century
a mixture between pure national ideas and Islamic identity
but as popular as it was in the 20th century, it was a dismal failure in political practice
most notably in the conflict with Israel
defeated the Arabs twice: in 1948 and
these wars with Israel serve as a monument to Arab failure to effectively meet the Western challenge
as it is this kind of monument to Arab failure, Israel find it difficult to be accepted by the Arab world
in the aftermath of the 1967 war, politics in the Middle East was dominated by two trends
1. in the colonial state order, it was now more legitimate to speak of the Egyptian, Jordan, and Syrian states
more was said about these states interests than Arab nationalism
2. radical Islamic
filled the which had been left by the failure of Arab nationalism
is looking at the last 150-200 years in an effort to promote an alternative route to modernity without a framework of an Islamic cultural and framework
People:
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######################### (1800-1858) Ottoman statesman and diplomat, known best as the chief architect behind the Ottoman government reforms known as Tanzimat
|
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######################### (1840-1914) United States Navy flag officer, geostrategist, and historian
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Flashcards:
what was the name of the reorganization of the Ottoman Empire between 1839 and 1876
Tanzimat
what was the name of the greatest minister of the sultan in the Ottoman Empire, with absolute power of attorney and, in principle, dismissable only by the sultan himself
the Grand Vizier
what are the non-Arab countries in the Middle East
Turkey, Isreal, Iran
Ideas and Concepts:
On the origin of the term Middle East from this morning's Emergence of the Modern Middle East class: "From the perspective of cities such as Istanbul, Cairo, and Tel Aviv, it's not apparent that they are in the middle or at the east of anything. This area of the world is only the Middle East from the perspective of Paris, London and Washington:it is the area of the world in the middle of your journey from Europe to the Far East. Yet even though this term is geographically anchored in Europe and coined by an American naval historian in 1905, most people who live in this area today refer to it as just that, the Middle East, e.g. in Arabic "Al-Sharq al-Awsat", in Turkish "Ortadoğu", in Persian "Khavar-e Miyaneh", and in Hebrew "HaMizrach HaTichon", which, as historians, should indicate to us something about the intense influence that foreign powers have had in shaping this area of the world in the last 200 years."
On the historical difference between Europe and the Middle East, via this morning's Emergence of the Modern Middle East class: "Whereas in Europe throughout the past two centuries people tended to define themselves in terms of language and territory, people in the Middle East tended to define themselves in terms of religious belief. Collective identity was about religion, and not about territory and language. It was only after the long-standing impact of the West throughout the 19th and 20th centuries that identities began to shift and emerge towards a more European style territorial linguistic identity."