A History of the Middle East (78 page)

The US invasion and its messy aftermath precipitated a flurry of literature by Western journalists based in Baghdad who mapped the unravelling of US adventurism, of which George Packer’s
The Assassins’ Gate: America in Iraq
(New York, 2005) and Anthony Shadid’s
Night Draws Near: Iraq’s People in the Shadow of America’s War
(New York, 2005) are the two most insightful. Several studies have also focused on the Arab Shia revivalism it unleashed. Seyyed Vali Reza Nasr’s
The Shia Revival: How Conflicts Within Islam Will Shape the Future
(New York, 2006) is a ground-breaking study of global Shia politics by an Iranian-American academic. Yitzhak Nakash’s
The Shi’is of Iraq
(Princeton, 2003) is a good historical accompaniment. Nicolas Pelham’s
A New Muslim Order: The Shia and the Middle East Sectarian Crisis
(London, 2008) casts a reporter’s eye over developments, as do Patrick Cockburn’s
Muqtada Al-Sadr and the Battle for the Future of Iraq
(New York, 2008) and Nir Rosen’s
In the Belly of the Green Bird: The Triumph of the Martyrs in Iraq
(New York, 2006).

6
. A
RABIA AND THE
G
ULF

H. St J. B. Philby’s
Saudi Arabia
(London, 1968) is a detailed account of the Saudi kingdom before it became wealthy. The two modern studies of the kingdom which appeared almost simultaneously – R. Lacey’s
The Kingdom
(London, 1982) and D. Holden and R. Johns’s
The House of Saud
(New York, 1981) together provide a highly comprehensive modern history. F. al-Farsy’s
Saudi Arabia, a Case Study in Development
(revised 2nd edn, London, 1983) is a useful factual account by a senior Saudi official, and two recent American
studies – W. Quandt’s
Saudi Arabia in the Nineteen Eighties: Foreign Policy, Security and Oil
(Washington, 1981) and P. N. Woodward’s
Oil and Labor in the Middle East: Saudi Arabia and the Oil Boom
(New York, 1988) – are both to be recommended. Mamoun Fandy’s
Saudi Arabia and the Politics of Dissent
(New York, 1999) is a scholarly and balanced survey by an Egyptian academic; Said Aburish’s
The House of Saud
(London, 1994) is a highly readable diatribe one might expect from a journalist who claims the kingdom tortured his father to death. Jill Crystal’s
Oil and Politics in the Gulf
(Cambridge, 1995) remains an incisive account of how the Kuwaiti dynasty survived the Gulf War. M. Klare’s
Resource Wars: The New Landscape of Global Conflict
(Metropolitan Books, 2001) is an excellent overview of the struggle for oil in the Middle East and central Asia. A. M. Abu-Hakima’s
The Modern History of Kuwait 1750–1965
(London, 1983) is very reliable, as, for the more modern period, is H. V. F. Winstone and Z. Freeth’s
Kuwait: Prospect and Reality
(London, 1979). N. Sakr’s
The United Arab Emirates to the 1990s
(London, 1986) can be highly recommended, as can R. S. Zahlan’s
The Making of the Modern Gulf States
(London, 1989). An entertaining but scholarly study of southern Arabia is provided by R. Bidwell’s
The Two Yemens
(London, 1983), and a salutary radical view of the Arabian peninsula is contained in F. Halliday’s
Arabia without Sultans
(Harmondsworth, 1974). Mohammad Ayoub and Hasan Kosebalaban (eds),
Religion and Politics in Saudi Arabia: Wahhabism and the State
(London, 2008) contains an important essay on the relationship between the kingdom’s royals and religion.

7
. I
SRAEL
/P
ALESTINE

The literature on the two subjects, whether treated jointly or separately, is large and growing rapidly as contemporary studies soon become out of date. W. Z. Laqueur’s
A History of Zionism
(London, 1972) provides the essential background to Israel, and C. Sykes’s
Crossroads to Israel
(London, 1965) remains the best account of the moves which led to the creation of the State of Israel, although an Israeli historian, Avi Shlaim, provides some startling new material in
Collusion Across the Jordan: King Abdullah, the Zionist Movement, and the Partition of Palestine
(Oxford, 1988). M. Bar-Zohar’s
The Armed Prophet: A Biography of Ben Gurion
(London, 1967) illuminates the creation and early years of the state, and N. Lucas’s The Modern History
of Israel (New York, 1977) is an excellent history of its first three decades. A. Perlmutter’s
Military and Politics in Israel: Nation-building and Role Expansion
(London, 1969) remains highly relevant, as does Y. Peri’s
Between Battles and Ballots: Israeli Military in Politics
(Cambridge, 1983). S. Flapan’s
Zionism and the Palestinians
(London, 1979) is an excellent historical overview by an Israeli peace activist of how the Zionist movement from its inception sought to conquer rather than co-exist with Palestinians. A. Schlaim’s
The Iron Wall, Israel and the Arab World
(London, 2000) is a more optimistic account of the relationship. Golda Meir’s autobiography
My Life
(London, 1975) illustrates old-style Zionist politics, while that of Ariel Sharon,
Warrior
(New York and London, 1989), may do the same for those of the future. There are several important critiques of official Israeli policies, among which S. Flapan’s
Israel: Myths and Realities
(London, 1987) and Y. Harkabi’s
Israel’s Fateful Decisions
are outstanding. A well-researched account sympathetic to the Palestinian Arabs is D. Hirst’s
The Gun and the Olive Branch: The Roots of Violence in the Middle East
(London, 1977), and A. Hart’s
Arafat: Terrorist or Peacemaker?
(London, 1984) contains useful material even if it is not always rigorous in its assessment of sources. Andrew Gowers and Tony Walker’s
Behind the Myth: Yasser Arafat and the Palestinian Revolution
(London, 1990) is a major new contribution. There are a growing number of works by Palestinian writers, such as H. Cattan’s
Palestine and International Law, the Legal Aspects of the Arab–Israeli Conflict
(2nd edn, London, 1976), E. W. Said’s
The Question of Palestine
(London, 1980) and M. Tarbush’s
Reflections of a Palestinian
(Washington, DC, 1986). Tom Segev’s
One Palestine, Complete: Jews and Arabs under the British Mandate
(London, 2000) concludes that Britain during the mandate systematically favoured Jewish claims to Palestine over its Arab counterpart. Charles Smith’s
Palestine and the Arab–Israeli Conflict
(Boston, 2004) provides a comprehensive and oft-cited overview. Ilan Pappe’s
The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine
(London, 2006) revives the ghosts of 1948. Yazid Sayigh’s masterful
Armed Struggle and the Search for State: The Palestinian National Movement 1949–1993
(Oxford, 1997) highlights the contradictions between the Palestinian movement’s statism and its revolutionary rhetoric. Rashid Khalidi’s
Palestinian Identity: The Construction of Modern National Consciousness
(New York, 1997) – his most widely cited book – traces the history of Palestinian
nationalism back to the early twentieth century. Ahron Bregman,
Elusive Peace: How the Holy Land Defeated America
(London, 2005) offers an illuminating account of the power politics behind the collapse of the Camp David talks in 2000. Several books have studied the rise of Hamas. Halid Harub’s
Hamas: Political Thought and Practice
(Washington, 2000) is the perceptive view from within the movement. Azzam Tamimi’s
Hamas: Unwritten Chapters
(London, 2007) offers another insider’s view; two Israeli academics, Shaul Mishal and Avraham Sela, in their
The Palestinian Hamas: Vision, Violence, and Coexistence
(New York, 2006) offer a remarkably similar portrayal. Jeroen Gunning’s
Hamas in Politics: Democracy, Religion, Violence
(New York, 2008) is the best external account.

On relations between the Middle East and the superpowers M. Heikal’s
The Sphinx and the Commissar
(London, 1978) is the illuminating and highly readable contribution of an insider, and E. Karsh’s
The Soviet Union and Syria, the Asad Years
(London, 1988) is the useful objective work of an Israeli. Said Aburish’s
A Brutal Friendship – the West and the Arab Elite
is a journalist’s insightful if sensational account of how rulers have juggled the competing interests of their people and their western allies. For the views of leading American and European strategists on shaping the region,
Allies Divided, Transatlanic Policies for the Greater Middle East
, edited by R. Blackwill (Massachusetts, 1997) is highly recommended. The general history of US relations with the Middle East still awaits a new chronicler; meanwhile there are W. R. Polk’s
The United States and the Arab World
(Cambridge, Mass., 1965) and personal memoirs such as J. Carter’s
The Blood of Abraham, Inside the Middle East
(Boston and London, 1985) and passages in H. Kissinger’s
White House Years
(New York and London, 1979) and
Years of Upheaval
(New York and London, 1982). G. Sick’s
All Fall Down: America’s Fateful Encounter with Iran
(London, 1985) goes far to explain the US débâcle in part of the Middle East.

For the role of oil in Middle East history, S. H. Longrigg’s
Oil in the Middle East
(3rd edn, London, 1968) and G. W. Stocking’s
Middle East Oil
(London, 1971) are both excellent on the period when the international oil companies were dominant, and A. Sampson’s
The Seven Sisters
(London, 1975) sceptically examines the decline in their power and the rise of OPEC.
That a general study of Middle East oil has been lacking since then is not surprising in view of the subject’s complexity. OPEC’s fortunes and prospects change swiftly and any history soon becomes outdated, but there is A. Skeet’s
OPEC
:
25 Years of Prices and Politics
(Cambridge, 1988), and M. Arari’s
OPEC
:
The Failing Giant
(Kentucky, 1988) is a pessimistic assessment. W. I. Sharif’s
Oil and Development in the Arab Gulf States
(London, 1985) is an annotated bibliography of special value. For a series of essays on the revival of clan identity across the region, F. Jabar and H. Dawod’s
Tribes and Power: Nationalism and Ethnicity in the Middle East
(London, 2001) offers an excellent introduction.

Islamic reassertion in the modern world and the Islamic Revolution in Iran are the subjects of numerous books of varied quality. R. Schulze’s
A Modern History of the Islamic World
(New York, 2002) is a superb and comprehensive analysis of the Islamist movement. O. Roy’s
The Failure of Political Islam
(London, 1994) offers a French antidote to the scaremongers convinced of the inexorable march of the Islamist populism. J. Esposito’s
The Islamic Threat: Myth or Reality?
(Oxford University Press, 2002) is a thoughtful history of the cooperation and tensions between Islam and the West. Also recommended: Mahmoud Faksh’s
The Future of Islam in the Middle East: Fundamentalism in Egypt, Algeria, and Saudi Arabia
(Praeger, 1997). Two which are likely to stand the test of time are E. Mortimer’s
Faith and Power, the Politics of Islam
(London, 1982) and M. Ruthven’s
Islam in the World
(Harmondsworth, 1984). On the Khomeini Revolution, S. Bakhash’s
The Reign of the Ayatollahs: Iran and the Islamic Revolution
is outstanding, and R. Mottahedeh’s
The Mantle of the Prophet: Religion and Politics in Iran
(London, 1986) is a brilliant analysis of the Revolution’s antecedents. Baqer Moin’s
Khomeini: Life of the Ayatollah
(London, 1999) is a perceptive account by a leading Iranian journalist in Britain. On the Gulf War, S. Chubin and C. Tripp’s
Iran and Iraq at War
(London, 1988) is the best study to date.

Political futurology in the Middle East is perhaps best left to astrologers, but some attempts to analyse the present with an eye to the future are worthwhile. Two works by Lebanese writers are F. Ajami’s
The Arab Predicament: Arab Political Thought and Practice Since 1967
(Cambridge, 1981) and G. Corm’s
Fragmentation of the Middle East
(London, 1988). There are also two excellent collections of essays: H. Sharabi’s The Next Arab Decade:
Alternative Futures (Boulder and London, 1988) and the series in four volumes edited by Giacomo Lucini of the Istituto Affari Internazionali, Rome, under the general title
Nation, State and Integration in the Arab World
(London and New York, 1988). Y. Sayigh’s
The Arab Economy 1930–1980: Past Performance and Future Prospects
(Oxford, 1982) is by one of the Arab world’s leading analysts. For a useful collection of essays on the currents of political debate in the region, the reader should consult
Civil Society in the Middle East
(Leiden, 1995). Naomi Sakr’s
Satellite Realms: Transnational Television, Globalization and the Middle East
(London, 2002) is an exceptionally sober and sceptical study, which casts doubt on the positive impact of the electronic media age in the Arab world.

For general reference, Europa Publications’
The Middle East and North Africa
(London, 1948–) is published annually. Two more reference works of high standard are
The Cambridge Encyclopaedia of the Middle East and North Africa
(Cambridge, 1988), executive editor Trevor Mostyn and advisory editor Albert Hourani, and the second revised edition of
The Middle East
in the ‘Handbooks to the Modern World’ series (New York and Oxford, 1987), edited by Michael Adams. D. Hiro’s
Dictionary of the Middle East
(London, 1996) is particularly helpful.

T
WENTY-FIRST
C
ENTURY
I
SLAMISM

A vast array of literature of varying quality has emerged in response to 11 September. F. Halliday’s essays in
Two Hours That Shook the World
(London, 2002) are among the best. Tariq Ali’s
The Clash of Fundamentalisms
(London 2002) is an engaging juxtaposition of the different views of world politics as seen by the White House and al-Qaeda. J. Cooley’s
Unholy Wars: Afghanistan, America and International Terrorism
(2002) is a respected journalist’s updated account of the collusion between Washington and the Afghan mujahideen. G. Kepel’s
Jihad
(London, 2002) charts the development of the Islamist movement from the Iranian Revolution to bin Laden. The 11 September 2001 attacks generated many studies of the neo-
jihadi
movement and its global impact. Among the best are Fawaz Gerges’s
The Far Enemy: Why Jihad Went Global
(New York, 2005), Gilles Kepel’s
Jihad: The Trail of Political Islam
(Cambridge, Mass., 2003) and François Burgat’s
Islamism in the Shadows of al-Qaeda
(Austin, 2008). Reza Aslan’s How to Win a
Cosmic War: God, Globalization and the End of the War on Terror (New York, 2009) is a religious academic’s highly readable account of the appeal of
jihadi
movements. Noah Feldman,
The Fall and Rise of the Islamic State
(Princeton, 2008) provides a sympathetic appraisal of the applicability of
sharia
law both in the past and in the modern world. Omar Ashour’s
The De-Radicalization of Jihadists: Transforming Armed Islamist Movements
(London, 2009) traces the experience of the Egyptian and Algerian Islamist movements to explain why some have disarmed.