Introduction Link to syllabus Link to WDI Link to C-ToolsC-Tools

Introductory Comments Housekeeping: Roll, adds/drops, office hours, syllabus Grade based on exams and papers Comments on textbook and readings Major themes: Geography and History, and: Economic: Petroleum/Midas curse, Population, Urban, Agriculture, Migration, Inflation and Stabilization Social: Gender, Tribes and Minorities, Islamists Geographical coverage (maps), chronological coverage Not much on: current events of Arab-Israeli conflict US policy towards region

MENA map

Mid-East I

Jordan, Israel, West Bank & Gaza

Spread of Islam,

Boundaries of the (Muslim) Middle East, 800, 1550, 1880 Note: Expansion into France by 800 a.d. Expulsion from Spain 1492 (Ottoman) expansion into Constantinople/ Istanbul in 1453, and up to Vienna ~1600 These maps underplay the establishment of Islam in western Africa, and evidently do not pretend to display the expansion of Islam into the Indian subcontinent, China, Indonesia, Phillipines, etc

Edward Said Born in East Jerusalem, to a Christian family Was professor of comparative literature at Columbia U. in New York. Wrote Orientalism in Had been a member of Palestinian Council, was quite critical of Arafat Died of cancer 2003.

Short version of Said’s Critique in Orientalism Orientalists simplified (using crude stereotypes) Muslims, within a context of their cultural inferiority to Western Europeans People from “the Orient” were depicted as sexual demons More contemporary Orientalists have worked with a hidden agenda, basically pro-Israel and anti-Arab. Their analyses reflects this bias. People from the Middle East have suffered because their stories have been told by these Orientalists. It is time to let them be their own representatives.

Said and Daniel Barenboim

Barenboim conducting a concert in Mathaf Cultural House, in Gaza, May Source: New York Times

Said practicing rock throwing

Examples of “Orientalist” Paintings

Delacroix: Sardana

Renoir

Gerome-Whirling Dervish

Gerome

T. E. Lawrence

Lawrence of Arabia Poster Link to Juan Cole, on the moviemovie

Yul Brynner

King Mongkut