Twenty Lectures on the History and Current Situation of the Middle East

The Middle East is the cradle of world civilization and the birthplace of the world's three major religions (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam). This book provides a brief description of the thousands of years of history and turbulent current situation in the Middle East. It is also a summary of the author's nearly 40 years of Middle East research. The book first uses two lectures to comprehensively review the entire history of the Middle East, and then introduces eighteen important issues regarding the history and current situation of the Middle East, trying to combine academic and popularization. The specific content of this book includes: the characteristics of the development of religions in the ancient Middle East, the influence of ancient Mesopotamia civilization on ancient Greek culture, the evolution of political and religious relations in medieval Islam, the role of Islam in the formation of modern Arab nation-states, the characteristics and evolution of Arab nationalism since the 20th century, the origin and early evolution of the Arab-Israeli conflict, the difficult and tortuous Middle East peace process, the characteristics of labor Zionism, and the Afghan issue The historical roots of Iran, the White Revolution and the Islamic Revolution in Iran, the origin of the Iraq issue, the Iraq War and post-war reconstruction of Iraq, the rise of the oil economy in the Middle East and the economic development of oil-producing countries, the social changes in the oil-producing countries in the Middle East after World War II, the characteristics of Middle East modernization, the nation-building issues of Middle Eastern countries in the 20th century, the development stages and main characteristics of the drastic changes in the Middle East, "Islamic order" and "Chinese-Barbarian order." This book is suitable for reference reading by researchers, teachers, students and general readers engaged in related research and teaching.