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

The Middle East is the cradle of world civilization and the birthplace of the world’s three great religions: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. This book offers a broad overview of the region’s history spanning several thousand years and its turbulent present. It also distills the author’s nearly forty years of research on the Middle East. The first two lectures provide a comprehensive account of the region’s history, followed by an introduction to eighteen major issues concerning its past and present, combining academic rigor with accessibility. The book covers the characteristics of religious development in the ancient Middle East; the influence of ancient Mesopotamian civilization on ancient Greek culture; the evolution of relations between religion and state in medieval Islam; Islam’s role in the formation of modern Arab nation-states; the characteristics and evolution of Arab nationalism since the twentieth century; the origins and early development of the Arab-Israeli conflict; the arduous and tortuous Middle East peace process; the features of Labor Zionism; the historical roots of the Afghanistan issue; Iran’s White Revolution and Islamic Revolution; the origins of the Iraq issue; the Iraq War and postwar reconstruction; the rise of the Middle East’s oil economy and the development of oil-producing countries; social changes in Middle Eastern oil-producing countries after World War II; the characteristics of modernization in the Middle East; nation-building in Middle Eastern countries during the twentieth century; the stages and main features of the upheavals in the Middle East; and the “Islamic Order” and the “Hua-Yi Order.” This book is recommended for researchers, teachers, students, and general readers interested in related research and teaching.