Abstract Hamas invests vast resources in propaganda for a number of diverse audiences, harnessing the communications channels it operates on different media platforms. Over the course of the many years of the Israel-Hamas confrontation, the organization has waged psychological warfare and an ongoing propaganda war against Israeli society, seeking to influence Israelis’ perceptions and feelings. However

Published in Middle Eastern Studies (Ahead of Print, 2023)

Abstract Thus far, the literature around the Iran-Iraq War (1980 – 88) has not adequately attended to local histories, including the demographic and commercial changes in war-torn towns and their neighboring provinces, which accommodated an influx of refugees and evacuees. This article addresses this gap in the historiography and suggests new lines of inquiry and sources. By bringing together two historical

Abstract This article explores the ideas of the most prominent Turkish-Islamist movement which operated in the late twentieth century, Millî Görüş (‘The National Outlook’). The research focuses on the evolution of their view on Muslim migration to ‘the West’ (focusing on Germany as a case study). The article demonstrates a substantive change in the movement’s discourse on the subject. During the early

Abstract The Ottoman state governed its mobile subjects with various policies. While the Ottoman historiography is pretty illuminating on state-pastoralist relations, studies on the other nomads, peripatetics, are still rare. Existing studies are almost exclusively Roma-centred and focused mainly on the empire’s European territories. Moreover, the gap in the literature is more profound regarding nineteenth-century

Published in Middle Eastern Studies (Ahead of Print, 2023)

Abstract The article explores the interplay between transnational migration, cultural patrimony and political conflict, tying together the former realms of the Russian and Ottoman Empires. It discusses the role played by Russian Jews in the development of the Zionist-Arab conflict in Palestine until 1948. It focuses on the Northern Sharon, where three distinct immigrant groups – Circassians, Bosnians

Abstract The article focuses on the story of the Na’amien swamp south of Acre, one of Palestine’s most extensive swamps, an area where many plans to control it were begun and failed throughout the Mandatory period but were only finally addressed following the establishment of the State of Israel. Colonial and Zionist environmental stances often point to similar views regarding land development and

Published in Middle Eastern Studies (Ahead of Print, 2023)

Abstract Starting from the last years of the nineteenth century, various public girls’ schools began to include a course on the craft of carpet weaving to their curriculums in the Ottoman Empire. This was a response to the expanding oriental carpet markets and various schools opened workshops and used the labor of their students. Their goal was to integrate schoolgirls, predominantly Muslims, into

Abstract Although disabled veterans have usually been described as the First World War’s most visible legacy in European history, there has been a lack of interest in them in Ottoman-Turkish historiography. This article aims to fill this gap by examining the hardships the Ottoman-Turkish disabled veterans encountered and the treatment they received at the hands of the authorities from the end of the

Abstract Iran’s simultaneous relations with Israel and the Arab world have received insufficient scholarly attention. After the Second World War, Iran accustomed itself to the shifting power plays in the Middle East. The thirty years between 1945–1975 witnessed the waning of Iran’s influence in the Persian Gulf and the rise of Egypt, Israel, and Saudi Arabia. During much of the Nasser era, until Egypt’s

Published in Middle Eastern Studies (Ahead of Print, 2023)

Abstract Throughout modern Lebanese history, the Sunni Muslim community has found it difficult to adapt to the newly formed state. It felt that Lebanon was a country dominated by the Maronite Christian community. Over the decades, many Lebanese Sunni Muslims, primarily in Tripoli, have lost faith in the more secular approach that has promoted uniting Lebanon with its Syrian brethren through pan-Arabism

Published in Middle Eastern Studies (Ahead of Print, 2023)

Abstract Midhat Cemal Kuntay (1885 – 1956) was born in Istanbul and spent most of his life there working as a lawyer and Notary Public. He was also a prolific writer whose life-span was almost equally divided between the late Ottoman and early Republican periods of modern Turkish history. With his background in Arabic, Persian and Turkish in addition to French, he left no area of Turkish literature

Abstract This article focuses on the Turkish public’s concerns regarding the future of Istanbul from when the Lausanne Conference began. On 30 October 1918, the Ottoman State, an ally of the defeated side in the First World War was itself defeated; the capital Istanbul was invaded in November 1918, and officially occupied on 16 March 1920. In October 1923, the occupation ended following the signing

Abstract The present article is devoted to the study of ethnic representation in the works of Kurdish painters. Specific features of the Kurdish ethnic worldview and its relation to the representation of ethnic themes in the works of various artists were revealed. The purpose of the analysis of Kurdish ethnic components in the works of Iranian Kurdish painters was to classify the themes according to

Abstract The National Pact Project, which was approved by the Turkish parliament and became official on 28 January 1920, was approved by the Ottoman Assembly. It envisaged the security of the Turkish presence in the region, which considered Anatolia as the axis, and was based on the thesis that this security started in Northern Iraq and Northern Syria. There was a Turkish-British rivalry with the central

Abstract Higher education is a key component of human capital and is positively linked to improving the economic, social, and personal aspects of life. This study aims to examine how people living under circumstances of dramatic sociopolitical change perceive the opportunity to pursue higher education and the social and personal meaning they attach to it. The Druze community on the Golan Heights serves

Abstract The uneasy Putin-Erdogan partnership reminds of the early twentieth-century trends in the Russo-Turkish relations – taking advantage of each other’s dissidents vs cooperating against Western imperialism. Imperial Russia tended to indulge in the former which undermined the latter tendency in its policies in regards to the Young Turk regime who were similarly making irredentist overtures to

Abstract The Karapapaks were one of the less known native Turkish ethnic groups of the Transcaucasia, who overwhelmingly took refuge in the Ottoman and Qajar Empires in the late 1820s, after the expansion of Tsarist Russia into their homelands. This paper analyses how the literature regarding Karapapak movements and society was overwhelmingly shaped by selective, essentialist, and anachronistic approaches

Abstract The present study examines relations between Iran and the United States as reflected in the historic athletic encounter between the two in the 1998 World Cup games. It describes how each party viewed the game and the opportunities it offered: did it indeed offer a chance at thawing the relations between Tehran and Washington, as the Americans thought? Or did the match serve as an arena of

Abstract The budget system is a fundamental component of modern constitutional politics. It works for the establishment of not only the fiscal discipline, but also for parliamentary control over tax and fiscal policies. This study aims to portray controversy between these two principles over the legislation of the General Budget Act for 1303/1924-25, the first comprehensive budget law in Iran. An analysis

Abstract This article deals with the overthrow of the Kamil Pasha government, the second government formed after the promulgation of the Constitution, which led the country to elections. Immediately after the promulgation of the Constitution, the political circles of the Ottoman Empire drew an image of harmony and unity, but soon the parties began to part ways. As the main catalyzer of the promulgation

Abstract This article deals with the observation of the activities of West Germans in the Middle East by the West German intelligence organizations Org. Gehlen (under US tutelage until 1956) and the Bundesnachrichtendienst/ BND (under German Federal jurisdiction thereafter) between the late 1940s and late 1960s. It is largely based on hitherto unpublished primary sources from the BND archive, to which

Abstract In 1914–1918, 294,000 indigenous people were mobilized in North Africa and sent to the European front. Nearly 45,000 of them were killed or missing in action. This article examines the attitude of the French toward their North African soldiers and tries to explain why in the face of copious evidence of North African loyalty, the appreciation of courage and sacrifice in the fight against Germany

Published in Middle Eastern Studies (Vol. 58, No. 6, 2022)

Abstract In March 1911, representatives of the Coptic Christian community convened in Asyut in Upper Egypt to discuss perceived grievances hindering Coptic equality with the Muslim majority. Given the apparent peculiarity of the event, it has become customary to situate the 1911 Coptic congress within the context of a rapidly escalating sectarian strife in colonial Egypt following the appointment and

Abstract Like any military power, violent non-state actors operate intelligence, including human intelligence (HUMINT), to suit their needs. The article aims to explore the primary methods used by Hezbollah and Hamas in recruiting and handling human sources since the mid-2000s, illustrating each method with several case studies. An examination of these methods may shed light on a significant aspect

Published in Middle Eastern Studies (Vol. 59, No. 2, 2023)

Abstract This article describes Israel's bacteriological warfare campaign during the first Arab-Israeli war of 1948. Over the decades following that war rumours circulated that Israel had used bacteria, alongside conventional weaponry, in its battle against Palestine's Arabs and the surrounding Arab states. The declassification of files in the Israeli military archives, our discovery of a crucial letter

Abstract In Turkey’s increasingly authoritarian context, which minimizes any serious chance of making political gains, challenging common conceptions of political power may expand our understanding of power dynamics. This article draws upon historical perspectives to track the power dynamics and political relations of religious movements inside and outside the legitimate forms of politics in Turkey

Abstract The present article addresses British efforts at using English Language Teaching (ELT) to bolster its position among a broad range of Gulf residents, from sheikhs to students. During a time in which the British image in the Arab world was often discredited, policymakers believed that the English language was one commodity capable of overcoming prevailing negative attitudes. Through an analysis

Abstract Freemasonic activity in the Ottoman lands saw an unprecedented growth and dynamism in the final phase of Ottoman history particularly benefitting from its close association with the Young Turk movement and its political apparatus, the Committee of Union and Progress (CUP). Ottoman freemasonry was led to a new level of popularity with a great deal of public visibility, a consequence of which

Abstract This article traces the career of the Greek Orthodox Ottoman engineer George Franghia, who served for a decade and a half at the end of the nineteenth century as the engineer of the District of Jerusalem. Franghia, a brilliant and prolific engineer whose name has almost entirely disappeared from the annals of Late Ottoman Jerusalem, was responsible for numerous infrastructure projects, construction

Abstract This article explores the historical moment in which the concept of a ‘national language’ began to spread among Ottoman Armenians. It does so by examining the establishment of educational associations aimed at changing the language practices of non-Armenophone Armenians in three parts of the Ottoman Empire: Aleppo, Kayseri and Diyarbekir. I argue that these associations were part of a larger

Abstract The story of the drafting of non-Muslim citizens during the Turkish War of Independence (1919–1922) is one that has yet to receive sufficient research attention, and indeed to date no study of the subject has been published. In fact, the recruitment of non-Muslim soldiers had always been a controversial issue among Ottoman decision makers. The Ottoman Empire was a Muslim state, and its ruling

Abstract This article studies the Muslim Brotherhood’s (MB) second prison ordeal in Egypt between 1954–1964. Based on a collection of prison memoirs written by Brothers, the article explores in three parts how the MB developed socially, intellectually, and organisationally in prison during the reign of President Gamal Abdel Nasser. Beginning with the MB’s imprisonment in the aftermath of the President’s

Published in Middle Eastern Studies (Vol. 59, No. 1, 2023)

Abstract The present study focuses on the analysis of Juhayman’s intellectual and political discourse through a dissection of intellectual-political endeavours. Texts of the movement’s letters were studied and analysed to understand this movement. Using the original texts produced by Juhayman and interviewing former members of the movement makes the research of great value since the texts are not easy

Abstract The 1982 Lebanon War is one of the most controversial events in Israeli history. The prevailing narrative of this war states that it was a war of deception, a war in which Defense Minister Ariel Sharon deceived Prime Minister Menachem Begin and the entire Israeli government. However, this narrative does an injustice to Menachem Begin. In this narrative, Begin is perceived as a victim, as one

Abstract The gender ideology promoted within Saudi political culture constructs a model of the ‘ideal Muslim woman’. This ideal woman is a wife and a mother whose place is in the private sphere, and men are her guardians. Women who remain in their homes, raising the next generation and preserving the traditional values, constitute the quintessential emblem of the unique Saudi national identity. Based

Abstract This article explores the history of the Palestine Labor League (PLL) during the first years after Israel's establishment (1948-1953). Unlike most research, which views the PLL as an insignificant appendage to the major Zionist labor union, the Histadrut, this article wishes to investigate the PLL as a Palestinian organization operating within the corporatist industrial relations system of

Abstract The present article illuminates an aspect of relations between religion and society in Iran that has so far received scant scholarly attention. It describes and analyzes the interaction between religious law in Iran and football, to wit, what solutions the regime tries to find for cases in which religious law comes into conflict with the game's huge popularity, for example: how should Iran

Abstract This article examines the last utopian novel of early Zionist thought and literature. The utopia Jerusalem Rebuilt was written after the First World War and published in the mid-1920s by Boris Schatz. This work combined artistic utopian vision and Jewish nationalism, and it reflected the early Zionist vision at the turn of the twentieth century. This article discusses Schatz’s work against

Abstract This article examines the effects of the Ottoman Empire’s restriction on Bible colportage in the early 1900s on Ottoman-US relations. This restriction adversely affected representatives of the American Bible Society (ABS), which had been active in Ottoman lands since the second quarter of the nineteenth century. ABS colporteurs were prevented from working in many parts of the empire. The ABS

Abstract The Makarios era (1960–1977) corresponded with two major regional disputes, with wide implications on international peace and regional politics: the Cyprus issue and the Arab–Israeli conflict. Given that these disputes are still ongoing, this study utilises diverse primary and secondary sources to analyse Cyprus’s relations with Egypt (United Arab Republic) and Israel in the Makarios period

Abstract This article elaborates how the Islamist-led revolt that erupted in Istanbul in April 1909 against the Committee of Union Progress was reflected in cities of Ottoman Syria, as well as its sources and the immediate results in terms of relations between the policymakers in Istanbul and the elites of Syria. Using primary sources such as Ottoman journals and archival documents together with several

Abstract This article investigates the way the Young Turk Committee of Union and Progress, which was essentially an organisation with roots in the European provinces of the Ottoman Empire and in the Western Anatolian province of Aydın, established itself in the provincial centres of Eastern Anatolia and the Arab provinces after the revolution of July 1908. It then seeks out the patterns that can be

Abstract This article seeks to describe the ways in which municipal administration and informal networks among political elites during the French mandate contributed to the poor state of public health in North Lebanon, in general, as well as an outbreak of typhoid in Tripoli by the late 1930s. This study largely stems from archival research in France and Lebanon. By examining state-building efforts

Abstract This article will discuss the early discourse of Islamism on international politics in Cold War Turkey. It brings forth four main findings. First, while Islamists bandwagoned onto the discourse of the Turkish state and the Western bloc in presenting the Soviet Union as a national and global threat, they also sought to operationalize their anti-Sovietism for their broader political agenda.

Abstract This article addresses the nationality issue in the post-First World War Turkey through an analysis of the vibrant debates on the future of the defeated Ottoman state and its peoples. It focuses on how nationality was formulated, specifically, by the Ottoman Muslim-Turkish intellectuals, publicists and by the leadership of the National Struggle. Their interpretations of Ottomanism, Turkish

Published in Middle Eastern Studies (Vol. 59, No. 2, 2023)

Published in Middle Eastern Studies (Vol. 59, No. 2, 2023)

Abstract Justice and the guardianship of the jurist ( vilayat-i faqih ) have been the two ideological pillars of the Islamic Republic of Iran ever since the 1979 Revolution. Unlike vilayat-i faqih , the meaning and essence of justice in post-revolutionary Shiʿi-Iranian thought has not received due attention in the scholarly debate. The hegemonic Shiʿi discourse in Iran defines justice as based on three

Abstract This article examines the privacy, sociality and conviviality dynamics of urban khans in Ottoman Istanbul from the mid-eighteenth to the mid-nineteenth centuries. Firstly, it looks at the professional and ethno-religious patterns in their use as commercial and residential spaces, then discusses khans as a private residential space, through inheritance records of those who live and die in a

Abstract Although the sovereign debt is primarily a long-term accounting occurrence that can emerge in the public budget, its management refers to the economic sphere as much as to the political one. Moreover, as its structure and size depend on the decisions made in both domains in a certain context, space, and time circumstances matter in debating the problem. Thus, the study of the nineteen eighties

Abstract The article reviews the positions and policies of Middle Eastern and North African states towards the external ‘debt crisis’ of the 1980s within the context of contemporary debates and negotiations held at regional and international levels. MENA countries shared many commonalities with their developing partners across the postcolonial world and participated actively in the debates within multilateral

Abstract This article deals with Egypt's debt crisis experience of the 1980s, which marked its own place in history. By the 1980s Egypt had a savings-investment gap; an export import gap; and a gap between government revenue and expenditure. The textbook answer was the Washington Consensus. Towards the end of the 1980s Egypt's military debt plus an interest rate of 15 per cent put the country in a