Top products from r/MiddleEastHistory
We found 15 product mentions on r/MiddleEastHistory. We ranked the 15 resulting products by number of redditors who mentioned them. Here are the top 20.
1. An Introduction to Shi`i Islam: The History and Doctrines of Twelver Shi'ism
Sentiment score: 1
Number of reviews: 1
Yale University Press
2. When Baghdad Ruled the Muslim World: The Rise and Fall of Islam's Greatest Dynasty
Sentiment score: 0
Number of reviews: 1
3. After the Prophet: The Epic Story of the Shia-Sunni Split in Islam
Sentiment score: 1
Number of reviews: 1
Anchor Books
4. Land, Labor and the Origins of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, 1882-1914, Updated Edition
Sentiment score: -1
Number of reviews: 1
5. The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem Revisited (Cambridge Middle East Studies)
Sentiment score: -1
Number of reviews: 1
6. Muslim Expansion and Byzantine Collapse in North Africa
Sentiment score: -1
Number of reviews: 1
7. The Near East since the First World War (A History of the Near East)
Sentiment score: 1
Number of reviews: 1
8. The Muqaddimah: An Introduction to History
Sentiment score: 1
Number of reviews: 1
NewMint ConditionDispatch same day for order received before 12 noonGuaranteed packagingNo quibbles returns
9. Afghanistan: A Cultural and Political History (Princeton Studies in Muslim Politics)
Sentiment score: 1
Number of reviews: 1
10. Land and Power: The Zionist Resort to Force, 1881-1948 (Stanford Studies in Jewish History and Culture)
Sentiment score: -1
Number of reviews: 1
Used Book in Good Condition
11. A Concise History of the Middle East: Ninth Edition
Sentiment score: 1
Number of reviews: 1
Used Book in Good Condition
12. A History of the Modern Middle East, 5th Edition
Sentiment score: 1
Number of reviews: 1
13. A Gateway to Hell, a Gateway to Paradise: The North African Response to the Arab Conquest (STUDIES IN LATE ANTIQUITY AND EARLY ISLAM)
Sentiment score: -1
Number of reviews: 1
I'm in the middle of the book Afghanistan: A Cultural and Political History by Thomas Barfield, and from what I can gather, the country is most valued for it's 'buffer zone' status. Sure, There are a few cities worth ruling (Herat, Kandahar, Kabul), but most of the rest of the country is not worth the cost of central administration.
While there may be a vast quantity of metals and other valuable commodities underground, is it profitable to extract and export (security for facility, security transporting to regional hub, building/maintaining roads, bribes at checkpoints, bribes to gov't officials, etc)?
ETA: Here's a fun Ethnic Groups Map of Afghanistan from the Gulf 2000 Project. More Maps Here
This is more novelistic than academic, but it's a great starting point: http://www.amazon.com/After-Prophet-Story-Shia-Sunni-Split/dp/0385523947/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1376894644&sr=8-1&keywords=after+the+prophet
This is also quite readable: http://www.amazon.com/Heirs-MuhammadIslams-Century-Origins-Sunni-Shia/dp/1590200225/ref=cm_cr_dp_asin_lnk
For a history written by a Shi'i about their origins: http://www.amazon.com/Introduction-Shi`i-Islam-History-Doctrines/dp/0300035314/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1376894805&sr=1-1&keywords=momen+shia
Any more info needed I'd be happy to help.
I would also recommend the textbook that was used for my Modern Middle East courses when I was an undergrad. It's perfect for what you're doing, as its grouped by themes and then explaining where each country/region falls in.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0582256518/ref=mp_s_a_1_2?qid=1466250185&sr=8-2&pi=SY200_QL40&keywords=malcolm+yapp&dpPl=1&dpID=51ZIEyetseL&ref=plSrch
Unfortunately, it looks twice the price in the US, I suppose that's the US textbook market for you, but I'm sure you can pick it up second hand, the editions are broadly the same, and if it's just you doing it for lesson plans/copying the odd section (you can photocopy up to 10% of a book here in the UK), then that'll be fine.
I also second Hourani, and want to mention his protege, Eugene Rogan's book simply entitled "the Arabs", published by penguin (uk) and basic (us). A bit of an update on Hourani's no less impressive text.
The Muqaddimah by Ibn Khaldun is a great read if you're interested in early modern Islamic history.
If you're interested in the topic, I would recommend Milka Levy-Rubin's Non-Muslims in the Early Islamic Empire: From Surrender to Coexistence (2011).
This book is one of the most valuable tools in learning about the context of modern events in the middle east
It's a crazy complicated history of the Arab-Israeli conflict. Some of the earliest Jewish settlements were to escape Russian pogroms in the late 1800s. During this time the area we refer to as Israel or Palestine now was under control of the Ottoman Empire, which were relatively religiously tolerant provided citizens paid their taxes to include the Jizyah. Fast forward about 30-40 years, the Ottoman Empire (one of the Central Powers during WW1) is dissolved into many of the modern day states of the middle east by the British and French (Sykes-Picot Agreement). One of the easiest ways to see this is the hard angular lines of country's borders in the middle east. Anyway, when the the British and French divided the territories of the Ottoman Empire, the British ended up with Palestine. The British ran a provisional government of sorts during this time and ultimately the Jewish settlers of the area had far more experience with Western European notions of bureaucracy than the Arab Palestinians (far more accustomed the the rule of authoritarian's like the Ottoman Sultan). Anyway this continues for roughly the next 50 years with Jewish settlement continuing in several waves referred to as Aliyahs (Return in Hebrew if I remember correctly). Post WW2 the UN grants Israel statehood. This is a crazy crazy simplification of a highly complex issue but if your interested in reading about it, I would look into these 3 books.
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Land, Labor and the Origins of the Arab-Israeli Conflict
Land & Power: The Zionist Resort to Force
The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Crisis Revisited