A survey designed to introduce students to the basic themes and problems of Middle East history from the Ottoman conquest to the Oslo Peace Process, with special emphasis on the period from the late 18th to the late 20th century. The establishment of Ottoman rule over the Arab lands; Arab-Ottoman society and culture; European expansionism beginning from Napoleon's invasion of Egypt; the impact of the West in general; the coming of modern, reforming governments; the rise of the intelligentsia, of nationalism, and of Islamic revivalist modernism (salafiyya); Constitutionalism and constitutional revolutions in Iran and the Ottoman Empire. The collapse of the Ottoman order; imperialism and the zenith of European power; Arab struggles for independence; consolidation of the Yishuv and the birth of Israel; collapse of the European empires; the radicalisation of Arab politics; Nasserism, Baathist regimes in Syria and Iraq, the Iranian Revolution, and the Israeli-Palestinian question.
