Recent Publications

Prepared with assistance from Thomas L. Blaubach and Yasmine Mattoussi

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ARAB-ISRAELI CONFLICT

Israeli Settlements: Land Politics beyond the Geneva Convention, by Martin Blecher. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 2018. 220 pages. $36.99. Swedish political scientist Martin Blecher attempts to disentangle one of the Middle East’s most contentious land issues, Israeli settlements in the Occupied Territories. Blecher’s work differs from much of the literature on the subject in his attempt to explain the legal basis of the dispute, exploring historical precedent set by past Ottoman and British regimes while reviewing international law. Blecher navigates the issue of Israeli settlements in the West Bank with care to avoid politicizing an issue at the heart of Israeli and Arab identity in the Middle East. (TLB)

IRAN

The Poetics and Politics of the Veil in Iran: An Archival and Photographic Adventure, by Azadeh Fatehrad. Chicago: Intellect, 2020. 130 pages. $45. Writer, artist, and curator Azadeh Fatehrad discusses the political implications of the veil in Iran, as well as its representation in media and art, in her book The Poetics and Politics of the Veil in Iran. The book delves into a multitude of topics, including waves of feminism in Iran, photography, film, and the societal standards the veil has placed upon women. Fatehrad focuses on the act of “veiling, unveiling, and re-veiling” and how the veil has become a metaphor for women in Iran. Throughout her book, Fatehrad places her own photographs, stills from female-directed Iranian films, and images of Iranian women in daily life, protest, and history. The veil exists in a myriad of forms throughout the book, and while remaining the same in its material state, it possesses different meanings and objectives for women in Iran that Fatehrad analyzes in detail. (YM)

SYRIA

Damascus: A History, second edition, by Ross Burns. New York: Routledge, 2019. 331 pages. $44.95. This book is a chronicle of the Syrian capital’s history through politics, architecture, and geography. Retired Australian diplomat Ross Burns tells the ancient city’s story of waxing and waning in regional relevance and prominence throughout the region’s history. Burns’s narrative is told through examples of the city’s rich architectural landmarks and the impressions left by the many cultures and peoples that claimed the city through the years as a crossroads in great empires. In this second edition, Damascus’s importance in the Arab Spring and the Syrian Civil War is outlined in detail to add to the understanding of the devastating conflict that has plunged the country into turmoil. Damascus: A History leaves the reader with a thorough understanding of a city that has left an enduring mark on the Levant. (TLB)

MODERN HISTORY AND POLITICS

The Universal Enemy: Jihad, Empire, and the Challenge of Solidarity, by Darryl Li, Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2020. 364 pages. $30. The convoluted topic of jihad in Western discourse is the main focus of The Universal Enemy. Through various channels of observation, including geography, regional conflict, foreign policy, and the United States government, anthropologist and attorney Darryl Li aims to reconfigure how the concept of jihad has been framed in history. Using examples from Eastern Europe, the Levant, and Central Asia, Li discusses how each instance of “jihad” is similar and at the same time entirely different, and how much nuance plays a role in how the US handles these conflicts. Li’s ethnographic approach allows him to delve not only into each specific regional reaction to jihad but also into international responses, notably the War on Terror. (YM)

Understanding Political Islam, by François Burgat. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2020. 235 pages. $123.13. The heavily political relation ship between the West and the Islamic world is explored in François Burgat’s Understanding Political Islam. Burgat examines both how political Islam initially gained attention in Muslim-majority countries and how the reactionary position of the West framed Islam on a global scale. Burgat writes from a French perspective but transcends a singularly European narrative by bringing up several case studies of the relationship between various Muslim countries and their attitudes toward Islam in politics. Burgat bridges this with the Western...