2015/2016

2016/2017

DM270

SPS/14 (HISTORY AND INSTITUTIONS OF ASIA)

DEPARTMENT OF HUMANITIES

CLASSICAL AND ANCIENT NEAR EASTERN STUDIES

STORICO-ORIENTALISTICO

2°

1st semester (26/09/2016 - 11/01/2017)

6

40 lesson hours

Italian

ORAL TEST

MAZZUCOTELLI FRANCESCO (titolare) - 6 ECTS

An adequate proficiency in English is requested.
Knowledge of basic notions of Geography and Contemporary World History are highly desirable.

The course offers an analysis of the disgregation of the Ottoman Empire, and the formation of a new political map of the Middle East after WWI.
The aim of the course is to provide an understanding of the long-term institutional and identity-centered processes in the region. The course underlines the notion of non-binary complexity.
The course is divided in ten blocks, which correspond more or less to a ten-week schedule: the formation of the republic of Turkey, state-building and nation-building in Syria and Lebanon, the early stage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the rise of nationalisms and Islamic reformism/radicalism, the complex relationship between modernity and nativism.

Week 1: The Ottoman Empire and its institutions. Sources of law, notions of legitimacy, administration.

Week 2: Political and economic transformations. Attempts of reform in the 19th century: the "tanzimât" between modernity and restauration.

Week 3: European colonialism and the politics of interventionism in the 19th century. The impact on the Levant and Persia.

Week 4: From the Congress of Berlin to the Balkan Wars. Fall of the empires and the rise of the nationalist paradigm.

Week 5: WWI and the Armenian question.

Week 6: The Sykes–Picot Agreement and the peace conferences after WWI.

Week 7: The formation of the republic of Turkey. Opposite notions of modernization and relationship between state and civil society. Minorities and minority rights in republican Turkey.

Week 8: Sectarianism, nation-building, nationalisms, and the authoritarian modernization paradigm. Nasserism and Baathism in Egypt, Syria, Iraq. The case of Lebanon.

Week 9: Roots and early stages of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Week 10: The Islamic counter-project in the 20th century. Islamic movements and practices in Egypt, Turkey, Iran, Lebanon.

Lectures and class discussions. Weekly readings are assigned before each class. These readings should be duly prepared. Students are expected to deliver at least one presentation of one of the weekly assignments.
Students who cannot attend classes are requested to contact the instructor in order to get these readings.

Zürcher, Erik Jan. Turkey: A Modern History. London: I.B. Tauris, 1993.

Additional readings, assigned on a weekly basis, are to be read before class. These readings are discussed every week. Students who cannot attend classes are requested to contact the instructor in order to obtain these readings.

Oral exam. Students are expected to prepare, individually or in a small group, a presentation of at least one of the wwekly assigned readings.

Total workload: 40 hours of classes.
Schedule: M 2pm to 4pm, Tu 11 am to 1pm.
Where: Dipartimento di Scienze Politiche e Sociali, Aula Casip.