Course Outline | Fall Semester 2015

AIMS

This course has a dual aim: 1) to introduce students to major Arab contributions to political

thought across history, and 2) to temper (if not transcend) the Eurocentrism of most modern

courses in political thought. It also seeks to challenge and inspire students to aspire to make

their own contributions to political thought, first by providing role models who have made

significant contributions. No less important, however, is to provide students with a critical view

of Arab political thought and pointing out the gaps and shortcomings that remain to be

overcome.

The course starts by highlighting major contributions to political thought in the classical age,

including by figures like al-Farabi, Ibn Khaldun, and moveson to the contributions and debates

in the era of Nahda by the likes of Tahtawi, Afghani, Abduh, Farah Anton, and Taha Hussain,

among others. It then moves to modern intellectual contributions by figures like Edward Said,

Sadiq al Azm, Adunis, Samir Amin, Anouar Abd al-Malki, Aziz al Azmeh, Hisham Sharabi, Nazih

Ayubi, and Fouad Ajami, among others.

The course also covers major themes which preoccupied modern Arab political thought,

including the theme of political identity, nationalism, Arab unity, liberation, religious revivalism

and secularization, sectarianism, democracy, social justice, etc. The focus is on how modern

political ideas and experiences have impacted (even disrupted) traditional conception of

politics and polity in modern Arab thought, and to what extent have Arab thinkers and activists

managed to respond to the intellectual and ethical challenges of modernization?

The Arabs are often seen as the object of modern political thought rather than its subjects as

equal participants in the global conversation on the optimization of systems of governance. To

what extent is this notion accurate? Have Arab thinkers been merely passive consumers of

Western political thought and ideologies, or have they made some positive contributions of

their own? If the latter, then what are the areas in which these contributions were made? If not,

then what are the challenges facing Arab political thinkers today?

The idea is not to engage in any wishful thinking about imagined contributions, nor to blow

our own trumpet and exaggerate trivial or peripheral contributions. Rather, it is to have a

POL 612

Arab Contributions to Political Thought

Program Core Compulsory Course

Course Teacher/s: Dr. Mark Farha and Team

Credit Value: 3

Pre-requisites: No pre-requisites

Co-requisites: SOSH 601, POL 611

Course Duration: 14 weeks; Semester 1

Total Student Study Time: 126 hours, including 42 contact

hours of lectures and seminars.

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sober look at modern political thought from an Arab angle, gauging the value of contribution

accurately and without illusions, acknowledging what has been achieved, recognize its limits

and limitations, and then asking the most relevant question: where do we go from here? What

is needed intellectually in order to make substantive and original contributions to political

thought?

INTENDED LEARNING OUTCOME

1) Subject-specific skills:

At the end of this course students should:

Become familiar with the key Arab intellectual figures that have contributed to and

shaped some of the key concepts of Arab political thought

Understand the history, genealogy and morphology of key movements and trends

throughout the history of Arab intellectual thought.

Conduct original research on the contribution of salient figures within each

movement.

Be able to relate emergence of distinct intellectual currents to the broader political

and socio-economic parameters which have shaped ideas and ideologies.

Be conversant in some of the major themes and ideas in modern Arab political

thought.

2) Core academic skills:

Methodologically, students will learn how to conduct research bilingually by fusing findings

and drawing connections between Arabic and Western sources.

Students will be challenged to:

Formulate original, critical responses to the framework outlined and theses advanced

by the instructor during the lectures, their fellow students’ presentations, and the

assigned readings.

Structure these responses in their own original research paper with proper

argumentation

Evaluate different causal arguments and independently assess their merits and

shortcomings.

Synthesize variant methodologies and cross-disciplinary findings

Create original synergies between qualitative and quantitative research in discerning

the socio-economic context and possible prerequisites of intellectual currents.

Come up with original research topics in consultation with professor.

Enhance both their oral and written skills of argumentation.

Conduct autonomous research drawing from a plethora of sources utilizing library

and online facilities.

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3) Personal and key skills:

This course provides students with the opportunity to enhance their communication

and presentation skills through graduate-level presentations and class discussions and

to develop their critical thinking abilities by exposing them to important primary

sources and thought-provoking reviews and critiques of various intellectual works. In

addition to improved writing skills, students also get a chance to improve their IT skills

through the use of standard and specialized software in conducting and presenting

their research.

4) Contribution to Program objectives:

This is a core course in the Comparative Politics concentration. In addition to complementing

other core courses by providing students with sound grounding in the concepts, main themes

and theoretical approaches in Comparative Politics, it also fulfils the Institute’s key policy of

giving the course a distinctively Arab dimension. This will provide students with an extra

advantage, on top of the combination of skills and knowledge acquired in this and other

courses course, in particular critical thinking, independent research, and mastery of the

methodologies, theories and key concepts in Comparative Politics. For the students will be

made aware of the positive contributions to modern Arab political thought, which will give

them confidence and something to build on when attempting to make their own original

contributions. It will also alert them to the gaps and shortcomings of contemporary Arab

output in the field of political science, and this will motivate them to respond to these gaps

and provide them with future research projects. This will deepen understanding of Political

Science theories and methodologies, and cumulatively contribute to the Institute’s overall

objective of producing competent academics and original researchers.

LEARNING/TEACHING METHODS

One-Hour Lectures

The class will convene weekly for one hour lectures. In these, the instructor will introduce the

major thematic and theoretical themes of the course and provide the students with the

historical and theoretical background to the individual intellectuals and ideas broached in the

course.

The lectures will allow students to gain a deeper understanding of the history of Arab

intellectual thought as well as of the major themes discussed in landmark works of social and

political thought that continue to challenge and engage Arab thinkers today. The lectures

follow both a chronological and thematic approach that enables students to situate the various

intellectual works within a wider geopolitical context as it has changed over time.

The instructor will try to utilize a variety of audio visual methods ranging from power-points,

analytical charts, to guest lectures and live, in-class interviews with topical experts as available.

Powerpoint presentations and pre-exam exercises and study aids will be made available to the

students online at Blackboard.

Two-Hour Seminars

In the two hour seminar sections we will then critically discuss the assigned authors’

argumentations as well as the framework of understanding proposed by the instructor.

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Select, short audiovisual segments and other documentaries and talk shows will be introduced.

Students are expected to come prepared to actively engage in the debates and to present on

weekly topics drawn from the readings in a 15 minute in–class presentation on the assigned

dates as specified in the sign-up sheets handed out in class at the begin of the semester. The

presentation will be preceded by the prior distribution of a one page handout outlining the

abstract and core questions to be discussed in the paper and presentation. The critical

feedback received by the student during his or her presentation by the professor and fellow

students is designed to enhance the quality of the final paper.

ASSIGNMENTS

1- Presentation, 15-20 mins

A significant portion of class time will be dedicated to critical and in-depth discussion of

the reading material. It is the responsibility of each student to keep class discussions lively,

yet civil. To achieve this, students will be asked to give a presentation on the seminar

readings.

2- Response papers (total of 30%):

Students must submit two short response paper of 1000 words each on a pre-approved

topic or intellectual of their choice drawn from the weekly readings. The papers will each

amount to 30% of the final grade. While it could take the form of an in-depth book review,

the paper will serve as a trial run for the final paper. Students are highly encouraged to

incorporate Arabic-language sources – both primary and secondary – into their research,

and are tasked to consult with the professor during his office hours. Students will receive

extensive comments on their paper and suggestions for possible final paper topics.

3- Final Exam (2 hours) (40%)

Scheduled during the exam period, this will be a two-hour closed-book exam, details of

which will be available in course handbook.

4- Final Paper (30%)

Building on responses generated from their previous presentations and response paper,

students are required to write an original research paper about a salient topic of

contemporary relevance of Arab foreign policy formation. The subject choice should be

discussed with and approved by the professor. Paper topics can be thematic or

(comparative) case-studies with a word count of no more than 3000 words including

citations. Papers must be coherent and must reflect a clear understanding of the main ideas

discussed throughout the course.

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ASSESSMENT

2 Response papers (1000 words each) 30 %

Final Exam (2 hours) 40%

Final Paper (3,000 words) 30 %

SYLLABUS PLAN

The course follows a chronological sequence of the key intellectual movements in the Middle

East. Its first weeks will be dedicated to early Arab contributions to political thought, following

which the discussion will shift to the period of Arab Awakening, nationalism, and ultimately

globalization. The last weeks will be devoted to discussing the varying intellectual responses

to the enduring subject of secularism and, finally, the 2011 Arab Uprisings and their fallout

and repercussions for present day predicaments.

Week 1: The Arab Polis in History: A Tribal, National or Linguistic Community?

Required reading:

Halim Barakat, The Arab World: Society, Culture and State, selections on tribalism.

Fauzi M. Najjar, Al-Farabi on Political Science, The Muslim World, Volume 48, Issue 2,

pages 94–103, April 1958

Fawzi Najjar, “The Arabs, Islam and Globalization,” Middle East Policy, Fall 2005. Unsi al Hadj, http://www.al-akhbar.com/print/95624

اعتـــــــذار إلـى المنحـازيــــن.أنسي الحاج: أنا ابن الخوف من المسلم الذي سيذبحني والدرزي الذي ذبحني والمسيحي الذي ينبذني

Sultan Al Qasemi, Jadaliyya, “Tribalism in the Arab Peninsula: It’s a Family Affair”

“Toynbee and Ibn Khaldun”, Robert Irwin, Middle Eastern Studies

Optional:

Bernard Lewis, The Multiple Identities of the Middle East, “Religion”, “Race and

Language”, pp.25-56.

Amin Maalouf, In the Name of Identity: Violence and the Need to Belong, pp.1-22.

pp.135-142.

Muhammad Ali Khalidi, Al-Fārābī on the Democratic City, British Journal for the History

of Philosophy, Volume 11, Issue 3, 2003, pages 379-394

Michael Cooperson, “Al-Jahiz: A Muslim Humanist for our Time”

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1991دار املشرق، كتاب آراء أهل املدينة الفاضلة،أبو نصر الفارابي )تحقيق ألبير نصري(،

Week 2 :The Legacy of Ibn Khaldun and the Question of Communal Loyalties

*******RESPONSE PAPER 1 DUE IN CLASS OCTOBER 14*******

Required reading:

Ibn Khaldun, The Muqaddimah, (abbreviated Rosenthal translation, Bollingen series, Princeton

UP) pp. 5-9, 91-101, 123-166, 230-25. (original Arabic will be preferable:

.1965 العربي، البيان لجنة القاهرة: وافي، الواحد عبد علي تحقيق املقدمة. الرحمن. عبد خلدون، ابن Arnold Toynbee, The Study of History (excerpts on challenge and response, Ibn Khaldun,

Herodianism and Zealotry)

Antūn, Farah. Ibn Rushd Wa Falsafatuhu. Beirut: Dār al-Talīa lil-Tibā‘a wa al-Nashr, 1983.

(electronic copy)

Adam Schatz, “The Native Informant”, The Nation

http://mondoweiss.net/2012/04/bernard-lewis-revises-bernard-lewis-says-he-opposed-invasion-of-iraq

‘Essays on Ibn Khaldun’, in Contemporary Sociology , Vol. 34, No. 6., 2005

The Ibar: Lessons of Ibn Khaldun's Umran Mind (pp. 585-591)

Mahmoud Dhaouadi

Ibn Khaldun and Anthropology: The Failure of Methodology in the Post 9/11 World(pp.

591-596)

Akbar S. Ahmed

Theorizing from within: Ibn Khaldun and His Political Culture(pp. 596-599)

Lawrence Rosen

Recommended Reading:

.1995 العربية، الوحدة دراسات مركز بيروت: العرابي، السياس ي العقل الجابري، عابد محمد

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Week 3: The Nahda: Arab Awakening or Liberal Illusion? (Oct 19, 21)

Required reading:

Fouad Ajami, Dream Palace of the Arabs (intro, chapters 1-3)

The Arab Nahdah: The Making of the Intellectual and Humanist Movement

(EdinburghStudies in Modern Arabic Literature.) Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press,

2013.

Ali Abd al Raziq James Broucek, “The Controversy of Shaikh Ali Abdul Raziq” available

at:http://diginole.lib.fsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=6830&context=etd

Khūrī. Ra’īf. Modern Arab Thought: Channels of the French Revolution to the Arab East.

Tr. Iḥsān ‘Abbās. ed. Charles Issavi. Princeton: The Kingston Press. 1983. Selections

from al-Jabarti, al-Bustani, Francis al-Marrash, Rashid Rida and Farah Antun.

Abd al-Rahman Jabarti, Ajaib al-athar fil-tarajim wal-akhbar. Selections

Hisham Sharabi, Neopatriarchy, “The Nahda and Neopatriarchal Society”

(selections) ، بيروت: مركز دراسات الوحدة العربية،العلمانية من منظور مختلفعزيز العظمة،

The Arab Nahdah: The Making of the Intellectual and Humanist Movement

(EdinburghStudies in Modern Arabic Literature.) Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press,

2013. (selections)

Recommended reading:

al-Yāzijī, Kamāl. Ruwwād al-Nahda al-Adabīya fī Lubnān al-Hadīth, 1800-1900. Beirut:

Maktabat Ra’s Beirut, 1962.

Week 4: Birth of the Watan / Early Contributions/Origins of Arab Intellectual Thought (Oct

26, 28)

*******RESPONSE PAPER 2 DUE IN CLASS OCTOBER 28*******

Required reading:

al-Azmeh, Aziz."Nationalism and the Arabs." Arab Studies Quarterly 17, no. 1/2 (Winter/Spring

1995).

‘Ulabī, Ahmad "Tāhā Husayn,” al-Azmina 3, no. 14 (January-February 1989).

Khalid Mohammad, Khalid, Min Huna Nabda, (Maktabat al Iskandariyya).

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K. Sa‘āda, Silsilat al-’A‘māl al-Majhūla, “Kitāb Maftūh ‘ilā as-Sūrīīn wa al-Lubnānīīn wa al-

Filistīnīīn,” (Beirut: Dar al Rayes, 1987)

Bernard Lewis, “Watan,” Journal of Contemporary History, Vol. 26, No. 3/4, 1991.

2010عمان: الدار األهلية، ملن تقوم الدولة اإلسالمية،األفندي، عبد الوهاب

.1995 والنشر، للدراسات العربية املؤسسة بيروت: القطرية. الدولة ومغزى السياس ي العرب تكوين النصاري،ا جابر محمد ا

Week 5: Contributions of Islamic Intellectuals (Dr Khalil Anani) (Nov 2, 4)

Required reading:

راشد الغنوش ي، الحريات العامة فى اإلسالم، الحركة اإلسالمية ومسألة التغيير، حقوق املواطنة في الدولة اإلسالمية

الترابي، السياسة والحكم، األشكال الناظمة لدولة إسالمية معاصرة، تجديد الفكر اإلسالمي، املرأة بين تعاليم الدين وتقاليد حسن

املجتمع.

محمد سليم العوا، في النظام السياس ي للدولة اإلسالمية

2010عمان: الدار األهلية، ملن تقوم الدولة اإلسالمية،األفندي، عبد الوهاب

لشروق، لقاهرة: دار ابين الجامعة الدينية والجامعة الوطنية فى الفكر السياس ى، ا -فى املسألة اإلسالمية املعاصرة طارق البشرى،

1998

اإلسالميون واملسألة السياسية، )مركز دراسات الوحدة العربية(

.1995القاهرة: مكتبة مدبولى، نقد الخطاب الدينى.نصر حامد أبو زيد،

Asef Bayat, Making Islam Democratic, Stanford Univrsity Press, 2007.

Khalil al-Anani, Islamist Parties Post-Arab Spring, Mediterranean Politics, Vol. 17, No. 3,

pp. 466-472, November 2012.

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Week 6: Contesting Modernity: Islamism and its Critics

Required reading:

Black, A. (2001), History of Islamic Political Thought: From the Prophet to the Present

(Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press).

Ibrahim Abu-Rabi', ed., The Blackwell Companion to Contemporary Islamic Thought,

Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2008. (selected chapters)

Leonard Binder, Islamic Liberalism, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1988

لشروق، لقاهرة: دار ابين الجامعة الدينية والجامعة الوطنية فى الفكر السياس ى، ا -فى املسألة اإلسالمية املعاصرة طارق البشرى،

1998

1997دار الشروق، ، القاهرة: م وأصول الحكممعركة اإلسال محمد عمارة،

2010عمان: الدار األهلية، ملن تقوم الدولة اإلسالمية،الوهاب األفندي، عبد

1986، الحقيقة والوهم في الحركة اإلسالمية املعاصرةفؤاد زكريا،

Week 7: Intellectual Contributions of Arab Women (Dr Samer Shehata)

Required reading:

.1993 الثالثة، الطبعة العربية(، الوحدة دراسات مركز )بيروت: فكرية ندوة العربية، الوحدة حركة في ودورها املرأة

.2006 ي،األول الطبعة العربية(، الوحدة دراسات مركز )بيروت: العامة واملشاركة النضالية املواجهة في العربية املرأة باحثين، مجموعة

العشرينيات: في العربيات النساء باحثين، مجموعة .2010 األولي، الطبعة العربية(، الوحدة دراسات مركز )بيروت: وهوية حضورا

.2012 األولي، الطبعة العربية(، الوحدة دراسات مركز )بيروت: نقدية رؤية العربية: النسوية

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Week 8: Orientalisms and Occidentalisms: Arab-Western Confrontations (Guest Lecturer:

Professor Hamid Dabashi)

Required reading:

‘Abdul-Mālik, Anwar. "Orientalism in Crisis." Diogenes 44 (Winter 1963).

Edward Said, “Afterword,” Orientalism

Al-Azm, Sadek , “Orientalism and Orientalism in Reverse,” Khamsin 8 (1981).

Black, A. (2001), History of Islamic Political Thought: From the Prophet to the Present

(Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press).

Dabashi, Hamid (2008) Post-Orientalism: Knowledge and Power in Time of Terror,

Piscataway, NJ: Transaction.

Samir Amin, Eurocentrism: Modernity, Religion, and Democracy. A Critique of

Eurocentrism and Culturalism, Translated by Russell Moore and James Membrez,

Pambazuka Press, Oxford, and Monthly Review Press, New York, 2nd edition 2009.

(selections)

The Arab Nahdah: The Making of the Intellectual and Humanist Movement

(EdinburghStudies in Modern Arabic Literature.) Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press,

2013. (selections)

1997دار الشروق، ، القاهرة: معركة اإلسالم وأصول الحكممحمد عمارة،

Week 9: Arab Political Reason: The Maghrebi Contributions (Guest Lecturer: Dr.

Mohammad Al Mesbahi)

Required reading:

2006 العربي، الثقافي املركز الدولة، مفهوم العروي، عبدهللا

2008 العربي، الثقافي املركز الحرية، مفهوم العروي، عبدهللا

1995 العربي، الثقافي املركز ، املعاصرة العربية األيديولوجيا ،العروي عبدهللا

.1998 العربي، الثقافي املركز اإلسالمي، العربي الفكر تاريخية أركون، محمد

.2007 العربية، الوحدة دراسات مركز العربي، السياس ي العقل الجابري، عابد محمد

.2007 العربية، الوحدة دراسات كزمر املعاصر، العربي الخطاب الجابري، عابد محمد

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Recommended Reading:

وابن تيمية ابن إسمية إلى وأفالطون أرسطو واقعية من العربية: الفلسفة في العقل إصالح املرزوقي، يعرب أبو

.2010 الرابعة، الطبعة العربية(، الوحدة دراسات مركز )بيروت: خلدون

.1986 األولي، الطبعة العربية(، الوحدة دراسات مركز )بيروت: العربي، املغرب في القومي الوعي تطور باحثين، مجموعة

2011 العربية(، الوحدة دراسات مركز )بيروت: أومليل، لعلي الفكري املشروع في والحداثة الفلسفة فكرية، ندوة

Week 10: Arab Secularism: Origins, Future

Required reading:

ch.2 (class handout) الحقيقة والوهم في الحركة اإلسالمية املعاصرةفؤاد زكريا،

Ira M. Lapidus (October 1975). "The Separation of State and Religion in the

Development of Early Islamic Society", International Journal of Middle East Studies6 (4),

pp. 363-385 [364-5]

Fawdah, Farag. Hatā lā Yakūn Kalāmī fī al-Hawā. Cairo. Dār al-Fikr, 1988. (excerpts)

Aziz al Azmeh, al-‘Ilmānīya min Manzūr Mukhtalif. Beirut: CAU, 1993. (exerpts)

The Arab Nahdah: The Making of the Intellectual and Humanist Movement

(EdinburghStudies in Modern Arabic Literature.) Edinburgh: Edicburgh University

Press, 2013 (selections).

Recommended Reading:

Al-‘Azm, Sadiq, “Is Islam Secularizable?”; “The Importance of Being Earnest About

Salman Rushdie”

Al-‘al-Azmeh, Aziz, “Postmodern Obscurantism and 'The Muslim Question.'"

Alexander Flores, “Secularism, Integralism and Political Islam: The EgyptianDebate,”

Middle East Report 23 (July–August 1993), 32–38

Yalman, Nur. “Some Observations on Secularism in Islam: The Cultural Revolution in

Turkey.”

Adūnīs, al-Islām wa al-Hadātha, London: Dār al-Sāqī, 1990.

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Week 11: The Naksa and Beyond: What Went Wrong?

Elizabeth Suzanne Kassab, Contemporary Arab Thought: Cultural Critique in Comparative

Perspective, Columbia University Press, 2013

Ibrahim M. Abu-Rabi', Contemporary Arab Thought: Studies in Post-1967 Arab Intellectual

History, London: Pluto Press, 2004.

.2007لذاتي بعد الهزيمة، دار ممدوح عدوان للنشر والتوزيع, صادق جالل العظم، النقد ا

1969محمد جالل كشك، النكسة والغزو الفكري،

.2011محمد عابد الجابري، التراث والحداثة: دراسات ومناقشات )بيروت: مركز دراسات الوحدة العربية(، الطبعة الرابعة،

.2007مقاالت الحداثيين )بيروت: مركز دراسات الوحدة العربية(، الطبعة األولي، عبد االله بلقزيز، العرب والحداثة: دراسة في

Week 12: The Arab Democracy Debate (Dr. Samer Shehata)

Required reading:

Ghassan Salame, ed. Democracy without Democrats, London: Routledge, 1994

(Selections, Historical background reading)

Kanan Makiya, Republic of Fear: The Politics of Modern Iraq (Introduction to the 1998

Paperback Edition and pp. 3-73).

Abdelwahab El-Affendi,“Democracy and its (Muslim) Critics: an Islamic Alternative to

Democracy?” pp. 227-256, in Islamic Democratic Discourse: theory, debates, and

philosophical perspectives, Muqtader Khan (ed.), Lexington Books, 2006,

(2004 ،2002) العربية اإلنسانية التنمية تقارير

.1984 الوحدةالعربية، دراسات مركز بيروت: العربي. الوطن في الديمقراطية أزمة )وآخرون(. سعدالدين براهيم، ا

.2007 اغسطس العربية، الوحدة دراسات مركز بيروت: عربي. ديمقراطي لبيان مقدمة العربية: املسألة في بشارة، عزمي Larry Diamond, “Why Are There No Arab Democracies?” Journal of Democracy 21:1 2010, pp.

93-112.http://www.journalofdemocracy.org/articles/gratis/Diamond-21-1.pdf

Hazem Beblawi, ‘The Rentier State in the Arab World,’ in The Arab State, ed. Giacomo Luciano

(Berkeley: University of California Press) 1990, pp. 85-98.

Steven Heydemann, Upgrading Authoritarianism in the Arab World, Brookings, October 2007.

Available at: http://www.brookings.edu/papers/2007/10arabworld.aspx

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Recommended Reading:

Michael Ross, ‘Does Oil Hinder Democracy?’ World Politics 53 (April 2001), pp. 325-361 (Skim first

five pages). Available at: http://www.polisci.ucla.edu/faculty/ross/doesoil.pdf

Eva Bellin, “Reconsidering the Robustness of Authoritarianism in the Middle East,” in

Comparative Politics, January (44) 2, 2012.

Week 13: The Arab Spring and its Aftermath (Dr. Khalil Anani)

Asef Bayat, Paradoxes of Arab Refo-lutions, Jadaliyya, March 3, 2011

http://www.jadaliyya.com/pages/index/786/paradoxes-of-arab-refo-lutions

Michael S. Kimmel, Revolution: A Sociological Interpretation (Temple University Press,

1990), chapter 1.

Charles Kurzman, “The Arab Spring Uncoiled,” Mobilization, Vol. 17, No. 4, December

2012, pp. 377-390

Vincent Durac, “Protest Movements, and Political Change: An Analysis of the Arab

Uprisings”, Journal of Contemporary African Studies, Vol. 31, No. 2, 175-193.

2012 العربية، الوحدة دراسات مركز بعدها، وما الثورة مصر: في العربي الربيع )محرر(، قرني بهجت

ياسات(،الس ودراسة لألبحاث العربي املركز )الدوحة: اإلنسانية، العلوم مجهر تحت املحلي القادح التونسية: الثورة مؤلفين، مجموعة

2014.

Week 14: FINAL PAPER PRESENTATIONS

*********************FINAL PAPER DUE IN CLASS JANUARY 6,

2016*********************

The final research paper should be selected by the student upon consultation with the

instructor. Students will be asked to briefly present their papers with 5 to 7 minute Powerpoint

presentations for feedback in class.

Ideally, the material covered in course will serve as a foundation to which Arabic primary and

secondary sources are added.

These additional materials will be determined by the instructor and student and assigned to

the rest of the class one week prior to the presentation. Students also are responsible for

drafting a one-page abstract of his or her topic along with a list of at least SIX individual

scholarly articles or books, of which no less than THREE should be in Arabic. Select magazine

and newspaper articles may also be considered in consultation with the instructor. This

abstract will be reviewed and returned by the instructor.

14

Final paper subjects may focus on the oeuvre and thought of one of the Arab intellectuals

covered in the course, an ideology (secularism, liberalism, Islamism, Salafism etc.). A further

possibility is to examine these topics within the context of a country (i.e. secularism in Syria,

Salafism in Lebanon, the Brotherhood in Egypt). Students will be graded according to cogency

of argument, lucidity, originality of methodological or theoretical approach, level of

engagement with the existing literature and depth, breadth and variety of sources.

INDICATIVE READING LIST

، بيروت: مركز دراسات الوحدة العربية، العلمانية من منظور مختلفعزيز العظمة،

Ibn Khaldun, The Muqaddimah, (abbreviated Rosenthal translation, Bollingen series Princeton

UP)1965 ،ابن خلدون، عبد الرحمن. املقدمة. تحقيق علي عبد الواحد وافي، القاهرة: لجنة البيان العربي

Antūn, Farah. Ibn Rushd Wa Falsafatuhu. Beirut: Dār al-Talīa lil-Tibā‘a wa al-Nashr, 1983

The Arab Nahdah: The Making of the Intellectual and Humanist Movement (Edinburgh

Studies in Modern Arabic Literature.) Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2013.

IbrahimM. Abu-Rabi, Contemporary Arab Thought: Studies in Post-1967 Arab Intellectual

History, London: Pluto, 2004

IbrahimM. Abu-Rabi, The Blackwell Companion to Contemporary Islamic Thought, Blackwell,

2006.

Fouad Zakhariyya, Myth and Reality in the Contemporary Islamist Movement

1986، الحقيقة والوهم في الحركة اإلسالمية املعاصرةفؤاد زكريا،

Fouad Ajami, Dream Palace of the Arabs

.1995 العربية، الوحدة دراسات مركز بيروت: العربي، السياس ي العقل الجابري، عابد محمد

.2010 العربية، الوحدة دراسات مركز بيروت:محمد عابد الجابري، إشكاليات الفكر العربي املعاصر،

.2012 ،العربية الوحدة دراسات مركز بيروت:إليزابيث سوزان كساب، الفكر العربي املعاصر: دراسة في النقد الثقافي املعاصر،