Blackwell Reference Online

Extract

Modern Middle Eastern history is a relative newcomer to the academic field. Its emergence as an autonomous and legitimate field of study is closely connected with the Second World War, the onset of the Cold War, and the gradual decline of both Britain and France as colonial powers. For a long time, British, and to some extent French, diplomats and academics referred to this area as the Near East or le procheorient , a designation which served to cover all cultures, histories, and languages of the region. Thus one could be a Near Eastern scholar studying Assyrian texts or researching the impact of the Industrial Revolution on native crafts in Syria. In other words, the old label was sufficiently flexible and generously commodious to allow ancient and contemporary eras to shelter under its wing. This flexibility is, however, denied the more recent label, which is a peculiarly American, and to some extent, Soviet invention. Nowadays, to be a Middle Eastern specialist is, more often than not, a reference to someone whose scholarly, diplomatic, or journalistic interests are focused on the modern and contemporary aspects of the region. Initially, both the Near and Middle East tended to coincide geographically, embracing the core countries of Iran, Turkey, Iraq, Greater Syria, Egypt, the Sudan, and Libya. With the passage of time and the emergence of the Arab world as a political block ... log in or subscribe to read full text