Keys to Understanding the Middle East

Reviewed by Lindsay Benstead, Associate Professor of Political Science, Portland State University on 3/9/23

Comprehensiveness rating: 5 see less

This book is highly comprehensive from the point of view of a beginning course on Middle East area studies. For a graduate school or upper-level undergraduate course, it could be used for the first week or two focusing on the history and cultural context of the region. For lower-level undergraduates, it could be used for an entire course providing an introduction to the region.

Content Accuracy rating: 5

The book is accurate and free from bias. The authors address several topics, such as the critique of the term The Middle East, which highlight the authors' attempts to be unbiased and fair.

Relevance/Longevity rating: 5

Because this book addresses mainly historical topics, it is highly relevant and likely to be a useful text for many years.

Clarity rating: 5

The book is clearly written and accessible for learners at the high school level an beyond.

Consistency rating: 5

The book is cohesive and consistent, covering major topics in the history of the MENA region, the study of the Middle East (including a critique of the term), and the cultural and social context.

Modularity rating: 5

One key benefit of this textbook is that the material is broken down into short sections with descriptive headings. It is possible for instructors to select sections that pertain to the content for a particular module in their course.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 5

The topics in the book are presented in a logical order. The book is organized into short sections that make them manageable for readers at any level of study.

Interface rating: 5

This textbook is highly navigable, with a Table of Contents that links to each section of the book. The text and images are clear.

Grammatical Errors rating: 5

This book is free from grammatical errors.

Cultural Relevance rating: 5

This textbook presents the cultural and religious heritage of the Middle East and North Africa in a cultural sensitive way that makes it a good choice for high school and university level courses.

Reviewed by Jessalynn Bird, Associate Professor, Saint Mary's College on 12/15/22

Comprehensiveness rating: 3 see less

The book begins by comprehensively mapping out the linguistic and religious diversity of the "Middle East," with an emphasis on the importance of Arabic and Islam in the region, but then jumps from the era of the expansion of the Islamicate to the era of colonialism and imperialism, and ends in the Col War Era.

Content Accuracy rating: 4

Because this is an introductory-level textbook, the authors have carefully defined terms and have sought to avoid over-generalizations and specialist terminology.

Relevance/Longevity rating: 4

Because the text does not engage with any material past the Iranian revolution, there is little that will date quickly or become rapidly obsolete.

Clarity rating: 4

The book is clearly written for undergraduate audiences.

Consistency rating: 4

The authors avoid obvious pitfalls in choice of terminology and any specialist terms employed are carefully defined for the reader.

Modularity rating: 4

Chapters are short and easy to navigate, which should appeal to undergraduate audiences. Visuals accompany each chapter.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 3

There is a startling gap between late antiquity and the modern era (the entire medieval period and early modern periods are omitted).

Interface rating: 4

By and large the book is clearly formatted and easy to read, although the placement of images is a bit awkward in some chapters.

Grammatical Errors rating: 5

Clearly and concisely written.

Cultural Relevance rating: 5

The authors stress that the region studied is a complex and varied one and encourage readers to explore it further.

Comments

I very much appreciated certain sections of this text and may well use them in my own courses, but as a medievalist/early modernist, it was strange to me not to see any mention of the cultural and trading connections between the Middle East and other regions of the world (Asia, Europe, Africa), and, let's name the elephant in the room, the crusades. I appreciate that the authors were focused on the imperial and post-world-war periods, but feel that it is hard to understand developments in the Middle East in those later chronological periods without at least some reference to the medieval period (apart from Rumi).

Reviewed by Selda Altan, Assistant Professor, Randolph College on 4/5/22

Comprehensiveness rating: 3 see less

The book provides a bird's eye view of the Middle East but does not go into the details of the region's history. The focus is limited to religions, languages, and a brief discussion of imperialism and non-aligned movement. The glossary is comprehensive and useful.

Content Accuracy rating: 4

Overall, the information provided in the text is accurate. On page 67, I feel uncomfortable with this statement: "Shi‘is have also been called Fatimids." Fatimids is an Egypt-based Shi'a dynasty, not another word for Shi'is.

Relevance/Longevity rating: 4

The book successfully highlights some of the most important issues in the Middle East as it concerns a western audience. Ony the later parts of the book pertain to current events, can easily be updated.

Clarity rating: 5

The language is easy to understand and it conveys its message successfully. Many terms were explained in separate boxes or in the glossary.

Consistency rating: 5

There is no consistency issue in the text. The book definitely situates the Middle East in the larger context of the Islamic world.

Modularity rating: 4

The text is divided into small units though some subsections are too narrow.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 3

The narrative flows well. However, from a historian's point of view, there are significant time lapses. For example, the authors jump from the impact of imperialism to Nasser's Third Worldism rather quickly.

Interface rating: 3

There are plenty of blank spaces, especially around images. Albeit not a big issue, it can be distracting at times. Images are great and provided with adequate information but some images deserve more explanation. For example, the image of Armenian journalist Hrant Dink who was murdered in Turkey by ultranationalists can be the topic of an hour-long discussion about the rise of nationalism, the Turkish-Armenian conflict at the end of the Ottoman empire, and genocide. No historical context is provided for this type of discussion. The images on page 69 are distorted.

Grammatical Errors rating: 3

There are not many grammatical errors in the text but especially towards the end, there are issues with spacing. The bibliography is not in perfect shape with inconsistent capitalization.

Cultural Relevance rating: 5

The book's main achievement is to provide an introductory text that can help students revisit their biases toward the people of the Middle East. The ethnic and linguistic diversity of the region and its religious pluralism, themes highlighted in the text, are helpful to contextualize the region. Thanks to this perspective, students can overcome the common tendency to conflate the region with Islam and understand its long history as a crucible of diversity.

Reviewed by Sevan Yousefian, Adjunct Professor of History and Geography, Massachusetts Department of Higher Education on 6/30/21

Comprehensiveness rating: 5 see less

The text provides students with a comprehensive introduction to various themes and topics necessary for a better understanding of Middle Eastern culture, history, politics, and current events. The authors begin by discussing the approach and goals of the text, presenting readers with their definition of the Middle East, and identifying common misconceptions and narratives that they intend to challenge and subvert throughout the book. The authors follow with a chapter on the major languages of the Middle East, a second chapter on religion, and a third and final chapter that focuses on the twentieth century and the impact of imperialism on the region.

The authors state that the text is not intended to be a thorough history of the Middle East, but rather a concise resource for students with little to no prior exposure to the history, politics, and cultures of the region. The authors succeed in their goal of presenting a clear, concise, and comprehensive introduction to the ethnic, linguistic, and confessional communities of the Middle East, as well as to the region’s major religious traditions, and topics relevant to understanding the Middle East’s current political landscape.

The authors include highly useful, informative, and engaging charts, maps, timelines, definitions of key terms, and images throughout the text, as well as a glossary at the end.

Content Accuracy rating: 4

The authors provide a largely factual and accurate introduction to Middle Eastern culture and history. However, while the authors make a point to state that they avoid advocating “for a particular community’s point of view,” this is not unproblematic. For instance, writing that the relationship between Kurdish communities and different state governments is “complicated” is unfortunate, as is using the words “expelled” and “displaced” to describe the fate of the Armenians of the Ottoman Empire in the early twentieth century. At times, frank and candid discussions/descriptions of challenging and potentially controversial topics are avoided.

Relevance/Longevity rating: 5

This text is intended to provide students with the necessary background to understand Middle Eastern culture, history, and politics, and it does so effectively. It is not an introduction to current events in the Middle East, but gives students the knowledge to contextualize Middle Eastern history and current events, and I’m confident that the background information included in the text will be useful and relevant for future students, as well.

Clarity rating: 5

The text is clearly written throughout and will be accessible to students with little or no knowledge of the Middle East, which is what the authors intended. They also do a nice job defining and clarifying important terms and concepts that may be unfamiliar to students.

Consistency rating: 5

The text is consistent throughout, utilizing the same framework, structure, and terminology across chapters.

Modularity rating: 5

The different chapters and sections of the text can be easily assigned individually. For example, I would highly consider assigning selected sections from the chapters on language and faith to my geography students for our unit on the Middle East. I am confident that the third chapter would be especially useful to students in my modern world history class for our unit on the Middle East in the twentieth century.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 4

The text is organized clearly into three main chapters, which are further divided into sections. The authors take a thematic approach to organizing the content within chapters, which generally flows well, but feels a bit disjointed at times.

Interface rating: 5

I read the text using the online interface, which I found to be very engaging and easy to navigate.

Grammatical Errors rating: 4

I noticed a few grammatical mistakes in the text, though they did not impact the clarity or effectiveness of the book.

Cultural Relevance rating: 4

The authors do a great job introducing readers to many of the ethnic, linguistic, and religious communities of the Middle East. They also encourage readers to challenge their own perceptions of the Middle East by challenging and contextualizing Eurocentric notions of “modernization” and “development.” Though certainly well intentioned, the authors' attempt to avoid the appearance of supporting the views of any particular community--which I discussed when rating the accuracy of the text--is at times problematic.

Reviewed by Nahyan Fancy, Professor, DePauw University on 10/17/19

Comprehensiveness rating: 4 see less

For a short introduction to the Middle East, the book does an excellent job of being comprehensive with regards to linguistic and religious diversity. It also raises excellent theoretical discussions with regards to naming of Middle East, misconceptions people have about the region, etc. The glossary is very good as are the many maps and tables throughout the book.

Content Accuracy rating: 4

The book is fairly accurate, which is indeed an accomplishment given that the text is also a basic introduction and so there is only so much nuance that it can introduce. Nonetheless, it does an excellent job of covering many key fundamentals accurately. For example, the book lumps Sephardic Jews under Mizrahi Jews, when in fact these are different Jewish communities with different customs (even if slightly), and if anything the modern state of Israel does the reverse: it lumps Mizrahi Jews under Sephardic Jews. But by and large the text is fairly accurate.

Relevance/Longevity rating: 4

The book should remain relevant and should not be very difficult to update as and when needed. Again, since it covers introductory material, much of the material will not need updating (Islamic belief in judgment day will remain as true 20 years from now as it is now). Some other minor inaccuracies, e.g. origins of the Yazidi religion, or painting too rosy a picture of Sufism as inclusive and open stance towards all other religions, can be easily corrected over time.

Clarity rating: 4

The prose is lucid and accessible for undergraduates.

Consistency rating: 5

The book stays consistent in both its terminology, cross-referencing, and its broader goals.

Modularity rating: 4

There are a few cross-references in the text (especially when discussing the concept of Middle East or population demographics). The text is fairly modular and allows for using in small chunks rather than assigning even the larger chapter itself. The one thing that gets in the way, perhaps, of doing that are the fantastic images and tables. They would encourage, in my opinion, assigning larger chunks of a chapter.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 4

The book is organized fairly well in terms of the chapters and the various subheadings.

Interface rating: 2

There were quite a few problems with the pdf interface of the text. There were some repeated maps (such as the Turkic language map), and often labels for images and tables were not on the same page as the actual image or table. There also seemed to be too much white space at times.

Grammatical Errors rating: 3

The text contains some grammatical errors.

Cultural Relevance rating: 4

The text definitely depicts a culturally diverse Middle East. The chapter on linguistic diversity especially stands out in this regard, although the other chapters also highlight the cultural diversity of the region.

Comments

I absolutely loved the images found in the text. The tables are also excellent as are the wonderful maps. I would highly recommend instructors using the various maps, tables and images even if they find that the text is too basic for their needs (as I certainly did).

Reviewed by Gregory D. Young, Senior Instructor, CU Boulder on 7/1/19

Comprehensiveness rating: 4 see less

A very good introduction to language, culture, religion and the impact of imperialism on the region. Certainly not an advanced text, but challenges the common misperceptions held by the West and often conveyed in the media.

Content Accuracy rating: 5

The content gives a nuanced view of cultural differences and the diversity of the region with good maps and images. Of course everything has some bias, but this text again challenges conventional Western wisdom/bias regarding development and the impact of colonialism in the Middle East.

Relevance/Longevity rating: 5

This is not a text that gives an overview of current affairs in the region, but provides the necessary background over which to lay current events. It will not be immediately out of date, but far from it. In this regard it could supplement a current events approach in the classroom.

Clarity rating: 5

The writing is very accessible and would be appropriate for an Introductory level Middle East course. A very adequate glossary at the end provides review of cultural, Arabic and religious terms for immediate review.

Consistency rating: 5

This text does a remarkable job of explaining many terms across linguistic boundaries for consistency. This show how many very disparate cultures share multiple religious similarities.

Modularity rating: 5

Is is absolutely divisible. I plan to use Chapter 1 & 2 as an introduction to Middle East Politics course that I teach. I will then use Ch. 3 later to challenges the assumptions made in Bernard Lewis' book, "What Went Wrong" about why the Middle East fell behind the West or if that is even an appropriate comparison.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 4

The introduction lays out the very clear structure for the three chapters, then follows the plan as delineated. This is something that certainly could be debated, but I might move the "Defining the term Middle East" section of Chapter 3 up to the beginning with the similar section of the introduction.

Interface rating: 4

Navigating the text is very easy, but I might not skip quite so much white space between images, maps or pages. Some photos are embedded within the text and others are at the end of each section. This could be made uniform.

Grammatical Errors rating: 5

I found no grammatical errors. I found one typographical error at the bottom of Page 47 on the last line: "Kurds a" should be Kurds are. Secondly, one picture caption on P. 38 states "the previous Jesus mosaic image" is in fact several pages later.

Cultural Relevance rating: 5

The text in my opinion is far from culturally insensitive or offensive. In fact it provides instruction to aid others in cultural awareness of the region to avoid that trap.

Reviewed by Levi Thompson, Assistant Professor, CU Boulder on 7/1/19

Comprehensiveness rating: 4 see less

The text covers all the areas it sets out to address appropriately, moving from a discussion of languages in the Middle East (ending with a discussion of Arabic), to the religious context (with a suitable focus on the diversity of religious affiliations in the Middle East), to the Middle East during the modern period. An extensive glossary of key terms appears at the end of the book. There is also a Table of Contents, but no index at the back of the book. One important factor to mention here is the attention paid to Afghanistan throughout, something one generally does not find in an introductory textbook on the Middle East.

Content Accuracy rating: 5

Developed from many years of experience teaching students in International Studies at the Ohio State University, Keys to Understanding the Middle East offers readers accurate introductory content about the Middle East: languages, religions, historical context, and politics. A highlight is the book’s inclusion of solid material about modernization, the non-aligned movement, and Western imperialism in the second half of the twentieth century.

Relevance/Longevity rating: 5

Because the book avoids the immediately contemporary period and limits its treatment of the modern period to the twentieth century for the most part, the material included will continue to remain relevant far into the future. In the coming years, additional material could be added to directly address the Middle East during the early twenty-first century.

Clarity rating: 5

The textbook is eminently clear in how it deals with its subjects in a lucid, straightforward language that should be accessible to a high-school-, or possibly even middle-school-level reader. Jargon is either avoided or immediately explained. The glossary at the end of the book is also a useful resource.

Consistency rating: 5

The textbook is consistent across the three chapters, introduction, and conclusion with its terms and approach.

Modularity rating: 5

The book is highly modular, even within the three chapters. Shorter sections (e.g. “Gamal Abdul Nasser and Non-Alignment”) could be excised from the text and used independently of the larger book’s framework. Overall, the text is presented in manageable chunks throughout, making an instructor’s job of choosing what to give for a specific reading assignment simple.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 4

The progression of topics in the three chapters proceeds in a logical, clear manner.

Interface rating: 3

In the PDF version of the text that I consulted, the book cover and associated images (which are cited on page 2 of the PDF) are missing entirely. There are also some formatting issues that should be addressed, especially in the case of other images within the text. Take, for example, the photographs of “Modernizing Leaders” Reza Shah Pahlavi, Amanullah Khan, and Mustafa Kemal Aratürk on pp. 86-88 of the document (not of the PDF). There is quite a bit of white space on these pages outside of the images, and this also often happens between sections. Furthermore, there are some minor issues with text not appearing correctly and other typography problems. (E.g., on the same pages, see the mistaken “?” inserted between the alif and nūn of Antoin when written in Arabic script or the misplaced umlaut in Atatürk’s name that appears above the “r” not the “u”.) Lastly, the problem of spacing also shows up on pages v-vi in the document where the authors include their Romanization chart for Arabic letters. This is likely a result of the conversion of the document into a PDF, but it could be easily fixed.

Grammatical Errors rating: 3

There are, every now and then, issues with the use of articles. For instance, on page ix, we find, “Giza, district of Cairo where pyramids…,” missing the “a” before “district.” There are also some minor errors in the transliterated Arabic or Persian. Sa‘di Shirazi’s name is transliterated as “Saadi Shirazi” only two pages after the book’s Romanization Chart, which indicates that the ʿayn will be transliterated with an apostrophe ('), not the “a” that we see in "Saadi." Consider also the transliteration of al-jihād al-aṣghar and al-jihād al-akbar rendered as "Jihad al-Asghar" and "Jihad al-Akbar." The missing macrons or diacritical marks are not an issue, particularly in an introductory textbook, but the missing definite article on jihad in both instances is incorrect. Elsewhere, we find the term muadhdhin (a person who does the call to prayer) rendered as muadhan (pp. 64, 119), which leaves out the repetition of the geminated second radical in the word and, unfortunately, would be read by someone who knows Arabic not in the active sense, but rather in the passive due to the transposition of the (correct) “i” into an “a.” These last mistakes reflect the authors’ research abilities in Arabic, but indicate a lack of fluency in the language. In a future edition, I would suggest avoiding transliterated Arabic in these cases and instead, for instance, using the anglicized “muezzin,” which better reflects the actual sounds of the word for a reader that has no experience with transliterated Arabic. Alternatively, a consultant fluent in Arabic could also be brought in to check over transliterations.

Cultural Relevance rating: 4

The book makes a point of including material on a variety of different Middle Eastern languages, faith traditions, and countries. It is fair and unbiased in its treatment of its various subjects. I would perhaps have expected yet more space to be devoted to Arabic, in the chapter on languages, and Islam, in the chapter on faith and religious identity, but I understand the authors’ choice to bring more balance to their approach.

Reviewed by Katie Herzberg Hachimoto, ESL Instructor, Open Oregon Educational Resources on 4/16/19

Comprehensiveness rating: 5 see less

The book was very comprehensive. It explained more than just religion. It described the forms of government. The book also compared Islam to Judaism and Christianity. The resource also showed famous people and places of worship from all different backgrounds, not just Islam. The resource even described languages in the Arab world.
There weren't any biased viewpoints or explanations. At the end of the book, there was an index and glossary.

Content Accuracy rating: 5

There are times when literature can be very biased. However, in this textbook, there was a very thorough description of all of the different sects of Islam. Also, the history of Islam wasn't one-sided. There was an accurate description of history. The book also gave a very accurate description of nation states and stateless nations.

Relevance/Longevity rating: 4

The content is written accurately. I appreciate that the text focused on historical content. The content isn't in so much of a chronological order; the textbook is organized more by topic. If the text needs to be revised, it will be easy to add additional text.

Clarity rating: 5

The book is written in very clear, academic language. Furthermore, the book does not contain to much jargon or technical terminology. I found that it was not difficult to read.

Consistency rating: 5

The book has the same message and terminology the whole way through. The book doesn't switch back and forth between terminologies during the book. Also, each chapter has the same structure all the way through the textbook.

Modularity rating: 5

The book is divided into chapters. I found each chapter easy and quick to read. As I was reading each chapter, I imagined using this text in my course. It would be very easy to assign reading.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 4

I am not familiar with a lot of Arab history. However, this book was very easy to read. One topic flowed into the next. There was not any disconnectedness.

Interface rating: 3

The layout and the navigation of the book is without any problems. However, this book should be opened on a computer. If it is opened on a cell phone, a couple of the images are cut in half.

Grammatical Errors rating: 5

I am an English as a Second Language structure. So, I work a lot with grammar. This resource didn't have any grammatical errors.

Cultural Relevance rating: 5

I have many Arab friends and consider myself to be knowledgeable about Arab culture. The textbook was not offensive or discriminatory in any way. The book compared Islam, Christianity and Judaism. The book even acknowledged Jesus and Abraham as real people in history.

Comments

This was the first time to read a book about Arab history. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it and I learned a lot. I would recommend its use in a classroom.

Reviewed by Jessica Malo, Adjunct Professor , Florida State University on 11/13/18

Comprehensiveness rating: 5 see less

The textbook covers many important topics and subtopics for understanding the Middle East, especially pertaining to religion and languages, and therefore culture. There was a certain emphasis on Islam as a doctrine but less so as it is lived in the Middle East, particularly the cultural aspects of the religion and how the communities in the ME share and diverge in celebrating and expressing their religion(s). I especially appreciated the well-sought images and detailed maps that accompanied the text. The maps, tables, glossary, index, key terms and explained concepts all aided in the understanding of important criteria that define the ME. These illustrations helped to refute and rectify certain misconceptions and generalizations. I would have appreciated more on the Christian sects that are particular to the ME (The Maronite’s and the Copts).
The language section of the book was in depth and accurate. The last chapter was able to identify key moments and persons in the ME, without which the readers’ understanding is incomplete and flawed. The authors of the book say that “It is intended for readers who have never studied the ME, or experts who may wish to fill gaps in their knowledge of the region from other disciplines.” Taking this into consideration, I would say that the book has achieved its objective and would be best used as a preparatory resource/ general knowledge.

Content Accuracy rating: 5

I found the content of the textbook accurate and unbiased, especially in the discussion of sensitive issues such as the “jihad” and in comparing/contrasting different faiths. I thought the use of the diagrams and tables for this purpose were very effective, easy to follow and memorable. On another note, page 73 was repeated twice and the placement of its repetition made little sense. There were a few typos that do not hinder the flow of the book.

Relevance/Longevity rating: 4

This textbook is not time sensitive when it comes to the chapters on religion, language and history. The only two issues that are up-to-date and that can change over time are the demographics (percentage of Muslims in a country) and use of language (number of speakers). I thought the section with images of celebrities and a brief description of their nationalities and ethnicities can be edited over time to include more relevant people.

Clarity rating: 4

The text flows smoothly. It is easy to comprehend and it is not technical. When there is a key term that needs to be explained, there is a box defining those terms. There is enough background information to understand the subject matter and though it is at times controversial and sensitive, the authors did a great job in making it compressible for the reader. The sentences are short and straight-forward and I did not find myself having to read between the lines or re-read sections. The prose is user-friendly and accessible.

Consistency rating: 5

The beginning of the textbook explained the definition of the Middle East and reiterated it as needed throughout the text. The chapters were clearly defined and there is a consistency in the style of writing of the textbook and in the terminology and use of framework. The transliteration table in the beginning of the textbook is clearly used by the authors to have a consistent pronunciation of the Arabic words/texts used and I found that very effective and easy to follow.

Modularity rating: 4

The text can be easily divided into smaller reading sections within the course. The instructor can choose what to focus their lecture on and what to dismiss as the book moves from the general to the specific in a reverse pyramid fashion. The first and last chapters can be reorganized and realigned to better serve the teaching objectives of the instructor and is not overly dense.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 5

The topics in the text are presented in a logical, clear fashion.

Interface rating: 5

The text is free of significant interface issues, including navigation problems, distortion of images/charts, and any other display features that may distract or confuse the reader.

Grammatical Errors rating: 3

The text contains some grammatical errors. However, these errors do not hinder comprehension.

Cultural Relevance rating: 5

The textbook is relatively unbiased and respectful to all religions/faiths/communities and countries presented. There is enough examples to cover all the key points and information.

Comments

Thank you for including this book in the Open Textbook Library.