The Middle East

• I. The U.S. After 9/11
• II. Natural Characteristics of the Middle East
• III. The Middle East Before Islam
• IV. The Spread of Islam, 610-1500
• V. Main Tenets of the Islamic Faith
• VI. Islam and Europe, 1500-1800
• VII. European Colonialism and the Middle East, 1800-1950
• VIII. The Contemporary Middle East
• IX. Israel and Palestine
• X. Iraq
• XI. Conclusions and the Future

I. The U.S. After 9/11

• A. Consequences for the U.S. of 9/11
• 1. ______________________ consequences: loss of family and friends, loss of a sense of security and safety
• 2. ______________________ consequences: business disruptions, job losses, U.S. and global recession
• 3. ___________________ consequences: potential loss of personal freedoms, backlash against Arab-Americans and others
• 4. Long term involvement in ___________________ that have already been underway for decades and that will not be solved quickly or easily, including more attacks on the U.S.
• 5. This is going to be the most difficult thing to talk about this semester for most of us
• B. Violence and Terrorism in the U.S.
• 1. Historically, the U.S. has been relatively free from internal and external _____________________________
• 2. Other than the Revolutionary War, War of 1812, wars against the indigenous peoples, and Pearl Harbor, we have not had warfare in the U.S. against _______________________
• 3. _______________________________ also relatively rare since the Civil War: a few small groups in the 1960s and 1970s (Symbionese Liberation Army, Puerto Rican independence movement) and in the past two decades (Waco and the Branch Davidians, Oklahoma City bombing)
• 4. Violence to accomplish ____________________ has always seemed remote to U.S. residents; airplane hijackings, Beirut Marine barracks, Khobar Towers, and U.S.S. Cole bombings, and other violence happened in other countries
• C. Politics, Warfare and Terrorism
• 1. _______________ can be understood as simply an extreme form of ______________________ between nations (e.g. WW II and the Axis vs. the Allies) or between different groups inside one nation (U.S. Civil War, military coups and wars in Africa)
• 2. ______________________ can be understood as warfare between a country and a group of people who oppose that country’s actions and/or control over what the group believes should be their territory but who do not have their own country (Irish Republican Army against Great Britain, American colonists and Boston Tea Party and battles of Lexington and Concord against Great Britain)
• a. this often involves attacks on ____________________________ (World Trade Center, courthouses, embassies, foreign businesses)

• C.2.b. attacks by governments against their own people or people they control considered "_____________________________" (Belgian King Leopold’s genocide in the Congo, the apartheid government in South Africa against the black majority)
• D. Why did 9/11 and the subsequent U.S. "war on terror" happen?
• 1. at one level, the U.S. is seen as ______________________ by many groups and nations around the world; we will return to this issue several times, since many Americans, including many of our leaders, do not understand the causes of this hatred or how difficult it will be to change these ______________________________________________

II. Natural Characteristics of the Middle East

• A. Lack of _________________
• 1. most of region is _______________
• 2. very little ________________
• 3. land suitable for _________________________ at oases (springs in the desert), along riverbanks, along the coast, and where groundwater is near the surface for wells
• 4. most land is not suitable for ________________________ because of the lack of water; small groups of _____________________________________ move through the region’s desert and historically _____________________
• B. Geography: The ___________________________ of Asia, Africa and Europe
• 1. the Middle East includes parts of all ___________________
• 2. for several thousand years, the _________________________________________ have passed overland and around via the Mediterranean, Black, and Red Seas, and Atlantic and Indian Oceans
• 3. ____________________ very difficult in most of region because of the lack of ___________

III. The Middle East Before Islam

• A. High Degree of __________________________________-
• 1. ________________________ links brought in groups from surrounding areas
• 2. difficulty of ________________ meant relative _____________________ for many groups for extended periods
• B. Repeated Waves of __________________
• 1. ____________________________________ Invasions
• 2. Romans dispersed _________________ population of Palestine to Europe and Asia
• C. Invasions ___________________ Large Societies in Egypt, Iraq and Iran
• 1. based on large ___________________________ (Nile, Tigris, Euphrates) with highly productive _____________________
• 2. invaders exploited existing societies for _________________ (taxes paid to conquerors)
• D. Relatively ______________________ Political Organization in Other Areas
• 1. ________________________ (extended families based on common ancestors) __________________ town and nomadic political organizations

IV. The Spread of Islam, 610-1500

• A. The _______________- of Islam, 610-632
• 1. Muhammad receives divine revelations that become the basis for Islam and its holy book, the ______________
• 2. Muhammad and his followers, drawn from the _____________________________, expelled from Mecca by ________________________- in 622 and move to Medina
• 3. Muhammad left no clear instructions about ________________________________ as combined religious and political leader of the Muslim group
• B. The Growth of the ____________________
• 1. Muslim leaders in the __________________________ elected an elderly leader as first _________________ to succeed Muhammad
• 2. a minority sought to make Ali, Muhammad’s cousin and son-in-law, imam (____________________________)
• 3. Ali became fourth caliph, but split became _____________________, creating Sunni and Shiite ________________________ within Islam
• B.4. caliphs formed Muslim ________________ that conquered an _____________ from the Nile in the west, to Central Asia in the north, and to India in the east by 750
• 5. Muslim armies __________________________________ into eastern and southern Europe (including conquering large parts of Spain until the late 1400s), farther into Central Asia, farther into India, and even to Southeast Asia between 750 and 1500
• B.6. Major ______________: the Mongol empire, Chinese empire, and Europe during the Crusades (late 1000s to 1200)
• C. The __________________ of the Islamic Empire
• 1. ________________ linked Africa, Europe, the Middle East, and Central, South and East Asia (from South and West Africa to Russia in the north and to China in the east)
• 2. Islamic _____________________ developed many of the institutions of ____________________: banks, checks, receipts, accounting, bookkeeping, letters of credit
• C.3. sophisticated ___________________ systems based on large scale ____________ technology
• D. __________________ in the Islamic Empire
• 1. most advanced ____________________ in the world (e.g. indoor plumbing)
• 2. most advanced ________________ technology
• 3. created modern _____________________ (numbers, the concept of zero)
• 4. created the sextant, compass, and other tools and knowledge about _____________
• D.5. created ________________ and the world’s largest _________________
• 6. at the same time, Europe spent a millennium in the "Dark Ages" with little ______________________________________
• E. The Rise of the __________________________
• 1. __________________ nation converted to Islam by earlier Islamic empires __________________ the empire in the 1400s
• 2. Ottomans the major _____________ to _____________________ nations from the 1400s through 1800, with repeated invasions into ___________________

V. Main Tenets of the Islamic Faith

• A. Islam, Christianity and Judaism
• 1. Christianity ___________ on Judaism (incorporating the _____________________, the ________________________, and other parts of Judaism into the ____________ and religious practice)
• 2. Islam builds on both ______________________________ (incorporating _______ and ______________________ from God and their teachings; Islam does not accept that Jesus is ________________)
• A.3. the ______________ (Islamic holy book) and the _______________ (the sayings, teachings and practice of Muhammad) provide a ________________ set of revelations for earlier revelations in the Christian Bible and Jewish Torah that Muslims believe have been _____________________________________
• 4. other shared characteristics of the three religions: belief in _________________, importance of religion in providing ____________________________________
• B. The Five ___________________ of Islam
• 1. the confession of _______________: "I testify that there is no God but God, and Muhammad is the Messenger of God"
• 2. _____________ five times daily facing in the direction of Mecca, the holy city
• 3. _______________ during the daylight hours of the month of Ramadan, the month of Muhammad’s first revelations
• B.4. ________________________: giving not less than 2.5% of one’s income to the community to help the poor
• 5. ____________________ required at least once in one’s lifetime to the House of God in Mecca
• C. The Sunni-Shiite Division in Islam
• 1. began with the dispute over the ________________ to Muhammad as leader of Islam
• 2. _______________ followed the choice of caliph via election by the Mecca community
• C.3. ___________________ wanted Ali, Muhammad’s closest male relative, to be leader as an ___________________________
• 4. Ali was elected fourth _______________, but the split between Sunnis and Shiites led to Ali’s _______________________ by a Sunni extremist group, creating a permanent division within Islam
• D. Main Differences between Sunni and Shiite __________________________
• 1. 80-90% of Muslims are ________________
• 2. ______________ dominate politics in all Middle Eastern countries except ______
• D.3. ________________ (dying for one’s religious beliefs) is a very important belief for ________________, based on the death of Muhammad’s grandson Husayn in a battle against much __________________________
• 4. Shiites advocate the concept of ___________________: religious and political guidance by a _______________________ leader, an authoritative teacher in all religious matters, who is endowed with _________________________________ from sin and error; each Imam is appointed through the _____________________________ by Divine Command
• D.5. __________________ between Allah and human beings: ________________ believe the Imams can intercede between people and Allah, but ____________ do not
• 6. _______________, because of the role of the Imams and their ability to intercede between people and Allah, have a more elaborate ___________________________ than do _____________
• D.7. in _______________ nations, _______________ leaders are appointed by and funded by the _____________________, but in ______________ nations, ___________ leaders are appointed by Shiite religious officials and are more independent of the _____________________
• 8. Shiite religious leaders play a much larger _______________________ than do Sunni religious leaders
• E. The Concept of ______________
• 1. the most common ______________________ people have in the U.S. about Islam is of fundamentalist fanatics who are willing to die to carry out a _______________
• 2. this stereotype reflects a lack of ______________________ of Islam and the effects of our long _____________________ against the Arab states in the Middle East
• 3. _________________ is defined differently by different Islamic groups: "sacred struggle"; "striving of the individual to carry out God’s will"; "holy war against the enemies of Islam"
• E.4. our __________________ focuses on the holy war against Israel, the U.S., and other core nations as Islamic groups struggle to escape ____________________ and ___________________________ that threatens to replace Islamic beliefs and behavior with _________________________________________
• 5. ______________ also can mean struggle against other Muslims who do not follow the ___________________________________________ (e.g. the assassination of Sadat in Egypt)
• E.6. Jihad has also been appropriated as part of _________________ efforts to establish truly _________________ by striving for justice to eliminate governments dominated by the ___________
• 7. ______________ can also mean peace, tolerance and cooperation to show others the correct way to believe and behave, rather than using violence
• 8. this stereotype about Jihad and violence is a major problem for our understanding of the Middle East and the possibilities for _______________________ and improving _________________________ in the region

VI. Islam and Europe, 1500-1800

• A. Islamic Empire Far More _________________ in 1500 than Europe
• 1. large and very profitable ______________________ linking Africa, Europe and Asia to the Middle East made the Middle East much ______________ than Europe
• 2. Islamic __________________ much more developed: mathematics, libraries, architecture, medicine, navigation
• B. The Dominance of the ________________________
• 1. Islamic empire based in ________________
• 2. by mid-1400s, Ottomans had conquered most of _______________________ (Yugoslavia, Romania, Bulgaria, Albania) and _______________ the rest of Europe
• 3. Ottomans were _________________________ than France, England, Russia, Austria and other European nations
• 4. first __________________________ by Europeans over Ottomans in Spain in the late 1400s
• B.5. during the 1500s, 1600s and 1700s, European nations ______________ became more ____________ and better able to ____________ the Ottoman Empire, due in large part to ___________________________________
• 6. _______________________ conquered Egypt in the early 1800s, taking over what had been a key part of the Islamic empire for _________________
• 7. __________________________ gained independence from the Ottoman Empire with Western European help during the 1800s
• B.8. by the late 1800s, ___________________________________ Revolution had made Europe much more developed economically, technologically and militarily

VII. European Colonialism and the Middle East, 1800-1950

• A. From the perspective of the Ottoman Empire, what had ___________________? Competing explanations:
• 1. God had decided it was time for the _______________________, leading to the decline of Islam
• 2. Muslims had not been ______________________ and followed the obligations of their religion
• 3. Islam itself had to be "___________________________________________ to suit modern conditions...so as to overcome _______________________________"
• B. European Colonialism in the Middle East
• 1. this reversal of __________________________________ led the European imperial powers to ______________________________ parts of the Middle East during the 1800s, just as they would do with all of ____________ in the 1880s
• 2. British used the Ottoman Empire as a _____________________ most of the Middle East and to keep _________________ from expanding into the region, rather than ________________________
• B.3. during World War I, the Ottomans had ___________________________
• 4. the British used ___________________________ and their supporters and troops from other parts of the British Empire to defeat the _________________________
• 5. final collapse of the Ottoman Empire took place at the end of _________________:, _________________ defeat allowed the other European powers to _______________ of the Ottoman Empire in the Middle East between themselves
• C. ___________________ to European Colonialism in the 1920s
• 1. Arab groups that had been ______________ during World War I with promises of the ________________________________ did not accept European efforts to carve the Middle East into ___________________________
• 2. _______________________________ threatened British and French control over the conquered territories
• C.3. potential wealth of the region’s ____________ was just being recognized, so the British could not simply afford to withdraw or permit real independence
• 4. British eventually set up a network of ___________________ (nations with partial independence but dependent on Britain economically and militarily and led by rulers chosen by the British)
• C.5. British drew up ____________________________ (just as was done at the Berlin Conference on Africa forty years earlier) that satisfied the leaders of the ____________________________
• 6. division of land between Iraq, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia in the 1920s by a _____________________________ to satisfy these client states became one cause of the Gulf War of the 1990s
• D. What could the peoples of the Islamic colonies of Europe do to change their subordinate position?
• 1. Middle Eastern states that gained complete formal independence after World War II sought to promote _____________________________ by adopting Western technology and accepting Western assistance, but trying to maintain the _________________________
• D.2. Iran after the _____________________________ and Islamic movements in other Middle Eastern nations over the last twenty years have sought to reestablish the Islamic community as Muhammad envisioned it and reduce or eliminate the ____________________________
• 3. these efforts are the source of what the U.S. considers "_______________" and the conflicts between the ______________________________________ over the last twenty years