Violence In The Middle East

Covering a period from the late eighteenth century to today, this volume explores the phenomenon of urban violence in order to unveil general developments and historical specificities in a variety of Middle Eastern contexts. By situating incidents in particular processes and conflicts, the case studies seek to counter notions of a violent Middle East in order to foster a new understanding of violence beyond that of a meaningless and destructive social and political act. Contributions explore processes sparked by the transition from empires — Ottoman and Qajar, but also European — to the formation of nation states, and the resulting changes in cityscapes throughout the region.

Violence has been a central political issue in the Middle East during the past two decades, either episodically (Syria, Iran), or continually (Turkey, Egypt, Algeria, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Israel/Palestine). This groundbreaking new study sheds light on the dynamics of this phenomenon by going beyond factors usually cited as the root causes'economy, religion, and culture'and investigating the political structure that actually triggers this violence. Initially, violence seems to be a rational instrument in contested power relations, but it often evolves into fragmented and privatized forms, such as warlords, or to nihilistic, sacrificial, or messianic forms.This book explores the ways in which the criminalization of political, ethnic, and sectarian identities has contributed to the formation of a ?tragic mind? that perceives violence as the surest provider of justice and hope. Only this in-depth research combining the cognitive, social, and religious sciences, as well as different problematiques such as the emergence of new religiosity, can allow us to understand the logic behind those attacks and the self-sacrificing forms of violence.Hamit Bozarslan, Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris, is the author of several books, including La question kurde: Etats et Minorities au Moyen-Orient.

Explores the relation between histories of violence and their contemporary commemoration.

Laura Robson examines the interactions between international and regional political economies of oil and water, and the increasingly explicit colonial and postcolonial politics of ethno-national identity centered around the question of Palestine, arguing that the Middle East's emergence as a 'zone of violence' only developed over the past century.

Violence has been a central political issue in many Middle Eastern countries during the past two decades, either episodically (Syria, Iran) or continually (Turkey, Egypt, Algeria, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Israel/Palestine). This groundbreaking new study sheds light on the dynamics of this phenomenon by going beyond factors usually cited as the root causes - economy, religion, and culture - and investigating the political structure that actually triggers this violence. Violence seems to be treated by some groups during their initial stages as a rational instrument for changing contested power relations. In their later stages, these movements often weaken and spawn fragmented and privatized forms of violence - warlords are one example - and in some situations the violence metamorphoses into nihilistic, sacrificial, and/or messianic forms.

Writing has come face-to-face with a most crucial juncture: to negotiate with the inescapable presence of violence. From the domains of contemporary Middle Eastern literature, this book stages a powerful conversation on questions of cruelty, evil, rage, vengeance, madness, and deception. Beyond the narrow judgment of violence as a purely tragic reality, these writers (in states of exile, prison, martyrdom, and war) come to wager with the more elusive, inspiring, and even ecstatic dimensions that rest at the heart of a visceral universe of imagination. Covering complex and controversial thematic discussions, Jason Bahbak Mohaghegh forms an extreme record of voices, movements, and thought-experiments drawn from the inner circles of the Middle Eastern region. By exploring the most abrasive writings of this vast cultural front, the book reveals how such captivating outsider texts could potentially redefine our understanding of violence and its now-unstoppable relationship to a dangerous age.

This book examines the issue of gender and violence in the Middle East and North Africa. Drawing on case studies across the region, the authors examine the historical, cultural, religious, social, legal and political factors affecting the issue.

An examination of the violence perpetrated against women in politically conflicted or militarized areas.