Global Studies: The Middle East

by Azzedine Layachi, Layachi Azzedine

Global Studies is a unique series designed to provide comprehensive background information and selected world press articles on the regions and countries of the world. Each Global Studies volume includes an annotated listing of World Wide Web sites and is now supported by an online Instructor's Resource Guide . Visit our website for more www.mhhe.com/globalstudies.com.

304 pages, Paperback

First published October 18, 2010

Reviews

[Paul · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Middle East is a broad, accessible introduction to the nations of the “Middle East” and the region as a whole, but it suffers, almost fatally, from poor editing. The copy I own, in its 13th edition, is so riddled with errors that it makes it difficult to follow and absorb the material. Problems include: sentences that are incomplete, sentences that refer to concepts, events, or people that have not been mentioned (and usually never are), sentences (and, occasionally, paragraphs) that are repeated almost verbatim in quick succession (as if someone rewrote the paragraph but forgot to delete the old version), and sentences that just make no sense at all or appear to contradict other ones. In general, many parts read as if material was tacked on without any attempt to rework the surrounding text, and occasionally names of people and places can have different transliterations between paragraphs, which only exacerbates the confusion. Furthermore, the amount of coverage and detail from country to country is sporadic. While the work is geared towards detailing the history of the modern states, discussions of pre-modern history occur frequently enough, and with sufficient detail, to make the omissions in the remaining chapters glaring. Moreover, a proper discussion of key pre-modern events is critical to understanding contemporary issues and, in many cases, it is absent, or at least not fully developed. There’s no mention of the Fatamids or the Ayyubids of Egypt, nor the Buyids of Persia or the Islamic Empire of the Seljuks. Suleiman the Magnificent is mentioned and forgotten in the same breath, while apparently “little is known” of Qatari history prior to World War I. The country that gets it worst, however, is Mauritania; this chapter is so stunted and out of context that it seems as if a large portion was accidentally removed. Although the “timeline” has some extra information, the prose barely mentions anything pre-1991 and its pre-independence history is completely absent.

Having said all that, the book does have its good points and is decent at conveying the basic historical foundation of the region. Its style is simple enough for the reader to absorb the important players, trends, and events that have helped shape each country. The essays vary in quality, but are overall decent and do a fair job at introducing some of the modern issues facing the nations. Layachi’s work is a nice departure point to becoming informed on the Middle East, but most people, particularly those interested in pre-modern history, will find themselves running to other resources every few pages to fill in the gaps.