The Modern Middle East - A Political History Since World War I (Third Edition) Read online

  THE MODERN MIDDLE EAST

  PRAISE FOR PREVIOUS EDITIONS OF THE MODERN MIDDLE EAST

  “An outstanding textbook on the modern Middle East. Kamrava’s writing is straightforward and lucid.”

  —Digest of Middle East Studies

  “This is an ambitious and stimulating treatment of the modern Middle East. It is both informative and enlightening.”

  —The Historian

  “. . . an in-depth analysis of a variety of issues that have plagued this part of the world for so many years.”

  —Mahmood Monshipouri, author of Islamism, Secularism, and Human Rights in the Middle East

  “At a time when sensational books on the Middle East fill the market, this is a serious and sober contribution. Kamrava approaches the highly charged emotional issues of the Middle East with sensitivity and objectivity. He should be commended for a very useful and highly needed book.”

  —As‘ad AbuKhalil, author of The Battle for Saudi Arabia: Royalty, Fundamentalism, and Global Power

  “Kamrava has written a very well-researched, accessible, and up-to-date book. His themes are well chosen; his analysis is cogent and lucid. It is a welcome addition to the literature on Middle East politics.”

  —Manochehr Dorraj, author of Middle East at the Crossroads

  The Modern Middle East

  A Political History since the First World War

  Third Edition

  MEHRAN KAMRAVA

  UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS

  BerkeleyLos AngelesLondon

  University of California Press, one of the most distinguished university presses in the United States, enriches lives around the world by advancing scholarship in the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences. Its activities are supported by the UC Press Foundation and by philanthropic contributions from individuals and institutions. For more information, visit www.ucpress.edu.

  University of California Press

  Berkeley and Los Angeles, California

  University of California Press, Ltd.

  London, England

  © 2013 by The Regents of the University of California

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Kamrava, Mehran, 1964–

  The modern Middle East : a political history since the First World War / Mehran Kamrava.—Third edition.

  pagescm

  Includes bibliographical references and index.

  ISBN 978-0-520-27780-9 (cloth : acid-free paper)

  ISBN 978-0-520-27781-6 (paper : acid-free paper)

  ISBN 978-0-520-95685-8 (ebook)

  1. Middle East—History—20th century.2. Middle East—History—21st century.3. Middle East—Politics and government—20th century.4. Middle East—Politics and government—21st century.I. Title.

  DS62.8.K3662013

  956.04—dc232013018594

  Manufactured in the United States of America

  22 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13

  10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

  In keeping with a commitment to support environmentally responsible and sustainable printing practices, UC Press has printed this book on Natures Natural, a fiber that contains 30% post-consumer waste and meets the minimum requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992 (R 1997) (Permanence of Paper).

  To Melisa, Dilara, and Kendra

  Contents

  List of Illustrations

  List of Maps

  List of Tables

  Acknowledgments to the First Edition

  Acknowledgments to the Second Edition

  Acknowledgments to the Third Edition

  Introduction

  PART I. A POLITICAL HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE EAST

  1.From Islam to the Great War

  2.From Territories to Independent States

  3.The Age of Nationalism

  4.The Arab-Israeli Wars

  5.The Iranian Revolution

  6.The Gulf Wars and Beyond

  PART II. ISSUES IN MIDDLE EASTERN POLITICS

  7.States and Their Opponents

  8.Repression and Rebellion

  9.The Palestinian-Israeli Conflict

  10.The Challenge of Economic Development

  11.Challenges Facing the Middle East

  Notes

  Bibliography

  Index

  Illustrations

  1.Turkish women in a late-nineteenth-century harem

  2.Women in Algiers in the 1880s

  3.Mustafa Kemal Atatürk and Reza Shah conferring

  4.Female members of the Iraqi Home Guard, Baghdad, 1959

  5.David Ben-Gurion, the first prime minister of the state of Israel

  6.Israeli women joining the Haganah, Tel Aviv, 1948

  7.Egyptian women celebrating Nasser’s announcement of women’s right to vote, 1956

  8.Egyptian boys and girls receiving military training during the Suez Canal crisis, 1956

  9.Israeli soldiers celebrating Jerusalem’s capture in the 1967 War

  10.Egyptian soldiers celebrating the crossing of the Suez Canal in the 1973 War

  11.Ayatollah Khomeini, leader of Iran’s Islamic revolution

  12.Iran’s atomic chief Ali Akbar Salehi and head of the Russian nuclear agency Sergei Kiriyenko

  13.Iraqi female police officers during their graduation ceremony

  14.Iraqi forces on the “highway of death”

  15.Shiʿite Iraqi women mourning after the Gulf War in 1991

  16.A videotaped message from Osama bin Laden on Al-Jazeera

  17.Saddam Hussein’s statue toppled in Baghdad

  18.Former president Saddam Hussein on trial

  19.British forces searching Iraqi women for weapons

  20.Iraqi women inspecting the site of a car bomb explosion in the Bayaa district

  21.Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

  22.Protesters at Friday prayers in Tahrir Square in the first protest after the fall of Hosni Mubarak

  23.Mohamed Morsi campaigning for the Egyptian presidency

  24.The U.S. embassy in Egypt covered in graffiti, September 2012

  25.The sewer pipe where Muammar Qaddafi was captured, with a dead loyalist gunman in the foreground

  26.Syrian rebels engaging government forces near Saraquib City in April 2012

  27.Emma Zvi Yona bathing her son at the unauthorized outpost of Moaz Esther

  28.Yasser Arafat, chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization, first president of the Palestinian National Authority

  29.A settler tossing wine at a Palestinian woman on Shuhada Street in Hebron

  30.Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat signing the Oslo Accords

  31.Women marching in support of Hamas

  32.A Jewish settler praying at sunrise from a former outpost

  33.A Palestinian woman inspecting the rubble of her house after Israeli missile strikes

  34.A Palestinian woman flashing the “V for victory” sign at Israeli soldiers

  35.Funeral of a two-year-old Palestinian boy killed in Israeli air strikes

  36.A Palestinian boy walking through the rubble inside the house of Hamas commander Raed al-Attar

  37.Hamas leader in exile Khaled Meshaal and Hamas prime minister Ismail Haniya at a rally

  38.Israeli schoolgirls taking cover next to a bus in Ashdod, Israel, during a rocket attack

  39.Skyscrapers of Sheikh Zayed Road, Dubai, at night

  Maps

  1.The modern Middle East

  2.The Sykes-Picot Agreement

  3.French and British mandates after World
War I

  4.The United Nations Partition Plan

  5.Territories captured by Israel in 1967

  Tables

  1.Jewish Immigration in Each Aliya

  2.Phases in Palestinian Nationalism

  3.Palestinian Refugees of the 1948 War

  4.Population Growth in Selected West Bank Settlements

  5.GNP and GDP Average Annual Growth Rate in Developing Countries

  6.Growth of GDP in Selected Middle Eastern Countries, 1980–2011

  7.Number of Jobs That Need to Be Created in Selected Middle Eastern / North African Countries (2010–20)

  8.Global Levels of Foreign Direct Investment

  9.Share of Manufactures in Total Merchandise Trade by Region, 2010

  10.Trade Indicators in Selected Middle Eastern Countries, 2009

  11.Commodity Structure of Arab International Trade, 2006–10

  12.Arab World Trade Partners, 2006–10

  13.Population Characteristics in the Middle East

  14.Fertility Rates in the Middle East as Compared to Other World Regions

  15.Foreign Labor Force in the Oil Monarchies, 1975–2008

  16.Age Structure in the Middle East, 2010

  17.Passenger Cars per 1,000 Individuals in Selected Middle Eastern Countries

  18.Annual Growth Rate of CO2 Emissions in the Middle East

  19.Per Capita Water Availability and the Ratio of Supply and Demand in the Middle East

  Acknowledgments to the First Edition

  The research and writing of this book would not have been possible without the kindness and generosity of a number of individuals. I greatly benefited from the research assistance of Annmarie Hunter and Emily Smurthwaite. I am most grateful for their diligence and their enthusiasm for this project from start to finish. Terrence Thorpe, another outstanding student, also read several chapters and gave valuable suggestions. Bradford Dillman, Manochehr Dorraj, Nader Entessar, Mark Gasiorowski, Nikki Keddie, and Mahmood Monshipouri kindly read all or some of the chapters and gave invaluable and insightful advice. Of course, any omissions or shortcomings remain entirely my fault. Work on chapter 8 [chapter 10 in the third edition] was partly funded by a generous grant from the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences at California State University, Northridge.

  This book is the outgrowth of more than a decade of teaching and lecturing on the politics and history of the Middle East. In the process, I have learned a great deal from the innumerable students who have shared with me their insights, experiences, criticisms, and comments. Both directly and indirectly, their input is no doubt reflected here. For that, I am grateful.

  Chapter 9 [chapter 8 in the third edition] is an expanded, much revised version of an article that originally appeared in Third World Quarterly, vol. 19, no. 1, 1998, pp. 63–85. I am grateful to TWQ’s editor, Shahid Qadir, for permission to quote extensively from the article here.

  My wife, Melisa Çanli, deserves special thanks. Over the nearly five years that it took to write this book, she put up with my many solitary hours behind the computer, my frequent mood swings, and my far-too-frequent frowns. All along, she never wavered in her loving support for my work. As I was in the final stages of preparing the book, she gave birth to our beautiful daughter, Dilara. As a meager token of my love and gratitude, I dedicate this book to them both.

  Acknowledgments to the Second Edition

  Some five years after its original publication, the book continues to benefit from the input and advice of many colleagues and research assistants who helped with its original inception and its subsequent publication back in 2005. In the intervening years, countless friends and associates, and at times anonymous readers, have pointed out various ways in which the first edition could be improved upon. I am thankful for their input, their constructive criticisms, and their suggestions for improvement. I have been extremely fortunate to work with Naomi Schneider, my editor at the University of California Press, whose guidance, encouragement, and patience with delays were tremendously helpful in shaping the second edition. Grateful acknowledgment also goes to Simone Popperl, my superb research assistant on this book, especially for her help with updates to many of the tables appearing throughout the manuscript.

  Any project of this magnitude is a product of love, and I have been extremely fortunate to be surrounded by a most loving family who selflessly gave me the time and the peace and quiet needed to complete work on this edition. My wife Melisa and our daughters, Dilara and Kendra, always provided the loving support and the emotional nourishment that I needed to work. For that, and for much more that cannot be adequately expressed in words, I dedicate this book to them.

  Acknowledgments to the Third Edition

  The current edition has benefited from the continued feedback of a number of colleagues and scholars, some of whom have read the book out of interest and many of whom have assigned it to their courses on Middle Eastern history and politics. I am particularly grateful to Murat Bayar, Gamze Cavdar, Steve Ceccoli, John Copp, Eugene Cruz-Uribe, Kareem Mahmoud Kamel, Tugrul Keskin, Bessma Momani, and Mahmood Monshipouri for providing invaluable feedback on improvements to be made to the second edition. Whatever shortcomings remain in the book are, of course, my own responsibility. Over the years, the research that has gone into this book has benefited from the labor of a number of exceptional research assistants. For this edition I was lucky to work with Dwaa Osman and Sana Jamal, both of whom worked meticulously on many of the tables and collected much of the data that appear in the book. Naomi Schneider, my editor at the University of California Press, remains by far one of the most wonderful professionals in the publishing industry with whom I have ever worked.

  Any project of this magnitude is a product of love, and I have been extremely fortunate to be surrounded by a most loving family who selflessly gave me the time and the peace and quiet needed to complete work on this edition. My wife Melisa and our daughters, Dilara and Kendra, always provided the loving support and the emotional nourishment that I needed to work. For that, and for much more that cannot be adequately expressed in words, I dedicate this book to them.

  Map 1. The modern Middle East

  Introduction

  This book examines the political history of the contemporary Middle East. Although it focuses primarily on the period since the demise of the Ottoman Empire, shortly after World War I, it includes some discussion of pre-Ottoman and Ottoman histories to better clarify the background and the context in which modern Middle Eastern political history has taken shape. The book uses a broad conception of the “Middle East” as a geographic area that extends from Iran in the east to Turkey, Iraq, the Arabian peninsula, the Levant (Lebanon and Syria), and North Africa, including the Maghreb, in the west. Maghreb is the Arabic word for “Occident” and has historically been used to describe areas west of Egypt. In modern times, it has come to refer to Tunisia, Algeria, and Morocco. Libya is also sometimes included as part of the Maghreb, but it is more commonly grouped with Egypt as belonging to North Africa.

  Although there are vast differences between and within the histories, cultures, traditions, and politics of each of these regions in the Middle East, equally important and compelling shared characteristics unify the region. By far the most important of these are language, ethnicity, and religion. Much of Middle Eastern identity is wrapped around the Arabic language. Poetry and storytelling have historically been viewed as elevated art forms. As Fouad Ajami has observed, “Poetry, it has been said, was (and is) to the Arabs what philosophy was to the Greeks, law to the Romans, and art to the Persians: the repository and purest expression of their distinctive spirit.”1 Even in places where it is not the national language and is not widely spoken, as in Iran and in Turkey, Arabic, the language of the Quran, permeates life with its many expressions and phrases.

  Another common bond in the Middle East is Arab ethnic identity. From Iraq in the north down to the Arabian peninsula and west all the way to Morocco, ethnic Arabs predominate. There are,
of course, significant clusters of other ethnic groups. A majority of Iranians are Persians, and Turks are predominant in Turkey. Apart from the so-called Arab-Israelis—Palestinians who found themselves in Israel’s borders when the country was born in 1948—Jews are the dominant group in Israel. As chapter 9 discusses, however, there is a debate as to whether Jews are members of an ethnic group or believers in a religious faith. Additionally, there are several “stateless” ethnic groups, by far the largest being the Kurds, who are mostly in southeastern Turkey, western Iran, northern Iraq, and northeastern Syria. There are also sizable Berber communities throughout the Maghreb. But despite these diverse ethnic communities, much of the Arab world remains ethnically homogeneous and strongly identifies with its ethnicity.

  An even stronger bond uniting the region is religion, with some 97 percent of Middle Easterners identifying themselves as Muslim. That Islam is a whole way of life and not just a religion is a cliché. But regardless of their ethnicity, where they live, and what language they speak, the faithful share a compelling set of beliefs and rituals that transcend national boundaries with remarkable ease. At its strictest, Islam is austere and exacting. But even in its most liberal settings and interpretations, it permeates the life of the Middle East in ways few other phenomena do. Its relentless emphasis on community, its injunctions on the one billion faithful to all face Mecca in prayer and to fast together in the same month, its deep penetration of languages far removed from Arabic, its reverence for the Prophet Muhammad, who called for submission (Islam) to God (Allah)—all of these reinforce the sense of belonging to a whole far bigger than its individual, national components. Since the early decades of the twentieth century, Islam as a source of cross-national unity has steadily lost ground to state-specific nationalism, but it continues to be a powerful and compelling source of common identification among fellow Muslims around the world, especially in the Middle East.