Creating new perspectives since 2009
Items by Usman Butt
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Then He Sent Prophets
The political and religious struggles of 14th century Morocco and Granada are brought to life in Mohamed Seif El Nasr’s new novel Then He Sent Prophets. Set in the tumultuous year of 1359, it follows the fortunes of a young and upcoming Islamic scholar named Zakaria Ibn Ahmad, a...
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The Order and Disorder of Communication: Pamphlets and Polemics in the Seventeenth-Century Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman Empire did not fully embrace the printing press until the 19th century, some 400 years after Europe but, contrary to perception, the Ottoman communication world did not stagnate for hundreds of years. Subtle and profound shifts occurred in the production of reading material. These changes occurred gradually...
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Labors of Love: Gender, Capitalism, and Democracy in Modern Arab Thought
Childbearing and motherhood became intensely political in the Arab World from the 19th century onwards; how Arab thinkers in Beirut and Cairo saw democratisation, progress, civilisational development and economic growth had a gendered aspect to it. Susanna Ferguson’s Labors of Love: Gender, Capitalism, and Democracy in Modern Arab Thought...
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Spies for the Sultan: Ottoman Intelligence in the Great Rivalry with Spain
The Bishop of Heraclea, an Orthodox clergyman who played a key role in 16th century European politics, approached the Habsburgs with an intriguing proposition to sow discord in the Ottoman Empire and enable the Austrian-Spanish imperial family to expand their empire into the Balkans. The Spanish Emperor Charles V...
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Beside the Sickle Moon: A Palestinian Story
‘The Ministry of Defence is proud to announce the future construction of the luxury hotel,’ two Palestinian men at an Israeli checkpoint read a sign written in Hebrew and learn that a part of their community is about to be upended in the Occupied West Bank. Beside the Sickle...
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Gendering The Hadith Tradition: Recentring the Authority of Aisha, Mother of the Believers
‘The positions of Aisha have been tragically dulled through the canonization process, but not entirely obscured from the historical record,’ writes Sofia Rehman in her new book Gendering The Hadith Tradition: Recentring the Authority of Aisha, Mother of the Believers, which aims to explore the role of Aisha, wife...
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Babylonia
‘This is the end of Babylon. Their kingdom falls, but a new one is born. We will take control of the south.’ A surprised and angered Assyrian General astonishes at the disrespect shown to the defeated King of Babylon by the new Queen. When challenged, she responds, ‘You think...
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Mapping the Fault Lines
US-Turkish relations are often fraught and uneasy, it feels like Ankara and Washington are mutually suspicious of each other, but are also in an alliance with one another. Turkiye is a member of NATO and in a geostrategic important position from the perspective of the United States, while the...
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The New Spirit of Islamism: Interactions between AKP, Ennahda and the Muslim Brotherhood
Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood, Tunisia’s Ennahda and Turkiye’s AKP have enjoyed close relations going back decades. Understanding the dynamics and nature of these relations can be somewhat complex, as research into these movements by journalists, analysts and academics is often coloured by what they think of Islamism broadly, which is...
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The Geopolitics of Shaming: When Human Rights Pressure Works - and When It Backfires
In 2010, Iran came under international pressure to halt an execution of a woman for adultery; she had been sentenced to death by stoning. Tehran was used to receiving such condemnation and normally the Islamic Republic weathers the storm, but this time it was different. Criticism of Iran came...
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The New Experts: Populist Elites and Technocratic Promises in Modi’s India
In 2014, Narendra Modi and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won India’s 16th general election and, among huge swathes of the country’s population as well as the international community, there was great concern about what a Modi India would look like. Aside from concerns over his role during the Gujarat...
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Italy and the Islamic World: From Caesar to Mussolini
Italy’s relationship with the Middle East and North Africa and Islam spans millennia. Throughout the ages, the Mediterranean country has played a role in these nations and these nations have played a role in Italy. Going all the way back to the Roman Empire and stretching to Benito Mussolini’s...
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The Ottoman Empire and Safavid Iran, 1639 - 1682
Between 1514 and 1639, the Ottomans and Safavid Empires engaged in a series of wars, clashes, skirmishes and destabilisation attempts. After the Treaty of Zuhab on 17 May 1639, the hostilities between the two powers largely came to an end and, for many historians, the story ends there as...
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The Memoirs of Shah Tahmasp I: Safavid Ruler of Iran
“It occurred to my defected mind to write a memoir of my life and deeds … so that whenever our supporters read it they will remember us with a prayer … they should realize it is free of the appearance of dissimulation, lies and hypocrisy.” It is almost a...
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The Achilles Trap: Saddam Hussein, The United States And The Middle East, 1979-2003
The 2003 US-led invasion and occupation of Iraq is one of the most analysed events in the history of armed conflict. Although the US achieved a military victory against the regime of Saddam Hussein, few today regard the war to be a success. Indeed, it has come to represent...
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On Muslim Democracy: Essays and Dialogue
According to Tunisian politician Rached Ghannouchi, “The Islamic system is closer to a parliamentary one and is not an executive authority.” The leader of Tunisia’s Ennahda movement explains to Andrew March, an American political philosopher and translator of Ghannouchi’s works. “So, the government is a tool for implementing that...
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Empire of Refugees: North Caucasian Muslims And The Late Ottoman State
The period between 1850 to the start of the First World War saw an unprecedented refugee crisis strike the Ottoman Empire. An estimated North Caucasian Muslims, which included Circassians, Chechens, Dagestanis, Tartars and others sought refuge in Ottoman lands from the expanding Russian Empire. The story of how Istanbul...
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Bedeviled: Jinn Doppelgangers in Islam & Akbarian Sufism
Doppelgangers are the stuff of fantasy, folklore and tradition and are an integral part of popular culture; one only has to think of Jake Gyllenhaal’s 2014 film, Enemy, where a depressed history teacher discovers he has an exact look-alike who works as an extra in films, to see how...
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The City in Arabic Literature
Historically, the Arab world has always been deeply urbanised and cities have always been at the forefront of politics, society and economics. Given its importance, writers, thinkers, intellectuals, rulers, lawmakers and religious figures have always had a lot to say about cities and life in urban environments. Understanding the...
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Tahrir's Youth: Leaders of a Leaderless Revolution
The 25th of January has become something of a sombre date for many of us, memories of the euphoria, the youthful energy and excitement at a once in a generation revolutionary change have been replaced with a regret at what could have been. It was a day that began...
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Alexandria: The City that Changed the World
“Alexandria,” said Napoleon Bonaparte of the ancient Egyptian city, “more so than Rome, Constantinople, Paris, London, Amsterdam; would have been, and was meant to be, the head of the universe.” A glimpse of the splendour, grandeur and momentous history of the Mediterranean city is captured in Islam Issa’s new...
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The New Roman Empire: A History of Byzantium
For most people, the Roman Empire collapsed in 476 AD after the Barbarian statesman Odoacer declared himself ruler of Italy. The fact that the Eastern Roman Empire continued with its centre in Constantinople (present-day Istanbul) has often been treated as a mere footnote of history and not particularly important;...
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Sufis in Medieval Baghdad
There is a tendency to think about public spheres as modern socio-political innovations. German philosopher Jurgen Habermas, who coined the idea of public sphere in the 1960s, said it was a place that lies between state and civil society, where common people critically and rationally debate matters of common...
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France: The Long Goodbye
The end of French rule over Algeria came to an end on 5 July 1962 and is often seen as the symbolic end of the French Empire. However, since the 1962 withdrawal, France has militarily intervened in Africa over 50 times and, since 2011, has attempted to shape events...