Creating new perspectives since 2009
Items by Usman Butt
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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 book…
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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; as…
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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 interest.…
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France: The Long Goodbye
OPINION: A strong anti-colonial case against France, with Niger as an example
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We are your soldiers: How Egypt’s Gamal Abdel Nasser remade the Arab world
‘Seven decades since his coup, and more than half a century since his death, the Arab peoples have scarcely begun to shake off the legacy of “Father” Gamal Abdel Nasser,’ as the sweeping regional history of Egypt’s former president concludes. Nasser was certainly an iconic figure whose persona shaped modern…
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I Cannot Write My Life: Islam, Arabic, and Slavery in Omar Ibn Said’s America
The transatlantic slave trade was the largest and one of the most horrifying crimes in human history, between 1525 and 1866, 12 million Africans were taken and transported from Africa to the Americas. The conditions were appalling for the enslaved in the ‘new world’, but for many, slavery was both…
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Imagining Palestine: Cultures of Exile and National Identity
Tahrir Hamdi’s new book Imagining Palestine: Cultures of Exile and National Identity explores the variety and complex ways that Palestinian writers, thinkers, activists and intellectuals have connected their memories to both the present and the future. If anyone is exiled, they are robbed of the chance to form new memories,…
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Sea of Troubles: The European Conquest of the Islamic Mediterranean and the origins of the First World War
Can the origins of the First World War be traced back to European imperial rivalries and growing influence in the Mediterranean from the 18th century onwards? This is the question that Ian Rutledge seeks to answer in Sea of Troubles: The European Conquest of the Islamic Mediterranean and the Origins…
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The Ottoman Scientific Heritage
The Ottoman Scientific Heritage is a three-volume tour de force that will prove to be a key reference point for historians of science and Ottomanists alike. Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, a former Secretary-General of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, has spent a lifetime dispelling a common trope that, after the sacking of…
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Memory Makers
Historical memory is at the forefront of Russia’s wars in Ukraine, Syria and elsewhere. However, this historical memory is not about things in the past that actually happened, or real history, it is a constructed past to fit the Kremlin’s objectives. Memory serves in place of ideology to give Russian…
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George Orwell and Russia
The 20th century had no more prolific writer on the dangers of authoritarianism than Eric Arthur Blair, better known by his pen name, George Orwell. Orwell’s writings continue to impact us today and, in Russia, his works continue to have a special resonance as Masha Karp explores in her new…
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Disenchanting the Caliphate: The Secular Discipline of Power in Abbasid Political Thought
Did secularism in the Arab world only really begin in the 20th century after European colonisation? Historians in both the Arab World and the West have long argued that secularism is a uniquely European phenomenon that was exported to the rest of the world through empires. There is no such…
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Authoritarian Century
Could the end of liberalism be the end of diverse multi-ethnic states, from Indonesia to the United States? Azeem Ibrahim seems to think so and aims to make the case that a post-liberal world is not only authoritarian, but also dangerous to the internal harmony of many countries throughout the…
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Discover Cappadocia, Turkiye
The Turkish region of Cappadocia has been a favourite among visitors to the country for centuries. Located at the heart of the Tarus mountains in Central Anatolia and with six provinces claiming a part of it, Cappadocia offers dramatic views, stunning nature, ancient history and great adventures. The name for…
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Taming the Messiah: The Formation of an Ottoman Political Public Sphere, 1600-1700
“Arabic is eloquence, Persian is wittiness, Turkish is abomination, and the rest is filth,” Evliya Celebi, the 17th century Ottoman travel writer, is reported to have remarked. The high regard for Persian was not merely linguistic appreciation, but also speaks to a school of thought, culture, belief system and political…
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In the Shadow of the Prophet: Essays in Islamic History
Few can claim to have produced a wealth of scholarship and achieved mastery over Middle Eastern history, but Roy Mottahedeh’s insatiable curiosity for the past has left us with a treasure trove of works. Reading essays that he has written over the past fifty years and collected together in his…
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Unknowing and the Everyday: Sufism and Knowledge in Iran
A group of men and women have gathered with an instructor to partake in a religious ceremony which, aside from worship, represents something broader in their lives: how to take the experiences from the session and apply them to everyday life. “I was in another world during Fana [a mystical…
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The Neoconservatives who paved the road to invading Iraq
The Iraq war was a major projection of American power in the Middle East following 9/11. For some the US-led invasion in 2003 was about answering the attacks. For others it was about taking Iraq’s oil and giving the US control over global energy supplies. But for one group, Iraq…
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Assignment China: An Oral History of American Journalists in the People’s Republic
In 2020, with the full extent of the coronavirus outbreak still unknown, Chris Buckley of the New York Times received a phone call from a woman at the Wuhan Foreign Affairs Office in the People’s Republic of China. It was a few days into the lockdown. “We know you are…
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Discover the Great Mosque of Xi’an, China
The Great Mosque of Xi’an is one of the largest pre-modern mosques in China which has served worshippers since the eighth century. It was destroyed and rebuilt at least four times and is mainly frequented by Hui Muslims, a Chinese Muslim demographic likely originating from mixed marriages between Central Asian…
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Inventing Laziness: The Culture of Productivity in Late Ottoman Society
Locals and foreigners alike often ask why people in the Middle East are “so lazy”. While such a view held by people from outside the region has its roots in racist stereotypes, many within the region hold a similar opinion, regardless of whether or not there is any merit to…
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Discover Tabriz, Iran
“A great city surrounded by beautiful gardens. It is excellently situated so the goods brought to here coming from many regions. Latin Merchants specifically Genevis go there to buy the goods that come from foreign lands,” the Venetian traveller Marco Polo wrote of Tabriz in 1275. Visitors have been coming…
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Markets of Civilisation: A Review
Muriam Haleh Davis’s new book Markets of Civilization: Islam and Racial Capitalism in Algeria explores the colonial roots of Algeria’s transition into a modern capitalist economy. But it is more than that; it is a critical examination of how race and racialisation by French authorities formed the development of the…
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‘We’ve got the largest climate conference to which nobody was able to get to by sustainable methods’
For many, planning a trip involves a few clicks of the mouse and painful decisions on whether you want to go with a vegetarian or meat meal on your flight. Not the case for Dan Hodd. The British musician and environmental activist undertook a journey to the United Nations’ COP27…