Creating new perspectives since 2009
Items by Usman Butt
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In the Labyrinth of the KGB: Ukraine’s Intelligentsia in the 1960s-1970s
A popular Russian-speaking Jewish satirist from Kharkiv, Leonid Osmolovskyi, had become a shadow of his former self by the 1980s. Once famed for his witty essays and part of a generation of radical thinkers, artists, journalists, poets, writers and historians who came up in the eastern Ukrainian city in the…
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MENA, China and the great human rights trade off
This alleged prophecy, attributed to French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte, is seemingly coming true. It is the 21st century and no region of the world has escaped China’s economic and political vision. At a time when America is increasingly inward looking and less interested in the rest of the world, many…
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Media of the Masses: Cassette Culture in Modern Egypt
In his new book Media of the Masses: Cassette Culture In Modern Egypt, Andrew Simon recounts how, on 12 June, 1974, US President Richard Nixon landed in Cairo for a “tour of peace” in the Middle East. Embroiled in the Watergate scandal at home, many American media outlets branded Nixon’s…
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Rivers of the Sultan: The Tigris and the Euphrates in the Ottoman Empire
“From a deep history perspective, Ottoman rule in Iraq — the land of ancient Babylonia — was a political oddity,” writes Faisal Husain in Rivers of the Sultan: The Tigris and Euphrates In the Ottoman Empire. “In its millennia-long history, Iraq was never ruled from Istanbul before the sixteenth century……
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The Unsettled Plain: An Environmental History of the Late Ottoman Frontier
How does history look at non-urban, rural populations who lived through the last century of the Ottoman Empire and the rise of the Turkish republic? Chris Gratien’s The Unsettled Plain: An Environmental History of the Late Ottoman Frontier takes us through the experiences of the inhabitants of a central Anatolian…
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The Nazarbayev Generation: Youth in Kazakhstan
In January 2022, Kazakhstan made international headlines when it was hit by waves of popular protests which were suppressed by the authorities in the Central Asian state. What began as protests against the lifting of the energy price cap and subsequent rise in gas prices, ended with hundreds of deaths,…
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Genetic Crossroads
Genetic Crossroads: The Middle East and the Science of Human Heredity by Elise Burton, is a sweeping history of ‘genetic nationalism’ in the 20th century covering Iran, Turkey, Israel, Lebanon, Egypt and other Arab countries. Throughout much of the previous century, western researchers were fascinated by the Middle East, believing…
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Leaving Iberia: Islamic Law and Christian Conquest in North West Africa
Jocelyn Hendrickson takes us on a historical and legal tour exploring Islamic responses to Christian conquests in Spain and North West Africa in her book Leaving Iberia: Islamic Law and Christian Conquest in North West Africa. How do a series of legal opinions born in the context of the fall…
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The Nature of Tyranny and the Devastating Results of Oppression
“Tyranny is the origin of every perversity,” claims the author of The Nature of Tyranny and the Devastating Results of Oppression. “Tyranny corrupts the mind by restrictions, and degrades religion by manipulations, and destroys knowledge by intimidations.” Reading these passages, it looks as if Syrian Abdul Rahman Al-Kawakibi is describing…
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‘We had a choice – war or diplomacy’ – MEMO speaks to Emad Kiyaei
On Monday, 29 November, 2021, delegates and diplomats from the US, China, the UK, France, Russia, Germany and Iran restarted negotiations on Tehran’s nuclear programme in Vienna, Austria. The talks are expected to last a few weeks and are the first official meeting to discuss Iran’s nuclear programme since 2015,…
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The Socotra Archipelago: A Battle for an Ancient Land
WATCH: UAE operating illegal tourist trips to Yemen’s Socotra
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Moral Crisis in the Ottoman Empire: Society, Politics and Gender during WW1
This new book by Cigdem Oguz, who teaches history at Bologna University, reveals the growing concern in Ottoman society during the First World War about the decline in public morality. From the late 19th century onwards, she writes in Moral Crisis in the Ottoman Empire: Society, Politics, and Gender during…
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The Last Great War of Antiquity
The author of The Last Great War of Antiquity makes the point that its writing was “no easy task… but given the importance of the war, it is worth making the effort.” The Persian-Roman War (602-630 CE) was one of the most significant to be fought in the ancient world.…
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The Dangers of Poetry: Culture, Politics and Revolution in Iraq
In post-World War One Iraq, Britain was the occupying power. At a celebration of Prophet Muhammad’s birthday in 1920 (peace be upon him) in Baghdad’s Haydar-Khana Mosque, blind poet Muhammad Mahdi Al-Basir recited his poetry from the pulpit: “Let them bend their necks before you in submission… Until they acknowledge…
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The End of Empire in the Gulf: From Trucial States to the United Arab Emirates
Tancred Bradshaw concludes in his new book – The End of Empire in the Gulf: From Trucial States to the United Arab Emirates – that, “The British imperial project in the Trucial States (the UAE) was an uncharacteristic success story.” He notes that most such projects in the Middle East…
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The Making of Foreign Policy in Iraq: Political Factions and the Ruling Elite
Zana Gulmohamad‘s new book, The Making of Foreign Policy in Iraq: Political Factions and the Ruling Elite, takes on the mammoth task of exploring and explaining how Iraq has formulated its foreign relations since the 2003 US-led invasion and occupation. Iraqi politics are often quite difficult for outside observers to…
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China’s Muslims and Japan’s Empire: Centering Islam in World War II
Kelly A. Hammond’s book China’s Muslims and Japan’s Empire: Centering Islam in World War II is published at a time when Islam in China is under intense scrutiny with regards to the ongoing persecution/”re-education” of the Uyghurs. While primarily dealing with Chinese-speaking Hui Muslims who are distinct from China’s non-Chinese-speaking…
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Sinews of War and Trade: Shipping and Capitalism in the Arabian Peninsula
Laleh Khalili’s book Sinews of War and Trade: Shipping and Capitalism in the Arabian Peninsula is a surprisingly seductive read. A cross between history, geopolitics and economics, with a bit of a travelogue thrown in for good measure, Sinews of War and Trade… is neither a specialist tome nor too…
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MEMO in conversation with Nasser Weddady
MEMO conversation live caught up with Mauritanian opposition activists, Middle East and North African consultant and entrepreneur Nasser Weddady. We opened with a discussion on the prosecution of former President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz who, after stepping down in 2019, has faced charges of corruption. As Weddady explains, the former…
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UAE: The scramble for the Horn of Africa
Since the 2011 Arab Spring the United Arab Emirates has been taking an active role in a number of hotspots from Egypt, Libya to Yemen. The Gulf nation has spent $26 billion annually on its defence budget since 2016 and this is expected to increase to $37.8 billion by 2025,…
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Deep Knowledge: Ways of Knowing in Sufism and Ifa, Two West African Intellectual Traditions
Deep Knowledge: Ways of Knowing in Sufism and Ifa, Two West African Intellectual Traditions by Oludamini Ogunnaike is a sweeping and ambitious book that operates on multiple levels with the aim of getting us to think differently about the foundations of knowledge itself. Through the traditions of Tijani Sufism and…
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MEMO in conversation with Reza Zia-Ebrahimi
Dr Reza Zia-Ebrahimi is a historian of nationalism and race at King’s College London with a particular interest in Islamophobia, anti-Semitism and French and Iranian national identity. The conversation was prompted by French President Emmanuel Macron’s recent comments about Islam being in “crisis” and policies proposed in France which appear…
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The Shadow Commander: Soleimani, the US and Iran’s Global Ambitions
It is almost a year since Iranian Quds Force Commander Qasem Soleimani (11 March 1957 – 3 January 2020) was killed in a US drone attack near Baghdad International Airport. His final months were apparently characterised by his growing arrogance and unshakeable power: “Soleimani now often spoke in a threatening…
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The Son King: Reform and Repression in Saudi Arabia
Social anthropologist Madawi Al-Rasheed’s new book The Son King: Reform and Repression in Saudi Arabia looks at the conflicts taking place in the desert Kingdom both historically and under the de facto rule of Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman, the eponymous Son King. The author examines the central issue of…