This book has a wide range of essays, all examining different topics on or about the end of the war(s) in the Middle East. Ranging from language and identity to military and the rise of the Islamic State, the chapters reflect just how much diversity there is when discussing the aftermath of World War I (WWI) in the Middle East. As such, it is a very useful book for those interested in how WWI did not just shape territories, but also social and economic mores in the Middle East and beyond. Indeed, “the Middle East,” as we know it today, was an outcome of the various processes that comprised WWI and its aftermath, including but not limited to the end of the Ottoman empire.
The editor in his introductory chapter lays out the groundwork for readers to understand some key issues that were relevant to the region between 1914 and 1923. “The catalyst [for the changes] was the war itself,” Fraser claims (14). The contributors examine the many ways the war led to changes in societal norms, territories and the formation of new states, religious practices, national identities, and language. The chapters are written in ways that are easy for someone who is not an expert in Middle East history to follow, while at the same time, providing detailed references for those who wish to read about issues raised in more depth.
Though the eighteen chapters deal with a diverse range of issues, a key theme that runs through almost all the chapters is nationalism and identity formation. Within nationalism, Amany Soliman examines the perceptions of foreigners in Egypt while Steven Wagner studies British intelligence officers who interpreted and, often, misunderstood Arab nationalism. The war itself as a causal factor for rising nationalism is touched on in many chapters, particularly those by Mark Farha and John McHugo. Islamist thought and the causes of sectarianism are the subjects of chapters by Aaron Zelin and McHugo. Authors Noga Efrati and Sevinç Elaman-Garner focus on gender and the legacy of WWI on women in Iraq (Efrati) and in the new Turkish republic (Elaman-Garner); thus the chapters move geographically between Egypt and Iran, Turkey and Iraq, constituting the notion of “the modern Middle East” for readers.
Other chapters examine the tussle for authority in Transjordan (Harrison Guthorn), Arab intellectualism (Bruno Ronfard), and how Iran dealt with the politics of oil (Kaveh Ehsani). Najwa al-Qattan's chapter on the famine in Lebanon and Syria, takes a social-historical approach to the war and compares hunger across geographical spaces and histories thus placing the events in the Middle East in relation to similar famines elsewhere. Through the chapters, the reader is thus led along the many paths and diverse outcomes of WWI in the Middle East, spanning both time and territory. The “Middle East” is not defined; instead, it is left to readers to note how it is imagined in various ways by the different actors.
The majority of chapters utilize new and existing archives for their arguments. Laila McQuade and Nabil Al-Tikriti's chapter on “the limits of soft power” draws on existing sources and also on Kurdish letters written to the French administration to explore the role of Kurds in the French mandate area of Syria. Ronfard's discussion of how Taha Husayn and other intellectuals negotiated a position between traditional ways of knowing in Egypt, and the post-WWI context is based mostly on the works of Husayn himself. Michael Erdman's chapter on nationalists Ziya Gőkalp and Michel Aflaq also uses primary sources extensively. Islam and how it related to other modes of identity-formation is central to McHugo's chapter on the impacts of mandates on sectarianism, and also in Zelin's excellent discussion of the intellectual history that resulted in the so-called Islamic state and its declaration of a caliphate today.
Authors also delve into popular culture, such as Elaman-Garner's chapter about textual representations of women in the new post-WWI Turkish republic as noted in Halide Edib Adıvar's novel Ateşten Gömlek or The Shirt of Flame (1922). Sources for Soliman's discussion of how foreigners were represented in Egypt between 1914 and 1923 include colloquial poems (zagals). Diaries and memoirs of those who are central in some of the chapters are also sources for data. As such, this would make an excellent resource for students and scholars of the Middle East who are interested in history from the perspective of people in the Middle East themselves, rather than an imperial history. While empire is another thread that runs through these chapters—unavoidable surely—it is not the main thread. Instead, the focus remains firmly on actions and actors in the Middle East and the narratives that unfold in these chapters are those of the Middle East peoples.
The book's chapters also question the notion of history as coherent and organized, with a teleological end goal. This notion of history is not something that is common today, of course, but narratives of premodern, “tribal” conflicts proliferate in discussions of the Middle East in the twenty-first century. These chapters question such narratives by outlining how existing concerns and issues are connected both to imperial histories and an outcome of the changes that took place after WWI. The book indicates how history is always histories and how the outcomes of this period were contingent and often challenged. Thus the current Middle East was not a product of historical inevitability, but a result of a series of different sets of practices which coalesced in a certain way. In other words, the book leaves open the possibility that because these practices emerged from a specific set of historical conditions and circumstances, they can also be challenged and, perhaps, un-made in the twenty-first century. History is flexible, as are identities and alliances, as the chapters in this book indicate.
The book is ideal for scholars and students of the Middle East, those who want to read about the impacts of the Great War and to note connections to today. It would work best in conjunction with a more general book on Middle East history in order to provide depth to questions of nationalism, language, identity-formation, and the development of local knowledges.
