The history of the Middle East is a complex skein woven of peoples, religions, economic forces, and the natural environment. It is often claimed that history matters more in the Middle East, that people don't change easily and that they hold on to ancient identities, customs and even hatreds in a way that is particular to the region. While it is certainly true that groups in the Middle East, like people everywhere, tell their histories in ways that are meaningful to them and that reinforce their identities, it is a mistake to think that everyone tells the same stories, or that the stories we think we know are the only ones that matter. 

Much of what scholars in the West long thought they knew about the Middle East was based on essentializing assumptions about the region: it is a uniform and timeless place, where people are guided almost exclusively by primordial religious texts that guide everything about their lives, where women are oppressed and the society is ruled by cruel authoritarianism and mired in fatalism. This set of assumptions, called Orientalism, not only doesn't reflect the complicated and very modern realities of the region today, it also skews our understanding of its diverse and complex history. When we see everything that happens in the region through the prism of religion, for example, we miss the critical role of larger economic, political and social forces. These include things like change within societies, outbreaks of disease, inflation and other economic trends, innovation and adaption, Western imperialism and local resistance, and the rich internal life of communities.

We will look for essays and materials to share that fill out the picture that dominates our news and our textbooks, giving us a richer sense of the historical fabric woven by the peoples of the Middle East over thousands of years.