DEPARTMENT OF POLITICAL AND SOCIAL SCIENCES
Master's Degree in The History and Culture of Mediterranean Countries
Academic Year 2016/2017 - 1° Year

STORIA DEI PAESI DELL'AFRICA MEDITERRANEA E DEL MEDIO ORIENTE

Teaching Staff

Learning Objectives

• State builging, powers and institutions in the countries of the Mediterranean Africa and the Middle East affirmation of Islam from the spread of Islam to the Modern Age
  
  Through the teaching received in the first module, the student will be able to understand the historical roots of the religious and political-cultural specificity of the territories of Mediterranean Africa and the Middle East and to interpret historically the formulation of their practices in the Islamic world, that are more and more present today in the countries of the northern shore of the Mediterranean. It will also be able to interpret and report some of the historical and cultural traces in the territories of the Mediterranean world (such as Sicily, but also Spain or others, e.g. the Balkans) to the events of Islamization and the creation of an Arab-islamic (or Turk-islamic) political and cultural space during the medieval period
• The Mediterranean Africa and the Middle East from the birth of the Ottoman Empire to the Age of the Reforms
  
  Through the teaching received in the second module, the student will be able to understand the process of modernization of the countries of the southern and eastern Mediterranean and its structural and socio-political difficulties. At the same time he will increase his understanding of the historical process that created a conflict between the Christian and the Islamic world with the creation of a barrier through the Mediterranean, falsely interpreted as an opposition of religious and anthropological and not, as in reality, strategic, economic and political characters. Through the knowledge of the development of nationalism within the Ottoman state and the development of political ideologies, the student will have the opportunity to understand and clarify historically the birth of the rivalry that still oppose some of the peoples and states of the region.
• The countries of the Mediterranean Africa and the Middle East in the age of the European imperialism
  
  The knowledge of the processes of submission of almost all the territories affected by the ongoing imperialist control of some European countries allow the student to correctly interpret the bonds (not only historical, but also economic - and of society, among them the ties that intertwine populations) that affect the countries of the two shores of the Mediterranean. To name a few, the very close link today between Algeria and France, or the rivalries or claims related to the recognition of damage from colonization in the particular case of relations between Libya and Italy at the time of the Kaddhafi’s republic.
• History of North Africa and the Middle East
  
  This part of the course focuses on the major historical events occurred in the Mediterranean Africa and the Middle East since the Six-Day War (1967). The Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the Iranian Revolution (1978-79), the war in Afghanistan (1979-89), the décennie noire in Algeria and the First Gulf War (1990-91) will be examined by taking into account the internal developments, their connections and impact at regional and international level. This in-depth study will provide students with the basic knowledge to understand contemporary challenges in the Mediterranean area such as Islamism, the crisis of the nation-state, the process of democratisation, authoritarianism and the role of the army.

Detailed Course Content

• State builging, powers and institutions in the countries of the Mediterranean Africa and the Middle East affirmation of Islam from the spread of Islam to the Modern Age
  

  The first module of the course focuses on the general definitions of the history of the Islamic Mediterranean world in the first centuries of its formation, and on the main historical stages of the affirmation of Islam (as a space at the same time religious and political) in this area. It aims to define and analyze the characteristics of the main socio-political institutions belonging to the Islamic world (Caliphate, Imamate, sultanate, Shari’a) in their specificity and in their confrontation with the political and statual institutions in Europe.

• The Mediterranean Africa and the Middle East from the birth of the Ottoman Empire to the Age of the Reforms
  

  The second module is dedicated to the events of the territories of the Islamic Mediterranean world during the progressive affirmation of the Ottoman state, in particular from the apogee of the empire to its dissolution. Starting from the history of some specific institutions of the Ottoman state, the attempts of Reform and modernisation (tanzimat) during the XIXth and XXth centuries will be in particular examined and discussed.

• The countries of the Mediterranean Africa and the Middle East in the age of the European imperialism
  

  The third module is dedicated to the history of the formation of the state framework that emerges in the Middle East and North Africa area in the period of imperialism, from the nineteenth century to the Second World War, and more later to the analysis of the processes leading to national independences. A particular emphasis is put on the international agreements that lead to the partition of the territories of the Ottoman Empire between the European powers and the evolution of the question of Palestine between the two world wars, as well as on the process of formation of independent states and on their different institutional forms.

• History of North Africa and the Middle East
  

  This part of the course deals with the main events that affected the MENA region since the Six-Day War up to the First Gulf War. The course programme includes the analysis of political regimes and institutions, conflicts in the area and socio-economic transformations that will be examined within the general framework of the Cold War and the regional struggle for hegemony.

Textbook Information

• State builging, powers and institutions in the countries of the Mediterranean Africa and the Middle East affirmation of Islam from the spread of Islam to the Modern Age
  

  H. Halm, L’islam, Laterza, Roma 2003 [Bibl. del Dipartimento: AA.6.468]
  Documenti :
  - La costituzione di Medina (testo e commento in G. Gabrieli, Maometto, De Agostini, Padova 1989)
  - Documenti sulle forme istituzionali dello stato islamico dalle origini all’inizio dell’età moderna da siti elettronici
  - Schede documentarie e bibliografiche da Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd ed., Leiden-Paris 1954-2005
  - Cartografia storica da opere a stampa e da siti elettronici (in particolare: Atlante Storico, Atlasmundi.com)

• The Mediterranean Africa and the Middle East from the birth of the Ottoman Empire to the Age of the Reforms
  

  S.J. Shaw, L’impero ottomano e la Turchia moderna, in G.E. von Grunebaum, L’Islamismo. Dalla caduta di Costantinopoli ai nostri giorni, Storia Universale Feltrinelli, vol. 15, Milano 1972, pp. 21-146, con una particolare attenzione al par. VI, Rinascita e riforma (1789- 1914), pp. 114-146
  [Bibl. del Dipartimento: AA.1.9/15]
  
  Documenti:
  - Documenti sulle forme istituzionali dello stato ottomano (in particolare: testi delle costituzioni ottocentesche) da siti elettronici
  - Schede documentarie e bibliografiche da Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd ed., Leiden-Paris 1954-2005
  - Cartografia storica da opere a stampa e da siti elettronici (in particolare: Atlante Storico, Atlasmundi.com)

• The countries of the Mediterranean Africa and the Middle East in the age of the European imperialism
  

  M. Emiliani, Medio Oriente. Una storia dal 1918 al 1991, Laterza (Quadrante Laterza 176), Roma 2012, dal. cap. I al cap. V, pp. 3-170
  
  Documenti:
  - Documenti sugli accordi internazionali relativi alla spartizione del Medio Oriente e sulla questione palestinese da siti elettronici e da N.M. Toraldo Serra, Diplomazia dell’imperialismo e questione orientale, vol. I., Bulzoni, Roma 1988, appendice (pp. 240-293), documenti scelti
  - Schede documentarie e bibliografiche da Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd ed., Leiden-Paris 1954-2005
  - Cartografia storica da opere a stampa e da siti elettronici (in particolare: Atlante Storico, Atlasmundi.com; Atlante storico del Medio Oriente, “Limes” 2007 e Limesonline. )
  

• History of North Africa and the Middle East
  

  M. Emiliani, Medio Oriente. Una storia dal 1918 al 1991, Laterza, Roma-Bari 2012, dal. cap. VI al cap. XI, pp. 171-445.
  M. Emiliani, Medio Oriente. Una storia dal 1991 a oggi , Editori Laterza, Roma-Bari 2012, cap. 2, pp. 56-109.