History of Modern Iran and Turkey (Sagha)

As two of the most populous and important states in the Middle East comprising almost 40% of the population of the region, Iran and Turkey have shaped the foundations of core regional trends from the 19th century up to until the contemporary period. As non-Arab majority states that are often fundamental in setting larger political trendlines, Iran and Turkey’s transnational influences on the Middle East directly impact models of modernization, development, and nation-building for the broader Middle East and Muslim world. They also influence the balance of power in West Asia, the Eastern Mediterranean, and associated subregions of the Caucuses, Balkans, and the Persian Gulf. This course focuses on core themes interlinking Iran and Turkey in the modern Middle East, including: secular state-building and development, ethno-nationalism, Islamism, global geopolitics, and domestic political competition for power. The course will also cover key moments in national and regional histories that have left lasting impacts for contemporary Iran and Turkey including the post-WWI borders of the Middle East, the Cold War and influence of NATO in the region, and minority dynamics such as that of the Alevi and Kurdish communities, the Islamic Revolution of Iran, transnational Islamist politics and, the influence of Shi’a reformism in Iran and Sunni Islamism in Turkey in post-Cold War era, as well as the aftereffects of the Arab Spring, Iran-Turkish rivalries in Syria and Iraq, and beyond. The course assumes no prior knowledge of Islam or the Middle East.