Your book is organized around four major historical moments: the Early Republic, the Cold War, the Özal period, and Erdoğan’s neo-patrimonial era. How should readers understand the scope and ambition of this book?
This book should be read as a major interpretive history of modern Turkey. In that sense, it enters into conversation with two classic works: Bernard Lewis’s The Emergence of Modern Turkey and...
In Lebanon, the question of who possesses weapons is never merely a security issue. It is also a question of who governs, who protects the country, and who has the authority to decide between war and peace. This is why the approaching end of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon, commonly known as UNIFIL, is generating an unusually sensitive debate. The issue is...
The Emergence of the Charter
The German orientalist Wellhausen was the first to introduce the Medina Charter to Western scholarly circles. Most likely after...
Zbigniew Brzeziński notes that between 1914 and 1990 “mega-deaths” are estimated to have reached 187 million—roughly 9 percent of the world’s population at the...
One of the principal factors that has shaped the Muslim world’s general philosophy of history is the distinctive historical period known as Asr al-Saʿāda...
Just as sacred texts are subjected to tafsir, human-authored historical texts may also be interpreted through a similar process. Tafsir is a form of...
The Medina Charter — Introduction
The Medina Charter first drew my attention thirty-five years ago (1991). In the time since, it has regularly surfaced in...
In the ongoing debate in France about “republic versus democracy,” a common consensus has emerged: the republic answers the question “who will govern,” while...
Last month, a striking development emerged from the Turkish Parliament: a legislative proposal concerning Qur’anic translations (meals) was approved. One of the proposed amendments...
One of the most brutally felt dimensions of the sociopolitical crisis currently engulfing the Muslim world is the economy. Although economics is merely one...
