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The events of the Arab Uprisings posed an existential challenge to sovereign power across the Middle East. Whilst some regimes were able to withstand these challenges through recourse to coercive strategies, others were toppled. This book questions why some regimes fell whilst others were able to survive. It argues that this was a direct consequence of state building processes and the cultivation of particular relationships between rulers and ruled. One of the consequences of such efforts is the transformation of regional politics along increasingly 'sectarianized' lines to devastating effect. This book offers a timely and unique approach to linking the events of the Arab Uprisings and on-going conflict across the region through exploring the marginalization and manipulation of identities across the Middle East.

Rolf Strootman brings together various aspects of court culture in the Macedonian empires of the post-Achaemenid Near East. During the Hellenistic Period (c. 330-30 BCE), Alexander the Great and his successors reshaped their Persian and Greco-Macedonian legacies to create a new kind of rulership that was neither 'western' nor 'eastern' and would profoundly influence the later development of court culture and monarchy in both the Roman West and Iranian East. Drawing on the socio-political models of Norbert Elias and Charles Tilly, After the Achaemenids shows how the Hellenistic dynastic courts were instrumental in the integration of local elites in the empires, and the (re)distribution of power, wealth, and status. It analyses the competition among courtiers for royal favour and the, not always successful, attempts of the Hellenistic rulers to use these struggles to their own advantage.

From ancient Mesopotamia into the 20th century, \"the Circle of Justice\" as a concept has pervaded Middle Eastern political thought and underpinned the exercise of power in the Middle East. The Circle of Justice depicts graphically how a government’s justice toward the population generates political power, military strength, prosperity, and good administration. This book traces this set of relationships from its earliest appearance in the political writings of the Sumerians through four millennia of Middle Eastern culture. It explores how people conceptualized and acted upon this powerful insight, how they portrayed it in symbol, painting, and story, and how they transmitted it from one regime to the next. Moving towards the modern day, the author shows how, although the Circle of Justice was largely dropped from political discourse, it did not disappear from people’s political culture and expectations of government. The book demonstrates the Circle’s relevance to the Iranian Revolution and the rise of Islamist movements all over the Middle East, and suggests how the concept remains relevant in an age of capitalism. A \"must read\" for students, policymakers, and ordinary citizens, this book will be an important contribution to the areas of political history, political theory, Middle East studies and Orientalism.

\"On a torrid August day in 2009, I visited Celalzade Mustafa's final resting place in Istanbul's Eyèup district, in a neighborhood called Nisanca. The chancellor (nisanci) is buried in the cemetery adjoining the small mosque built for him by Sinan, the chief imperial architect. His brother Salih, a teacher, judge and religious scholar, is buried nearby, but the sepulchres of poets who received plots from this patron of poetry have disappeared. The mosque, adorned with glazed tiles, has changed significantly since the mid-sixteenth century. It was damaged in a fire in 1729, and was rebuilt following a more devastating fire in 1780. The mansion where Mustafa composed his works, welcomed fellow literati, and provided advice to young and aspiring secretaries is long gone, probably destroyed in the fire of 1780, if not before\"-- Provided by publisher.

This study examines how the historical state conditions long-run development, using Vietnam as a laboratory. Northern Vietnam (Dai Viet) was ruled by a strong, centralized state in which the village was the fundamental administrative unit. Southern Vietnam was a peripheral tributary of the Khmer (Cambodian) Empire, which followed a patron-client model with more informal, personalized power relations and no village intermediation. Using a regression discontinuity design, the study shows that areas exposed to Dai Viet administrative institutions for a longer period prior to French colonization have experienced better economic outcomes over the past 150 years. Rich historical data document that in Dai Viet villages, citizens have been better able to organize for public goods and redistribution through civil society and local government. We argue that institutionalized village governance crowded in local cooperation and that these norms persisted long after the original institutions disappeared.

Using centuries of Nile flood data, I document that during deviant Nile floods, Egypt's highest-ranking religious authority was less likely to be replaced and relative allocations to religious structures increased. These findings are consistent with historical evidence that Nile shocks increased this authority's political influence by raising the probability he could coordinate a revolt. I find that the available data provide support for this interpretation and weigh against some of the most plausible alternatives. For example, I show that while Nile shocks increased historical references to social unrest, deviant floods did not increase a proxy for popular religiosity. Together, the results suggest an increase in the political power of religious leaders during periods of economic downturn.

The Ottomans ruled much of the Arab World for four centuries. Bruce Masters's work surveys this period, emphasizing the cultural and social changes that occurred against the backdrop of the political realities that Arabs experienced as subjects of the Ottoman sultans. The persistence of Ottoman rule over a vast area for several centuries required that some Arabs collaborate in the imperial enterprise. Masters highlights the role of two social classes that made the empire successful: the Sunni Muslim religious scholars, the ulama, and the urban notables, the acyan. Both groups identified with the Ottoman sultanate and were its firmest backers, although for different reasons. The ulama legitimated the Ottoman state as a righteous Muslim sultanate, while the acyan emerged as the dominant political and economic class in most Arab cities due to their connections to the regime. Together, the two helped to maintain the empire.

This paper aims at advancing the conceptualization of leisure as a contributor to quality of life (QOL) in an international and multicultural context, based on an extensive and critical review of literature on leisure and QOL from a global, international perspective. Given the central role of culture in conceptualizing this notion, this paper gives attention to various cultural contexts world-wide. To illustrate the diversity of our societies, examples are introduced specifically from three culturally unique contexts in this paper — i.e., Asian, Middle-East, and Indigenous contexts. Also, some examples are drawn from other cultural groups in global and international contexts, particularly, in non-western contexts. Then, the final section of this paper aims at integrating and synthesizing the knowledge gained from this review to develop a tentative/working proposition about how leisure can contribute to QOL from international and cross-cultural perspectives. Specifically, based on such integration, this paper identifies and describes major pathways linking leisure to QOL. Overall, an overarching theme common to almost all cultural contexts examined appears to be the role of leisure-like activities as a context or space for creating meanings which then help to promote the quality of people's lives. Major pathways or mechanisms that can facilitate meaning-making and life-quality-enhancement highlighted in this review include: (a) positive emotions and well-being experienced from leisure, (b) positive identities and self-esteem gained from leisure, (c) social and cultural connections and a harmony developed through leisure, and (d) leisure's contribution to learning and human development across the life-span. Also, emphasized in this paper is the role of leisure as a context for realizing and utilizing human strengths and resilience. It is important, however, to stress that in people's quest for a meaningful life, the benefits of meaning-making through leisure involve both \"remedying the bad\" and \"enhancing the good,\" as shown throughout this paper. Despite these benefits, we should not ignore that leisure experiences are socially and culturally constructed and shaped by the inequalities of society. Thus, the reality of power imbalance and inequalities should be acknowledged and appropriately addressed socially, culturally, and politically. Particularly, providing culturally relevant and meaningful leisure opportunities for less privileged population groups world-wide is clearly a top priority.

This book focuses on the historical sociology of the Turkish state, seeking to compare the development of the Ottoman/Turkish state with similar processes of large scale historical change in Europe identified by Michael Mann in The Sources of Social Power . Jacoby traces the contours of Turkey's 'modernisation' with the intention of formulating a fresh way to approach state development in countries on the global economic periphery, particularly those attempting to effect closer ties with northern markets. It also highlights matters of social change pertinent to states grappling with issues relating to political Islam, minority identity and irredentist dissent. Tim Jacoby completed his doctorate and an Economic and Social Research Council post-doctoral fellowship in the Department of Politics at the University of York, UK. He now teaches at the Institute for Development Policy and Management at the University of Manchester, UK.