Near East Studies

This course introduces the other side of the Middle Ages, which is still too often overlooked in university curricula. Yet between the 6th and 11th centuries, the Near East—dominated by two rival empires, Byzantium and Islam—constituted the center of the Old World, while the Latin West was merely a periphery. The course studies the evolution of this region beginning in the 6th century, marked by the separation between the Byzantine East and the Latin West following the failure of Justinian’s reconquest, and by the emergence of the Islamic Empire in the 7th century, born of the Arab conquests. It concludes with the turn of the 11th century, when the Near East was completely reshaped by the arrival of the Turks, who, emerging from the steppes of Central Asia and recently converted to Islam, seized power in the Islamic world at the expense of the Arabs and began the conquest of Byzantine Anatolia. The end of the 11th century also marks, with the start of the Crusades, the moment of a problematic reunion between East and West, following five centuries of gradual estrangement and differentiation. Far from limiting itself to political and military aspects, the course addresses social, cultural, and religious dimensions, which are essential to our understanding of the past. In contrast to essentialist approaches, it pays particular attention to political factors in analyzing the religious crises that punctuated the history of this region.

This course takes a sociological approach to the study of inequalities in the region. The first sessions provide fundamental sociological tools to approach social inequalities, minorities, and minoritization. It then interrogates the discursive constructions of the Middle East and North Africa region as demographically homogenous (for example, homogenously Arab). Each meeting is based on the study of a factor linked to social inequalities and linked minoritization; under study are minority-groups as well as minoritization based on gender, socio-economic class, race, citizen/migrant status, urban versus rural habitation, language/dialects spoken, religion/sect. The course ends with a study of minority movements that contest their unequal status.