DISASTERS IN MIDDLE EASTERN HISTORY (HIST282)

Department of History, Stanford University

2020

This course explores the history of disasters in the Middle East from the early modern period to the mid-20th-century. We will trace the evolving meanings of disasters and misfortunes by focusing on critical moments -- plagues, fires, earthquakes, wars -- to examine how people have responded to these events, labeled them, and devised strategies to live with or forget them. The course readings follow the evolution of policies and norms together with the articulation of new forms of knowledge and expertise in the wake of catastrophe. Over time, these encounters led to marked shifts in the political, economic, social, cultural, and architectural landscapes of the Middle East, the consequences of which continue to reverberate in our contemporary world.

The course readings follow the evolution of policies and norms together with the articulation of new forms of knowledge and expertise in the aftermath of catastrophe. Particular attention will be paid to moments when rethinking tragedy and time helped people assert radical agendas for reforming political, economic, social, communal, and gender relations in Turkish, Arabic, Greek, Armenian, and Hebrew. Two weeks will be dedicated to theoretical “excursions” to other regions and time periods. The conversation will focus on the questions scholars of disasters ask, the tools and evidence they use to answer those questions, and the form of their narratives and interpretations they create.