Essay
This essay offers an opportunity to reveal your insights and understanding of the period by engaging with pertinent primary sources.
Using primary sources found in The Modern Middle East: A Sourcebook for History, compose an essay in response to one of the topics listed below. This essay is all about how you use these sources – communicate your command and understanding of them to build a convincing academic argument. Use only the primary sources found in this sourcebook (the apparent use of other materials will be considered cheating), and the knowledge you have gained through the course (this can be considered common knowledge).
Topics
Essays should address one of the following topics:
Opposition: Argue and explain how the discourse of political opposition in the Middle East has evolved over the past two centuries or so.
Gender: Argue the ways in which ideas relating to gender varied in the Middle East in the early 20th century.
Ideas: Compare the ideas of the Muslim Brotherhood, Nasser and the Ba‘th Party.
Religion: What was responsible for the increasingly religious nature of governments and/or national identities in many regions of the Middle East since World War I?
Economics: Considering those parts of the Middle East once under Ottoman rule or Qajar rule (choose one or other other), characterize its modern economic development over the course of a period of time (between about 70 and 150 years). Which of these two regions, and the period of time you choose (within the stipulated limits) is up to you.
Minimum Requirements
To earn a passing mark, essays must fulfill ALL of the following:
Focus: Address one of the assigned topics in a direct and focussed manner.
Do not reinvent, alter or simply use one of these topics as inspiration – address it directly and maintain focus throughout.
Sources: Use at least three primary sources from the assigned sourcebook in a meaningful way.
Relying heavily on only one or two, with only limited use of a third, is insufficient.
If a topic calls for it (i.e. if it is appropriate), more than three sources should be used – including three is no guarantee of success.
The preface to a source may be considered, but this does not qualify as part of the source itself (relying heavily on a preface does not qualify as using a source ‘in a meaningful way’).
Evidence: Use specific evidence from the sources to support your arguments or ideas.
Relying on general characterizations can at best seem lazy and at worst suggest the use of AI. Be specific when incorporating evidence from the sources or risk a failing grade.
Referencing: Make use of proper referencing – failure to include BOTH properly formatted footnotes and a bibliography will result in a mark of 0%.
The use of in-text references or any other referencing system will not be considered adequate, and can result in a mark of 0%.
All references MUST include the specific page number(s) where relevant information is to be found. Failure to include page numbers, or including all pages of a single source (where this is not appropriate), can result in a mark of 0% – make sure footnotes contain specific page numbers!
Length: Be between 1,500 and 2,000 words (not including footnotes and the bibliography).
Title: No title page is necessary (the use of such is discouraged), but please include a title at the top of your essay that clearly identifies which topic you have chosen.
Sources and Referencing
Only sources from the assigned sourcebook should be used. When referencing such, please use the simplified referencing system provided below for all footnotes. A bibliography should be included at the end of the essay, starting on a new page. Bibliography entries can be formatted according to the same style as that used the first time a source appears in a footnote, though the full page range of the source should be listed at the end (including the source’s preface). The entries in the bibliography should be listed in alphabetical order by title (i.e. by document number).
First reference to a source: [Title of the Source] (trans. [First and Last Name of the translator]), [page number(s) for relevant information].
Examples:
7.5 The Brigadier and the Imam: two commemorative poems from Iran, 1928 and 1989 (trans. Paul E. Losensky), 488.
4.7 The Committee for Public Morality in Saudi Arabia, 1957 (trans. Guido Steinberg), 270-271.
6.3 The journals of an Ottoman student in England, July 1829 to January 1830 (trans. Paul Sedra), 403.
Subsequent references to a source: [Shortened Title of the Source], [page number(s) for relevant information].
Examples:
7.5 The Brigadier and the Imam, 490-491.
4.7 The Committee for Public Morality, 270.
6.3 The journals of an Ottoman student, 405.
Bibliography:
Examples:
4.7 The Committee for Public Morality in Saudi Arabia, 1957 (trans. Guido Steinberg), 268-272.
6.3 The journals of an Ottoman student in England, July 1829 to January 1830 (trans. Paul Sedra), 401-405.
7.5 The Brigadier and the Imam: two commemorative poems from Iran, 1928 and 1989 (trans. Paul E. Losensky), 485-491.
PLEASE NOTE
Your essay will be uploaded to Blackboard and visible to other members of the class. If you do not wish your name or student number to be visible to others, do not include them anywhere on your essay or in the file name.
All essays will be run through plagiarism and AI detection software.
