Includes bibliographical references and index.

New to this edition -- Part I. The advent of the modern age -- From late antiquity to the dawn of a new age -- Gunpowder empires -- The Middle East and the modern world system -- War, diplomacy, and the new global balance of power -- Documents: Evliya Chelebi : Seyahatanam? (1); Evliya Chelebi : Seyahatanam? (2); Draft Treaty of Amity and Commerce between the Ottoman Empire and France, February 1535; The travels of Sir John Chardin into Persia and the East-Indies; The travels of Sir John Chardin into Persia and the East-Indies -- Part II. The question of modernity -- Defensive developmentalism -- Imperialism -- Wasif Jawhariyyeh and the great nineteenth-century transformation -- Photo essay: The great nineteenth-century transformation and its aftermath -- The life of the mind -- Secularism and modernity -- Constitutionalism -- Documents: Commercial Convention (Balta Liman) : Britain and the Ottoman Empire; The Hatt-i Sharif of Gulhane; The Islahat Fermani; The d'Arcy oil concession; Algeria : the poetry of loss; Huda Shaarawi : a new mentor and her salon for women; Rifaca Rafic al-Tahtawi : the extraction of gold or an overview of Paris; Muhammad Cabduh : the theology of unity; Namik Kemal : extract from the journal H'rriyet; The supplementary Fundamental Law of 7 October 1907 -- Part III. War I and the Middle East state system -- State-building by decree -- State-building by revolution and conquest -- The invention and spread of nationalisms -- The Israeli-Palestinian conflict -- Documents: An Arab soldier in the Ottoman Army; Resolution of the Syrian General Congress at Damascus, 2 July 1919; Theodor Herzl : a solution of the Jewish question; The Balfour Declaration, 2 November 1917; Mahmud Darwish : eleven planets in the last Andalusian sky -- Part IV. The contemporary era -- The autocratic state -- Oil -- The United States and the Middle East -- Rebellion -- The Arab uprisings -- Conclusion: The end of an era? -- Documents: Speech delivered by President Gamal Cabd al-Nasser at Port-Said on the occasion of Victory Day on 23 December 1961; Zakaria Tamer : tigers on the tenth day -- Cali Sharicati : the philosophy of history : the story of Cain and Abel -- Ayatollah Khomeini : Islamic government -- Sayyid Qutb : milestones -- Statement of the April 6 movement regarding the demands of the youth and the refusal to negotiate with any side -- Yassir al-Manawahly, The International Monetary Fund.