The Modern Middle East is a collection of translated sources covering the period from 1700 to the present. Sources include official and private archives, the periodical press, memoirs, western journalists' and travellers' accounts, literature, and official reports (including statistical data).Each document has been prefaced, translated and annotated by a specialist in the particular history and culture from which it was drawn. Enough information is provided so that every student can appreciate the value of a document and begin a further exploration either of its specific historicalcontext or its relationship to broader themes in modern Middle Eastern history, whilst scholars will find it of value for its use in teaching and discussion. Themes covered include the expansion of state power, changing gender roles, religious revival, nationalist mobilization, increasingparticipation in a wider global culture and economy, and the redefinition of traditions and identities.

Benjamin Fortna has studied at Yale University, Columbia University, and the University of Chicago. In 1996 and 1997 he was visiting lecturer in Islamic History at the Washington University in St Louis. He is currently Lecturer in the Modern History of the Middle East at the School of Oriental and African Studies, London. Camron Amin studied at the universities of Chicago and Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He has been teaching Middle Eastern History at the University of Michigan-Dearborn since 1997 and is the author of several studies on modern Iran. Elizabeth B. Frierson studied at the Universities of Vermont and Princeton. She has lectured at the University of New Hampshire and Princeton University, and was a visiting scholar at Cornell University. She is currently Associate Professor of History at the University of Cincinnati.