Category: Middle Eastern Studies

Modern Middle Eastern history & politics
For your essay assignment, you’re tasked with connecting a current news story from the Middle East to concepts or topics discussed in Mehran Kamrava’s “The Modern Middle East.” Here’s a step-by-step guide to help you approach this task effectively:
1. **Select a Current News Story**: First, choose a news story that interests you from one of the suggested news sources. Since the assignment requires a current news story, ensure it’s recent and relevant to the topics covered in Kamrava’s book.
2. **Summarize the News Story**: Write a concise summary of the article in your own words. Focus on the main events, the key players involved, and the issues at stake. Keep this summary to no more than one paragraph, as per the assignment instructions.
3. **Identify Relevant Concepts from Kamrava’s Text**: Reflect on the news story you’ve chosen and identify which concepts or topics from Kamrava’s “The Modern Middle East” could be applied to understand the story better. This could involve themes like state formation, the role of religion in politics, regional conflicts, or the impact of colonialism, among others.
4. **Write an Analytical Response**: Now, write an analytical response that connects the news story with the Kamrava text. Here, you should not just describe the connection but analyze how the concept or topic from Kamrava’s book helps to provide a deeper understanding of the current issue. Discuss the implications of this connection, and if applicable, suggest what the concept from Kamrava’s book reveals about potential future developments or solutions.
5. **Frequent References to Kamrava’s Text**: Make sure your essay frequently refers to Kamrava’s text to support your analysis. Use direct quotes where applicable and explain how these quotes relate to the news story you’ve chosen.
6. **Provide Full Title and Source of the News Article**: At the beginning or end of your essay, mention the full title of the news article you selected and its source. This is crucial for the completeness of your assignment.
7. **Review and Revise Your Essay**: Before submitting, review your essay to ensure it is well-organized, clear, and concise. Check for any grammatical errors or unclear sentences. Ensure your argument flows logically and that you’ve adequately connected the news story to Kamrava’s text.
8. **Format and Submission**: Format your essay according to the assignment instructions—2-3 typed, double-spaced pages—and submit it to Canvas by the deadline.
This assignment challenges you to apply academic concepts to current events, developing your analytical skills and deepening your understanding of Middle Eastern politics and history. Good luck

The essay prompt is answering the question “which was more influential in the Arab world prior to WW1: the ideology of nationalism or the ideology of colonialism? at least 2 pages worth.

The essay prompt is answering the question “which was more influential in the Arab world prior to WW1: the ideology of nationalism or the ideology of colonialism? at least 2 pages worth.

One of the most beloved Sufi mystics in Islam is the Persian poet Rumi. Choose one of his poems (or an excerpt from his long Masnavi) that we introduced in class and write a short reflection upon how it speaks to you. You may also reflect upon what insights Rumi’s poetry has regarding the nature of humanity more broadly. In other words, how are his teachings meaningful for non-Muslims as well as Muslims?

Ecology of a Langauage Project Directions ; MY LANGUAGE CHOICE IS PASHTO. A a farsi dialect that is spoken afgantistan, iran, and pakistan
Congratulations! As of this moment, reading this assignment, you have 20 points for your paper! If you follow the instructions here, closely, you are guaranteed to keep those points! This is mind-boggling easy to get right! But, if you even deviate slightly from these instructions, you will lose all 20 of these points, and depending why, you may lose an additional 20 by not being able to take the third quiz. More on this, later.
Your assignment is to research and report on the ecology of a language. Important dates for this assignment are:
Choice of language/dialect submitted by September 19th.
Rough draft of paper is due by October 24th.
Finished paper due by November 21st.
This paper must be at least 4 pages in length.
Miss any of these deadlines and you will have one week grace period to make it up, after which you will receive a zero for the project. If you turn it on by email instead of on Canvas, you will receive a zero. Only assignments turned in on Canvas will count.
Ecology of a Language
For the purposes of this paper, “Ecology of a Language” refers to the cultural, social, and political setting of the language and its users, as well as geographical locations of its speakers. This includes issues of who speaks it, ethnicity and social status of its users, under what circumstances do they speak it, what other languages or dialects do they speak, and so on. Topics presented below will make this clearer. You must connect the language to this larger context, or you will receive no points. It is fine to write about the structure of the language, the phonology, etc., but if you don’t write anything about the culture contexts of the language, you will not receive any points.
Language/Dialect Choice
You can not choose your first or native language, or a language that is spoken in your home. You will choose to write on a particular language or specific dialect of a language. Your choice must not be one of the more wide-spread “languages” such as Spanish, French, Russian, Latin, Greek, Chinese, etc. Instead, you must narrow your focus to a specific dialect or variety of one of these or some other language; or you may choose a lesser-known European or non-European language. Dialects of wide-spread languages may be appropriate: For example, rather than “Spanish,” you might choose Cuban Spanish, or Andean Spanish. Instead of “French,” you might look at Quebec French, or West African French. You are also welcome to choose a dialect of English. This might be a regional dialect, such as New England, Southwestern, or Appalachian; or it might be a social dialect, such as Cajun, or Boston Brahmin.
You may, if you wish, report on a creole language. Some examples include: Sea Island Creole (“Gullah”); the West Indian Creole languages (Jamaican, Haitian, Belizean, Trinidadian, Papiamentu, etc.); South American creoles (Sranan Tongo, Saramakan, Ndjuka, etc.); Tok Pisin (Papua New Guinea); Krio (Sierra Leon); Kamtak (Cameroon); etc. It should be noted that African American (Ebonics), may be analyzed as either a dialect of American English, or as a creole language; if you choose this language variety, you must explain how you classify it, and why.
No dead languages will be accepted.
You must submit your language choice on Canvas, by September 5th. It must meet the criteria described above. Failure to do so will result in forfeiting all twenty points for the paper, and twenty points for the third quiz, which will be based on this assignment. That is a total of 40 points, 20% of the total points for this semester. If you choose a language that doesn’t meet the criteria above, you will have one chance and one week to make a new, acceptable selection. If you fail to do that, again, you will lose these points.
Topics you will cover
Here are the topics you will cover, presented as basic questions (Adapted from The Linguistic Reporter, Winter 1971, page 25). Some of these may be a simple “The language, with approximately xxx,xxx number of speakers, is not endangered.” But you must still include the topic in your paper. You must address every topic here in order to get your 20 points. If you can’t, you’d better explain why you can’t.
What is the name of the language variety (what do its speakers call it; what do non-speakers call it; what do linguists call it)?
Who are its users, and how are they grouped by nation, geographical location, class, religion, or any other relevant grouping?
What larger “language” does it belong to? What are the main closely related dialects?
What other dialects are employed by its users?
Is this dialect written? If so, how and in what contexts?
Is its use restricted or limited in certain ways, for example religion or ritual, written literature, legal proceedings, folk tales, and so on?
What issues of power and authority are relevant to this dialect?
Is the dialect endangered? If so, what factors might be involved? If not, what might be contributing to its vitality?
Organization
Organize your paper into sections based on the topics above. I want each section labeled with a heading. The introduction should clearly state your research. WARNING: If I don’t know what you are writing about by the time I finish the first paragraph, I will not read the rest of your paper, and you will receive no credit.
The body of your paper will address the topics above. Trust me, this will give you plenty to write about.
You can also comment briefly on the similarities and differences of the language you are examining and your first language. In the main body of the paper, describe your findings, illustrating with examples, where appropriate. You may also want to devote a more in-depth comparison of the language you looked at and Standard English. In the conclusion, summarize your main points. You may also want to point out areas where you feel that further research is needed to further understand the use of the language/dialect you studied.
Take these topics seriously! If your paper isn’t organized around them, it will not receive any points. If you find other questions/topics that are relevant to the language, feel free to add them.
To summarize this section so that there are no questions, organize your paper in this way:
The first paragraph must be a brief introduction. I need to know the name of the language or dialect within three sentences, or I stop reading. No hyperbole (“Gaelic is the most beautiful language in the world” or “Ever since Man climbed out of the primordial soup, language has separated us from the other animals.”). Trying to make it sound “fancy” with such writing will get you a zero. Such nonsense has no place in an academic paper, this isn’t a Disney “educational” documentary.
References
All references must be from valid, scholarly sources, and properly cited. All listed references must be cited in the text. Internet sources should be scholarly work made available on the Internet, or from print sources such as journal articles accessed through the Internet.
Basic Criteria for All References
If you violate one or more of the following criteria, you will forfeit all points:
You must cite at least 4 scholarly references. You will need to find sources for both language and culture, you may find that some sources only cover one or the other, so you may need to have different sources for different topics.
All references cited in the text must be on your reference page. All references on your reference page must be cited in the text.
All quotations must be in quotation marks and properly cited.
All references must have an author’s name. If there is no author’s name, it probably isn’t a scholarly source; don’t cite it! Travel and tourist guides, brochures, commercial websites, and other non-scholarly sources will not be accepted. Even Websites from universities and scholarly institutions are not to be accepted if they do not have an author’s name. Do not even think of citing Wikipedia. You may use Wikipedia to familiarize yourself with the basics and to find sources, but you must use real references.
The reference page must list references in alphabetical order as demonstrated on the link below. All references must be in the same font as the rest of the paper. Different fonts on the reference page is a sign that they were cut and pasted into your paper. References are not to be presented as end notes or footnotes.
All references must adhere to the guidelines at this link for Chicago Style. This link gives you examples for every possible citation situation, from citation page to in-text citations. The Writing Intensive mandate from the university requires that you write in the style that is the standard in the field. For anthropology, it is a particular form of Chicago Style. The Chicago Style Book provides guidelines for several ways to cite and list sources, but only the form at this link is the one accepted by Anthropology journals in the United States. This page is very clear, you literally just look for the heading describing the type of publication you are citing, and then follow the same form. Select this link to for guidelines to Chicago Style
Transcription system
If your paper provides written examples of the language, the transcription system you use depends upon what you’ve decided to discuss in your paper. If you are talking about phonology, such as differences in pronunciations for different dialects, you may want to use IPA transcription. If you are talking about syntax (grammar, word order), you can probably simply use the writing system of the language if it uses the Latin alphabet (but make sure you mention if there are any important discrepancies between writing and pronunciation); or if it uses a non-Latin alphabet you may choose to transcribe it using IPA or simple Latin letters. If you are commenting on the orthography (writing system), and have access to the appropriate fonts, you may use the writing system of the language. As an example, if your language of choice were Russian (not allowed for this project, you would have to use a dialect of Russian; or perhaps a study of мат words as used by a “gopnik” sub-culture), the sentence “I love you” would be written in Cyrillic as Я тебя люблю. Since most Americans cannot read Cyrillic script you should not use it in your paper unless orthography is an important issue in your paper. You may want to transcribe the sentence using IPA (especially if discussing phonology/phonetics), but it will also be acceptable to transliterate it into Latin characters:
Я тебя люблю. [Russian]
ja tjIbjja ljublju [IPA]
ya tyebya lyublyu [Latin Characters]
The key point here is to always make sure you give enough information. If you’re talking about morphology and different allomorphs are used in different phonological environments, you need to make sure this is clear in your transcription – and it may not be clear in the actual writing system of the language. When in doubt, use IPA.
Examples
When discussing data from a language other than English, give a translation of the sentence. In addition, provide glosses for the individual words in the sentence – the gloss can differ substantially from the translation. For example:
Ya tyebya lyublyu
I (nominative) you (accusative) love (1sg)
“I love you”
“I adore you”
Presentation
You may be an intelligent and perceptive person, but in the context of your paper, I don’t care what your “unschooled” opinions might be. Your conclusions must be scholarly opinions: they must follow from the facts you present, placed in the context of theory or other scholarly work on language and culture.
Be clear and to the point. Don’t try to sound “fancy.” Do not write a long and convoluted or “cute” or “clever” introduction. If I don’t know what language and/or dialect is the subject of your paper by the first three sentences, I will hand it back unread.
You are expected to write in a scholarly manner. Do not start a sentence with the word, “Well, . . ”. Phrases such as “in nowadays culture”, “since the dawn of time,” “throughout history,” etc. are both vague and generally wrong.
Don’t use a word if you don’t know what it means. Ignore your hardcopy thesaurus or your thesaurus software. If those words really all meant exactly the same thing, we wouldn’t have all those words.
Do not refer to authors by their first names. They are not your friends; you have no personal relationship with them. It will cost you points. Refer to authors by their last names and do not use titles such as “Dr.” or “Prof.”
Do not use the word “lifestyle” when you mean “way of life.” Individuals have a “lifestyle,” societies have a “way of life.”
If I point out these sorts of errors on your rough draft, and you don’t correct them in the final version, you may lose all 20 points. Further, if the first sentence is awkward, or ungrammatical, or simply does not make sense, I WILL NOT read the rest of the paper. And yes, first sentences can be the most difficult to write.
Plagiarism
Plagiarism on your draft will cost you all twenty points as I won’t accept a final draft if you plagiarize. And that in turn will cost you the 20 points for the third quiz, as well. If you don’t know what plagiarism is, look it up. Briefly, this includes, but is not limited to, quoting a source without citations or quotation marks, so that it appears to be your own. In other words, copying directly from a source. Paraphrasing often isn’t enough to prevent plagiarism; if you put someone else’s ideas into your own words, but they are not your ideas, that too can be plagiarism. Examples of what is, and what isn’t: “The earth is a sphere that revolves around the sun.” Unless you have copied that word for word, it isn’t plagiarism. True, you didn’t observe and determine this yourself, but it is common knowledge. However, if you wrote, “Iceland is a little over 900 miles west of Norway”, you must cite the information. I’m pretty sure you didn’t measure it yourself, and it isn’t common knowledge to the average American. If you can’t cite a source for that, it means you have taken it from a source that isn’t listed in your references; hiding sources usually implies using them for plagiarism in other parts of your paper, as well.
The use of ChatGPT, or any AI is essentially hyperplagiarism. Any detection of AI can result in a loss of all points.
All papers must be properly turned in through Canvas, where they will automatically be evaluated by Turnitin for plagiarism and AI. While there are ways to “fool” Turnitin, I am familiar with many methods, and Turnitin is constantly being update for these. Note that Turnitin may respond to common phrases specific to your topic, and to quotations you use. I will judge the validity of Turnitin results. Further, I am able to see the original sources through Turnitin. Whenever a student writes a paper that goes through Turnitin, it goes into a database. As a result, even unpublished student papers may lead a trail of plagiarism, including papers you may have turned in for other classes at CSUN. To sum this up – any case of plagiarism will result in zero points on the paper, with no possibility of resubmission. Further, I am obligated to report any such incident to Student Affairs for them to determine any further disciplinary actions.
Grading
As described above, you will either receive a full 20 points if you meet the criteria, or you will lose all 20 points and possibly the 20 points for Quiz Three. Note that the overall quality of your scholarship will be determined by other assignments, including Quiz Three. This assignment is one of following directions, demonstrating basic understanding and research ability, learning to write an academic paper, and honesty.

Write a short response to the following questions. Be sure to cite specific page numbers from the assigned readings, in the format (Safi, p. x).
According to Omid Safi, what were the Prophet Muhammad’s three most important movements during the Meccan period? What was the significance of each movement?

My morning greetings to all the dignitaries, distinguished guests, my esteemed teachers and
my dear friends. The subject of my speech is education. Through my speech, I want to tell
you about the importance of education and its contribution to our lives. Education is the tool
that helps to erase all our doubts and fears about all the challenges and joys of our life. It is
the instrument that makes us happy and peaceful as well as better social human beings.
Our teachers are like God to us, who help us in providing good quality education through
educational institutions. They do their best to teach us everything and prepare us for future
challenges. Our teachers come to erase darkness, fear, all doubts from our lives and help
create a beautiful future in this big world.
However, it means learning ways to be happy, make others happy, live in society, face
challenges, help others, take care of elders, behave well with others, etc. My dear friends,
education is like a healthy food that nourishes us both internally and externally. It makes us
strong internally. And gives us a lot of confidence by building our personality and giving
knowledge. Good education is the only way to remove bad habits, poverty, inequality,
gender discrimination and many social issues.
Good morning to my respected teacher and my dear friends. Friends, Education is the tool
that has removed all the differences between us and enabled us to move forward together.
It has made the challenging paths of our lives much easier to lead. Getting good quality
education is just like yoga and meditation as it also requires concentration, patience and
dedication. There is no difference between animals and humans without education.
Education is the most efficient tool to solve social, personal and family problems. It is like a
medicine, which has the ability to treat almost all diseases. Getting an education does not
only mean that we get a job, it means to have a good personality, stay healthy and fit,
maintain cleanliness, be happy all the time, treat everyone well, face all the challenges of
life, etc.
Education is very important for all of us to lead a happy life. Earlier the education system in
India was very poor and without any discipline. Only the children of rich people were
allowed to study, however, the children of the poor were not allowed to study in the same
school or college.