Middle East Research and Information Project

Critical Coverage of the Middle East Since 1971

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Michael Gilsenan

Michael Gilsenan is David B. Kriser Professor in the Humanities and professor of Middle East anthropology at New York University.

MER Article

'Akkar Before the Civil War

The plain and mountains of the ‘Akkar are the northernmost part of the Lebanon, beyond Tripoli and the Koura region to its south and east. Partly because of the insistence of some influential Maronites, and with misgivings on the part of only a few French critics at the time, it was included in le G

Michael Gilsenan • 8 min read

MER Article

Apprehensions of Islam

Bruno Etienne, L’islamisme radical (Paris: Hachette, 1987.) Gilles Kepel, Les banlieues de l’islam: naissance d’une religion en France (Paris: Seuil, 1987.)

Michael Gilsenan • 14 min read

MER Article

Sivan, Radical Islam; Kepel, Muslim Extremism in Egypt

Emmanuel Sivan, Radical Islam: Medieval Theology and Modern Politics (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1985.) Gilles Kepel, Muslim Extremism in Egypt: The Prophet and Pharoah (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1985.) Translated from the French by Jon Rothschild.

Michael Gilsenan • 4 min read

MER Article

Reflections on a Village in Time of War

It is easy to talk about “then.” The “now” is far more difficult. Memories confronted with that “now” take on a sense of fantasy and unease. A strange light is shed over the inner landscape by the changes in the outer. Since I speak of Lebanon, the light is also lurid. I am not sure what shadows it

Michael Gilsenan • 17 min read

MER Article

Memories of a Sentimental Education

I was supposed to set an example. Voluntary Service Overseas was in its second year in 1959 and two of us were here on a pound a week plus keep, to be examples. Nineteen-year-old examples. A year before university, you’ll have a wonderful experience. It was, too. The students in Form 2A were not wh

Michael Gilsenan • 9 min read

MER Article

Approaching the Islamic Revolution

Shahrough Akhavi, Religion and Politics in Contemporary Iran: Clergy-State Relations in the Pahlavi Period (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1980). Michael M. J. Fischer, Iran: From Religious Dispute to Revolution (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1980).

Michael Gilsenan • 7 min read