"This book gathers together leading scholars in the field to examine the impact of the First World War on the Middle East, so crucial to understanding the conflicts unfolding in the region today. In addition to recounting the international politics of the Great Powers that drew lines in the sand, contributors address topics ranging from the war's effects on women, the experience of the Kurds, sectarianism, the evolution of Islamism, and the importance of prominent intellectuals like Ziya Gökalp and Michel 'Aflaq. They examine the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire, the exploitation of notions of Islamic unity and Pan-Arabism, the influences of Wilson and American ideals on Middle East leaders, and likewise the influence of Lenin's vision of a communist utopia. Altogether, they tell a story of promises made and promises broken, of the struggle between self-determination and international recognition."--Provided by publisher.

Introduction: the political transformation of the Middle East 1914-1923 /T.G. Fraser -- The rise of Egyptian nationalism and the perception of foreigners in Egypt 1914-1923 / Amany Soliman -- The antecedents and implications of the so-called Anglo-Sanussi War 1915-1917 / Jason Pack -- British intelligence and Arab nationalism: the origins of the modern Middle East / Steven Wagner -- The First World War and its legacy for women in Iraq / Noga Efrati -- From anti-imperial dissent to national consent: the First World War and the formation of a trans-sectarian national consciousness in Lebanon / Mark Farha -- Historicising hunger: the famine in wartime Lebanon and Syria / Najwa al-Qattan -- The patriarch, the amir and the patriots: civilisation and self- determination at the Paris Peace Conference / Andrew Arsan -- A thoroughly modern Caliphate: could legitimate governance for the Middle East in the aftermath of the First World War have been found by looking within? / Louise Pyne-Jones -- From the Archduke to the Caliph: the Islamist evolution that led to 'The Islamic State' / Aaron Y. Zelin -- Some reflections on whether the Mandates were a slow burning fuse for toxic sectarianism in Arab countries / John McHugo -- Oil, state and society in Iran in the aftermath of the First World War / Kaveh Ehsani -- The new Arab intellectuals of the post-First World War period: the case of Taha Husayn / Bruno Ronfard -- A tale of two nationalists: parallelisms in the writings of Ziya Gökalp and Michel Aflaq / Michael Erdman -- Women, war and the foundations of the Turkish Republic: the vision of New Womanhood in Halide Edib Ad¸var's The Shirt of Flame (1922) / Sevinç Elaman-Garner -- The limits of soft power: why Kurdish nationalism failed in the French Mandate of Syria / Laila McQuade and Nabil Al-Tikriti -- The other jihad: Enver Pasha, Bolsheviks, and politics of anticolonial Muslim nationalism during the Baku Congress 1920 / Alp Yenen -- A point of order: a battle for autonomy in the First Legislative Council of Transjordan / Harrison Guthorn -- Drawing the line: Calouste Gulbenkian and the Red Line Agreement of 1928 / Jonathan Conlin.