2012

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Winning Titles

Rudi Matthee
Persia in Crisis: Safavid Decline and the Fall of Isfahan  
(IB Tauris) 

The decline and fall of Safavid Iran is traditionally seen as the natural outcome of the unrelieved political stagnation and moral degeneration which characterised late Safavid Iran. "Persia in Crisis" challenges this view. In this ground-breaking new book, Rudi Matthee revisits traditional sources and introduces new ones to take a fresh look at Safavid Iran in the century preceding the fall of Isfahan in 1722, which brought down the dynasty and ushered in a long period of turbulence in Iranian history. Inherently vulnerable because of the country's physical environment, its tribal makeup and a small economic base, the Safavid state was fatally weakened over the course of the seventeenth century. Matthee views Safavid Iran as a network of precarious alliances subject to perpetual negotiation and the society they ruled as an uneasy balance between conflicting forces. In the later seventeenth century this delicate balance shifted from cohesion to fragmentation.An increasingly detached, palace-bound shah; a weakening link between the capital and the outlying provinces; the regime's neglect of the military and its shortsighted monetary policies combined to exacerbate rather than redress existing problems, leaving the country with a ruler too feeble to hold factionalism and corruption in check and a military unable to defend its borders against outside attack by Ottomans and Afghans. The scene was set for the Crisis of 1722. This book makes a major contribution to our understanding of Iranian history and the period that led to two hundred years of decline and eclipse for Iran.

‘ The book demonstrates the author’s unrivalled mastery of the primary sources for Safavid history in Persian and in all of the major European languages. The author draws confidently on scholarship ranging from ancient Rome to modern Asia in defining and refining his theoretical and conceptual armoury. The reviewer describes the book as an exceptional work of scholarship, a very important contribution to the field of Iranian history and a study whose relevance and interest extend far beyond the boundaries of its immediate subject.’

Anonymous reviewer

Rudi Matthee is John A. Munroe and Dorothy L. Munroe Chair of History at the University of Delaware. Professor Matthee’s expertise is in Middle Eastern history. Research focuses specifically on Iran and the Arab world.

Sam White
The Climate of Rebellion in the Early Modern Ottoman Empire  
(Cambridge University Press)

The Climate of Rebellion in the Early Modern Ottoman Empire explores the serious and far-reaching impacts of Little Ice Age climate fluctuations in Ottoman lands. This study demonstrates how imperial systems of provisioning and settlement that defined Ottoman power in the 1500s came unraveled in the face of ecological pressures and extreme cold and drought, leading to the outbreak of the destructive Celali Rebellion (1595–1610). This rebellion marked a turning point in Ottoman fortunes, as a combination of ongoing Little Ice Age climate events, nomad incursions and rural disorder postponed Ottoman recovery over the following century, with enduring impacts on the region's population, land use and economy.

 ‘The great achievement of this book is its impressive interdisciplinary approach that not only establishes the relationship between climate and rebellion but also discusses convincingly how the ‘Little Ice Age’ triggered a crisis in Ottoman history whose impact was felt in the Ottoman lands and beyond. The author employs and analyses meticulously a wide range of sources, including comprehensive climatic data, to produce an innovative study on the new field of environmental history in the Near East.’

Anonymous reviewer

Sam White is a Professor in the Department of History, The Ohio State University. He has taught in many areas of environmental history, including both global and American surveys, as well as "big history" and courses on food, animals, and climate. His research focuses on how we can use both natural and human records to reconstruct past climate variability and extreme weather and how societies coped with them.

Runner Up

Sara Roy
Hamas and Civil Society in Gaza: Engaging the Islamist Social Sector  
(Princeton University Press)

Many in the United States and Israel believe that Hamas is nothing but a terrorist organization, and that its social sector serves merely to recruit new supporters for its violent agenda. Based on Sara Roy's extensive fieldwork in the Gaza Strip and West Bank during the critical period of the Oslo peace process, Hamas and Civil Society in Gaza shows how the social service activities sponsored by the Islamist group emphasized not political violence but rather community development and civic restoration. Roy demonstrates how Islamic social institutions in Gaza and the West Bank advocated a moderate approach to change that valued order and stability, not disorder and instability; were less dogmatically Islamic than is often assumed; and served people who had a range of political outlooks and no history of acting collectively in support of radical Islam. These institutions attempted to create civic communities, not religious congregations. They reflected a deep commitment to stimulate a social, cultural, and moral renewal of the Muslim community, one couched not only--or even primarily--in religious terms. Vividly illustrating Hamas's unrecognized potential for moderation, accommodation, and change, Hamas and Civil Society in Gaza also traces critical developments in Hamas's social and political sectors through the Second Intifada to today, and offers an assessment of the current, more adverse situation in the occupied territories. The Oslo period held great promise that has since been squandered. This book argues for more enlightened policies by the United States and Israel, ones that reflect Hamas's proven record of nonviolent community building. In a new afterword, Roy discusses how Hamas has been affected by changing regional dynamics and by recent economic and political events in Gaza, including failed attempts at reconciliation with Fatah.

‘an outstanding book of original scholarship, depth, nuance and insight.’

‘ …the book is written in a lucid and accessible manner and it wears its extensive scholarship lightly.’

Anonymous reviewer

Sara Roy is a senior research scholar at the Center for Middle Eastern Studies, Harvard University. Professor Roy specialises in the Palestinian economy, Palestinian Islamism and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.