Making modernity from the Mashriq to the Maghreb

This volume seeks to re-examine the question of modernity in the Middle East, overturning the marginal place of the region in most renderings of the development of modernity. It builds on the many decades of critical response to the orthodoxy of Western-centric models in discussions of the dynamics of modernity in the Middle East, as well as the tendency to discuss contemporary issues in the Middle East with an apparent amnesia in relation to the past struggles of Middle Eastern societies grappling to find their place in the modern world. The following essays look again at the dynamics of modernity, going back to first principles in an attempt to open up the field to more useful lines of inquiry.