“‘The 1979 Moment’ in the Middle East” aims to reassess the importance of the multiple events that significantly affected the political, cultural and social trajectories of many societies in the region that make up the Arab and Persianate worlds. The interdisciplinary discussion spans topics that speak to the numerous effects of that year’s shocking events in the region and beyond, in an effort to rethink the importance of those events in a comparative and transnational manner. Many, but not all, of the posts originate from the presentations given at the conference “Reading the ‘1979 Moment’ in the Middle East”, held on June 15-16, 2017, in the framework of Europe in the Middle East – The Middle East in Europe (EUME) at the Forum Transregionale Studien, with the financial support of the VolkswagenStiftung and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
By Olmo Gölz Pinpricks: On Small Moments with Seminal Impact “Nineteenth-century European revolutions often started in opera houses; the Iranian Revolution can be said to have begun in poetry-reading sessions.”[1]...
By Friederike Pannewick In fall 1977, Egyptian President Sadat became the first Arab politician to travel to Israel on official business, where he outlined his plans for peace in a...
By Alp Yenen “Turkey is not Iran” is the title of Metin Heper’s 1981 book review of C.H. Dodd’s Democracy and Development in Turkey (N. Humberside: Eothen Press, 1979). The...
By Arash Davari A significant portion of those involved in the secularist left movement of the 1979 Revolution in Iran ended up living, and raising children, outside of Iran. If...
By Jan-Markus Vömel In 1974, a short piece of vivid prose entitled “Green was the Name of my Civilization” appeared in the Milli Gazete (National Gazette), the main organ of...
By Joseph Ben Prestel During the 1970s, ties with Palestinian groups occupied a prominent place in activities of the West German radical left. An increasing criticism of Israel along with...
By Shervin Malekzadeh As was the case for many of her neighbors, Iran’s path to salvation ran through the source of her perdition. The trauma of military defeat and the...
By Jihane Sfeir Islamist leaders are often former liberationist or nationalist ideologues who after being disappointed by the failure of nationalism or Marxism, turn to Islam as a mobilizing force.[1]...
By Yvonne Albers Years that Matter and the Phenomenology of the Periodical Form Those who study periodical culture (in the Middle East and elsewhere) know: The periodical form, generally, and...
By Behrooz Moazami The 1979 revolution in Iran is often identified as a pivotal moment in the Islamization of political and social movements in the Middle East, representing the forceful...
TRAFO – Blog for Transregional Research is a platform for scholars in the humanities and social sciences who are interested in transregional exchange and research on current issues. TRAFO is the blog of the Forum Transregionale Studien (Berlin) and the Max Weber Stiftung – Deutsche Geisteswissenschaftliche Institute im Ausland (Bonn).
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