State Formation and State Decline in the Near and Middle East

Rainer Kessler, Walter Sommerfeld, Leslie Tramontini, Rainer Kessler, Walter Sommerfeld, Leslie Tramontini

• Publisher: Harrassowitz Verlag
• Year: 2016
• Print ISBN:
  9783447105651
• Edition: 1
• eBook ISBN:
  9783447194747
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Ancient History
• Index: History

At present, numerous Middle Eastern states experience turmoil, uprisings, and crises. Chaos, civil war, and vain negotiations seem to indicate the beginning of massive state decline and the end of the Middle East as we have known it. Discussing state formation and state decline in a historical perspective renders important insights into the region's inner mechanisms: The Near and Middle East is one of the regions in which the earliest state formations of humanity took place; its 5, 000 years of history provide many examples of the formation, the continuity, and the decline of states. History carries its consequences into the present, and current zones of conflict cannot be understood without an in-depth understanding of its historical roots. The volume State Formation and State Decline in the Near and Middle East provides a broad overview of the Middle East's diverse history and development. While not aiming at explaining the manifold reasons of the region's current fragility, the contributions focus on the material prerequisites, the social, political, and cultural factors that influence the formation, consolidation, or decline of states.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Table of Contents
• Body
• Introduction
• Norman Yoffee: The Evolution of Fragility: The Resistible Rise and Irresistible Fall of Early States
• Walter Sommerfeld: Umweltzerstörung und ökologische Krisen im Alten Orient
• Daniel.T. Potts: Material Foundations of Early States
• Helene Sader: The Formation and Decline of the Aramaean States in Iron Age Syria
• Bruce Routledge: Conditions of State Formation at the Edges of Empires: the Case of Iron Age Moab
• Christa Schäfer-Lichtenberger: Ethnicity and State Formation in the Levant during the Early Iron Age
• Josef Wiesehöfer: The Role of Lingua Francas and Communication Networks in the Process of Empire-Building: The Persian Empire
• Rainer Kessler: Political Elites in Ancient Judah: Continuity and Change
• Wim Raven: The first Arabic Empire and Modern Scholarship, 622–661
• Afaf H. Rahim and Precious Zikhali: Cooperation over Trans-Boundery Water Resources Management in the Middle East
• Peter Sluglett: Still in the Wilderness? Iraq in 2015
• Short Bios of Authors