Jews and Muslims in the Arab World

Jacob Lassner is professor of Jewish civilization in the departments of history and religion at Northwestern University. He is the author of seven books, most recently, The Middle East Remembered: Forged Identities, Competing Narratives, Contested Spaces and numerous articles on Jewish-Muslim relations and Near Eastern History. S. Ilan Troen is the Karl, Harry, and Helen Stoll Chair in Israel Studies at Brandeis University and the Sam and Anna Lopin Professor in Modern History, emeritus, at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. He is the founding editor of Israel Studies (Indiana University Press), the leading journal in the field, and the author or editor of ten books on American, Jewish and Israeli History. His most recent book is Imagining Zion: Dreams, Designs and Realities in a Century of Jewish Settlement.

Jews and Muslims in the Arab World highlights the effects of historical memory on the Arab-Israel conflict, demonstrating that both Jews and Arabs use stories of distant pasts to create their identities and shape their politics. Whether real or imagined, the past filtered through their collective memories has had and will continue to have enormous influence on how Jews and Arabs perceive themselves and each other.

Chapter 1 Introduction: The Uses and Misuses of the Past Part 2 The Arab World: Imagining the Past, Defining the Present, Anticipating the Future Chapter 3 The Arab Nation-State: Marking Modern Identities by Embracing Pasts Real and Imagined Chapter 4 Defining Arab Palestine: Historical Geography, Imagined Polities, and Sacred Space Chapter 5 "My Land [Biladi]": The Formation of Palestinian National Consciousness and the Quest for a Modern Nation-State Chapter 6 The Call to Arms: A Mark of Palestinian Nationhood Chapter 7 The Islamic Movement: Traditional Islam and Palestinian Nationalism after 1987 Chapter 8 Haunted by the Past: The Islamists and the Peace Process Part 9 The Modern State of Israel: Integrating Pasts Real and Imagined Chapter 10 A Lexicon of Near Eastern Identities: The Jewish People by Various Names and Foundational Narratives Chapter 11 Jews, Arabs and Modern Biblical Scholarship: Academic Politics and the Politics of National Consciousness Chapter 12 The Emergence of Zionism: A Secular and Humanist Narrative Chapter 13 Return, Reclaim and Reconstitute Chapter 14 Accommodation with the Arabs of Palestine Chapter 15 Epilogue