Several observations may be safely made regarding agriculture in the Middle East: it has continued to be the major economic sector in the region; it has developed conspicuously in the last two decades although the gains have been seriously diminished by the increase in population; agriculture still has a great potential for change and development, given the natural endowments of the region. The path to such development, if one can be identified, has not been clearly charted in the literature.

The last fifteen years have witnessed rapid growth in the number of students studying Arabic and of programs concerned with the teaching of the language. This is directly attributable to the awakened interest in the United States in the Middle East in general, and the Arab world in particular, as a result of the entry of the U.S. in World War II and its emergence as a global power with strategic, economical, and political interests in the area. This is not to say that the teaching of Arabic is a new phenomenon in the U.S. As an indespensible tool of Orientalistic scholarship, Arabic was taught for many years in a few institutions which offered programs in Oriental and Semitic Studies.

The pedagogical intentions of a course on the international relations of the Middle East can be said to be threefold: 1) it should convey to the student a minimal amount of factual information about the Middle East, 2) it should possess a degree of analytical focus sufficient to explicate and penetrate beyond sheer information and 3) it ought to possess sufficient conceptual structuring so as to enhance the possibility of the student being able to transcend a) time, i.e., getting beyond the immediate present and b) space, i.e., how is Middle Eastern international relations similar or dissimilar to other areas. All three of these elements are perhaps inevitably present in some degree in any effort to deal with the totality of Middle Eastern international relations but three different kinds of syllabi do appear to emphasize each element. Thus a syllabus which presents Middle Eastern international relations largely in chronological order with an emphasis upon the twentieth century will clearly maximize the students’ factual grasp as well as having the advantage of dealing with events and issues in their “natural” as opposed to analytical relationships. On the other hand, an issue-oriented syllabus would seem to foster analytical focus by increasing the saliency of events and compelling explanation. Finally, the adoption of an abstract conceptual schema and the attempt to apply it in the Middle Eastern situation would seem to hold the promise of getting beyond a preoccupation with the present and past as well as possibly relating the Middle Eastern situation in the student’s mind to other world problem areas. Three alternative syllabi embodying these three different foci are presented here: 1) a chronological one, 2) an issue-oriented one and 3) a conceptually oriented one.

Apart from the exposition and interpretation of Quranic teaching, which is a vast subject, the critical problems that have preoccupied students of the Qur'ān fall for the most part into four divisions. First there is the question of the origins of the Qur'an in the broadest sense. How did the substance of the book come to be and what sort of material does it constitute? From what kind of roots in the social situation or the personal life of Muhammad does it spring? What is the relation to the literary deposits of other preceding religious traditions? It may be argued that this problem might more properly be considered as an aspect of study of the Prophet since it has to do with the modes of revelation, the nature of prophetic psychology and experience, and the possible prophetic acquaintance with or dependence upon religious writings of Christians and Jews, whether directly or through informants.

Apart from the fact that anthropology has long been considered the bastard of the social sciences and the stepchild of the humanities, it is quite appropriate that a syllabus in Middle Eastern anthropology should follow those on geography, political science, and history. I cannot think of a single cultural anthropologist of my acquaintance dealing with Middle Eastern materials who has not urged, if not insisted, that his students familiarize themselves with the geography of the area, its ancient, medieval, and modern history, its religions, and its languages. Since most cultural anthropologists do field work in ar least one culture area, and many do it in two, the latter requirement is usually met with some degree of proficiency by anthropologists themselves and their graduate students. However, despite the obvious relevance of such great religious traditions as Islam, Christianity, and Judaism to the study of particular communities and regions within the Middle East, the acquaintance of anthropologists (not to mention students) with historical and religious materials remains sadly deficient, if only because of the richness of the literature available.

Technological inventions in recent decades having so totally revolutionized the nature and extent of communications between various parts of the world, it is difficult to appreciate how severely restricted inter-cultural knowledge was even in the almost immediate past. Translation has always been one of the few media available for the transference of ideas and emotions from one language group to another and, as we shall see, even it has been of remarkably limited range and influence, certainly between the peoples of the Near East and the English-speaking world. Fear and dislike of what is different and therefore seemingly threatening are natural human responses that have governed international relations throughout history; that translation has been and continues to be so limited an influence mitigating such fear and dislike is surely tragic. A brief survey of translation from Arabic to English in previous centuries will hopefully assist us in viewing the range of modern materials available in book form in a proper perspective.

The analysis of international event data has in the past several years become a major trend in quantitative and non-quantitative international politics. The upsurge of interest in event data parallels the attempt in the late 1960’s to test empirically the international relations theorizing of the 1950’s. Charles McClelland has argued forcefully that systems theory and other theories which focus on the structure, interactions and overt behavior in international politics can be conceptualized and operationalized in terms of streams of discrete events between the actors of the international system and its subsystems (McClelland, 1967 and 1970). These streams of conflictual and cooperative events - for example, verbal protests, visits, agreements and military actions - can be used to profile both the behavior of a nation and the relationships among two or more nations. As a consequence, the recent turn toward data-making and data-analysis has brought many students to international event analysis. This has been as true of students of comparative foreign policy as of international systems theory.

In a previous article I sought to appraise the field of Turkish studies, for the most part among western (predominantly American) scholars (MESA Bulletin, Vol. 3, No. 3, October 15, 1969). To fill out the picture, it is appropriate to also view the state of social research among the rapidly growing body of Turkish teachers and researchers. This article is not, however, a direct parallel to others in the MESA “State of the Art” series, in that it is not basically bibliographical. Such a review would require far more time, space, and knowledge in depth of several other social science disciplines than is currently available to me, because despite the remarks made below about problems of definition, the quantity and technical sophistication of work by Turkish researchers is quite large and is growing rapidly. Furthermore, since most of the research referred to below is in Turkish, the number of persons to whom a bibliographic review might be useful is quite limited. Instead, I think it would be more interesting to MESA members and other American social scientists to examine the characteristics and problems of what is probably one of the most vigorous social science communities in the “developing” countries, with a view (among other things) to helping facilitate increased cooperation between Turkish and American scholars in our common endeavors of advancing the state of knowledge.

The Library of the American University in Cairo invites Fellows of the American Research Center to become subscription members. For a fee of LE 6.000, borrowing privileges and full internal use of the library are granted. Of special interest to researchers are the Creswell and Debbane Collections. The Creswell Collection, containing over 3,500 volumes devoted to Islamic art and architecture, is a non-circulating reference collection which may be consulted by serious scholars. Letters of introduction should be presented to Prof. Creswell and to the Director of the Center for Arabic Studies by anyone who is not affiliated with the American University.