The first work to offer 5,000 years of authoritative historical coverage of ancient and modern cities in the Middle East and North Africa—from their founding to the present—highlighting each city's cultural, social, political, and economic significance. Cities of the Middle East and North Africa: A Historical Encyclopedia is a comprehensive reference work on major ancient and modern cities in the Middle East and North Africa from their beginnings to today. In an unprecedented work of historical research, renowned experts Bruce Stanley and Michael Dumper provide 5,000 years of authoritative historical coverage as they trace the full trajectory of each city, discuss ties to other cities, and present a comparative analysis of the region through the lens of its cities. The A–Z entries feature extensive information about each city's location, geography, demographics, climate and environmental issues, ancient and classical history, Islamic history, post–1800 C.E. history, architecture, religious significance, cultural issues, society, municipal features, economic issues, and contemporary trends. Introductory essays explore urban general history and historiography, urban planning and modernization, poverty, interaction between cities, social welfare, culture, identity issues, and the place of these cities within the world economy.

Publisher Description

The Middle East, defined here as extending from Morocco to Iran and Turkey to Sudan, lies at the crossroads of three continents – Africa, Asia and Europe. With the largest reserves of petroleum in the world its importance is well beyond its physical size and population. Rapid urban growth has radically transformed Middle Eastern society in recent decades, but the associated problems are incompletely understood. This volume, first published in 1980, highlights some of the major issues of Middle Eastern urbanisation and provides a comprehensive statement about the current position of research. Urban origins and the nature of urban growth are discussed to provide a background to considerations of migration, employment, housing and retailing. The contributors suggest that planning strategies have hitherto proved inadequate with small towns being largely overlooked, historic quarters rapidly disappearing and water in short supply. Future research into all these problem areas is considered essential, but the research must be coordinated and utilised. Concentrating on practical problems, achievements and challenges for research, the contributions in this book, specially commissioned from active researchers in the field, will prove a valuable guide to recent ideas and developments in the Middle East.

The Middle East and North Africa form a bridge between Europe, sub-Saharan Africa, and Asia. This unique position has made it an area of rich culture and an important center for trade. Its immense energy resources are also vitally important for the global economy. This title explores how the region is working to solve its political and religious tensions.

The great cities of the Middle East and North Africa have long attracted the attention and interest of historians. With the discovery and wider use over the last few decades of Islamic court records and Ottoman administrative documents, our knowledge of Middle Eastern cities between the seventeenth and early twentieth centuries has vastly expanded. Drawing upon a treasure trove of documents and using a variety of methodologies, the contributors succeed in providing a significant overview of the ways in which Middle Eastern cities can be studied, as well as an excellent introduction to current literature in the field.

Critical examinations of efforts to make governments more efficient and responsive Political upheavals and civil wars in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) have obscured efforts by many countries in the region to reform their public sectors. Unwieldy, unresponsive—and often corrupt—governments across the region have faced new pressure, not least from their publics, to improve the quality of public services and open up their decisionmaking processes. Some of these reform efforts were under way and at least partly successful before the outbreak of the Arab Spring in 2010. Reform efforts have continued in some countries despite the many upheavals since then. This book offers a comprehensive assessment of a wide range of reform efforts in nine countries. In six cases the reforms targeted core systems of government: Jordan's restructuring of cabinet operations, the Palestinian Authority's revision of public financial management, Morocco's voluntary retirement program, human resource management reforms in Lebanon, an e-governance initiative in Dubai, and attempts to improve transparency in Tunisia. Five other reform efforts tackled line departments of government, among them Egypt's attempt to improve tax collection and Saudi Arabia's work to improve service delivery and bill collection. Some of these reform efforts were more successful than others. This book examines both the good and the bad, looking not only at what each reform accomplished but at how it was implemented. The result is a series of useful lessons on how public sector reforms can be adopted in MENA.