New Middle East Cold War: Saudi Arabia and Iran's Rivalry

The competing powers of Saudi Arabia and Iran continue to redress and reverse the strategic imbalance and direction of the Middle East’s regional politics. The 1979 Iranian Revolution catapulted these two states into an embittered rivalry. The fall of Saddam Hussein following the 2003 U.S. led invasion, the establishment of a Shi’ite Iraq and the 2011 Arab Uprisings have further inflamed tensions between Saudi Arabia and Iran. Iran and Saudi Arabia have not confronted each other militarily, but rather have divided the region into two armed camps on the basis of political and religious ideology in seeking regional allies and promulgating sectarianism as they continue to exploit the region’s weak states in a series of proxy wars ranging from conflicts in Iraq to Lebanon. The Saudi-Iranian strategic and geopolitical rivalry is further complicated by a religious and ideological rivalry, as tensions represent two opposing aspirations for Islamic leadership with two vastly differing political systems. The conflict is between Saudi Arabia, representing Sunni Islam via Wahhabism, and Iran, representing Shi’ite Islam through Khomeinism. The nature of the Saudi-Iranian rivalry has led many Middle East experts to identify their rivalry as a “New Middle East Cold War.” The Saudi-Iranian rivalry has important implications for regional stability and U.S. national security interests. Therefore, this thesis seeks to address the question: Is a cold war framework applicable when analyzing the Saudi Arabian and Iranian relationship?

Secularism, Sharia, and the Turkish Financial Markets

The financial markets in Turkey provide a laboratory to help resolve these competing views. Islamic law or Sharia contains a number of proscriptions that directly affect financial practices. The payment and receipt of interest is prohibited; so are most kinds of commercial insurance. These interpretations provided the impetus in the Islamic world for the creation of a class of banks that sought to offer Sharia compliant services. The first Islamic Banks in Turkey began operations in the 1980s. Their entry was initially tepid, in no small part because of secularist principles. Islamic financial institutions could not overtly advertise their religious orientation. The country had no “Islamic” banks, only finance houses. They were not Sharia compliant but “interest-free.” Moreover, the government left them in an uncertain regulatory status and subjected them to restrictions on growth. In this environment, the Islamic banks remained a peripheral part of the financial system. With the election of the AKP in 2002, however, the environment for Islamic banks in Turkey changed. Limitations on branch networks and capital raising were lifted. The government removed restrictions on the issuance of Sharia compliant bonds. Officials from the Islamic banks were appointed to the highest levels of government. This Article does several things. First, it examines principles of Islam that affect banking practices, with a particular emphasis on deposit insurance and credit cards. Second, the Article discusses the emergence of secularism in Turkey and the introduction of Islamic banks into the Turkish financial markets. The Article then examine their evolution, with particular emphasis on the changes implemented by the AKP. Finally, the Article examines the impact of these reforms, and what that impact says about Islamic influence in Turkey.

The Minoans and their interpretations of nature in comparison with succeeding cultures

"Some of the finest interpretations ot nature ever to be expressed by an were painted by the Minoan fresco artists of Crete. Discovered only since the turn of the 20th century, the Kinoan Bronze Age civilization was amazingly progressive and notably modern. Apparently, the Minoans gained their high standard of living mainly through economic prosperity and secarity provided by a great navy. Arts, architecture and craft relice uncovered have been numerous, well-preserved and invaluable sources of historical knowledge"

The assignment of credit through bills of exchange and transmission documents in Andalusi Law

The exchange traffic was a practice that suited the modus vivendi of caravanners and traders in the Islamic world. The inclusion of the Iberian.Peninsula into the most important commercial routes of Muslims – such as the silk route through the North Africa – provides a very solid reason to deepen in the study of the sources that have been preserved about the role that certain credit instruments, which represented an alternative to the coin, might have played in trade centres.

Improving the Photoelectrochemical Response of TiO2 Nanotubes upon Decoration with Quantum-Sized Anatase Nanowires

TiO2 nanotubes (NTs) have been widely used for a number of applications including solar cells, photo(electro)chromic devices, and photocatalysis. Their quasi-one-dimensional morphology has the advantage of a fast electron transport although they have a relatively reduced interfacial area compared with nanoparticulate films. In this study, vertically oriented, smooth TiO2 NT arrays fabricated by anodization are decorated with ultrathin anatase nanowires (NWs). This facile modification, performed by chemical bath deposition, allows to create an advantageous self-organized structure that exhibits remarkable properties. On one hand, the huge increase in the electroactive interfacial area induces an improvement by 1 order of magnitude in the charge accumulation capacity. On the other hand, the modified NT arrays display larger photocurrents for water and oxalic acid oxidation than bare NTs. Their particular morphology enables a fast transfer of photogenerated holes but also efficient mass and electron transport. The importance of a proper band energy alignment for electron transfer from the NWs to the NTs is evidenced by comparing the behavior of these electrodes with that of NTs modified with rutile NWs. The NT-NW self-organized architecture allows for a precise design and control of the interfacial surface area, providing a material with particularly attractive properties for the applications mentioned above.

Los manuscritos ilustrados de la Biblioteca de la Junta

El hallazgo de más de un centenar de manuscritos de origen mudéjar y morisco al tirar una de las paredes de una casa de la población de Almonacid de la Sierra, situada en la provincia de Zaragoza, ha sido uno de los más importantes descubrimientos de manuscritos hispano-árabes, hasta ahora. En este artículo se analizan las ilustraciones de dichos manuscritos, sus funciones y posiciones del texto. Así se quiere mostrar la importancia del ornamento y decoración de manuscritos en la Península durante la dominación árabe, y cómo este concepto se ve reforzado por la continuidad de los moriscos en decorar sus libros; una continuidad que se puede ver estilística y formalmente, desde los andalusíes hasta los últimos moriscos antes de ser expulsados.

The Harvard collection of Ismaili literature in Indic languages: a descriptive catalog and finding aid

Ali S. Asani.

Compedium of astrology, numerology and fortune-telling : manuscript, undated

Iran Jewett manuscript no. 7.

[ Islamic hymns] : manuscript, undated

Title supplied by cataloger

Narratives to be recited at the commemorative assembly (majlis) held on the 10th and 20th days after the martyrdom anniversary of Imām Ḥusain : manuscript, 1890?

Title provided by cataloger.

State-building in Iraq since 2003: the Challenges and Lessons. Jean Monnet Occasional Paper No. 12/2014

Introduction. In 2003, Iraq was invaded by the US coalition forces that ousted Saddam Hussein’s regime from power before occupying the whole country. The intension, declared by the then American George W. Bush, was to ‘build a decent and democratic society at the centre of the Middle East’ that ‘will become a place of progress and peace.’1 In 2014, three years after the withdrawal of the last American soldier, however, it is difficult to overestimate or exaggerate what is at stake. National unity and territorial integrity have never been so seriously threatened since the country is experiencing the internal fighting in its modern history. Many parts of Iraq, including the northern oil city of Kirkuk, long claimed as an integral part of the semi-autonomous region of Kurdistan, are out of the control of the central government. Large areas in the north including the strategic city of Mosul were seized by the fighters of the Islamic State, an Al-Qaeda offshoot, formerly known as ISIS, who threatened to invade the Kurdistan region before being attacked by airstrikes by the US. They proclaimed a caliphate on both sides of the border with Syria, where they also control vast territory.

The crisis in Iraq and the twists and turns of Turkish Middle East policy. OSW Commentary No. 142, 29.07.2014

The spectacular offensive by Islamic radicals in Iraq this June has led the country to the verge of collapse, and is another scene of the deep crisis in the Middle East, in which Turkey is entangled. The immediate consequence of this is a severe crisis of prestige after the kidnapping by terrorists of Turkish diplomats and Ankara’s inability to resolve the situation; in the long term consequences include escalation of the Kurdish problem, and a further increase in threats to the security of Turkey itself as well as the fundamental principles of its foreign policy. Both Ankara’s options and its political will to actively respond to the crisis are extremely limited. Yet again in recent years, the current crisis, the broader situation in the Middle East, and finally the position of Turkey in the region elude unambiguous assessments and forecasts – these are prevented by the scale and growth of the reappraisals and tensions in the region. The only undoubted fact is that Turkey is strategically and irreversibly entangled in the Middle East’s problems, which are an important factor affecting the transformation of the state which the ruling AKP is implementing; and in the near future, this state of affairs will only deepen.

The radical Islamic militants of Central Asia. OSW Report, November 2013

Radical Islamic militants from Central Asia have ceased to be a local phenomenon. The organisations created by those groups (the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan and the Islamic Jihad Union) engage in propaganda, recruitment, fundraising and terrorist operations in states distant from their traditional area of interest, such as European Union countries, South Asia and the United States. Their ranks contain not only Central Asian Islamists, but also those from other countries, such as Russia, Pakistan, Germany, France, the United Kingdom, China, Turkey and even Myanmar. These organisations’ current activities and forms are multidimensional and complicated, characterised by combat versatility, structural amorphism, operational mobility and simultaneous operations in different fields and theatres. As a result of the universalization of Islamic terrorism, these organisations have been intensifying contacts with other international Islamic terrorist organisations based in Waziristan (mainly al-Qaida, Taliban and the Haqqani Network). A specific system of mutual cooperation has developed between them, involving the specialisation of various terrorist organisations in particular aspects of terrorist activity. The IMU and IJU specialise in the recruitment and training of Islamic radicals from around the world, and have thus become a kind of ‘jihad academy’.

Chechnya: Between a Caucasian Jihad and ‘hidden’ separatism. OSW Point of View, January 2007

1. Even though Chechnya remains the most unstable republic in the Russian North Caucasus, the open armed conflict known as the Second Chechen War, which broke out in the autumn of 1999, is gradually dying down. 2. Several years ago, the conflict in Chechnya could have been characterised as a war between Chechen separatists and the government of the Russian Federation. However, the nature of the conflict has changed significantly over the last four or five years. 3. Even though the intensity of fighting in Chechnya has abated in recent years, the conflict has spilt over to the other Caucasus republics such as Ingushetia, Dagestan and Kabardino-Balkaria. As a result, this is presently not so much a Chechen conflict as a regional clash between the authorities and the Caucasian (including Chechen) Islamists. 4. The Chechen militants are weaker now, and the conflict has changed from a struggle for national liberation into a fight for the Islamic cause; but this does not mean that Russia has ultimately solved the problem of Chechen separatism.

Jihad vs The New Great Game: Paradoxes of militant Islamic threats in Central Asia. OSW Point of View (Policy Brief), January 2010

Threats linked to Islamic fundamentalism have been hanging over Central Asia for almost two decades. Many believe that militant Islam has played a significant part in each major political crisis in the region, and Central Asia is perceived as an almost perfect environment for its further development. Such a picture of this region is a result of serious abuses and manipulations. The real threat posed by militant Islam seems to be rather limited, and its roots lie outside Central Asia. This region is unlikely to become a key front of global jihad. Nevertheless, this does not guarantee peace and safety in Central Asia, as the Islamic threat remains an element of the geopolitical rivalry in the region – the ‘New Great Game’.