Teaching
As a historian of the Modern Middle East and North Africa, at Rhodes I teach a wide array of topics. My courses range from the introductory surveys of The Making of the Modern Middle East and The History of North Africa: Politics, Culture, and Society to special topics courses such as Colonial Encounters in North Africa and Household and Family in the Middle East. In my classes, I encourage students to critically examine material for the presuppositions, theory, political viewpoint, values and personal prejudices that affected and informed it. I strongly believe that a real long-lasting reward is to be found in such an approach to studying. I also hope that a greater understanding of the history of the Middle East and Islam will enable students to make better sense of what is going on in the Middle East today.
Research
My research interests lie in the relationships between Islamic law and society. I approach the law as a cultural system of meanings, which dialectically interact with a particular historical reality and a specific society. My point of departure is that the role and importance of the law are inseparable from its connections to a certain human culture.
Currently, I am working on a book tentatively titled Mufti, Fatwas, and Family: Interpreting Patriarchy in Late Nineteenth Century Morocco that investigates a mufti’s interpretation of family life as expressed in his fatwa compilation. I explore his fatwas as a means of reconstructing his legal concerns, dilemmas, and attitudes pertaining to family life and kinship practices. My work seeks to offer an understanding of late nineteenth-century Moroccan social realities as understood by a local interpreter, a key figure in his society.
In my spare time
I enjoy traveling the world. Naturally, I have traveled extensively in the Middle East, trekking in Jordan and Morocco, spending summer breaks in Cairo and Istanbul and diving in Sinai. I enjoy camping, hiking, and working out. I look forward to more hiking vacations now that I have moved from the blizzards of the Northeast to the generally pleasant temperatures of the South!
M.A. Tel Aviv University, 1998
B.A. Tel Aviv University, 1993
History 275 – The Making of the Modern Middle East
History 276 – Re-Making of the Twentieth-Century Middle East
History 375 – Islamic History and Civilization
History 475 – Colonial Encounters in North Africa
"′If He Oppresses You, Be Patient; if He Dispossesses You, Be Patient′: Speaking for the Sultan in pre-Protectorate Morocco." In Great Muslim Jurists. Eds. Susan Spectorsky and David S. Powers. (forthcoming)
Co-author with David S. Powers "From the Mi′yar of al-Wansharisi to the New Mi′yar of al-Wazzani: Continuity and Change," Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam, 33 (2007), 235-260
“To Tawfiq al-Hakim from Taha Husyan.” In Sculpturing Culture in Egypt: Cultural Planning, National Identity and Social Change in Egypt, 1890-1939. Ed. Orit Bashkin, Liat Kozma, and Israel Gershoni (in Hebrew). Tel-Aviv: Tel-Aviv University, 1999, 148-154
“Rethinking Egyptian Historiographical Discourse: The Cultural Repertoire of Taha Husyan and the Formation of National Identity in Modern Egypt.” (in Hebrew) Jama’a, 3 (December 1998), 9-33