The sociology of the Middle East has been an expanding field of inquiry since the aftermath of World War II when the Middle East became central in key sociological debates on modernization theory and their critical responses. The Oxford Handbook of the Sociology of the Middle East connects this historical trajectory with the emergence of the sociology of Islam, inspired by Max Weber. It explores how within the global community, the Middle East has become a terrain of heightened concern within the post-Cold War context, where the promising rise of civic (and often religiously motivated) sociopolitical movements in the 1980s and 1990s has been slowly overwhelmed by the affirmation of jihadist networks, authoritarian states, and complex supranational security apparatuses. This foundational volume engages in a critical examination of the field, starting with a historical sociology of the making of the idea itself of the Middle East and linking it with the legacy of colonialism and the evolving dynamics of global power. In repurposing the sociology of the Middle East within a growing interdisciplinary multifield, the Handbook develops the critical argument that the exploration of social dynamics in the Middle East cannot be disjoined from the analysis of culture and politics. With a diverse and international list of contributors, the Handbook provides a critical resource for academics and students in the field by offering a comprehensive, if diversified, perspective to investigate longstanding regional and new transregional dynamics impacting on the life of people in the Middle East.

Armando Salvatore's profile page

Sari Hanafi's profile page

Kieko Obuse's profile page

Armando Salvatore is the Barbara and Patrick Keenan Chair in Interfaith Studies and Professor of Islamic and Interreligious Studies at McGill University. He has held professorial and research positions at Humboldt University Berlin, University of Naples 'L'Orientale,' National University of Singapore, Leipzig University, and Australian National University, Canberra. His most recent single-authored book is The Sociology of Islam: Knowledge, Power and Civility (Wiley Blackwell, 2016). Among his other recent publications is the chief editorship of the multi-authored work The Wiley Blackwell History of Islam (Wiley Blackwell, 2018). Sari Hanafi is currently a Professor of Sociology, Director of Center for Arab and Middle Eastern Studies and Chair of the Islamic Studies program at the American University of Beirut. He is the President of the International Sociological Association. He is as well editor of Idafat: the Arab Journal of Sociology. Among his recent co-authored books is Knowledge Production in the Arab World: The Impossible Promise (with R. Arvanitis, 2015). In 2019, he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of the National University of San Marcos. Kieko Obuse is a Visiting Researcher at Kobe City University of Foreign Studies, Japan and an Affiliate Member of the School of Religious Studies, McGill University. She holds a doctorate from the University of Oxford and was formerly a Lecturer at the College of Religious Studies, Mahidol University, Thailand. Her main research interests are Buddhist-Muslim relations, Islam in Japan, and Thai Buddhism. She is currently working on a monograph titled Buddhist-Muslim Engagement: Doctrinal Negotiations in Southeast Asia and Japan. She is a co-editor of The Oxford Handbook of the Sociology of the Middle East (Oxford University Press, 2020-2021 online edition, 2022 print edition) and the book review editor of The Journal of Religion in Japan (Brill).