Prof. Meir[Meir Litvak] Litvak

Meir Litvak is a Professor at the Department of Middle Eastern History and a senior reserach associate at the Alliance Center for Iranian Studies at Tel Aviv University

EDUCATION:

 

1984 - 91:        Ph.D Harvard University.

Dissertation Topic: "The Shiʻi ʻUlama' of Najaf and Karbala', 1793-1904: A Socio-political Analysis"   Supervisors: Professors Roy Mottahedeh and Abbas Amanat.

 

1983 - 84:        Tel Aviv University. Studies for M.A.

 

1979 - 83:        B.A. Tel Aviv University

                        History of the Middle East. Graduated Summa Cum  Laude

 

 

EXPERIENCE:

2023                Director, Alliance Center for Iranian Studies, Tel Aviv University.

2021                MGSDII Fellow San Diego State University

2020 -              Professor, the Department of Middle Eastern and African History, Tel Aviv University.

2018 -  2020    Chair, Department of Middle Eastern and African History, Tel Aviv University.

2010 -  2019    Director, Alliance Center for Iranian Studies, Tel Aviv University.

2008 -  2020    Associate Professor, the Department of Middle Eastern and African History, Tel Aviv University.

 

2006 - 2010     Senior Research Fellow, Center for Iranian Studies, Tel Aviv University.

 

2005                Fellow at the Institute of Advanced Studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

 

1998 -              Senior Research Fellow, the Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies, Tel Aviv University.

 

1998 - 2008     Senior lecturer at the Department of Middle Eastern and African history, Tel Aviv University.

 

2003                Visiting assistant professor at the Department of History, Emory University

 

1997                Visiting assistant professor at the Department of Near Eastern Studies,                   Cornell University.

 

1994 - 95         Visiting assistant professor at the Department of Near Eastern Studies,                   Cornell University.

 

1993 - 98         Research Fellow at the Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African

                        Studies, Tel Aviv University.

 

                        Lecturer at the Department of Middle Eastern and African History,

                        Tel Aviv University.

 

 

 

AWARDS AND GRANTS

2016 -              Israel Science Foundation, research grant.

2010                Gold Prize, The Washington Institute for Near Eastern Policy Book Award.

2008 - 2010     Israel Science Foundation, research grant.

1999                Second Place: The Kuwaiti-British Friendship Society Annual Award for books published in Britain on the Middle East

 

1997                The Tammi Steinmetz Institute for Peace Research, Tel Aviv University, Research Grant: "Facilitators and Obstacles for the Peace Process."

1992                Tel Aviv University: Seminar for Comparative European History Fellowship.

1989:               Dayan Fellowship: the Dayan Center for Middle Eastern Studies.

1987:               Dayan Fellowship: the Dayan Center for Middle Eastern Studies.

1986:               Avi Fellowship, Avi Foundation for Research, Zurich Switzerland.

1984:               Fulbright Fellowship: Ameircan-Israeli Education Foundation.

1984:               Landau Prize for Research: Israeli Ministry of Education.

 

ACTIVE PARTICIPATION IN SCIENTIFIC MEETINGS

"State Centralization and Popular Resistance: Isfahan under Reza Shah Pahlavi (1921-1941)," Tenth European Conference of Iranian Studies ECIS, August 21-25, 2023

 

"The Politicization of Apostasy in Modern Shi`ism,” in Radical Trends in Religions, the Israeli Academy of Sciences and Humanities, July 3-5, 2023.

 

“Justice and Vilayat in post-Revolutionary Iranian Shi`ism,” at the Association of Middle Eastern and African Studies annual conference, November 2021 in Washington DC.

 

“Islamic Nationalism in Iran,” in the Iranian Revolution at 40, Tel Aviv University, June 2-3, 2019. Organizer of the conference

 

“Iranian Clerical Polemics Against Wahhabism: From Apologetics to Denunciation," in the Twelfth Biennial Iranian Studies Conference, Irvine, CA 13-17 August 2018.

 

"The Jews as Enemies of Schi'ism and Iran: New Trends in Iranian Antisemitism" in And End to Antisemtisim, University of Vienna, February 18-22, 2018.

 

“Liberal and Reformist Notions of Liberty in the Iranian Religious Establishment” in Rethinking Islam at the Turn of the 21st Century: Liberal Trends, Agents of Change and Reassessments of Islamic Traditions at Ben Gurion University, 5-7 June 2017.

 

"Modern Islamist Anti-Semitism," in Islam and Anti-Semitism conference at the Institut für Judaistik University of Vienna, 6-8 November 2016.

 

"Iranian Shiʻi Responses to the Salafi-Jihadi Challenge: From Rapprochement to Takfir," in the Eleventh Biennial Iranian Studies Conference, Vienna 2-5 August 2016.

 

"Iran and Saudi Arabia: Strategic and Religious Rivalry" in Saudi Arabia, the Gulf, and the New Regional Landscape, at Bar-Ilan University and the University of Haifa June 21-22, 2016.

 

"Merchants, Trade and Politics in Isfahan of the Late Qajar Iran," in Merchants, Bankers and Entrepreneurs in the Middle East and Beyond, Haifa: May 17, 2016.

 

Iran-Syria Pact and its Impact on the Middle east and the Belt & Road Initiative," in Current Situation in the Middle East and the Build-up of the Belt & Road Initiative Conference, North-West University, Xian China: May 7-8, 2016.

 

"Islam and Palestinian Nationalism: From Mobilization to Identity" in: The American Historical Association Annual Conference, presidential panel: Religion and Secularism in Nationalist Politics in the 20th Century, Atlanta: January 7-10, 2016.

 

"Shii Responses to the Salafi Challenge," in World Summit on Counter-Terrorism Shifting Sands of Terrorism - ICT’s 15th Annual International Conference September 7-10, 2015, Herzliya, Israel.

 

"The Decline of the West in Contemporary Iranian Discourse," in "Iran and the West: Converging Perspectives," Warwick University July 1-3, 2015. Submitted a Hebrew version of the paper at the Middle East and Islamic Studies Association of Israel, May 14, 2015.

 

"Rouhani's Iran: How Real is the Change?" Keynote Address in the Association for the Study of the Middle East and Africa, Seventh Annual Conference, Washington DC, October 30 - November 1, 2014.

 

"The Sunni-Shi`i Rift and the Arab Upheaval" in “U.S.-China-Israel Trilateral Roundtable: Shared Interests in Promoting Stability and Coexistence in the Middle East,” Brookings Institution and Israel Institute, Washington DC, February 2014.

 

"Nationalism and Islam in a Provincial Setting: Late Qajar Isfahan," in Constructing Nationalism in Iran: From the Qajars to the Islamic Republic, Tel Aviv University, 10-12 June 2013.

 

"Martyrdom in Shi`i Islam" in With God in Our Side: Holy War and Sacred Struggle in Judaism, Christianity and Islam, Tel Aviv University, 2-4 June 2013.

 

“Israel and the Arab Upheaval," in The Middle East Unfolding: Dreams and Drama in the Early Twenty-First Century, Otago University, Foreign Policy School, 22-24 June 2012.

 

"Martyrdom is Bliss: Martyrdom in Shi’i Discourse under the Islamic Republic of Iran," in Sacrifice and Death in Modern Islam: History, Ethos and Politics, Hebrew University, Jerusalem, 11-13 June 2012.

 

"Antisemitism in Iran and Holocaust Denial," in Antisemitism and the phenomenon of Holocaust denial, Dublin:  Trinity College Dublin and University College Dublin, 17-19 November 2010.

 

"Iranian anti-Semitism: Continuities and Changes," in "Global Antisemitism: A Crisis of Modernity," Yale University: the Yale Initiative for the Interdisciplinary Study of Antisemitism, 23-25 August 2010.

 

"Freedom in Shi`i Thought: From Khomeini to Khatemi," in Shi`ism: Theology, Law and Culture," Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Tel Aviv University, June 2010.

 

"History, Nationalism and Religion in the Palestinian National Movement," in Judaism, Islam and the Arab-Israeli Conflict, Ben Gurion University, May 2010.

 

"Violence in Radical Islam: Text or Context?," in World Congress of Jewish Studies, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, August 2009.

 

"From 'Gharbzedegi' to the 'Fall of the West' in Iranian Religious Thought." In The Iranian Revolution: Thirty Years After, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv University, June 2009.

 

"Anti-Semitism in the Islamic Republic of Iran," in Understanding the Challenge of Iran Conference, Yale University, May 2008.

 

"Shi`i and Sunni `Ulama in Ottoman Iraq," at the joint international workshop of the Dayan Center and the Center for Iranian Studies on the Sunni-Shi`i Divide in History,  Tel Aviv University, June 2007.

 

"Concepts of freedom in modern Shi`i thought," in Modern Iran: Religious Thought andSociety, Tel Aviv University, June 2006.

 

"Anti-Shi`i Polemics in Modern Salafi Literature," in ''Exclusivity and Universality in Shi'i Islam'' Hebrew University of Jerusalem, February 2006.

 

"The Canaanite Past in Palestinian collective memory" at the the Hebrew University Institute of Advanced Studies seminar on religion and nationalism, December  2005.

 

"Holocaust Denial in the Arab World: Motifs and Developments," The Meeting of Generation: The Formation of the Holocaust Memory in the 21st Century, Haifa University, April 2004.

 

 “Iran and the Holocaust: Anti-Semitism and Anti-Zionism,” in Convergence and Divergence: Anti-Semitism and Anti-Zionism in Historical Perspective, Tauber Institute at Brandeis University, March 2004.

 

"Ghettoes and Judenratts in Arab Eyes" in The Warsaw Ghetto Rebellion: The Past Touches the Present, Haifa University, April 2003.

 

“Modern Islamist Concepts of Freedom,” in The Israeli Democracy Institute Conference on Political Theology, Jerusalem, Israel, March 2003.

 

 “Islamic Democracy and Western Democracy: The Islamist Debate,” in Middle Eastern Societies and the West: Accommodation or Clash of Civilizations, Tel Aviv University, December 2002.

 

 “The Representation of the Holocaust in the Arab World” After Eichmann: Collective Memory and the Holocaust since 1961, University of Southampton, UK, April 2002.

 

“Democracy or Velayat-e Faqih: The Clerical Debate in Contemporary Iran” in the British Society for Middle Eastern Studies Annual Conference, University of Edinburgh June 2001.

 

 “Madrasa and Learning in Nineteenth Century Najaf and Karbala,” in Twelver Shi`ism in Modern Times, Albert-Ludwig University, Freiburg, October 1999.

 

 “Israeli Constructions of Palestinian Identity,” The Study of the Middle East in Israel, The Van Leer Institute, Jerusalem June ‏1999.

 

 “A Failed Manipulation? The British, the Oudh Bequest and the Shi` `Ulama’ of Najaf and Karbala’,” Middle Eastern Studies Association of North America Annual Conference, December 1998.

 

"The Islamization of Palestinian Identity: the Case of Hamas," State and Radical Movements in the Middle East, University of Haifa, May 1996.

 

"Hamas: The Logic of Terrorism," in Between Jihad and Peace: Islamic Movements and the Peace Process, Tel Aviv University, March 1996.

 

"The PLO and Local Leadership in the Territories: an Historical and Comparative Analysis," in "The PLO and Israel, 1964-1994: From Armed Struggle to Accommodation" The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, May 1994.

 

 

My major field of research is the linkage between religion, society and politics in modern Iranian Shi`ism and the linkage between nationalism and religion in the Muslim Middle East. Nationalism and religion always facinated me as the two most powerful ideologies, which motivated to action millions of people, and which were in many ways responsible for the worst acts of mass murder in modern history. Another area of research, which preoccupied me has been Antisemitism in Iran and in the Arab world, particularly attitudes towards the Holocaust. I have also written on the ideology of the Palestinian Hamas movement. 

Books and Monographs

Know Thy Enemy: Evolving Attitudes towards "Others" in Modern Shiʻi Thought and Practice (Leiden: Brill, 2021)

 

Meir Litvak and Esther Webman, From Empathy to Denial: Arabic Responses to the Holocaust (London: Hurst Publishers Co and New York: Columbia University Press, 2009); Hebrew edition was published by Magnes and Yad Vashem press in 2015.

 

Co-author with Moshe Aharonov, Iran: From a Persian Empire to an Islamic Revolution (Tel Aviv: Open University of Israel, 2014).

 

Meir Litvak and Esther Webman, Arab Representations of the Holocaust: An Obstacle to Peace? (Tel Aviv: Tami Steinmetz Institute of Peace Studies, 2006, in Hebrew).

 

Shi`i Scholars of Nineteenth Century Iraq: The ^cUlama’ of  Najaf and Karbala’ (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998), xiii + 255 pages.

 

 

Edited Volumes

Constructing Nationalism in Iran: from the Qajars to the Islamic Republic (London: Routledge, 2017)

 

Co-Editor with Meir Hatina, Concepts of Martyrdom in Modern Islam: Political and Social Perspectives of Sacrifice and Death (London: I.B. Tauris, 2016).

 

Co-Editor with Bruce Maddy-Weitzman, Nationalism, Identity and Politics: Israel and the Middle East - Studies in Honor of Prof. Asher Susser (Tel Aviv: Dayan Center for Middle Eastern Studies, 2014, English and Hebrew).

 

Co-Editor with Ofra Bengio, Division and Ecumenism in Islam: The Sunna and Shi‘a in History (New York: Palgrave-McMillan, 2011).

 

Palestinian Collective Memory and National Identity (New York: Palgrave-McMillan, 2009).

 

Middle Eastern Societies and the West: Accommodation or Clash of Civilizations? (Tel Aviv: Dayan Center for Middle Eastern Studies, 2007).

 

Meir Litvak and Ora Limor (eds.), Religious Fanaticism (Jerusalem: Zalman Shazar Center, 2007, in Hebrew).

 

Islam and Democracy in the Arab World (Tel Aviv: Ha-Kibutz ha-Meuchad, 1997 in Hebrew).

 

Articles

Published

“Justice and Vilayat in Post-Revolutionary Iranian Shi`ism,” Middle Eastern Studies (2022), DOI: 10.1080/00263206.2022.2098470

 

“God’s Favored Nation: The New Religious Nationalism in Iran,” Religions 11:10 (2020): 541-560.

 

“Nationalism in Iran from the Pahlavis to the Islamic Republic: Continuity and Change,” Zemanim,143  (2020, Hebrew).

 

"From Gharbzedegi to the Decline of the West: Attitudes towards the West in Modern Iranian Discourse," Alpayim Ve'od: Rethinkng Culture in Israel 1(Winter, 2018, Hebrew), pp. 99-125.​

 

"Netanyahu and the Mufti: Hajj Amin al-Husseini as Prime Instigator of the Destruction of European Jewry or Eager Accessory?," Israel Journal of Foreign Affairs Vol. 9 Issue 3 (2015), pp. 459-464.

 

"Freedom in the Iranian Clerical Debate," in AHA Roundtable: Religious Freedom in Islamic History, Perspectives on History (Summer 2015), Electronic Edition, http://historians.org/publications-and-directories/perspectives-on-history/summer-2015.

 

"`Martyrdom is Life': Jihad and Martyrdom in the Ideology of Hamas" Studies in Conflict and Terrorism Vol. 33 No. 8(2010), pp. 716-734. [A Hebrew version appeared as "Jihad and Sacrifice in the Doctrine of Hamas," in Yosef Kostiner (ed.) Jihad: Ideological Roots (Tel Aviv: Dayan Center for Middle Eastern Studies, 2012), pp. 159-184.

 

"The Islamic Republic of Iran and the Holocaust: Anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism," Journal of Israeli History Vol. 25 (2006), pp. 245-266.

 

Meir Litvak and Joshua Teitelbaum, “Edward Said’s Orientalism: Some Methodological Comments,” Ha-Mizrah He-Hadash Vol. 45 (2005), pp. 5-22. An English version, published as "Students, Teachers, and Edward Said: Taking Stock of Orientalism," The Middle East Review of International Affairs Vol. 10 (March 2006).

 

“Slavery [to God] is Freedom: Modern Islamic Concepts of Liberty” Historia No. 16 (2005), pp. 55-80 (in Hebrew). [Published also in Religious Fanaticism, 2007].

 

"The anti-Semitism of Hamas," Palestine-Israel Journal of Politics, Economics and Culture, Vol. 12 Nos. 2+3 (2005), pp. 41-47.

 

“Iran and Israel: The Ideological Enmity and its Roots,” Iyunim be-Tkumat Yisrael Vol. 14(2004), pp. 367-392 (in Hebrew).

 

Meir Litvak and Esther Webman, “The Representation of the Holocaust in the Arab World,” Journal of Israeli History: Special Issue, After Eichmann: Collective Memory and the Holocaust since 1961 Vol. 23 No. 1 (Spring, 2004), pp. 100-115.

 

Meir Litvak and Esther Webman, “Perceptions of the Holocaust in the Palestinian Public Discourse,” Israel Studies Vol. 8 No. 3 (Fall, 2003), pp. 123-140.

 

An updated Hebrew version appeared as "The Palestinians and the Holocaust: A Historical Perspective," in Bashir Bashir and Amos Goldberg (eds.), The Holocaust and the Nakba: Memory, National Identity and Jewish Arab Partnership (Jerusalem: Van Leer Jerusalem Institute, 2015) pp. 206-241.

 

“Money, Religion and Politics: The Oudh Bequest in Najaf and Karbala’, 1850-1903” International Journal of Middle East Studies Vol. 33 No. 1(February, 2001), pp. 1-21.

 

“The Rule of the Jurist (Velayat-e Faqih) in Iran: Ideal and Implementation,” Ha-Mizrah He-Hadash, Vol. 42 (2001, in Hebrew), pp. 167-184.

 

“Failed Manipulation: The British, the Oudh Bequest and the Shi`i Ulama’ of Najaf and Karbala,” British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies Vol. 27 No. 1(2000), pp. 68-89.

 

"The Finances of the `Ulama’ Communities of Najaf and Karbala' in the Nineteenth Century," Die Welt des Islams Vol. 40 No. 1(2000), pp. 41-66.

 

"The Islamization of the Israeli-Arab Conflict: the Case of Hamas," Middle Eastern Studies Vol. 23 No. 1(1998), pp. 148-163.

 

"Palestinian Nationalism and Islam: the case of Hamas," Nationalism and Ethnic Politics Vol. 2 No. 4(Winter 1996), pp. 500-522.

 

"The Shi`ite ^cUlama' of Najaf and Karbala' and the Ottoman Tanzimat," The Harvard  Middle Eastern and Islamic Review 4(Spring, 1995), pp. 72-88.

 

"A Palestinian Past: National Construction and Reconstruction," History and Memory Vol. 6 No. 2 (Fall/Winter 1994), pp. 24-56. Also published in German in Sozialwissenschaflische Informationen Vol. 23 No. 2 (April-June, 1994).

 

"Palestinian Leadership in the West Bank during the Intifada, 1987-1992," Orient Vol. 34, No. 2 (July, 1993), pp. 199-220.

 

"Continuity and Change in the `Ulama Population of Najaf and Karbala, 1791-1904: A Socio-Demographic Study," Iranian Studies Vol. 23 (1990). pp. 31-60.

 

 

 

Chapters in Books

Invited:

“The Islamic Republic of Iran and Israel” in The Cambridge History of Iran Volume 8.

 

 Published

“Zionism in the Ayatollah’s Iran,” Colin Shindler (ed.), The Routledge Handbook on Zionism in Colin Shindler (ed.), Routledge Handbook on Zionism (London & New York: Routledge, 2024), pp. 409-423.

 

“Radical Islamist Movements and Antisemitism: Between Old and New,” in Armin Lange, Kerstin Mayerhofer, Dina Porat and Laurence H. Schiffman (eds.), Confronting Antisemitism in Modern Media, the Legal and Political Worlds (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2021), pp. 133-148.

 

"מלחמת היהודים בשיעה: המצאת עבר וחזון משיחי חדש," ב:מאיר חטינה וישראל גרשוני (עורכים), 1. עבר מתעתע: מיתוס, היסטוריה וזיכרון בחברות אסלאמיות ובחברה הישראלית (תל אביב: הקיבוץ המאוחד, 2021), עמ' 324-295

 

“Modern Antisemitism in Iran: Old Themes and New Trends,” in Armin Lange, Kerstin Mayerhofer, Dina Porat and Lawrence H. Schiffman (eds.), Confronting Antisemitism in Christianity, Islam, and Judaism Vol. 2 (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020), pp. 301-320

 

"Iranian Anti-Semitism and the Holocaust," in Anthony McElligott and Jeffrey Herf (Eds): Antisemitism Before and Since the Holocaust: Altered Contexts and Recent Perspectives (New York: Palgrave-McMillan), pp.  205-229. 

     

"Introduction," in Meir Litvak (ed.) Constructing Nationalism in Iran: From the Qajars to the Islamic Republic (London: Routledge, 2017), pp. 1-9.

 

"Iranian National Identity: An Historical Overview," in Meir Litvak (ed.) Constructing Nationalism in Iran: From the Qajars to the Islamic Republic (London: Routledge, 2017), pp. 10-31.

 

"Nationalism and Islam in a Provincial Setting: Late Qajar Isfahan," in Meir Litvak (ed.) Constructing Nationalism in Iran: From the Qajars to the Islamic Republic (London: Routledge, 2017), pp. 86-100.

 

"Revolt and Revolution in Iran: An Historical Perspective," in Elie Podeh and Onn Winckler (eds.), The Third Wave: Protest and Revolution in the Middle East (Jerusalem: Carmel, Hebrew, 2017), pp. 200-223.

 

"The Clerical Establishment in Iran: Changes and Challenges," in Liora Hendelman-Baavur (ed.), Iran Then and Now: Essays in Honor of David Menashri (Tel Aviv: Ha-Kibutz ha-Meuchad, Hebrew, 2017), pp. 19-38.

 

"Iranian Foreign Policy in View of Changing Regional Realities," in Liora Hendelman-Baavur (ed.),  Iran Then and Now: Essays in Honor of David Menashri (Tel Aviv: Ha-Kibutz ha-Meuchad, Hebrew, 2017), pp. 219-252.

 

Co-author with Meir Hatina, "Introduction," in Meir Hatina and Meir Litvak (eds.), Concepts of Martyrdom in Modern Islam: Social and Political Settings (London: I.B. Tauris, 2017), pp. 1-20.

 

"Martyrdom is Bliss: The Iranian Concept of Martyrdom during the War with Iraq, 1981–1988," in Meir Hatina and Meir Litvak (eds.), Concepts of Martyrdom in Modern Islam: Social and Political Settings (London: I.B. Tauris, 2017), pp. 116-130.

 

"Radicalism and Islamic Terror: the Historic Background," in Yoram Schweitzer and Omer Einav (eds.), The Islamic State: How Viable Is It (Tel Aviv: INSS, 2016), pp. 37-45.

 

"Is Iran Indeed More Moderate?" in Emily B. Landau and Anat Kurz (Eds), The Interim Deal on the Iranian Nuclear Program: Toward a Comprehensive Solution? (Tel Aviv: INSS, Memorandum No. 142 September 2014), pp. 41-50.

 

"The 1979 Iranian Revolution in Historical Perspective," in Brandon Friedman and Bruce Maddy-Weitzman (eds.), Inglorious Revolutions: State Cohesion in the Middle East after the Arab Spring (Tel Aviv: Moshe Dayan Center, 2014), pp. 353-370.

 

"Charisma and Politics in the Evolution of Modern Shi‘i Leadership," in D. Ephrat and M. Hatina (eds.), Commanding Knowledge: Religious Authority and Spiritual Power in Islam with Jewish Perspectives (Salt Lake City: Utah University Press, 2014), pp. 206-224.

 

"Iranian Antisemitism: Continuity and Change," in Charles Asher Small (ed.), Global Antisemitism: A Crisis of Modernity: Volume IV: Islamism and the Arab World (New York: ISGAP, 2013), pp. 55-66.

 

"The Palestinian National Authority and Islam, 1994–2006," in A. Shapira  et al (eds.), The Nation State and Religion: The Resurgence of Faith (Sussex Academic Press and the Israeli Democracy Institute, 2013), Vol. II, pp. 57-73.

 

"Introduction," in Yosef Kostiner (ed.) Jihad: Ideological Roots (Tel Aviv: Dayan Center for Middle Eastern Studies, 2012), pp. 11-28.

 

"The Hamas Movement: Muslim Brothers with a Palestinian Uniqueness," in M. Hatina and U. Kupferschmidt (eds.), The Muslim Brothers: A Religious Vision in a Changing Reality (Tel Aviv: Ha-Kibutz ha-Meuchad, 2012), pp. 203-239.

 

Together with Ofra Bengio, "Introduction," and "Epilogue," in Ofra Bengio and Meir Litvak (eds.), Division and Ecumenism in Islam: The Sunna and Shi‘a in History (New York: Palgrave-McMillan, 2011), pp. 1-16, 243-252.

 

"Encounters between Shi‘i and Sunni ‘Ulama' in Ottoman Iraq," in Ofra Bengio and Meir Litvak (eds.), Division and Ecumenism in Islam: The Sunna and Shi‘a in History. (New York: Palgrave-McMillan, 2011), pp. 69-86.

 

Meir Litvak and Esther Webman, "Israel and the World," in Albert Lindemann and Richard Levy (eds.), Anti-Semitism: A History (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010), pp. 237-249.

 

"Introduction," in Litvak (ed.), Palestinian Collective Memory and National Identity (New York: Palgrave-McMillan, 2009), pp. 1-39.

 

"Constructing a National Past: The Palestinian Case," in Litvak (ed.), Palestinian Collective Memory and National Identity (New York: Palgrave-McMillan, 2009), pp. 97-133. An updated Hebrew version appeared under the title: 'Our Canaanite Forefathers,' On the Construction of the pre-Islamic Past in the Palestinian National Discourse," in Litvak and Maddy-Weitzman (eds.), Nationalism, Identity and Politics: Israel and the Middle East (Tel Aviv: Dayan Center for Middle Eastern Studies, 2014), pp. 79-114.

 

"Democracy and Islam: The Clerical Debate in Contemporary Iran," in Joshua Teitelbaum (ed.), Political Liberalization in the Gulf (Boulder: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2009), pp. 271-301.

 

"`More harmful than the Jews': anti-Shi`i polemics in modern radical Sunni discourse, in Le shi`isme imamite quarante ans après: Hommage à Etan Kohlberg, eds. Muhammad Ali Amir-Moezzi, Meir M. Bar-Asher and Simon Hopkins, (Paris 2008), pp. 285-306.

 

Meir Litvak and Ora Limor, "Introduction," in Religious Fanaticism (Jerusalem: Zalman Shazar Center, 2007, in Hebrew), pp. 11-26.

 

"Introduction," in Meir Litvak (ed.), Middle Eastern Societies and the West: Accommodation or Clash of Civilizations? (Tel Aviv: Dayan Center for Middle Eastern Studies, 2007), pp. 11-32.

 

"Islamic Democracy vs. Western Democracy: The Debate Among Islamists," in Middle Eastern Societies and the West Accommodation or Clash of Civilizations? (Tel Aviv: Dayan Center for Middle Eastern Studies, 2007), pp. 199-220.

 

“Religious and National Fanaticism: the case of Hamas,” in Matthew Hughes and Gaynor Johnson (eds.), Fanaticism and Conflict in the Modern Age (London: Frank Cass, 2005), pp. 155-174.

 

"Iran's Rebellious Youth," in Tamar Yegnes ed., The Middle East:The Impact of  Generational Change (Tel Aviv: Dayan Center, 2005 in Hebrew), pp. 95-108.

 

“Students and Teachers in Nineteenth Century Najaf and Karbala'” in Ami Ayalon and David Wasserstein (eds.) Madrasa: Education, Religion and the State in the Middle East (Tel Aviv: Moshe Dayan Center, 2004 in Hebrew), pp. 129-146.

 

"Fundamentalist Islam and the Women Question: Puritanism and Politics," in Women in the Middle East: Between Tradition and Change Ofra Bengio (ed.), Dayan Center Papers, # 134 (Tel Aviv: Tel Aviv University, 2004, in Hebrew), pp. 41-51.

 

Bruce Maddy-Weitzman and Meir Litvak, “Islamism and the State in North Africa,” in Barry Rubin (ed.), evolutionaries and Reformers: Contemporary Islamist Movements in the Middle East (Albany: SUNY Press, 2003), pp. 69-90.

 

“Madrasa and Learning in Nineteenth Century Najaf and Karbala,” in W. Ende and R. Brunner (eds.), The Twelver Shi`a in Modern Times: Religious Culture and Political History (Leiden: Brill, 2000), pp. 58-78.

 

"A Minority which is also a Majority: The Shi`i `Ulama’ in Iraq during the 19th and 20th Centuries," in Shulamit Volkov et al. (eds.), Minorities, Foreigners and Outsiders (Jerusalem: The Zalman Shazar Center, 2000, in Hebrew), pp. 221-242.

 

"Introduction," in Meir Litvak (ed.), Islam and Democracy in the Arab World (Tel Aviv: Ha-Kibutz ha-Meuchad, 1998 in Hebrew), pp. 9-23.

 

"Hamas: Islam, Palestinian Identity and Jihad," in Meir Litvak (ed.), Islam and Democracy in the Arab World (Tel Aviv: Ha-Kibutz ha-Meuchad, 1998 in Hebrew), pp. 147-179.

 

"Islamist Movements and Democracy: the Historiographical Debate," in Meir Litvak (ed.), Islam and Democracy in the Arab World (Tel Aviv: Ha-Kisbutz ha-Meuchad, 1998 in Hebrew), pp. 236-251.

 

"Inside Versus Outside: The Challenge of the Local Leadership, 1967-1994," in Avraham Sela ed. The PLO and Israel, 1964-1994: From Armed Struggle to Accommodation (New York: St. Martin Press, 1997), pp. 171-196.

 

Book Reviews

Rex Brynen, Pete W. Moore, Bassel F. Salloukh, Marie-Joelle Zahar, Beyond the Arab Spring: Authoritarianism & Democratization in the Middle East (Boulder & London: Lynn Rienner, 2012), The Israel Journal of Foreign Affairs 7:2(2013), pp. 147-150.

 

Ilan Pappe, The Rise and Fall of a Palestinian Dynasty:The Husaynis, 1700-1948 (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2010), Bustan: the Middle East Book Review, 3(2012) pp. 68-74.

 

"Robert Satloff, Among the Righteous: Lost Stories from the Holocaust Long Reach into Arab Lands."  Shofar (expected publication, May 2009).

 

"Kamran Scot Aghaie, The Martyrs of Karbala: Shi‘i Symbols and Rituals in Modern Iran." American Historical Review, Vol. 114, No. 2, April 2009), p. 521.

 

"Haggai Ram, Reading Iran in Israel," Catharsis, No. 11 (Summer 2009), pp. 58-103 (Hebrew).

"Daniel Tzadik, Between Foreigners and Shi‘is: Nineteenth Century Iran and its Jewish Minority." Middle Eastern Studies vol. 45 no. 5(September 2009), pp. 847-855.

 

"Fouad Ajami: The Dream Palaces of the Arabs," Jama`a Vol. 8 (2001, in Hebrew), pp. 171-178.

 

"Moshe Zak, King Husayn Makes Peace: Thirty Years of Secret Talks," Hamizrah He-Hadash Vol. 41 (2000, in Hebrew), pp. 198-200.

 

"Elie Podeh, The Struggle for Hegemony in the Arab World," Hamizrah He-Hadash Vol. 39 (1998-99, in Hebrew), pp. 219-221.

 

 

"מלחמת היהודים בשיעה: המצאת עבר וחזון משיחי חדש," ב:מאיר חטינה וישראל גרשוני (עורכים), 1. עבר מתעתע: מיתוס, היסטוריה וזיכרון בחברות אסלאמיות ובחברה הישראלית (תל אביב: הקיבוץ המאוחד)