The Greater Middle East

H. K. Chang is one of those rare personalities who first excelled in the hard sciences—he holds a Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering from Northwestern University (USA) and was Dean of Engineering at the University of Pittsburgh—but went on to devote himself to the humanities, authoring 12 books on civilizations and education. Professor H. K. Chang was President of City University of Hong Kong from 1996 to 2007. He has been a visiting professor at the University of Paris, Cairo University, University of Delhi, Bilkent University in Ankara and Bosphorus University in Istanbul. An honorary professor at Peking University, Tsinghua University and others, he is a Foreign Member of the Royal Academy of Engineering (UK) and a Chevalier of France’s L’Ordre national de la Légion d’Honneur.

List of Figures – Introduction: Far from Quiescent Over Here – Ethiopia: Starting Point Out of Africa – Ethiopia: Proud Lion of the Horn of Africa – Eritrea: An Isolated and Ancient Country on the Southwestern Red Sea – Yemen: Turmoil in the Gulf of Aden – Somalia and Djibouti: The Turbulent Gulf of Aden – Sudan: A Glimpse of the Nile at Night – Four Countries of the Maghreb: Similarities Are Deceptive – The Maghreb: Couscous, Moorish Architecture and St. Augustine – Morocco: Where the Sun Truly Sets – Greece: Revisiting the Hellenic Republic Amidst the Debt Crisis – Greece: Classical Greek Culture and Western Learning’s Eastward Migration – Byzantium: The Roman Empire That Spoke Greek – Cyprus: Pawn in the Mediterranean – From Rhodes to Malta: The Saga of the Knights of St. John – Caucasus: Euro- Asian Borderline of Confrontation – Armenia: Scars of History – Georgia: Stalin’s Homeland – Azerbaijan: Of Poets and Petroleum – Egypt: On the Banks of Nile, at the Foot of the Pyramids – Egypt: From "Era of Ignorance" to "Egyptology" – Egypt: Center of the Arab World – Istanbul: Eternal Tulip Capital – Turkey: Continuous Cultural Revolution— Alaturka – Turkey: Call of the Mosque – Turkey— Joining the EU: Must Turkey Decouple with Asia? – Iran: After the Revolution – Iran: Pilgrimage to the Grand Cities of Persia – Iran— Which Does It Want: East or West? – Mesopotamia: Cradle of Human Civilization – Iraq: Birthplace of Urban Civilization – The Arabian Peninsula: Birthplace of Islamic Civilization – The Persian Gulf: Purchasing Modernization – Syria and Lebanon: Migrating Civilizations – Syria: Author, Teacher, Driver, President – Lebanon— Closer Observation: 21st- century Sequel to a Visit in the 60s – Jordan: Who Says a People Cannot Be the Masters of Their Own Destiny? – Israel: The Jewish State – Palestine: Conflicting Claims to Jerusalem – Israel and Palestine: One Land, Two Peoples and Three Faiths – Agricultural vs. Nomadic Lifestyles: "Clash" of Civilizations? – A Brief History of Nomadic Peoples and Eurasia – Monarchs and Monks: Emergence of a Class Society – Islam: A Brief Introduction – The Turkic- Speaking Peoples and Islam – The Mongolian Empire and Our Modern World – Key Events in the Greater Middle East – Index.