Ussama Makdisi

Professor of History, Rice University

Ussama Makdisi is professor of history and the first holder of the Arab-American Educational Foundation Chair of Arab Studies at Rice University in Houston. His latest book is Age of Coexistence: The Ecumenical Frame and the Making of the Modern Arab World (2019).

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Written by Ussama Makdisi

Black-and-white photo of a large group of men in suits posing for a formal photograph outside a building covered in ivy.

essay

Nations and empires

East of Zionism

In 1900 my grandfather’s generation imagined a modernising Arab world, multireligious and progressive. What happened?

Ussama Makdisi

Black and white photo of five men in traditional attire, walking on a sandy terrain with a body of water in the background.

essay

Nations and empires

Cosmopolitan Ottomans

European colonisation put an abrupt end to political experiments towards a more equal, diverse and ecumenical Arab world

Ussama Makdisi