浪花直播

This text has two goals: to make a few observations about how the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) may inform how we think about decolonization, and to introduce the 浪花直播 Center Digital Archive collection, 

Many historians agree decolonization had a focal time and space: the 1940s-1960s in Asia and Africa. The very term decolonization, though coined slightly earlier, became popular in this context; it was then that European empires finally foundered; and the sheer number both of countries and of people that became independent was unprecedented, as was the thickness of Afro-Asian relationships. "I hope this primary source collection - like others, such as - adds to how we see and teach these decades. After all, scholars of decolonization continue to work on Asia and Africa more than on MENA.

At the same time, I hope this collection helps complicate notions of a focal time and space, building on the view that the modern age experienced decolonization before the 1940s-1960s. Thus, Dane Kennedy鈥檚 Decolonization: A Short Introduction (2016) talks of a first 鈥渨ave鈥� in the Americas in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century and of a second wave in western Asia and eastern Europe following World War I, with roots in the nineteenth century in the Ottoman case.[i] On a related note, landmark texts like Martin Thomas, Bob Moore, and L. J. Butler鈥檚 Crises of Empire: Decolonization and Europe鈥檚 Imperial States (2008) see deep 鈥渞oots鈥� of postwar decolonization in the interwar years.[ii]

Sure, some MENA countries became fully independent during World War II and in the following decade. This timing roughly corresponded to decolonization in Asia, though it slightly predated the peak of decolonization in Africa. But what happened in those parts of MENA from the late 1910s constituted more than simply roots of post-World War II decolonization.[iii] Moreover, there are three prominent cases of still unfulfilled decolonization in MENA: the Palestinians, Sahrawis, and Kurds, who at best have low levels of political autonomy. In short, in this collection the number of documents from the 1940s-1960s reflect the importance of those decades. At the same time, documents also on earlier and later decades point to other and/or longer timeframes of decolonization鈥� a view that makes sense doubly if we take seriously the notion of decolonization as a process.[iv]

Regarding MENA, consider the following factors. Before 1918, some Arabs lived in a basically sovereign state, the Ottoman Empire鈥攗nlike most Asians and Africans. Following World War I, many Arabs demanded full or quasi independence rather than full and equal integration into empire, as most Africans and many Asians did at the least until the late 1920s and in many cases until the 1950s. To this end, Arabs fought almost ten bloody revolts in the interwar period. Multiple Arab countries indeed (Egypt in 1923/1937; Iraq in 1930) or almost (Lebanon and Syria in 1936) got far-reaching though certainly not complete sovereignty. Three large countries in MENA, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Iran, were independent (though, as noted further below, in a somewhat impaired way); and all three, even the two non-Arab ones, were involved in Arab politics. In interwar Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, Transjordan, Syria, Lebanon, and Iraq, some national government institutions included, however variedly, Arabs officials; Egypt, Syria, and Lebanon even knew (however limited) national elections.[v] Moreover, as noted and to fast-forward to today, multiple people in MENA are still demanding a state of their own but have not (yet) succeeded.

If MENA helps complicate decolonization, the reverse holds, too. Decolonization complicates how we conceive modern MENA history. Before I outline why, let me take a step back and state a fact recognized by any scholar of modern MENA. The spatial reference 鈥淢iddle East and North Africa鈥� is a compound of two elements (ME and NA) as well as relational (middle of what? east of where? north of what?). As a result, it is recognizably constructed. That is, it is political and as such has a history, including earlier terms like the Near East that included parts of Ottoman-ruled Europe. If this primary source collection nonetheless uses the term MENA, it is for the sake of convenience. Most Anglophone academics and almost all non-academics use the term. So do people in MENA; thus, 鈥渢he Middle East鈥� is al-sharq al-awsat in Arabic, khawar-e mianeh in Persian, orta do臒u in Turkish, and ha-mizrah ha-tikhon in Hebrew.

Let us now turn to our question: how does decolonization help complicate modern MENA? One answer is that MENA was not decolonized at once. The most assertive version of this statement contains four overlapping chapters and two complicating sets of cases.

In a first chapter, a part of MENA was entwined with Europe. Before World War I, actors in many European provinces of the Ottoman Empire鈥攖hen seen as part of the Near East鈥攗sed the support of self-interested European powers to gain far-reaching autonomy and in some cases suzerainty. Following World War I, the League of Nations member states granted those polities international recognition as sovereign states; in parallel, the Turkish National Movement rolled back the 1918/1919 Allied and Greek occupation of parts of Anatolia, gaining international recognition as a sovereign state, too. This post-World War I chapter of decolonization (and its prewar beginnings) happened in the same political context as the international recognition of states in eastern and central Europe. Moreover, it featured similar international legal instruments, most important League of Nations minority protection treatises. The post-war sovereignty of European ex-Ottoman polities鈥攊.e. the afore-noted second wave of decolonization鈥攄id not just settle the Ottoman Empire鈥檚 fate, then. It also concluded a decades-long process in which (what we now call) MENA and (southeastern) Europe came apart.

A second chapter involves the Asian ex-provinces of the Ottoman Empire following World War I. There, many Arabs resented the fact that the League of Nations and its members, including European empire-states like Britain and France, granted independence only to post-Ottoman Europeans. Thus, in 1919 the Syrian General Congress asserted that 鈥淐onsidering the fact that the Arabs inhabiting the Syrian area are not naturally less gifted than other more advanced races and that they are by no means less developed than the Bulgarians, Serbians, Greeks, and Roumanians at the beginning of their independence, we protest against Article 22 of the Covenant of the League of Nations, placing us among the nations in their middle stage of development which stand in need of a mandatory power.鈥�[vi] The struggle for independence persisted throughout the interwar years. It succeeded in 1930 in Iraq, in admittedly 鈥渓ight鈥� form, though Iraq did become a League of Nation member in 1932. And it succeeded fully in 1943/1946 in Lebanon and Syria, in 1946 in Jordan, and in 1948 in Israel, a special case because of the Zionist movement鈥檚 longstanding dependence on Britain. On a related note Egypt, which by law was an Ottoman province until 1914, was given more autonomy in 1923, negotiated an independence 鈥渓ight鈥� in 1937 and became a League member the selfsame year, and in 1954 negotiated the withdrawal of the British troops that had remained in the Suez Canal Zone. If we think of these events together, we see a stretch of time that begins in what often is seen as one decolonization wave鈥攖he weakening and then break-up of the Ottoman Empire, the end point of which happens in parallel to related developments in eastern Europe following World War I鈥攁nd ends with the start of another decolonization wave, that of Asian colonies after World War II.

A third chapter turns around French North Africa. Here, decolonization happened as France was reconfiguring its late empire especially in West sub-Saharan Africa in the 1950s. This showed even in Algeria, which did not become independent in the 1950s. Here, the French government and many citizens argued until 1960 if not until Algeria鈥檚 independence in 1962 that this country bridges France and Africa. The African connection was manifest also in the especially tight postcolonial relationship that both the Northern African countries of Morocco and Tunisia and a good number of West African states have entertained with France.

A fourth chapter concerns Britain鈥檚 decision, in 1968, to evacuate most bases 鈥渆ast of Suez鈥� by 1971. This affected Britain鈥檚 remaining possessions in the Gulf, many of whose rulers at first were wary about Britain鈥檚 withdrawal. More important to us, those MENA countries were decolonized as part of a broader British geostrategic repositioning, which included withdrawing from military bases that London had kept in the Southeast Asian states of Malaysia and Singapore and in the Indian Ocean state of The Maldives following their independence in 1963, 1965, and 1965, respectively.

This brings me to the two complicating sets of cases. One concerns three states: Turkey, Iran, and Saudi Arabia. In the interwar years, their sovereignty was in some way impaired. Turkey accepted a League of Nations minority protection treaty. Saudi Arabia, officially born in 1932, was subsidized by Britain until 1924 and entertained a special relationship with that European empire through World War II. And in the Iranian province of Khuzistan the Anglo-Persian/Iranian Oil Company was a state within the state. Even so, these three states basically were sovereign. (One might add Afghanistan.) That is, while interwar MENA like Africa had far more colonized than sovereign polities, the share of sovereign polities was higher. Moreover, those three polities mattered: large and powerful, they all interacted with and affected actors in colonized polities in the Middle East.[vii]

The other complicating set of cases concerns the Sahrawis, Palestinians, and Kurds. Sure, the three cases differ greatly. But together, they make MENA the region in the world with the internationally most visible cases of people who are still calling and fighting for an independent state, in however changing and varied ways. Moreover, they share a crucial trait. Each one originated in one of the afore-noted decolonization chapters. In 1920 the Ottoman-Allied Treaty of S猫vres, which was signed by Sultan Mehmed VI but not ratified by the Ottoman parliament, foresaw a Franco-British-influenced Kurdish state. The Palestinians were the great losers of the second chapter of decolonization in MENA. And the Sahrawi independence story in a sense starts in the third chapter, i.e. decolonization in French North Africa. Some Sahrawis fought on Morocco鈥檚 side in a brief confrontation with Spain in northern areas of the Spanish-ruled West Sahara following Morocco鈥檚 independence in 1956. That confrontation and the following Franco-Spanish military punishment, Operation Ouragan, formed the first chapter on the long way to Spain鈥檚 withdrawal, in 1975, from the West Sahara, which was divided between Morocco and (until 1979) Mauritania.

Let us circle back to the question of how decolonization helps complicate the history of modern MENA. Another answer concerns international dimensions.[viii] As indicated by the title of this collection, these are its primary sources鈥� common distinguishing trait. This focus is inspired and informed by a bourgeoning body of scholarship. Some historians are showing that some states self-consciously functioned as linchpins between multiple regions, for instance Arab-African Egypt and Algeria.[ix] Certain cities鈥擠ar es Salaam, Cairo, and Paris, among others鈥攂ecame hubs for activists from various countries.[x] There were international networks like the Afro-Asian People鈥檚 Solidarity Organization, founded in Cairo in 1957.[xi] And there were not only south-south networks[xii] but also east-south ones[xiii] and west-south ones.[xiv]

Choosing my documents, I have sought a rough balance between stories that tie MENA actors to Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Americas. I also have mixed different textual genres. And while there are a good number of documents whose content may be called plainly political, socio-economic and cultural aspects often feature, too.

Here, an aside is in order. While putting together this collection, it became increasingly clear that 鈥渢he political鈥� permeated everything and was present everywhere. Indeed, decolonization arguably charged and changed what is and counts as 鈥渢he political.鈥� This is a vague and may be trite statement鈥昩ut perhaps still interesting to look into.

Let me flag two problems with this collection that I see. (There must be more.) First, the collection鈥檚 documents do not feature enough non-elite actors and women, rarely talk of religion, and do not broach environmental issues鈥昹imitations that collection users should realize. And second, the original documents in this collection are in Middle Eastern and European languages, not also African and Asian languages. To be more precise: sources by MENA actors are all in MENA and European languages, and sources showing how people from outside MENA looked at and interacted with the region are in European languages.

Together, these linguistic and thematic strengths and weaknesses have a two-fold consequence. This collection is a kaleidoscope, refracting and reflecting many actors, themes, spaces, and periods. But this does not mean that it is all-encompassing and, to again state the obvious, it neither is neutrally balanced. It cannot be. Even if I would have included (more) non-elite, environmental, and religious sources and sources by and on women and in African and Asian languages, I would have balanced them differently than anybody else. If an overall story emerges at all from this collection, it really is a story, not the story.

Here are three examples. First, I decided to include more documents on the Palestinians than on the Sahrawis and Kurds, for I think the Palestinian cause overall has had a greater presence both in the region and beyond than the Sahrawi and Kurdish ones. However鈥昺y second example鈥旾 did include all these three cases. I did so although some people would see the Sahrawi and Kurdish struggles not at all as decolonization but simply as a struggle against regional states, especially Morocco and Turkey. (Interestingly, fewer people would see the Palestinian struggle this way, perhaps because many see the Jewish State as not really being of MENA, though in MENA.) To be sure, there are differences between the Palestinian, Sahrawi, and Kurdish struggles and people gaining independence from an empires. But as noted earlier, those struggles each began as unresolved cases of a decolonization chapter. Moreover, many Sahrawis, Kurds, and Palestinians who desire independence see their struggle as part of a longer arch of decolonization and of anti-imperial struggle. The latter brings me to my third example. This collection comprises documents by actors who in the 1960s-1970s invoked anti-imperial(ist) struggles, and features a document on the Israeli establishment鈥檚 fear about linkages between the Israeli and US Black Panthers. I have included these documents so we see how decolonization politics, relationships, and terminologies continued from the 1960s, blending into an anti-imperialism that often turned around the United States.

Such issues are contextualized in the blurbs I have written for each document; each blurb also contains a few key secondary source references. Although this collection includes a few English and some already translated texts, I have translated most documents. I gratefully acknowledge Professors Lara Harb and Nader Uthman鈥檚 help with a handful of Arabic words. As I am a historian rather than a linguist or professional translator, the translations will not dazzle the reader鈥昩ut, I hope, nonetheless be of use.

List of Documents

Document No. 1
An Arab American reflects on World War I (1917)

al- Fatat (New York, NY), December 19, 1917, p. 1. Original document contributed by Stacy Fahrenthold; translated and annotated by Cyrus Schayegh.

Document No. 2
Egyptian nationalists try to meet Woodrow 浪花直播 in Paris (1919)

Egyptian Delegation to the Peace Conference. Collection of Official Correspondence FROM NOVEMBER 11, 1918 TO JULY 14, 1919 (Paris: Published by the Delegation, 1919), pp. 58-60. Contributed and annotated by Cyrus Schayegh.

Egyptian Delegation to the Peace Conference. Collection of Official Correspondence FROM NOVEMBER 11, 1918 TO JULY 14, 1919 (Paris: Published by the Delegation, 1919), p. 61. Contributed and annotated by Cyrus Schayegh.

Document No. 3
Postwar musings about a free city & free port Beirut (1919)

Document #1554, Sursock Archives, Phoenix Center for Lebanese Studies, Universit茅 de Saint Esprit, Kaslik, Lebanon. Contributed, translated, and annotated by Cyrus Schayegh.

Document No. 4
Resolution of the Syrian General Congress (1919)

Translation from J.C. Hurewitz, The Middle East and North Africa in World Politics: A Documentary Record, vol. 2: British-French Supremacy, 1914-1945 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1979), 180-182. Annotated by Cyrus Schayegh.

Document No. 5
A conservative German comment on Turkish independence (1923)

Die Neue Preussische Zeitung (Kreuzzeitung) (July 25, 1923), p. 1-2. Original contributed by Marcus Michaelsen; translated and annotated by Cyrus Schayegh.

Document No. 6
Stalin addresses the Communist University for Laborers of the East (1925)

Translation from J.V. Stalin, Works, vol. 7, 1925 (Moscow: Foreign Languages Publishing House, 1954), pp. 135-154. Contributed by Cyrus Schayegh

Document No. 7
Rockefeller-financed social sciences at the American University of Beirut (1926)

Rockefeller Foundation Records, Projects (Grants), RG 1, SG 1.1, Lebanon Series 833.S, Box 9, Folder 61, Rockefeller Archive Center. Contributed and annotated by Cyrus Schayegh. Courtesy of Rockefeller Archive Center (https://rockarch.org/).

Record Group 1.1 (FA386), series 1.1 Projects, Box 8, Folder 59, Rockefeller Archive Center. Contributed and annotated by Cyrus Schayegh. Courtesy of Rockefeller Archive Center (https://rockarch.org/).

Rockefeller Foundation Records, Projects (Grants), RG 1, SG 1.1, Lebanon Series 833.S, Box 9, Folder 60, Rockefeller Archive Center. Contributed and annotated by Cyrus Schayegh. Courtesy of Rockefeller Archive Center (https://rockarch.org/).

Document No. 8
Nationalist Scouting in Greater Syria (1927)

al-Kashshaf (1:4) (1927): 299-302. Contributed, translated, and annotated by Cyrus Schayegh.

Document No. 9
The Etoile Nord Africaine addresses the foundation conference of the League against Imperialism in Bruxelles (1927)

International Institute for Social History, Amsterdam, League Against Imperialism Archives, ARCH00804, international congress against colonial oppression and imperialism. brussels, 1927, Inventory 15, https://search.iisg.amsterdam/Record/ARCH00804. Contributed, translated, and annotated by Cyrus Schayegh.

Document No. 10

Muslim nationalist Amir Shakib Arslan analyzes the Muslim World (1930)

Used by permission, from Shakib Arslan, Why Muslims Lagged Behind and Others Progressed, trans. Nadeem M. Qureshi, p.14-27 & p.121-122 first published (2021) by Austin Macauley Publishers Ltd (www.austinmacauley.com). Annotated by Cyrus Schayegh.

Document No. 11
鈥淎sia must reorganize her continental life鈥�: the Indian poet-intellectual Rabindranath Tagore visits Iran (1932)

Rabindranath Tagore, Journey to Persia and Iraq: 1932, transl. from Bengali by Surendranath Tagore, Rabindranath Tagore, and Sukhendu Ray (Kolkata: Visva-Bharati, 2003), 150-154. Annotated by Cyrus Schayegh.

Rabindranath Tagore, Journey to Persia and Iraq: 1932, transl. from Bengali by Surendranath Tagore, Rabindranath Tagore, and Sukhendu Ray (Kolkata: Visva-Bharati, 2003), 154-159. Contributed, translated, and annotated by Cyrus Schayegh.

Document No. 12
An Arab communist condemns Italy鈥檚 conquest of Ethiopia (1936)

Salim Khayyata, Al-Habasha al-mazluma, aw fatihat akhar niza鈥� li-l-isti鈥榤ar fi dawr inhiyarihi (Oppressed Ethiopia, or The Start of The Final Fight Against Colonialism in the Period of its Downfall) (Beirut: Matba鈥榓t rawdat al-funun, 1936), p. alif, jim, dal, ha, zay, ha, ta, ya, kaf, lam. Contributed, translated, and annotated by Cyrus Schayegh.

Document No. 13
Egyptian intellectual and institution builder Taha Hussein locates Egypt vis-脿-vis East and West (1938)

Taha Hussein, The Future of Culture in Egypt, translated from the Arabic original [Mustaqbal al-thaqafa fi Misr (1938)] by Sidney Glazer (New York: Octagon Books, 1975), 2-7, 148-155.

Document No. 14
Jawaharlal Nehru meets the nationalist wafd party in Egypt (1938)

S. Gopal, ed., Selected Works of Jawaharlal Nehru, vol. 9 (New Delhi: Orient Longman, 1976), 8-17. Contributed and annotated by Cyrus Schayegh.

S. Gopal, ed., Selected Works of Jawaharlal Nehru, vol. 9 (New Delhi: Orient Longman, 1976), 175-179. Contributed and annotated by Cyrus Schayegh.

Document No. 15
The Arab Conference for Combatting Fascism in Beirut (1939)

补濒-罢补濒颈鈥榓 5, no. 5 (1939): 347-348. Original ontributed by G枚tz Nordbruch; translated and annotated by Cyrus Schayegh.

补濒-罢补濒颈鈥榓 5, no. 5 (1939): 390-391. Original contributed by G枚tz Nordbruch; translated and annotated by Cyrus Schayegh.

Document No. 16
A report on public relations and lobbying by the Arab League Office in Washington, DC (1947)

Box S25/4153, Central Zionist Archives, Jerusalem, Israel. Original contributed by Daniel Rickenbacher; transcribed and annotated by Cyrus Schayegh.

Document No. 17
A Yishuvi delegation addresses the First Asian Relations Conference in New Delhi (1947)

Asian Relations: Being Report of the Proceedings and Documentation of the First Asian Relations Conference, New Delhi, March-April, 1947 (New Delhi: Asian Relations Organization, 1948), 56-58.

Document No. 18
Moroccan decolonization and the United Nations (1947 and 1950)

Mehdi Bennouna File, Vol. 1, Bennouna Family Archive, Tetouan, Morocco. Original contributed by David Stenner; translated and annotated by Cyrus Schayegh.

al-A'lam (October 24, 1950), p. 1&4. Original contributed by David Stenner; translated and annotated by Cyrus Schayegh.

Document No. 19
An Egyptian critique of early postwar US society (1949)

Fulcrum 3, no. 1 (1949): 29, University of Northern Colorado Archives, Record Group 10, Sub-Series 5. Contributed and annotated by Cyrus Schayegh.

Document No. 20
Iran鈥檚 Prime Minister Muhammad Musaddiq on economic decolonization at the UN (1951)

Security Council Official Records, 6th Year : 560th Meeting, 15 October 1951, S/PV.560, UN Official Document System, Job Number N5191915, https://documents-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/N51/919/15/pdf/N5191915.pdf. Contributed by Cyrus Schayegh

Document No. 21
Committing contemporary Arab literature to the postcolonial age (1953)

al-Adab 1, no. 1 (1953), 1-2. Contributed, translated, and annotated by Cyrus Schayegh.

Document No. 22
Early postcolonial Egypt鈥檚 Africa (1954 and 1958)

BBC. Summary of World Broadcasts. Part IV: The Arab World, Israel, Greece, Turkey, Persia. (No. 481. 9th July 1954), p. 32-33. Original contributed by James Brennan; transcribed and annotated by Cyrus Schayegh.

 鈥楢bd al-Mun鈥榠m Shumays, Ghana: Dawla afriqiyya mutaharrara [Ghana: A Liberated African State], series kutub siyasiyya #66 (Cairo: Dar al-Qahira li-l-taba鈥榓, 1958), 5-11. Contributed, translated, and annotated by Cyrus Schayegh.

Document No. 23
Nasser鈥檚 Suez Canal nationalization speech (1956)

The Suez Canal Problem, July 26-September 22, 1956: A Documentary Publication (Washington, DC: The Department of State, 1956), pp 25-31. Print. Contributed and annotated by Cyrus Schayegh.

Document No. 24
The British Empire stops speaking its name (1956)

Middle East Situation, cc.877-896, Commons Sitting of 3 December 1956, Series 5 Vol. 561, https://hansard.parliament.uk/Commons/1956-12-03/debates/cf6978a9-69e9-4ec1-82e6-146e7be245c8/MiddleEast(Situation).

Document No. 25
US Senator John F. Kennedy鈥檚 Algeria Speech and an Algerian and French reaction thereto (1957)

Papers of John F. Kennedy, Pre-Presidential Papers. Senate Files, Box 784, "Algeria Speech," John F. Kennedy Presidential Library, https://www.jfklibrary.org/archives/other-resources/john-f-kennedy-speeches/united-states-senate-imperialism-19570702. Contributed and annotated by Cyrus Schayegh.

Papers of John F. Kennedy, Pre-Presidential Papers, Senate Files, Speeches and the Press, Algerian Speech File, 1957, Mixed comments, unsorted, France, JFKSEN-0920-004, p. 109, John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, https://www.jfklibrary.org/asset-viewer/archives/JFKSEN/0920/JFKSEN-0920-004. Contributed, translated, and annotated by Cyrus Schayegh.

Papers of John F. Kennedy, Pre-Presidential Papers, Senate Files, Speeches and the Press, Algerian Speech File, 1957, Mixed comments, unsorted, France, JFKSEN-0920-004, p. 3, John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, https://www.jfklibrary.org/asset-viewer/archives/JFKSEN/0920/JFKSEN-0920-004. Contributed and annotated by Cyrus Schayegh.

Document No. 26
Algerian FLN representative Frantz Fanon addresses the First All-African People鈥檚 Conference in Ghana (1958)

El Moudjahid 34 (24 December 1958), 9. Contributed, translated, and annotated by Cyrus Schayegh.

Document No. 27
From Bandung to Cairo: President Gamal Abdel Nasser addresses the Afro-Asian Youth Conference (1958)

Sabri Abu al-Majd, Al-tad膩mun al-afriqi al-膩siawi (Afro-Asian Solidarity) (Cairo: Lajnat kutub si膩siyya, n.d. [1959?]), 3-8. Contributed, translated, and annotated by Cyrus Schayegh.

Document No. 28
The head of the Italian oil company ENI talks about decolonization (1960)

Archivio storico eni, fondo eni/ segreteria de! presidente Enrico Mattei, f. 64e, b. 90 - 芦II Gatto Selvatico禄, anno VI, 6 (giugno 1960), 6. Contributed, translated, and annotated by Cyrus Schayegh.

Document No. 29
Algeria as a worldwide capital of decolonization (1960s)

Reproduced with permission of the Licensor through PLSclear. Annotated by Cyrus Schayegh.

Document No. 30
An Arab view of African American oppression and its link to decolonization (c. 1961)

Lam鈥榠 al-Muti鈥榠, Mas鈥檃t al-zunuj fi Amrik膩 (The Tragedy of the Negros in America), series Kutub siyasiyya (Political Books) #298 (Cairo: D膩r al-qawmiyya li-l-tib膩驶a wa-l-nashr, c. 1961), 5-6, 26, 28-29, 33, 34. Contributed, translated, and annotated by Cyrus Schayegh.

Document No. 31
An Egyptian Arab nationalist in Cuba (1961)

Ahmed Sa鈥榠d, 鈥楢鈥檌d min Kuba (Returning from Cuba), series Kutub qawmiyya (Political books) #106 (Cairo: Da虅r al-qawmiyya li-l-tiba虅驶a wa-l-nashr, 1961), 5-12. Contributed, translated, and annotated by Cyrus Schayegh.

Document No. 32
Israel, the Arab states, and Africa (1962-1963)

The African Student [Jerusalem] no 2 (July 1963), 16-22. Original contributed by Daniel Heller; annotated by Cyrus Schayegh.

Lam鈥榠 al-Muti鈥榠, Min Bandung il膩 D膩r al-Baydh膩鈥� (From Bandung to Casablanca) (Cairo: D膩r al-Qawmiyya, 1962 [?]), 27-34. Contributed, translated, and annotated by Cyrus Schayegh.

Document No. 33
An Argentinian leftist nationalist ideologue thinks with Gamal Abdel Nasser (1963)

Juan Jos茅 Hern谩ndez-Arregui, 驴Qu茅 es el ser nacional? (What is the National Being?) (Buenos Aires: Plus Ultra, 1963), 291-293. Contributed, translated, and annotated by Cyrus Schayegh.

Document No. 34
A call for decolonizing Arab oil (1965)

Abdallah al-Tariqi, 鈥淭a鈥檓im sina鈥榓t al-bitrul al-鈥榓rabiyya: dhurura qawmiyya鈥� ("The Nationalization of the Arab Oil Industry: A National Necessity") (1965), reprinted in Abdallah al-Tariqi, Al- A'mal al-kamila (The Complete Works), ed. Walid Khadduri (Beirut: Markaz dirasat al-wahda al-鈥榓rabiyya, 1999), 158-178 at 158-159 & 176-178. Contributed, translated, and annotated by Cyrus Schayegh.

Document No. 35
The first PLO visit to Beijing (1965)

Peking Review 13 (March 26, 1965), pp. 5-6. Contributed and annotated by Cyrus Schayegh.

Document No. 36
A teach-in on the third phase of colonialism and on Iran in West Berlin (1967)

鈥淰ortrag 眉ber die Situation in Persien von Dr. Bahman Nirumand mit anschlie脽ender Diskussion am Vorabend des Schahbesuchs in Westberlin," Audio Tape 1, Signatur Ton/1104, ID 80737, Archiv der Freien Universit盲t Berlin, Berlin, Germany. Contributed, translated, and annotated by Cyrus Schayegh.

Document No. 37
An Egyptian journalist on the Vietnam War (1968)

Ahmad Hamrush, Masri fi Vietnam wa-Kuriya wa-l-Sin (An Egyptian in Vietnam, Korea, and China) (Cairo: Kitab al-yawm, 1969), 6, 7, 8, 9, 13, 14, 18. Contributed, translated, and annotated by Cyrus Schayegh.

Document No. 38
On US representations of Arabs (1967-69)

The Arab-Israeli Confrontation of June 1967: an Arab Perspective, ed. Ibrahim Abu-Lughod (Evanston: Northwestern University Press, 1970), 1-9. Annotated by Cyrus Schayegh.

Association for Arab-American University Graduates, Inc., Newsletter 2, no. 2 (June 1969): p. 1. Contributed and annotated by Cyrus Schayegh.

Document No. 39
A US Black Panther Party statement in Algeria on Palestine (1970)

Folder 9, CTN 5, BANC MSS 91/213/c, Bancroft Library, University of California at Berkeley, USA. Contributed by Michael R. Fischbach and annotated by Cyrus Schayegh.

Document No. 40
An Israeli establishment report on US views of the Israeli Black Panthers (1971)

Yediot Aharonot (June 1, 1971): 19, 23. Contributed, translated, and annotated by Cyrus Schayegh.

Document No. 41
An Iranian leftist guerilla organization on the need to fight US-led imperialism across the Middle East (1973)

Nabard-e khalq: nashriyeh-ye dakheli vol. 1 (Bahman 1352s [January/February 1973]), 1-2, 6-9. Contributed, translated, and annotated by Cyrus Schayegh.

Document No. 42
PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat addresses the United Nations (1974)

General Assembly Official Records, 29th Session : 2282nd Plenary Meeting, Wednesday, 13 November 1974, New York, A/PV.2282, United Nations Digital Library, https://digitallibrary.un.org/record/743671. Contributed and annotated by Cyrus Schayegh.

Document No. 43
A UN report on decolonization in the Spanish West Sahara (1975)

Report of the Special Committee on the Situation with regard to the Implementation of the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples. Volume 3, 1974, A/9623/Rev.1[Vol.III], United Nations Digital Library, https://digitallibrary.un.org/record/724940. Contributed and annotated by Cyrus Schayegh.

Document No. 44
Egypt鈥檚 鈥淏ig capitalism invites new colonialism鈥� (1975)

Fu鈥檃d Mursi, Hadha al-infitah al-iqtisadi (The Economic Opening) (Jerusalem: Manshurat Salah Al-Din, 1977 [original: Cairo, 1975]), 138-141. Original contributed by Relli Shechter; translated and annotated by Cyrus Schayegh.

Document No. 45
Imam Khomeini鈥檚 declaration upon arrival in Tehran (1979)

Hamid Algar, trans., Islam and Revolution: Writings and Declarations of Imam Khomeini (Berkeley: Mizan Press, 1981), 252-253; original Persian text in Sayyid 鈥楢bd ar-Rasul Hijazi, ed., Majmu鈥榓-ye kamel az payamha-ye Imam Khomeini (Tehran, 1979), 2-3. Annotated by Cyrus Schayegh.

Document No. 46
A Kurdish umbrella organization in West Germany makes cultural, economic, and political demands (1980)

KOMKAR Publikation 1 (January 1980): 5-7. Contributed, translated, and annotated by Cyrus Schayegh

[i] See e.g. Dane Kennedy, Decolonization: A Short Introduction (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016), ch. 1.

[ii] Martin Thomas, Bob Moore, and L. J. Butler, Crises of Empire: Decolonization and Europe鈥檚 Imperial States (London: Bloomsbury, 2008), 127.

[iii] I first outlined this argument in 鈥淭he Mandates and/as Decolonization,鈥� in Routledge Handbook of the History of the Middle East Mandates, ed. Cyrus Schayegh and Andrew Arsan (London: Routledge, 2015), 412-419.

[iv] See e.g. Jan Jansen and J眉rgen Osterhammel鈥檚 Decolonization. A Short History (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2017), ch. 1.

[v] This paragraph draws on Yoav Di-Capua and Cyrus Schayegh 鈥淲hy Decolonization?,鈥� International Journal of Middle East Studies [IJMES] 52:1 (2020): 137-145.

[vi] Document translated in J.C. Hurewitz, The Middle East and North Africa in World Politics: A Documentary Record, vol. 2: British-French Supremacy, 1914-1945 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1979), 180.

[vii] See e.g. Amit Bein, Kemalist Turkey and the Middle East: International Relations in the Interwar Period (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2017).

[viii] A perfectly complete title would have invoked 鈥渋nternational and transnational dimensions.鈥� I chose 鈥渋nternational鈥� for simplicity鈥檚 sake and because many documents are political and鈥昺ore to the point鈥昳nvolve (proto/quasi)-governmental actors.

[ix] James Brennan, 鈥�,鈥� in Making a World after Empire, ed. Christopher Lee (Athens: Ohio State University Press, 2010), 173-195; Jeffrey Byrne, Mecca of Revolution: Algeria, Decolonization, and the Third World Order (New York: Oxford University Press, 2016).

[x] George Roberts, 鈥淧olitics, Decolonisation, and the Cold War in Dar es Salaam c.1965-72,鈥� (PhD diss. University of Warwick, 2016); Michael Goebel, Anti-Imperial Metropolis: Interwar Paris and the Seeds of Third World Nationalism (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015); Zoe LeBlanc, 鈥淐irculating Anti-colonial Cairo: Decolonizing Information and Constructing the Third World in Egypt, 1952-1966,鈥� (PhD diss., Vanderbilt University, 2019).

[xi] Reem Abou-El-Fadl,

[xii] Christopher Lee, ed., Making a World after Empire (Athens: Ohio State University Press, 2010); Brenda Gayle Plummer, In Search of Power: African Americans in the Era of Decolonization, 1956鈥�1974 (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2013); Natas虒a Mis虒kovic虂, Harald Fischer-Tine虂, and Nada Bos虒kovska, eds., The Non-Aligned Movement and the Cold War: Delhi-Bandung-Belgrade (London: Taylor & Francis, 2017); John Munro, The Anticolonial Front: The African American Freedom Struggle and Global Decolonization, 1945-1960 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2017); J眉rgen Dinkel, The Non-Aligned Movement. Genesis, Organization and Politics (1927-1992) (Brill: Leiden/Boston, 2019); Ronald Stephens and Adam Ewing, eds., Global Garveyism (Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2019).

[xiii] David Engerman, 鈥淭he Second World鈥檚 Third World,鈥� Kritika 12:1 (2011): 183-211; Eric Burton, ed., 鈥淪ocialisms in Development,鈥� special issue of Austrian Journal of Development Studies XXXIII:3 (2017); James Mark, Artemy M. Kalinovsky, and Steffi Marung, eds., Alternative Globalizations: Eastern Europe and the Postcolonial World (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2020); Sandrine Kott and Cyrus Schayegh, 鈥淚ntroduction: Eastern European-Middle Eastern Relations: Continuities and Changes from the Time of Empires to the Cold War.鈥� Contemporary European History 30:4 (2021): 463-477.

[xiv] Matthew Connelly, A Diplomatic Revolution (New York: Oxford University Press, 2002), esp. 119-41; Fritz Keller, Gelebter Internationalismus. 脰sterreichs Linke und der algerische Widerstand, 1958-1963 (Wien: Promedia Verlag, 2010); David Stenner, Globalizing Morocco: Transnational Activism and the Postcolonial State (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2019); Quinn Slobodian, Foreign Front: Third World Politics in Sixties West Germany (Durham: Duke University Press, 2012).