In 2023, I.B. Tauris is celebrating its 40th birthday. I.B. Tauris was founded in 1983 by Iradj Bagherzade, a publisher of immense energy and charm who we sadly lost earlier this year. For Iradj, I.B. Tauris was “a university press without a university” and it rapidly became an authoritative publisher of books on world affairs and culture, particularly on the Middle East and the Islamic world. Long before the publishing industry began to focus on publishing diverse voices, a list focussing on the Middle East was a bold publishing venture in 1983, but it soon gave us landmark books such as the original UK edition of Reading Lolita in Tehran and Ahmed Rashid’s Taliban, a New York Times bestseller.
Above: Iradj Bagherzade
This 40-year legacy is something to celebrate, but it is impossible as I write to ignore the fact that this is a difficult, troubling and profoundly sad time to be a publisher on the Middle East. But perhaps it is precisely because the times are so difficult that it has become more urgent than ever to honour that original spirit of Iradj’s publishing: to bring serious and diverse writing on the rich cultures and histories of the region - and especially by voices from the region itself - to readers across the world and to take us beyond the myths, misunderstandings and conflicts of our present moment.
This is at the heart of what I.B. Tauris still does, now as part of Bloomsbury, and as we look ahead to the next 40 years of publishing on the Middle East and beyond. To take just one example, we have just published Professor Ali Rahnema’s magisterial The Political History of Modern Iran. This is a 700+ page book that distils a lifetime of the authors’ study, learning and teaching into a single volume that will, I am sure, become a cornerstone of the field a definitive account of the modern history of Iran. I think Iradj would have been proud to see this sort of book being published under the imprint he gave his name to.
In celebration of our 40th anniversary and our thought-provoking range of books, we’ve spoken to several of our recent authors to ask them about their latest work, as well as their favourite or current I.B. Tauris reads. From what led Christoph Baumer to tackle the long, complex history of the Caucasus region, to Jaber Baker and Ugur Ümit Üngör’s thoughts on why we need to understand the atrocities and deaths occurring in Syrian prisons, you’ll find plenty of inspiration for your reading list.
Christoph Baumer, author of the History of the Caucasus two-volume series, Volume 1: At the Crossroads of Empires (2021) and Volume 2: In the Shadow of Great Powers (2023)
The Caucasus region has a rich and complex history. What motivated you to write the History of the Caucasus two-volume set and what do you hope readers will gain from it?
Due to its mountainous topography, the Caucasus represents a fascinating conglomerate of numerous languages, ethnicities and cultures. At the same time, its geographical position determined the Caucasus to be an interface between different, often rival world views, economic systems and major regional powers. Nevertheless, the people always kept their indomitable passion for independence.
This work should help to understand the specific characteristics of Caucasian mentality, culture and politics.
Finally, it was a rewarding challenge and makes fun to put a complicated, confusing and convoluted history down on paper in a hopefully easy-to-understand narrative.
What is your favourite I.B. Tauris title that has been published?
John Townsend, Proconsul of the Middle East. Sir Percy Cox and the End of Empire (2010).
Maged Mandour, author of Egypt Under El-Sisi: A Nation of the Edge (2024)
Egypt has experienced significant political changes in recent decades. What message or insights would you like readers to take away from your book, especially those interested in understanding Egypt's political dynamics under El-Sisi?
The book is the first one looking at the Sisi regime’s first decade in power. The main argument of the book is that the Sisi regime has embarked on drastic and dramatic changes, what can be termed as a passive revolution, with the goal of concentrating power in the hands of the military. This process has spawned a regime that is radically different from its predecessors, and far more dangerous to the future of the country than anyone would have thought in 2013.
What I.B. Tauris book is currently on your to-read pile?
The number one book on my to-read list is Syrian Gulag, a very timely and important book with relevance far beyond Syria.
Jaber Baker and Ugur Ümit Üngör, the authors of Syrian Gulag: Inside Assad’s Prison System (2023)
Syrian Gulag highlights the scale of detentions, atrocities and deaths that are occurring in Syrian prisons under the Assad regime. What do you hope readers will take away from your book in terms of understanding the magnitude of this crisis and how can the international community respond to the issues highlighted in your book?
The most important thing that the reader may take away from our book Syrian Gulag is a systematic and in-depth understanding of the Syrian prison archipelago. This understanding may help us ask the right questions on how to dismantle this giant prison complex. How can the international community contribute to resolving this humanitarian dilemma? Syrian Gulag provides knowledge, but at the same time, asks everyone to contribute their ideas to eradicate this human shame.
What is your favourite I.B. Tauris title that has been published?
Our favourite I.B. Tauris book is Anna Borshchevskaya’s Putin's War in Syria: Russian Foreign Policy and the Price of America's Absence (2021) because it builds a bridge between the violence in Syria, Ukraine, and beyond.
Dina Matar is the series editor for SOAS Palestine Studies and Political Communication and Media Practices in the Middle East and North Africa
How have political communication and media practices changed in the MENA region during the 21st century? Do you have any predictions for how they will continue to affect the political landscape in the coming decades?
Political communication and media practices have fundamentally changed in the MENA region in the 21st century thanks to the transformations in media and communication and the emergence of diverse popular movements. These changes have called into question the assumptions and questions that have defined much of the scholarship on political communication in the region up to the Arab uprisings of 2011. While the dominance of old analytical paradigms that have defined what politics and the political mean continue to seep into scholarship, we have seen a shift evident in the focus on who are studied and in which context, and engagement with how ordinary people and movements engage with politics in diverse spaces and platforms. These studies have helped broaden the research agenda, challenge Western-centric paradigms about the region and provide a more complex and nuanced picture of the intersection of the political, social and cultural.
Which I.B. Tauris book is currently on your to-read pile?
Digital Political Cultures in the Middle East since the Arab Uprisings by Dounia Mahlouly (2023), which is an example of new and challenging research.
George W. Gawrych, the author of Atatürk: Father of the Republic of Turkey (2023)
Turkey has a rich and complex political and intellectual history. How has Atatürk's legacy influenced the country's political and intellectual discourse, and how does it continue to do so?
Atatürk is one of the acknowledged great leaders of the twentieth century, and he has held an important place in Turkey’s politics since his death in 1938. His legacy of Westernization, nationalism, and secularism has served as a reference point for political discourse on the Republic, national identity, Kurdish and other minorities, the role of women, the place of Islam, economic development, and Turkey’s place in world. Appreciating his goals, aspirations, and comprehensive approach to the modernization of Turkey within a historical context provides fresh insight into Atatürk’s development as both an accomplished political and military leader.
What is your favourite I.B. Tauris title that has been published?
For me, Turkey: A Modern History by the Turkish scholar Erik Jan Zürcher has served as an excellent textbook for my undergraduate students studying the history of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries of the Middle East.
David Avital is Editorial Director, Bloomsbury Politics, International Development and Area Studies, including imprints I.B. Tauris and Zed Books.
