This course looks at the history of sports and games in the Middle East to examine how entertainment and spectacle become arenas of warfare, gender disparity, religious piety, social movement, diplomatic strategy, cultural heritage, discrimination, and history making. In October 2021, the Saudi Public Investment Fund, chaired by crown-prince Mohammad bin Salman, led an ownership takeover of the English Premier League Football Club Newcastle United. Saudi Arabia is the third oil-rich state to invest heavily in major soccer teams, following the Abu Dhabi United Group (United Arab Emirates) ownership of Manchester City Football Club and the Qatar Sports Investments group ownership of Paris Saint-Germain Football Club. These three Gulf states with questionable human rights records have been accused of sportswashing — using the popularity of football and sports to build positive worldwide reputations. From board games played by pharaohs, kings, and queens found in ancient tombs such as the Royal Game of Ur from ancient Mesopotamia or Senet from ancient Egypt to the popularity of Chess in medieval Islamic courts and empires to the 2007 formation and 2021 extraction of the Afghanistan women's national football team and to the upcoming 2022 Qatar World Cup, sporting and games have been the locus of delight, community, terror, rebellion, and political intrigue throughout the Middle East.
Students in this class will explore these histories, play some games, analyze important historical and modern events through film and broadcast, and engage their own tactical brains in a series of optional assignments.
Intended Audience:
Undergraduate students
Class Format:
Two 90-minute meetings weekly