u/hellomondays

I recently started going through Dig's Thawra Project Database. It's a scholarly project by Daniel Denvir and Abdel Razzaq Takriti to construct a critical history of radicalism in the Arab world. What makes it notable is that this is a very complex topic with multiple ideologies, historical narratives, etc but an important one to understanding the region and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. However all this information is rarely considered as a whole. I like the way it combines serious research with compelling storytelling. It’s educational without feeling academic or distant, and it creates space for people to connect with histories that are rarely explored in a nuanced way.

Instead of reducing the region to headlines or conflict, Thawra ties the deeper context behind revolutionary movements, anti-colonial struggles, and the philosophers and political organizers who shaped them. I think even people who would reject the conclusions of the project would find its historiography combined with a human element useful for understanding.

The two host Daniel Denvir (an american journalist for left wing publications) and Abdel Razzaq Takriti (a Palestinian-American Historian) do take a leftist tilt in their editorial, however do a really good job at highlighting this and making sure their mission statement of explaining how these different revolutionary and radical movements of the 20th century middle east shape the present. I was expecting left wing polemics but was suprised when I recieved something a lot more scholarly.

The database's description is as follows:

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>Across hours of finely detailed inquiry, Daniel Denvir and Abdel Razzaq Takriti chart the emergence and evolution of revolutionary currents in the Mashriq, including nationalism, Nasserism, Ba'athism, communism, and Islamism-set in the context of imperialist power politics and predation. Every episode emphasizes the critical history of the Nakba and the Palestinian national liberation struggle which have decisively shaped the region -and, obviously, continue to do so today. This pod is an ideal resource for academic courses, activist political education, and anyone interested in better understanding the making of the modern Middle East.

I particularly found episode 2 (on the origins of Arab Nationalism), 4 (largely on Nasser's rise to power) and 15 (on Black September and Palestinian nationalism in the larger arab world) really enlightening. Though, of course, the entire series is worth a listen.