# MESA book awards

The Middle East Studies Association of North America (MESA) offers four book awards at its fall annual conference.

## Albert Hourani Book Award

The Albert Hourani Book Award is an award honoring scholarly non-fiction books, given by the Middle East Studies Association of North America (MESA) to "recognize outstanding publishing in Middle East studies" and to honor work "that exemplifies scholarly excellence and clarity of presentation in the tradition of Albert Hourani", the distinguished scholar of Arab and Islamic history. On occasion two authors have shared the year's award; in some years, the society has given honorable mention distinctions. MESA first gave the award in 1991.

### Award winners

| Year | Author | Title | Publisher | Distinction |
| 1991 | Abraham Marcus | The Middle East on the Eve of Modernity: Aleppo in the Eighteenth Century | Columbia University Press | Winner |
| 1991 | Steven Caton | "Peaks of Yemen I Summon": Poetry as Cultural Practice in a North Yemeni Tribe | University of California Press | Honorable Mention |
| 1993 | Brinkley Messick | The Calligraphic State: Textual Domination and History in a Muslim Society | University of California Press | Winner |
| 1993 | Sabra J. Webber | Romancing the Real: Folklore and Ethnographic Representation in North Africa | University of Pennsylvania Press | Honorable Mention |
| 1993 | Robert D. McChesney | Waqf in Central Asia: Four Hundred Years in the History of a Muslim Shrine | Princeton University Press | Honorable Mention |
| 1993 | Kenneth Cuno | The Pasha's Peasants: Land, Society, and Economy in Lower Egypt, 1740-1858 | Cambridge University Press | Honorable Mention |
| 1994 | Chibli Mallat | The Renewal of Islamic Law | Cambridge University Press | Co-Winner |
| 1994 | Richard M. Eaton | The Rise of Islam and the Bengal Frontier, 1204–1760 | University of California Press | Co-Winner |
| 1994 | Tarif Khalidi | Arabic Historical Thought in the Classical Period | Cambridge University Press | Honorable Mention |
| 1995 | Devin DeWeese | Islamization and Native Religion in the Golden Horde: Baba Tukles and Conversion to Islam in Historical and Epic Tradition | Penn State Press | Winner |
| 1995 | Julia Clancy Smith | Rebel and Saint: Muslim Notables, Populist Protest, Colonial Encounters (Algeria and Tunisia, 1800-1904) | University of California Press | Honorable Mention |
| 1996 | Gülru Necipoğlu | The Topkapi Scroll—Geometry and Ornament in Islamic Architecture | The Getty Center for the History of Art and the Humanities | Winner |
| 1996 | Michael Gilsenan | Lords of the Lebanese Marches: Violence and Narrative in Arab Society | I.B. Tauris | Honorable Mention |
| 1997 | Andrew Shryock | Nationalism and Genealogical Imagination: Oral History and Textual Authority in Tribal Jordan | University of California Press | Co-Winner |
| 1997 | Rashid I. Khalidi | Palestinian Identity: The Construction of Modern National Consciousness | Columbia University Press | Co-Winner |
| 1998 | Kiren Aziz Chaudhry | The Price of Wealth: Economies and Institutions in the Middle East | Cornell University Press | Co-Winner |
| 1998 | Marsha Pripstein Posusney | Labor and the State in Egypt: Workers, Unions, and Economic Restructuring | Columbia University Press | Co-Winner |
| 1998 | Marianna Shreve Simpson | Sultan Ibrahim Mirza's Haft Awrang: A Princely Manuscript from Sixteenth-Century Iran | Yale University Press | Honorable Mention |
| 1999 | Susan Slyomovics | The Object of Memory: Arab and Jew Narrate the Palestinian Village | University of Pennsylvania Press | Winner |
| 1999 | Mohammed A. Bamyeh | The Social Origins of Islam: Mind, Economy, Discourse | University of Minnesota Press | Honorable Mention |
| 2000 | Eugene Rogan | Frontiers of the State in the Late Ottoman Empire: Transjordan, 1850–1921 | Cambridge University Press | Winner |
| 2000 | Tayeb El-Hibri | Reinterpreting Islamic Historiography: Harun al-Rashid and the Narrative of the Abbasid Caliphate | Cambridge University Press | Honorable Mention |
| 2000 | Carole Hillenbrand | The Crusades: Islamic Perspectives | Edinburgh University Press | Honorable Mention |
| 2000 | Meron Benvenisti | Sacred Landscape: The Buried History of the Holy Land since 1948 | University of California Press | Honorable Mention |
| 2001 | Michael Cook | Commanding Right and Forbidding Wrong in Islamic Thought | Cambridge University Press | Winner |
| 2002 | Nadia Abu El-Haj | Facts on the Ground: Archaeological Practice and Territorial Self-Fashioning in Israeli Society | University of Chicago Press | Co-Winner |
| 2002 | Gershon Shafir & Yoav Peled | Being Israeli: The Dynamics of Multiple Citizenship | Cambridge University Press | Co-Winner |
| 2002 | Jonathan Bloom | Paper before Print: The History and Impact of Paper in the Islamic World | Yale University Press | Honorable Mention |
| 2003 | Jonathan P. Berkey | The Formation of Islam: Religion and Society in the Near East, 600-1800 | Cambridge University Press | Winner |
| 2003 | Heather J. Sharkey | Living with Colonialism: Nationalism and Culture in the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan | University of California Press | Honorable Mention |
| 2003 | Farha Ghannam | Remaking the Modern: Space, Relocation, and the Politics of Identity in a Global Cairo | University of California Press | Honorable Mention |
| 2004 | Leslie Peirce | Morality Tales: Law and Gender in the Ottoman Court of Aintab | University of California Press | Winner |
| 2004 | Maya Rosenfeld | Confronting the Occupation: Work, Education, & Political Activism of Palestinian Families in a Refugee Camp | Stanford University Press | Honorable Mention |
| 2004 | Rashid I. Khalidi | Resurrecting Empire: Western Footprints and America's Perilous Path in the Middle East | Beacon Press | Honorable Mention |
| 2005 | Robert R. Bianchi | Guests of God: Pilgrimage and Politics in the Islamic World | Oxford University Press | Winner |
| 2005 | Gülru Necipoglu | The Age of Sinan: Architectural Culture in the Ottoman Empire | Princeton University Press | Honorable Mention |
| 2005 | Saba Mahmood | Politics of Piety: The Islamic Revival and the Feminist Subject | Princeton University Press | Honorable Mention |
| 2006 | Rudi Matthee | The Pursuit of Pleasure: Drugs and Stimulants in Iranian History, 1500-1900 | Princeton University Press | Winner |
| 2007 | Jessica Winegar | Creative Reckonings: The Politics of Art and Culture in Contemporary Egypt | Stanford University Press | Co-Winner |
| 2007 | Leor Halevi | Muhammad's Grave: Death Rites and the Making of Islamic Society | Columbia University Press | Co-Winner |
| 2008 | Ussama Makdisi | Artillery of Heaven: American Missionaries and the Failed Conversion of the Middle East | Cornell University Press | Co-Winner |
| 2008 | Marc David Baer | Honored by the Glory of Islam: Conversion and Conquest in Ottoman Europe | Oxford University Press | Co-Winner |
| 2009 | Sophia Vasalou | Moral Agents and Their Deserts: The Character of Mu'tazilite Ethics | Princeton University Press | Winner |
| 2010 | Benjamin Claude Brower | A Desert Named Peace: The Violence of France's Empire in the Algerian Sahara, 1844-1902 | Columbia University Press | Winner |
| 2011 | Nile Green | Bombay Islam: The Religious Economy of the West Indian Ocean, 1840-1915 | Cambridge University Press | Co-Winner |
| 2011 | Rochelle Davis | Palestinian Village Histories: Geographies of the Displaced | Stanford University Press | Co-Winner |
| 2012 | Sam White | The Climate of Rebellion in the Early Modern Ottoman Empire | Cambridge University Press | Winner |
| 2013 | Patricia Crone | Nativist Prophets of Early Islamic Iran: Rural Revolt and Local Zoroastrianism | Cambridge University Press | Co-Winner |
| 2013 | Taner Akçam | The Young Turks' Crime against Humanity: The Armenian Genocide and Ethnic Cleansing in the Ottoman Empire | Princeton University Press | Co-Winner |
| 2014 | Brian Catlos | Muslims of Medieval Latin Christendom, c. 1050-1614 | Cambridge University Press | Winner |
| 2015 | Kenneth M. Cuno | Modernizing Marriage: Family, Ideology and Law in Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Century Egypt | Syracuse University Press | Winner |
| 2016 | Nükhet Varlık | Plague and Empire in the Early Modern Mediterranean World: The Ottoman Experience, 1347-1600 | Cambridge University Press | Winner |
| 2016 | Seema Alavi | Muslim Cosmopolitanism in the Age of Empire | Harvard University Press | Honorable Mention |
| 2017 | Noah Salomon | For Love of the Prophet: An Ethnography of Sudan's Islamic State | Princeton University Press | Winner |
| 2018 | Alireza Doostdar | The Iranian Metaphysicals: Explorations in Science, Islam, and the Uncanny | Princeton University Press | Winner |
| 2018 | J.R. Osborn | Letters of Light: Arabic Script in Calligraphy, Print, and Digital Design | Harvard University Press | Honorable Mention |
| 2019 | Fredrik Meiton | Electrical Palestine: Capital and Technology from the Empire to Nation | University of California Press | Winner |
| 2019 | Jack Tannous | The Making of the Medieval Middle East: Religion, Society, and Simple Believers | Princeton University Press | Honorable Mention |
| 2020 | Sophia Stamatopoulou-Robbins | Waste Siege: The Life of Infrastructure in Palestine | Stanford University Press | Winner |
| 2020 | Wendy M. K. Shaw | What is 'Islamic' Art? Between Religion and Perception | Cambridge University Press | Honorable Mention |
| 2021 | Michael Christopher Low | Imperial Mecca: Ottoman Arabia and the Indian Ocean Hajj | Columbia University Press | Winner |
| 2021 | James Pickett | Polymaths of Islam: Power and Networks of Knowledge in Central Asia | Cornell University Press | Honorable Mention |
| 2021 | Caterina Scaramelli | How to Make a Wetland: Water and Moral Ecology in Turkey | Stanford University Press | Honorable Mention |
| 2022 | Waleed Ziad | Hidden Caliphate: Sufi Saints beyond the Oxus and Indus | Harvard University Press | Winner |
| 2022 | Helen Pfeifer | Empire of Salons: Conquest and Community in Early Modern Ottoman Lands | Princeton University Press | Honorable Mention |
| 2023 | Jessica M. Marglin | The Shamama Case: Contesting Citizenship Across the Modern Mediterranean | Princeton University Press | Co-Winner |
| 2023 | Mostafa Minawi | Losing Istanbul: Arab-Ottoman Imperialists and the End of Empire | Stanford University Press | Co-Winner |
| 2023 | Nomi Stone | Pinelandia: An Anthropology and Field Poetics of War and Empire | University of California Press | Honorable Mention |
| 2024 | Lisa Bhungalia | Elastic Empire: Refashioning War through Aid in Palestine | Stanford University Press | Winner |

## Roger Owen Book Award

The Roger Owen Book Award, first given in 2011, recognizes the very best in economics, economic history, or the political economy of the Middle East and North Africa scholarship. The award honors Roger Owen for his long and distinguished career and scholarly contributions. The biennial award is given in odd-numbered years

### Award winners

| Year | Author | Institution | Title | Publisher | Distinction |
| 2011 | Alan Mikhail | Yale University | Nature and Empire in Ottoman Egypt: An Environmental History | Cambridge University Press | Winner |
| 2013 | Nancy Y. Reynolds | Washington University in St. Louis | A City Consumed: Urban Commerce, the Cairo Fire, and the Politics of Decolonization in Egypt | Stanford University Press | Winner |
| 2015 | Zeinab Abul-Magd | Oberlin College | Imagined Empires: A History of Revolt in Egypt | University of California Press | Winner |
| 2017 | Johan Mathew | Rutgers University | Margins of the Market: Trafficking and Capitalism across the Arabian Sea | University of California Press | Winner |
| 2017 | Hanan H. Hammad | Texas Christian University | Industrial Sexuality: Gender, Urbanization, and Social Transformation in Egypt | University of Texas Press | Honorable Mention |
| 2019 | Fredrik Meiton | University of New Hampshire | Electrical Palestine: Capital and Technology from Empire to Nation | University of California Press | Winner |
| 2021 | Amr Adly | American University in Cairo | Cleft Capitalism: The Social Origins of Failed Market Making in Egypt | Stanford University Press | Winner |
| 2021 | Aaron Jakes | The New School | Egypt's Occupation: Colonial Economism and the Crises of Capitalism | Stanford University Press | Honorable Mention |
| 2023 | Natasha Iskander | New York University | Does Skill Make Us Human? Migrant Workers in 21-st Century Qatar and Beyond | Princeton University Press | Co-Winner |
| 2023 | José Ciro Martínez | University of York | States of Subsistence: The Politics of Bread in Contemporary Jordan | Stanford University Press | Co-Winner |

## Fatema Mernissi Book Award

The Fatema Mernissi Book Award was established in 2017 to recognize outstanding scholarship in studies of gender, sexuality, and women’s lived experience. The annual award was named for Fatema Mernissi to recognize her long and distinguished career as a scholar and as a public intellectual.

### Award winners

| Year | Author | Institution | Title | Publisher | Distinction |
| 2018 | Attiya Ahmad | George Washington University | Everyday Conversions: Islam, Domestic Work, and South Asian Migrant Women in Kuwait | Duke University Press | Winner |
| 2019 | Ilana Feldman | George Washington University | Life Lived in Relief: Humanitarian Predicaments and Palestinian Refugee Politics | University of California Press | Winner |
| 2019 | Stefania Pandolfo | University of California, Berkeley | Knot of the Soul: Madness, Psychoanalysis, Islam | University of Chicago Press | Honorable Mention |
| 2020 | Salih Can Açıksöz | UCLA | Sacrificial Limbs: Masculinity, Disability, and Political Violence in Turkey | University of California Press | Winner |
| 2020 | Zahra Ayubi | Dartmouth College | Gendered Morality: Classical Islamic Ethics of the Self, Family, and Society | Columbia University Press | Honorable Mention |
| 2021 | Niloofar Haeri | Johns Hopkins University | Say What Your Longing Heart Desires: Women, Prayer, and Poetry in Iran | Stanford University Press | Winner |
| 2021 | Hagar Kotef | SOAS, University of London | The Colonizing Self: Or, Home and Homelessness in Israel/Palestine | Duke University Press | Honorable Mention |
| 2021 | Sima Shakhsari | University of Minnesota | Politics of Rightful Killing: Civil Society, Gender, and Sexuality in Weblogistan | Duke University Press | Honorable Mention |
| 2022 | Sonia Ahsan-Tirmizi | Columbia University | Pious Peripheries: Runaway Women in Post-Taliban Afghanistan | Stanford University Press | Winner |
| 2022 | Kathryn Babayan | University of Michigan | The City as Anthology: Eroticism and Urbanity in Early Modern Isfahan | Stanford University Press | Honorable Mention |
| 2023 | Maya Mikdashi | Rutgers University | Sextarianism: Sovereignty, Secularism, and the State in Lebanon | Stanford University Press | Winner |
| 2023 | Kirsten L. Scheid | American University in Beirut | Fantasmic Objects: Art and Sociality from Lebanon, 1920-1950 | Indiana University Press | Honorable Mention |
| 2024 | Emek Ergun | University of North Carolina at Charlotte | Virgin Crossing Borders: Feminist Resistance and Solidarity in Translation | University of Illinois Press | Winner |

## Nikki Keddie Book Award

The Nikki Keddie Book Award was established in 2017 to recognize outstanding scholarly work in the area of religion, revolution, and/or society. The annual award was named for Nikki Keddie to recognize her long and distinguished career as a scholar and teacher.

### Award winners

| Year | Author | Institution | Title | Publisher | Distinction |
| 2018 | Kevan Harris | University of California, Los Angeles | A Social Revolution: Politics and the Welfare State in Iran | University of California Press | Co-Winner |
| 2018 | Orit Bashkin | The University of Chicago | Impossible Exodus: Iraqi Jews in Israel | Stanford University Press | Co-Winner |
| 2019 | Hiba Bou Akar | Columbia University | For the War Yet to Come: Planning Beirut's Frontiers | Stanford University Press | Winner |
| 2019 | Eric Calderwood | University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign | Colonial al-Andalus: Spain and the Making of Modern Moroccan Culture | Harvard University Press | Honorable Mention |
| 2020 | Maziyar Ghiabi | SOAS, University of London and University of Exeter | Drugs Politics: Managing Disorder in the Islamic Republic of Iran | Cambridge University Press | Winner |
| 2020 | M'hamed Oualdi | Sciences Po | A Slave Between Empires: A Transimperial History of North Africa | Columbia University Press | Honorable Mention |
| 2021 | Elise K. Burton | University of Toronto | Genetic Crossroads: The Middle East and the Science of Human Heredity | Stanford University Press | Winner |
| 2021 | Fadi A. Bardawil | Duke University | Revolution and Disenchantment: Arab Marxism and the Binds of Emancipation | Duke University Press | Honorable Mention |
| 2021 | Rosie Bsheer | Harvard University | Archive Wars: The Politics of History in Saudi Arabia | Stanford University Press | Honorable Mention |
| 2022 | Chris Gratien | University of Virginia | The Unsettled Plain: An Environmental History of the Late Ottoman Frontier | Stanford University Press | Co-Winner |
| 2022 | Karen E. Rignall | University of Kentucky | An Elusive Common: Land, Politics, and Agrarian Rurality in a Moroccan Oasis | Cornell University Press | Co-Winner |
| 2022 | Mona El-Ghobashy | New York University | Bread and Freedom: Egypt's Revolutionary Situation | Stanford University Press | Honorable Mention |
| 2023 | Nadim Bawalsa | Institute for Palestine Studies | Transnational Palestine: Migration and the Right of Return Before 1948 | Stanford University Press | Winner |
| 2023 | Carel Bertram | San Francisco State University | A House in the Homeland: Armenian Pilgrimages to Places of Ancestral Memory | Stanford University Press | Honorable Mention |
| 2023 | Manijeh Moradian | Barnard College, Columbia University | This Flame Within: Iranian Revolutionaries in the United States | Duke University Press | Honorable Mention |
| 2024 | Sara Rahnama | Morgan State University | The Future is Feminist: Women and Social Change in Interwar Algeria | Cornell University Press | Co-Winner |
| 2024 | Annika Schmeding | The Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW) | Sufi Civilities: Religious Authority and Political Change in Afghanistan | Stanford University Press | Co-Winner |