Images of migration to Europe in the media since the revolutions and protests in diverse North African and Middle Eastern countries that began in 2010 have often tended to focus on “landings,” which reduce people to victims or criminals and obscure the reasons behind their journeys. Such iconic images encourage binary perceptions of “us” and “them,” “citizen” and “migrant.” Some images are intended to trigger compassion and identification, but they only reinforce such binaries. Yet art, I argue, can move beyond such images to embody and activate its spectators by creating what I call a multilayered interface. I develop this concept in relation to installation art by Bissane Al Charif and by Hela Ammar, who combine innovative uses of oral narratives and alternative modes of imaging in indoor or outdoor spaces.

We have been here before. Echoes of the US invasion of Iraq reverberate in 2026 rhetoric about “regime change” and manipulated claims about the presence of weapons of mass destruction. Echoes of the US invasion of Afghanistan reappear in 2026 rhetoric about saving Muslim women from Muslim men. Israeli state and non-state actors’ calls to invade, occupy, and settle south Lebanon echo a century of openly articulated Zionist expansionist aims that call for ethnic cleansing and genocide. Yet, this moment also feels different. As those in our field—and apparently only those in our field—know, Iran is a functioning state with complex infrastructure and bureaucratic systems and a well-established and well-equipped military. MESA members have taken to the airwaves and zoom screens in attempts to break through the distortions of echo chambers and the presumptions of experts as we all bear witness to clear shifts in the post–World War II hegemonic global order. One thing is clear: Imperial warfare is reshaping economic and political multilateral agreements and assumed norms in ways both predictable and not.

This article examines the early history of Iranian communism through two Persian translations of The Communist Manifesto (1923 and 1951), situating them within broader debates on Soviet cultural politics, Iranian modernism, and the politics of translation. By analyzing the rhetorical strategies and conceptual vocabularies employed by translators, the study highlights how Persian intellectuals mediated Marxism through local traditions of political thought and literary modernism. The 1923 translation by Sayyid Muhammad Dihgan drew on Perso-Islamic notions of justice and temporality, asserting Iran’s coevalness with the West and aligning Marxist concepts with late Qajar reformist discourse. In contrast, the 1951 Moscow-sponsored translation, produced under the auspices of the Tudeh Party, reflected Cold War cultural rivalries, privileging secular and nationalist vocabularies and erasing Islamic political resonances. Juxtaposing these two translations, the article rethinks Iranian Marxism not as a mere extension of Soviet influence but as a contested field of cultural mediation and conceptual innovation.

This article explores Islamic citizenship education as the conduit through which ideological governance was articulated and enacted in rebel-governed northwestern Syria (2017–25) with a close ethnographic and textual analysis of the Dar al-Wahy al-Sharif (DWS) school network. Founded in 2017 under the patronage of Hayʾat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), DWS has grown into the region’s most expansive educational institution, blending Qurʾanic learning with nationalist Islamic pedagogy. Drawing on fieldwork conducted in Idlib in 2025, the study examines how DWS cultivates an “exceptional Qurʾanic generation” while operating within, and reinforcing, a political environment structured by HTS rule, shaping patterns of loyalty and parental alignment. Situating DWS within HTS’s post-Salafi turn and broader state-building project, the article argues that the school system functions as both a site of ideological reproduction and an arena in which postconflict Islamist governance takes shape.

The question of unity between Egypt and Sudan has received extensive scholarly attention, with most studies focusing on the monarchy’s efforts to preserve both polities as a single geopolitical entity. A prevailing view holds that the Free Officers abandoned this project, relinquishing Egypt’s claims to Sudan. Drawing on materials from the Egyptian National Archives and the National Archives in London, this article shows instead that unity with Sudan remained a core objective of the new military regime. I trace how an ostensibly secular regime strategically deployed religion in pursuit of this objective. I demonstrate that transnational networks of al-Azhar and Sufi orders were central to the Free Officers’ efforts to maintain Egyptian hegemony in Sudan. This analysis offers new insight into the religious diplomacy of the post-1952 regime, complicating our understanding of a key episode in Egyptian–Sudanese relations and highlighting the interplay between religion and statecraft in shaping Egyptian politics, especially under Nasser.

An examination of the history of menageries in Ireland from 1790 to 1840 offers insights into how people related to and understood the animal world through exhibitions of exotic creatures. Menageries, featuring diverse collections of wild animals displayed in cages, were part of the broader entertainment scene at fairs and large social events in the early nineteenth century. Journeying across Ireland and Britain in horse-drawn caravans, these exhibitions evolved from modest attractions to significant commercial enterprises by the mid nineteenth century. While British menageries of the period have received considerable scholarly attention, Irish menageries have been largely overlooked. This article seeks to address that gap by exploring how the Irish public encountered exotic and rare animals in menageries during this period. Newspapers, advertisements for travelling menageries and contemporary accounts reveal that menageries played a meaningful role in bringing the wonders of the animal kingdom to the Irish populace, offering a glimpse into the exotic and the unknown.