Abdel Razzaq Takriti, Associate Professor & Arab-American Educational Foundation Chair in Modern Arab History, The University of Houston

Abdel Razzaq Takriti is the inaugural holder of the Arab-American Educational Foundation Chair in Modern Arab History. Professor Takriti received his DPhil from St Antony's College, Oxford University. His dissertation was awarded the Middle East Studies Association of North America (MESA) Malcolm Kerr Prize for Best Dissertation in the Humanities and the British Society of Middle Eastern Studies (BRISMES) Leigh Douglas Memorial Prize for Best Dissertation in the Social Sciences or the Humanities. He was elected for a three year Junior Research Fellowship at St Edmund Hall, Oxford and subsequently served as a faculty member at the University of Sheffield. In 2014 he was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and in 2015 he was an Academic Visitor in Modern History at St Edmund Hall, Oxford.

Winner of the prestigious MESA (Middle East Studies Association of North America) 2011 Malcolm Kerr Award for Best Doctoral Dissertation in the Humanities; Joint Winner of the BRISMES (British Society of Middle Eastern Studies) 2011 Leigh Douglas Memorial Award for Best Doctoral Dissertation in the Humanities or Social Sciences; Shortlisted for the Royal Historical Society's 2013 Gladstone Prize; Honorable Mention - British-Kuwait Friendship Society Book Prize in Middle Eastern

"Beautifully written, Monsoon Revolution's narrative has intense propulsive force ... This important, substantively rich, readable, and persuasive work should be required reading for any student of revolutions, empires, uprisings, and geopolitics in the Middle East" - Laleh Khalili, Review of Middle East Studies

"In his masterfully researched and beautifully written and composed study, Takriti manages to recreate not only the story but also much of the atmosphere of those days, pulling the reader into the very special world of 1970s national liberation movements" - Roland Popp, Cold War History

"Abdel Razzaq Takriti's well-researched book focuses on an almost forgotten revolutionary movement in an impoverished margin of the Arab world. Takriti has done a great service to the historiography of the Dhufari-Omani revolution" - Behrooz Moazami, American Historical Review

"Monsoon Revolution is an inspiration for those looking to escape the political dead end of discursive determinism, and an important step forward in regard to the still rather neglected and misunderstood history of what the author aptly calls the "difficult craft of popular mobilization" in the Arab world" - John Chalcraft, Arab Studies Journal

"At last we have an outstanding English language study of the Dhufari revolution ... Takriti's purpose is easily stated ... and the task is superbly accomplished ... Altogether, this is an invaluable book that deserves a wide readership" - John Newsinger, Race and Class

"An important book ... highly recommended" - B. Harris Jr., CHOICE

"Takriti's book is currently the only serious analysis of the Omani revolution This is an important book for anyone interested in the modern history of the Middle East and in particular of the Movement of Arab Nationalists and its influence. Its discussions of factionalism within a political movement should also provide some useful lessons for the modern youth challenging their regimes" - Helen Lackner, Middle Eastern Studies

"For an understanding of the contemporary Arabian peninsula, Takriti's analysis will now become the key reference. His analysis of the connections between the internal dynamics of the Dhufari revolution and the ideological and political cross-currents that defined anti-imperialist politics in the Arab world sets an example for how to examine political movements" - Paul Kelemen, Capital and Class

"The reader encounters an array of interesting characters and vignettes which alone ought to inspire future researchers ... Monsoon Revolution breaks much new ground and provides a baseline for future research ... Any subsequent histories of Oman will have to refer to this book" - Matthew MacLean, Arabian Humanities

"By its contribution to key debates on the link between colonialism and absolutism, on the perpetuation of authoritarianism and subjecthood in post-colonial societies, but even more on the extreme topicality of the quest for popular sovereignty, emancipation and dignity, this is an immensely rewarding book." - Marc Valeri, English Historical Review

"Abdel Razzaq Takriti's excellent book will quickly be established as the definitive account of the revolutionary Arab nationalist and third worldist armed struggle in Dhufar, waged against the absolutist sultan of Oman and the British Empire from 1965 to 1976 ... this work draws with considerable maturity and skill on British colonial documents, Arab personal collections, unpublished papers, and interviews, and as such offers unprecedented empirical depth. Takriti's polished prose illuminates much that was unclear or misunderstood about the revolutionary movement itself, its major organizational changes and strategies, its revolutionary culture, its forms of republicanism and citizenship, and especially its transnational links to the Arab nationalist movement and the third world." - John Chalcraft, Arab Studies Journal