Black Wave

Kim Ghattas' Black Wave came with the highest possible recommendation and boy did it deliver on all fronts! I've spent the last year or so reading numerous works on the Middle East and, though all were engrossing reads, they mostly focused on a single country/region. Brilliant and well-researched, Ghattas' work fills the gaps found in those other books, demonstrating how the conflict between Iran and Saudi Arabia spread across the length and breadth of the Middle East. Indeed, she explores the repercussions the rise of radical Islam had in Egypt, Lebanon, Pakistan, Iraq, Syria, Palestine, and more.

Even the CIA recommends this one:

While other journalists and scholars have written about specific aspects of this story, to this reviewer’s knowledge, none have attempted the kind of sweeping examination of the Saudi-Iranian rivalry and its impact on the Middle East—and beyond—as has Ghattas. Her achievement is significant and should be required reading for anyone who seeks to better understand how we got here, particularly those whose duties or responsibilities necessitate it. Intelligence officers, in particular, will find nuanced explorations of the roots of many of the regions’ current conflicts, but also glimpses of the deeply-held hopes for a better future among some of the people who live there.

If you're interested in the rise of extremism and how it affected the Middle East and the West, Kim Ghattas' Black Wave covers a lot of ground and is a fascinating read. Furthermore, it's an accessible work that can be enjoyed and understood by neophytes and aficionados alike.

If you only want to read one book on the topic, it has to be Black Wave.

Here's the blurb:

Black Wave is a paradigm-shifting recasting of the modern history of the Middle East, telling the largely unexplored story of the rivalry between Sunni Saudi Arabia and Shia Iran--a rivalry born out of the sparks of the 1979 Iranian revolution--that has dramatically transformed the culture, identity, and collective memory of millions of Muslims over four decades. Kim Ghattas follows everyday citizens whose lives have been affected by the geopolitical drama.

Most Americans assume that extremism, Sunni-Shia antagonism, and anti-Americanism have always existed in the Middle East, but prior to 1979, Saudi Arabia and Iran were working allies. It was only after that year--a remarkable turning point--that Shia Iran and Sunni Saudi Arabia began to use religion as a tool in their competition for dominance in the region, igniting the culture wars that led to the 1991 American invasion of Iraq, the September 11th terrorist attacks, and the rise of ISIS.

Ghattas shows how Saudi Arabia and Iran went from allies against the threat of communism from Russia, with major roles in the US anti-Soviet strategy, to mortal enemies that use religious conservatism to incite division and unrest from Egypt to Pakistan.

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