Anyone applying to Middle East History programs?

[cooperstreet]

Is anyone out there applying to study Middle East History for 2010? If so, where are you looking? What period? What kind of language skills do you have? What are some colleges that would normally fly under the radar, but have excellent Middle East programs?

[geigwm6]

Georgetown's History program isn't the best renowned, but the Middle East History is great.

[misterpat]

Sub-question, for those capable of answering the OP's question: Anyone know of a particularly great historian of Iran? I'd like to get a "Concise History of Iran," but don't know who to look for, and I don't want to put too much faith in Amazon's recommendations.

[sankd]

Sub-question, for those capable of answering the OP's question: Anyone know of a particularly great historian of Iran? I'd like to get a "Concise History of Iran," but don't know who to look for, and I don't want to put too much faith in Amazon's recommendations.

Ali Ansari? Bias taken into account, of course.

[Dirt]

Sub-question, for those capable of answering the OP's question: Anyone know of a particularly great historian of Iran? I'd like to get a "Concise History of Iran," but don't know who to look for, and I don't want to put too much faith in Amazon's recommendations.

While it doesn't exactly fit into the "concise history" mold, you should check out Roy Mottahedeh's The Mantle of the Prophet: Religion and Politics in Iran. It's a sort of fictionalized biography that very effectively brings out many of the themes of recent Iranian history.