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On Monday, March 6, 2000, Professor Heather Sharkey of the History Faculty at MIT met with MIT Sloan school students who will be travelling to the Middle East. In preparation for the group’s upcoming trip to Lebanon, Jordan, and Egypt, Professor Sharkey provided a historical and cultural background from the 7th to the 20th century. Professor Sharkey’s seminar will enhance trip participants’ appreciation of the cultural and historical background of the region and how it impacts the business environment within the region.     Professor Ken Morse, Rafik Ward, and Professor Heather Sharkey   Professor Sharkey began her discussion describing the origins of Islam in the early 7th century. She explored the origins of languages in the region, the significance and character of the Koran, the nature of religious leadership, and differences and characterizations of different Islamic sects. The group discussed the distinction between sunni and shi’i Moslems and some of the misperceptions about shi’i Moslems in the Western press.   The lecture progressed to discuss the reach and of the Ottoman Empire and its influence on the region, its interaction with European powers, and its eventual demise in the First World War. With particular attention to Lebanon, Jordan, and Egypt, Professor Sharkey traced the impact of French and British colonialism on the development of these states over the last century. She also pointed out some distinctions in the national focus of Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, and Lebanon.    Professor Sharkey Rafik Ward and Professor Sharkey     Professor Sharkey received her Ph.D. in History from Princeton University in 1998. Her interests include the cultural and intellectual history of the Middle East, North Africa, and sub-Saharan Africa in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and the development of Islamic civilization and thought from the rise of Muhammad to the present day. She has published articles on the history of millenarian movements, slavery, sports, and Arabic literature in the nineteenth- and twentieth-century Northern Sudan. Professor Sharkey also is a Marshall Scholar and a Fulbright Scholar. She is currently preparing a book on the daily life of Sudanese colonial employees (1898-1956) and the culture of their emergent nationalism.    MIT Entrepreneurship Center, 70 Memorial Drive, Room E51-355, Cambridge, MA 02138 Telephone: 617-253-8653, Fax: 617-253-8633, Email: ecenter@mit.edu