This may be the wrong place for this post, please re-direct me if so.
I am writing an essay on Mizrahi Jews, early Zionism and the use of Arabic. It's the last essay I have to write for my MA and I'm finding the concept extremely nebulous as I prefer practical and process-driven research, whereas this assignment is theoretical...
The question (as set by the lecturer) is "to what extent (if at all) could widespread knowledge of Arabic among Zionists in Ottoman and Mandatory Palestine ease the Arab-Zionist discord until 1936?" however, the question can be changed. Basically the topic is Arabic language, early Zionism and Middle Eastern Jewish thinkers.
I'm not asking anyone to write this! I'm just really struggling to understand how I would go about researching and writing the essay: how can I say how something could have altered something in the past???
With my other essays, there has been a really clear route to writing and understanding the topic but I am totally lost in this instance.
Hi there - we're happy to approve your question related to your creative project, and we are happy for people to answer. However, we should warn you that many flairs have become reluctant to answer questions for aspiring novelists and the like, based on past experience: some people working on creative projects have a tendency to try to pump historians for trivia while ignoring the bigger points they were making, while others have a tendency to argue with historians when the historical reality does not line up with what's needed for a particular scene or characterization. Please respect the answers of people who have generously given you their time, even if it's not always what you want to hear.
Additionally, as amazing as our flair panel is, we should also point out that /r/AskHistorians is not a professional historical consultation service. If you're asking a question here because you need vital research for a future commercial product such as a historical novel, you may be better off engaging a historical consultant at a fair hourly rate to answer these questions for you. We don't know what the going rate for consultancy work would be in your locality, but it may be worth looking into that if you have in-depth or highly plot-reliant questions for this project. Some /r/AskHistorians flairs could be receptive to working as a consultant in this way. However, if you wish for a flair here to do this work for you, you will need to organize this with them yourselves.