Diaspora Studies and Middle Eastern Studies come together in this collection of 15 detailed case studies. The contributors demonstrate that concepts central to diaspora such as ’homeland’, ’host state’, ’exile’, ’longing’, ’memory’ and ’return’ have been deconstructed and reinstated with new meaning through each unique diasporic experience.Through theoretical engagement and rich cases, the volume addresses the ways in which different groups have struggled to claim and negotiate a space for themselves in the Middle East. It shows how these efforts have been aided and hampered by the legal, historical, social, political, economic, colonial and post-colonial peculiarities of the region. And it situates the different communities within their own narratives – of conflict, resistance, war, genocide, persecution, displacement, migration – and analyses how these intersect with the wider historiography of the region.This collection maps the entanglement of these communities in their wider Middle Eastern societies and reflects on how old and new communities are established, consolidated and maintained in a diasporic space.