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Book SynopsisThis volume presents a die study of the provincial silver coinage of Judah in the late Persian, Macedonian, and early Hellenistic periods. It offers correct descriptions of the coins, their designs, and their inscriptions; enumerates the obverse and reverse dies identified for each of the 44 recorded types; and explains the probable sequence of the issues as deduced from iconographic associations and die links. The iconography of the coin types is examined in depth, with comparisons to motifs in Greek, Persian, and ancient Near Eastern art, including other local coinages and sources in Judahite material culture. The monograph also analyses data relating to the metrology, metal content, and circulation of the coinage. Overall, the study attempts to place the Yehud coinage in its historical context and to define its role in the economy of the ancient province of Judah.

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Book SynopsisBuild an understanding of a country undergoing dramatic and accelerating changes in this new edition of The History of Saudi Arabia. Taking readers from the Saudi Arabia of pre-Islamic times to the present day, this revised edition in the Histories of Modern Nations series examines how the current efforts to transform the Kingdom fits into the long history of the region. The Arabian Peninsula the birthplace of Islam has a long heritage of multiple intersecting civilizations. In recent years, major events in Saudi Arabia have left a mark not only within the region itself but also around the world. The country continues to undergo significant developments, as the government, led by Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman, aims to end its reliance on fossil fuels and build a dynamic society, without bringing into question its authoritarian political system, national security structure, and absolute monarchy.Bring your knowledge up to date with revised in

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Book SynopsisIt would not be an overstatement to say that Cemal Kafadar has transformed the field of Ottoman history. As a result of his pathbreaking books and articles, the field is experiencing a turn within itself as well as recasting its relationship with world history. This volume acts as a tribute to Kafadar and the important interdisciplinary work he has both done and inspired in the field. In line with the intellectual pluralism that Kafadar has cultivated over his career, readers will find a number of articles engaging with a wide range of questions, approaches, perspectives, and sources across Ottoman history. Kafadar's students and friends, individually or in pairs, researched and crafted contributions to this volume with a variety of conceptual premises, theoretical approaches, and interpretive tools to celebrate his thirty years of teaching, research, and mentorship, in addition to the overwhelming generosity of his intellectual and personal engagement.Table of ContentsAcknowledgementsIntroductionRachel Goshgarian, Ilham Khuri-Makdisi, and Ali YaycioğluCemal Kafadar, A Çelebi for Our TimesAhmet Karamustafa Cemal Kafadar’s Teaching and Scholarship, 1981-2021Part One: Texts1. Narrating Ottoman Politics in the Fifteenth Century: Perspectives from Some Byzantine and Ottoman Histories.Aslihan Akişik-Karakullukçu and Dimitri Kastritsis 2. Nişancı Mehmed Paşa and His History of the Ottoman HouseHimmet Taşkömür and Hüseyin Yilmaz3. Book-Picking in a Conquered CitadelSerpil Bağci and Zeynep Yürekli4. A Sufi Mirror: Shaykh Alwan al-Hamawi’s (d. 1530) Advice for the Ottoman RulerTimothy J. Fitzgerald 5. La Jetée and the Illustrated Ottoman History: An Inquiry into Word, Image, and AudienceEmine Fetvaci6. How Did Evliya Çelebi Write His Travel Account?Hakan T. Karateke7. Book Ownership Across Centuries: The Case of Military Men in Bursa, 1620-1840Hülya Canbakal, Meredith Quinn, and Derin Terzioğlu8. Blending Piety and Philology: A Seventeenth-Century Mecmua as the Mirror of Istanbul’s Persianate Urban MilieuAslihan Gürbüzel and Ekin Tuşalp Atiyas9. An Uncanny Discourse on Sex and Marriage from the Early Sixteenth-Century Ottoman EmpireLeyla Kayhan Elbirlik and Selim S. Kuru Part Two: Lives10. Uç beys, Dervishes, and Yürüks: The Cultural Politics of the Turahanoğlu of ThessalyTheoharis Stavrides11. A Short Account of Long Entanglements: Şeyh Bedreddin, ‘Abdurrahman al-Bistami, and his Durrat taj al-rasa’ilCornell Fleischer12. A Tale of Two Boils: Selim I, Melek Aḥmed Pasha, and Changing Perceptions of Medical Practice and Masculinity in the Early Modern Ottoman EmpireH. Erdem Çipa and Jane Hathaway13. In the Balsam Orchard with Salih Çelebi Celalzade (d. 1565): First-Person Narrative and Knowledge in Ottoman EgyptAleksandar Shopov14. The Eunuch, a Complete Statesman: Functional Historiography in the face of Social and Political PrecarityJocelyne Dakhlia15. Reorientation in Worldviews: Milescu and Cantemirİsenbike Togan16. The Hamidian Visual Archive, 1878-1909: A User’s ManualAhmet Ersoy and Deniz Türker Part Three: Places17. Ottoman Montology: Hazardous Resourcefulness and Uneasy Symbiosis in a Mountain EmpireAli Yaycioğlu18. Ottoman Mountains: Mobility in a Forbidding EnvironmentMolly Greene19. A Code(x) of His Own: Deacon Mikayēl, Armeno-Turkish and Creative Conventions of “Collecting” in Seventeenth-Century KaffaRachel Goshgarian 20. On Self and Empire: A Seventeenth-Century First-Person Narrative from the Mughal DomainsMuzaffar Alam and Sanjay Subrahmanyam21. Cabinetmaking for the Sultan: Nineteenth-Century Istanbul in the Life Narratives of German-Speaking JourneymenRichard Wittmann22. Conjuring Emotions in Nineteenth-Century Istanbul through the Journalistic Writings of Ahmad Faris Al-Shidyaq (1805-1887) and Basiretçi Ali (1845?–1910)Ilham Khuri-Makdisi and Asli Niyazioğlu23. Reşat Ekrem Koçu and İstanbul Ansiklopedisi: Writing on PlaceShirine Hamadeh and Çiğdem KafesçioğluPart Four: Processes24. Early Modern Reflections on Bayezid II’s Reignİklil Selçuk and Cihan Yüksel 25. The Ottoman Fleet at the Battle of Mississippi: What Videogames Can Teach Us about HistoryGiancarlo Casale and Nicolas Trépanier26. Continuity and Change in the Ottoman Early Modern Era: An Analysis of Adet-i kadime and HâdisÖzer Ergenç27. Between Soldier and Civilian: Janissaries in Seventeenth-Century Istanbul and AleppoCharles Wilkins and Eunjeong Yi28. Confessionalization and Religious Nonconformity in the Early Modern Ottoman Empire: The Cases of Kizilbash/Alevi and the Sabbatean CommunitiesAyfer Karakaya-Stump and Cengiz Şişman29. De-ayanization: A Black Hole in Ottoman HistoryH. Şükrü Ilicak30. Bitter Triumph of “the Declined” Dynasty? Notions of Universal Monarchy, Caliphate, and World Religions in Comparisons between Sultan Abdulhamid and Emperor MeijiCemil AydinNotes on Contributors

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Book SynopsisThe Comics of Asaf Hanuka: Telling Particular and Universal Stories tells the story of how cartoonist Asaf Hanuka illustrates both universal and particular narratives. Through close readings of Hanuka’s entire catalogue of comics and graphic narratives, Hanuka’s work is situated within the broader story of his own experiences of being an insider (as a Jew and Israeli) and an outsider (as a Mizrahi, or Judeo-Arab) in Israeli society. By moving chronologically through Hanuka’s works, the book traces how Hanuka navigates these disparate particular identities alongside more universal concerns about how to be a present partner to his spouse and to his children.Trade Review“Asaf Hanuka has long been one of Israel’s most provocative cartoonists and voices of dissent, and in these pages Matt Reingold’s terrifically incisive criticism illuminates compelling dimensions of Hanuka’s eclectic artistry, whether commemorating the Shoah, the insider-outsider identity of Mizrahi Israelis, anxieties about Israel’s faltering democracy, militarism, and human rights record, or the perils of fatherhood and masculinity. Hanuka’s vibrant graphic storytelling ranges from the fantastical and grotesque to the mundane, and Reingold captures all of it splendidly, demonstrating why Hanuka’s edgy work resonates both in Israel and internationally. An indispensable, captivating guide for both scholars and the classroom to a brilliant artist at the forefront of contemporary visual culture.”— Ranen Omer-Sherman, Editor of Amos Oz: The Legacy of a Writer in Israel and Beyond“The Comics of Asaf Hanuka: Telling Particular and Universal Stories significantly contributes to contemporary scholarship on the diversity of Israeli identities in visual media by providing the first thorough examination of the cartoons, comics, and graphic narratives of the award-winning Israeli artist Asaf Hanuka. Reingold’s compelling book captures how Hanuka’s oeuvre spanning over two decades has offered an increasingly nuanced and sharp critique of contemporary Israeli society, especially the erosion of democracy and the unfair treatment of its minorities, one which mirrors the evolution of the artist’s understanding of his own intersectional Israeli, Mizrachi, Jewish, and gendered identities. This is an indispensable book for everyone interested in the evolution of Israeli comics and identity issues.”— Dana Mihăilescu, University of Bucharest“This fascinating in-depth study of the work of Asaf Hanuka fluidly demonstrates the political, social, cultural, and artistic range of the cartoonist’s vision. Drawing upon Hanuka's hybrid background, Reingold shows the ways in which constructs of identity shape his richly figured comics. This is an important book that situates Hanuka’s comics in a narrative of social and political critique and speaks to the significant and enduring influence of this groundbreaking cartoonist.”— Victoria Aarons, O.R. & Eva Mitchell Distinguished Professor of Literature, Trinity University“This is a robust, layered reading that helps the reader understand Hanuka’s work in its Israeli context and helps to reveal what is truly groundbreaking about it. I enjoyed it immensely.”— Kevin Haworth, author of The Comics of Rutu Modan: War, Love, and Secrets“Matt Reingold’s close examination of Eisner Award winning cartoonist Asaf Hanuka's entire body of work adeptly analyzes the artist-writer’s diverse subjects and styles. Expanding our understanding of the comics’ landscape, this penetrating study fleshes out the many dimensions of Israeli society, Jewish identity, and Mizrahi heritage through Hanuka’s artistic navigation of that complex universe.”— Samantha Baskind, Distinguished Professor of Art History, Cleveland State UniversityTable of ContentsAcknowledgmentsIntroduction1. Collaborating on Projects and Developing an Artistic Voice2. Autographics in The Realist3. Responsible Adulting in The Divine4. Narrating the Near and Distant Past in Hayehudi Haʿaravi5. Concluding The Realist and Pursuing New ProjectsBibliography

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Book SynopsisMustafa Kemal - latterly and better known as Ataturk - is without doubt the towering figure of modern Turkish history. But what was his path to power? And how did his early career as a soldier in the Ottoman army affect his later decisions as President? The Young Ataturk tracks the lesser covered period of Kemal's life - from the War of Independence to the founding of the Republic - and shows that it is only by understanding Kemal's military career that one can fully comprehend how he evolved as one of the twentieth century's most extraordinary statesmen. Delving into Kemal's military writings, orders, and political decisions, speeches, proclamations and private correspondences, this book provides a rounded and nuanced portrait of the making of a major statesman.Table of ContentsList of Images List of Maps List of Abbreviations Introduction 1. The Making of an Ottoman Soldier 2. The Great War and an Imperialist Peace 3. Developing a Resistance 4. The Grand National Assembly 5. A Crisis in Battle 6. Commander in Chief 7. From Lightning Campaign to Peace Conclusion Notes Biographical Notes of Key Figures Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisFor hundreds of years Westerners have been fascinated by stories of the Assassins, their mysterious leader and their remote mountain stronghold at Alamut in Northern Iran. The legends first emerged in the 12th and 13th centuries, when Crusaders in Syria came into contact with the Nazari Isma'ilis, one of the communities of Shi'ite Islam who, at the behest of their leader Hassan Sabaa (mythologized as the "Old Man of the Mountain"), engaged in dangerous missions to kill their enemies. Elaborated over the years, the tales culminated in Marco Polo's claim that the "Old Man" controlled the behaviour of his self-sacrificing devotees through the use of hashish and a secret garden of paradise. So influential were these tales that the word "assassin" entered European languages as a common noun meaning "murderer". Daftary traces the origins and early development of the legends - as well as investigating the historical context in which they were fabricated and transmitted. As such, this book reveals an extraordinary programme of propaganda rooted in the medieval Muslim world and medieval Europe's ignorance of this world. This book also provides the first English translation of French orientalist Silvestre de Sacy's famous 19th-century "Memoir" on the Assassins.Trade ReviewMuslim News: "masterfully destroys [the Assassin] myth" "scholarly...easy-to-read" Journal of Semitics Studies: "Daftary's work combines factual history with the history of a fiction in a fascinating manner."Table of ContentsThe Isma'ilis in history and in medieval Muslim writings; medieval Muslim perceptions of Islam and the Isma'ilis; origins and early formation of the legends.

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Book Synopsis'Clear-eyed and illuminating.’ Henry Kissinger, former Secretary of State and National Security Advisor 'A rich, superbly researched, balanced history of the modern Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.' General David Petraeus, former Commander U.S. Central Command and Director of the Central Intelligence Agency ‘Destined to be the best single volume on the Kingdom.’ Ambassador Chas Freeman, former U.S. Ambassador to Saudi Arabia and Assistant Secretary of Defense 'Should be prescribed reading for a new generation of political leaders.' Sir Richard Dearlove, former Chief of H.M. Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) and Master of Pembroke College, Cambridge. Something extraordinary is happening in Saudi Arabia. A traditional, tribal society once known for its lack of tolerance is rapidly implementing significant economic and social reforms. An army of foreign consultants is rewriting the social contract, King Salman has cracked down hard on corruption, and his dynamic though inexperienced son, the Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman, is promoting a more tolerant Islam. But is all this a new vision for Saudi Arabia or merely a mirage likely to dissolve into Iranian-style revolution? David Rundell - one of America’s foremost experts on Saudi Arabia - explains how the country has been stable for so long, why it is less so today, and what is most likely to happen in the future. The book is based on the author's close contacts and intimate knowledge of the country where he spent 15 years living and working as a diplomat. Vision or Mirage demystifies one of the most powerful, but least understood, states in the Middle East and is essential reading for anyone interested in the power dynamics and politics of the Arab World.Trade ReviewA book of staggering breadth and depth. * The Wall Street Journal *Rundell covers the kingdom from top to bottom with vast wisdom, depth and understanding … It provides a superb overview of the kingdom’s political, economic and social landscape, but it goes well beyond that. Rundell explains, clearly and concisely, the special dynamics that drive the kingdom and render it so alien from our own society ... I wish that every United States diplomat, military officer and journalist would read this book before deploying there. I wish that every member of Congress would read it before voting on any measure related to Saudi Arabia. I wish every American pondering the frictions of our long relationship with the Saudis would read it simply to understand. * New York Times Book Review *At once modern and theocratic, reserved and assertive—Saudi Arabia’s paradoxes defy easy comprehension. For those seeking to understand the Kingdom and its role in the world, longtime observer David Rundell has distilled his experience into a clear-eyed and illuminating explanation. -- Henry A. Kissinger‘Excellent… analytically rigorous… exceptional…’ * Financial Times *[T]he author hits all the necessary benchmarks in his assessment of the Kingdom’s development. The book must also be regarded as a great accomplishment in the study of the Kingdom and its new leadership. * Middle East Journal *Vision or Mirage: Saudi Arabia at the Crossroads is a book that will prove incredibly illuminating to the average Westerner, who probably only thinks of sexism, theocracy and oil when he thinks about Saudi Arabia. Rundell uses history, theology, politics, economics and sociology to explain the current complexities and challenges of the Arabian Peninsula’s most dominant nation. -- Russell A Whitestone, Eurasia ReviewVision or Mirage is destined to be the best single volume on the Kingdom. It will be a long time, if ever, before it is bettered. -- Chas Freeman, Former U.S Ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Assistant Secretary of Defense, President of the Middle East Policy CouncilSaudi Arabia has always been difficult for outsiders to understand, but it will be much less so now thanks to David Rundell. With insightful analysis of the roles of the ruling family, the tribal structure, the merchant class and the religious leadership, he forges all the pieces into a coherent whole that will enlighten specialists and novices alike. -- Thomas W. Lippman, author of Saudi Arabia on the EdgeA rich, superbly researched, balanced history of the modern Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. David Rundell was one of the State Department’s pre-eminent authorities on Saudi Arabia and the Arab world, one on whom those of us working in the region depended heavily, and this history reflects his decades of experience in the region, his eye for nuance and detail, his deep understanding of the culture and relationships in the kingdom, and his exceptional ability to distill and present all of that brilliantly. -- General David Petraeus, US Army (Ret.), former Commander of the US Central Command and the Coalition Forces in Afghanistan, and former Director of the CIAThis is a rare and important work on Saudi Arabia. Any diplomat, military official, policy maker or businessperson whose portfolio touches the kingdom will make far better decisions for having read it. I had the pleasure of working with Diplomat David Rundell during my service in the KSA. He provided sage advice and observations then, just as he will do for you in this splendid and useful book. -- Ambassador James Oberwetter, Former U.S. Ambassador to Saudi ArabiaDavid Rundell is America’s most knowledgeable diplomat on Saudi Arabia. This book, Vision or Mirage, is a deeply learned and nuanced account of the kingdom’s history, politics and economics. Without illusions or an ideological axe to grind, Rundell offers acute observations about the strengths and weaknesses of the country, based on nearly two decades of having lived and served in Saudi Arabia. He brings the country’s remarkable story up to the present and explains the important transformations taking place under King Salman and his son crown prince Muhammad (MBS) and what is at stake in their success or failure. You will not find a better book on the kingdom. -- Bernard Haykel, Professor of Near East Studies, Princeton University; Co-Author Saudi Arabia in TransitionThe author of this book is "pro-Saudi", and at the same time he is entirely objective. He reconciles direct opposites not by fudging the differences, but by offering us his uniquely deep knowledge of a country and a state that remain poorly documented. This is a very valuable book. -- Edward Luttwak, , Senior Associate at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Washington D.CWhenever I landed in Jeddah or Riyadh and wanted to discover what was really going on, the ‘man-in-the-sand’ whose expertise I always sought out first was David Rundell, the Quiet American who had the ‘ inside scoop’ on the politics, the business and, above all, the people of the ever-challenging Kingdom — the ‘Rundell Rumble’. Dave was always just back from some oasis or tribe or border territory where secret things were happening, or heading for the desert to pow-wow with the king. So pow-wow now with Dave as his brilliant book generously discloses a lifetime of wisdom and insights that take the reader inside one of the world’s most enigmatic and crucially important of lands. Saudi Arabia? It’s all in here . . . Whenever I landed in Jeddah or Riyadh and wanted to discover what was really going on, the ‘man-in-the-sand’ whose expertise I always sought out first was David Rundell, the Quiet American who had the ‘ inside scoop’ on the politics, the business and, above all, the people of the ever-challenging Kingdom — the ‘Rundell Rumble’. Dave was always just back from some oasis or tribe or border territory where secret things were happening, or heading for the desert to pow-wow with the king. So pow-wow now with Dave as his brilliant book generously discloses a lifetime of wisdom and insights that take the reader inside one of the world’s most enigmatic and crucially important of lands. Saudi Arabia? It’s all in here . . . -- Robert Lacey, author of The Kingdom and Inside the Kingdom‘A thorough historical and contemporary guide to the enigma that is the House of Saud, to its Kingdom and to its latest political intrigues. A great single read on a complex subject, key to understanding the Arab World’s likely evolution. Should be prescribed reading for a new generation of political leaders.’ -- Sir Richard Dearlove, Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the University of London; Former Chief of the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6); Former Master of Pembroke College, CambridgeAmidst an array of parabolic pressures ranging from geopolitical forces to economic uncertainty and domestic instability, the House of Saud has long been one of the most powerful families in the Middle East. In spite of this, it faces a number of existential challenges as it moves into the 21st century. Vision or Mirage: Saudi Arabia at the Crossroads offers a fascinating and timely exploration of how the Al Saud dynasty has retained power which is essential in understanding how the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia may evolve in the coming years. -- Simon Mabon Senior Lecturer, Lancaster University; author of Houses Built on Sand, The Origins of ISIS and Saudi Arabia and IranA readable and breezy account of recent developments in Saudi Arabia as well as the author’s interpretation of the transformational and polarizing trends during the last several years. It is a noteworthy contribution to the field. -- J. E. Peterson, historian and political analyst, author of Saudi Arabia Under Ibn Saud and Historical Dictionary of Saudi ArabiaDavid Rundell has more experience in Saudi Arabia than any living American diplomat. I relied upon his experience and insight during my time as ambassador to the Kingdom. Rundell’s eye for detail and meticulous research provide the reader with a compelling story of initial conquest and generations of stability followed by a tectonic rupture in the social contract among the ruler, the royal family, and the population. -- Robert W. Jordan, former U.S. Ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Diplomat in Residence, John G. Tower Center at Southern Methodist UniversityThis is a scholarly and expertly crafted practitioner’s account borne of deep familiarity with Saudi Arabia. David Rundell’s remarkable book artfully weaves together the Saudi past and present--deftly analyzing both continuity and change while providing sorely needed context for understanding today’s unprecedented developments. -- Joshua Teitelbaum, Bar-Ilan University, Israel; Visiting Scholar, Center for International and Security Cooperation, Stanford University; Author of Saudi Arabia and the New Strategic LandscapeA very balanced account of what Saudi Arabia got right, which is often overlooked, and the accumulating challenges the country faces today. Carefully researched, it is neither all gloom and doom nor all-praising. -- John Sfakianakis, Fellow of Pembroke College, Cambridge; Co-author of The Saudi Economy in the Twentieth CenturyA most impressive account of the cunning manner in which King Salman is attempting to secure his family’s place in the 21st century by establishing the fourth kingdom through his son Muhammad bin Salman. David Rundell's insights into historical precedents and personal knowledge of the personalities of the individuals involved is compelling and provides a far more credible narrative of Saudi developments since the death of the late Abdullah bin Abd al-Aziz than other current analysis . -- Ambassador Mark G. Hambley, Former American Consul General in Jeddah and Ambassador to Qatar and LebanonTable of ContentsPreface Acknowledgements Introduction Part I: HISTORIC LEGITIMACY Chapter 1: The House of Saud Chapter 2: The Wars of Unification Chapter 3: The Ikhwan Revolt Part II: MANAGING SUCCESSION Chapter 4: Kings Saud and Faisal Chapter 5: Kings Khalid, Fahd, and Abdullah Chapter 6: King Salman and MBS Part III: BALANCING STAKEHOLDERS Chapter 7: The Tribes Chapter 8: The Clergy Chapter 9: The Merchants Chapter 10: The Technocrats Chapter 11: The Royal Family Part IV PROVIDING COMPETENT GOVERNMENT Chapter 12: Providing Internal Security Chapter 13: Promoting Rapid Economic Development Chapter 14: Foreign Policy: Keeping Powerful Friends Chapter 15: Foreign Policy: Deploying Oil and Islam Chapter 16:Promoting Gradual Social Change Part V ADAPTING TO CHANGE Chapter 17: Economic Challenges: Oil Prices, Diversification and Jobs Chapter 18: Security Challenges: Deploying Oil, Allies and Islam Chapter 19: Political Challenges: Pluralism, Corruption, and Participation Chapter 20: Evolving Arabia

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Book SynopsisTrade ReviewYoussef Courbage and Emmanuel Todd totally recast the current debate about Islam and the West by focusing attention on some societal fundamentals and by debunking-once and for all-a number of myths. -- Nicolas Guilhot, editor of The Invention of International Relations Theory This articulate and elegant demographic study convincingly documents a general trend toward modernity in the Muslim world, from Morocco to Indonesia. It successfully refutes many Western prejudices towards Islam, especially those based on misconceptions about its religion. It should be required reading for Western policy makers as well as for the general public. -- Leon-Francois Hoffmann, Princeton University An insightful academic study of how the unrest and turbulence that characterizes large areas of the Muslim world are the results of demographic-rather than ideological-trends... Important reading. Kirkus Reviews I found this succinct book fascinating and recommend it. -- Patrick J. Ryan Commonweal Engaging for a general reader and rewarding for a specialist... Highly recommended. Choice Scholarly and engaging, this is an important work and one which deserves to be widely read. -- Sandra Berns Law Society Journal A positive, enlightening survey. The Midwest Book Review A primer in the demography of Muslim societies, a treatise on the causes and consequences of fertility decline, and a rejoinder to the 'clash of civilizations' argument. -- John Casterline Population and Development Review Written with clarity and elan. Review of Middle East StudiesTable of ContentsList of Figures and Tables Introduction: Clash of Civilizations or Universal History 1. The Muslim Countries in the Movement of History 2. Crises of Transition 3. The Arab Family and the Transition Crisis 4. Other Muslim Women: East Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa 5. At the Heart of Islam: The Arab World 6. The Non-Arab Greater Middle East 7. After Communism 8. Matrilocal Asia 9. Sub-Saharan Africa Conclusion Appendix Notes

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Book SynopsisDavid B. Roberts offers a definitive guide to continuity and change in the Gulf region. He explores the forces challenging and bolstering the status quo in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman, and the United Arab Emirates across the political, social, economic, military, and environmental dimensions of security.Trade ReviewDavid Roberts, one of the top regional experts, provides an insightful and timely book on the current changes and transformations taking place in the Gulf monarchies. This is an indispensable and an extremely valuable source of knowledge to those interested in understanding the dynamics of the region and its implications. -- Abdullah Baabood, Waseda UniversityThis masterfully produced book is rich in historical context, is geographically thorough in its coverage of the Persian Gulf region, and analyzes critical issues beyond hard security that the regional states face. This is by far one of the best books produced on Persian Gulf politics and security in some time. -- Mehran Kamrava, Georgetown University QatarSecurity Politics in the Gulf Monarchies provides a richly detailed and innovative new account of the Gulf Arab states. David Roberts deconstructs and analyzes the points of change as well as the underlying continuities and expertly places the study of the region into comparative and theoretical context. -- Kristian Coates Ulrichsen, author of Qatar and the Gulf CrisisTable of ContentsAcknowledgmentsAbbreviationsFiguresIntroduction1. Political Security2. Societal Security3. Economic Security4. Military Security 5. Environmental Security ConclusionNotesBibliographyIndex

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"Anyone interested in the phenomenon of migration, particularly the gender dynamics of international migration and the politics of 'trafficking' in an era of globalization, will find this book an invaluable contribution... This is ethnography at its best." -Kristen Ghodsee, Bowdoin CollegeTable of ContentsIntroduction1. The "Returns" of Mobile Mothers2. Uplift in Gagauz Yeri3. Desiring a New Domestic4. Working in Istanbul5. Managing MigrationConclusion: Driven Women

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Book SynopsisAs one of the smallest and most densely populated countries in the world, the State of Israel faces serious land policy challenges and has a national identity laced with enormous internal contradictions. In Land Law and Policy in Israel, Haim Sandberg contends that if you really want to know the identity of a state, learn its land law and land policies. Sandberg argues that Israel's identity can best be understood by deciphering the code that lies in the Hebrew secret of Israeli dry land law. According to Sandberg, by examining the complex facets of property law and land policy, one finds a unique prism for comprehending Israel's most pronounced identity problems. Land Law and Policy in Israel explores how Israel's modern land system tries to bridge the gaps between past heritage and present needs, nationalization and privatization, bureaucracy and innovation, Jewish majority and non-Jewish minority, legislative creativity and judicial activism. The regulation of property and the dTrade Review"To seriously understand a country, one ought to understand it's land laws and policies. Professor Sandberg provides a deep professional historical and legal picture of Israeli land issues. This book must be a must for whoever is interested in the subject in all it's aspects, including the Arab-Israeli conflict."—Justice Prof. Elyakim Rubinstein, Deputy President (ret.) The Supreme Court of Israel"Professor Sandberg, one of the most prominent property law experts in Israel, shows in his book how the small, crowded, and often threatened Jewish State succeeds against all odds amidst extraordinary challenges facing its land policy in the third millennium. A must-read book not only for those interested in Israel and its land law but for anyone who wants to understand how internal contradictions in a country's identity affect its land policy."—Ruth Lapidoth, Hebrew University of JerusalemTable of ContentsAcknowledgmentsNotes on Translation and Internet HyperlinksIntroduction: Land Law and Land Policy1. The Fingerprints of History in Land Inventory2. Culture, Nation, and Socialism in the Administration of Public Lands3. Privatization of Public Lands4. National Land Planning in a Small Country5. Jewish and Democratic6. Creative JudiciaryEpilogue: Identity in FluxBibliographyIndex

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Book SynopsisDrawing on a rich trove of documents, including correspondence not seen for 300 years, this study explores the emergence and growth of a remarkable global trade network operated by Armenian silk merchants from a small outpost in the Persian Empire. Based in New Julfa, Isfahan, in what is now Iran, these merchants operated a network of commercial settlements that stretched from London and Amsterdam to Manila and Acapulco. The New Julfan Armenians were the only Eurasian community that was able to operate simultaneously and successfully in all the major empires of the early modern world--both land-based Asian empires and the emerging sea-borne empires--astonishingly without the benefits of an imperial network and state that accompanied and facilitated European mercantile expansion during the same period. This book brings to light for the first time the trans-imperial cosmopolitan world of the New Julfans. Among other topics, it explores the effects of long distance trade on the organizaTrade Review“A fascinating book.” * Times Literary Supplement *“Exceeds, by far, all previous scholarship on the Armenian merchants of New Julfa.” * Ararat *"Ground-breaking . . . Superb." * Journal of Global History *“An extensively researched study . . . that is both scholarly and interesting to read. . . . Well written and well-documented.” * Armenian Mirror-Spectator *“This is the kind of book that entices readers to spend time not only with the text but also with the bibliography and endnotes, retracing research steps and finding new paths to benefit their own work.” * American Historical Review *“Aslanian has unearthed a veritable treasure trove, and this book, which is written in a lucid style, is of great interest to world historians and economic historians.” * Historian *

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"Destined to become a classic primer about modern Yemen and the flaws of global capitalism, Destroying Yemen: What Chaos in Arabia Tells Us About The World provides a wealth of knowledge about the plight of modern Yemen and the contemporary world." * Arab Studies Quarterly *“A masterful new study. . . . Blumi’s work provides an invaluable service to those seeking to understand the current war on Yemen in its historical context." * Arab Calgary News *"This is a compelling analysis of a tragic but unfolding story. It is a deeply humane, passionate, conviction-led, historically rich analysis. It is rigorously researched, detailed, complex." * Asian Review of World History *"This is a compelling analysis of a tragic but unfolding story. It is a deeply humane, passionate, conviction-led, historically rich analysis. It is rigorously researched, detailed, complex. It collapses so many 'divides' in scholarly considerations of 'weak' states and polities on the so-called periphery versus so-called core states. It gives agency to the peoples and groups of what are often seen to be marginal states and societies, rarely discussed in relation to world politics or global political development. . . . A must-read for anyone claiming to know and understand the world we live in today, regardless of their field of scholarly research." * Asian Review of World Histories *"Blumi’s respect and compassion for the people of Yemen are palpable, and because of this, Destroying Yemen has moral immediacy rarely found in scholarship. The work is accessibly written, and thus can inform a more general audience, in addition to the cadre of regional specialists, on whose analysis it will hopefully have an impact. Moreover, anyone with media credentials that wishes to ‘report’ on the brutality Yemenis now face day after day should read it very carefully before filing his or her story." * Global Intellectual History *"This is a compelling analysis of a tragic but unfolding story. It is a deeply humane, passionate, conviction-led, historically rich analysis. It is rigorously researched, detailed, complex. It collapses so many 'divides' in scholarly considerations of 'weak' states and polities on the so-called periphery versus so-called core states. It gives agency to the peoples and groups of what are often seen to be marginal states and societies, rarely discussed in relation to world politics or global political development. . . . A must-read for anyone claiming to know and understand the world we live in today, regardless of their field of scholarly research." * Asian Review of World Histories *Table of ContentsList of Illustrations Acknowledgments Note on Dates, Abbreviations, and Transliteration Introduction 1 • The Quest for Global Hegemony Starts There 2 • The Region That Pumps the Heart of the Cold War, 1941–1960 3 • Birthing Revolution: A Genealogy of the 1962 Coup 4 • Wrong from the Start: Modernization and Development and the Violence They Spun 5 • Making Yemen Dance: The Regime and the Politics of Chaos 6 • Plundering Yemen and Its Post-Spring Hiatus Coda: Yemen’s Relevance to the Larger World Notes Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"Jessie Wozniak’s Policing Iraq presents a sensible and effective central argument that rests on the importance of police effectiveness in war-stricken environments." * American Journal of Sociology *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments 1. Kurds, Criminal Justice, and State Legitimacy 2. The Face of the State: How Police Are Central to Modern Governance 3. "Ninety-Nine Percent of Our Problems Are Due to the Budget": The Lofty Expectations and Dismal Reality of Reconstruction 4. "Nothing on How to Investigate, Nothing on How to Talk to or Deal with People": The Cultural Performance of Policing 5. "If You Have No Degree, You Can Work Here": Qualifications, Consent, and Coercion 6. "The Law Is in One Valley, but Reality Is in a Different Valley": Tribes, Political Parties, and Governments Compete for Control 7. Police, State Making, and Imperialism Appendix: On Conducting Conflict Research Notes References Index

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"One of 20 essential books about the Middle East, compiled by the Middle Eastern Studies community at Anhui University in central China""[A] lucid exposition of the Islamic Republic’s two main ideological and policy axes: the jihadists, embodied by the country’s founder, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, and the ijtihadists, the more flexible and rational pragmatists, two of whom, Mohammad Khatami and Hassan Rouhani, have been elected president."---John Waterbury, Foreign Affairs"A welcome and discerning primer. . . . It should be studied carefully by all students of Middle Eastern politics and especially by diplomats, military leaders, and political decision-makers who wish to rectify or avoid repeating the current flawed policies toward the Islamic Republic of Iran."---Robert L. Tignor, Michigan War Studies Review"Scholarly portrait of a nation that resists easy categorization—and containment. . . . Useful reading for students of contemporary geopolitics, in which Iran has proven a constant, often destabilizing presence." * Kirkus *"Saikal . . . offers a critical but not unsympathetic perspective on the ‘unique and multi-dimensional, and at times tragic, theopolitical story’ of Iran. . . . Saikal’s convincing bottom line is that open confrontation with Iran is unwise and unlikely to be productive, whereas a policy of careful engagement, while risky, could enable progress on the margins. The author’s careful, analytic approach privileges trade statistics and governmental communiqués over stories of human interest; as such, this is for readers who seek an understanding of strategic considerations, rather than a sense of what daily life is like for the Iranian population." * Publishers Weekly *"Iran Rising: The Survival and Future of the Islamic Republic is a clearly written, well-researched, and scholarly work that will be of benefit to anyone with a genuine interest in this strong and influential nation."---Robert Fantina, New York Journal of Books"Iran Rising is well written, laid out in a logical format, and well sourced with citations. It is an excellent primer on the country of Iran and offers a look behind the curtain on how the Iranian government is organized and administered. The book also illustrates the multifaceted nature of the elements of national power and that nothing is ever as simple as it seems. I highly recommend this book for all military and nonmilitary audiences because of its insight into one of the lesser understood countries that has been a thorn in the side of the United States for over forty years."---George Hodge, Military Review

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Book SynopsisBased on a decade of research, including in-depth interviews with many leading figures in the story, this edition is essential for anyone who wants to understand the roots of the turmoil engulfing the Middle East, from civil wars to the rise of Al-Qaeda and ISIS.Trade Review"A fascinating and deeply researched revisionist history."—Shadi Hamid, Foreign Affairs"An important work of journalism as well as history."—Richard Spencer, The Times"[Gerges] writes with brilliant insight."—Steve Donoghue, The National"Accessible and refreshing."—Gareth Smyth, Arab Weekly"[A] sweeping and powerful new book.... [A] solid, clearly written work of scholarship by a talented and experienced historian of the Middle East. . . . [A]n important contribution."—John Calvert, Middle East Journal

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Book SynopsisHow encounters with the Roman Empire compelled the Jews of antiquity to rethink their conceptions of Israel and the TorahThroughout their history, Jews have lived under a succession of imperial powers, from Assyria and Babylonia to Persia and the Hellenistic kingdoms. Jews and Their Roman Rivals shows how the Roman Empire posed a unique challenge to Jewish thinkers such as Philo, Josephus, and the Palestinian rabbis, who both resisted and internalized Roman standards and imperial ideology. Katell Berthelot traces how, long before the empire became Christian, Jews came to perceive Israel and Rome as rivals competing for supremacy. Both considered their laws to be the most perfect ever written, and both believed they were a most pious people who had been entrusted with a divine mission to bring order and peace to the world. Berthelot argues that the rabbinic identification of Rome with Esau, Israel's twin brother, reflected this sense of rivalry. She discusses how this challenge transfTrade Review"Winner of the National Jewish Book Award in Scholarship""Destined to constitute one of the main bases of discussion on Jews and Rome for years to come."---Catherine Hezser, Journal for the Study of Judaism"Illuminating. . . . Bertholet’s book, a work of erudite scholarship, opens new vistas into an understanding of the events and dynamics that shaped Rome’s relationship with Jews over several centuries."---Sheldon Kirshner, The Times of Israel"Insightful . . . [Jews and Their Roman Rivals] is a refreshing surprise."---Sara Jo Ben Zvi, Segula

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"Finalist for the 2018 National Jewish Book Award in History, Gerrard and Ella Berman Memorial Award"

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Book Synopsis

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"An intellectually-absorbing work. . . . The book’s relevance extends far beyond academia. It provides invaluable insights into the modern-day challenges confronting Muslim societies across the world."---Saleem Rashid Shah, The Wire

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Book SynopsisA comprehensive new study that uncovers the real story of working-class struggle in TurkeyTrade Review'The most formative work in decades on the Turkish political economy and the devastation wrought by an authoritarian government on the country's workers. I highly recommend this book for all those who seek to understand the emergence of widespread resistance by an increasingly militant working class in Turkey' -- Immanuel Ness, Professor of Political Science at Brooklyn College of the City University of New York and author of 'Organizing Insurgency' (Pluto, 2020)'A deep and timely analysis with an overarching narrative of the Turkish labor markets under the conditionalities of late capitalism [...] An indispensable resource on the economics of labor' -- A. Erinç Yeldan, Professor of Economics at Kadir Has University'Impressively comprehensive [...] The contributions not only cover the sphere of production, but equally social reproduction including the importance of unpaid labour in patriarchal capitalist structures, as well as migration as a source of cheap labour. A must-read for everyone interested in the role of Turkish labour in the crisis-ridden 21st century' -- Andreas Bieler, Professor of Political Economy, University of Nottingham'This excellent book is remarkable for its courageous and insightful analysis. Against the grain of the contemporary near silence about the struggles of society’s surplus value producers who make a living in miserable conditions, this volume articulates the suffering inflicted and brings to the fore the collective forms of resistance to that suffering' -- Professor Werner Bonefeld, University of YorkTable of ContentsList of Abbreviations Acknowledgements Introduction - Mehmet Erman Erol and Çağatay Edgücan Şahin PART I: RESTRUCTURING Neoliberal Restructuring of Labour and the State: From Military Dictatorship to the AKP Era 1. Not-So-Strange Bedfellows: Neoliberalism and the AKP in Turkey - Mehmet Erman Erol 2. Turkey’s Labour Markets Under Neoliberalism: An Overview - Kerem Gökten 3. Commodification and Changing Labour in Turkey: The Working Class in the Public Sector - Koray R. Yılmaz 4. Neoliberal Transformation of Turkey’s Health Sector and its Effects on the Health Labour Force - Sebiha Kablay Gender, Migration and Rural Aspects of Neoliberal Restructuring 5. Between Neoliberalism and Conservatism: Recent Developments and New Agendas in Female Labour Policies in Turkey - Demet Özmen Yılmaz 6. The Making of the Rural Proletariat in Neoliberal Turkey - Coşku Çelik 7. Burden or a Saviour at a Time of Economic Crisis? AKP’s ‘Open-Door Migration Policy’ and its Impact on Labour Market Restructuring in Turkey - Ertan Erol PART II: CONTAINMENT 8. Social Assistance as a Non-Wage Income for the Poor in Turkey: Work and Subsistence Patterns of Social Assistance Recipient Households - Denizcan Kutlu 9. A View of Precarisation from Turkey: Urban-Rural Dynamics and Intergenerational Precarity - Elif Hacısalihoğlu 10. When the Law is Not Enough: ‘Work Accidents’, Profit Maximisation and the Unwritten Rules of Workers’ Health and Safety in New Turkey - Murat Özveri 11. Are We All in the Same Boat? Covid-19 and the Working Class in Turkey - Yeliz Sarıöz Gökten PART III: RESISTANCE 12. Reconsidering Workers’ Self-Management in Turkey: From Resistance to Workers’ Self-Management Possibilities/Constraints - Berna Güler and Erhan Acar 13. Organised Workers’ Struggles Under Neoliberalism: Unions, Capital and the State in Turkey - Çağatay Edgücan Şahin Notes Contributors Index

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Book SynopsisA balanced and accessible introduction to the Palestine-Israel conflictTrade Review'This superior and remarkably thorough, if brief, study of the Holy Land enigma is strongly recommended as an introduction' -- CHOICE'A tour de force in the depth and breadth of its research and in its clarity' -- Gabriel Kolko, Distinguished Research Professor Emeritus at York University in Toronto and author of The Age of War'Gregory Harms has taken an enormously complex issue and made it engagingly accessible. An intelligent, thoughtful and comprehensive introduction to a terribly and consistently misunderstood conflict' -- Sara Roy, Senior Research Scholar, Center for Middle Eastern Studies, Harvard University, and author of Failing Peace.'An approachable, balanced guide for the perplexed public' -- Journal of Palestine StudiesTable of ContentsList of Maps Acknowledgements Preface to the Fourth Edition Introduction Part I: Regional History 1. Canaan-Palestine: Ancient History - Todd M. Ferry 2. Muhammad, Islam and the Arab Empire 3. The Crusades to the Ottoman Empire Part II: Origins 4. Jewish Persecution and Zionism 5. Palestine 6. The Genesis of Conflict: Across Two World Wars Part III: Conflict 7. Partition, Israeli Statehood and the Six-Day War: 1947-1967 8. The Continuation of the Arab-Israeli Conflict: 1967-Lebanon 1982 9. The First Intifada and the Peace Process 10. The Second Intifada, Gaza and the Obama Years: 2000-2016 Conclusion Appendices Notes Suggested Reading Select Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisSheds light on Palestinian Muslim women's agency in shari‘a courts from the British Mandate period to the present. Brownson’s archival research on wife-initiated maintenance claims, divorce, and child custody cases deepens our understanding of women’s position in the courts, demonstrating Muslim women’s active participation in their legal affairs.Trade ReviewThis book will fascinate scholars and students in the field of Israeli-Palestinian history, gender, and empire. Brownson weaves together a nuanced presentation of the complex formal structures of Muslim family law in Mandate (and post-Mandate) Palestine with the actual experience of the women involved in it. Particularly striking is the degree to which women could bend a strongly patriarchal system to achieve their own needs.

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Book Synopsis2023 Top Five Reference Book from the Academy of Parish Clergy The Torah is truly the Book of Revolutions, born from a military coup (the Northern Israelite revolution), the aftermath of an assassination and regency (a Judean revolution), and a quiet but radical revolution effected by outsiders whose ideas proved persuasive (Babylonian exile). Emerging from each of these were three key legal codes—the Covenant Code (Exodus), the Deuteronomic Code (Deuteronomy), and the Holiness Code (Leviticus)—which in turn shaped the Bible, biblical Judaism, and Judaism today. In dramatic historical accounts grounded in recent Bible scholarship, Edward Feld unveils the epic saga of ancient Israel as the visionary legacy of inspired authors in different times and places. Prophetic teaching and differing social realities shaped new understandings concretized in these law codes. Revolutionary biblical ideas often encountered great difficulties in their time before theTrade Review"Feld displays a remarkable talent for balancing accessible language with depth of thought and rigorous research, all while exercising a penetrating insight for how ancient conflicts factor into contemporary discourse. Stellar scholarship makes this an essential religious and cultural history."—Publishers Weekly, starred review"Feld's mode of unpack­ing [biblical] his­to­ry is unique. . . . He sug­gests that these legal [texts of the Torah], which were not edit­ed for cohe­sion as the nar­ra­tive sec­tions were, demon­strate. . . a rev­o­lu­tion in the reli­gious pro­gres­sion of the Israelites. . . . The acces­si­bil­i­ty of Feld’s writ­ing, and the con­clu­sions he draws about how today's Judaism is a prod­uct of these rev­o­lu­tions, makes The Book of Rev­o­lu­tions a valu­able addi­tion to the book­shelves of lay read­ers and aca­d­e­mics alike."—Jonathan Fass, Jewish Book Council"The weaving together of solid academics and committed religiosity, scholarly hypothesis and lived faith, makes this book a gem among the many volumes devoted to the study of the Pentateuch. And a Christian reader has much to learn."—Commonweal Magazine"A pleasure to read. Those readers who are biblically literate will find the author's reconstruction of the Torah's composition fascinating. Those beginning a study of the Torah could find no better way to begin the encounter with the Bible's foundational texts."—Bible Today"[Feld's] exemplary reader-friendly work of critical biblical scholarship respects traditional approaches in demonstrating that pluralism, not singularity, better explains the origins of the Torah, its conflicting teachings, and the multiplicity of traditions that molded Jewish belief and practice from antiquity to the present."—Zev Garber, Catholic Biblical Quarterly"[A] really superb book. . . . I was so deeply impressed. . . . The book is so truly rich that no reasonably sized review can do justice to all of the questions that it raises. Indeed, I have already pressed the manuscript on friends with whom I hope to discuss the book at some length."—Tikkun"Edward Feld's new book, The Book of Revolutions: The Battles of Priests, Prophets, and Kings That Birthed the Torah (JPS), is such a spectacular resource—so much so, that I confess that I could not put it down. . . . Move over Game of Thrones. There is far more intrigue here than we had ever imagined."—Religion News Service"Feld insists that Jews 'have not grasped the Torah's truths in their entirety because the parts do not ultimately quite fit together.' The same is true for Christians and the New Testament. But it's the very effort to grasp that helps make the life of faith so lively and fascinating. That's what makes this book appropriate for anyone with a solid knowledge of Scripture, as well as a hunger to know more. And readers familiar with scholar Amy-Jill Levine's writings that place Christianity in its Jewish context will find Feld’s book especially useful."—Presbyterian Outlook“In highlighting the innovative development of codes within biblical material while revealing their afterlife and influence, this substantive and stunning work succeeds in introducing the Torah to a new generation of general readers, all the while delighting more advanced readers in its sophisticated reflections.”—Adriane Leveen, author of Biblical Narratives of Israelites and Their Neighbors“Outstanding. Feld breaks through simplistic notions of a monolithic biblical and later Jewish religion to reveal its multiplicity and richness. I learned quite a bit from his insights.”—Stephen A. Geller, Irma Cameron Milstein Professor of Bible, Jewish Theological SeminaryTable of ContentsList of Illustrations Acknowledgments Introduction Prelude: Origins of the People Israel Part I. Revolution in Northern Israel 1. Elijah’s Victory 2. The Covenant Code 3. The Heritage of the Covenant Code First Interlude: In Judea Part II. Revolution in Judea 4. Years of Turmoil 5. Josiah and the Book of Deuteronomy 6. Law in Deuteronomy 7. Deuteronomy’s Revelation 8. The People and the Land 9. The Heritage of Deuteronomy Second Interlude: The End of Monarchy Part III. Revolution in Babylonia 10. Priests, Prophets, and Scribes in Exile 11. The Holiness Code 12. The Heritage of the Holiness Code Part IV. The Last Revolution 13. The Torah Final Thoughts Notes Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisProper Women tells the unprecedented story of an NGO-led “women’s empowerment” program in Tehran that was created to serve young, impoverished Iranians and Afghan refugees. Fae Chubin recounts the well-intentioned efforts of cosmopolitan NGO administrators whose loyalty to liberal feminist principles of individualism, sexual autonomy, and anti-traditionalism complicated their objective of empowering marginalized women. Chubin brings attention to the varying class, ethnic, religious, and national identities of NGO staff and clients that shaped their differing understandings of oppression and justice. Her examination of the tensions within the organization reveals why the efforts of the NGO workers failed to gain purchase among the intended beneficiaries.Proper Women concludes by encouraging feminist activists to not only examine the role of local politics and transnational connections in shaping their definitions of empowerment, bu

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Book SynopsisTracing the connections between music making and built space in both historical and contemporary times, Music, Sound, and Architecture in Islam brings together domains of intellectual reflection that have rarely been in dialogue to promote a greater understanding of the centrality of sound production in constructed environments in Muslim religious and cultural expression.Representing the fields of ethnomusicology, anthropology, art history, architecture, history of architecture, religious studies, and Islamic studies, the volume’s contributors consider sonic performances ranging from poetry recitation to art, folk, popular, and ritual musics—as well as religious expressions that are not usually labeled as “music” from an Islamic perspective—in relation to monumental, vernacular, ephemeral, and landscape architectures; interior design; decoration and furniture; urban planning; and geography. Underscoring the intimate relationship between trTrade ReviewThis volume presents a compelling case for increased attention to sound as both a design principle and a primary factor that shapes the social utility of built environments....the chapters provide a powerful demonstration of the multifaceted ways that the interaction between sounds and surfaces can hold meaning for the people who create, experience, and transform them...The difficult task that the editors have undertaken to create a multidisciplinary and multisensory exploration of sound and space is accomplished admirably while leaving room for further exploration of sound and space in Islamic cultures that were not included in the volume. * Ethnomusicology *Table of Contents List of Figures, Plates, Charts, and Tables Foreword, by Ali S. Asani Acknowledgments Introduction: Music, Sound, and Architecture in Islam, by Michael Frishkopf and Federico Spinetti Part One: Transregional 1. Listening to Islamic Gardens and Landscapes, by D. Fairchild Ruggles Part Two: The Ottoman Empire and Turkey 2. A Sound Status among the Ottoman Elite: Architectural Patrons of Sixteenth-Century Istanbul Mosques and Their Recitation Programs, by Nina Ergin 3. A Concert Platform: A Space for a Style in Turkish Music, by John Morgan O’Connell 4. Articulating Otherness in the Construction of Alevi-Bektaşi Rituals and Ritual Space in a Transnational Perspective, by Irene Markoff Part Three: The Arab World 5. Venerating Cairo’s Saints through Monument and Ritual: Islamic Reform and the Rise of the Architext, by Michael Frishkopf 6. Nightingales and Sweet Basil: The Cultural Geography of Aleppine Song, by Jonathan H. Shannon 7. Aural Geometry: Poetry, Music, and Architecture in the Arabic Tradition, by Samer Akkach Part Four: Andalusia and Europe 8. Tents of Silk and Trees of Light in the Lands of Najd: The Aural and the Visual at a Mawlid Celebration in the Alhambra, by Cynthia Robinson 9. Aristocratic Residences and the Majlis in Umayyad Córdoba, by Glaire D. Anderson 10. Sounds of Love and Hate: Sufi Rap, Ghetto Patrimony, and the Concrete Politics of the French Urban Periphery, by Paul A. Silverstein Part Five: Central and South Asia 11. Ideal Form and Meaning in Sufi Shrines of Pakistan: A Return to the Spirit, by Kamil Khan Mumtaz 12. The Social and Sacred Microcosm of the Kiiz Üi: Space and Sound in Rituals for the Dead among the Kazakhs of Mongolia, by Saida Daukeyeva Part Six: Iran 13. Listening to Pictures in Iran, by Anthony Welch 14. Of Mirrors and Frames: Music, Sound, and Architecture at the Iranian Zūrkhāneh, by Federico Spinetti References Contributors Index

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Book SynopsisLightning through the Clouds is the first English-language life-and-times biography of ‘Izz al-Din al-Qassam, a preeminent figure who helped to reshape the political and religious landscape of the region. A Syrian-born, Egyptian-educated cleric, he went from the battlefields of World War I to join the anticolonialist fight against the French in Syria. Sentenced to be executed by the French military, he managed to escape to Palestine, where he became an increasingly popular presence, moved by the plight of the poor and disenfranchised. Outraged by British rule and the encroachment of Zionism, he formed a secret society to resist the colonization of Palestine first by the British and then by Jewish immigrants from Europe, once again taking up arms and advocating for a moral, political, and military jihad as the only solution. His death at the hands of Palestine Police in 1935 drew thousands to his funeral and sparked the 19361939 Arab Revolt.His influence continueTrade Review"[A] masterful study of [‘Izz al-Din al-Qassam]...The judicious analysis and research found in Lightning through the Clouds allows us to cast aside the myth and lore surrounding this iconic figure and uncover the many complex historical forces that shaped his life. Lightning through the Clouds is not only a welcome contribution to Palestinian studies but a valuable addition to the larger field of modern Middle Eastern history." * Journal of Palestine Studies *A welcome scholarly publication...Sanagan’s choice of narrating the social history of ʿIzz Al-Din Al-Qassam as the representative of resistance in the modern Middle East offers a valuable contribution to both the biography of the iconic hero and the historiography of Mandate Palestine during its middle period. The study would benefit scholars and students of history, religious studies, and Middle East and cultural studies. * Arab Studies Quarterly *This biography of [‘Izz al-Din] al-Qassam places him not only in the context of his social and political settings, but also allows us to see him within a wider movement in which his charisma and community connections made him not a single, dominating figure, but first amongst equals...Sanagan has thus succeeded in writing a rare book, one that combines the compelling narrative thrust of a biography with a breadth of view that tells the reader something genuinely new about the development of Palestine and Levantine anti-colonial politics over the first third of the twentieth century. * Contemporary Levant *Table of Contents List of Figures List of Abbreviations Note on Transliterations Maps Prologue Introduction Chapter 1. The Guide Chapter 2. The City of a Thousand Minarets Chapter 3. The Soldier Shaykh Chapter 4. Exile to Haifa Chapter 5. Workers and Villagers Chapter 6. The Tip of the Thread Chapter 7. Nahalal, 1932 Chapter 8. With the Qurʾan as a Passport Chapter 9. Memorial Conclusion Epilogue Acknowledgments Appendix. Ikhwan al-Qassam A Note on Sources Notes Glossary Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisKareem Rabie examines how Palestine's desire to fully integrate its economy into global markets through large-scale investment projects represented a shift away from political state building with the hope that a thriving economy would lead to a free and functioning Palestinian state.Trade Review“Palestine Is Throwing a Party is a brilliant, carefully researched, and thoughtful book. Kareem Rabie uses the lens of urban planning and development to show us how global processes of unequal capital accumulation, racialized labor and property regimes within Israel/Palestine, and the managerial rule of Palestinian technocrats and capitalists collaborating with Israel all persistently reproduce the violent systems of settler-colonial expropriation in Israel/Palestine since 1948.” -- Laleh Khalili, author of * Sinews of War and Trade: Shipping and Capitalism in the Arabian Peninsula *“Drawing on his exceptional knowledge and understanding of Palestine, along with a considerable amount of original, innovative, and detailed fieldwork, Kareem Rabie presents thought-provoking insights on the question of urbanism in Palestine. This extremely interesting study makes an important contribution.” -- Adam Hanieh, author of * Money, Markets, and Monarchies: The Gulf Cooperation Council and the Political Economy of the Contemporary Middle East *"[A] detailed, often dense but intellectually penetrating look at how that conference heralded a significant change in both economic and political strategy." -- Ian Black * Tel Aviv Review of Books *"The capitalist concept of Palestine, despite its exclusion, is part of the normalised state-building process, which in turn normalises dealings with Israel. Rabie's book is a pragmatic approach that does not necessarily condone the alteration of Palestinian territory, but takes a dispassionate look at the facts." -- Ramona Wadi * Middle East Monitor *"By applying the analytic of settler colonialism without essentializing indigenous identity, and by theorizing the effects of global capitalism on Palestinian class formation, Palestine is Throwing a Party shows the way forward. Though there is nothing optimistic about its portrayal of relations between Palestinians and Israelis as a dark, distorting mirror, its reminder that the two groups are forever shaping one another against a backdrop of steep global inequalities will be crucial for any politics of democratic decolonization." -- Matan Kaminer * +972 Magazine *"Palestine Is Throwing a Party exemplifies the best of what ethnography can do: theoretically nuanced analysis derived from the specificities of social life rather than imposed on them. One of the many strengths of this ethnography is the way Rabie eschews easy invocations of a universal version of capitalism, instead making 'universalism' into an ethnographic object: first, by examining how capitalist investors in the West Bank invoke it to make their profit-seeking projects appear desirable, cosmopolitan, and inevitable, even as these projects are contingent and uncertain; and second, to illuminate how the liberalism of the Israeli legal system works to enhance Israel’s domination." -- Lisa Rofel * Journal of Palestine Studies *"Palestine is Throwing a Party can contribute to a wide range of literatures. . . . It should prove crucial reading to all those interested in the future of Palestine . . . as well as political economy approaches more broadly." -- Dana El Kurd * International Journal of Middle East Studies *"Brilliant . . . . Rabie’s book forces scholars to more deeply reflect upon and analyze contemporary forms of settler colonialism and the partial, constrained sovereignties under which indigenous peoples all over the world currently live and struggle." -- Les W. Field * Journal of Anthropological Research *"Rabie carefully disentangles the claims and political-economic goals of stability and freedom. This complicates the picture but is essential because it helps us understand what is going on in Palestine today and contributes to a discussion on the contours of a political future not confined to the nation-state form. In doing so, Rabie offers ways to think otherwise and imagine emancipatory futures." -- Timothy Seidel * American Anthropologist *Table of ContentsIntroduction 1 1. The Site 37 2. Developers and Designers 54 3. Image, Process, and Precedent 67 4. Public Urban Planning 81 5. Housing Shortage and National Priority 93 6. Public-Private Partnership 105 7. Buyers and Villagers 131 8. Critique, Capital, and the Landscape 149 9. Settlers and the Land 163 10. The Law, Mirroring, and the State 183 Conclusion 199 Acknowledgments 213 Notes 217 References 235 Index 255

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Book SynopsisBest known for her Eisner Award-winning graphic novels, Exit Wounds and The Property, Rutu Modan's richly colored compositions invite readers into complex Israeli society, opening up a world too often defined only by news headlines. Her strong female protagonists stick out in a comics scene still too dominated by men, as she combines a mystery novelist's plotting with a memoirist's insights into psychology and trauma.The Comics of Rutu Modan: War, Love, and Secrets conducts a close reading of her work and examines her role in creating a comics arts scene in Israel. Drawing upon archival research, Kevin Haworth traces the history of Israeli comics from its beginning as 1930s cheap children's stories, through the counterculture movement of the 1970s, to the burst of creativity that began in the 1990s and continues full force today.Based on new interviews with Modan (b. 1966) and other comics artists, Haworth indicates the key role of Actus Tragicus, the c

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Book SynopsisWaste Siege offers an analysis unusual in the study of Palestine: it depicts the environmental, infrastructural, and aesthetic context in which Palestinians are obliged to forge their lives. To speak of waste siege is to describe a series of conditions, from smelling wastes to negotiating military infrastructures, from biopolitical forms of colonial rule to experiences of governmental abandonment, from obvious targets of resistance to confusion over responsibility for the burdensome objects of daily life. Within this rubble, debris, and infrastructural fallout, West Bank Palestinians create a life under settler colonial rule. Sophia Stamatopoulou-Robbins focuses on waste as an experience of everyday life that is continuous with, but not a result only of, occupation. Tracing Palestinians' own experiences of wastes over the past decade, she considers how multiple authorities governing the West Bank—including municipalities, the Palestinian Authority, international aid organizations, NGOs, and Israel—rule by waste siege, whether intentionally or not. Her work challenges both common formulations of waste as "matter out of place" and as the ontological opposite of the environment, by suggesting instead that waste siege be understood as an ecology of "matter with no place to go." Waste siege thus not only describes a stateless Palestine, but also becomes a metaphor for our besieged planet.Trade Review"There are so many reasons to read this book: it's brilliantly written, theoretically innovative, and politically necessary. Waste Siege is not only one of the most original accounts of waste to date, it is essential reading for anyone hoping to understand the ongoing occupation of the West Bank from the perspective of ordinary Palestinians."—Joshua Reno, author of Waste Away: Working and Living with a North American Landfill"Waste Siege is an original and innovative account of living with the inundation of debris and toxicity in Palestine. Taking the reader on a journey through landfills and rubbish markets, encounters with bags of bread left hanging on the sides of dumpsters, and the movement of sewage across political barriers, Sophia Stamatopoulou-Robbins brilliantly excavates the ambient politics of waste and its management."—Ilana Feldman, author of Life Lived in Relief: Humanitarian Predicaments and Palestinian Refugee Politics"[An] insightful, penetrating account of life under six decades of military occupation for the nearly three million Palestinians....In this well-written, intelligent account based on firsthand ethnographic fieldwork, the author displays a keen understanding of both waste ecology and contemporary life in occupied Palestine. Highly recommended."—G. M. Massey, CHOICE"Although Sophia Stamatopoulou-Robbins' marvelous new book is about waste management in Palestine, it asks extremely timely and relevant questions about the putative universality of environmental threats, mobility, fixity, political violence, and state governance."—Kareem Rabie, PoLAR"Waste Siege is a welcome addition to the sparse literature about the environment, waste, and infrastructure in Palestine and the Middle East more broadly.[An] important work."—Basma Fahoum, Arab Studies Quarterly"By tracing the flows and forces of waste siege, this text enables a more refined understanding of the socio-political worlds forged with, under, and against occupation....In Stamatopoulou-Robbins's ethnography, environment, occupation, and everyday life are grasped in a single frame."—Mohammed Rafi Arefin and Benjamin Kaplan Weinger, Cultural Geographies"Through a careful sifting of the various sites at which waste from Israel threatens to overwhelm physical settings and the ordinary lives of Palestinians, Stamatopoulou-Robbins leads us to appreciate the structural impossibility of Palestinian self-government as a rejoinder to utopian fantasies of a two-state solution. The tracing of the afterlives of bread in the midst of the hurly burly of urban lives and waste management projects, incomplete of necessity, suggests alternative geographies of food infrastructure and mutual aid. We are treated to people who are fully fleshed-out and multi-dimensional and whose voices of rueful honesty, of humor mixed with anguish, continue to ring in our ears long after we put down the book. A community under siege is connected to the rest of the world by waste."—Sharon Stephens Book Prize Committee"Stamatopoulou-Robbins provides a visceral and theoretically sophisticated guide to the disposability, toxicity, and ethical dilemmas that Palestinians confront in the West Bank today.Grounded in the anthropology of waste, the state, the environment, and infrastructure,Waste Siegeis a theoretically rich, ethnographically grounded, beautifully written exploration of the 'kind of living we do in the constantly changing ruins we have made.'"—Andy Clarno,Journal for Palestine Studies"Waste Siege is a captivating book on the impact of the global inundation of waste, and waste infrastructure, on the lives of Palestinians. In a sense, Stamatopoulou-Robbins carves out the constellation surrounding waste, and in a bigger picture, a global economy of inundation... This book is a fantastic read for anyone interested in the lives of Palestinians under occupation from a refreshing perspective on the nation, and the nation-state. It is a wonderful analysis of Palestinian statehood and the ensuing debate on the Authority's success as a governing body."—Christina Bouri, Journal of Middle Eastern Politics & Policy"Stamatopoulou-Robbins's interviews are a particular strength of Waste Siege. Some of her interlocutors are the men of the rabish and the consumers of second-hand goods who tell a story about garbage intertwined with the issues of class and views of the other, all set within the sprawling networks of flea markets."—Lauren Banko, International Journal of Islamic Architecture"Waste Siegeis a brilliant and insightful ethnography into the West Bank's inundation of waste dumped from Israel, Israeli settlements, and Palestinian cities. Stamatopoulou-Robbins does not just focus on what the Israeli military does to the Palestinians, but the role Palestinian political parties, bureaucrats, humanitarian NGOs, and the international community play in the slow degradation of Palestinian life through waste."—Tina Guirguis, Society and SpaceTable of ContentsPreface Introduction 1. Compression: How to Make Time at an Occupied Landfill 2. Inundated: Wanting Used Colonial Goods 3. Accumulation: Toxicity and Blame in a Phantom State 4. Gifted: Unwanted Bread and Its Stranger Obligations 5. Leakage: Sewage and Doublethink in a "Shared Environment" Conclusion

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Book SynopsisThe production of history is premised on the selective erasure of certain pasts and the artifacts that stand witness to them. From the elision of archival documents to the demolition of sacred and secular spaces, each act of destruction is also an act of state building. Following the 1991 Gulf War, political elites in Saudi Arabia pursued these dual projects of historical commemoration and state formation with greater fervor to enforce their postwar vision for state, nation, and economy. Seeing Islamist movements as the leading threat to state power, they sought to de-center religion from educational, cultural, and spatial policies. With this book, Rosie Bsheer explores the increasing secularization of the postwar Saudi state and how it manifested in assembling a national archive and reordering urban space in Riyadh and Mecca. The elites' project was rife with ironies: in Riyadh, they employed world-renowned experts to fashion an imagined history, while at the same time in Mecca they were overseeing the obliteration of a thousand-year-old topography and its replacement with commercial megaprojects. Archive Wars shows how the Saudi state's response to the challenges of the Gulf War served to historicize a national space, territorialize a national history, and ultimately refract both through new modes of capital accumulation.Trade Review"There are now two distinct eras in the writing of Saudi Arabian history: before Rosie Bsheer's Archive Wars and after." -- Robert Vitalis * University of Pennsylvania, author of Oilcraft *"Archive Wars explores with conceptual brilliance and historical aplomb the various forms of historical erasure central not just to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia but to all modern states. In a finely-grained analysis, Rosie Bsheer rethinks the significance of archives, historicism, capital accumulation, and the remaking of the built environment. A must-read for all historians concerned with the materiality of modern state formation." -- Omnia El Shakry * University of California, Davis, author of The Great Social Laboratory: Subjects of Knowledge in Colonial and Postcolonial Egypt *"Archive Wars is an instant classic. With incredible insight, creativity, and courage, Rosie Bsheer peels away the political and institutional barriers that have so long mystified others seeking to understand Saudi Arabia. Bsheer tells us remarkable new things about the exercise and meaning of power in today's Saudi Arabia." -- Toby Jones * Rutgers University, author of Desert Kingdom: How Oil and Water Forged Modern Saudi Arabia *"Rosie Bsheer's Archive Wars is one of those extraordinary projects that explodes fictions of so many kinds about archives and state power. This masterful and meticulous book is testimony to the visceral violences that underwrite legal and archival mandates, the bedrock of the massive inequalities that plague our collective worlds now more than ever. Bsheer offers us a reading of the wars that rage in—and over—modern archives, showing that they are not modern because they are unmarred by the destruction of records, but because they are constituted by ever bolder techniques of erasure." -- Ann Stoler * The New School for Social Research, author of Duress: Imperial Durabilities in Our Times *"Archive Wars is a much-needed and in many ways revelatory addition to our understanding of Saudi history and politics. On a personal level, I found the work to be an absolute delight to read and one that has challenged the way I look at Saudi politics. Despite being a vital country in the Middle East, there are few good texts on the kingdom. Archive Wars will stimulate better and more critical scholarship. It changes the way we think about the relationship between archives, heritage, and political power in the region, and beyond." -- Middle East Monitor"[A] must-read for anybody interested in modern Saudi Arabia. Whether you are looking for insights into the ambitions of kings or into the lives of ordinary people, it is essential to know how historical information is kept and erased. Beyond that, I recommend Bsheer's work to anybody studying the creation of archives and heritage elsewhere in the Middle East and globally." -- Jörg Matthias Determann * Journal of Social History *"By dissecting competing and complicated relationships between and among the Saudi state and elites, Bsheer presents a compelling portrait of the state's forceful consolidation of an acceptable historical narrative, showcasing the Saudi state's attempts to elide any historical documents or physical traces that do not corroborate the sanctioned story of the rise of Al Saud... [T]he book's depictions of urban transformations are essential for understanding the nature of power in Saudi Arabia today." -- Kathryn King * Journal of Arabian Studies *"This book is an intelligent, subtle, and learned treatment of the efforts by the Saudi Arabian monarchy to construct and disseminate a historical narrative that will legitimize its rule. Bsheer precisely and elegantly describes the regime's attempts, across the reigns of several kings, to both collect and suppress documentation about the country's past." -- Lisa Anderson * Foreign Affairs *"We find in Rosie Bsheer's book a skillful combination of topics and a stimulating engagement with the politics of history. Archive Wars deserves close reading, especially as it engages with a notoriously challenging country to frame, thanks to the author's unique access to the kingdom, her use of Saudi academic scholarship, and the books theoretical intervention in the political science of the Middle East and North Africa." -- Idriss Jebari * Canadian Journal of History *"This book substantially reworks existing knowledge of Saudi Arabia—the making of the state, the legitimization of its power, and the centrality of diverse history-making projects in these projects. Drawing on rich ethnographic and archival work, the author convincingly argues that the ruling regime has been engaged in a project of re-writing Saudi history since the 1990s. Central to these history-making projects has been the 'archive wars' and efforts to centralize archival sources, as well as re-making the built environment through urban planning and development.Sophisticated and engaging and politically bold." -- Committee for the Nikki Keddie Book Award * sponsored by the Middle East Studies Association *"Rosie Bsheer'sArchive Warsis a forceful and inspiring reminder of what superb and unflinching scholarship and writing can do. Based on exciting fieldwork,Archive Wars examines the erasing and building of history in Saudi Arabia. It is one of those rare books that focuses our attention – without hesitation – on the broader stakes and processes of modern state formation while detailing the contingencies and tensions of power. It exposes with clarity and precision links between political-economy, state power, and the materiality of documents and the built environment. Attempts to erase and rewrite the past in Saudi Arabia will have to contend with Rosie Bsheer's archive.—Committee for the AGAPS Biennial Book AwardTable of ContentsContents and AbstractsIntroduction: The Archive Question chapter abstractIn the aftermath of the 1991 Gulf War, ruling elites in Saudi Arabia adopted measures that aimed to reconfigure state power by pacifying wartime popular opposition, reshaping the politics of subject formation, and diversifying the petroleum economy. The ensuing struggle over state form—what I call archive wars—revolved around the production of history, the reordering of space, and the repurposing of valuable real estate. Historicizing these practices helps us rethink the nature of modern archival formation as well as statecraft while calling into question scholarly assumptions about the cohesiveness of authoritarian states, and of states in general. Approaching the domains of history making and urban planning as mutually constitutive, contested, and ongoing material practices of state formation complicates conventional understandings of the nature of state power and its imbrication with archive formation. 1Occluded Pasts chapter abstractThis chapter takes up one strand of sociopolitical and cultural life in late Ottoman Mecca: the school of Indian religious scholar Muhammad Rahmatullah al-Kairanawi and its relation to the emergence of an intellectually engaged Hijazi middle class during the nahda. The chapter then attends to how the Saudi state occluded and repackaged this history since 1932. Beyond the symbolic power it bestowed upon its rulers, Mecca was a space where intellectual debate flourished, honing the minds of thinkers who became central figures in twentieth-century politics and religion. Yet Mecca's past is absent from histories of the Hijaz and of Saudi Arabia and from histories of intellectual thought, cultural production, and political activism in the late Ottoman period. Unearthing these transregional histories is urgent because the Saudi state has been destroying the city's built environment in lockstep with the logic of historical erasure and state formation. 2A State With No Archive chapter abstractIn 1966, at the height of the struggle between reactionary and progressive forces that pitted Al Saud against Gamal Abdel Nasser and progressive forces inside Saudi Arabia, King Faisal passed the country's first archiving law. The aim was to choreograph a sanitized version of history and to reify elites' political, territorial, economic, and cultural claims. This chapter connects the beginning of archival praxis in Cold War Arabia to the necessity of managing elite power rivalries and fending off threats from regional rivals and domestic political movements. These anxieties shaped archival praxis and subsequently institutionalized a culture of secrecy and rivalry across the bureaucracy, with the push and pull of the archival operation mirroring the rivalries endemic to the Saudi state. Tracing the battles to produce an archive from the mid-1960s until the late 1980s shows how Saudi Arabia complicates conventional thinking about archives and about the authoritarian state itself. 3Assembling History chapter abstractIn the 1990s, Saudi Arabia's top rulers sought to shift the grounds for political legitimation, subject formation, and economic diversification to maintain power following the Gulf War. This required the production of primary source materials for a revised, secular official history, the repositories that would house them, and the spaces that would monumentalize such a discourse. The Darah, along with the Ariyyadh Development Authority, assembled the past and its spaces in Riyadh. With the backing of Salman, who was Riyadh's governor at the time, the low-grade archive fever of the 1970s got a second lease on life. Like Faisal before him, Salman faced challenges to centralizing the archive: from members of the ruling family, politicians and bureaucrats, activists and archivists. Institutional acts of history making and placing put into question the coherence of historical narration and memorialization, and expose archival anxieties and rivalries among the architects of state building. 4Heritage as War chapter abstractIn the aftermath of the Gulf War, an army of urban planners, economists, historians, archeologists, and tourism consultants descended upon Riyadh. Under the aegis of the High Commission for the Development of Arriyadh, they brainstormed ideas for the redevelopment of the capital city, with an eye to the economic, political, and social challenges that the country was facing in the late twentieth century. The Arriyadh Development Authority oversaw the production of a regulatory planning document that would transform Riyadh into the administrative, cultural, economic, touristic, and historical center of Saudi Arabia. This chapter examines the production and destruction of historical sites since the 1950s. It shows how the 1990s saw the acceleration of the remaking of historical areas in Riyadh and the creation of a productive heritage industry therein. Memorialization came to constitute a key node in the postwar architectural reformulation of the state. 5Bulldozing the Past chapter abstractSince the early 2000s, the Saudi state summarily dynamited whole mountains around the Grand Mosque, destroying much of Islam's material history and replacing it with commercial megaprojects. The deliberate demolition of historical and religious sites in Mecca starkly contrasts with the preservation of more recent and dilapidated sites associated with Al Saud's heritage in Riyadh. In post–Gulf War Saudi Arabia, Mecca came to serve a different legitimating purpose, one rooted in grandiose infrastructural projects and aesthetics, wherein secular time overwhelmed religious temporality and subjectivity. The regime used Wahhabi iconoclasm and the need to modernize the hajj to justify such destruction. This chapter shows how the city's urban "renewal" was inextricable from archival formation and urban planning in Riyadh. The neoliberal city was at the heart of the twinned postwar process of real estate and heritage development, with Al Saud and the Binladin family reaping billions off its redevelopment. Conclusion: The Violence of History chapter abstractThis chapter centers on how Saudi rulers instrumentalized religion to pacify post–Gulf War popular contestation and shifted the basis of state legitimation to secular historical memorialization, political commemoration, and urban redevelopment. Using these material practices, it shows how statecraft, even in authoritarian regimes, evolves diachronically in response to a multiplicity of challenges, not least of which is popular opposition. The postwar project, however, was transformed at different critical junctures: the terrorist attacks in Saudi Arabia in the 2000s, the Arab Uprisings, and the ascension of the postwar project's architect, Salman ibn Abdulaziz, to the throne in 2015. With Salman in power, the archival landscape, both institutional and spatial, has for the most part succumbed to his decades-long national vision. Cultural and urban redevelopment reflects the material culture and built environment of Salman's Saudi Arabia, which enshrined his view of the past, present, and future.

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Book SynopsisThe Ottoman Empire enforced imperial rule through its management of diversity. For centuries, non-Muslim religious institutions, such as the Armenian Church, were charged with guaranteeing their flocks' loyalty to the sultan. Rather than being passive subjects, Armenian elites, both the clergy and laity, strategically wove the institutions of the Armenian Church, and thus the Armenian community itself, into the fabric of imperial society. In so doing, Armenian elites became powerful brokers between factions in Ottoman politics—until the politics of nineteenth-century reform changed these relationships. In Brokers of Faith, Brokers of Empire, Richard E. Antaramian presents a revisionist account of Ottoman reform, relating the contention within the Armenian community to broader imperial politics. Reform afforded Armenians the opportunity to recast themselves as partners of the state, rather than as brokers among factions. And in the course of pursuing such programs, they transformed the community's role in imperial society. As the Ottoman reform program changed how religious difference could be employed in a Muslim empire, Armenian clergymen found themselves enmeshed in high-stakes political and social contests that would have deadly consequences.Trade Review"Brokers of Faith, Brokers of Empire eschews conventional accounts of nationalism and secularism, and is fully conversant with revisionist writings on the Tanzimat. Armenian reformers, Richard Antaramian persuasively argues, were more Ottoman than the Ottomans in embracing reform. Ironically, this left them vulnerable, as shown in this vivid account." -- Molly Greene * Princeton University *"Brokers of Faith, Brokers of Empire challenges and enriches our understanding of Ottoman governance on the cusp of the age of nationalism. Richard Antaramian provides a much-needed corrective to a historiography that often presents 'Armenian' and 'Ottoman' as mutually exclusive categories. An empirically rich work." -- İpek Kocaömer Yosmaoğlu * Northwestern University *"Brokers of Faith, Brokers of Empire is an exemplar of archive-powered study that is successful in depicting the Armenian nation in its own rights and struggles." -- Emrah Sahin * Journal of Church and State *Table of ContentsContents and AbstractsIntroduction: Introduction chapter abstractThe introduction lays out the book's principal overarching argument: the Ottoman reform programs that commenced in the late eighteenth century and continued throughout the nineteenth centralized the state by denying different political claimants their share of sovereignty. The empire is better understood not as a spoke-and-hub-without-the-wheel that kept geographically delineated peripheries apart from one another but rather as a tapestry predicated on dense overlapping networks through which sovereignty was both exercised and shared. The reorganization of imperial governance bid to transform that dense networked world into a top-down/center-periphery model atop which the central government would preside. The reform of non-Muslim communities transformed them from spaces—woven into the imperial tapestry through their religious institutions—into millets that were challenged to pull those religious institutions out of the informal and semiformal relationships that underwrote the shared and networked world of imperial governance. One: The Constitution chapter abstractThis chapter discusses the Armenian Constitution, a document originally introduced in 1860 that delineated how the Armenian community would participate in Ottoman imperial governance. The Constitution, like other reform initiatives that targeted non-Muslims in the middle of the Ottoman nineteenth century, is typically presented as something that spurred the rise of lay elites engaged in class struggle, which led to the secularization of the community and its subsequent nationalization. Chapter 1 instead presents the Constitution as fundamental to the shifting organization of Ottoman imperial governance that reset the partnership between the Armenian community and the state. In particular, it politicized the Armenian Church by making it an agent of state centralization. Armenian clergymen thus found themselves forced to choose sides in a struggle between a centralizing bureaucracy and the elites it sought to dislodge. Two: The Ottoman Diocese chapter abstractChapter 2 advances a framework called nodal governance. The fiscal restructuring of the eighteenth century produced a networked world of Ottoman imperial governance in which multiple forces in imperial society shared power and the benefits of imperial rule. The institutions of the Armenian Church acted as nodes in this setting, conduits through which Armenian financial capital flowed to help suture the empire as a polity. This extent to which Armenian institutions were embedded in this world is brought into relief by the efforts of the reformers to reorganize the community as an empire-wide diocese. These efforts effectively challenged the community to withdraw its institutions from the networked world of imperial governance and integrate them into the imperial bureaucracy, thus committing Armenian reformers to use their own ecclesiastics to aid the introduction of a center-periphery binary in Ottoman governance. Three: Peripheralization chapter abstractChapter 3 argues that the ideology of the Tanzimat was not Ottomanism but rather legal centralism. The introduction of the millet system in the nineteenth century therefore belonged to an effort to eradicate a pluralist legal order of things that privileged a number of actors throughout the Ottoman Empire, include high-ranking members of the Armenian clergy who had benefited from nodal governance and the connections it had afforded them to regional power brokers and Armenian financial capital. Those high-ranking clergymen thus blended a number of methods to reject the centralization of the state and the community and the loss of connections that this would entail. These methods included the invocation of ecclesiastical tradition and networking strategies—namely, brokerage and closure. The conflict between clergymen in the context of reform politics transformed network structures, leaving the Armenian community peripheralized in imperial governance and society. Four: Ottomanism chapter abstractChapter 4 addresses the question of Ottomanism. Rather than an ideology, the chapter argues that Ottomanism is best understood as a repertoire of action or cultural tool kit. Historical scholarship on Ottoman reform has comfortably framed the centralization policies as a contest between the imperial state based in Istanbul and provincial actors who resisted its implementation. This has led historians to overlook the important fact that provincial Armenian reformers on the ground, particularly those among the clergy, fought on the front lines of state centralization. Unlike their metropolitan counterparts, these clergymen were steeped in the culture of the Church and the provinces and blended those resources with the new politics of empire to pursue centralization as part of a cultural toolbox that bridged center and periphery. State-building and centralization thus became key elements of Ottoman Armenian political thought in the second half of the nineteenth century. Five: A Catastrophic Success chapter abstractThe book's concluding chapter covers the final years of Bishop Mkrtich Khirmian's public life in the Ottoman Empire, which included a term as patriarch of Constantinople (r. 1869–1873) and ended with internal exile to Jerusalem in 1885. The sixteen-year arc covered in this chapter explains how Armenian reformers found themselves the victims of their own success. Khrimian and other provincial reformers not only enthusiastically participated in the reform programs, they successfully cut the threads that connected their community to other forces in imperial society. However, this precluded their ability to communicate with other sectors of that society. Reform initiatives that had won the approval of the government a few years prior were now viewed as subversive and seditious. It was the Ottoman state, which began punishing reformers, that ended the partnership with the Armenian community. Armenian politics, however, would remain oriented toward Istanbul. Conclusion: Conclusion chapter abstractThe conclusion describes the dilapidated state in which the Armenian community was left as a result of imperial reform. The introduction of the millet system resulted in not only the peripheralization of Armenian in imperial governance or the loss of their ability to communicate with other sectors of imperial society but also the surrender of their social capital and claim to imperial sovereignty. An impoverished Armenian community could only look on in despair as the establishment of new connections and relationships to carry on the work of imperial governance excluded them. Cut from the imperial tapestry, Armenian reformers found themselves under siege, with prominent clergymen either killed or imprisoned. The state understood any Armenian effort to reform imperial society as a challenge to the new status quo and power-sharing arrangements, and thus responded with increasing brutality; these culminated as widespread massacres of Armenians in the 1890s.

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Book SynopsisLosing Istanbul offers an intimate history of empire, following the rise and fall of a generation of Arab-Ottoman imperialists living in Istanbul. Mostafa Minawi shows how these men and women negotiated their loyalties and guarded their privileges through a microhistorical study of the changing social, political, and cultural currents between 1878 and the First World War. He narrates lives lived in these turbulent times—the joys and fears, triumphs and losses, pride and prejudices—while focusing on the complex dynamics of ethnicity and race in an increasingly Turco-centric imperial capital. Drawing on archival records, newspaper articles, travelogues, personal letters, diaries, photos, and interviews, Minawi shows how the loyalties of these imperialists were questioned and their ethnic identification weaponized. As the once diverse empire comes to an end, they are forced to give up their home in the imperial capital. An alternative history of the last four decades of the Ottoman Empire, Losing Istanbul frames global pivotal events through the experiences of Arab-Ottoman imperial loyalists who called Istanbul home, on the eve of a vanishing imperial world order.Trade Review"Mostafa Minawi offers a masterful and captivating account of the lost futures and overlooked legacies of the Arab Ottoman imperial experience. Losing Istanbul teaches us how to rescue late Ottoman history from Turkish nationalist narratives and gain a much richer understanding of global intellectual and political history of the high age of imperialism."—Cemil Aydin, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill"Part biography, part political geography, and part history of a truly unsettling time in the Middle East and Africa, Losing Istanbul reveals lives and intimate relationships that did not survive the Ottoman Empire into the new Turkish Republic. Mostafa Minawi has written a brilliant book—painstaking, rich, and unique."—Eve Troutt-Powell, University of Pennsylvania"Through their personal experiences, Minawi captures a compelling narrative about the systemic challenges that confronted this last generation of 'Arab-Ottoman imperialists.' This book sheds much-needed light on hitherto ignored interpersonal dynamics that escaped the caustic identity politics historianslong claimed had destroyed the empire. Highly recommended."—I. Blumi, CHOICETable of Contents0. Introduction 1. From Meydan, Damascus, to Tashwiqiyyeh, Istanbul 2. A Career in Empire 3. An Ottoman Imperialist's Global Social Space 4. Coming to Terms with "Arap" 5. Racializing Self/Racializing Other 6. The Beginning of the End 7. Things Fall Apart 8. The Aftermath

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Book SynopsisTechnological advancements, expanding education, and unfettered capitalism have encouraged many around the world to aspire to better lives, even as declines in employment and widening inequality are pushing more and more people into insecurity and hardship. In Egypt, a generation of young men desire fulfilling employment, meaningful relationships, and secure family life, yet find few paths to achieve this. The Labor of Hope follows these educated but underemployed men as they struggle to establish careers and build satisfying lives. In so doing, this book reveals the lived contradiction at the heart of capitalist systems—the expansive dreams they encourage and the precarious lives they produce. Harry Pettit follows young men as they engage a booming training, recruitment, and entrepreneurship industry that sells the cruel meritocratic promise that a good life is realizable for all. He considers the various ways individuals cultivate distraction and hope for future mobility: education, migration, consumption, and prayer. These hope-filled practices are a form of emotional labor for young men, placing responsibility on the individual rather than structural issues in Egypt's economy. Illuminating this emotional labor, Pettit shows how the capitalist economy continues to capture the attention of the very people harmed by it.Trade Review"There is no doubt that Harry Pettit has the gift of ethnographic presentation. The Labor of Hope is an important, original, and truly laudable addition to the emerging literature on contemporary labor in Egypt."—Nefissa Naguib, University of Oslo, author of Nurturing Masculinities"The Labor of Hope is an amazing ethnography of capitalist dreams that motivate Egyptians of modest means to strive for success—a success largely denied by inequalities that push people towards precarious service work. Harry Pettit reveals what happens when you're inspired to be the next Steve Jobs, but the labor market wants you for the call center."—Samuli Schielke, Leibniz-Zentrum Moderner Orient,author ofMigrant Dreams"The Labor of Hope brings into sharp focus the emotive work undertaken by slipping middle classes as they endure the many indignities and compromised life-trajectories of a polarized labor market. Harry Pettit offers a penetrating analysis of the affective labor that underpins contemporary capitalism marked by steepening inequalities."—Bruce O'Neill, Saint Louis University, author of The Space of Boredom"There is no doubt that Harry Pettit has the gift of ethnographic presentation. The Labor of Hope is an important, original, and truly laudable addition to the emerging literature on contemporary labor in Egypt."—Nefissa Naguib, University of Oslo, author of Nurturing Masculinities"The Labor of Hope is an amazing ethnography of capitalist dreams that motivate Egyptians of modest means to strive for success—a success largely denied by inequalities that push people towards precarious service work. Harry Pettit reveals what happens when you're inspired to be the next Steve Jobs, but the labor market wants you for the call center."—Samuli Schielke, Leibniz-Zentrum Moderner Orient,author ofMigrant Dreams"The Labor of Hope brings into sharp focus the emotive work undertaken by slipping middle classes as they endure the many indignities and compromised life-trajectories of a polarized labor market. Harry Pettit offers a penetrating analysis of the affective labor that underpins contemporary capitalism marked by steepening inequalities."—Bruce O'Neill, Saint Louis University, author of The Space of BoredomTable of ContentsIntroduction 1. Selling Hope 2. The Drugs of Life 3. Without Hope There Is No Life 4. The Labor of Love 5. The Migration of Hope Conclusion Notes Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisFrom about 2500 to 2350 B.C.the Sumerian city-states of Lagash and Umma contested the right to a tract of land on their common border. Their dispute is documented by a series of inscriptions filled with claims and counterclaims. This volume makes available for the first time complete English translations of all documents relevant to these events.

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Book SynopsisDrawing on vivid Arab chronicles, Amin Maalouf retells the Crusades from the Muslim perspective â an era of fierce resistance, Saladinâs triumph, and a lasting cultural memory that still shapes Arab identity and views of the West today.Trade Review'A useful and important analysis adding much to existing western histories ... worth recommending to George Bush.' London Review of Books 'Well-researched and highly readable.' The Guardian 'A wide readership should enjoy this vivid narrative of stirring events.' The Bookseller 'An inspiring story ... Very readable ... Well translated ... Warmly recommended.' The Times Literary Supplement 'Very well done indeed ... Should be put in the hands of anyone who asks what lies behind the Middle East's present conflicts.' Middle East International

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