Middle Eastern history Books

Book SynopsisTrade Review"Winner of the Jordan Schnitzer Book Award in Medieval and Early Modern Jewish History and Culture, Association for Jewish Studies""Winner of the 2017 National Jewish Book Award in Women’s Studies (Barbara Dobkin Award)""Finalist for the Dionisius A. Agius Book Prize, Society for the Medieval Mediterranean""Finalist for the 2017 National Jewish Book Award in Scholarship (Nahum Sarna Memorial Award)""Honorable Mention for the 2018 AAR Award for Excellence in the Study of Religion: Historical Studies, American Academy of Religion""One of Choice Reviews' Outstanding Academic Titles of 2018""Eve Krakowski’s masterful new book . . . presents an impressive cascade of new insights regarding the Jewish community in old Cairo—their concerns, negotiations, and accommodations with the dominant Fatimid society."---Amit Gvaryahu, Marginalia"Coming of Age in Medieval Egypt is an excellent book based on solid research and replete with brilliant insights. It marks a new, groundbreaking phase in the historical study of the Geniza society and constitutes a major contribution to the social and legal history of Islamicate cultures as well as to gender studies more generally."---Miriam Frenkel, Al-Masāq

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Book SynopsisThe Arab Revolutions that began in 2011 reignited interest in the question of theory and practice, imbuing it with a burning political urgency. In Revolution and Disenchantment Fadi A. Bardawil redescribes for our present how an earlier generation of revolutionaries, the 1960s Arab New Left, addressed this question. Bardawil excavates the long-lost archive of the Marxist organization Socialist Lebanon and its main theorist, Waddah Charara, who articulated answers in their political practice to fundamental issues confronting revolutionaries worldwide: intellectuals as vectors of revolutionary theory; political organizations as mediators of theory and praxis; and nonemancipatory attachments as impediments to revolutionary practice. Drawing on historical and ethnographic methods and moving beyond familiar reception narratives of Marxist thought in the postcolony, Bardawil engages in 'fieldwork in theory' that analyzes how theory seduces intellectuals, cultivates sensibilities, and Trade Review“Fadi A. Bardawil's Revolution and Disenchantment is at once a rich redescription and rehistoricization of the rise and fall of the Lebanese New Left, and an exemplary illustration of how to rework the problem of theory in relation to the practices of nonmetropolitan political intellectuals. With a timely attunement to the paradoxical conundrums of his present and an uncommon generosity of spirit, Bardawil challenges us to reconceive the contemporary demand for a dialogue between Arab intellectual traditions and the traditions of Western critical theory.” -- David Scott, Columbia University“Conceptually brilliant, prodigiously researched, and appealingly written, Revolution and Disenchantment tracks the theoretical innovations and political stakes of Arab revolutionary Marxism in the postwar era, contributing to timely debates about the necessity of decolonizing critical theory and the relationship between revolutionary militancy and political disenchantment. Fadi A. Bardawil's innovative archival excavation recovers the theoretical labor of Arab intellectuals, theorists, and militants from Lebanon, Syria, Egypt, and Palestine in the midst of a multiplicity of political upheavals.” -- Omnia El Shakry, author of * The Arabic Freud: Psychoanalysis and Islam in Modern Egypt *"Is the question of social inequality eclipsed by sectarianism in the Near East? Is it possible to found a Left which is both autonomous and critical of nationalism? Fadi Bardawil brings this important episode of theoretical elaboration back to the history of Arab thought. Further, he invites us to break away from the colonial perspective which stipulates that social theory is created in the North and applied to the South." (translated from French) -- Jean-Michel Landry * Le Monde Diplomatique *"Revolution and Disenchantment brings Lebanon back into the story of the twentieth century francophone left and elegantly delivers a new framework for understanding the translation and transformation of theory." -- Sarah K. Miles * Global Intellectual History *“Revolution and Disenchantment…dismantles the ‘critique of Eurocentrism’ as the only way to conduct critical scholarship in Arab thought. Most significantly, it deftly and incisively performs the theoretical ground-clearing that will enable scholars of Arab and postcolonial thought to stage the fine-grained, sustained, generous-yet-critical readings of Arab intellectuals as thinkers….” -- Yasmeen Daifallah * Postcolonial Studies *"Revolution and Disenchantment is a different kind of academic book, profoundly interdisciplinary as it weaves together the crux of postcolonial studies, intellectual history, political theory and anthropological inquiries…. The book truly pries open the epistemological categories of modern social sciences." -- Myriam Amri * LSE Review of Books *"This volume is an impressive example of critical scholarship examining the intellectual and political dynamics of the modern history of Lebanon and its Arab neighbors. It vividly demonstrates the revolutionary hope and political disenchantment that continue to characterize the Middle East today." -- A. Rassam * Choice *“[Bardawil’s] thoughtful excavation of [a] forgotten archive of Arab Marxist theory, critical attention to social and political conditions, and nuanced analysis of the relationship between theory and practice produce a provocative argument about the pitfalls of adopting binary visions of power relations.” -- Kevin M. Jones * American Historical Review *Table of ContentsA Note on Transliteration and Translation ix Prologue xi Introduction 1 Part I. Time of History 1. O Youth, O Arabs, O Nationalists: Recalling the High Tides of Anticolonial Pan-Arabism 27 2. Dreams of a Dual Birth: Socialist Lebanon's Theoretical Imaginary (1964–1970) 53 3. June 1967 and Its Historiographical Afterlives 82 Part II. Times of the Sociocultural 4. Paradoxes of Emancipation: Revolution and Power in Light of Mao 113 5. Exit Marx/Enter Ibn Khaldun: Wartime Disenchantment and Critique 138 6. Traveling Theory and Political Practice: Orientalism in the Age of the Islamic Revolution 165 Epilogue 187 Acknowledgments 195 Notes 201 Bibliography 241 Index 255

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Book SynopsisNEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The first definitive history of Israel’s targeted killing programs, which have shaped the Israeli nation, the Middle East, and the larger world—from the man hailed by David Remnick as “arguably [Israel’s] best investigative reporter.” “An exceptional work, a humane book about an incendiary subject . . . full of shocking moments, surprising disturbances in a narrative full of fateful twists and unintended consequences.”—The New York Times WINNER OF THE NATIONAL JEWISH BOOK AWARD IN HISTORY • ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: Jennifer Szalai, The New York Times • A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: The Economist, The New York Times Book Review, BBC History Magazine, Mother JonesThe Talmud says: “If someone comes to kill you, rise up and kill him first.” This instinct to take every measure, even the most aggressive, to defend the Jewish people is hardwired into Israel’s DNA. From the very beginning of its statehood in 1948, protecting the nation from harm has been the responsibility of its intelligence community and armed services, and there is one weapon in their vast arsenal that they have relied upon to thwart the most serious threats: Targeted assassinations have been used countless times, on enemies large and small, sometimes in response to attacks against the Israeli people and sometimes preemptively.In this page-turning, eye-opening book, journalist and military analyst Ronen Bergman—praised by David Remnick as “arguably [Israel’s] best investigative reporter”—offers a riveting inside account of the targeted killing programs: their successes, their failures, and the moral and political price exacted on the men and women who approved and carried out the missions.Bergman has gained the exceedingly rare cooperation of many current and former members of the Israeli government, including Prime Ministers Shimon Peres, Ehud Barak, Ariel Sharon, and Benjamin Netanyahu, as well as high-level figures in the country’s military and intelligence services: the IDF (Israel Defense Forces), the Mossad (the world’s most feared intelligence agency), Caesarea (a “Mossad within the Mossad” that carries out attacks on the highest-value targets), and the Shin Bet (an internal security service that implemented the largest targeted assassination campaign ever, in order to stop what had once appeared to be unstoppable: suicide terrorism).Including never-before-reported, behind-the-curtain accounts of key operations, and based on hundreds of on-the-record interviews and thousands of files to which Bergman has gotten exclusive access over his decades of reporting, Rise and Kill First brings us deep into the heart of Israel’s most secret activities. Bergman traces, from statehood to the present, the gripping events and thorny ethical questions underlying Israel’s targeted killing campaign, which has shaped the Israeli nation, the Middle East, and the larger world.

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Book SynopsisThis book explores the impact of Greek (as well as Indian and Persian) medical heritage on the evolution of Arab medicine and pharmacology, investigating it from the perspective of 'materia medica' a reliable indication of the contribution of this medical legacy.

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"Shortlisted for the Sheikh Zayed Award, Abu Dhabi Arabic Language Centre""A fascinating exploration into the forgotten world of psychology and psychoanalysis in post-Second World War Egypt. . . . El Shakry's book enables us to expand our knowledge of Arab and Islamic intellectual history and forces us to examine our notions about contact points between modern and pre-modern thought."---Usman Butt, New Arab"The greatest strength of El Shakry’s study lies in the way she brings discourses of modernity and pre-modernity together, exploring the traces of each in the other. This is a deliberate rhetorical strategy on her part, which yields far deeper and more meaningful insights than the traditional method of separation of premodern and modern."---Marsha Aileen Hewitt, Reading Religion"It is an extraordinary study of post-colonial thought and of the history of psychology, which takes seriously psychoanalytic thought produced in a non-western society. . . . El Shakry uniquely uses psychoanalysis to examine the continuities and ruptures of post-colonial thought. . . . It is not merely a contextualization of Egyptian readings of psychoanalysis, but also a profound philosophical engagement with the implications of this intellectual encounter."---Liat Kozma, Psychoanalysis and History"The Arabic Freud masterfully excavates the neglected archives of psychoanalysis in mid-twentieth century Egypt."---Fadi A. Bardawil, Immanent Frame"El Shakry’s Arabic Freud is a valuable contribution to the history of modern Egypt, Arab intellectual thought, and the global history of ideas."---Wilson Chacko Jacob, Journal of Arabic Literature"The Arabic Freud . . . offers a richly researched intellectual history of an encounter between psychoanalysis and Islam which took place in Egypt over the 1940s and 1950s . . . . El Shakry recuperates these thinkers not simply as objects of historical inquiry, or as mere products of their political context, but producers of theory in their own right, whose arguments and ideas can enrich and expand our understandings of the self and the other, intuition and ethical cultivation, and psychoanalysis and Islam, today."---Chris Wilson, History of the Human Sciences

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Book SynopsisBy the turn of the twentieth century, the eastern Mediterranean port city of Izmir had been home to a vibrant and substantial Sephardi Jewish community for over four hundred years, and had emerged as a major center of Jewish life. The Jews of Ottoman Izmir tells the story of this long overlooked Jewish community, drawing on previously untapped Ladino archival material. Across Europe, Jews were often confronted with the notion that their religious and cultural distinctiveness was somehow incompatible with the modern age. Yet the view from Ottoman Izmir invites a different approach: what happens when Jewish difference is totally unremarkable? Dina Danon argues that while Jewish religious and cultural distinctiveness might have remained unquestioned in this late Ottoman port city, other elements of Jewish identity emerged as profound sites of tension, most notably those of poverty and social class. Through the voices of both beggars on the street and mercantile elites, shoe-shiners and newspaper editors, rabbis and housewives, this book argues that it was new attitudes to poverty and class, not Judaism, that most significantly framed this Sephardi community's encounter with the modern age.Trade Review"Dina Danon opens new windows onto the changing socioeconomic realities and values of Jews in a major port city of the late Ottoman Empire. Those interested in modern Jewish and Ottoman history alike have much to learn from this fascinating study."—Julia Phillips Cohen, Vanderbilt University"In this skillfully researched and beautifully written book, Dina Danon gives voice to Jews from various social and economic backgrounds. In the best tradition of social history, she masterfully relates their experiences in an often overlooked corner of the Ottoman Sephardi world to the broader forces that reshaped their city, region, and the nineteenth-century world."—Reşat Kasaba, University of Washington"The hard work Danon invested in the book is evident in its convincing narrative, its clear and accessible style, and its generous scientific apparatus. It is safe to assume that henceforth this monograph will be regarded as the central work on the Jews of Izmir in the last Ottoman century."—Tamir Karkason, Middle East Journal"This work provides a major contribution to the study of a Jewish community in general, and an Ottoman one in particular."—Rachel Simon, Association of Jewish Libraries Reviews"This eloquently written and expertly researched book is the outcome of Dina Danon's work over the past decade. It reflects Danon's original approach and scholarship. The book deals with the Jewish community of Izmir during the late Ottoman period. This is an important addition to our knowledge of this overlooked community at a time of tremendous changes about which we still know very little."—Eyal Ginio, The American Historical Review"Danon has succeeded in describing and analyzing how social and economic conditions led to communal struggles and the desire for change. ... [H]er book is a singular contribution and an important landmark for future research on other Sephardic communities in modern times."—Jacob Barnai, Association for Jewish Studies Review"Dina Danon's new book is an excellent work of social history that significantly enhances our understanding of Ottoman Jewish history in the late imperial period. It does so in a multi-layered way, such that it ultimately consists of more than its title suggests—that is, a history of the Jews of Izmir (though it is that, as well)...[T]hanks to Danon's deft handling of the tools of social history, and her attentiveness to an array of studies of the Ottoman empire in this period, what emerges is a portrait of social stratification in late Ottoman Izmir writ large...Danon's scholarship not only fruitfully builds on work that has come before, but... it will in turn be a critical stepping stone for the work of others."—Katherine E. Fleming, Slavic Review"This work should be treasured. Not just because it is a well-wrought and at times elegant addition to the Judaic Studies, but because it enlightens those of us who are fascinated with Jewish life specifically, and late Ottoman history more generally, and fills a critical space in our understanding of the revolutionary changes occurring during this period."—Jeffrey Kahrs, Tikkun"Unlike recent literature on Ottoman non-Muslims that focuses on the relationship between Istanbul's Jewish community and the city's Muslim political elites, Danon's work looks inward to explore the dynamics within Izmir's vibrant Jewish society. What emerges is a comprehensive social history of a community that to a great extent maintained a character unique from those of other Sephardic Ladino-speaking communities, such as in Istanbul and Salonica."—Louis Fishman, H-Nationalism"The Jews of Ottoman Izmirfills an important gap in the scholarship on modern Ottoman Jewish and Sephardic history by offering a locally focused account of social and political change in one of the most important, yet also understudied, Ladino-speaking communities in the Ottoman Empire. But Danon does more than fill a gap, valuable as it is to have this first monograph on modern Jewish Izmir in English. She also shifts the narrative about Ottoman Jewish history in a new direction by emphasizing social class as a central framework for her analysis, and by looking, in particular, at the city's Jewish working class, at poverty, and at class conflict. By raising the question of what Jewish modernity looked like in a context in which Jewish distinctiveness itself was 'wholly unremarkable,' she offers an important impulse to move beyond the conventional paradigms of emancipation, assimilation, and shifting patterns of 'identity.'"—Matthias Lehmann, H-Judaic

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Book SynopsisA free open access ebook is available upon publication. Learn more at www.luminosoa.org. Persian is one of the great lingua francas of world history. Yet despite its recognition as a shared language across the Islamic world and beyond, its scope, impact, and mechanisms remain underexplored. A world historical inquiry into pre-modern cosmopolitanism,The Persianate Worldtraces the reach and limits of Persian as a Eurasian language in a comprehensive survey of its geographical, literary, and social frontiers. From Siberia to Southeast Asia, and between London and Beijing, this book shows how Persian gained, maintained, and finally surrendered its status to imperial and vernacular competitors. Fourteen essays trace Persian's interactions with Bengali, Chinese, Turkic, Punjabi, and other languages toidentify the forces that extended Persographia, the domain of written Persian. Spanning the ages of expansion and contraction,The Persianate Worldoffers a critical survey of both the supports and constraints of one of history's key languages of global exchange. Trade Review"A tour de force of erudition." * Asian Review of Books *"Disassociated from methodological nationalist agendas, the collection presents a comprehensive overview of the contributions and constraints of cosmopolitanism in the Persianate world, spanning from the Ottoman Empire, the Caucasus, Central Asia, India, China, and of course, Iran." * Middle East Journal *Table of ContentsList of Maps and Illustrations A Note on Transliteration Preface and Acknowledgments Introduction: The Frontiers of the Persianate World (ca. 800–1900)Nile Green Part I. Pan-Eurasian Expansions, ca. 1400–1600 1. Imperial Ambitions, Mystical Aspirations: Persian Learning in the Ottoman WorldMurat Umut Inan 2. Persian at the Court or in the Village? The Elusive Presence of Persian in BengalThibaut d’Hubert 3. The Uses of Persian in Imperial China: Translating Practices at the Ming CourtGraeme Ford 4. Persian and Turkic from Kazan to Tobolsk: Literary Frontiers in Muslim Inner AsiaDevin DeWeese Part II. The Constraints of Cosmopolitanism, ca. 1600–1800 5. Marking Boundaries and Building Bridges: Persian Scholarly Networks in Mughal PunjabPurnima Dhavan 6. A Lingua Franca in Decline? The Place of Persian in Qing ChinaDavid Brophy viii Contents 7. Speaking “Bukharan”: The Circulation of Persian Texts in Imperial RussiaAlfrid Bustanov 8. Lingua Franca or Lingua Magica? Talismanic Scrolls from Eastern TurkistanAlexandre Papas Part III. New Empires, New Nations, ca. 1800–1920 9. Conflicting Meanings of Persianate Culture: An Intimate Example from Colonial India and BritainMichael H. Fisher 10. De-Persifying Court Culture: The Khanate of Khiva’s Translation ProgramMarc Toutant 11. Dissidence from a Distance: Iranian Politics as Viewed from Colonial DaghestanRebecca Ruth Gould 12. From Peshawar to Tehran: An Anti-imperialist Poet of the Late Persianate MilieuAbbas Amanat Epilogue: The Persianate MillenniumBrian SpoonerGlossary List of Contributors Index

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Book SynopsisIn The Story of Reason in Islam, leading public intellectual and political activist Sari Nusseibeh narrates a sweeping intellectual history—a quest for knowledge inspired by the Qu'ran and its language, a quest that employed Reason in the service of Faith. Eschewing the conventional separation of Faith and Reason, he takes a fresh look at why and how Islamic reasoning evolved over time. He surveys the different Islamic schools of thought and how they dealt with major philosophical issues, showing that Reason pervaded all disciplines, from philosophy and science to language, poetry, and law. Along the way, the best known Muslim philosophers are introduced in a new light. Countering received chronologies, in this story Reason reaches its zenith in the early seventeenth century; it then trails off, its demise as sudden as its appearance. Thereafter, Reason loses out to passive belief, lifeless logic, and a self-contained legalism—in other words, to a less flexible Islam. Nusseibeh's speculations as to why this occurred focus on the fortunes and misfortunes of classical Arabic in the Islamic world. Change, he suggests, may only come from the revivification of language itself.Trade Review"This engagingly written and ambitious intellectual history of Islam will provoke much thought and response. Novel in approach and mindful of the concerns of the present, it focuses not only on the story of philosophy, but also on the hermeneutics of scripture, the understanding of the arts and sciences, and the relation between law and ethics." -- Sajjad Rizvi * niversity of Exeter *"Sari Nusseibeh's The Story of Reason in Islam is a gift to the broadminded Western reader. It comes from a man of rare moral and intellectual standing who has risked much in his life to intellectual honesty and thorough fair-mindedness. It doesn't provide quick or easy answers about modern Islam, but it does convey the depth and complexity of traditions that Western pundits too frequently seem comfortable boiling down to 140 characters. Professor Nusseibeh's book is its own best argument for judging others cautiously and assuming their best intentions." -- Noah Kennedy * The Humanist *"Sari Nusseibeh's The Story of Reason in Islam is a very beautifully and thoughtfully written book." -- Heidrun Eichner * Reading Religion *"Written with the uninitiated in mind....Nusseibeh's sensitive, elliptical handling of dense metaphysical material echoes one of the book's central points: that the philosophical tradition in Arabic grew out of a world in which poetry was the preeminent means of expression....Through skillful weaving of events and ideas, Nusseibeh shows how politics determined the themes—justice, free will, the legitimacy of resisting an unjust leader—that became central to early Islamic thought." -- Yasmine Seale * Harper's Magazine *Table of ContentsContents and Abstracts1The Arabian Desert chapter abstractThis chapter outlines the cultural and historical framework in which the Qur'an first appeared in Mecca, and the inspirational and intellectual hold the document had on the people who came to adopt it as God's word delivered by Muhammad. The two contextual themes highlighted in the chapter are the desert's geo-historical centrality to the major regional religious and cultural traditions and the immanence of poetry as the revered artistic form of linguistic expression among desert Arabs. The Qur'an is shown to have combined these attributes–religious narrative and poetic finesse–and merged them into a single and unique discourse that exerted a mesmerizing influence on peoples' hearts and minds. The power of this synthesis shook people out of pre-existing modes of thought and inspired them to speculate about the world in radically new ways. 2The Daunting Idea of God chapter abstractThis chapter outlines the cultural and historical framework in which the Qur'an first appeared in Mecca, and the inspirational and intellectual hold the document had on the people who came to adopt it as God's word delivered by Muhammad. The two contextual themes highlighted in the chapter are the desert's geo-historical centrality to the major regional religious and cultural traditions and the immanence of poetry as the revered artistic form of linguistic expression among desert Arabs. The Qur'an is shown to have combined these attributes–religious narrative and poetic finesse–and merged them into a single and unique discourse that exerted a mesmerizing influence on peoples' hearts and minds. The power of this synthesis shook people out of pre-existing modes of thought and inspired them to speculate about the world in radically new ways. 3Free Will and Determinism chapter abstractThis chapter outlines the cultural and historical framework in which the Qur'an first appeared in Mecca, and the inspirational and intellectual hold the document had on the people who came to adopt it as God's word delivered by Muhammad. The two contextual themes highlighted in the chapter are the desert's geo-historical centrality to the major regional religious and cultural traditions and the immanence of poetry as the revered artistic form of linguistic expression among desert Arabs. The Qur'an is shown to have combined these attributes–religious narrative and poetic finesse–and merged them into a single and unique discourse that exerted a mesmerizing influence on peoples' hearts and minds. The power of this synthesis shook people out of pre-existing modes of thought and inspired them to speculate about the world in radically new ways. 4The Qur'an: Created or Eternal? chapter abstractThis chapter outlines the cultural and historical framework in which the Qur'an first appeared in Mecca, and the inspirational and intellectual hold the document had on the people who came to adopt it as God's word delivered by Muhammad. The two contextual themes highlighted in the chapter are the desert's geo-historical centrality to the major regional religious and cultural traditions and the immanence of poetry as the revered artistic form of linguistic expression among desert Arabs. The Qur'an is shown to have combined these attributes–religious narrative and poetic finesse–and merged them into a single and unique discourse that exerted a mesmerizing influence on peoples' hearts and minds. The power of this synthesis shook people out of pre-existing modes of thought and inspired them to speculate about the world in radically new ways. 5From Wasil to Ibn Hanbal chapter abstractThis chapter outlines the cultural and historical framework in which the Qur'an first appeared in Mecca, and the inspirational and intellectual hold the document had on the people who came to adopt it as God's word delivered by Muhammad. The two contextual themes highlighted in the chapter are the desert's geo-historical centrality to the major regional religious and cultural traditions and the immanence of poetry as the revered artistic form of linguistic expression among desert Arabs. The Qur'an is shown to have combined these attributes–religious narrative and poetic finesse–and merged them into a single and unique discourse that exerted a mesmerizing influence on peoples' hearts and minds. The power of this synthesis shook people out of pre-existing modes of thought and inspired them to speculate about the world in radically new ways. 6Early Islam: Literacy, Conflict and Expansion chapter abstractThis chapter outlines the cultural and historical framework in which the Qur'an first appeared in Mecca, and the inspirational and intellectual hold the document had on the people who came to adopt it as God's word delivered by Muhammad. The two contextual themes highlighted in the chapter are the desert's geo-historical centrality to the major regional religious and cultural traditions and the immanence of poetry as the revered artistic form of linguistic expression among desert Arabs. The Qur'an is shown to have combined these attributes–religious narrative and poetic finesse–and merged them into a single and unique discourse that exerted a mesmerizing influence on peoples' hearts and minds. The power of this synthesis shook people out of pre-existing modes of thought and inspired them to speculate about the world in radically new ways. 7Speculative Discourse: A Style chapter abstractThis chapter outlines the cultural and historical framework in which the Qur'an first appeared in Mecca, and the inspirational and intellectual hold the document had on the people who came to adopt it as God's word delivered by Muhammad. The two contextual themes highlighted in the chapter are the desert's geo-historical centrality to the major regional religious and cultural traditions and the immanence of poetry as the revered artistic form of linguistic expression among desert Arabs. The Qur'an is shown to have combined these attributes–religious narrative and poetic finesse–and merged them into a single and unique discourse that exerted a mesmerizing influence on peoples' hearts and minds. The power of this synthesis shook people out of pre-existing modes of thought and inspired them to speculate about the world in radically new ways. 8Discourse: In Pursuit of the Ultimate Answers chapter abstractThis chapter outlines the cultural and historical framework in which the Qur'an first appeared in Mecca, and the inspirational and intellectual hold the document had on the people who came to adopt it as God's word delivered by Muhammad. The two contextual themes highlighted in the chapter are the desert's geo-historical centrality to the major regional religious and cultural traditions and the immanence of poetry as the revered artistic form of linguistic expression among desert Arabs. The Qur'an is shown to have combined these attributes–religious narrative and poetic finesse–and merged them into a single and unique discourse that exerted a mesmerizing influence on peoples' hearts and minds. The power of this synthesis shook people out of pre-existing modes of thought and inspired them to speculate about the world in radically new ways. 9Law and Morality chapter abstractThis chapter outlines the cultural and historical framework in which the Qur'an first appeared in Mecca, and the inspirational and intellectual hold the document had on the people who came to adopt it as God's word delivered by Muhammad. The two contextual themes highlighted in the chapter are the desert's geo-historical centrality to the major regional religious and cultural traditions and the immanence of poetry as the revered artistic form of linguistic expression among desert Arabs. The Qur'an is shown to have combined these attributes–religious narrative and poetic finesse–and merged them into a single and unique discourse that exerted a mesmerizing influence on peoples' hearts and minds. The power of this synthesis shook people out of pre-existing modes of thought and inspired them to speculate about the world in radically new ways. 10Al-Ma'moun and the Devil's Banquets. chapter abstractThis chapter outlines the cultural and historical framework in which the Qur'an first appeared in Mecca, and the inspirational and intellectual hold the document had on the people who came to adopt it as God's word delivered by Muhammad. The two contextual themes highlighted in the chapter are the desert's geo-historical centrality to the major regional religious and cultural traditions and the immanence of poetry as the revered artistic form of linguistic expression among desert Arabs. The Qur'an is shown to have combined these attributes–religious narrative and poetic finesse–and merged them into a single and unique discourse that exerted a mesmerizing influence on peoples' hearts and minds. The power of this synthesis shook people out of pre-existing modes of thought and inspired them to speculate about the world in radically new ways. 11The Language-Logic debate chapter abstractThis chapter outlines the cultural and historical framework in which the Qur'an first appeared in Mecca, and the inspirational and intellectual hold the document had on the people who came to adopt it as God's word delivered by Muhammad. The two contextual themes highlighted in the chapter are the desert's geo-historical centrality to the major regional religious and cultural traditions and the immanence of poetry as the revered artistic form of linguistic expression among desert Arabs. The Qur'an is shown to have combined these attributes–religious narrative and poetic finesse–and merged them into a single and unique discourse that exerted a mesmerizing influence on peoples' hearts and minds. The power of this synthesis shook people out of pre-existing modes of thought and inspired them to speculate about the world in radically new ways. 12Back to the Human Will and Language chapter abstractThis chapter outlines the cultural and historical framework in which the Qur'an first appeared in Mecca, and the inspirational and intellectual hold the document had on the people who came to adopt it as God's word delivered by Muhammad. The two contextual themes highlighted in the chapter are the desert's geo-historical centrality to the major regional religious and cultural traditions and the immanence of poetry as the revered artistic form of linguistic expression among desert Arabs. The Qur'an is shown to have combined these attributes–religious narrative and poetic finesse–and merged them into a single and unique discourse that exerted a mesmerizing influence on peoples' hearts and minds. The power of this synthesis shook people out of pre-existing modes of thought and inspired them to speculate about the world in radically new ways. 13Expanding the View chapter abstractThis chapter outlines the cultural and historical framework in which the Qur'an first appeared in Mecca, and the inspirational and intellectual hold the document had on the people who came to adopt it as God's word delivered by Muhammad. The two contextual themes highlighted in the chapter are the desert's geo-historical centrality to the major regional religious and cultural traditions and the immanence of poetry as the revered artistic form of linguistic expression among desert Arabs. The Qur'an is shown to have combined these attributes–religious narrative and poetic finesse–and merged them into a single and unique discourse that exerted a mesmerizing influence on peoples' hearts and minds. The power of this synthesis shook people out of pre-existing modes of thought and inspired them to speculate about the world in radically new ways. 14An Interlude: Caliph, Imam, and Philosopher-King chapter abstractThis chapter outlines the cultural and historical framework in which the Qur'an first appeared in Mecca, and the inspirational and intellectual hold the document had on the people who came to adopt it as God's word delivered by Muhammad. The two contextual themes highlighted in the chapter are the desert's geo-historical centrality to the major regional religious and cultural traditions and the immanence of poetry as the revered artistic form of linguistic expression among desert Arabs. The Qur'an is shown to have combined these attributes–religious narrative and poetic finesse–and merged them into a single and unique discourse that exerted a mesmerizing influence on peoples' hearts and minds. The power of this synthesis shook people out of pre-existing modes of thought and inspired them to speculate about the world in radically new ways. 15Philosophy and Politics chapter abstractThis chapter outlines the cultural and historical framework in which the Qur'an first appeared in Mecca, and the inspirational and intellectual hold the document had on the people who came to adopt it as God's word delivered by Muhammad. The two contextual themes highlighted in the chapter are the desert's geo-historical centrality to the major regional religious and cultural traditions and the immanence of poetry as the revered artistic form of linguistic expression among desert Arabs. The Qur'an is shown to have combined these attributes–religious narrative and poetic finesse–and merged them into a single and unique discourse that exerted a mesmerizing influence on peoples' hearts and minds. The power of this synthesis shook people out of pre-existing modes of thought and inspired them to speculate about the world in radically new ways. 16The Philosophers' "Frenzy" chapter abstractThis chapter outlines the cultural and historical framework in which the Qur'an first appeared in Mecca, and the inspirational and intellectual hold the document had on the people who came to adopt it as God's word delivered by Muhammad. The two contextual themes highlighted in the chapter are the desert's geo-historical centrality to the major regional religious and cultural traditions and the immanence of poetry as the revered artistic form of linguistic expression among desert Arabs. The Qur'an is shown to have combined these attributes–religious narrative and poetic finesse–and merged them into a single and unique discourse that exerted a mesmerizing influence on peoples' hearts and minds. The power of this synthesis shook people out of pre-existing modes of thought and inspired them to speculate about the world in radically new ways. 17Back to Wine and Logic chapter abstractThis chapter outlines the cultural and historical framework in which the Qur'an first appeared in Mecca, and the inspirational and intellectual hold the document had on the people who came to adopt it as God's word delivered by Muhammad. The two contextual themes highlighted in the chapter are the desert's geo-historical centrality to the major regional religious and cultural traditions and the immanence of poetry as the revered artistic form of linguistic expression among desert Arabs. The Qur'an is shown to have combined these attributes–religious narrative and poetic finesse–and merged them into a single and unique discourse that exerted a mesmerizing influence on peoples' hearts and minds. The power of this synthesis shook people out of pre-existing modes of thought and inspired them to speculate about the world in radically new ways. 18Motion and Light chapter abstractThis chapter outlines the cultural and historical framework in which the Qur'an first appeared in Mecca, and the inspirational and intellectual hold the document had on the people who came to adopt it as God's word delivered by Muhammad. The two contextual themes highlighted in the chapter are the desert's geo-historical centrality to the major regional religious and cultural traditions and the immanence of poetry as the revered artistic form of linguistic expression among desert Arabs. The Qur'an is shown to have combined these attributes–religious narrative and poetic finesse–and merged them into a single and unique discourse that exerted a mesmerizing influence on peoples' hearts and minds. The power of this synthesis shook people out of pre-existing modes of thought and inspired them to speculate about the world in radically new ways. 19The Nature of Truth chapter abstractThis chapter outlines the cultural and historical framework in which the Qur'an first appeared in Mecca, and the inspirational and intellectual hold the document had on the people who came to adopt it as God's word delivered by Muhammad. The two contextual themes highlighted in the chapter are the desert's geo-historical centrality to the major regional religious and cultural traditions and the immanence of poetry as the revered artistic form of linguistic expression among desert Arabs. The Qur'an is shown to have combined these attributes–religious narrative and poetic finesse–and merged them into a single and unique discourse that exerted a mesmerizing influence on peoples' hearts and minds. The power of this synthesis shook people out of pre-existing modes of thought and inspired them to speculate about the world in radically new ways. 20Fardajan and Beyond chapter abstractThis chapter outlines the cultural and historical framework in which the Qur'an first appeared in Mecca, and the inspirational and intellectual hold the document had on the people who came to adopt it as God's word delivered by Muhammad. The two contextual themes highlighted in the chapter are the desert's geo-historical centrality to the major regional religious and cultural traditions and the immanence of poetry as the revered artistic form of linguistic expression among desert Arabs. The Qur'an is shown to have combined these attributes–religious narrative and poetic finesse–and merged them into a single and unique discourse that exerted a mesmerizing influence on peoples' hearts and minds. The power of this synthesis shook people out of pre-existing modes of thought and inspired them to speculate about the world in radically new ways. 21The Cosmos chapter abstractThis chapter outlines the cultural and historical framework in which the Qur'an first appeared in Mecca, and the inspirational and intellectual hold the document had on the people who came to adopt it as God's word delivered by Muhammad. The two contextual themes highlighted in the chapter are the desert's geo-historical centrality to the major regional religious and cultural traditions and the immanence of poetry as the revered artistic form of linguistic expression among desert Arabs. The Qur'an is shown to have combined these attributes–religious narrative and poetic finesse–and merged them into a single and unique discourse that exerted a mesmerizing influence on peoples' hearts and minds. The power of this synthesis shook people out of pre-existing modes of thought and inspired them to speculate about the world in radically new ways. 22Cosmic Lights chapter abstractThis chapter outlines the cultural and historical framework in which the Qur'an first appeared in Mecca, and the inspirational and intellectual hold the document had on the people who came to adopt it as God's word delivered by Muhammad. The two contextual themes highlighted in the chapter are the desert's geo-historical centrality to the major regional religious and cultural traditions and the immanence of poetry as the revered artistic form of linguistic expression among desert Arabs. The Qur'an is shown to have combined these attributes–religious narrative and poetic finesse–and merged them into a single and unique discourse that exerted a mesmerizing influence on peoples' hearts and minds. The power of this synthesis shook people out of pre-existing modes of thought and inspired them to speculate about the world in radically new ways. 23Fast Forward chapter abstractThis chapter outlines the cultural and historical framework in which the Qur'an first appeared in Mecca, and the inspirational and intellectual hold the document had on the people who came to adopt it as God's word delivered by Muhammad. The two contextual themes highlighted in the chapter are the desert's geo-historical centrality to the major regional religious and cultural traditions and the immanence of poetry as the revered artistic form of linguistic expression among desert Arabs. The Qur'an is shown to have combined these attributes–religious narrative and poetic finesse–and merged them into a single and unique discourse that exerted a mesmerizing influence on peoples' hearts and minds. The power of this synthesis shook people out of pre-existing modes of thought and inspired them to speculate about the world in radically new ways. 24Language and Reason: The Dilemma chapter abstractThis chapter outlines the cultural and historical framework in which the Qur'an first appeared in Mecca, and the inspirational and intellectual hold the document had on the people who came to adopt it as God's word delivered by Muhammad. The two contextual themes highlighted in the chapter are the desert's geo-historical centrality to the major regional religious and cultural traditions and the immanence of poetry as the revered artistic form of linguistic expression among desert Arabs. The Qur'an is shown to have combined these attributes–religious narrative and poetic finesse–and merged them into a single and unique discourse that exerted a mesmerizing influence on peoples' hearts and minds. The power of this synthesis shook people out of pre-existing modes of thought and inspired them to speculate about the world in radically new ways.

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Book SynopsisA spirited defense of Arab identity from a time of political unrestIn ninth-century Abbasid Baghdad, the social prestige attached to claims of Arab identity had begun to decline. In The Excellence of the Arabs, the celebrated litterateur Ibn Qutaybah locks horns with those members of his society who belittled Arabness and vaunted the glories of Persian heritage and culture. Instead, he upholds the status of Arabs and their heritage in the face of criticism and uncertainty.The Excellence of the Arabs is in two parts. In the first, Arab Preeminence, which takes the form of an extended argument for Arab privilege, Ibn Qutaybah accuses his opponents of blasphemous envy. In the second, The Excellence of Arab Learning, he describes the fields of knowledge in which he believed pre-Islamic Arabians excelled, including knowledge of the stars, divination, horse husbandry, and poetry. By incorporating extensive excerpts from the poetic heritagethe archive of thTrade ReviewIbn Qutayba’s extraordinary erudition and literary skill are now on view in the LAL Arabic edition and translation at hand, The Excellence of the Arabs . . . The English translation is a page-turner. The Arabic is difficult, but the translators’ command is apparent in how they avoid the complex syntax, verbosity, and numerous repetitions that are characteristic of Classical Arabic. The judiciousness of the series’ decision to opt for English felicity over a more literal English rendering of the Arabic provides the reader with a genuine grasp of what Ibn Qutayba is really saying. All involved are to be congratulated! * Journal of the American Oriental Society *Enriches the Library of Arabic Literature and the growing corpus of translations of books from Arabic into English . . . A true delight to read. * Reading Religion *[A] clear and lively translation. * Al-Ahram Weekly *An excellent example of the narrative sources available to historians of West Asian late antiquity and early Islam. * Speculum *

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Book SynopsisIran and a French Empire of Trade examines the understudied topic of Franco-Persian relations in the long eighteenth century to highlight how rising tensions among Eurasian empires and revolutions in the Atlantic world were profoundly intertwined. Conflicts between Persia, Turkey, India and Russia, and European weapons-dealing with these empires occurred against a backdrop of climate change and food insecurities that destabilized markets. Takeda shows how the French state relied on “entrepreneurial imperialism” to extend commercial activities eastwards beyond the Mediterranean during this time, from Louis XIV’s reign to Napoleon Bonaparte’s First Empire. Organized as a collection of microhistories, her study showcases a colourful set of characters—rogue merchants from Marseille, a gambling house madam, a naturalized Greek-French drogman, and a bi-cultural Genevan-Persian consul, among others—to demonstrate how individuals on the fringes of French society spearheaded projects to foster ties between France and Persia. Considering the Enlightenment as a product of a connected world, Takeda investigates how trans-imperial adventurers, merchants, consuls, and informants negotiated treaties, traded commodities and arms, transferred knowledge, and introduced industrial practices from Asia to Europe. And she shows the surprising ways in which Enlightenment debates about regime changes from the Safavid to Qajar dynasties and Persia’s borderland wars shaped French ideas about revolution and policies related to empire-building.Trade Review'[Iran and a French empire of trade's] innovative approach, accessible style, and unique cast of characters make it a valuable resource for students and scholars working on French and Iranian history in a global context.'Julia Caterina Hartley, French Studies‘Iran and a French empire of trade is not only of interest to specialists in the history of French-Persian exchange or orientalism more broadly, but also an important contribution to our understanding of how early modern empire worked. Takeda's study captures the nuance and complexity of its formal and informal dynamics, spaces, and competing stakeholders with writing that is erudite, clear, and concise, and with an eye to interesting historical detail that pulls at the strands of the larger story through engaging digressions.’ Paul Babinski, Iranian Studies‘This book is highly readable and appealing, combining early-modern Iranian history with intellectual trends of the French Enlightenment.’ Mehdi Mousavi, British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies

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Book SynopsisThe story of the Arab Revolt and the Hashemite princes who led it during the First World War is inextricably linked in modern eyes to the legend of "Lawrence of Arabia" as portrayed in David Lean's 1962 film. But behind this romantic image lies a harsher reality of wartime expediency, double-dealing and dynastic ambition, which shaped the modern Middle East and laid the foundations of many of the conflicts that rack the region to this day. Arab nationalists claim that British instigation for the Arab Revolt against the Ottoman Empire was a commitment to independence for the Arab people, but in this book Robert McNamara shows how the British cultivated the Hashemite Sherifs of Mecca more as an alternative focus during the First World War for Muslim loyalty from the Ottoman Sultan, who as Caliph had declared a jihad against the Allies when the Turks joined the Central Powers, than a leader of an independent and united Arabia. At the same time, the Sykes-Picot Agreement divided up the Middle East between British and French spheres of influence. The sense of betrayal that this caused has coloured Arab nationalists' views of the West ever since. The main countries of the Middle East Jordan, Syria and Iraq are all the creations of the post-First World War settlement worked out at the Paris Peace Conference. The story of the Hashemite dynasty at the Paris Peace Conference is the story of the birth of the modern history of a region that is now more than ever at the centre of world affairs.Trade ReviewRobert McNamara, a lecturer in International History at the University of Ulster, has written a timely and rich study. Not only is the Western library in need of many honest, veracious, elucidatory and analytical studies on the modern involvement of European powers in this crucial region, but the general public in much of the world is need of some answers here. This is not simply due to the fact that the issues resulting from the fragmentation of the region have impacted power relationships throughout the world, but also because they have contributed to the deterioration of European, American and Israeli relations with the Arab and Muslim worlds in general. Who can argue that the Sykes-Picot Agreement, or more accurately its finely-tuned San Remo metamorphosis, did not crush the nascent hopes of national movements such as that of the Arabs and the Kurds, while at the same time giving audacious hope to hitherto unacknowledged nationalities like that of European Zionism? Indeed, the current map of the Middle East with its problematic borders and gerrymandered ethnic enclaves not only gave rise to irredentist movements and unfulfilled and repressed national aspirations, but also could easily be blamed in part for the succession of wars which have since plagued this region. For there is no arguing but that the Middle East remains today one of the most unstable areas in the world, including its superficially-stable oil regimes of the peripheral areas. Neither can one deny that these underlying threats are the result of historic claims, most of which have been instigated and nurtured by the major powers. Thus, it would not be unreasonable to claim that this instability is traceable to the dictatorial systems of rule and the dynastic strangleholds, which emerged as the partners in the grand division of spoils resulting from WWI. McNamara is perfectly justified in bringing his considerable investigative and analytical skills to bear on the Middle East and the Paris Peace Conference of 1919 and its related conclaves as his starting point. What is more difficult to accept, however, is his emphasis on the Hashemites, Sherif Hussein and his two sons and future rulers of Iraq and Jordan, namely Feisal and Abdullah, as the dominant architects of the new political geography of the modern Middle East. The reader is left with two intriguing questions right from the start: is the author implying that the Hashemites were the final determinants of the subsequent dismemberment of the region, or is he merely alluding to their starring capacity for capturing the imagination and the attention of the Western public during the final years of the immediate post- WWI era? Or is he merely reminding us of the ephemeral and ethereal nature of their claims, hence the absurdity of the entire Arab nationalism question? While the Haus series is biographical in scope and therefore the focus upon Feisal was mandated, the author could have offered a more nuanced and complex discussion of the Hashemites in the Arab world at the time. The writing of history, as any initiate knows, is usually about causation and motive. But it is also about the constant construction and deconstruction of the historical record and how legacies are made. In a period when world leaders could still sit together, sometimes without the benefit of maps, and redraw border lines, the Paris Peace Conference of 1919 enjoyed the legitimacy of all of its precursors such as the 1815 Congress of Vienna and the 1885 Conference of Berlin and similar exercises in imperial hegemonic behavior. Often the shape of the table and who was seated and who was left standing had a great impact on developments in the world. As the late president of Turkey Turgot Ozal (1989-1993) humorously once put it, Turkey would rather be at the table rather than on the menu. Thus, the Hashemite presence at the Paris Peace Conference was itself arecognition, no matter how ill-defined at the time, of their contribution to the war effort. But what the architects of the peace settlement failed to see, and what McNamara fails to mention, is that the conference happened to fall on the cusp of two juxtaposed periods, the outgoing age of empires and the incoming age of democracies, populist governments and the right of self-determination. This is a significant point since even though the mind-set of the prime actors in that conference was imperial and hegemonic, the reality was that the 1920s were the gateway to the age of modern nationalist governments and movements emerging from the wreck of the two great Ottoman and Austro-Hungarian empires. Everything in the study and writing of history is a pretense to realism, but realism in this case belonged to the mental framework of the nineteenth, not the twentieth century. McNamara begins his investigation by questioning the value of the Hashemite alliance to the allied effort, a theme running throughout his study. Eventually, this boils down to whether or not this alliance was worth anything in sheer military terms. Although not as denigrating of their effort as Richard Aldington's famous summation in Lawrence of Arabia (1955) that the entire Arab campaign was in his words "a side-show of a side-show"), McNamara comes very close. He begins by providing a useful assessment of the Hashemites and their power-base in the Arabian Peninsula, revealing the tenuous nature of their exclusive genealogical relationship to the Prophet Muhammad. Apparently, there were two branches of the Hashemite family, the Aoun and the Zaid clans, who vied for the leadership position of Ottoman surrogate over the two Muslim holy cities of Mecca and Medina. The Aoun clan came under the headship of Hussein in 1908, at which time he began his approaches to British authorities in Istanbul, seeking their support for his candidacy to the position of the recently deposed Grand Sherif of Mecca, Ali Abdullah ibn Muhammad. Hussein promised to promote British interests in the peninsula. That much is history, but then the author goes out of his way to downgrade the significance of the Sharifian cause to the allied war effort. He claims in page after page that this contribution was of no psycho-political importance, ignoring the palpable British fear of alienating the sentiments of Egypt's and India's Muslim masses. Had the author stepped out of the straitjacket of his Western sources he would have confronted the enormous impact of this Sharifian betrayal on the unity of the Islamic world. Indeed, modern generations of Muslims, particularly Arabs, have even lapsed into a sort of Ottoman nostalgia in recent years, in recognition of the enormous damage which the Hashemite alliance with the Western powers has caused.1 The Hashemites, of course, assumed naively that they would be rewarded generously for their daring break with their co-religionists, a break which, if anything, at least eased the way for Muslim Arabs outside of the peninsula, facilitating their act of rebellion. The author insists throughout this book that the military contribution of the Arabs was very disappointing, particularly the Bedouin force commanded by Feisal and T. E. Lawrence, which amounted to no more than 15,000 men, despite Hussein's claim that at least 100,000 Arabs in the Ottoman army were on the verge of declaring rebellion. McNamara also reminds us of the greed of the Hashemites who always demanded more money for their troops. He also downplays the significance of the Syrian Arabs, who, in his view, were late to join the rebellion due to their suppression by the Ottoman governor, the notoriously cruel Jemal Pasha. This may not accord with other claims by the author re the general disinterest of the Syrians in the rebellion in general and in marching under the orders of the Bedouin Prince Feisal. Only a small Arab urban elite, according to the author, were willing to dance to Feisal's tune. On the other hand, once he focuses on the activities and secret maneuvers of the players at the peace conference, the author renders a credible explanation of how the British manipulated Feisal's claims in order to depress the appetite of their French allies for Middle East territory. When French claims had to be honored, the British did not hesitate for a moment before acknowledging the rights and claims of their French allies in the Sykes-Picot Agreement. The author never questions the authenticity of claims made by the French, based on the testimony of a Maronite Christian, one Chekri [sic] Ghanem, that Feisal's rule over Syria (which would have included Lebanon) would jeopardize the safety of the area's Christian communities. The British backed France's claims over Syria, knowing full well that what the French had in mind, as they later did, was to divide Syria along ethnic and sectarian lines. But then if Feisal's rebellion resonated mostly with the Arab urban elite only, why was the bulk of Feisal's following made of Bedouin elements? One of the weakest arguments in this book is that the British were very clear about excluding Palestine from the promise of a united Arab kingdom under Hashemite rule. This claim, of course, has long been the staple of Zionist claims against the legitimate promises made in the Hussein-McMahon Correspondence. Here the author's references fit in this mold, and he buttresses his argument by debunking the work of a major figure of Arab nationalism during that period, namely George Antonius. Imagine the irony here of a Christian, British-educated Egyptian of Lebanese-Greek descent who proves to be one of the most ardent defenders of Sherif Hussein and the Arab Revolt in general. Instead of noting the unusual contribution of Christian Arabs to the revolt, the author takes the usual line of discrediting their scholarship and their political affiliations. It is well-known of course that Antonius' The Arab Awakening (1938) which included segments of the correspondence proving British duplicity during the Sharifian negotiations led to British publication of the correspondence after the London Conference of 1939. According to William Cleveland, ranking American expert on this period, Antonius had acquired a copy of the correspondence from Prince (later King) Abdullah of Transjordan. 2 McNamara, however, writes that "Antonius claimed (referring to the correspondence) it demonstrated British betrayal of the Arab cause" ( 13). The fact that this duplicity was not just a matter of a "claim" is not recognized by the author. McNamara also demonstrates his utter lack of understanding of the rise of Arab nationalism due to betrayal by the British. Instead, he presents the work of such giants of the Arab nationalist ideology, such as Sati al-Husri, as a form of deceptive and extremist brainwashing of Arab youth. Husri, who developed the modern educational system of Iraq along nationalist lines, was also credited with attempting to do the same for Arab masses in general by working later through the Arab League of States. Husri was a Syrian who witnessed the battle of Maysaloun in which the French defeated the newly-formed Syrian army and he wrote his account of the battle, The Day at Maysaloun (Arabic. 1935). His theory of nationalism was based on the ties of language and history, which bind a people together, but he also saw a special role for Islam in the development of Arab nationalism and culture.3 This humane definition of nationalism never merits any attention in this book. Instead, the author not only misrepresents Husri's family background by referring to him as a Yemenese [sic]-Syrian (he was born in Yemen where his father was a Syrian judge), but he also describes him as someone who "indoctrinated" Arab youth with his nationalist teachings. We are not surprised, therefore, when we read that Arab nationalists are routinely described as radicals and extremists who pressured Feisal against compromising with the French. Not only does this author seem to be completely oblivious to Arab disillusionment with their former British and French mandatory powers and erstwhile allies, he also declines to consult much revisionist literature on this subject. Indeed, what his methodology demonstrates is simply that research based primarily on archival material has its own limitations. The archives, especially in this case those of the British and French, must always be balanced by other interpretations, especially if a body of relevant material exists by other antagonists and in other languages. After all, archival information is simply the human interpretation of an event, even though by a close and, sometime, official observer of that event. Furthermore, the author never misses an opportunity to denigrate Arab nationalism, even extending to someone as distant from this period as Nasser. Summing up his views on the failure of the Hashemites to realize their dream of Arab unity, he writes: "However, Arab unity was to prove not only beyond the Hashemites, but also their more radical challengers, such as Nasser" (p. 152). One wonders what is Nasser's relationship to this discussion? There are two other neglected facets in this study. The author does not attempt to deal with British motivation for denying Arab claims during the peace talks. He downplays the role of Zionism in winning over British policy-makers. He also says very little about the role of Christian Zionism in influencing people like Arthur Balfour and Lloyd George. This is surprising in view of the fact that the topic of Christian Zionism (which is a major influence over American policy-makers of today) and its impact on the post-WWI settlement is hardly a disputed topic anymore. David Fromkin in his outstanding study of the same period has already settled this issue in A Peace to End All Peace (1989). Secondly, and even more central to this study, the author makes no attempt to understand the link between Islam and Arab nationalism. Had he done so, this would have informed his understanding of why Feisal attempted to please both camps. Had he consulted more current Arab references, he would have understood what at least generations of Christian Arabs have always comprehended, namely that Islam was the Arabs' civilizational gift to the world. This view recurs in the ideologies of the early Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, in the writings of the Ba'ath party in Syria, particularly in the works of Michel Aflaq, as well the Arab Nationalist Movement of George Habash and Nasser's leader-centered version of Arab nationalism. Why was it so surprising for Feisal to espouse this view? In summary, this is a useful work for those seeking to understand the roots of today's turbulence in the Middle East. One comes out with a greater understanding of British and French imperial policies. But, alas, this is far from a balanced study, but rather an opinionated work in which the reader is hardly granted any room to reach his or her conclusions. It is also a study inhabiting a time-warp, written as though the world has never learned anything since the events of 1919. 1 See the works of Bashir Nafi and Ibrahim Abu-Rabi, among others 2 William Cleveland, "Antonius, George" in Philip Mattar, ed. Encyclopedia of the Modern Middle East and North Africa, Vol. I (2004), pp. 213-14. 3 See: "Husri, Sati al-" in same reference as above, Vol. II, pp. 1051-52. -- Ghada Hashem Talhami H-Diplo Review 20100611

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Book SynopsisThe concepts and theories of what constitutes a 'Middle Power' have played a key part in explaining the identity, behaviour and foreign policy roles of many states in the international system, including the United Kingdom, France, Australia and Brazil. But, with a few exceptions, these frameworks have failed to travel to scholarship on the Middle East, despite the theoretical and empirical potential that they offer for understanding regional dynamics. The first of its kind, this volume addresses that major gap by interrogating the conceptual, theoretical and empirical underpinnings of the concept of 'Middle Power' at a regional level. Composed of nine chapters, 'Unfulfilled Aspirations' offers the conceptual and theoretical tools to examine 'Middle Powerhood' in the Middle East, as well as insightful empirical analyses of both 'traditional' Middle Powers in the region (Egypt, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Algeria) and new, aspiring ones (Qatar, the UAE). The contributors reveal that the Middle Powers of the Middle East have failed, despite their best efforts, to fulfill their regional aspirations.Trade Review'The greatest strength of [Unfulfilled Aspirations] is its clear and in-depth conjunction of theory and case-studies. Saouli’s edited volume is a timely study of an important subject for Middle East studies.' -- International Affairs

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Book SynopsisScholastique Mukasonga''s Cockroaches is the story of growing up a Tutsi in Hutu-dominated Rwanda - the story of a happy child, a loving family, all wiped out in the genocide of 1994. A vivid, bittersweet depiction of family life and bond in a time of immense hardship, it is also a story of incredible endurance, and of the duty to remember loss and those lost while somehow carrying on. Sweet, funny, wrenching, and deeply moving, Cockroaches is a window onto an unforgettable world of love, grief, and horror.

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Book SynopsisSayyid Qutb (1906-1966) was an influential Egyptian ideologue credited with establishing the theoretical basis for radical Islamism in the post colonial Sunni Muslim world. Lacking a pure understanding of the leader's life and work, the popular media has conflated Qutb's moral purpose with the aims of bin Laden and al-Qaeda. He is often portrayed as a terrorist, Islamo-Fascist, and advocate of murder. This book rescues Qutb from misrepresentation, tracing the evolution of his thought within the context of his time. An expert on social protest and political resistance in the modern Middle East, as well as Egyptian nationalism, John Calvert recounts Qutb's life from the small village in which he was raised to his execution at the behest of Abd al-Nasser's regime. His study remains sensitive to the cultural, political, social, and economic circumstances that shaped Qutb's thought-major developments that composed one of the most eventful periods in Egyptian history. These years witnessed the full flush of Britain's tutelary regime, the advent of Egyptian nationalism, and the political hegemony of the Free Officers. Qutb rubbed shoulders with Taha Husayn, Naguib Mahfouz, and Abd al-Nasser himself, though his Islamism originally had little to do with religion. Only in response to his harrowing experience in prison did Qutb come to regard Islam and kufr (infidelity) as oppositional, antithetical, and therefore mutually exclusive. Calvert shows how Qutb repackaged and reformulated the Islamic heritage to pose a challenge to authority, including those who claimed (falsely, he believed) to be Muslim.Trade Review'This rich and carefully researched biography sets Qutb for the first time in his Egyptian context, rescuing him from caricature without whitewashing his radicalism. It is no small achievement.' * The Economist *'Hefty and impressively researched … insightful.' * New York Review of Books *'The best biographies balance the person, the person's achievements, and the environment in which that person worked. This one of Sayyid Qutb (1906-66), considered by both friends and foes to be a founding father of radical Sunni Islamic thought, does just that. Calvert presents a portrait of Qutb worthy of a psychobiography, without the excesses of the genre.' * Foreign Affairs *'In one of the first serious English-language biographices of Qutb, Calvert puts this often misunderstood figure into his historical context, situating Qutb within the turbulent intellectual and political flow of Egyptian and Arab history. He expertly shows the development of Qutb's thinking, from literary critic to Islamist, and powerfully details the impact of the repression and torture carried out by the regime of Gamal Abdel Nasser on his turn towards the stark, radical doctrines which have shaped generations of Islamist radicals. Fascinating details emerge in this book. . . . The Qutb which emerges from Calvert's even-handed history is far more complex and interesting than the caricature of him which dominates popular understanding. Anyone interested in the evolution of Islamism in the 20th century should read it.' * Atlantic Monthly *'Given that Qutb is taught in a large (and increasing) number of campuses, and given that he has already been introduced to the general public in bestselling books such as Lawrence Wright's The Looming Tower, the very publication of a Qutb biography is likely to attract considerable interest. The book not only constitutes what is likely to remain the definitive biography of Sayyid Qutb, it also offers crucial new insights on the post-1954 history of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood, another gaping hole in the literature. We are dealing here with a rare book that is likely to become a classic in the field of political Islam.' * An outstanding volume.' Thomas Hegghammer, Harvard University *'Sayyid Qutb and the Origins of Islamic Radicalsm will become the standard intellectual biography of the most influential Muslim thinker of the twentieth century. Demonstrating a deep engagement with contemporary history, religious thought, and social theory, Calvert eschews the sensationalism that too often posits Qutb as the ideological 'godfather' of global jihad. An erudite and engaging writer, Calvert situates Qutb in time and place, tracing his political evolution, and exploring the power of his words, personality, and, ultimately, his divergent legacies. Neither hagiography, nor expose, Qutb finally gets his due'. * Joel Gordon, author of Nasser: Hero of the Arab Nation *'Calvert … has produced a biography that is lively, sensitive, and methodical, and represents a landmark study of serious value to students, academics, and general readers alike. … Calvert's study is as much a political history of modern Egypt through the prism of Sayyid Qutb as it is a biography of the man and a study of his thought.' * Middle East Quarterly *'Calvert's book is a substantial contribution to the scholarship on radical Islamism and contemporary Muslim thought. It is a must read for academics, students, and those in the general public who want a more in-depth understanding of one of the most influential, controversial, and enigmatic Muslim personalities in modern Arab and Islamic history.' * The Muslim World Book Review *'An exquisite intellectual biography of Sayyid Qutb … This is the deepest exploration of Qutb I have seen in the English language and a recommended read for those in counter-terrorism, and understanding what aspects of radical ideologues al-Qaida chooses to ignore.' * Youssef Aboul-Enein, Small Wars Journal *'An extremely thoroughly researched, sober, and careful book that seeks to cover all of Qutb's life, activities, and writings and situate them in their Egyptian context. In many ways, Calvert's book shows what scholarship can do at its best. For those who already know something about the subject, there is an account rich in context, new details, and deeper interpretations. For a broader audience, there is an accessible and fair treatment of Qutb and his ideas that should replace some recent rather puzzling accounts that view Qutb through a particular and narrow lens.' * Review of Middle East Studies *

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Book SynopsisThough more than sixty years have passed since the signing of the proclamation of the State of Israel, the impact of that epochal event continues to shape the political policies and public opinion of not only the Middle East but much of the world. The consequent conflict between Arabs and Israelis for sovereignty over the land of Palestine has been one of the most bloody, intractable and drawn-out of modern times. It continues today in cycles of aggressive violence followed by temporary and tenuous ceasefires that are marked and complicated by resolute opinions and fractious religious ideologies. In this timely analysis, noted military historian Ian J. Bickerton cuts through the complex perspectives in order to explain this struggle in objective detail, describing its history from the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire following World War I to the present day. In concise and clear prose, Bickerton argues that the present problem can be traced to the fact that each side is trapped by visions of their past from which they seem unable to break free. This attachment and reaction to history has negatively influenced the decision-making of Arabs and Israelis since 1948. Ultimately, Bickerton insists that the use of armed force has not, and will not, resolve the issues that have divided Israelis and Arabs. "The Arab-Israeli Conflict" is a plea for reasoned diplomacy in a situation that has been dominated by extreme violence. This book will appeal to a wide general audience seeking a balanced understanding of this enduring struggle that still dominates headlines.Trade ReviewIf you want to understand the historic background to the Arab-Israeli conflict this is a well-researched overview., underpinned by Bickerton's belief that reasonableness and diplomacy will eventually lead to an enduring and peaceful resolution.' - Sydney Morning Herald 'This book on the history of the Arab-Israeli conflict is a little treasure, containing some very interesting observations ... I find Bickerton's analysis of the conflict to be fair and balanced ... beautifully written ... it is its eloquent - indeed, passionate - call on the parties to come to their senses, abandon war and instead talk peace that turns it into such an exciting read.' - Journal of Contemporary History 'Ian Bickerton's accessible primer, The Arab-Israeli Conflict, delves deeply into this tangled dispute and covers the British mandate, the wars, the skirmishes and the diplomacy. His sensible message is that the dispute cannot be resolved by military means.' - The Canadian Jewish News

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Book SynopsisLiving with the Law explores the marital disputes of Jews in medieval Islamic Egypt (1000–1250), relating medieval gossip, marital woes, and the voices of men and women of a world long gone. Probing the rich documents of the Cairo Geniza, a unique repository of discarded paper discovered in a Cairo synagogue, the book recovers the life stories of Jewish women and men working through their marital problems at home, with their families, in the streets of old Cairo, and in Jewish and Muslim courts. Despite a voluminous literature on Jewish law, the everyday practice of Jewish courts has only recently begun to be investigated systematically. The experiences of those at a legal, social, and cultural disadvantage allow us to go beyond the image propagated by legal institutions and offer a view “from below” of Jewish communal life and Jewish law as it was lived. Examining the interactions between gender and law in medieval Jewish communities under Islamic rule, Oded Zinger considers how women experienced Jewish courts and the pressure they faced to relinquish their monetary rights. The tactics with which women countered this pressure—ranging from exploiting family ties to appealing to Muslim courts—expose the complex relationship between individual agency, gendered expectations, and communal authority. Zinger concludes that, more than money, education, or lineage, it was the maintenance of a supportive network of social relations with men that protected women at different stages of their lives.

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Book SynopsisIn Age of Rogues, leading scholars engage with themes of historical and cultural legacies, contentious interactions within imperial regimes, and the biographical trajectory of men and women who challenged the political status quo of their time.Trade Review"In a stunning collection, the editors ztan and Yenen not only expertly steer an otherwise disparate set of authors writing on seemingly very different themes, historic trajectories, and locales, they also masterfully conjoin this volume to serve as one of our generation's best exemplars of scholarship on the late Ottoman Empire. A highly readable collection of cutting-edge research on agents of change along the fringes of both the Ottoman and larger modern world, this book must be considered an addition to the library of all serious scholars, and a candidate for their graduate seminars. I most enthusiastically recommend this invaluable new addition to the scholarship." -Isa Blumi, Professor of Turkish and Middle Eastern Studies, Stockholm University

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Book SynopsisThe One State Reality argues that a one state reality already predominates in the territories controlled by the state of Israel. The editors show that starting with the one state reality rather than hoping for a two state solution reshapes how we regard the conflict, what we consider acceptable and unacceptable solutions, and how we discuss difficult normative questions. The One State Reality forces a reconsideration of foundational concepts such as state, sovereignty, and nation; encourages different readings of history; shifts conversation about solutions from two states to alternatives that borrow from other political contexts; and provides context for confronting uncomfortable questions such as whether Israel/Palestine is an apartheid state.

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Book SynopsisA groundbreaking and profoundly moving exploration of the Armenian genocide, told through the traces left in the memories and on the bodies of its women survivors. Foremost among the images of the Armenian Genocide is the specter of tattooed Islamized Armenian women. Blue tribal tattoos that covered face and body signified assimilation into Muslim Bedouin and Kurdish households. Among Armenians, the tattooed survivor was seen as a living ethnomartyr or, alternatively, a national stain, and the bodies of women and children figured centrally within the Armenian communal memory and humanitarian imaginary. In Remnants, these tattooed and scar-bearing bodies reveal a larger history, as the lived trauma of genocide is understood through bodies, skin, and—in what remains of those lives a century afterward—bones. With this book, Elyse Semerdjian offers a feminist reading of the Armenian Genocide. She explores how the Ottoman Armenian communal body was dis-membered, disfigured, and later re-membered by the survivor community. Gathering individual memories and archival fragments, she writes a deeply personal history, and issues a call to break open the archival record in order to embrace affect and memory. Traces of women and children rescued during and after the war are reconstructed to center the quietest voices in the historical record. This daring work embraces physical and archival remnants, the imprinted negatives of once living bodies, as a space of radical possibility within Armenian prosthetic memory and a necessary way to recognize the absence that remains.Trade Review"Remnants is a rich cultural history of the Armenian Genocide and a powerful investigation of patriarchal assault on the female body. An original work with broad meaning for all histories of mass violence and genocide, and their traumatic aftermaths."—Peter Balakian, author of Black Dog of Fate"Elyse Semerdjian has authored a brilliant book. Remnants is at once powerful, moving, engaging, and convincing. Its turn to bodies and voices, remnants and fragments—away from the traditional archive—restores the stories of those most silenced and forgotten, and shows how gender is pivotal to genocidal thinking. A real tour de force."—Beth Baron, author of The Orphan Scandal"Remnants is the book we've all been waiting for—breathtaking plot, methodological novelty without any accompanying conceit, theoretically and factually grounded. Elyse Semerdjian's work will prove regenerative in the best possible way."—Lerna Ekmekcioglu, author of Recovering Armenia"A very ethical book, demonstrating to all of us how one can recover a violent past with professionalism and grace instead of rhetoric and partisanship. Remnants recovers and gives agency to women who were silenced in history."—Fatma Muge Gocek author of Denial of ViolenceTable of Contents1. Zabel's Pen: Gender, Body Snatching, and the Armenian Genocide 2. Weaponizing Shame: Dis-memberment of the Armenian Collective Body 3. Rescuing "Kittens" in the Desert: The Armenian Humanitarian Relief Effort 4. Recovering Survivors in Aleppo, Replanting Bodies in Syria's Armenian Colonies 5. "Changelings" and "Halflings": Finding the Armenian Buried inside the Islamized Child 6. Aurora's Body, Humanitarianism, and the Pornography of Suffering 7. What Lies beneath Grandma's Tattoos? Traumatic Memories of Inked Skin 8. Wounded Whiteness: Branded Captives from the Old West to the Ottoman East 9. Removing the "Brand of Shame," Rehabilitating Armenian Skin 10. Counternarratives of Tribal Tattoos and Survivor Agency 11. If These Bones Could Speak: Early Armenian Pilgrimages to Dayr al-Zur 12. Feeling Their Way through the Desert: Affective Itineraries of "Non-Sites of Memory" 13. Bone Memory: Community, Ritual, and Memory Work in the Syrian Desert

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Book Synopsis The Arab region continues to be among the most challenging in the world for the progress of women''s rights. Equality remains elusive for women and vulnerable groups in the region due to traditional patriarchal cultures, protracted crises, lack of religious freedom, discriminatory legal frameworks, and chronic insecurity. The strongest indicator of peace in any country is in its treatment of women, but the story of women''s rights in the region is one of patchy progress and major regress. Today, women are experiencing a massive backlash against their rights and fundamental freedoms. And yet, there is hope. Feminists--particularly young feminists--from the Arab region fight tirelessly for their rights and are leading movements around the region pushing for change. This book looks at the last 50 years of Arab feminism with a view to understanding what the next 50 years will hold. Built from hundreds of firsthand accounts with women in the region, this book brings together Table of Contents Table of Contents Abbreviations Acknowledgments Foreword: Hear Them Roar by Joumana Haddad Preface 1. Feminist Foundations 2. Feminist Phases 3. Feminisms on the Frontlines of Crisis 4. Feminisms on the Frontlines of Creativity 5. Fragmented Feminisms 6. Feminist Futures Conclusion: So What? Now What?! Afterword by Aya Chebbi Glossary Chapter Notes Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisRobert B. Rakove sheds new light on the little-known and often surprising history of U.S. engagement in Afghanistan from the 1920s to the 1979 Soviet invasion, tracing its evolution and exploring its lasting consequences.Trade ReviewThrough expansive multinational archival research, Robert B. Rakove weaves together local, national, and international threads that shaped the history of modern Afghanistan and its engagement with the world. Days of Opportunity is a compelling account of how the nation came to be embroiled in U.S.-Soviet Cold War conflict and the terrible costs to the Afghan people. -- Mary L. Dudziak, author of War Time: An Idea, Its History, Its ConsequencesIn a narrative built on rich detail about individual diplomatic actors and their alliances, rivalries, and networks, Rakove offers tremendous insight on the extent, complexities, and contingencies of the Afghan-American bilateral relationship during the interwar and Cold War eras. -- Shah Mahmoud Hanifi, author of Connecting Histories in AfghanistanIn Days of Opportunity, Rakove uncovers the largely overlooked history of U.S.-Afghanistan relations across the twentieth century. Through expert storytelling and meticulous archival research, he details the two countries’ long, promising, yet frustrating relationship during the decades preceding the Soviet invasion. Rakove gives Afghanistan the attention it deserves as a critical player in twentieth-century international politics. -- Elisabeth Leake, author of Afghan Crucible: The Soviet Invasion and the Making of Modern AfghanistanThis outstanding study offers the most comprehensive exposition and analysis to date of the Afghan-American relationship through the end of the 1970s. Based on extensive archival research, it provides essential context for anyone who seeks to understand the complex historical roots of America's failures in Afghanistan. -- Robert McMahon, author of Dean Acheson and the Creation of an American World OrderTable of ContentsNotes for the ReaderIntroduction: “A Day of Opportunity”1. A Game of Hide-and-Seek: The Afghan Pursuit of Diplomatic Relations, 1921–19382. “We Have a Rare Opportunity”: U.S.-Afghan Relations Amid the World Crisis, 1938–19453. Preeminence and Peril: The American Influx and the Coming of the Afghan Cold War, 1945–19524. “We Might Be Willing to Take a Chance”: The Choice to Contest Afghanistan, 1953–19565. Anxious Coexistence: The Aid Contest, 1956–19596. The Crisis Era, 1959–19637. Reform and Retrenchment, 1963–19688. The Fall of the Monarchy, 1968–19739. Return to Engagement, 1973–197610. The End of Diplomacy, 1977–1979Conclusion: “Into the Jaws of Catastrophe”AcknowledgmentsList of AbbreviationsNotesList of ArchivesIndex

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Book SynopsisIn an innovative, comprehensive account of the Lausanne Conference, Hans-Lukas Kieser recounts how the Conference concluded more than ten years of war and genocide in the late Ottoman Empire and explores the Treaty of Lausanne's resounding impact in the Middle East. Kieser shows how the Treaty excluded minority groups and shaped modern states.Trade Review'Rather than viewing the Treaty of Lausanne from the perspective of the victorious founders of the Turkish Republic, this critical study examines the Treaty from that of its losers. Kieser convincingly argues that the Treaty legalized and rewarded ethnic cleansing; sounded the death-knell for democratic self-determination; and ushered in extreme nationalist, authoritarian rule in Turkey.' Marc Baer, London School of Economics'This study gives an original interpretation of the Lausanne Treaty. It allows us to understand the emergence of the two new regimes of the post-Great War period: fascism in Italy and Kemalism in Turkey, which, together with the Bolshevik Soviet Union, considered themselves to be the pillars of an antidemocratic age to come.' Hamit Bozarslan, EHESS, School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences, Paris'Kieser offers an important corrective to histories of modern Turkey. He shows that 'colonialism' is not the only process to blame for the Middle East's anti-democratic tradition, and that Europe owes some of its interwar fascism and ultranationalism to the Lausanne Conference. The Lausanne Treaty, the book shows, reads like a manual on how to get away with genocide. Germany was watching.' Lerna Ekmekcioglu, Massachusetts Institute of Technology'In this brilliant study, Kieser shows how the Lausanne Treaty proved both a crucial endpoint of the Paris system and the basis for the rise of authoritarianism. Carefully researched and cogently argued, it finetunes understandings of fascism by revealing the family resemblances between Turkey and other regimes that sought to eliminate minorities.' Michelle Tusan, University of Nevada, Las VegasTable of ContentsIntroduction. The historic near east peace of Lausanne; 1. A century's pivotal 'peace'; 2. Against the Paris-Geneva peace: Bolsheviks, Turkists, Islamists; 3. A protracted conference: redefining Turkey, western realpolitik.

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"I find this collection a much needed and timely post-colonial re-mapping of film histories and cinematic practices around the Persian Gulf, aptly shifting the focus from land to water, from national borders to arenas, contact zones, from hegemonic historiography to transcultural stories and identities."—Viola Shafik, author of Arab Cinema: History and Cultural Identity"In de-essentialising the Gulf and presenting it to us as a critical method, this collection achieves two key things: it contributes to the decolonisation of knowledge production about the Gulf, its peoples, cultures and societies and invites us, at the same time, to rethink the fields of Arab and Middle Eastern media and cultural studies beyond static, colonial configurations of geography. This wide-ranging collection recognizes the Gulf as a complex transcultural space; a conduit to relational histories and cultural encounters that transcend the limiting and teleological imaginations of nations and regions in film and area studies. This is a terrific and a much-needed book. I strongly recommend it to scholars of Middle Eastern media and cultural studies and also to those researching media practices and uses in the global South and beyond."—Tarik Sabry, author of Cultural Encounters in the Arab World: On Media the Modern and the Everyday"A cornucopia of information and insight, Reorienting the Middle East manages to do what the title promises. It reorients discussion of Gulf Media by expanding the corpus and scope in multiple ways, first of all by counterpointing portrayals of the Gulf with portrayals from the Gulf. Rather than approach the region as a static place, it uses the Gulf as an epicentric prism to reveal the fluid movement of ideas, images and films across borders. The book treats transnationality not as a mere inventory of nation-states involvement but rather as an intricate cross-border process embedded in the transnational imaginary of and about the Gulf. Reorienting the Gul describes a constantly morphing transcultural arena of interconnected histories, migrating cultures, of uncanny resemblances, subterranean affinities. Rather than a simple binary of metropole and colony, we find palimpsestic formations where a nation can at once be indigenous, postcolonial, para-colonial and colonial in the sense of exploiting migrant labor from the Global South, in situations where multicultures intersect and interfecundate in hybrid formations. The book also addresses the various forms of transnational projections, as in the case of South-South stereotyping (Egyptian films mocking rich Gulf State Arabs, and Bollywood films portraying the Gulf as corrupting the innocent Indian nationals, Replete with intriguing surprises, the book engages such topics as entrepot film culture in Dubai, romanticized narratives about ruling families, American corporations extracting oil while injecting stereotypes and segregation into Saudi Arabia, the transoceanic aurality of love and yearning, blackness in Iran, and the filmic imagining of the lives of domestic workers. Admirably transmediatic, the book expands the corpus beyond fiction features to include documentaries, TV shows, tourism commercials, YouTube videos, and digital activist videos. It is hard to imagine the reader who would not learn from this book."—Ella Shohat and Robert Stam, authors of Unthinking Eurocentrism: Multiculturalism and the Media

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Book SynopsisSanctions have enormous consequences. Especially when imposed by a country with the economic influence of the United States, sanctions induce clear shockwaves in both the economy and political culture of the targeted state, and in the everyday lives of citizens. But do economic sanctions induce the behavioral changes intended? Do sanctions work in the way they should? To answer these questions, the authors of How Sanctions Work highlight Iran, the most sanctioned country in the world. Comprehensive sanctions are meant to induce uprisings or pressures to change the behavior of the ruling establishment, or to weaken its hold on power. But, after four decades, the case of Iran shows the opposite to be true: sanctions strengthened the Iranian state, impoverished its population, increased state repression, and escalated Iran's military posture toward the U.S. and its allies in the region. Instead of offering an 'alternative to war,' sanctions have become a cause of war. Consequently, How Sanctions Work reveals how necessary it is to understand how sanctions really work.Trade Review"There is no shortage of publications on the Iran sanctions, but it is rare to see such detailed, serious work on this topic by highly knowledgeable scholars. How Sanctions Work introduces a wealth of information and perspectives not generally found in the existing Western academic literature."—Joy Gordon, author of Invisible War: The United States and the Iraq Sanctions"A vital study of the most tragic case in the recent history of economic sanctions. Bajoghli, Nasr, Salehi-Isfahani, and Vaez powerfully demonstrate how large the gap between the severe material effects and the limited political efficacy of sanctions against Iran has grown."—Nicholas Mulder, author of The Economic Weapon: The Rise of Sanctions as a Tool of Modern War"An indispensable book on sanctions' impacts in Iran, How Sanctions Work, opens a window into the fraught, little-understood, but ubiquitous and hugely consequential practice that seems to have supplanted diplomacy in current foreign policy and international relations. This volume shifts our understandings of what sanctions do—in Iran and beyond."—Arzoo Osanloo, author of Forgiveness Work: Mercy, Law, and Victims' Rights in Iran"For the analysts in Washington and Tehran newly evaluating sanctions and their effects, How Sanctions Work is a valuable resource. By centering the targeted country in the discussion of sanctions efficacy, Bajoghli, Nasr, Salehi-Isfahani, and Vaez demonstrate what a case study on sanctions should look like."—Esfandyar Batmanghelidj, Responsible StatecraftTable of ContentsIntroduction: The Invisible War 1. When Society Is Sanctioned 2. When Politics Is Sanctioned 3. When Iran Was Sanctioned 4. When an Economy Is Sanctioned 5. What Sanctions Cost the United States 6. What Sanctions Cost Iran—and the World Conclusion: Permanent Siege

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Book SynopsisThe Mandaeans of Iraq and Iran are adherents of the last surviving Gnostic tradition from the period of Late Antiquity, and the Book of Kings is the capstone to one of their most sacred scriptures. A universal history in four parts, it concisely outlines the entire 480,000 year span of the material world, from its creation to its destruction in the maw of the great Leviathan, with details including a succession of antediluvian cataclysms that have previously wiped out all human life, the reigns of the kings who have reigned over humanity and are still yet to reign, a lament on the end of pagan antiquity under the reign of the Arabs, and the apocalyptic drama attending those who have the misfortune to live at the end of the world era. For the first time ever, this work appears in English in its entirety, complete and unabridged, and directly translated from original Mandaic manuscripts, with the events mentioned within it coordinated with our calendar. It also includes an extensive commentary illustrating its relationship to contemporary historical writing and with the sacred literature of Zoroastrians, Jews, Christians, Muslims, and other neighbouring religious communities living under Sasanian rule.Trade Review‘[The book] offers interesting insights into a Middle Eastern community during the era of the Byzantine and Sasanid empires. It is useful for those wanting to compare religious beliefs between cultures.’ Medievalists.net

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Book SynopsisAmong the most progressive of Zionist settlement movements, Hashomer Hatzair proclaimed a brotherly stance on Zionist-Palestinian relations. Until the tumultuous end of the British Mandate, movement settlers voiced support for a binational Jewish-Arab state and officially opposed mass displacement of Palestinians. But, Hashomer Hatzair colonies were also active participants in the process that ultimately transformed large portions of Palestine into sovereign Jewish territory. Areej Sabbagh-Khoury investigates this ostensible dissonance, tracing how three colonies gained control of land and their engagement with Palestinian inhabitants on the edges of the Jezreel Valley/Marj Ibn 'Amer. Based on extensive empirical research in local colony and national archives, Colonizing Palestine offers a microhistory of frontier interactions between Zionist settlers and indigenous Palestinians within the British imperial field. Even as left-wing kibbutzim of Hashomer Hatzair helped lay the groundwork for settler colonial Jewish sovereignty, its settlers did not conceal the prior existence of the Palestinian villages and their displacement, which became the subject of enduring debate in the kibbutzim. Juxtaposing history and memory, examining events in their actual time and as they were later remembered, Sabbagh-Khoury demonstrates that the dispossession and replacement of the Palestinians in 1948 was not a singular catastrophe, but rather a protracted process instituted over decades. Colonizing Palestine traces social and political mechanisms by which forms of hierarchy, violence, and supremacy that endure into the present were gradually created.Trade Review"Areej Sabbagh-Khoury's groundbreaking book sheds light on the structures and events that facilitated Zionist settler colonialism in Palestine. A must-read for anyone who wants to understand exactly how the tensions between socialism and Zionism played out on the ground."—Maha Nassar, University of Arizona"Colonizing Palestine guides us with great precision and acumen through the memory lanes of Israelis and Palestinians. Those who think they have read it all about the Nakba and its impact on our present realities will need to consult this impressive and crucial addition to the literature on settler colonialism and Palestine."—Ilan Pappé, University of Exeter"In Colonizing Palestine, Areej Sabbagh-Khoury peels back the cover of Zionist history. Her mix of meticulous archival research and rigorous theorizing is powerful, profound, and upending. She has offered a new touchstone from which all future research should begin."—David N. Myers, University of California, Los Angeles"Sabbagh-Khoury offers a conclusive answer to the question of whether a socialist ideology could be reconciled with settler colonialism."—Marc Martorell Junyent, The New ArabTable of ContentsIntroduction: 1. People, Land, and Property: Settler Colonial Process in Bilad al-Ruha 2. Colonialism by Purchase: Possession, Expulsion, and Replacement 3. Encounters on the Settler Colonial Frontier: Kibbutz Relations with Neighboring Palestinian Villages 4. From Purchase to Warfare: Relations between Kibbutz Settlers and Neighboring Palestinians during the 1948 Events 5. Settler Colonial Memory: Between Recognizing and Disavowing 6. Representations of 1948: From Official Representation to Controversial Memory Conclusion

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Book SynopsisAn urgent, wide-ranging portrait of the divisions among Israelis today, and the external threats to their country, at a critical juncture in its history. • Through moving narratives and on-the-ground reporting, a veteran New York Times correspondent who has spent decades working in Israel reveals what holds the country together.“A wondrous tale told through the agonizing and uplifting stories of Israel’s many tribes — Jewish and Arab, religious and secular, new immigrants and veterans, soldiers and settlers.”—Martin Indyk, author of Master of the Game, and former U.S. ambassador to IsraelFor anyone trying to understand the reality of Israel today.”—Dennis Ross, former U.S. envoy to the Middle East and the author of Doomed to SucceedDespite Israel's determined staying power in a hostile environment, its military might, an

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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 SynopsisA History of the Modern Middle East examines the profound and often dramatic transformations of the region in the past two centuries, from the Ottoman and Egyptian reforms, through the challenge of Western imperialism, to the impact of US foreign policies. Built around a framework of political history, while also carefully integrating social, cultural, and economic developments, this expertly crafted account provides readers with the most comprehensive, balanced, and penetrating analysis of the modern Middle East.The seventh edition has been substantially revised to reflect the significance of the 2011 Arab Uprisings as a major turning point in the modern history of the region. A new chapter considers how regional powers, especially in the Gulf, are now asserting themselves more forcefully, seeking to push their own interests while Russia and China contest America's position. Including an annotated and updated bibliography that offers guidance to readers seeking more i

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a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

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a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

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Book SynopsisTable of ContentsContents List of Illustrations Acknowledgments Note on Transliteration Map of Cited Departure Points and Stepping Stones of Suez Canal Migrants Introduction 1 • A Universal Meeting Point on the Isthmus of Suez 2 • Like a Beehive: Race and Gender on the Suez Worksites 3 • A Semilawless Borderland: The Presence of These People Could Bring Evil 4 • Entertainment in Port Said, a Sink of Immoral Filth Conclusion: It Would Be Wonderful If It Were Not Unhappy Postscript Notes Bibliography Index

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