Middle Eastern history Books

Book SynopsisSmugglers and Saints of the Sahara describes life on and around the contemporary border between Algeria and Mali, exploring current developments in a broad historical and socioeconomic context. Basing her findings on long-term fieldwork with trading families, truckers, smugglers and scholars, Judith Scheele investigates the history of contemporary patterns of mobility from the late nineteenth century to the present. Through a careful analysis of family ties and local economic records, this book shows how long-standing mobility and interdependence have shaped not only local economies, but also notions of social hierarchy, morality and political legitimacy, creating patterns that endure today and that need to be taken into account in any empirically-grounded study of the region.Trade Review'The Sahara is neither a romantic land of luxury-laden camel caravans nor a vast empty darkness hiding the likes of al-Qa'ida. Judith Scheele's Sahara is the most dynamic 'space' in today's Africa, one brought alive by ceaselessly expanding and contracting human networks that invest in 'place' even as mobility defines 'community'. Scheele brings us into al-Khalil, the infamous Malian-Algerian-frontier trans-shipment centre where 'men are men', virtue non-existent and 'family-loyalty' the definition of survival. She introduces us to the multi-national work teams of enormous transport trucks that criss-cross the desert with foodstuffs, cigarettes and cocaine, licit and illicit loads side-by-side, protected by always-present AK-47s. During sixteen months, Scheele … observed, questioned, interviewed … [and] accessed family-held Arabic documents … Scholarship is impressive, arguments convincing; this is the book many who know the Sahara will wish they had written.' E. Ann McDougall, University of Alberta'[This] is an informative book based on tireless multisite research in local and colonial archives and among long-distance entrepreneurs, dispersed families and itinerant communities. Scheele approaches Saharan truck stops and oasis towns as dynamic nodes dependent on constant interchange with other nodes that together form a web of 'Saharan connectivity'. This is a must-read for anyone interested in the region and in carrying out trans-Saharan fieldwork.' Ghislaine Lydon, University of California, Los AngelesTable of Contents1. Founding saints and moneylenders: regional ecologies and oasis settlement; 2. Saints on trucks: Algerian traders and settlement in the biblād al-sūdān; 3. Dates, cocaine, and AK 47s: moral conundrums on the Algero–Malian border; 4. Struggles over encompassment: hierarchy, genealogies, and their contemporary use; 5. Universal law and local containment: assemblies, qudāh and the quest for civilisation; 6. Settlement, mobility, and the daily pitfalls of Saharan cosmopolitanism; Conclusion: Saharan connectivity and the 'swamp of terror'; Glossary; References; Index.

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Book SynopsisThe Beginnings of Islamic Law is a major and innovative contribution to our understanding of the historical unfolding of Islamic law. Scrutinizing its historical contexts, the book proposes that Islamic law is a continuous intermingling of innovation and tradition. Salaymeh challenges the embedded assumptions in conventional Islamic legal historiography by developing a critical approach to the study of both Islamic and Jewish legal history. Through case studies of the treatment of war prisoners, circumcision, and wife-initiated divorce, she examines how Muslim jurists incorporated and transformed 'Near Eastern' legal traditions. She also demonstrates how socio-political and historical situations shaped the everyday practice of law, legal education, and the organization of the legal profession in the late antique and medieval eras. Aimed at scholars and students interested in Islamic history, Islamic law, and the relationship between Jewish and Islamic legal traditions, this book's inteTrade Review'It is not an exaggeration to say that I have waited a lifetime for this level of superlative and inspired workmanship to grace the field of Islamic jurisprudence. This erudite and path-paving book has all the elements of becoming a classic in the field. By her unrelentingly rigorous historical method and penetrating comparative approach, the author has quite literally established a model for compelling and undeniable scholarship in the field. All students of Islamic jurisprudence, and also comparative legal studies, will be studying and debating this landmark work for many years to come.' Khaled Abou El Fadl, Alfi Professor of Law, University of California, Los Angeles'The Beginnings of Islamic Law calls for a complete transformation in how a field of study thinks about its subject. Lena Salaymeh offers an overwhelming argument, complete with meticulous historical evidence, for instituting a 'historicist' revolution in the history of Islamic and Jewish law, a revolution that will create a legal history that grounds law in its social and historical context, that sees law and context irreversibly wedded. For the anthropomorphic imagery of positivist inquiry into the 'origin' of Islamic law - its conception, its birth, its parentage, and its maturation - and the narrow, linear framework into which positivism forces historical evidence, Salaymeh substitutes an historicist exploration of the circumstances of Islamic law's incipiently plural 'beginnings', its representation in multiple 'Islamicate legal cultures', and its fluid and fluent interrelationships with co-temporal legal traditions, notably Jewish law. This is a tremendously liberating project.' Christopher Tomlins, University of California, Berkeley'This is a polemical book, understanding 'polemical' in the best sense of the word: a book that argues persuasively and with deep learning against regnant theories that give pride of place to exogenous factors in the evolution of Islamic law. It is comparatist, but not in the classic sense that pits one historical reality against the same in another culture, leading inevitably to a contest. Salaymeh's concept of comparative study places two (or more) phenomena side-by-side to better understand universal mechanisms and forces of history, and an inner, universal logic of legal evolution.' Mark R. Cohen, Khedouri A. Zilkha Professor of Jewish Civilization in the Near East, Emeritus, Princeton University, New Jersey'In The Beginnings of Islamic Law, Lena Salaymeh offers a provocative reassessment of history and historiography that demands - and deserves - the attention of scholars who study late antique and medieval Islamic society.' David M. Freidenreich, Colby College, Maine'Deep and stark divisions haunt the scholarship that seeks to understand the history of the first two centuries of Islamic law. … This work deserves to be recognized as an important contribution to the study not just of early Islamic legal history, but of Islamic legal historiography more broadly.' Mohammad Fadel, Journal of the American Academy of ReligionTable of ContentsIntroduction: genealogies of Islamic law; 1. Legal-historical beginnings - outlining late antique Islamic law; 2. Legal historiography - a case study in international law; 3. Legal-historical hybridity - tracing Islam in its Islamicate context; 4. Legal custom - a case study in ritual law; 5. Legal historicizing: moments in macro-histories; 6. Legal comparisons - a case study in family law; Conclusion.

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Book SynopsisNew text and full commentary for one of Herodotus' most varied books, covering the collapse of the Ionian Revolt and the glorious victory at Marathon, as well as court intrigue at Sparta, Kleomenes' grisly death, and Hippokleides' 'dancing away his marriage'. Suitable for undergraduate and graduate students, teachers and scholars.Trade Review'[Herodotus: Histories Book VI] is pure scholarship and an invaluable addition to the Cambridge University Press's ongoing series of nine commentaries on the Histories in their Greek and Latin Classics series. It is difficult to imagine a more detailed and comprehensive commentary to the entire text of Book 6, making this a definitive publication. Hornblower and Pelling deserve the fullest praise for their exhaustive study.' Bryn Mawr Classical ReviewTable of ContentsPreface; List of abbreviations; Introduction; 1. The spirit of Marathon; 2. Architecture; 3. Kleomenes and impiety; 4. The qualities of book 6; 5. Language and dialect (by A. M. Bowie); 6. Text; ΗΡΟΔΟΤΟΥ ΙΣΤΟΡΙΩΝ Ζ ΕΡΑΤΩ; Commentary; Works cited; Index of subjects; Index of Greek words and phrases.

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Book SynopsisThis book reconstructs the role of midwives in medieval to early modern Islamic history through a careful reading of a wide range of classical and medieval Arabic sources. It takes a broad historical view of midwifery in the Middle East by examining the tensions between learned medicine (male) and popular, medico-religious practices (female) from early Islam into the Ottoman period.Trade Review'Giladi's source base is broad and diverse; his reading has clearly been vast, and he does a very good job of making his enormous body of quotations, facts, and narratives manageable for the reader. The extremely broad scope of the project (both chronological and geographical) is justified by the sparse and difficult nature of his data, which sometimes requires him to discern patterns and commonalities (or, less often, contrasts and changes) by bringing together scattered examples gleaned from different times and places.' Marion H. Katz, Journal of the American Oriental SocietyTable of ContentsIntroduction; 1. Islamic views on birth and motherhood; 2. Midwifery as a craft; 3. The subordinate midwife: male physicians versus female midwives; 4. The absent midwife; 5. The privileged midwife; 6. Ritual, magic, and the midwife's roles in and outside the birthing place; 7. From traditional to modern midwifery in the Middle East; Concluding remarks.

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Book SynopsisIn this book, Anne Porter explores the idea that mobile and sedentary members of the ancient world were integral parts of the same social and political groups in greater Mesopotamia during the period 4000 to 1500 BCE. She draws on a wide range of archaeological and cuneiform sources to show how networks of social structure, political and religious ideology, and everyday as well as ritual practice worked to maintain the integrity of those groups when the pursuit of different subsistence activities dispersed them over space. These networks were dynamic, shaping many of the key events and innovations of the time, including the Uruk expansion and the introduction of writing, so-called secondary state formation and the organization and operation of government, the literary production of the Third Dynasty of Ur and the first stories of Gilgamesh, and the emergence of the Amorrites in the second millennium BCE.Trade Review'The volume impressively reflects a great deal of scholarship and depth of thought. It will be useful for scholars and students of the Near East, including archaeologists and historians, and researchers interested in the archaeology of mobile pastoralism more broadly … It is an important volume, offering a bold and radical, realigned account in the central place it gives to mobile pastoralism across this time period. The significance of the book also lies in its consideration of how archaeologists read the archaeological record and conceptualise past societal organisation. Due to the ephemeral nature of mobile pastoralism, scant traces are often left behind with which to understand it (Cribb, 1991). Porter's ideas will no doubt be much debated, but they will re-focus attention on this question, the conceptualisation of ancient nomads in the Near East and the search for their traces.' Pastoralism: Research, Policy and Practice'[Porter's] work is a critical resource for understanding both the dynamics of ancient societies and the impact of modern reconstructions on our perception of them.' Brendon C. Benz, Near Eastern ArchaeologyTable of ContentsIntroduction; 1. The problem with pastoralists; 2. Wool, writing, and religion; 3. From temple to tomb; 4. Tax and tribulation, or, who were the Amorrites?; Conclusion.

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Book SynopsisThe book discusses the ways in which the rabbinical elite of the Israeli West Bank settlers responded to Israeli territorial compromises.Trade Review'Motti Inbari's book is an insightful introduction into Messianic Religious Zionists' (MRZ) evolving worldviews as they relate to political negotiations over land compromises. Inbari is particularly insightful in his discussion of the changes in approach since the Oslo period in the 1990s … [he] effectively synthesizes significant secondary sources with available primary sources to provide a stimulating and much-needed analysis of the changing attitudes of MRZ rabbis and followers toward violent responses to territorial compromises.' H-Judaic'An extremely valuable book that should be read by anyone interested in the role of religious Zionism in Israel.' Politics, Religion and IdeologyTable of Contents1. Zionist perceptions in the thought of Rabbi Zvi Yehuda Kook and the roots of Gush Emunim; 2. Gush Emunim and the Israeli-Egyptian peace agreement; 3. The statist approach confronted with the Oslo Accords; 4. 'Hearing a baby's cry': political reality and messianic retreat in the thought of Rabbi Yehuda Amital; 5. Post-Zionism in the religious-Zionist camp: the 'Jewish leadership' movement; 6. Fundamentalism in crisis: the response of messianic religious Zionism to the theological dilemmas raised by Israel's disengagement plan; 7. The position of the messianic religious Zionist rabbis to political violence and incitement; 8. The American fundamentalist response to 'land for peace' solutions.

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Book SynopsisIn this major new history of Muslim merchants and their trade links with China, John W. Chaffee uncovers 700 years of history, from the eighth century, when Muslim communities first established themselves in southeastern China, through the fourteenth century, when trade all but ceased. These were extraordinary and tumultuous times. Under the Song and the Mongols, the Muslim diaspora in China flourished as legal and economic ties were formalized. At other times the Muslim community suffered hostility and persecution. Chaffee shows how the policies of successive dynastic regimes in China combined with geopolitical developments across maritime Asia to affect the fortunes of Muslim communities. He explores social and cultural exchanges, and how connections were maintained through faith and a common acceptance of Muslim law. This ground breaking contribution to the history of Asia, the early Islamic world, and to maritime history explores the networks that helped to shape the pre-modern worTrade Review'This is a fascinating and beautifully written study of the economic, social, and political lives of Muslim merchants present in the coastal regions of premodern China. It is a major contribution to understanding the history of maritime China, intra-Asian connections, as well as Indian Ocean exchanges.' Tansen Sen, New York University Shanghai'Writing a history of Muslim merchants and their trade diasporas in pre-modern China is a great challenge. In this book John W. Chaffee traces back their fascinating story in a coherent manner for the first time, from their early activities and settlements in southern Chinese ports up to 1400.' Angela Schottenhammer, University of Salzburg and McGill University, Montreal'John W. Chaffee forces historians to take the Muslim communities of middle-period China's Southeast coast seriously. Using a vast array of sources, Chaffee's work is the first to place these communities at the center and demonstrate their importance and how they functioned. It is of importance to all historians of China's premodern trade and international relations and to all scholars of the middle period.' Hugh R. Clark, Ursinus College, Pennsylvania'This book is the first to present the whole picture of an important topic. The author has skilfully utilized scattered sources to re-examine the importance of the Muslim merchant communities in China up to 1400.' Hyunhee Park, City University of New York'… a nuanced and refreshing picture on the ways in which Muslims influenced the oceanic commercial cultures of the world's two largest populated countries.' Mahmood Kooria, Global Maritime HistoryTable of ContentsIntroduction; 1. Merchants of an imperial trade; 2. The reorientation of trade; 3. The maturation of merchant communities; 4. Mongols and the concentration of merchant power; 5. Endings and continuities.

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Book SynopsisThe publications of the Hakluyt Society (founded in 1846) made available edited (and sometimes translated) early accounts of exploration. The first series, which ran from 1847 to 1899, consists of 100 books containing published or previously unpublished works by authors from Christopher Columbus to Sir Francis Drake, and covering voyages to the New World, to China and Japan, to Russia and to Africa and India. Thomas Dallam, an organ-builder, was sent by Queen Elizabeth to the sultan of Turkey at Constantinople. His diary reveals a lively curiosity towards the sights, but a dislike of foreigners. Dr John Covel, later vice-chancellor of the University of Cambridge, went to Constantinople as chaplain to the ambassador Sir Daniel Harvey in 1670. While there, he travelled widely, and collected books, manuscripts and other items. He was one of the first Western visitors to write about Mount Athos, and studied the Orthodox Church.Table of ContentsIntroduction; Master Thomas Dallam's diary; Dr. Covel's diary; Index.

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Book SynopsisLucie Duff Gordon (18211869) was a successful translator who left England because of ill-health. This volume, first published in 1865, covers the first three years of her residence in Egypt. As a long-term resident she became well acquainted with and appreciative of the Egyptian people.Table of ContentsPreface; Letters I-LV, 1862–1865.

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Book SynopsisLucie Duff Gordon (18211869) was a writer who left England because of ill-health. This volume, first published in 1875, contains letters from South Africa and Egypt. As a long-term resident she became well acquainted with the people of Egypt, and is critical of the effects of westernisation.Table of ContentsIntroduction Janet Ross; Last letters from Egypt; Letters from the Cape.

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Book SynopsisThe British explorer Sir Richard F. Burton (1821â90) was a colourful and often controversial character. A talented linguist and keen ethnologist, he worked in India during the 1840s as an interpreter and intelligence officer for General Sir Charles Napier, and published several books about his experiences in 1851â2. He first gained celebrity, however, for his adventurous 1853 trip to Mecca, under the disguise of a pilgrim, which is described in this lively three-volume publication (1855â6). Few Europeans had ever visited the Muslim holy places; one of them was John Lewis Burckhardt, whose 1829 account is also reissued in this series. Volume 1 of Burton's book describes his arrival in Egypt, the weeks he spent in Alexandria and Cairo polishing his linguistic and cultural skills, and how, at the end of Ramadan, he travelled to Suez by camel, and from there by boat to Yanbu al-Bahr.Table of ContentsPreface; 1. To Alexandria; 2. I leave Alexandria; 3. The Nile steam boat; 4. Life in the Wakálah; 5. The Ramazán; 6. The mosque; 7. Preparations to quit Cairo; 8. From Cairo to Suez; 9. Suez; 10. The pilgrim ship; 11. To Yambu; 12. The halt at Yambu; 13. From Yambu to Bir Abbas.

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Book SynopsisThis book of 'Persian Pictures' is the first published work of Gertrude Bell (18681926), the celebrated traveller, archaeologist, and Orientalist. These essays from 1894 capture a sense of delight at a mysterious land still marked by the traces of many of the great civilisations of the past.Table of Contents1. An eastern city; 2. The tower of silence; 3. In praise of gardens; 4. The king of merchants; 5. The Imam Hussein; 6. The shadow of death; 7. Dwellers in tents; 8. Three noble ladies; 9. The treasure of the king; 10. Sheikh Hassan; 11. A Persian host; 12. A stage and a half; 13. A bridle-path; 14. Two palaces; 15. The month of fasting; 16. Requiescant in pace; 17. The city of King Prusias; 18. Shops and shopkeepers; 19. A Murray of the first century; 20. Travelling companions.

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Book SynopsisOgier Ghiselin de Busbecq (1522â92) was a Flemish herbalist, diplomat and writer. In 1554, Ferdinand I, soon to be Holy Roman Emperor, dispatched him to Suleiman the Magnificent's court as an ambassador to the Ottoman empire, where Busbecq spent years negotiating a border dispute between his employer and the sultan. While there, he also discovered important manuscripts and sent the first tulip bulbs to Europe. He returned to Vienna in 1562, where he acted as counsellor to Ferdinand, after whose death he continued to serve the Habsburgs. This two-volume work, first published in 1881, contains Busbecq's letters, edited and translated into English from Latin by two Cambridge scholars. Volume 1 contains a lengthy biography of Busbecq, written by the editors, and his famous Turkish Letters, which are a unique source of information on Ottoman court life in the sixteenth century.Table of ContentsLife of Busbecq; Turkish letters 1; Turkish letters 2; Turkish letters 3; Turkish letters 4.

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Book SynopsisVery little is known about Ludolf von Suchem, who made a journey to the Holy Land in 133641 and later described his experiences in considerable detail. This English translation, by Aubrey Stewart (18441918), of Ludolf's Latin text was published in 1895.Table of ContentsPreface; 1. The Holy Land; 2. Constantinople; 3. The way by land; 4. Barbary and Pugia; 5. The Mediterranean sea; 6. The divers perils of the sea; 7. The peril called 'Gulph'; 8. The peril called 'Grup'; 9. The perils of shoals; 10. Perils by fish; 11. Divers fishes; 12. Migration of birds; 13. The voyage across the sea; 14. The island of Sicily; 15. The mount Vulcan; 16. The city of Syracuse; 17. Achaia; 18. The city of Ephesus; 19. The different isles of the sea; 20. Cyprus; 21. The vineyard of Engaddi; 22. The city of Famagusta; 23. Salamina and Nicosia; 24. The cities by the sea; 25. The glorious city of Acre; 26. The loss of the city of Acre; 27. Gaza and Azotus; 28. Mount Carmel; 29. Egypt; 30. The garden of Balsam; 31. The Christians and the ancient tombs; 32. Ancient Babylon, or Baldach; 33. The river Nile; 34. The land of Egypt; 35. The desert and Mount Sinai; 36. The wilderness of Sinai; 37. Hebron, the vale of Mambre, and Bethlehem; 38. The holy city Jerusalem; 39. The thirty pieces of silver; 40. The Mount of Olives; 41. The desert, Jericho, Sodom and Gomorrha; 42. The river Jordan; 43. Ramatha, Shiloh, Emmaus, Sichar, Samaria, and Galilee; 44. The city of Damascus; 45. The vale of Bokar, Lebanon, and Beyrout; Index.

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Book SynopsisRobert W. Rogers (1864â1930), American professor of biblical exegesis, became fascinated by the Hebrew language as a boy, when trying to understand the Book of Job, and subsequently studied ancient languages and history in Leipzig and Oxford, where he became a friend of A. H. Sayce. In this two-volume 1901 work, he provides a history of the Mesopotamian civilisations, but begins with an extensive review of the archaeological and literary sources of information, opening with the earliest accounts of Western travellers. Volume 1 then continues with a discussion of the environment and resources, and the peoples and the chronology of the area, before beginning a narrative of Babylonian history, which closes with the end of the dynasty of Isin. The work, with its detailed review of and reliance on original sources, is still valuable as an introduction to a long period of ancient Middle Eastern history.Table of ContentsPreface; Book I. Prolegomena: 1. Early travellers and early decipherers; 2. Grotefend and Rawlinson; 3. Early explorers in Babylonia; 4. Explorations in Assyria and Babylonia, 1734–1820; 5. Excavations in Assyria and Babylonia, 1843–54; 6. The decipherment of Assyrian; 7. The decipherment of Sumerian and Vannic; 8. Explorations in Assyria and Babylonia, 1872–1900; 9. The sources; 10. The lands of Babylonia and Assyria; 11. The peoples of Babylonia and Assyria; 12. The chronology; Book II. The History of Babylonia: 1. The history of Babylonia to the fall of Larsa; 2. The first and second dynasties of Babylon; 3. The Kassite dynasty; 4. The dynasty of Isin.

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Book SynopsisFor centuries following the spread of Islam, the Middle East was far ahead of Europe. Yet, the modern economy was born in Europe. Why was it not born in the Middle East? In this book Jared Rubin examines the role that Islam played in this reversal of fortunes. It argues that the religion itself is not to blame; the importance of religious legitimacy in Middle Eastern politics was the primary culprit. Muslim religious authorities were given an important seat at the political bargaining table, which they used to block important advancements such as the printing press and lending at interest. In Europe, however, the Church played a weaker role in legitimizing rule, especially where Protestantism spread (indeed, the Reformation was successful due to the spread of printing, which was blocked in the Middle East). It was precisely in those Protestant nations, especially England and the Dutch Republic, where the modern economy was born.Trade Review'In a fascinating analysis of why the Middle East fell behind, Jared Rubin points to events centuries ago that led the Middle East and the West to different sources of political legitimacy and different paths of institutional change. His insight not only explains why political autocracy and economic stagnation have dominated the Middle East but why our policies there seem to fail.' Philip Hoffman, California Institute of Technology'In the early Middle Ages, the Muslim Mediterranean world was technologically progressive and sophisticated and had a flourishing economy, while Western Europe was a poor backwater. In modern times, north-west Europe took the lead and became the cradle of economic growth. What explains this momentous reversal of fortune? In a fresh and original work, Rubin combines history, economics, and politics to come up with a startling new explanation that will have scholars arguing the matter for years.' Joel Mokyr, Northwestern University, Illinois'Jared Rubin is among the boldest and most creative young scholars of political economy today. His highly entertaining and enlightening book is a path-breaking magnum opus in the burgeoning field of economics of religion. Rulers, Religion, and Riches restores the pertinent role of secularism in sociopolitical and economic development to its rightful place.' Murat Iyigun, Calderwood Endowed Chair, University of Colorado, BoulderTable of Contents1. Introduction; Part I. Propagation of Rule: A Theory of Economic Success and Stagnation: 2. The propagation rule; 3. Historical origins of rule propagation; Part II. Applying the Theory: Why the West Got Rich and the Middle East Did Not: 4. Bans on taking interest; 5. Restrictions on the printing press; 6. Printing and the Reformation; 7. Success: England and the Dutch Republic; 8. Stagnation: Spain and the Ottoman Empire; 9. Conclusion.

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Book SynopsisWho has the right to a safe and protected childhood? Incarcerated Childhood and the Politics of Unchilding deepens understanding of children as political capital in the hands of those in power, critically engaging children''s voices alongside archival, historical, and ethnographic material in Palestine. Offering the concept of unchilding'', Shalhoub-Kevorkian exposes the political work of violence designed to create, direct, govern, transform, and construct colonized children as dangerous, racialized others, enabling their eviction from the realm of childhood itself. Penetrating children''s everyday intimate spaces and, simultaneously, their bodies and lives, unchilding works to enable a complex machinery of violence against Palestinian children: imprisonment, injuries, loss, trauma, and militarized political occupation. At the same time as the book documents violations of children''s rights and the consequences this has for their present and future well-being, it charts children''s reTable of Contents1. Childhood as political capital; 2. Caging: from Lydda, 1948 to Hebron, 2018; 3. 'Our existence is upsetting them': gendered violence and unchilding in the Naqab; 4. 'They made my parents into prison guards': childhood, parenthood, and the carceral politics of home arrest; 5. Unbreakable: the intimacy of torture and the children of Gaza; 6. Children as political capital: unchilding and the incomplete death.

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Book SynopsisThe Mamluk Sultanate ruled Egypt, Syria and the Arabian hinterland along the Red Sea. Lasting from the deposition of the Ayyubid dynasty (c. 1250) to the Ottoman conquest of Egypt in 1517, this regime of slave-soldiers incorporated many of the political structures and cultural traditions of its Fatimid and Ayyubid predecessors. Yet its system of governance and centralisation of authority represented radical departures from the hierarchies of power that predated it. Providing a rich and comprehensive survey of events from the Sultanate''s founding to the Ottoman occupation, this interdisciplinary book explores the Sultanate''s identity and heritage after the Mongol conquests, the expedience of conspiratorial politics, and the close symbiosis of the military elite and civil bureaucracy. Carl F. Petry also considers the statecraft, foreign policy, economy and cultural legacy of the Sultanate, and its interaction with polities throughout the central Islamic world and beyond. In doing so, Petry reveals how the Mamluk Sultanate can be regarded as a significant experiment in the history of state-building within the pre-modern Islamic world.Trade Review'The wait is over - at last we have a true grand narrative of the Mamluk Sultanate in Egypt and Syria, a fascinating episode in world history. Encyclopedic in scope, full of insights, with riveting storytelling, Carl F. Petry's tour de force will remain the definitive tome on the subject for a long time to come.' Li Guo, University of Notre Dame'This lucid and comprehensive survey of the Mamluk Sultanate (1250–1517) combines political and institutional history with coverage of intellectual life, popular culture, rural realities, women, religious minorities, and Sufis. Petry draws on his own vast expertise while making abundant use of primary sources and scholarship by other leading experts.' Jane Hathaway, Ohio State University'Petry's synthesis of scholarship is deftly integrated with his in-depth erudition and knowledge of surviving source material. Moreover, the book's organization along with Petry's accessible prose make this volume a valuable and effective introduction for those unfamiliar with the history of the sultanate and the multifaceted field of Mamluk Studies.' Warren Schultz, DePaul University'A comprehensive, systematic overview of the Mamluk Sultanate brought to life by dynamic case studies and vignettes. Highly readable and accessible, it is an indispensable reference for students and scholars, and an excellent introduction for anyone starting out in the field of Mamluk Studies.' Amina Elbendary, The American University, CairoTable of ContentsIntroduction; 1. Synopsis of events; 2. Ethos of the 'slave-soldiers' regime; 3. The mamluk sultanate from a global perspective; 4. Vocational classes: Bureaucrats, magistrates, scholastics, clerics; 5. The political economy; contexts of innovation; 6. The cultural legacy; patronage, audience, genres, historiography; 7. The rural environment, gender issues, minority communities, sufi practice; Reflections; Bibliography; Index.

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Revealing what is ''Islamic'' in Islamic art, Shaw explores the perception of arts, including painting, music, and geometry through the discursive sphere ofhistoricalIslam including the Qur''an, Hadith, Sufism, ancient philosophy, and poetry. Emphasis on the experience of reception over the context of production enables a new approach, not only to Islam and its arts, but also as a decolonizing model for global approaches to art history. Shaw combines a concise introduction to Islamic intellectual history with a critique of the modern, secular, and European premises of disciplinary art history. Her meticulous interpretations of intertextual themes span antique philosophies, core religious and theological texts, and prominent prose and poetry in Arabic, Persian, Turkish, and Urdu that circulated across regions of Islamic hegemony from the eleventh century to the colonial and post-colonial contexts of the modern Middle East.

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Book SynopsisThis book highlights the heated debates between Muslim scholars in the Modern Muslim world, especially between Salafis and Traditionalists. It covers the emergence of modern reform movements, the role of print and the internet, Islamic education, the production of scholarly authority, and the different approaches to Islamic scripture and law.Trade Review'This important and timely book not only helps us understand what al-Sisi is referring to but also explains to the reader the roots and history of a clash that has just begun to materialize.' Hussam S. Timani, Reading ReligionTable of ContentsPart I. History: 1. Traditionalism and Salafism; 2. A controversial Salafi; 3. Gatekeepers of knowledge: self-learning and Islamic expertise; Part II. Islamic Law: 4. Can two opposing opinions be valid? Legal pluralism in Islam; 5. Qur'an and Sunna or the Madhhabs?; Part III. Hadith: 6. The pursuit of authencity: reevaluating weak Hadith; 7. Challenging early Hadith scholarship.

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Book SynopsisThe caliphs and sultans who once ruled the Muslim world were often assisted by powerful Jewish, Christian, Zoroastrian, and other non-Muslim state officials, whose employment occasioned energetic discussions among Muslim scholars and rulers. This book reveals those discussions for the first time in all their diversity, drawing on unexplored medieval sources in the realms of law, history, poetry, entertaining literature, administration, and polemic. It follows the discourse on non-Muslim officials from its beginnings in the Umayyad empire (661750), through medieval Iraq, Egypt, Syria, and Spain, to its apex in the Mamluk period (12501517). Far from being an intrinsic part of Islam, views about non-Muslim state officials were devised, transmitted, and elaborated at moments of intense competition between Muslim and non-Muslim learned elites. At other times, Muslim rulers employed non-Muslims without eliciting opposition. The particular shape of the Islamic discourse on this issue is compaTrade Review'A breakthrough for Middle East history … Few in the field are equipped to perform the meticulous research and incisive analysis on which this book rests. A must-read for anyone interested in Islamic law, the history of the Middle East, and Muslims' relationships to non-Muslims.' Marina Rustow, Princeton University, New Jersey'This book reveals a spectacular mastery of very diverse medieval Arabic primary sources. It explores how and why Muslim rulers for centuries regularly employed non-Muslims in important government positions, despite the frequent disapproval of this practice by many Muslim scholars and men of letters. This is a first-class work of original scholarship.' Carole Hillenbrand, University of St Andrews, Scotland'This richly detailed study illuminates the cultural wars of Islam's past, offering a vivid picture of Islam's value as a symbol of rule in the competition for state offices among Muslims and non-Muslims. It provides indispensable perspective for reflection on the nature of both interreligious relations and state-society relations in Islam.' Paul L. Heck, Georgetown University'Luke B. Yarbrough has written a brilliant, revisionist, diachronic history of the often discussed opposition to the employment of non-Muslims in the pre-modern Islamic state. Upending the assumption that this antagonism was born, in the first instance, of juristic prescription and religious prejudice, Yarbrough effectively demonstrates, that it was not doctrinal discrimination, let alone religious hatred that gave rise to and perpetuated such a discourse. Rather, it was rivalry over the 'ubiquitous pursuit of resources' that lay behind the cry, expressed in multiple genres of Arabic literature, to oust non-Muslims from their often prominent positions in Islamic government.' Mark R. Cohen, Princeton University'Friends of the Emir is a lucidly written history of pre-modern Muslim attitudes towards the employment of non-Muslims by Muslim rulers. Learned, broad, and nuanced in its approach, Yarbrough's study sees beyond the clichéd dichotomies between 'historical realities' and 'legal norms' to provide a historical account as definitive as it is original.' Sean Anthony, Ohio State University'… this is an excellent and long-overdue study of an important aspect of interfaith relations and the evolution of Muslim government and identity, and a book which is comple Nabulusi's Tajrid mented by Yarborough's recent edition and translation of Ibn al-Nābulusī's Tajrīd...Friends of the Emir's fluid prose and clear argumentation will render it accessible and useful to graduate students and scholars in a variety of fields.' Brian A. Catlos, Al-Masāq'This book is … a most important read for anyone interested in Islamic political culture in general, and in the inter faith relationships in premodern Muslim societies in particular.' Valerie Gonzalez, Journal of the Medieval Mediterranean'The monograph will be a welcome and important addition to seminars on the intellectual and social history of the Middle East.' Kyle Longworth, Journal of Near Eastern Studies'The book's detailed analysis of individual texts and how they contribute to a larger discourse is exemplary. Yarbrough provides insights into more familiar texts and introduces unfamiliar texts in a way that is helpful for future research. Readers interested in a particular period, place, or genre covered in the book's scope will likely find additional rewards in specific moments of illumination.' Janina Safran, Journal of the American Oriental SocietyTable of ContentsPart I. Beginnings: 1. An introduction to the prescriptive discourse surrounding non-Muslim state officials; 2. Preludes to the discourse: non-Muslim officials and late ancient antecedents; 3. The beginnings of the discourse to 236/851; 4. The discourse comes of age: the edicts of the caliph al-Mutawakkil; Part II. Elaboration: 5. Juristic aspects of the discourse; 6. Literary aspects of the discourse; Part III. Efflorescence and Comparisons: 7. The discourse at its apogee: the independent counsel works; 8. The discourse in wider perspective: comparisons and conclusions; 9. Afterword: the discourse to the nineteenth century.

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Book SynopsisBetween the 1963 ''White Revolution'' and the 1979 Iranian Revolution, the position of women in Iran experienced a number of fundamental shifts. Policies and reforms were introduced, including land, suffrage, education and dress reforms which the Pahlavi regime claimed would advance the position of women and would lead to a swift modernisation of the country. In this book, Liora Hendelman-Baavur examines these changes, looking at the interactions between global aspects of modernity and notions of identity in Iranian popular culture. By focusing on the history of Iran''s popular print media, with emphasis on women''s commercial magazines, Hendelman-Baavur challenges familiar western assumptions about the complexities of Iranian popular culture. Her analysis situates Iranian women''s magazines within their broader economic, social, political and cultural context, demonstrating how representations of the modern woman in Iranian popular culture were influenced by the intricate nature of cuTable of ContentsIntroduction; Part I. Magazines in the Making: 1. The legacy of the past; 2. Circulation, commercialization and state intervention; 3. Reproduction, patronage and readership; Part II. Agents of Correlation and Change: 4. Family guidance, domestic technology and the modern housewife; 5. Youth culture and the new bi-hejab girl; 6. Exogamy, brain drain and the western woman; 7. Queen, working mother and the making of the Royal family.

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Book SynopsisExamines Ionian foundation myths during the archaic and classical periods, exploring the construction of civic identities. The conclusions challenge conventional understandings of Ionia as well as traditional ideas about Greek ethnicity, suggesting that there was a more diverse conception of Greekness in antiquity than has often been assumed.Table of Contents1. Introduction: identity and the construction of cultural difference; 2. Foundation myths and politics; 3. Ionia; 4. Miletus: violence and bloodshed; 5. Chios and Samos: land and island; 6. Colophon and Ephesus: founding mothers; 7. Being Ionian: the Ionian League, Ionian migrations, and Smyrna; 8. Conclusions.

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Book SynopsisProposing a methodology that brings feminist theories of embodiment to bear on the Iranian literary and cinematic tradition, this study examines temporary marriage in Iran, not just as an institution but also as a set of practices, identities and meanings that have transformed over the course of the twentieth- and twenty-first centuries. Based on analysis of novels and short stories from the Pahlavi era, and cinematic works produced after the Islamic Revolution, Claudia Yaghoobi looks at the representation of the sigheh women, or those who entered into temporary marriages. Each work reflects the manner in which the practice of sigheh impacts women by calling into question how sexuality works as a form of political analysis and power, revealing how a sigheh woman''s sexual bodily autonomy is used as ammunition against what governments deem inappropriate gendered expression. While focusing mainly on modern Iranian cultural productions, Yaghoobi moves beyond the literary and cinematic reaTrade Review'Yaghoobi's mastery over her source material is impressive, and the many ways in which she brings Persian realist fiction of the early and mid-twentieth century into meaningful dialogue with post-revolutionary cinema are admirable. This book will be essential reading for anyone interested in the social and political debates around gender and the female body in contemporary Iran.' Dominic Parviz Brookshaw, University of Oxford'What distinguishes Claudia Yaghoobi's winning storytelling and her original contribution to our knowledge of women, sexuality and temporary marriage in Iran, is her skillful analysis and highly engaging interpretations of sigheh women's paradoxical role at the margin of society yet at the center of male fantasy.' Shahla Haeri, Boston UniversityTable of ContentsPrologue: sexpionage and the female body; Part I. General Overview: Introduction: body politics and sigheh marriages; 1. Sigheh marriages in modern Iran; Part II. Representation of Sigheh/Sex Work in the Literature of Pahlavi Era: 2. Gendered violence in Moshfeq-e Kazemi's Tehran-e Makhuf; 3. The volatile sigheh/sex workers' bodies in Jamalzadeh's Ma'sumeh Shirazi; 4. Colonized bodies in Al-e Ahmad's 'Jashn-e Farkhonde'; 5. The grotesque sigheh/sex workers' bodies in Golestan's 'Safar-e 'Esmat'; 6. Bodily inscriptions in Chubak's Sang-e Sabur; Part III. The Islamic Republic and Sigheh in Film Industry: 7. Whose body matters in Afkhami's Showkaran; 8. Embodiment, power, and politics in Farahbakhsh's Zendegi-ye Khosusi; Reclaiming the female body via writing.

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Book SynopsisSeen from the perspective of its diverse population, this first biography of Jeddah traces the city's urban history and cosmopolitanism from the late Ottoman period to its present-day claim to multiculturalism, within the conservative environment of the Arabian Peninsula.Trade Review'A painstakingly researched urban history of conviviality, mobility and diversity. Freitag brings to life the true power of place through a granular, deeply felt and skilfully executed study of Jeddah's peoples, spaces and institutions over one hundred years or so of the city's more recent history.' Nelida Fuccaro, New York University, Abu Dhabi'Drawing on a wealth of sources in many languages, Freitag's textured and compelling analysis succeeds brilliantly at showing Jeddah's unique position in a rapidly changing, interconnected world that spanned the Ottoman Empire, the Middle East, and the Indian Ocean region from the mid-nineteenth through the mid-twentieth centuries. A must read.' Thomas Kuehn, Simon Fraser University'Drawing on a dazzling array of sources in Arabic and other languages, this rich and brilliantly researched book offers a conceptually sophisticated history of a major Arabian port and the 'Gate to Mecca.' Dynamically interweaving the global, regional and the local, and with a nuanced sensitivity to insider and commoner dimensions, Freitag makes a phenomenal contribution to the study of urban cosmopolitanisms in the Red Sea and Indian Ocean worlds.' Jonathan Miran, Western Washington University'An in-depth and lively history of Jeddah. With her command of both local and foreign literature and the use of an astonishing documentation, Ulrike Freitag make us dive into the history of Mecca's 'entrance' up to the present, and into the connecting point of the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean.' Philippe Pétriat, Panthéon-Sorbonne UniversityTable of Contents1. Introduction: why Jeddah?; 2. Between sea and land: Jeddah through the ages; 3. The changing faces of Jeddah; 4. The changing urban space of Jeddah; 5. Solidarity and competition: the socio-cultural foundations of life in Jeddah; 6. The economic lifelines of Jeddah: trade and pilgrimage; 7. Governing and regulating diversity: urban government in Jeddah; 8. The disappearance and return of old Jeddah: on the temporality of translocal relations.

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Book SynopsisThis study summons historical, archaeological, and iconographic data from Bronze Age Mesopotamia, the Levant, and Egypt to address the legacy of Amorites.Table of Contents1. Introduction: Amorites, their legacy, and the study of identity; 2. Communities at the margins: the origins of Amorite identity, 2500–2200 B.C.; 3. Beyond pastoralism: diaspora and opportunity, 2200–2000 B.C.; 4. Mercenaries and merchants: networks of political and economic power, 2000–1800 B.C.; 5. Competition and emulation: the Amorite Koiné from Dilmun to Avaris, 1800–1500 B.C. 6. Conclusion: Amorite identity in the long durée.

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Book SynopsisAddresses a key question in biblical studies: the Elijah narratives' contribution to the theological vision of the book of Kings. Using a canonical-agrarian approach, this book challenges longstanding assumptions to offer a new concept of the narratives' rhetorical and theological contribution and insights into Elijah's iconographical character.Table of ContentsIntroduction; Book overview; 1. Solving for pattern; 2. The body and the Earth (1 Kings 17-19); 3. A native hill (1 Kings 20-22); 4. Life is a miracle (2 Kings 1-8); 5. The long-legged house; Conclusion; Bibliography; Indexes

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Book SynopsisIslam's fourth caliph, Ali, can be considered one of the most revered figures in Islamic history. Examining the enduring legacy of the nawasib, early Muslims who were hostile to the ascendancy of Ali and his descendants, this study reveals a period of contestation and the eventual rehabilitation of Ali's reputation in Sunni Islam.Trade Review'A valuable contribution to a sensitive topic concerning the development of sectarian identity in Islam. Husayn compellingly examines assumptions about the place of ʿAlī in Islamic thought and carefully analyzes the complex process through which his image was formed, based on representative voices from the Sunnī, Ibāḍī and Muʿtazilī traditions.' Hussein Abdulsater, University of Notre Dame'A welcome addition to the field. Inasmuch as opinions about ʿAlī 's role are already diverse, Husayn not only shows that there was a much wider range of opinions about him in the past, but explores - across the variety of genres that comprise the Islamic literary traditions - how those opinions came to be, and also how they came to disappear.' Aaron Hagler, Troy University'An innovative elucidation of a persistent epistemological and theological Sunnī conundrum: the simultaneous appropriation and suppression of pro-'Alid sentiment. By enriching our understanding of this ambivalence, and in charting how it changed over time, Husayn's work compels us to reconceptualize the nature and development of sectarianism itself.' Nancy Khalek, Brown University'Analyzing Umayyad and Khārijī hostility toward ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib in the early centuries of Islam, Nebil Husayn uncovers a very real, yet suppressed strand in Muslim collective memory. This carefully researched and persuasively argued book is a vital contribution to the study of Islamic history and Sunnī doctrine.' Tahera Qutbuddin, University of Chicago'A major contribution to the historiography of Islamic identity construction. More than just a simple trajectory of anti-Shiʿi sectarianism, it demonstrates the unease that developing Sunni normativity had with praise of ʿAlī and the desire to oppose Shiʿi claims of his saintly authority. Through this creative study of historical texts as rhetorical glimpses of memory, myth and self-fashioning, we can interrogate convenient histories of the erasure and oblivion of negativity in the formation of identity.' Sajjad Rizvi, University of Exeter'Nebil Husayn's meticulously researched and lucid book provides a rich and detailed description of the multiple ways in which a figure as central as ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib was variously imagined and re-imagined in early and classical Muslim thought. It is a model of Islamic intellectual and religious history and ought to benefit specialists as well as non-specialists interested in parallel cases, such as that of Paul of Tarsus.' Hadi Qazwini, Shii Studies ReviewTable of ContentsIntroduction; 1. 'Ali: A Contested Legacy; 2. The Umayyads and the 'Uthmanis; 3. The Mu'tazili: al-Jahiz; 4. The Ibadi: al-Warjalani; 5. The Sunni: Ibn Taymiyya; 6. The Rehabilitation of 'Ali in Sunni Hadith and Historiography; Afterword; Chapter 1 Appendix: Anti-'Alid Statements in Historical Literature; Chapter 2 Appendix: Reports about the Umayyads and the 'Uthmanis; Chapter 5 Appendix: Ibn Taymiyya's Minhaj al-sunna.

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Book SynopsisThe Iranian revolution of 1979 not only had an impact on regional and international affairs, but was made possible by the world and time in which it unfolded. This multi-disciplinary volume presents this revolution within its transnational and global contexts. Moving deftly from the personal to the global and from the provincial to the national, it draws attention to the multiplicity of spaces of the revolution such as streets, schools, prisons, personal lives, and histories such as the Cold War and Global 1960s and 70s. With a broad range of approaches, Global 1979 conceives of the Iranian Revolution not as exceptional or anachronistic, but as an uprising constituted by multiple, interwoven geographies and histories, which disrupt static and bounded notions of the local, national, regional, and global.Trade Review'Serious scholarship perceives revolution as a fundamentally international or 'inter-social' process. Yet rarely are revolutions narrated as such. This important collection brings together valuable studies that uncover the overlooked global dimension of the Iranian revolution of 1979. Empirically rich and conceptually insightful, Global 1979 offers a perspective that presents revolution as a complex interplay of transnational effects and local experiences of perceived and real injustice.' Asef Bayat, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign'Highly original, theoretically sophisticated and meticulously researched, the contributions collected here represent a major breakthrough in scholarly efforts to understand the enigma of the 1979 revolution in Iran.' Stephanie Cronin, University of Oxford'Transcending scholars' focus on causes and outcomes of 1979, this volume simultaneously de-exceptionalizes the revolution and illuminates its specifically Iranian mix of global backgrounds, relationships, and imaginations. Wonderful chapters covering a boy from a small town, the Fedai's Iranization of Brazilian insurgency, Takhti's 1968 funeral, and the IRGC's regional guerilla dimension will inspire Iranian and global historians alike.' Cyrus Schayegh, Graduate Institute of International and Development StudiesTable of ContentsIntroduction Arang Keshavarzian and Ali Mirsepassi; 1. A quiet revolution: in the shadow of the cold war Ali Mirsepassi; 2. Globalizing the Iranian revolution: a multiscaler history Arang Keshavarzian; Part I. Global Shadows: 3. Seeing the worlds from a humble corner: a political memoir Ali Mirsepassi; 4. Iranian diasporic possibilities: tracing transnational feminist genealogies from the revolutionary margins Manijeh Moradian; Part II. Militarized Cartographies: 5. 'In a forest of humans': the urban cartographies of theory and action in 1970s Iranian revolutionary socialism Rasmus Elling; 6. Revolutionaries for life: the IRGC and the global guerrilla movement Maryam Alemzadeh; Part III. Hidden Genealogies: 7. 'A sky drowning in stars': global '68, the death of Takhti, and the birth of the Iranian revolution Arash Davari and Naghmeh Sohrabi; 8. 'We must have a defense build-up': the Iranian revolution, regional security, and American vulnerability Christopher Dietrich; Part IV. Circulating Knowledge: 9. The criminal is the patient, the prison will be the cure: building the carceral imagination in Pahlavi Iran Golnar Nikpour; 10. The cold war and education in science and engineering in Iran, 1953-1979 Hossein Kamali; Part V. Aspirational Universalisms: 11. Between illusion and aspiration: Morteza Avini's cinema and theory of global revolution Hamed Yousefi; 12. Planetarity: the anti-disciplinary object of Iranian studies Negar Mottahedeh.

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Book SynopsisThe first systematic analysis and explanation of the political success of the Israeli settler movement. Based on a comprehensive original theoretical framework and rich empirical analysis, this book provides key new insights for the study of both Israeli politics and social movements in general.

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Book SynopsisBy the time of his death in 2009, the Grand Ayatollah Montazeri was lauded as the spiritual leader of the Green movement in Iran. Since the 1960s, when he supported Ayatollah Khomeini''s opposition to the Shah, Montazeri''s life reflected the crucial political shifts within Iran. In this book, Sussan Siavoshi presents the historical context as well as Montazeri''s own political and intellectual journey. Siavoshi highlights how Montazeri, originally a student of Khomeini became one of the key figures during the revolution of 19789. She furthermore analyses his subsequent writings, explaining how he went from trusted advisor to and nominated successor of Khomeini to an outspoken critic of the Islamic Republic. Examining Montazeri''s political thought and practice as well as the historical context, Siavoshi''s book is vital for those interested in post-revolutionary Iran and the phenomenon of political Islam.Trade Review'Siavoshi's book shows the making of this unique revolutionary personality in detail and is a most welcome addition to the study of the 1979 revolution in Iran.' Maziar Behrooz, International Journal of Middle East StudiesTable of ContentsPart I: 1. Life in the seminary: the making of a religious scholar; 2. Birth of a revolutionary; 3. The post-revolutionary state and Montazeri: the bearer, the agitator; 4. Life of a dissident; Part II: 5. Juridico-political theory: state-society relations; 6. Human rights; 7. Legacy of a grand Ayatollah.

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Book SynopsisThe formation of post-colonial states in Africa, and the Middle East gave birth to prolonged separatist wars. Exploring the evolution of these separatist wars, Yaniv Voller examines the strategies that both governments and insurgents employed, how these strategies were shaped by the previous struggle against European colonialism and the practices and roles that emerged in the subsequent period, which moulded the identities, aims and strategies of post-colonial governments and separatist rebels. Based on a wealth of primary sources, Voller focuses on two post-colonial separatist wars; In Iraqi Kurdistan, between Kurdish separatists and the government in Baghdad, and Southern Sudan, between black African insurgents and the government in Khartoum. By providing an account of both conflicts, he offers a new understanding of colonialism, decolonisation and the international politics of the post-colonial world.Trade Review'Illuminating and beautifully written, this book thoroughly recasts our understanding of how the legacies of armed struggles for liberation from colonial domination shape struggles for self-determination closer to our time. Voller shows how these anti-colonial rebellions created a reservoir of methods, practices and justifications that leaders of separatist movements in Sudan and Iraq embraced in their own campaigns against domination. Second-Generation Liberation Wars shows how the idea of liberation from colonial rule endures among contemporary separatists and shapes their struggles. Ultimately, Voller challenges many conventional understandings of the relationship between international politics, past and present, and armed rebellion.' William Reno, Northwestern University'By examining two case studies, Iraqi Kurdistan and Southern Sudan, the book contributes a new perspective on the topic of succession and separatist conflicts. With its extensive research, it is an important addition to the literature of post-colonial wars.' Joseph Sassoon, Georgetown UniversityTable of ContentsAcknowledgements; Maps; List of Abbreviations; Introduction; 1. Practices, Roles, Colonialism and Decolonisation: Rethinking Post-Colonial Separatist Wars; 2. The Historical and Ideational Context of Post-Colonial Liberation Wars; 3. Post-colonial Governments and Counterinsurgency: The Return of Colonial Practices; 4. Second-Generation Liberation Strategies; 5. Transition in Liberation: From Guerrilla Fighting to State-Building; Conclusion; Bibliography; Index.

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Book SynopsisIn this innovative study of everyday charity practices in Jeddah, Nora Derbal employs a ''bottom-up'' approach to challenge dominant narratives about state-society relations in Saudi Arabia. Exploring charity organizations in Jeddah, this book both offers a rich ethnography of associational life and counters Riyadh-centric studies which focus on oil, the royal family, and the religious establishment. It closely follows those who work on the ground to provide charity to the local poor and needy, documenting their achievements, struggles and daily negotiations. The lens of charity offers rare insights into the religiosity of ordinary Saudis, showing that Islam offers Saudi activists a language, a moral frame, and a worldly guide to confronting inequality. With a view to the many forms of local community activism in Saudi Arabia, this book examines perspectives that are too often ignored or neglected, opening new theoretical debates about civil society and civic activism in the Gulf.Trade Review'Nora Derbal presents a fascinating study of civil society in the authoritarian context of Saudi Arabia - a topic that is very much under-researched. It's highly original, impressively written and meticulously detailed. This is truly a piece of social science at its absolute best.' Paul Aarts, University of Amsterdam'A ground-breaking study of Saudi charity organizations interwoven with history, contemporary developments, and gender analysis. Comprehensively and holistically researched, rich in statistics and personal lived experience, it is a compelling read for anyone interested in the inner workings of Saudi society and the economy outside of official institutions and narratives.' Natana Delong-Bas, Boston College'Nora Derbal's book is timely, well-written and based on extensive fieldwork in Saudi Arabia. It is a welcome addition to the literature that places civil society initiatives in Saudi Arabia, especially in the Hijaz, in a wider socio-political context and problematises simplistic notions of state-society relations and authoritarian rule.' Toby Matthiesen, Ca' Foscari University'a penetrating addition to the research literature on charity' Jonathan Benthall, Books of the Year 2022, Times Literary SupplementTable of Contents1. Introduction: Civil society theory, charity, and inequality in Saudi Arabia; 2. Meanings of welfare: The First Women's Welfare Association in Jeddah; 3. Managing poverty and national development: The Society of Majid bin ʿAbd al-ʿAziz for Development and Social Services; 4. Negotiating citizenship and belonging: The Young Initiative Group; 5. Fun, freedom, and personal growth amid rising repression: The Hikers; 6. Conclusion: Civil society activism and everyday Islam in Saudi Arabia.

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Book SynopsisA single, unique document - a list of one merchant's baggage - is the starting point used to bring to life the twelfth-century Indian Ocean. Drawing connections between material culture, foodstuffs and the construction of identity, Lambourn examines notions of home and mobility at a key moment in world history.Trade Review'Transforming a twelfth-century list into a history of the stuff of life, Lambourn brilliantly demonstrates how Southern India was linked to the Middle East. From the production of food to the maintenance of purity, and even staying watered and well on the journey itself, this is exemplary Indian Ocean history.' Michael Laffan, Princeton University, New Jersey'Abraham's Luggage opens a fascinating window onto a world of interconnected Indic, Islamic, and Jewish traditions in the medieval Indian Ocean. From cultures of dining, gifting, medicine, packing, and religious ritual to mercantile shopping habits and shipping, the book is awash with original insights. Its holistic approach offers a compelling and innovative model of interdisciplinary scholarship.' Finbarr Barry Flood, Institute of Fine Arts and founder-director of Silsila: Center for Material Histories, New York University'Lambourn's deeply learned and intellectually enterprising reconstruction of the biology and materiality of travel along the maritime highways of the western Indian Ocean enriches our understanding of how humans have inhabited ships and the high seas in a crucial period of world history.' Roxani Eleni Margariti, Emory University, Georgia'Elizabeth A. Lambourn brings to life the trip home to Egypt of a twelfth-century Jewish trader, transforming a Geniza fragment into a mirror of macrohistory and reconstructing the life of a Mediterranean household in India. A fascinating, path-breaking study for Geniza research and the history of material culture in the Indian Ocean.' Mordechai Akiva Friedman, Tel-Aviv University, Israel'… Lambourn's book is an ethnography of an 800-year-old cultural world, but its human feel makes it unlike any previous work about the region and period.' Erik Gilbert, Journal of Interdisciplinary History'… Abraham's Luggage is flawlessly produced and well thought out, with hyperlinks enabling quick cross-referencing of chapter endnotes, references to other chapters in the volume and figures and tables. Abraham's Luggage will no doubt inspire much of that work and makes a powerful contribution in its own right.' Rebecca Darley, Journal of Early Modern HistoryTable of Contents1. Introduction. A list of luggage from the Indian Ocean world; 2. From Ifriqiya to Malibarat – introducing Abraham Ben Yiju; Part I. A Mediterranean Society in Malibarat: 3. Making homes and friends: on shopping and Ṣuḥba; 4. Making a meal of it: on food cultures; 5. A Jewish home: on ritual foods; Part II. A Mediterranean Society at Sea: 6. The 'simple' bare necessities: on water and rice; 7. 'Things for the cabin': inhabiting the Ocean; 8. The balanced body: on vinegar and other sour foods; 9. From Malibarat to Misr and beyond – afterlives; Appendix: Abraham's list of luggage.

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Book SynopsisHistories of Iran, as of the wider Middle East, have been dominated by the twin narratives of top-down modernization and methodological nationalism. In this book, Stephanie Cronin problematizes both of these narratives. Its attention is firmly fixed on subaltern social groups: the ''dangerous classes'' and their constructed contrast with the new and avowedly modern bourgeois elite created by the infant Pahlavi state; the hungry poor pitted against the deregulation and globalization of the late nineteenth century Iranian economy; rural criminals of every variety, bandits, smugglers and pirates, and the profoundly ambiguous attitudes towards them of the communities from which they came. In foregrounding these groups, the book also seeks to move beyond a narrow national context, demonstrating, through a series of case-studies, the explanatory power of global, transnational and comparative approaches to the study of the social history of the Middle East.Trade Review'Cronin combines her detailed knowledge of social history of Iran and the Middle East with new readings of E. P. Thompson, Eric Hobsbawm, and Michel Foucault. The result is a remarkably fresh look at the history of the Middle east and diaspora, where events that happened in the region, whether bread riots or campaigns for unveiling, cease to be explicable only by the history of that nation, and become instead one example of a much bigger global story.' Janet Afary, University of California, Santa Barbara'In this most exciting study of social history of Iran, Cronin provides a masterful comparative contextual framework for understanding how social change, and exchange, takes place and exposes the international pressure points impacting the complex processes of change in social relations. Packed with historical insights and deep theoretical reflections, in this book Cronin displays her profound knowledge of the processes of social change as experienced by vulnerable communities.' Anoush Ehteshami, Durham University'Scholarship on the history of the Middle East tends to be state centered, urban concentrated and elite driven. Cronin breaks with that habit. Using an array of sources, Cronin opens a panoramic window into the lives of those who were both (neglected) victims and agents of change in Iran and the wider Middle East. A model for future research on Middle Eastern societies beyond high nationalism, this is an innovative and theoretically sophisticated book.' Rudolph Matthee, University of Delaware'Cronin de-centers elites and national borders to write layered, interconnected, and expansive social histories on topics ranging from abolitionism in the Middle East to the 1979 Iranian revolution. This book exemplifies the power of a global framework of analysis when applied thoughtfully and with erudition.' Naghmeh Sohrabi, Brandeis University'Every chapter is rich in detail, supplemented by footnotes that serve as a wonderful guide to the social history literature in Persian and English, and a 28-page bibliography. The introductory chapter is an excellent, detailed summary of the book's theses. Recommended.' P. Clawson, ChoiceTable of ContentsIntroduction; I. Iran: 1. The Iranian Revolution, the Islamic Republic and the 'Red 1970s': a Global History; 2. Bread and Justice in Qajar Iran: the Moral Economy, the Free Market and the Hungry Poor; 3. The Dark Side of Modernism: the 'Dangerous Classes' in Iran; II. The Wider Middle East: 4. Noble Robbers, Avengers and Entrepreneurs: Eric Hobsbawm and Banditry in Iran, North Africa and the Middle East; 5. Islam Slave Agency and Abolitionism in Iran, North Africa and the Middle East; 6. Modernism and the Politics of Dress: Anti-Veiling Campaigns in the Muslim World.

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Book SynopsisFor all readers seeking a fresh perspective on how Asians negotiated racial categorisation and control under European colonial rule. Asians - Arabs in this instance - did not acquiesce but drew on a history of integration in the Malay world, connections to the Ottoman Empire, and modern organisations and schools.Trade Review'Mandal makes an important and original contribution to our understanding of Arabs and Arabness in the Malay world, as well as to the history of colonial and postcolonial Indonesia. His lucid and accessible style makes Becoming Arab a pleasure to read. This ground breaking work will provoke various conversations that will further enrich our knowledge of the topic.' Ronit Ricci, Hebrew University, Israel'Becoming Arab presents rich, engaging and original material on Arabs in the Malay world and makes a powerful case for deeper exploration of creole and transnational histories; it makes an important contribution to Southeast Asian history and colonial history, to the study of contemporary identity, ethnicity, and race, to understandings of the salience of race and ethnicity in the making and maintenance of modern nation states.' Iza Hussin, University of Cambridge'It is always a delight when a path-breaking doctoral dissertation is finally published, and Sumit Mandal's thesis, completed in 1994 at Columbia University, falls squarely into this category. Many scholars working on the Hadhrami diaspora, which spread from southern Arabia all around the Indian Ocean, have referred to this legendary text, and it is a real pleasure to see it in print at last. The book is replete with fascinating biographical sketches, and there are valuable tables detailing the economic activities of Hadhrami Arabs on Java … Cambridge University Press is to be congratulated for at last making this painstaking scholarly research available to a wider public.' William Gervase Clarence-Smith, South East Asia ResearchTable of ContentsIntroduction; Part I. A Creole Malay World: 1. Lord Sayyids; Part II. Colonial Transformation: 2. From sea to land; 3. Categorisation and control; 4. Scholarship and surveillance; Part III. Modern Identity: 5. Turning to Istanbul; 6. Sayyids remade; 7. The contested state of modern Arab identity; Conclusion.

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Book SynopsisFrom Michael Haag, bestselling author of The Templars: The History and the Myth, comes The Tragedy of the Templars, an exciting new look at the rise of Templar power and the saga of their destruction. Founded on Christmas Day 1119 in Jerusalem, the Knights Templar was a religious order dedicated to defending the Holy Land and its Christian pilgrims in the decades after the First Crusade. Legendary for their bravery and dedication, the Templars became one of the wealthiest and most powerful bodies of the medieval world—and the chief defenders of Christian society against growing Muslim forces. In The Tragedy of the Templars: The Rise and Fall of the Crusader States, Haag masterfully details the conflicts and betrayals that sent this faction of powerful knights spiraling from domination to condemnation. This stirring and thoroughly researched work of historical investigation includes maps and full-colo

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Book Synopsis

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Book SynopsisTrade Review“These illuminating conversations with a wide variety of ordinary people—ultra-Orthodox Jews, Holocaust survivors, aging kibbutzniks, Ethiopian and Russian immigrants, Arab citizens of Israel, Jewish settlers and Palestinians in the West Bank— fill the pages of this richly descriptive book. … It is refreshing, therefore, to read a book about the lives of actual Israelis, which brings their cacophonous voices, rather than the author’s opinions, to the fore.” — Dov Waxman, New York Times Book Review "Michaeli’s engrossing narrative of Israel today, free of Washington’s policy debates and international negotiations, is a work of history from the ground up, meant to document the country at this particular moment." — National Book Review “In his artfully crafted work, Michaeli deftly escorts the reader through the complexities and interactions of Israel’s populace; one rich in a diversity of opinion and practice. Read his book and you will come to understand modern day Israel as it is: a kaleidoscope of tribes.” — Times of Israel “In Twelve Tribes, Ethan Michaeli proves he is a master portraitist – of lives, places, and cultures. His rendering of contemporary Israel crackles with energy, fueled by a historian’s vision and a journalist’s unrelenting curiosity.” — Evan Osnos, New York Times bestselling author of Age of Ambition and Wildland “Forget what you think you know—in this fascinating work of nonfiction, Michaeli captures various groups of this fractured country and brings to life how complex and intertwined everyone can be. ... Rather than provide easy answers, this is a book that invites you to meet all of these people and hear their stories and take a look into their lives. It’s perfect for starting a book club discussion and challenging ideas people might have prior to reading it.” — Book Riot "A wide-ranging variety of on-the-ground reportage, uncovering a teeming world of Israelis and Palestinians working and living in uneasy proximity. Whether visiting the Tel Aviv suburbs, fashionable cafes in Jerusalem, the West Bank, or Ponevezh Yeshiva, 'one of the essential institutions of the Haredi world,' Michaeli reveals aspects of the country’s character that historians and journalists have been unable to capture." — Kirkus Reviews "Ethan Michaeli writes about Israel with the objectivity of a keen observer and the passion of an insider with a personal stake in the future of the country. In this delightful journey through Israel’s radical diversity, he cautions us against hasty judgments. Love for the Israeli story, and anxiety for its future, animate this book." — Yossi Klein Halevi, New York Times bestselling author of Letters to My Palestinian Neighbor and senior fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute "Twelve Tribes is a masterful work of history and storytelling, one that cuts through the fog of politics by focusing on the people and feelings at the heart of the story of Israel. Ethan Michaeli takes the reader on an unforgettable, eye-opening journey." — Jonathan Eig, New York Times bestselling author of Ali: A Life "Traveling with Ethan Michaeli as your welcoming guide, new worlds of understanding open up on a subject that can seem so exhaustingly stale. Israel becomes not a political football but a place--multicultural, multi-lingual, multi-cuisined, multi-centuried, multi-national, everything cheek-by-jowl, arguments breaking out everywhere and always—a magical thing so very much worth saving, somehow." — Rick Perlstein, New York Times bestselling author of Reaganland “Ethan Michaeli has a gimlet eye for the people, texture, and contradictions of modern Israel. I’m in awe of his powers of observation and his ability as a modern-day Tocqueville to take us inside one of the most complex and confounding countries in the world." — Jonathan Alter, bestselling author of His Very Best: Jimmy Carter, a Life "Ethan Michaeli paints a nuanced portrait of Israeli society." — Christian Science Monitor "Ethan Michaeli takes us on a series of jaunts around Israel, his keen observations and attention to everyday people creating a picture of the place and its inhabitants’ lives far more comprehensive than in conflict-focused news reports. ... Twelve Tribes is a joy to read, as breezy as a conversation." — American Jewish World "Ethan Michaeli has accomplished something of great value with Twelve Tribes. With his observant street level reporting and vivid writing, he has broken through stereotypes to reveal the multiplicity of Israel and the promise of its diverse peoples. From these ground level observations, I learned more about Israel than anything I'd read before." — David Maraniss, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of A Good American Family: The Red Scare and My Father "Marshaling an extraordinarily extensive network—from Palestinians to Haredim, from teenagers to nonagenarians, from kibbutzniks to businesswomen, from organizers to bystanders—Ethan Michaeli here proves himself an insightful guide through the many facets of today’s Israel. Quietly and cheerfully nudging both his interviewees and his readers, he gets at the truth—not only that there are no easy answers, but also that there are so many complicated ones." — Yuval Taylor, author of Zora and Langston: A Story of Friendship and Betrayal "While traveling across Israel, Michaeli takes an in-depth look at the patchwork of identities that make up contemporary Israeli society, from kibbutzniks to Ethiopian olim to Israeli Arabs." — Jewish Insider

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Book SynopsisTrade Review“Angela strives to make the ancient world accessible to modern readers . . . [offering] genuine insights.” — Publishers Weekly “[Cleopatra] combines scholarship with novelistic detail and character depth . . . Alberto Angela effectively draws on previous scholarship, wading through legend and myth to get at the truth of what actually occurred . . . a character-rich historical biography.” — Kirkus Reviews “The political machinations, betrayal, and battles may appeal to those fans of George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series interested in a real-world game of thrones.” — Booklist “Maybe we think we know everything about this charming woman, yet Alberto Angela, with his thirst for art and culture, will tell us things that will perhaps surprise us and surely remain in our minds and hearts.” — Roberto Baldini, Sololibri “Cleopatra is more than a book; it is like being immersed in a documentary expertly narrated by the one Italian who can do it best: Alberto Angela. […] Written well, in a precise and engaging way, it reads lightly despite the topics covered.” — Silvia Capelletto, Leggere A Colori “Its fidelity to historical sources is complimented by its imaginative, light-on-its-feet narrative style.” — Il Messaggero “Cleopatra dismantles falsehoods and stereotypes to reconstruct a more authentic and reliable portrait of its central figure.” — La Stampa “A compelling and convincing fresco, full of action and emotion.” — La Repubblica

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Book SynopsisA NYTBR Editor’s Choice “This is a book of radical empathy, crossing many borders - not just borders that separate nations, but also borders of form, borders of meaning, and borders of possibility. It is powerful and humane and deserves to find a wide, wandering readership.” — Mohsin Hamid, author of Exit WestIn this extraordinary book, an acclaimed young war reporter chronicles a dangerous journey on the smuggler’s road to Europe, accompanying his friend, an Afghan refugee, in search of a better future.In 2016, a young Afghan driver and translator named Omar makes the heart-wrenching choice to flee his war-torn country, saying goodbye to Laila, the love of his life, without knowing when they might be reunited again. He is one of millions of refugees who leave their homes that year.Matthieu Aikins, a journalist living in Kabul, decides t

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Book Synopsis

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Book Synopsis

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Book SynopsisDid Savarkar battle a stormy sea when he attempted his legendary escape at Marseilles? Did Gandhiji and he stay together as friends' in London as Savarkar claimed during Gandhiji's assassination trial? Did he turn against Muslims because of the cruelty of jailers in the Andamans? What is one to make of his mercy petitions' to the British? Did he pledge to be politically useful' to the British and accept conditions for his release that even the British had not demanded? During the Quit India movement, did Savarkar promise whole-hearted cooperation' to the British? What did he seek from the British? Was Savarkar the one who showed Subhas Bose the path that Netaji then followed?

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