Search results for ""Saqi Books""

An elusive Japanese girl leads a teenage boy into a world of passion and conflict; in Andalusia, a man talks to his painter friend about longing and belonging; a translator finds himself drawn into the personal and political turmoil of the poet he translates; a woman's quiet world is eroded by the onset of war and the movement for independence and nationhood. In his fourth collection, Aamer Hussein charts the geographies of leave-taking and homecoming, the consolations and rivalries of friendship, the yearnings of adolescence, and maturity's tentative acceptance of longing. Moving from Karachi to England, through India, Java, Italy and Spain, these exquisite stories engage with the grand narratives of our time.

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Kemal's friend mysteriously disappears, leaving him a generous allowance and the use of his large house. He discovers that his new dwelling involves an inheritance of $1.3 million, and a Russian nobleman's missing son. Kemal embarks on a missing person case that will bring chaos and romance to his life. Clues lead him from Istanbul to Buenos Aires and eventually Boston. In Boston, Kemal visits the Edgar Allan Poe museum. There in the museum is a poster announcing the Nevar foundation's offer of $200,000 to the winner of a first novel competition. Kemal buys paper and pen. He has decided to enter the Nevar competition with a novel called 'Many and Many a Year Ago'.

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An anthology of anecdotes, fables, stories and proverbs related and translated from the oral tradition of the Arab lands and from Persian and Arabic literature. Henry Cattan has selected from a number of oral and written sources evocative of Eastern wisdom and humour and featuring some of the most memorable of Arab folk characters. Most famous of all is Juha, the popular humourist from folk legend who is perhaps best known in the West as Mullah Nasreddin. Juha's stories have enriched an oral tradition which has for centuries been for the people of Levant a means of expressing through wit and humour their convictions about humanity, society and man's place in the world. The last section of the book features a handful of the 7000 proverbs which are still used today to adorn language and conversation.

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The Shi'is of Saudi Arabia offers a comprehensive overview of the evolution of Shi'i opposition in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia, from the Iranian Revolution in 1979 to the ascension of Abdullah to the throne in August 2005. Fouad Ibrahim examines the Reform Movement, which replaced the Islamic Revolution Organization following the Shi'i uprisings in al-Hasa and Qatif. Since its initiation, the Movement has campaigned for an Islamic state similar to the Iranian model. It became more moderate in the early nineties, when it began advocating democracy, human rights and civil society. It also succeeded in bringing issues of political and individual liberty in Saudi Arabia to the attention of human rights organizations, Western governments and political parties throughout the world. The late King Fahd decreed a general amnesty in 1993, allowing Shi'i dissidents who had fled to return to the country. In return, the Shi'is were required to abandon their political programme of reform. This marked a new era for the Shi'is in the Eastern Province. Ibrahim assesses the leaders' considerable efforts to formulate a new discourse, participating in activities throughout the country with the aim of bringing about political change in the kingdom.

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Based on first-hand research conducted by the Moscow Centre for Civilizational and Regional Studies, this work documents the findings of one of the first authoritative studies on the newly independent states of Central Asia - Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kirgizia and Tadjikistan. Focusing on the unprecedented challenges facing these nascent countries, it examines the political events and socio-economic changes which followed the disintegration of the Soviet Union by analysing the difficulties of state-building and the dramatic social upheavals experienced by these republics. The book also covers the path of economic growth in the 1990s by examining the recession of 1991-1995 and the increasing income disparity between the affluent minority and the impoverished majority. The continuing socio-political and inter-ethnic tensions in the region are also covered in some detail, as is the relationship between the new states and Russia. Attention is further drawn to the causes and outcomes of the civil war in Tadjikistan as well as the growing international competition for access to the natural resources of the Central Asian countries.

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The Literary Heritage of the Arabs samples some of the finest literature produced by Arab writers from pre-Islamic times to the Abbasid Dynasty. The selection of poetry and prose spans many genres and styles, conveying the full range of Arab experiences and perspectives - from the tragic to the comic, the wistful to the mystical, and the courtly to the lowly. This volume includes Arabian odes (or Mu'allaqat), the pre-eminent poetic form in pre-Islamic tribal society; selections from the Holy Qur'an, which revolutionized Arab spiritual and poetic sensibility and contributed a literary exemplar and inspiration that has endured to this day; samples of Hadith that testify to the words and actions of the Prophet Muhammad; and examples of poetry produced during the Umayyad dynasty. The anthology concludes with a cornucopia of poetry and prose that flourished during the Abbasid period - the fruit of vibrant cross-cultural interaction and influence - such as the poetry of rivalry, love, adventure and mystic transcendence, as well as prose conveying scientific innovation, philosophical inquiry, theological disputation and historical analysis

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On 11 August 1913, the Tsar's consul in Persia, and officer in the Lithuanian Regiment, Alexander Iyas, photographed Mamed Amin-agha, head of the Kurdish Piran tribe, in front of a wall of fierce-looking warriors from Baiz-pasha's Mangur tribe. The photographer was thus marking a reconciliation he had successfully negotiated between the two warring tribes. 15 months later, in December 1914, Iyas was assassinated and beheaded by these tribesmen allied with Turkish troops. By an extraordinary series of coincidences, the negatives were recovered on the body of a Turkish officer killed by the Russians during the battle near Tabriz in January 1915. Such are the ironies of the Eastern Front of the First World War. The officer-photographer had arrived in Persia in 1901, in the small town of Turbat-i Haydari near the Afghan border. He was armed with several cameras, including the remarkable Kodak Panoram taking wide-angle images of 150degree. Throughout his years in Persia, he documented the places, people, and events he encountered with some remarkable photographs, providing us with a rare Russian point of view of the Great Game - the rivalry between Britain and Russia for the domination of Central Asia. This is a unique and hitherto unknown group of images of a region, and a time for which no other comprehensive collection exists.

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This account of the first major forum to review relations between Britain and Egypt, held in London in 2006, demonstrates how political, economic and cultural interaction between the countries has developed since the Suez invasion of 1956. In addition to providing a historical assessment, it suggests ways forward in both bilateral and international contexts. Egyptian and British contributors include government ministers and specialists in history, economics, Egyptology, business, education, culture and international affairs.

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This vibrant and thought-provoking anthology of translated short stories is representative of the variety of issues that women from Bangladesh tackle in their writings. It includes stories about the 1971 War of Liberation, women's 'honour', mother-daughter relationships, the vagaries of marriage and contemporary political corruption. Well-established women writers such as Selina Hossain and Nasreen Jehan are represented here, along with emerging writers, the better to evoke the broad range of Bangladeshi women's literary voices. Daring in both form and theme, these stories reveal the exciting transformation that fiction writing is currently experiencing on the contemporary literary scene.

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It is now more than seventy years since the creation of the state of Israel, yet its origins and the British Empire’s historic responsibility for Palestine remain little known. Confusion persists too as to the distinction between anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism. In Legacy of Empire, Gardner Thompson offers a clear-eyed review of political Zionism and Britain’s role in shaping the history of Palestine and Israel. Thompson explores why the British government adopted Zionism in the early twentieth century, issuing the Balfour Declaration in 1917 and then retaining it as the cornerstone of their rule in Palestine after the First World War. Despite evidence and warnings, over the next two decades Britain would facilitate the colonisation of Arab Palestine by Jewish immigrants, ultimately leading to a conflict which it could not contain. Britain’s response was to propose the partition of an ungovernable land: a `two-state solution’ which – though endorsed by the United Nations after the Second World War – has so far brought into being neither two states nor a solution. A highly readable and compelling account of Britain’s rule in Palestine, Legacy of Empire is essential for those wishing to better understand the roots of this enduring conflict.

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This collection of stories includes: "The Blue Direction", where a teenage boy's life uncannily begins to resemble the role he plays in a school operetta and "The Lost Cantos of the Silken Tiger", where a poet revenges herself on her faithless lover by turning their romance into a biblical legend.

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Growing up in the aftermath of the 1953 CIA coup in Iran exposed the young Masoud Banisadr to extremes of wealth and poverty, loyalty and betrayal. Years later in the United Kingdom, where Banisadr had gone to do postgraduate study, he decided to join the Iranian Mohajedin, an organization fighting to dislodge the regime that took power following the 1979 revolution. Torn between two loves - his family and the cause - Masoud gave up normal life to pursue the revolution. But it wasn't long before the dream turned sour. The Mojahedin's revolutionary fervour demanded more than total sacrifice: he was pressured to divorce his beloved wife, alienate himself from his family and career, and remain separated for over a decade from his children. Years later, following his defection from the organization, Masoud decides to tell his story. Masoud is a story unlike any other to come out of Iran in modern times; at once a passionate and terrifying account of one man's revolutionary journey, it is also a poignant warning against the dangers of extremism.

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Direct and startlingly intimate, Hussein's stories are set in troubled times - in Karachi, Lahore and London, where war, partition and military rule form the backdrop for the anticipation and anxiety of changing homes and family life, the hopes and failures of love and work. Turquoise is a collection of stories that illuminate the passions and fears of a world more complex and more beautiful than the media images of Islam and Pakistan convey.

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Daybreak in Gaza humanises the people dismissed as mere statistics and âcollateral damageâ, showing Gazans as artists and storytellers with lives full of culture and meaning. This book seeks to preserve the heritage that has been lost, and that which can never be lost, revealing the wealth of Gazaâs cultural landscape and the depth of its history.

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Setting the price of oil, one of the most sought-after and traded commodities in the global market, has been a major issue in the field of economics. In this book, Abdulaziz M. Aldukheil offers his mathematical base for setting the price of Middle Eastern crude oil and its application in oil exporting nations. Focusing on Saudi Arabia, An Optimum Base for Pricing Middle Eastern Crude Oil examines the deficiencies of present price-setting methods where production (extraction), trade, return on foreign investment and the subsequent investment of surplus revenues present complex questions for the Saudi Arabian economy. The author suggests that if the nation has to produce more oil than what it can invest in at home, it has to be offered foreign investment with a return equal to the annual real rate of growth crude oil price.

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In this classic work, Abdelwahab Bouhdiba asserts that Islam is a lyrical view of life in which sexuality enjoys a privileged status. Drawing on both Arabic and Western sources and seeking to integrate the religious and the sexual, Bouhdiba describes the place of sexuality in the traditional Islamic view of the world and examines whether a harmony of sexuality and religious faith is achieved in practice. Beginning with the Quran, Bouhdiba confronts the question of male supremacy in Islam and the strict separation of the masculine and the feminine. He considers purification practices; Islamic attitudes towards homosexuality, concubinage and legal marriage; and sexual taboos laid down by the Quran. Bouhdiba assesses contemporary sexual practice, including eroticism, misogyny and mysticism, and concludes that the ideal Islamic model of sexuality has been debased.

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Fred Halliday always combined the broad sweep of modern history, its currents and ideas with a profound knowledge of modern revolutions, the Middle East and national movements. This collection of columns written for openDemocracy between 2004 and 2009 is proof of a subtle worldview that continues to generate questions: what is the relation between religion, nationalism and progress? Is a new international order possible? When is intervention a force for progress? From the big headlines topics like the Iraq war or the Danish cartoons, to the unexpected comparisons, of Tibet and Palestine or Afghanistan and the Falklands, Halliday is a perennially surprising and enlightening guide to the major issues of international politics.

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The Husayni family of Jerusalem dominated Palestinian history for 250 years, from the Ottoman times through to the end of the British Mandate. At the height of the family's political influence, positions in Jerusalem could only be obtained through its power base.In this compelling political biography, Ilan Pappe traces the rise of the Husaynis from a provincial Ottoman elite clan into the leadership of the Palestinian national movement in the twentieth century. In telling their story, Pappe highlights the continuous urban history of Jerusalem and Palestine. Shedding new light on crucial events such as the invasion of Palestine by Napoleon, the decline of the Ottoman Empire, World War I and the advent of Zionism, this remarkable account provides an unforgettable picture of the Palestinian tragedy in its entirety.

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Lebanon today is at a fateful crossroads in its eventful socio-cultural and political history. Imperiled by unsettling transformations, from postwar reconstruction and rehabilitation to the forces of postmodernity and globalism, it remains adrift. In this landmark study, Samir Khalaf explores how ordinary citizens, burdened by the consequences of an ugly and unfinished war, persisting regional rivalries, mounting economic deprivation and diminishing prospects for well-being, find meaning and coherence in a society that has not only lost its moorings and direction, but also its sense of control. Khalaf argues that a mood of lethargy and indifference prevails, with a growing tendency for the Lebanese to seek refuge in religiosity, communalism and cloistered spatial identities, or temporary relief in the allure of mass consumerism.

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Mustafa Kemal Ataturk is hailed as one of the most charismatic political leaders of the twentieth century, but little is known today about his one and only wife, Latife Hanim. A multilingual intellectual educated at the Sorbonne, Latife's marriage to Ataturk in 1923 raised her to the pinnacle of political power. Hanim played a central role in the creation of a modern and secular Turkey and championed the emancipation of women. Throughout her marriage, she stood beside her husband, and acted as his interpreter, promoter and diplomatic aide. However, after only two years of marriage, Ataturk divorced Latife, who was shunned and blamed for the failure of the marriage. She spent the rest of her life in seclusion. An international bestseller, this intimate biography vividly brings to life the story of an exceptional and courageous woman, well ahead of her time, who lived through a remarkable period in Turkish history.

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In the space of a mere 20 years Gengis Khan rallied all the tribes of Mongolia and put Mongol society under a codified set of laws, much admired by Western travellers. At the head of his superbly disciplined army, he then embarked on the conquest of China. Hardly had Beijing fallen to him then he was off again, this time to lay waste to the Middle East. As the sun set over the land of the Thousand and One Nights, he summoned a famed Taoist to teach him the secrets of "long life" - as if, now that he was master of the world, he wished to conquer other domains than those that could be subjugated by the sword. From the 13th centure, the Mongol empire has been shrouded in mystery, and legends abound - the name of Gengis Khan is, to this day, synonymous with terror. Michael Hoang provides a different picture, showing that the "bloodthirsty barbarian" was also a visionary statesman and that behind the Oriental despot lay a strategist of genius. The book also provides insight into Mongol society and culture.

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Rebecca has a most unusual problem: no matter how hard she tries, she can't stop broadcasting her feelings to people around her. Luckily, she's discovered how to trap and store her feelings in personal objects - but just how much emotional baggage can Unit 207, E.Z Self Storage hold? Lewis is grieving for his wife, Lisa, Rebecca's sister. Inconsolable, he skips Lisa's funeral, flies to Winnipeg, gets a haircut and meets a woman who claims to be God. At the wheel of stolen Honda Civic is Aberystwyth, aka Aby, driving across Canada to save the soul of her dying mother. She is green, gill-necked, and very comfortable out of water. An unexpected encounter with Aby seys off a chain of events which sends each of them on a personal quest. Can Rebecca, Lewis, Aby find redemption before a terrible flood destroys their chance at happiness? A charming tale about love and the power of forgiveness.

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It's the middle of the 21st century, and the next Ice Age has suddenly sent global warming into reverse. Saul is one of the Ice People, the threatened peoples of the northern hemisphere, who, watching their world freeze over, try to move south towards the equator. 'Set in the near future, it imagines not a globally warmed world, but an earth slowly returning to aridity and cold. A universal freeze has also descended upon relationships between men and women, who live in morbid segregation, with feathered robots as sexual partners. In a neat reversal of First World-Third World assumptions, Africa's relative warmth offers a last hope to northerly survivors as the novel charts one man's struggle to rescue his alienated son and bring him to where the sun shines' - Rose Tremain.

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Yamina Taleb is approaching her seventieth birthday. Alternating fragments from Yamina's Algerian past with those of her Paris present, Discretion spans the history of colonial conflict from the Second World War to the present day. A tribute to mothers everywhere, it is also the story of a modern French family feeling their way through the puzzle of their history - and finding one another as they go along.

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Bahiah Shaheen, an eighteen-year-old medical student and the daughter of a prominent Egyptian public official, finds the male students in her class coarse and alien. Her father, too, seems to belong to a race apart. Frustrated by her hard-working, well-behaved, middle-class public persona, her meeting with a stranger at a gallery one day proves to be the beginning of her road to self-discovery and the start of her realisation that fulfilment in life is indeed possible.

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After Zionism brings together some of the world’s leading thinkers on the Middle East question. In thought-provoking essays, the contributors dissect the century-long conflict between Zionism and the Palestinians, and explore possible forms of a one-state solution in the most conflicted part of the world. Time has run out for the two-state solution because of the unending and permanent Israeli colonisation of Palestinian land. The Hamas attacks of 7 October 2023 and Israel’s subsequent devastation of Gaza have given renewed urgency to the discussion of how to move towards a future that honours the rights of all who live in Palestine and Israel. This timely edition includes a new preface as well as challenging and insightful essays by Omar Barghouti, Jonathan Cook, Joseph Dana, Jeremiah Haber, Jeff Halper, Ghada Karmi, Saree Makdisi, John Mearsheimer, Ilan Pappe, Sara Roy and Phil Weiss.

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Arabicity reflects on four decades of the aesthetic, conceptual, and socio-political concerns of contemporary Arab artists. Beautifully produced, it features over 200 artworks by more than 35 Arab artists including Bahia Shehab, Ayman Baalbaki, Hassan Hajjaj, and Raeda Saadeh, who explore their cultural heritage, and themes such as memory, destruction, and conflict, with great warmth, humour and visual poetry. Whether through video art, painting, photography or installation, these artists challenge the confines of their identity, resist stereotyping, and reshape the parameters of their cultural traditions. In their diverse media and subject matter, their works reflect the pulse of the region. In chaos they discover what endures.

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Yamina Taleb is approaching her seventieth birthday. Not that she's sure exactly when to celebrate it, since her Algerian identity papers state a different date of birth to her French ones. These days, Yamina strives for a quiet life and to be, at best, invisible. The closest she gets to drama is flashing her pensioner's bus pass in the style of police officers she's seen on television or scooping 'revolutionary' bargains in the form of plastic kitchenware gadgets. But Yamina's children feel differently. They are made to feel out of place in Paris, and it hurts. Then, for the first time in forty years, the whole family take a holiday from the city - not a return trip to the motherland, but a holiday in France. In the privacy of their villa-with-pool rental, it becomes clear to them all: there is no 'going back'. Alternating fragments from Yamina's Algerian past with those of her Paris present, Discretion spans the history of colonial conflict from the Second World War to the present day. A tribute to mothers everywhere, it is also the story of a modern French family feeling their way through the puzzle of their history - and finding one another as they go along.

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The Nawab Nazim was born into one of India's most powerful royal families. Three times the size of Great Britain, his kingdom ranged from the soaring Himalayas to the Bay of Bengal. However, in 1880, he was forced to abdicate by the British authorities, who saw him as a threat and permanently abolished his titles. The Nawab's change in fortune marked the end of an era in India and left his secret English family abandoned. The Last Prince of Bengal tells the true story of the Nawab Nazim and his family as they sought by turns to befriend, settle in and eventually escape Britain. From glamourous receptions with Queen Victoria to a scandalous Muslim marriage with an English chambermaid; and from Bengal tiger hunts to sheep farming in the harsh Australian outback, Lyn Innes recounts her ancestors' extraordinary journey from royalty to relative anonymity. This compelling account visits the extremes of British rule in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, exposing complex prejudices regarding race, class and gender. It is the intimate story of one family and their place in defining moments of recent Indian, British and Australian history.

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Winner of the Saltire Society Fiction Book of the Year 2018; Longlisted for The People's Book Prize 2018; From one of our finest contemporary writers whose work has been praised by J.M. Coetzee, Ali Smith and Aminatta Forna, Leila Aboulela's Elsewhere, Home offers us a rich tableau of life as an immigrant abroad, attempting to navigate the conflicts of assimilation and difference in an unfamiliar world. A young woman's encounter with a former classmate elicits painful reminders of her former life in Khartoum. A wealthy Sudanese student in Aberdeen begins an unlikely friendship with a Scottish man. A woman experiences an evolving relationship to her favourite writer, whose portrait of their shared culture both reflects and conflicts with her own sense of identity. Shuttling between the dusty, sun-baked streets of Khartoum and the university halls and cramped apartments of Aberdeen and London, Elsewhere, Home explores, with subtlety and restraint, the profound feelings of yearning, loss and alienation that come with leaving one's homeland in pursuit of a different life.

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Jamilia's husband is off fighting at the front. She spends her days hauling sacks of grain from the threshing floor to the train station in their small village in the Caucasus, accompanied by Seit, her young brother-in-law, and Daniyar, a sullen newcomer to the village who has been wounded on the battlefield. Seit observes the beautiful, spirited Jamilia spurn men's advances, and wince at the dispassionate letters she receives from her husband. Meanwhile, undeterred by Jamilia's teasing, Daniyar sings as they return each evening from the fields. Soon Jamilia is in love, and she and Daniyar elope just as her husband returns.

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All Tom's friends really are superheroes. Tom even married a superhero, the Perfectionist. But at their wedding the Perfectionist is hypnotized by her ex, Hypno, to believe that Tom is invisible. Nothing he does can make her see him. Six months later, the Perfectionist is sure that Tom has abandoned her, so she's moving to Vancouver. She'll use her superpowers to leave all the heartbreak behind. With no idea that Tom's beside her, she boards the plane. Tom has, until they touch down, to convince her he's there, or he loses her forever...This book is a wonderful, heartbreakingly funny tribute to love, sweet love.

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The birth of Qur'anic calligraphy was a major event in the early history of Islam. In a few decades, it raised the Arabs and their language from the remote fringes of the civilised world to its very heart. Alain George brings together manuscript, mosaic, architecture and text to reveal the evolution of Arabic calligraphy from its pre-Islamic conception to the emergence of the modern styles of writing still in use today. The Rise of Islamic Calligraphy explores the ancient notion of proportion in Arabic script and presents the first in-depth investigation of an extremely rare body of material: the earliest manuscripts of the Qur'an. Alain George highlights the relationship of early Arabic calligraphy to the emerging civilisation of Islam, showing how a craft based on pen, parchment and ink came to convey the divine character of the Qur'anic text. Beautifully illustrated, this is an essential reference work for students and connoisseurs of calligraphy alike.

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This ground-breaking anthology features the compelling and courageous memoirs of eighteen queer Arab writers - some internationally bestselling, others using pseudonyms. heart-warming connections and moments of celebration sit alongside essays exploring the challenges of being LGBTQ+ and Arab. From a military base in the Gulf to loving whispers caught between the bedsheets; from touring overseas as a drag queen to a concert in Cairo where a crowd of thousands greet the rainbow flag, this collection celebrates the true colours of a vibrant Arab queer experience.

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Bursa prison, mid-winter 1940. Two prisoners meet, both writers, both serving long sentences for allegedly inciting Turkish soldiers to mutiny. One is Turkey's most famous poet and communist, Nazim Hikmet; the other a young, aspiring poet, Orhan Kemal, who now shares a cell with the man whose work he has long admired. In this prison memoir, Orhan Kemal reminisces on the time he shared with the remarkable poet and describes how Nazim inspired him to become one of Turkey's most popular and successful novelists. A fascinating account of one of the most poignant friendships in Turkish letters, this volume includes Orhan Kemal's diary entries and Nazim's letters to him after Orhan's release from prison in 1943.

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Syria's descent into chaos since 2011 has claimed hundreds of thousands of lives, while more than nine million people have fled their homes. In this timely account, John McHugo charts the history of Syria from the First World War to the present and considers why Syria's foundations as a nation have proved so fragile. He examines the country's thwarted attempts at independence under French rule before turning to more recent events: two generations of rule by the Assad family, sectarian tensions, the pressures that turned an aborted revolution into a proxy war, and the appearance of ISIS. As the conflict in Syria rages on, McHugo provides a rare and authoritative guide to a complex nation that demands our attention.

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In New York, Lilia wakes up one morning to discover her loveless marriage is founded on nothing but deep mistrust and contempt. Marc, in Paris, is mourning the death of his beloved wife and can't bear to face the empty kitchen. And in Istanbul, Ferda waits hand and foot on her demanding mother while trying to make time for her true passion: cooking for her loved ones. In this heartwarming and tender tale, Lilia, Marc and Ferda will find healing and joy in the simple art of cooking.

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Alexandre Najjar's father is celebrated in his legal profession for his rare eloquence. In the courtroom the word is everything, and his work is his life. He is also the father of six children, in whom he instils great fear, imposing military discipline, punishing them severely when they break the rules. Behind this discipline, however, lies an affectionate man, brimming with humour and curiosity, and contagiously optimistic. A sudden heart attack leaves him wheelchair-bound and painfully deprived of the eloquence for which he was so well respected. But the love of his family and his unfading hope will help him overcome this trying time. A son's frank and moving homage to his father.

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Arab cultural discourse has been slow to respond to changing sexual behaviour in the Arab world. The contributors to this collection pick up the slack, ranging across such disciplines as literature, history, sociology and psychology. Is Damascus the 'chastity capital' of the Middle East? How do gay men cruise in Beirut? Are young women in Tunis pressured both to lose and gain weight? What do Lebanese students write about sexual practices versus public behaviour? The fresh, compelling research topics covered include masculinity and migration; colonialism and sexual health; and fantasy and violence.

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Insightful and extensively researched, "Lebanon in the 1950s" explores the differing mythologies of the Maronite, Druze and Sunni communities that led to a brief but brutal clash in Lebanon in 1958. This quickly escalated into a full-blown national crisis, which saw US Marines landing on Beirut shores. This polemical and thought-provoking work offers a fresh perspective on a period in Lebanese history often seen as the product of international friction between pan-Arab nationalism and the growing threat to Western hegemony during the Cold War. Kanaan argues that it was the centuries-old cultural, political and religious tensions in the region that led to civil conflict: each community constructed a 'history' of Lebanon to justify their own ends, and in so doing helped to precipitate a national crisis. "Lebanon in the 1950s" is a fascinating overview of the interpretations surrounding the 'historical' evolution of the various communities that helped shaped Lebanon's vulnerable and volatile infrastructure, and what the US Department of Defence referred to as 'like war but not war' - a clash that was to have repercussions throughout the region for decades to follow.

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Set in the small town called Tarrana in the Nile Delta in the 1930s, Stones of Bobello revolves around nine episodes in the life of a sensitive young Christian boy - a montage of philosophical, mythical, and psychological perspectives that highlights the struggle between polarities of man and woman, Copt and Muslim, dreams and reality.Told in a heartbreakingly lyrical language that rarefies the most ordinary, mundane events, and brings startlingly to life the torpid climate of the Egyptian Delta, the language in Stones of Bobello allows for moments of erotic fantasy as well as an imaginative space where dreams and memories can flourish. A truly beautiful novel that deserves to be read and re-read.

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Malileh Afnan's work appears 'as a relic of an older civilization or an archaeological excavation into the collective psyche. The delicacy of Persian miniatures and manuscripts, which she remembers from childhood, is mirrored in her love for intimate scale and the refined beauty of muted colour'. Calligraphy plays an important role: images appear that suggest the written word. Works on paper and tablets of painted plaster are reminiscent of ancient, almost obliterated texts, and like palimpsests, retain only some vestige of literal meaning and an impression of human contact. Afnan has absorbed both Middle Eastern and Western influences. She has looked towards such artists as Pollock, Rothko, Dubuffet and Klee, and shares an affinity with the American artist Mark Tobey, who helped arrange the first European exhibition of her work in 1971.

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Investigative journalist and al Qa'ida expert Camille Tawil analyses the close and complex links between the group and related Arab jihadi movements in Libya, Egypt and Algeria. Tawil investigates these jihadis' attempts at toppling their Arab governments in the 1990s. He reveals how their failure opened a space for al Qa'ida to focus its attention beyond national frontiers, and ultimately on America. He also argues that despite the potential for discord between the different jihadi groups, US policy has forced them to align themselves with al Qa'ida.

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The hajj, the fifth pillar of Islam, is a religious duty to be performed once in a lifetime by all Muslims who are able. The Prophet Muhammad set out the rituals of hajj when he led what became known as the Farewell Hajj in 10 AH / 632AD. This set the seal on Muhammad's career as the founder of a religion and the leader of a political entity based on that religion. The convergence of the Prophet with the politician infuses the hajj with political, as well as religious, significance. For the caliphs who led the Islamic community after Muhammad's death, leadership of the hajj became a position of enormous political relevance as it presented them with an unrivalled opportunity to proclaim their pious credentials and reinforce their political legitimacy.

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"Noor" is the tale of three brothers attempting to rescue their sister Noor, who has been kidnapped during Ramadan. Each brother represents a different ideological position in the contemporary Islamic world. While exploring the crisis of modern Islam, "Noor" is a heartfelt treatise for religious tolerance. Ahmed points out that the play could be set in Baghdad but also Cairo, Karachi or Kabul. "The Trial of Dara Shikoh" tells the story of the eldest son of 17th century Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan. Heir apparent, Dara Shikoh is a learned scholar with a strong belief in the unity of different faiths: Hinduism, Islam, Sikhism, Christianity and Judaism. Ahmed's play highlights the complex issue of religious interpretation within a human context, set in the 17th century, its text resonating just as strongly for the contemporary reader.

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Bodour, a distinguished literary critic, carries with her a dark secret. As a young university student, she fell in love with a political activist and gave birth to an illegitimate daughter, Zeina, whom she abandoned on the streets of Cairo. Zeina grows up to become one of Egypt's most beloved entertainers, despite being deprived of a family name and a home. Bodour in turn remains trapped in a loveless marriage, pining for her daughter and lost love. In an attempt to find solace, she writes a fictionalised account of her life, which then mysteriously gets stolen. Set against the backdrop of revolution in Cairo, Zeina is a tale about regret, loss and the courage it takes for a mother to face up to the mistakes of her past.

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Born in Qazvin, Iran, in 1944, Koorosh Shishegaran is considered one of the most expressive and emotive artists of the contemporary Iranian art movement. In a career spanning six decades, he has established himself as an artist of great discipline, social awareness and manual skill, working in a wide array of different media, from graphic design to painting, photography and furniture design. Drawing inspiration from Iranian visual culture, Shishegaran is best known for his scribble line abstract paintings. These dynamic colourful lines, depicting the contemporary human condition, enabled the artist to find a style and language expressive of the modern era. With contributions from leading experts in the field and featuring over 300 colour plates, Koorosh Shishegaran: The Art of Altruism brings together the life and works of the artist for the first time, showcasing his various artistic phases and outlining his progressive approach to art-making and distribution.

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Examines the paradox between what Arabs see and how they deal with reality. This study discusses topics such as authority, card games, backgammon, autocratic rule, poetry, prose, equality, and laws of inheritance.

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