Search results for ""saqi books""
Saqi Books Souffle
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.
£14.69
Saqi Books The Silence of My Father
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.
£12.44
Saqi Books Sexuality in the Arab World
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.
£38.30
Saqi Books Lebanon 1860-1960: A Century of Myth and Politics
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.
£51.21
Saqi Books Stones of Bobello
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.
£15.35
Saqi Books Maliheh Afnan: Traces, Faces, Places
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.
£34.05
Saqi Books Brothers in Arms: The Story of Al- Qa'ida and the Arab Jihadists
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.
£17.00
Saqi Books The Meaning of Mecca: The Politics of Pilgrimage in Early Islam
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.
£29.95
Saqi Books Akbar Ahmed - Two Plays: "Noor" and "The Trial of Dara Shikoh"
"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.
£14.55
Saqi Books Zeina
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.
£14.33
Saqi Books Koorosh Shishegaran: The Art of Altruism 2017
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.
£56.05
SAQI BOOKS Tents and Pyramids Games and Ideology in Arab Culture from Backgammon to Autocratic Rule
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.
£33.74
Saqi Books Love and Sexuality in Modern Arabic Literature
In segregated, conservative societies with a repressive attitude to women, writing on the theme of love and sexuality are of particular interest. Among the plethora of studies on modern Arabic literature, this book is a major treatment of what has generally been a taboo subject. The scope covers the entire history of modern Arabic literature from the late-19th century to the end of the 1980s, with examples drawn from countries as diverse as Egypt and Kuwait. Although the main accent is on the prose of Egypt and the countries of the Mashreq, North African literature is also included. Examples are drawn form poetry, the novel and the short story. Topics range from "Erotic awareness in the early Egyptian short story" to "Death and desire in Iraqi War literature", from "Fathers and husbands as tyrants and victims" to "The foreign woman and the European mistress in the Maghreb novel". "Love and the mechanism of power" is analyzed, as are "Sexual politics and narrative strategies". Love and sexuality are shown as key elements in the work of Tawfik al-Hakim, Fuad al-Tikirli, the Kuwaiti writer Layla al-Uthman annd Nizar Qabbani. Other chapters treat "The lover in popular 20th-century Arabic drama", "Love and beyond in Mahjar literature" and "The romantic imagination and the female ideal".
£24.20
Saqi Books Another Gulmohar Tree
Offers an account of a cross-cultural marriage.
£7.94
Saqi Books Young Turk
Against the backdrop of Nazism, in a multi-racial Turkey giving sanctuary to many of Europe's fleeing Jews, a group of teenage friends struggles to understand events while reeling from the sexual and emotional discoveries of adolescence. An alluring woman initiates Mustafa and his classmates in the carnal delights of rose petal jam; Musa discovers the hard facts of reaching manhood when he is expelled from the women's baths; Bilal, a fourteen-year-old Jewish boy, sets off for Greece to rescue his mother's sister; and a circus orphan known only as `Girl' falls head over heels for the new trapeze artist ... Young Turk is a wise, craftily-spun and spine-tinglingly erotic tale of love, courage and the forging of conscience.
£9.79
Saqi Books Where are the Snows
Christopher and Alexandra's passion for one another raises eyebrows and invites envy. This beautiful, blinkered couple do the unthinkable and run away from home, abandoning their two teenage children. This is a story of obsessive love and a testimony to the bonds that tie us to our past, regardless of distance or time travelled.
£8.55
Saqi Books The Exile's Cookbook: Medieval Gastronomic Treasures from al-Andalus and North Africa
The Exile’s Cookbook brings together 480 recipes, including roasts and stews, breads, condiments, preserves, sweetmeats, and even hand-washing soaps. It offers a fascinating insight into the cuisine of Muslim Spain and North Africa in the period – its regional characteristics and historical antecedents, but also its links to culinary traditions in other parts of the Muslim world. This elegant translation by Daniel L. Newman is based on all the manuscripts of the text that are known to have survived. It is accompanied by an introduction and extensive notes contextualising the recipes, ingredients, tableware and cooking practices.
£19.06
Saqi Books An Unlasting Home
Sara is a philosophy professor at Kuwait University. Her relationship with Kuwait is complicated; it is a country she recognises less and less. Yet since her return from the States eleven years earlier, a certain inertia has kept her there. When she is accused of blasphemy, which carries with it the threat of execution, Sara realises she must reconcile her feelings and her place in the world once and for all. Awaiting trial, Sara retraces the past, intent on examining the lives of the women who made her. She conjures forth her grandmothers - beautiful and stubborn Yasmine, who marries the son of the Pasha of Basra and lives to regret it, and Lulwa, born poor in Kuwait and later swept off to India by her wealthy merchant husband. An Unlasting Home brings to life the triumphs and failures of three generations of Arab women. At once intimate and sweeping, personal and political, it is an unforgettable family portrait and a spellbinding epic tale.
£12.88
Saqi Books Something Strange, Like Hunger: Short Stories
Malika Moustadraf is a cult feminist icon in contemporary Moroccan literature, celebrated for her uncompromising depiction of life on the margins. Something Strange, Like Hunger presents Moustadraf's collected short fiction: haunting, visceral stories by a master of the genre. Here, we tune into Casablanca's unheard: a sex worker struggling to keep warm on the streets; a housewife flirting with strangers online; a kidney patient, priced-out of treatment, facing the harsh reality of his condition; and a mother scheming to ensure her daughter passes a virginity test. Something Strange, Like Hunger is a sharp provocation to patriarchal power, and a celebration of the life and genius of one of Morocco's preeminent writers.
£9.79
Saqi Books Flag on the Mountain: A Political Anthropology of War in Croatia and Bosnia
Myths arose in Europe about far-flung exotic lands - particularly Serbia and Montenegro - based on the nineteenth-century heroic epic poetry of the South Slavs. These were lands populated by 'noble savages' for whom freedom and martial honour were of supreme importance, and they filtered down into the formation of the first and second Yugoslav states (1918-41 and 1945-89), which utilized themes from patriarchal popular culture and the anti-Ottoman epics for their own political ends. Ivo aniae reveals how, during the last decade-and-a-half of the twentieth century, military and political leaders in Belgrade followed this pattern of selecting and manipulating cultural motifs in order to justify their repression of Kosovans, and their aggression in Croatia and Bosnia. But he reveals too how the Croatian and Bosnian military and political elites mobilized their own social memories during the post-Yugoslav wars. Drawing on a wealth of sources - including print media, TV broadcasts, political speeches, and particularly new epic poems, unveiled at political rallies or before military or paramilitary audiences then widely distributed on audio cassette - aniae's book is far-reaching, revealing how war profiteers, paramilitary leaders, plunderers and charlatans took their places harmoniously within the universal theme of Robin Hood, growing into models of local identity and even into national icons and political exemplars.
£25.24
Saqi Books Lebanese Cuisine: Past and Present
Passionate and renowned chefs Andree Malouf and Karim Haidar continue the Lebanese tradition of exquisite culinary invention in this collection of soups, salads, meats and deserts. Over a hundred inventive recipes are included in this beautifully illustrated book: lentil soup with tomatoes, calamari and coriander salad, five-spice lamb and rice, fried halloumi cheese with quince jam, pumpkin kibbeh, pears in arak, and rose ice cream, to name but a few. This is authentic and exciting Mediterranean food, using fresh and healthy ingredients, perfect for everyday eating and entertaining alike. It is presented with a preface by Amim Maalouf.
£19.06
Saqi Books Dynamics of Arab Foreign Policy-making in the Twenty-first Century: Domestic Constraints and External Challenges
The Arab world's strategic location and its considerable material and human potential should allow it to play a major role in world affairs. However, plagued by authoritarian regimes, ethnic and social cleavages, economic underdevelopment and military weakness, these states depend on the outside for security. In this balanced and discerning study, Hassan Hamdan al-Alkim examines the dynamics of Arab foreign-policy-making in the twenty-first century. He considers the significance of a changing world order, an unstable Arab regional order, and the Arab-Israeli conflict for Arab foreign policy-making processes. The book's four case studies - the Middle East Peace process, the Water crisis, the Food crisis, and Saudi Arabia's foreign policy - enable a wide-ranging analysis for understanding contemporary Arab politics and its role in world affairs.
£31.43
Saqi Books Beirut, I Love You: A Memoir
This is the story of Zena, a young woman who has fallen under the spell of a city that threatens to engulf her in war, grief and love affairs. In the streets armed militias carve out their territories, while ragged construction workers rebuild the city. Refugees sleep five to a bed as bleach-blondes wend their way to the next drug-fuelled supernightclub. At any moment, the bombs will start falling. Meanwhile, Zena and her best friend Maya must try to make sense of their lives amidst the craziness, and negotiate the city's many obsessions including cosmetic surgery, husband hunting and Kalashnikovs. As honest as it is forgiving, this artist's memoir pits love and art against the ever-present threat of war.
£9.18
Saqi Books The Queer Arab Glossary
A groundbreaking survey of the language used around queerness in the Arab world, with contributions by leading Arab queer writers, thinkers and activists
£13.50
Saqi Books About My Mother
Longlisted for the EBRD Literature Prize Since she's been ill, Lalla Fatma has become a frail little thing with a faltering memory. Lalla Fatma thinks she's in Fez in 1944, where she grew up, not in Tangier in 2000, where this story begins. She calls out to family members who are long dead and loses herself in the streets of her childhood, yearning for her first love and the city she left behind. By her bedside, her son Tahar listens to long-hidden secrets and stories from her past: married while still playing with dolls and widowed for the first time at the age of sixteen. Guided by these fragments, Tahar vividly conjures his mother's life in post-war Morocco, unravelling the story of a woman for whom resignation was the only way out. Tender and compelling, About My Mother maps the beautiful, fragile and complex nature of human experience, while paying tribute to a remarkable woman and the bond between mother and son.
£9.18
Saqi Books My Cleaner
My cleaner. She does my dirty work. She knows more about me than anyone else in the world. But does she, in fact, like me? Does her presence fill me with shame? Ugandan Mary Tendo worked for many years in the white middle-class Henman household in London, cleaning for Vanessa and looking after her only child, Justin. More than ten years after Mary has left, Justin - now twenty-two, handsome and gifted - is too depressed to get out of bed. To his mother's surprise, he asks for Mary. When Mary responds to Vanessa's cry for help and returns from Uganda to look after Justin, the balance of power in the house shifts dramatically. Both women's lives change irrevocably as tensions build towards a startling climax on a snowbound motorway. Maggie Gee confronts racism and class conflict with humour and tenderness in this moving, funny, engrossing read.
£8.55
Saqi Books Virginia Woolf in Manhattan
What if Virginia Woolf came back to life in the twenty-first century?Bestselling author Angela Lamb is going through a mid-life crisis. She dumps her irrepressible daughter Gerda at boarding school and flies to New York to pursue her passion for Woolf, whose manuscripts are held in a private collection. When a bedraggled Virginia Woolf materialises among the bookshelves and is promptly evicted, Angela, stunned, rushes after her on to the streets of Manhattan. Soon Angela is chaperoning her troublesome heroine as the latter tries to grasp the internet and scams bookshops with 'rare signed editions'. Then Virginia insists on flying with her to Istanbul, finds a Turkish admirer and steals the show at an International Conference on - Virginia Woolf. Virginia Woolf in Manhattan is a witty and profound novel about the miraculous possibilities of a second chance at life.
£8.55
Saqi Books Three Sisters
WINNER OF THE 2010 MAN ASIAN LITERARY PRIZE Three sisters struggle to change the course of their destinies in a China that does not belong to them. Yumi uses her dignity, Yuxiu her seductive charms, and Yuyang her desire for success. This breathtaking story vividly captures the all-consuming desire for power in a society obsessed with saving face. Whether it's in the Wang family village, where lift is attuned to the rhythm of work and the slogans of the Cultural Revolution, or in urban China of the 1980s, the sisters are not prepared to be just another wave in the 'infinite ocean of people'.
£9.18
Saqi Books Egyptian Earth
A twelve-year old boy returns to his village from school in Cairo to find the community torn by feud and fear. Working together, the young, old, men and women in the village discover that despite high rents, low wages, a greedy ruling-class, and attractive distractions, if you are faithful to the land, it will care for you. Egyptian Earth is an epic drama of great power. This compassionate and humorous tale of defiance is a masterpiece of modern Arabic literature.
£9.79
Saqi Books The Earthquake
The Earthquake offers a lucid vision of post-colonial Algeria — a society in chaos, a world turned upside down. Pioneering novelist Tahir Wattar both foretells the dreadful events which would later besiege his country and presciently demonstrates the evils of intolerance, ignorance, social classism and religious extremism in this modern classic.
£9.79
Saqi Books Across The Green Sea
A history of two centuries of interactions among the areas bordering the western Indian Ocean, including India, Iran and Africa.
£31.43
Saqi Books Memoirs of a Woman Doctor
A young Egyptian woman clashes with her traditional family when she chooses a career in medicine. Rather than submit to an arranged marriage and motherhood, she cuts her hair short and works fiercely to realise her dreams. At medical school, she begins to understand the mysteries of the human body. After years of denying her own desires, the doctor begins a series of love affairs that allow her to explore her sexuality - on her own terms.
£9.79
Saqi Books Morbid Symptoms: Relapse in the Arab Uprising
Since the first wave of uprisings in 2011, the euphoria of the "Arab Spring" has given way to the gloom of backlash and a descent into mayhem and war. The revolution has been overwhelmed by clashes between rival counter-revolutionary forces: resilient old regimes on the one hand and Islamic fundamentalist contenders on the other.In this eagerly awaited book, foremost Middle East and international affairs specialist Gilbert Achcar analyzes the factors of the regional relapse. Focusing on Syria and Egypt, Achcar assesses the present stage of the uprising and the main obstacles, both regional and international, that prevent any resolution. In Syria, the regime's brutality has fostered the rise of jihadist forces, among which the so-called Islamic State emerged as the most ruthless and powerful. In Egypt, the Muslim Brotherhood's year in power was ultimately terminated by the contradictory conjunction of a second revolutionary wave and a bloody reactionary coup. Events in Syria and Egypt offer salient examples of a pattern of events happening across the Middle East.Morbid Symptoms offers a timely analysis of the ongoing Arab uprising that will engage experts and general readers alike.Drawing on a unique combination of scholarly and political knowledge of the Arab region, Achcar argues that, short of radical social change, the region will not reach stability any time soon.
£11.64
Saqi Books Outspoken
Sima Samar has been fighting for justice all her life. Born into a polygamous family, Samar agreed to an arranged marriage to continue her own education. Once she had qualified as a doctor, she took off into rural areas on horse, donkey, even on foot to treat people who had never received medical help before. As the situation worsened, Samar found herself working in increasingly adverse circumstances, and in grave personal danger.After Samar's husband was disappeared by the regime, she faced a choice: to accept the injustices she saw around her or to keep driving for a better Afghanistan. From selling her own hand embroidered bed quilt to pay for her degree, to becoming Vice President in an office with no heating and only beach chairs, Samar has worked tirelessly for human rights in Afghanistan the worst country in the world to be a woman.In Outspoken, Samar writes unapologetically and unflinchingly about the colossal internal and international political failures th
£14.11
Saqi Books Modern Arabic Short Stories: A Bilingual Reader
The twelve stories collected here are by leading authors of the short story form in the Middle East today. In addition to works by writers already well-known in the West such as "Idwar al-Kharrat", "Fuad al-Takarli" and Nobel Prize-winning "Naguib Mahfouz", the collection includes stories by key authors whose fame has hitherto been restricted to the Middle East. This bilingual reader is ideal for students of Arabic as well as lovers of literature who wish to broaden their appreciation of the work of Middle Eastern writers. The collection features stories in the original Arabic, accompanied by an English translation and a brief author biography, as well as a discussion of context and background. Each story is followed by a glossary and discussion of problematic language points.
£18.98
Saqi Books We Wrote in Symbols: Love and Lust by Arab Women Writers
It is a little-known secret that Arabic literature has a long tradition of erotic writing. Behind that secret lies another - that many of the writers are women. We Wrote in Symbols celebrates the works of 75 of these female writers of Arab heritage who articulate love and lust with artistry and skill. Here, a wedding night takes an unexpected turn beneath a canopy of stars; a woman on the run meets her match in a flirtatious encounter at Dubai Airport; and a carnal awakening occurs in a Palestinian refugee camp. From a masked rendezvous in a circus, to meetings in underground bars and unmade beds, there is no such thing as a typical sexual encounter, as this electrifying anthology shows. Powerfully conveying the complexities and intrigues of desire, We Wrote in Symbols invites you to share these characters' wildest fantasies and most intimate moments.
£12.88
Saqi Books Insomnia
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.
£12.54
Saqi Books Many and Many a Year Ago
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'.
£13.68
Saqi Books The Garden of Joys: Anthology of Oriental Anecdotes, Fables and Proverbs
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.
£21.38
Saqi Books The Shi'is of Saudi Arabia
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.
£44.04
Saqi Books Central Asia: Political and Economic Challenges in the Post-Soviet Era
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.
£42.39
Saqi Books The Literary Heritage of the Arabs: An Anthology
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
£42.70
Saqi Books Images from the Endgame: Persia Through a Russian Lens 1901-1914
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.
£31.69
Saqi Books British-Egyptian Relations from Suez to the Present Day
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.
£19.23
Saqi Books Galpa: Short Stories by Bangladeshi Women
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.
£16.61
Saqi Books Legacy of Empire: Britain, Zionism and the Creation of Israel
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.
£23.61
SAQI BOOKS This Other Salt Stories
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.
£22.86
Saqi Books Masoud: Memoirs of an Iranian Rebel
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.
£21.86
