Showing titles in Middle East

Much has been written and much has been omitted when it comes to the Crusades, especially in modern parlance. Many talking heads in recent times have conjured up the specter of the Crusades, so many are wondering once again what the Crusades are all about. Inside you will hear about Byzantium, an all-out holy war, the Kingdom of Heaven, the King’s Crusade, the Self-Defeating Crusade, the Final Crusades, the Post-Crusade World, and more.

Peter Frankopan lehrt uns, die Geschichte neu zu sehen – indem er nicht Europa, sondern den Nahen und Mittleren Osten zum Ausgangspunkt macht. Hier entstanden die ersten Hochkulturen und alle drei monotheistischen Weltreligionen; ein Reichtum an Gütern, Kultur und Wissen, der das Alte Europa seit jeher sehnsüchtig nach Osten blicken ließ.

Acclaimed Israeli intelligence analyst Avi Melamed has spent more than 30 years interpreting Middle East affairs. His long-awaited Inside the Middle East challenges widely accepted perceptions and provides a gripping and uniquely enlightening guide to make sense of the events unfolding in the region. Melamed considers all the major power players in the Middle East, explains the underlying issues, and creates a three-dimensional picture, an illustration that connects the dots and provides a fascinating road map.

One fateful week in June 1967 redrew the map of the Middle East. Many scholars have documented how the Six-Day War unfolded, but little has been done to explain why the conflict happened at all. As we approach its 50th anniversary, Guy Laron refutes the widely accepted belief that the war was merely the result of regional friction, revealing the crucial roles played by American and Soviet policies in the face of an encroaching global economic crisis and restoring Syria's often overlooked centrality to events leading up to the hostilities.

When he was assassinated in 1896, Nasir al-Din Shah had sat on the Peacock throne for nearly half a century. A colorful, complex figure, he is frequently portrayed as indolent and self-indulgent. Yet he was in many ways an effective ruler who displayed exceptional resilience in the face of dilemmas and vulnerabilities shared by most monarchs of the Islamic world in the 19th century. In this book-the first in English about Nasir al-Din Shah, Abbas Amanat gives us both a biography of the man and an analysis of the institution of monarchy in modern Iran.

This extraordinary book is the result of Saul Bellow’s sojourn in Israel in 1975. A personal record of his stay—his experiences and impressions—as well as a meditation, it crackles with wit and controversy on America’s relationship with this embattled country.

There was a time when being an "Arab" didn't mean you were necessarily Muslim. It was a time when Oscar Hayoun, a Jewish Arab, strode along the Nile in a fashionable suit, long before he and his father arrived at the port of Haifa to join the Zionist state only to find themselves hosed down with DDT and then left unemployed on the margins of society. In that time, Arabness was a mark of cosmopolitanism, of intellectualism.

In this major work of daring criticism and analysis, scholar and political commentator Marc Lamont Hill and Israel-Palestine expert Mitchell Plitnick spotlight how holding fast to one-sided and unwaveringly pro-Israel policies reflects the truth-bending grip of authoritarianism on both Israel and the United States.

Mesopotamia, the "land between two rivers," was the cradle of civilization. In present-day Iraq and parts of Iran, Syria, and Turkey, this region birthed the Sumerians, Akkadians, Babylonians, and Assyrians.

As night fell on 15 August 2021, the Taliban entered Kabul, capital of Afghanistan. After a 20-year conflict with the United States, its Western allies and a proxy Afghan government, the Islamic militant group once aligned with al Qaeda was about to bury yet another foreign foe in the graveyard of empires. And for the US, the superpower, this was yet another foreign disaster. As cities and towns fell to the Taliban in rapid succession, Western troops and embassy staff scrambled to flee a country of which its government had lost control.

This book continues the story of the Fatimids from their newly founded capital of Cairo. Introducing the figures who moulded the empire, Shainool Jiwa charts the expansion of the Fatimids, the reasons behind their ultimate fall by the hand of Saladin, and the legacy that continues with the living Ismaili communities today.

Egypt is a vibrant and diverse country with some of the most impressive sights in the world. Its history was dominated by powerful figures who changed the course of world history. Ever since the legacy of the ancient pharaohs was uncovered, the public imagination has been captivated by stories of wealthy rulers and deadly curses. How much is true? And how much is speculation?

The Egyptian pyramids are some of the greatest building feats ever achieved. At a time when the rest of the world was in the Bronze Age, living in small villages sustained by subsistence farming, the Egyptians built the pyramids. It is mind-boggling to think they did this when mankind had not yet invented iron or the wheel. They did this when the only tools workmen had were made from either bronze, which had to be constantly re-sharpened, or stone or wood. It’s truly remarkable.

I started making a list in my diary entitled “Things I Have Been Silent About.” Under it I wrote: “Falling in Love in Tehran. Going to Parties in Tehran. Watching the Marx Brothers in Tehran. Reading Lolita in Tehran.” I wrote about repressive laws and executions, about public and...

Over the summer of 2013 Egypt witnessed its worst anti-Christian violence in centuries, with dozens of churches burned down by supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood. In Syria Islamist gunmen occupy the faith’s holiest site, while the Civil War has given Sunni extremists the chance to empty Christian villages through ‘religious cleansing’. And 10 years after the fall of Saddam, Iraq’s pre-war Christian population has fallen from a million to 200,000 and now barely clings on.

I started making a list in my diary entitled “Things I Have Been Silent About.” Under it I wrote: “Falling in Love in Tehran. Going to Parties in Tehran. Watching the Marx Brothers in Tehran. Reading Lolita in Tehran.” I wrote about repressive laws and executions, about public and...

Do you know who was said to be the god of the ancient Egyptian underworld? What type of mask do you think an embalmer would wear while carrying out the mummification process on a body? And who was the most successful of all the pharaohs? In this fascinating guide, Hilary Beaton talks you through one of history's most interesting eras: Ancient Egypt. With over 100 amazing facts, this is the perfect audiobook for everyone from casual listeners to dedicated students of Egyptology.

Two days before the collapse of Hosni Mubarak's regime in Egypt, one man gathered the courage to tell the president the truth: he would be killed in his palace if he did not step down. What came next revealed the bitter power struggles atop the most populous country in the Middle East at its most vulnerable moment in six decades. This is the inside story of the final days of Egypt's modern day pharaoh, who ruled with near autocratic powers for three decades before being forced to resign on February 11, 2011.

A riveting memoir of the first Israeli-born Jewish American to be sent as a Peace Corps volunteer to a closed Arab society. A good memoir is a survivor's tale - the story of a person who has faced obstacles and made it through well enough to tell it. Dalya Cohen-Mor, a Sabra-born American woman, volunteered to serve in the Peace Corps, went through a lengthy and highly competitive application process, was accepted, and was sent to serve in the predominantly Palestinian country of Jordan.

Istanbul, com'è stata chiamata fin dalla conquista ottomana del 1453, ma com'è denominata ufficialmente solo all'indomani della Prima guerra mondiale. "Nèa Ryme", Nuova Roma, secondo il suo nome ufficiale. Costantinopoli, il suo vero nome, da sempre e per sempre. Un nome che evoca immagini mirabili: il sogno dell'Oriente, le lontananze raggiungibili attraverso il Bosforo e l'Anatolia. Le moschee, gli harem, i sufi danzanti, gli aromi dei bazar. Da mezzo millennio l'Europa identifica in quella sola città il prezioso anello di congiunzione fra l'antichità perduta e la modernità.