White Cross Mills, Hightown, LANCASTER LA1 4XS, United Kingdom.
Telephone: +44(0)1524 68765
Fax: +44(0)1524 63232
Email: sales@gazellebooks.co.uk
Web: www.gazellebooks.co.uk
 |
ARAB CHEST
[Sheila Unwin; Foreword by Sir Terence Clark]
This is the first exhaustive study of a piece of furniture that has been used in the Arab world for centuries, and on the East African coast since the early 1800s. The Arab chest caught the attention of expatriates and travellers throughout these regions, and by the mid-20th century it had become a collector’s item in the West. The author, Sheila Unwin, first came across the chests in East Africa in the early l950s. Since then she has been determined to discover their provenance and unravel their stylistic origins. This journey of detection is reflected in her historical overviews, which cover the early Arab trading networks, Arabs and Persians in East Africa, the Gulf and Oman, the Mughals in India, and the early explorations and trading expeditions of the Portuguese, Dutch and British from East Africa to the Far East. Her study of these enables her to trace the cultural influences that have combined to produce the chests, and to chart their complex origins. More than a historical survey, the book is also a guide to the classification, care and cleaning of chests. It is lavishly illustrated with archive and contemporary photographs and maps, while line drawings demonstrate the differences in classification and type of chests and fittings. Owners of these fine pieces will find this an invaluable companion and resource. Sheila Unwin greatly enriches our appreciation of an artefact which can now be seen, in the light of her research, as a fascinating embodiment of the old Indian Ocean trading network.
{
134pp,
200x260mm,
November 2006;
HB,
£25.00,
0954479262:9780954479268
, Arabian Publishing Ltd
} |
 |
ARMS TRANSFERS TO ISRAEL
: The Strategic Logic Behind American Military Assistance
[David Rodman]
This book dispels two common myths about the American-Israeli patron-client relationship -- that arms transfers to Israel have been motivated by American domestic politics rather than national interests and that these arms transfers have come without any political strings attached to them. The first part of the book describes and analyses the institutionalisation of the American-Israeli arms pipeline during the Johnson administration, demonstrating conclusively in the process that arms transfers to the Jewish state were based primarily on American national interests. The second part of the book consists of four case studies that clearly reveal that American arms transfers to Israel, whether in wartime or in peacetime, have always come with a diplomatic price tag attached to them. The book is based largely on American government documents from the Foreign Relations of the United States (FRUS) series, from the Lyndon B Johnson Presidential Library, and from the United States National Archives.
{
129pp,
152x229mm,
March 2007;
HB,
£32.50,
1845191781:9781845191788
, Sussex Academic Press
} |
 |
BRITAIN & THE MIDDLE EAST
: From Imperial Power to Junior Partner
[Elie Podeh & Zach Levey (eds)]
This book deals with British involvement in the Middle East from the mid-nineteenth to the early twenty-first century. Encompassing a wide range of topics -- including Britain’s imperial legacy; Palestine, Israel and the Jews; and the contemporary Middle East -- it examines Britain’s role in Egypt, the Levant, the Fertile Crescent, and the Gulf. The twenty scholar/contributors are renowned specialists, and have contributed original research in order that the scope and purview of this work will fill a lacuna in the literature on Britain’s role in the region.
{
355pp,
152x229mm,
November 2007;
HB,
£65.00,
1845191641:9781845191641
, Sussex Academic Press
} |
 |
CANADA & THE MIDDLE EAST
: In Theory & Practice
[Paul Heinbecker & Bessma Momani (eds)]
Co-published with the Centre for International Governance Innovation. CANADA AND THE MIDDLE EAST provides a unique perspective on one of the world's most geopolitically important regions. From the perspective of Canada's diplomats, academics, and former policy practitioners involved in the region, the book offers an overview of Canada's relationship with the Middle East and the challenges Canada faces there. The contributors examine Canada's efforts to promote its interests and values -- peace building, peacekeeping, multiculturalism, and multilateralism, for example -- and investigate the views of interested communities on Canada's relations with countries of the Middle East. CANADA AND THE MIDDLE EAST will be useful to academics and students studying the Middle East, Canadian foreign policy, and international relations. It will also serve as a primer for Canadian companies investing in the Middle East and a helpful reference for Canada's foreign service and journalists stationed abroad by providing a background to Canada's interests and role in the region.
{
232pp,
155x230mm,
October 2007;
PB,
£17.99,
1554580242:9781554580248
, Wilfrid Laurier University Press
} |
 |
CONTROLLING THE UNCONTROLLABLE?
: The Great Powers in the Middle East
[Tore T Petersen (ed)]
The Norwegian University of Science and Technology hosted a conference on the Anglo-American Middle East in Trondheim 2 to 4 May 2005. A distinguished group of scholars accepted our invitations and gracefully agreed to rewrite their lectures for inclusion in this book. They also easily transcended the, perhaps, narrow theme of the conference, making their papers a sophisticated discussion, by and large, how the different great powers have, not always successfully, tried to control the Middle East. Hence the title of this book, 'Controlling the Uncontrollable'. Edward Ingram compares with a grand sweep the British and the American imperial experience in the Middle East, he notes that too many scholars exaggerate the power of nineteenth-century Great Britain in order to compare it with the present day 'US paramountcy'. Alan Milward is on a different tack, explaining how the oil crisis and oil embargo forced the European Common Market to take a new approach towards the Arabs, in the process cutting loose from the American embrace and laying the foundation for a common EU foreign policy. In his article, Douglas Little deepens our understanding of his concept American Orientalism -- the tendency to dismiss Muslims as backward, decadent and evil -- ending his essay with a withering criticism of George W Bush who has rejected the doctrine of containment in favour of preventive war when invading Iraq, needlessly creating the current imbroglio there. Peter Hahn discusses American-Israeli relations in the period 1945-1961, showing that Israeli and American officials were often at loggerheads on the future of the Jewish state. Rounding off the essays is Mary Ann Heiss' account of key episodes of American oil policy since 1945. Even with the importance of oil, as Heiss explains, the balance of power had by 1974 shifted in favour of the oil producers; that had 'shrewdly divided the Atlantic Alliance, pitting the Western Europeans against both the Americans and each other'.
{
114pp,
170x240mm,
December 2006;
PB,
£28.00,
8251921902:9788251921909
, Tapir Academic Press (Rostra Books)
} |
 |
CULTURE & CONFLICT IN THE MIDDLE EAST
[Philip Carl Salzman]
In an era of increasing interaction between the United States and the countries of the Middle East, it has become ever more important for Americans to understand the social forces that shape Middle Eastern cultures. Based on years of his own field research and the ethnographic reports of other scholars, anthropologist Philip Carl Salzman presents an incisive analysis of Middle Eastern culture that goes a long way toward explaining the gulf between Western and Middle Eastern cultural perspectives. Salzman focuses on two basic principles of tribal organisation that have become central principles of Middle Eastern life -- balanced opposition (each group of whatever size and scope is opposed by a group of equal size and scope) and affiliation solidarity (always support those closer against those more distant). On the positive side, these pervasive structural principles support a decentralised social and political system based upon individual independence, autonomy, liberty, equality, and responsibility. But on the negative side, Salzman notes a pattern of contingent partisan loyalties, which results in an inbred orientation favouring particularism: an attitude of my tribe against the other tribe, my ethnic group against the different ethnic group, my religious community against another religious community. For each affiliation, there is always an enemy. Salzman argues that the particularism of Middle Eastern culture precludes universalism, rule of law, and constitutionalism, which all involve the measuring of actions against general criteria, irrespective of the affiliation of the particular actors. The result of this relentless partisan framework of thought has been the apparently unending conflict, both internal and external, that characterises the modern Middle East.
REVIEW: "While tribalism is in one sense culturally pervasive in the Middle East, tribal practices are less swathed in sacredness than explicitly Koranic symbols and commandments--and are therefore more susceptible to criticism and debate. Even jihad and suicide bombing can be interpreted through a tribal lens. We've taught ourselves a good deal about Islam over the past seven years. Yet tribalism is at least half the cultural battle in the Middle East, and the West knows little about it. Learning how to understand and critique the Islamic Near East through a tribal lens will open up a new and smarter strategy for change. The way to begin is by picking up Salzman's Culture and Conflict in the Middle East." -- Stanley Kurtz, Weekly Standard, 14th April 2008.
{
224pp,
155x230mm,
December 2007;
HB,
£23.50,
1591025877:9781591025870
, Prometheus Books (Humanity Books)
} |
 |
DAY OF ISLAM
: The Annihilation of America & the Western World
[Paul L Williams PhD]
In two previous books, "Osama's Revenge" and "The Al Qaeda Connection", seasoned investigative reporter Paul Williams revealed the alarming potential for nuclear terrorism on U.S. soil and the sinister connections among organised crime, illegal immigrants, and al Qaeda. Now, Williams broadens his focus beyond al Qaeda to provide readers with newly uncovered information on terrorist activities in Pakistan, Iran, Iraq, other Muslim countries--and our neighbour Canada! What emerges is a harrowing picture of international terrorist activities, all aimed at the destruction of the United States and the collapse of the Western world. This cataclysm will usher in "the Day of Islam," the dream of radical Muslims to see all of humankind fall in submission before the throne of Allah. Based on the "forgotten testimony" of the FBI's "Confidential Source One," as well as other sources, Williams first presents evidence of Osama Bin Laden's purchase of highly enriched uranium in Sudan and nuclear devices from the Chechens and the Russian Mafia. He then offers further information on the workings of Pakistani scientists and technicians from the A. Q. Khan Research Facility to maintain and upgrade Al Qaeda's "bespoke nukes" (with explosive yields in excess of ten kilotons) for the "American Hiroshima". This information comes with empirical proof that should dispel any doubts that these weapons not only have been developed but have also been forward-deployed from the seaport at Karachi to strategic locations within the Western world. Keeping the focus on Pakistan, he predicts a nightmarish scenario if President Pervez Musharref should be overthrown and his arsenal of sixty-eight nuclear weapons falls into the hands of radical mullahs. Williams also examines the role of the Iranians both in sponsoring terrorism and in planning the American Hiroshima. In addition, he uncovers many unreported and startling accounts of the terrorist activities of Hezbollah in America and presents evidence that the marriage between Hezbollah and al Qaeda has been consummated. Finally, he presents intelligence showing that grave threats to America come, not from just our southern border, but from Canada and its amazingly open policies regarding radical Islam. The greatest threat of all, he concludes, comes from within --not only from the radical mosques within every major American city but also the Islamic paramilitary compounds in rural areas throughout the country, including Islamberg in New York State, where new recruits are trained for the great jihad against the United States under the very nose of FBI and Homeland Security officials. Sure to be controversial, this shocking exposé sends a wake-up to Americans lulled into a false sense of security in the post-9/11 era.
{
288pp,
155x230mm,
May 2007;
HB,
£16.99,
1591025087:9781591025085
, Prometheus Books
} |
 |
ETHICS OF THE ARISTOCRATS & OTHER SATIRICAL WORKS
[Obeyd-e Zakani. Edited & Translated by Hasan Javadi]
Obeyd-e Zakani, who died in 1372 is among the great poets of Iran but little known in the West. This selection of his work is the first to be translated into English. Obeyd was a remarkable satirist and social critic who looked upon his world of extravagant indulgence and corruption with the censorious eyes of a Juvenal, and portrayed it with the cynicism and wit of a Voltaire, and the hilarious grotesqueness of a Rabelais. He used scathing stories and sardonic maxims to paint a world full of deceit, greed, lust, sycophancy, and perversion, where old values and virtues were scorned and extremes of wealth and poverty, violence and bloodshed were the order of the day.
{
140pp,
150x230mm,
March 2008;
£19.99,
1933823224:9781933823225
, Mage Publishers
} |
 |
ILLUSION OF HARMONY
: Science & Religion in Islam
[Taner Edis]
Current discussions in the West on the relation of science and religion focus mainly on science’s uneasy relationship with the traditional Judeo-Christian view of life. But a parallel controversy exists in the Muslim world regarding ways to integrate science with Islam. As physicist Taner Edis shows in this fascinating glimpse into contemporary Muslim culture, a good deal of popular writing in Muslim societies attempts to address such perplexing questions as: Is Islam a "scientific religion"?; Were the discoveries of modern science foreshadowed in the Quran?; Are intelligent design conjectures more appealing to the Muslim perspective than Darwinian explanations? Edis examines the range of Muslim thinking about science and Islam, from blatantly pseudoscientific fantasies to comparatively sophisticated efforts to "Islamize science". From the world’s strongest creationist movements to bizarre science-in-the-Quran apologetics, popular Muslim approaches promote a view of natural science as a mere fact-collecting activity that coexists in near-perfect harmony with literal-minded faith. Since Muslims are keenly aware that science and technology have been the keys to Western success, they are eager to harness technology to achieve a Muslim version of modernity. Yet at the same time, they are reluctant to allow science to become independent of religion and are suspicious of Western secularisation. Edis examines all of these conflicting trends, revealing the difficulties facing Muslim societies trying to adapt to the modern technological world. His discussions of both the parallels and the differences between Western and Muslim attempts to harmonise science and religion make for a unique and intriguing contribution to this continuing debate.
{
265pp,
150x230mm,
January 2007;
HB,
£18.99,
1591024498:9781591024491
, Prometheus Books
} |
 |
IN SEARCH OF THE ORIGINAL KORAN
: The True History of the Revealed Text
[Mondher Sfar]
Orthodox Muslims venerate the Koran as the sacred word of God, which they believe was literally revealed by dictation from the angel Gabriel to the prophet Muhammad. This fundamentalist attitude toward the Muslim holy book denies the possibility of error in the Koran -- even though there are some fairly obvious self-contradictions, inconsistencies, and incoherent passages in the text. To justify the claim that the Koran is inerrant, the orthodox have simply pointed to centuries of hidebound tradition and the consensus view of conservative leaders who back up this interpretation. But does the very beginning of the Muslim tradition lend support to the orthodox view? In this fascinating study of the origins of Islam, historian Mondher Sfar reveals that there is no historical, or even theological, basis for the orthodox view that Muhammad or his earliest followers intended the Koran to be treated as the inviolable word of God. With great erudition and painstaking historical research, Sfar demonstrates that the Koran itself does not support the literalist claims of Muslim orthodoxy. Indeed, as he carefully points out, passages from Islam's sacred book clearly indicate that the revealed text should not be equated with the perfect text of the original "celestial Koran", which was believed to exist only in heaven and to be fully known only by God. This early belief helps to explain why there were many variant texts of the Koran during Muhammad's lifetime and immediately thereafter, and also why this lack of consistency and the occasional revisions of earlier revelations seemed not to disturb his first disciples. They viewed the Koran as only an imperfect copy of the real heavenly original, a copy subject to the happenstances of Muhammad's life and to the human risks of its transmission. Only later, for reasons of social order and political power, did the first caliphs establish an orthodox policy, which turned Muhammad's revelations into the inerrant word of God, from which no deviation or dissent was permissible. This original historical exploration into the origins of Islam is also an important contribution to the growing movement for reform of Islam initiated by courageous Muslim thinkers convinced of the necessity of bringing Islam into the modern world.
{
152pp,
155x230mm,
December 2007;
HB,
£16.99,
1591025214:9781591025214
, Prometheus Books
} |
 |
IN SEARCH OF THE TRUE POLITICAL POSITION OF THE 'ULAMA
: An Analysis of the Aims & Perspectives of the Chronicles of Abd al-Rahman al-Jabarti (1753-1825)
[Lars Bjørneboe]
In this volume Bjørneboe seeks to establish the interrelations among the three known works of the Cairene historian al-Jabarti: namely, Ta'rikh muddat al-Faransis bi-Misr mn sanat 1213 ila' sanat 1216 (composed 1799), Mazhar al-tagdis bi'zawal dawlat al-Faransis (composed 1801) and Aja'ib al-Athar fi'l tarajim wa'l akhbar (composed 1805-6). These chronicles, and particularly the last two, are the best known narrative sources in Arabic for the entire period of Ottoman rule in Egypt (1517-1798) until the rise of Mehmet Ali Pasha. They have been widely published, edited and translated into European languages, but in spite of this, no systematic analysis of their textual relationships has been undertaken until now. Through a textual approach Bjørneboe seeks to discover al-Jabarti's underlying political ideology, as well as the intellectual and political context within which he worked. Bjørneboe concludes that the first of al-Jabartis chronicles, the MS Mudda (1799) constitutes a contribution to a debate among Cairene 'ulama as to how the 'ulama should respond to the new French masters. This and the following editions were written under the patronage of the shaykh al-Sadat, one of Egypt's leading 'ulama at the time. Al-Jabarti promotes the view that the 'ulama should cooperate with the French only when absolute necessary in contrast to the selfserving conduct of other top 'ulama, notably shaykh 'Abdallah al-Sharqawi. The MS Mazhar (1801) reflects the situation when the returning Ottomans were meeting serious opposition in their attempt to bring Egypt back under direct Ottoman rule, while the MS Aja'ib (1805) should be seen as a plea for an ideal government with Mehmet 'Ali as the just ruler who governs in consultation with the 'ulama. So it is possible to demonstrate that the different versions of al-Jabarti's text all had their separate, specific purpose and were revised to accommodate to changing political circumstances. But throughout the twenty years al-Jabarti spent reworking his text he still attempted to formulate the true political position of the 'ulama.
{
358pp,
155x230mm,
May 2007;
PB,
£20.95,
8779342817:9788779342811
, Aarhus University Press
} |
 |
IRAN & THE WEST -- A CRITICAL BIBLIOGRAPHY 1500-1987, VOLUME 1
: Books
[Cyrus Ghani]
Iran and the West is a critical bibliography of over 4000 books, articles, journals, and catalogues about Iran written in Western languages and published from 1500 up to the late 1980s. The author, scholar and collector Cyrus Ghani, who collected books for over 40 years, has written a personal commentary for each entry. Some entries are brief factual annotations while for others such as biographies, autobiographies and books about modern Iranian history and politics, Ghani has made lengthy and erudite comments demonstrating his broad knowledge of Iranian and world history as well as his cultivated moral intelligence. Iran and the West is a useful reference book that brings together a vast array of cross-discipline writing about Iran, including some books and articles whose titles would not make them obvious candidates. It is not only an indispensable tool for scholars and researchers of Iranian studies; it also provides a wealth of fascinating information that will reward any reader who dips into it. Available in two volumes.
{
764pp,
155x230mm,
August 2006;
PB,
£49.99,
1933823089:9781933823089
, Mage Publishers
} |
 |
IRAN & THE WEST -- A CRITICAL BIBLIOGRAPHY 1500-1987, VOLUME 2
: Articles, Journals & Catalogs
[Cyrus Ghani]
Iran and the West is a critical bibliography of over 4000 books, articles, journals, and catalogues about Iran written in Western languages and published from 1500 up to the late 1980s. The author, scholar and collector Cyrus Ghani, who collected books for over 40 years, has written a personal commentary for each entry. Some entries are brief factual annotations while for others such as biographies, autobiographies and books about modern Iranian history and politics, Ghani has made lengthy and erudite comments demonstrating his broad knowledge of Iranian and world history as well as his cultivated moral intelligence. Iran and the West is a useful reference book that brings together a vast array of cross-discipline writing about Iran, including some books and articles whose titles would not make them obvious candidates. It is not only an indispensable tool for scholars and researchers of Iranian studies; it also provides a wealth of fascinating information that will reward any reader who dips into it. Available in two volumes.
{
264pp,
155x230mm,
August 2006;
PB,
£19.99,
1933823097:9781933823096
, Mage Publishers
} |
 |
IRAQ AT THE CROSSROADS
[Amy V Cardosa (ed)]
This book on Iraq focuses on the post-Saddam government, women in Iraq and the potential oil wealth remaining unrealised. Iraq, which was attacked by the United States to force a regime change, faces an uncertain future because of internal strife, outside forces such as the US and anti-US entities, and the effects of government inexperience and lack of legal and institutional infrastructures.
{
166pp,
155x230mm,
August 2006;
HB,
£45.99,
1600213294:9781600213298
, Nova Science Publishers
} |
 |
JEWS OF LEBANON, 2ND EDITION
: Between Coexistence & Conflict
[Kirsten E Schulze]
This is the first book to tell the story of the Jews of Lebanon in the twentieth century. It challenges the prevailing view that Jews everywhere in the Middle East were second-class citizens, and were persecuted after the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948. The Jews of Lebanon were just one of Lebanon’s 23 minorities with the same rights and privileges, and subject to the same political tensions. The author discusses the Jewish presence in Lebanon under Ottoman Rule; Lebanese Jews under the French mandate; Lebanese Jewish identity after the establishment of the State of Israel; the increase of the community through Syrian refugees; the Jews' position in the first civil war; their involvement in the exfiltration of Syrian Jews; the beginning of their exodus after the 1967 War; the virtual extinction of the Jewish community as a result of the prolonged 1975 second civil war and the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon; and finally the community's memory of their Lebanese past.
REVIEW: "An outstanding sociopolitical history of the Jewish community of Lebanon. Highly recommended..." -- Choice "Dr Schulze succeeds in placing the Jewish community in the broader context of Lebanese and Middle Eastern politics, and makes a highly significant and substantive contribution to the study on minorities in the Middle East." -- From the foreword by Professor Avi Shlaim, St Antony’s College, Oxford
{
224pp,
152x229mm,
March 2009;
PB,
£22.50,
1845190572:9781845190576
, Sussex Academic Press
} |
 |
JEWS, ARABS, TURKS
: Selected Essays
[Jacob M Landau]
This selection of essays has been selected among those published by Jacob M. Landau in the last forty years, covering Middle Eastern historical events and related current issues. The studies are grouped according to the following divisions: Jews in Muslim lands; Arabic writings; Ottoman history; Turkish politics; Politicolinguistics; Elections in Israel and Turkey. The focus on the Middle East is the integrating factor.
{
490pp,
175x245mm,
January 1993;
HB,
£38.50,
965223818X:9789652238184
, Hebrew University Magnes Press
} |
 |
PILGRIMAGE TO MECCA
[Lady Evelyn Cobbold; Introduction by William Facey & Miranda Taylor; Footnotes by Professor Ahmad S Turkistani]
As the first British woman convert to Islam on record as having made the pilgrimage to Makkah and the visit to the Prophet's Tomb at Madinah, Lady Evelyn Cobbold (1867-1963) cuts a unique figure in the annals of the Muslim Hajj. Lady Evelyn was in her mid-sixties when she decided to go on the Hajj. Daughter of the distinguished Scottish explorer Lord Dunmore, granddaughter of the Earl of Leicester, and great-niece of the notorious romantic Lady Jane Digby el-Mezrab, the young Evelyn Murray had spent childhood winters in North Africa. There she had been imbued with the Muslim way of life, becoming, as she puts it, 'a little Muslim at heart'. Before and after the First World War she travelled widely in Egypt, Syria and Transjordan. While strongly drawn to the Arab world, she maintained a conventional place in society at home, marrying the wealthy John Cobbold in 1891 and devoting herself to her Suffolk house and Scottish estate, her gardens, and especially deer-stalking in the Highlands, of which she was a renowned exponent. When her husband, by then High Sheriff of Suffolk, died in 1929, Lady Evelyn decided to perform the pilgrimage. Arriving at Jiddah by steamer from Suez in February 1933, she stayed with the Philbys and entered into the life of Jiddah's foreign community while waiting to obtain permission to perform the Haj. In doing so, she had to overcome the considerable suspicion surrounding foreign 'converts' who, Muslims felt, made the pilgrimage and then wrote about it as a dangerous and sensational adventure. While in Jiddah she received visits from various officials of the royal court, notably the King's son the Amir Faysal (later King Faysal). PILGRIMAGE TO MECCA is as much an account of an interior journey of faith as a conventional travelogue. It takes the form of a day-by-day journal, interspersed with digressions on the history and merits of Islam. While awaiting permission to go to Makkah, she was allowed to travel to Madinah, of which she gives an enchanting account. She is the first English writer to give a first-hand description of the life of the women's quarters of the households in which she stayed in Madinah, Makkah and Muna -- an account remarkable for its sympathy and vividness. Her book was published in 1934 to favourable reviews but has never until now been reprinted. This new edition, with a biographical introduction by William Facey and Lady Evelyn's great-great-niece Miranda Taylor, serves to rescue this unique and intriguing Anglo-Muslim from the neglect that has since befallen her, even among scholars specialising in women travellers.
{
336pp,
155x235mm,
May 2008;
HB,
£25.00,
0954479289:9780954479282
, Arabian Publishing Ltd
} |
 |
SANUSI'S LITTLE WAR
: The Amazing Story of a Forgotten Conflict in the Western Desert, 1915-17
[Russell McGuirk]
This is the exciting story of a forgotten war, fought out on the fringe of the great First World War campaigns. At its centre stands the tragic figure of Sayyid Ahmad al-Sharif, the Grand Sanusi, a charismatic Arab leader caught between the rival war aims of the Turco-German alliance and the British Empire. In November 1915 HMS Tara, a requisitioned ferryboat, is torpedoed by a German U-boat off Sollum on the north-west coast of Egypt. The ninety-two survivors, nearly all Welshmen from Holyhead, are handed over to Turkish and Sanusi soldiers across the border and sent as prisoners of war deep into the Libyan Desert. The Turco-Sanusi Army then overruns Sollum and pushes into Egypt. The British, who occupy that country, are caught off guard by the suddenness of these events and are forced to launch a military campaign to expel the invaders. Thousands of British and Colonial soldiers are rushed into the Western Desert, where, over the next few months, four battles are fought before Sollum is retaken and the threat is contained. Finally, the Duke of Westminster leads a large column of Rolls Royce armoured cars and Model T Fords into Libya and the Welshmen are rescued. Based on original source material, THE SANUSI'S LITTLE WAR tells for the first time the full story of the Turco-Sanusi invasion and the subsequent military campaign. The author describes in detail secret missions by the Germans and, separately, by the Turks to win the Grand Sanusi over to their cause and get him to launch an invasion of Egypt. He reveals the fascinating role played in the campaign by certain British officers, particularly Leo Royle, formerly of the Egyptian Coastguard, and links them to the Military Intelligence Office in Cairo. And, most unexpected of all, is his discovery that T E Lawrence played a role in these events and even went to Sollum just days before the invasion, to meet the Coastguard officers who are the story's principal characters.
{
332pp,
155x235mm,
March 2007;
HB,
£25.00,
0954479270:9780954479275
, Arabian Publishing Ltd
} |
 |
SAUDI ARABIA
: A Modern Reader
[Winberg Chai PhD (ed)]
The book's editor, political scientist Dr Winberg Chai, provides in his introduction a concise overview of this largely unknown kingdom from its geography and history to its contemporary role in the 'war on terrorism'. 'Saudi Arabia: A Modern Reader' provides readers enough historical data and contemporary information about the kingdom of Saudi Arabia to understand their role in the Middle East and to form their own opinions about its present and future relationship to the United States.
{
200pp,
155x230mm,
September 2006;
PB,
£19.99,
0880938595:9780880938594
, AtlasBooks (University of Indianapolis Press)
} |
 |
SAUDI ARABIA
: From Bedouin Beginnings to Modern Kingdom
[Gene Lindsey]
Saudi Arabia is the centre of religious life for over one billion Muslims. It is the birthplace of Islam, Wahhabism, Osama bin Laden and most of the 9/11 hijackers. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia controls over one quarter of the world's diminishing oil reserves and billions of dollars worth of investments in the West and is often referred to as the only 'family-owned business in the United Nations'. The way the Saudis think, express themselves, act, work and solve problems is of increasing and overwhelming significance to the world. This candid, penetrating view of the culture, history and evolution of Saudi Arabia offers a thorough understanding of how the country developed and why things are as they are.
{
410pp,
155x230mm,
February 2005;
PB,
£9.99,
0781810973:9780781810975
, Hippocrene Books
} |
 |
SUPERPOWERS, ISRAEL & THE FUTURE OF JORDAN, 1960-63
: The Perils of the Pro-Nasser Policy
[Zaki Shalom]
The book uses papers released from Israeli, British and US State Department archives -- which demonstrate the thinking behind the diplomatic moves relating to the western powers' commitment to Jordan and the pro-Nasser policy of the Kennedy administration. The book examines Israeli efforts to preserve the stability of the Jordanian monarchy under king Hussein, as well as the territorial status quo between Israel and Jordan, in terms of the manoeuvrings of powerful factions in Israel to take advantage of the crisis so as to make territorial gains.
{
181pp,
155x230mm,
January 1999;
HB,
£45.00,
190221014X:9781902210148
, Sussex Academic Press
} |
 |
TITLES & EMOLUMENTS IN SAFAVID IRAN
: A Third Manual of Safavid Administration
[Mirza Naqi Nasiri. Translated & annotated by Willem Floor]
This book contains unique and important information on offices, ethnic attitudes and administrative developments in Iran's Safavid government (1495-1720). It provides the official honorific title for each official (and the variations thereof), which shows the importance of these titles in the intricate structure of social and political standing among the power elite. The commentary's long database of all known administrative jurisdictions with names and dates of each of its governors gives us a more nuanced understanding of how the Safavid administration functioned, not only at the central level but also at the provincial one. This, together with a detailed index, allows the reader to find the names of individual governors and follow their careers. This book facilitates the analysis of power relations between the central and tribal interests as well as other groups, and the changes therein over time. It is an essential historical resource for all those interested in Iran's Safavid era.
{
337pp,
215x280mm,
April 2008;
PB,
£33.50,
1933823232:9781933823232
, Mage Publishers
} |
 |
TRADE BARRIERS IN AFRICA & THE MIDDLE EAST
[Russell V Blaine (ed)]
A trade barrier is a general term that describes any government policy or regulation that restricts international trade. The barriers can take many forms, including: Import duties, Import licenses, Export licenses, Import quotas, Tariffs, Subsidies. Non-tariff barriers to trade, Voluntary Export Restraints, and Local Content Requirements. Most trade barriers work on the same principle: the imposition of some sort of cost on trade that raises the price of the traded products. If two or more nations repeatedly use trade barriers against each other, then a trade war results.
Economists generally agree that trade barriers are detrimental and decrease overall economic efficiency, this can be explained by the theory of comparative advantage. In theory, free trade involves the removal of all such barriers, except perhaps those considered necessary for health or national security. In practice, however, even those countries promoting free trade heavily subsidise certain industries, such as agriculture and steel. Examples of free trade areas are: North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), South Asia Free Trade Agreement(SAFTA), European Free Trade Association, European Union (EU), Union of South American Nations. Other trade barriers include differences in culture, customs, traditions, laws, language and currency. This book which is based on information from the The Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR).
{
167pp,
180x260mm,
January 2008;
HB,
£65.50,
1600219543:9781600219542
, Nova Science Publishers
} |
 |
TYLOS PERIOD BURIALS IN BAHRAIN
: Volume I -- The Glass & Pottery Vessels
[Soren Fredslund Andersen]
Since 1970, the Bahrain National Museum has excavated thousands of graves from the so-called Tylos period (c. 300 BC to AD 600). The results of these excavations are now being published. The first volume presents c. 300 glass vessels from East Roman and Mesopotamian workshops, and c. 1800 pottery vessels of local produce. The interpretation of this material has made possible a new chronology of the Tylos period, and casts new light on relations between the Hellenistic Kingdoms and the Roman Empire on the one side and The Arabic region and the East on the other. Volume 2 will present two selected cemeteries from Bahrain and will outline the evolution of graves and burial customs throughout the Tylos period.
{
262pp,
210x300mm,
December 2007;
HB,
£26.95,
8779343732:9788779343733
, Aarhus University Press
} |
 |
HISTORY OF LITERARY CRITICISM IN IRAN, 1866-1951
[Iraj Parsinejad]
This book contains a comprehensive research on the works of leading figures in the field of literary criticism in modern Iranian thought of the nineteenth century: Mirza Fath Ali Akhundzade; Mirza Malkom Khan; Mirza Abd al-Rahim Talebof; and Zeyn al-Abedin Maraghe'i. Inclusion of Ahmad Kasravi and Sadeq Hedayat was considered appropriate later due to some common aspects of critical attitude to the predecessors. These critics who employed their thoughts and pens in the service of the masses criticized ignorance, injustice and despotism, and since they were experienced authorities on literature, they attacked the writers and poets whose works served despotism. These criticisms were the first seeds of modern literary criticism sown in the field of social and political life, which has helped the young tree of literary criticism to bear fruit.
REVIEW: "Until recently, the history of literary criticism in Iran was a neglected area of inquiry. This book, which has been in preparation for many years, features a descriptive history of that crucial field in the latter part of the nineteenth and the early part of the twentieth centuries. It also includes biographies of several major literary critics, which gives it a secondary use as a source of information on the evolution of aesthetic norms in modern Iran..." -- Ahmad Karimi-Hakkak, Professor of Persian, University of Washington.
{
352pp,
155x230mm,
April 2003;
HB,
£39.99,
1588140164:9781588140166
, IBEX Publishers
} |
 |
LITERARY HISTORY OF PERSIA, VOLUMES 1-4
[Edward G Browne]
The classic work on the subject, A Literary History of Persia is still the standard work in the English language on Persia and her literature. It spans four volumes (2256 pages) and took about twenty-five years to write. Although it concentrates on Persian literature, it also surveys all aspects of Persian culture from Iranian pre-history to the twentieth century. The remarkable freshness and liveliness of Browne's prose will astonish readers. In addition to being a work of reference it is book which may be read strictly for pleasure. J T P De Bruijn's new introduction surveys the history, significance and continued value of the work.
REVIEW: "this work... could in the eyes of the Anglo-Saxon world with full right be judged and evaluated as a standard work..." -- Franz Babinger.
{
2256pp,
January 1997;
HB,
£183.50,
093634766X:9780936347660
, IBEX Publishers
} |
 |
NAPHTALENE
: A Novel of Baghdad
[Alia Mamdouh]
Seen through the eyes of a strong-willed and perceptive young girl, 'Naphtalene' beautifully captures the atmosphere of Baghdad in the 1940s and 1950s. Through her rich and lyrical descriptions, Alia Mamdouh vividly recreates a city of public steam baths, roadside, butchers and childhood games played in the same streets where political demonstrations against British colonialism are beginning to take place. At the heart of the novel is nine-year-old Huda, a girl whose fiery, defiant nature belies Western stereotypes of Muslim femininity -- and also contrasts sharply with her own inherent powerlessness. Both childishly innocent and acutely perceptive, Huda observes and documents the complex web of relationships in her family. Her father, a bullying police officer who works as a prison guard, treats his two children with vacillating tenderness and brutality, and drives her desperately ill Syrian mother from the house after he takes a second wife. One aunt waits in vain for a man to marry her, while another engages in a sexual relationship with a woman, but is forced to hide it. Huda must struggle to form her identity amidst this world of unfulfilled women, of yearnings, frustrations, and small tragedies. Her inspiration is her grandmother, a reservoir of strength, humour, and of traditional storytelling, who manages subversively to wield great power in her family and her community. Through Mamdouh's strikingly inventive use of language, Huda's stream-of-consciousness narrative expands to take in the life not only of a young girl and her family, but of her street, her neighbourhood, and her country.
{
214pp,
155x230mm,
May 2006;
PB,
£9.99,
1558614931:9781558614932
, Feminist Press
} |
 |
STORIES FROM THE SHAHNAMEH OF FERDOWSI, VOLUME 1
: Lion & the Throne
[Ehsan Yarshater]
Among the masterpieces of world literature, perhaps the least familiar to English readers is the Persian book of Kings (Shahnameh, in Persian). This prodigious national epic, composed by the poet Ferdowsi between 980 and 1010, tells the story of ancient Persia, beginning in the mythic time of Creation and continuing forward to the Arab-Islamic invasion in the 7th century. Translator Dick Davis combines his skills as a poet and a Ferdowsi scholar to evoke the metrical music, impact, and nuance of Ferdowsi’s monumental poem. Breathtaking miniatures from the finest Persian Shahnameh manuscripts of the 16th and 17th centuries heighten the emotional impact of the text. A short afterword by the eminent art historian Stuart Cary Welch unravels the history behind these paintings.
{
272pp,
185x290mm,
January 1998;
HB,
£49.99,
0934211507:9780934211505
, Mage Publishers
} |
 |
STORIES FROM THE SHAHNAMEH OF FERDOWSI, VOLUME 2
: Fathers & Sons
[Dick Davis (ed)]
Volume 2 opens and closes with tales of tragic conflict between a king and his son: Prince Seyavash and Prince Esfandiyar are both driven from the court by their foolish fathers to confront destiny and death in distant lands. Interwoven with Seyavash's story is the tale of his stepmother Sudabeh's lust for her young stepson, and of his escape from her tricks by the famous trial by fire; Esfandiyar's story involves the last combat of the great Rostam, a fight to the death which leads to Rostam's own demise at the hands of his evil brother Shaghad. Between these two stories the reader travels through a wondrous landscape of romance, demons, heroic despair and mystical renunciation of the world.
{
310pp,
185x290mm,
January 2000;
HB,
£49.99,
0934211531:9780934211536
, Mage Publishers
} |
 |
STORIES FROM THE SHAHNAMEH OF FERDOWSI, VOLUME 3
: Sunset of Empire
[Translated by Dick David]
With our third and final volume of stories from the Shahnameh we move from mythology and legend to romanticized history. Here the mighty events that shook ancient Persia from the time of Alexander of Macedon’s conquest to the Arab invasion of the 7th century CE are reflected in the stirring and poignant narratives of Ferdowsi, the master poet who took on himself the task of preserving his country’s great pre-Islamic heritage. We see vast empires rise and fall, the rule of noble kings and cruel tyrants, the fortunes of a people buffeted by contending tides of history. Larger than life individuals are vividly depicted -- the impulsive, pleasure-loving king Bahram Gur, the wise vizier Bozarjmehr, the brave rebel Bahram Chubineh, his loyal defiant sister Gordyeh, and many others -- but we also see many vignettes of everyday life in the villages and towns of ancient Persia, and in this part of the Shahnameh Ferdowsi indulges his talent for sly humor much more than in the earlier tales. The poem rises to its magnificent climax in its last pages, when the tragic end of an era is recorded and Ferdowsi and his characters look with foreboding towards an unstable and fearful future. Breathtaking miniatures from the finest Persian Shahnameh manuscripts of the 16th and 17th centuries, many of them published here for the first time, heighten the emotional impact of the text.
{
552pp,
185x285mm,
December 2003;
HB,
£89.99,
093421168X:9780934211680
, Mage Publishers
} |
 |
WOMEN WITHOUT MEN
: A Novel of Modern Iraq
[Sharnush Parsipur]
Shortly after the 1989 publication of 'Women Without Men' in her native Iran, Shahrnush Parsipur was arrested and jailed for her frank and defiant portrayal of women's sexuality. Now banned in Iraq, along with the rest of this brave and prolific writer's work, this small masterpiece was eventually translated into several languages, and introduces English-speaking readers to the work of a brilliant Persian writer. With a tone that is stark and bold, yet magical, as its elegantly drawn settings and characters, this novel creates an evocative allegory of life for contemporary Iranian women. Parsipur follows the interwoven destinies of five women -- including a schoolteacher, a housewife and a prostitute -- as they arrive, by many different paths, to live in a garden on the outskirts of Tehran. Using the deceptively simple structure of a fairytale, and drawing on elements from Islamic mysticism and recent Iranian history, this novel depicts women escaping the narrow confines of family and society -- only to face daunting new challenges.
{
176pp,
155x230mm,
February 2004;
PB,
£9.99,
1558614524:9781558614529
, Feminist Press
} |
 |
ENVIRONMENTALISM IN THE MUSLIM WORLD
[Richard C Foltz (ed)]
This is the first book to provide an overview of how Muslim activists are responding on the ground to the global environmental crisis. The detrimental effects of environmental degradation are felt most severely by the world's poor, a disproportionate number of whom are Muslims. Unfortunately, governments of Muslim societies have been slow to respond to environmental problems, while opposition movements as well have mostly chosen to focus on other issues. Nevertheless, environmental awareness and activism are growing throughout the Muslim world. This book offers chapters by leading Muslim environmentalists which survey environmental initiatives in Egypt, Turkey, Iran, Pakistan, Nigeria, and Malaysia. Issues are detailed pointing out both successes and failures and describing the unique challenges facing the world's very diverse Muslim societies in striving to balance development and social justice with preserving the integrity of the earth's life support systems.
{
150pp,
180x260mm,
August 2005;
HB,
£52.99,
1594543860:9781594543869
, Nova Science Publishers
} |
 |
GARDEN OF THE BRAVE IN WAR
: Recollections of Iran
[Terence O'Donnell]
When Terence O'Donnell, an American who lived in Iran for fifteen years in the 1960s and 1970s, was asked what he was doing there, he replied, "The conviction of all Iranians, of most of my compatriots, and indeed of the Russians, was that I was engaged in intelligence work. I was, and what is more I filed a daily report. My employer was myself and my reports consisted of eight thousand pages of journal. This book was drawn from that material." For ten of those years, O'Donnell lived on a farm near Shiraz, in southern Iran, where he raised mainly pomegranates, but also quinces, grapes, chickens, and bees. He also made many Iranian friends. His memories of that time have yielded a masterpiece of national portraiture, wonderfully alive to the complexities of the Iranian character -- courteous, capricious, deeply religious yet also playful, generous, and poetic. A work of shimmering beauty and sensitivity, Garden of the Brave in War will deepen every reader's understanding of the often elusive country that lies behind the headlines.
{
242pp,
140x215mm,
December 2003;
PB,
£13.50,
0934211809:9780934211802
/
HB,
£33.50,
0934211795:9780934211796
, Mage Publishers
} |
 |
HOLY CITY OF JERUSALEM
: A Bibliography
[Veronika Olivas]
This book offers a comprehensive listing of resources on Jerusalem's history, politics and government, ethnic relations, social conditions, and international status.
{
157pp,
175x255mm,
October 2001;
PB,
£39.50,
1590330129:9781590330128
, Nova Science Publishers
} |
 |
IN THE LAND OF THE LION & SUN
: Being Experiences of Life in Persia From 1866 to 1881
[C J Wills; Introduction by Abbas Amanat]
C J Wills was an English physician who travelled widely in Iran from 1866-81 while working for the Indo-European Telegraph Department. With a discerning eye for detail, Wills wrote an intimate anthropological account of Qajar-era Iran, rich with description of everyday life, popular beliefs and practices, and arts and crafts, as well as health practices and communications that were his professional concern. In the Land of the Lion and Sun, the second volume to appear in Mage's Persia Observed series, provides a fresh and fascinating insight into both a time and a place, as well as the biases and sympathies of a generation. In his introduction to this new edition of Wills' book, Abbas Amanat presents a critical reading of Wills' career, his works, and his view of Qajar Iran. In an appendix, Michael Rubin gives a brief history of the introduction of telegraph to Iran, and discusses the role of employees such as Wills in the development of modern Persian communication.
{
446pp,
140x210mm,
July 2004;
HB,
£19.50,
0934211604:9780934211604
, Mage Publishers
} |
 |
IRAQ
: Government, US Forces & Oil
[Jean P Manning]
After decades of being out of the focus of the world's attention, it now finds itself on the first pages or newspapers around the world and on TV evening broadcasts on a daily basis. Whether this will be good or not Iraq is yet to be ascertained. This new book examines the new government and its activities, US Forces and their activities and the possible reason for it all -- the massive oil reserve and its activities.
{
August 2005;
HB,
£32.99,
1594546770:9781594546778
, Nova Science Publishers
} |
 |
IRAQ
: Issues, Historical Background, Bibliography
[Leon M Jeffries (ed)]
{
207pp,
180x260mm,
April 2002;
HB,
£63.50,
159033292X:9781590332924
, Nova Science Publishers
} |
 |
ISRAEL
: Current Issues & Historical Background
[Edgar S Marshall]
There has probably never been a country in the history of the world like Israel: the homeland for Jews from all around the world, a visceral enemy of Arab countries, called a client state of the United States, a developed country in its own right by its own hands. Israel has seen many events since its founding in 1948 but peace it has not found. The book examines current issues swirling about Israel as well as presents the historical background necessary for grasping its place in the world today.
{
266pp,
180x260mm,
April 2002;
HB,
£56.99,
159033325X:9781590333259
, Nova Science Publishers
} |
 |
KEMALISTS
: Islamic Revival & the Fate of Secular Turkey
[Muammer Kaylan]
A sprawling land with a fascinating, diverse, and ancient heritage, Turkey is literally at the crossroads of East and West. Sitting astride the Bosporus, which bridges Asia and Europe, modern Turkey maintains a precarious balancing act between Western secularism and orthodox Islamic revival. Now as Turkey prepares to enter the European Union, it is more important than ever for Westerners to acquire an understanding of the history and politics that have shaped this key nation of the Near East. Journalist Muammer Kaylan has spent a long, distinguished career writing about the politics and current events of modern Turkey. Part memoir and part history, his life story spans the beginning of the secular Republic of Turkey, created by Kemal Atatürk's sweeping reforms of the 1920s and 1930s, to the combustible uncertainties of the present day. Designed mainly for Western readers unfamiliar with Turkey's history, Kaylan's narrative discusses the origin of the Turks, how they were converted to Islam, the rise and fall of the Ottoman Empire, the legacy left by that collapsed empire, and the founding of the modern secular Republic of Turkey by Kemal Atatürk. Atatürk overturned many centuries of Islamic tradition and imposed wide-ranging secular reforms on the nation's politics, culture, and social customs. But today with the rise of fundamentalist Islam, Turkey's modern secular state is threatened by pressure from within and without to re-establish the old theocratic state ruled by Islamic law. What this portends for a secular Turkey in the future remains to be seen, but Kaylan underscores the possible wide-ranging effects on the Middle East, the Caucasus, Central Asia, and even Europe. Cautiously optimistic, he concludes that, despite the reassertion of traditional Islamic values, a secular and democratic Turkey can still play a vital and constructive role in this crucial and volatile region of the world.
{
450pp,
April 2005;
HB,
£18.99,
1591022827:9781591022824
, Prometheus Books
} |
 |
LEBANON
: Current Issues & Background
[John C Rolland (ed)]
{
235pp,
180x260mm,
April 2004;
HB,
£55.50,
1590338715:9781590338711
, Nova Science Publishers
} |
 |
LOST WISDOM
: Rethinking Modernity in Iran
[Abbas Milani]
In the essays collected here, Abbas Milani uses an impressive array of cross-disciplinary Western and Iranian theories and texts to investigate the crucial question of modernity in Iran today. He offers a wealth of new insights into the thousand-year-old conflict in Iran between the search for modernity and the forces of religious obscurantism. The essays trace the roots of Shiite Islamic fundamentalism and offer illuminating accounts of the work of Iranian intellectuals -- both men and women -- and their artistic movements as they struggle to find a new path toward a genuine modernity in Iran that is congruent with Iran's rich cultural heritage. This book challenges the hitherto accepted theory that modernity and its related concepts of democracy and freedom are Western in essence. It also demonstrates that Iran and the West have more that brings them together than separates them in their search for such modern ideals as rationalism, the rule of law, and democracy.
{
168pp,
155x230mm,
December 2003;
PB,
£13.50,
0934211906:9780934211901
/
HB,
£26.99,
0934211892:9780934211895
, Mage Publishers
} |
 |
MIDDLE EASTERN CITIES 1900-1950
: Public Places & Public Spheres in Transformation
[Hans Christian Korsholm Nielsen & Jakob Skovgaard-Petersen (eds)]
This volume elucidates the dramatic changes taking place in Middle Eastern cities during the first half of the 20th century. During this period radical changes took place with the introduction of new public spheres and places and with these a new society emerged. The focus of the contributions is on the development of these changes and how they were experienced and interpreted by the inhabitants of the cities and towns.
{
175pp,
January 2001;
HB,
£22.95,
8772889063:9788772889061
, Aarhus University Press
} |
 |
PALESTINIANS
: Current Issues & Historical Background
[Clyde Mark et al]
Between World War II and the collapse of the Soviet union, US policy toward the Middle East was based on several broad goals, the most noteworthy of which were (1) stop Soviet expansion into the region; (2) keep open the Middle Eastern lines of communication and trade; (3) maintain Western access to Middle Eastern oil; (4) foster democracy and free trade market economies; and (5) protect Israel's security. This book presents current issues concerning the Palestinians as well as a historical background.
{
137pp,
155x230mm,
May 2003;
HB,
£47.50,
1590336097:9781590336090
, Nova Science Publishers
} |
 |
PUBLIC HEALTH IN QAJAR IRAN
[Willem Floor]
This book offer a broad and comprehensive survey of the state of public health, medical practice and its practitioners in 1800-1925. Based on first-hand accounts of European travellers and doctors who practised and observed medical treatment, the study provides an overview of the major diseases the population suffered and how these were treated. It also includes the available evidence logged by Iranian patients abroad and at home, as well as contemporary Persian texts that comment on public health and its practice in Iran. Floor shuns the analysis of classic Islamic medical textbooks, explaining that their medical advice was hardly ever administered and that the authors often had ideological (religious) agendas in writing these treatises. Instead, Floor investigates the commonly accepted theories of diseases, disorders, and their cures, including Islamic Galenic medicine and pre-Islamic theurgic folk medicine based on traditional herb lore and trial-and-error. The book concludes with the impact of Western medicine on the traditional medical institutions and public health in Qajar Iran. This exhaustive inquiry will enthral scholars of Iran and medicine alike.
{
270pp,
215x280mm,
July 2004;
PB,
£33.50,
0934211086:9780934211086
, Mage Publishers
} |
 |
PURSUIT OF PLEASURE
: Drugs & Stimulants in Iranian History, 1500-1900
[Rudi Matthee]
From ancient times to the present day, Iranian social, political, and economic life has been dramatically influenced by psychoactive agents. This book looks at the stimulants that, as put by a long-time resident of seventeenth-century Iran, Raphaël du Mans, provided Iranians with damagh, gave them a 'kick', got them into a good mood. By tracing their historical trajectory and the role they played in early modern Iranian society (1500-1900), Rudi Matthee takes a major step in extending contemporary debates on the role of drugs and stimulants in shaping the modern West. At once panoramic and richly detailed, The Pursuit of Pleasure examines both the intoxicants known since ancient times -- wine and opiates -- and the stimulants introduced later -- tobacco, coffee, and tea -- from multiple angles. It brings together production, commerce, and consumption to reveal the forces behind the spread and popularity of these consumables, showing how Iranians adapted them to their own needs and tastes and integrated them into their everyday lives. Matthee further employs psychoactive substances as a portal for a set of broader issues in Iranian history -- most notably, the tension between religious and secular leadership. Faced with reality, Iran’s Shi'I ulama turned a blind eye to drug use as long as it stayed indoors and did not threaten the social order. Much of this flexibility remains visible underneath the uncompromising exterior of the current Islamic Republic.
{
346pp,
160x240mm,
June 2005;
HB,
£26.50,
0934211647:9780934211642
, Mage Publishers
} |
 |
RADICAL ISLAM
: in Egypt & Jordan
[Nachman Tal]
The rise of the Islamic fundamentalist movement as a social and political force is the most important development in the modern Arab world. Beginning in the late 1970s, radical Islam directly affected Egypt and Jordan, neighbours and co-signatories of peace treaties with Israel. The radical Islamic movement in both these countries assumed two forms -- non-violent, represented mainly by the Muslim Brotherhood, and violent, represented by various terrorist groups. Both groups shared the objective of replacing the existing regimes with Islamic theocracies. Egypt and Jordan responded firmly to the growth of radical Islam, quashing terrorist activity. Successive Egyptian regimes attempted unsuccessfully to arrive at a compromise for coexistence with the Muslim Brotherhood, and resorted to firm countermeasures to strip the movement of its social and political power. In Jordan, where the Muslim Brotherhood enjoyed legal status, the regime kept a strict hold on the movement so that its influence would not exceed government-imposed limits. By the end of the 1990s, the Muslim Brotherhood and terrorist groups no longer posed an existential threat to the Egyptian and Jordanian regimes, since there was little chance of their seizing the government in the foreseeable future. Although they might succeed in toppling a head of state, it is unlikely that they would be able to establish an Islamic regime. At the same time, both regimes acknowledged that it was beyond their power to eradicate Islamic radicalism, and recognised that they would have to face its challenge for many years to come.
REVIEW: "Nachman Tal has written a unique book. It elucidates the variety of streams of radical Islam and the modus operandi of Egypt and Jordan in coping with them. Based on his intimate knowledge of the field, Tal's work is an indispensable source for understanding the relations between the ideology and the strategy of these radical streams." -- Dr Matti Steinberg, former advisor to the head of Israel's General Security Services, and guest lecturer, Princeton University. "Nachman Tal's book presents an extensive review of the rise of violent and non- Islamic groups in Egypt and Jordan. Based on original research and the author's personal interviews with leading figures in the field, the book is a most impressive collection of information and records, covering both the radical groups themselves and the regimes' methods of confronting the Islamic threat." -- Prof. Shaul Mishal (Department of Political Science, Tel Aviv University), co-author of Investment in Peace: The Politics of Economic Cooperation Between Israel, Jordan and the Palestinians, writing in Ha'aretz.
{
281pp,
152x229mm,
January 2005;
PB,
£19.50,
184519098X:9781845190989
/
HB,
£55.00,
1845190521:9781845190521
, Sussex Academic Press
} |
 |
SAUDI ARABIA
: Issues, Historical Background & Bibliography
[Sophie Pompea]
Saudi Arabia is a focal point of the entire world because it is home to two of Islam's most holy sites: Mecca and Medina, as well as the repository of at least one-quarter of the world's oil reserves. The country itself, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, is the home to a relatively small population of 20,000,000. Its government walks a fine line between trying to please the turbulent Arab world, including its own people, and the powerful non-Arab world ready to go to war for access to its oil. This book brings together background information, timely analyses and a selective bibliography.
{
190pp,
155x230mm,
May 2002;
HB,
£47.50,
1590331788:9781590331781
, Nova Science Publishers
} |
 |
SYRIA
: Issues & Historical Background
[John L Henriques (ed)]
If there ever was a country in conflict, Syria is it. With the war in Iraq over and done with, the US government has placed Syria under its microscope. This book looks at some of the key issues and provides a needed background on this small country. A description and analysis of Syria's political, economic, social and national security systems and institutions and the examination of the interrelationships of the system and the ways all these elements are shaped by cultural factors. Particular attention is devoted to the people who make up the society, their origins, dominant beliefs and values, their common interests and the issues on which they are divided, the nature and extent of their involvement with national institutions, and their attitudes toward each other and toward their social system and political order.
{
247pp,
180x260mm,
October 2003;
HB,
£45.99,
1590337638:9781590337639
, Nova Science Publishers
} |
 |
WATER IN THE MIDDLE EAST
: Cooperation & Technological Solutions in the Jordan Valley
[K David Hambright, F Jamil Ragep & Joseph Ginat]
"Water in the Middle East" presents historical and cross-cultural perspectives on water and conflict, prospects for future cooperation in the water arena among Middle Eastern countries, the political economy of water and technical solutions to water shortages in the Jordan Valley, and the relationships among water, agriculture, and environmental sustainability. Through case studies and essays, natural and social scientific water experts from Israel, Palestine, Jordan, and the United States examine: The role of water in Middle East conflicts and the possibility of regional solutions to water scarcity requiring cooperation among states; Long-term prospects of various aquifers and other fresh-water sources, including desalination; current and future environmental deterioration of water resources; Breakthroughs and developments increasing regional agricultural productivity, depending less on high-quality waters while turning to lower quality resources, such as recycled and brackish waters; alternatives to current water-usage patterns, particularly with regard to agriculture and the possibility of redirecting water to tourism and other economic sectors. While this book highlights the complexities pertaining to regional water scarcity and inequitable distribution, the contributors offer no definitive conclusions or facile solutions; yet there is a broad consensus that regional solutions to maximize water resources must be pursued even as desalination becomes more viable both from technical/economic standpoints. The continuing deterioration of existing water supplies in terms of quantity and quality mandate that any solution must be achieved within a political/social framework of peace, enlightened economic policies, and the application of technical solutions that take due account of environmental concerns.
{
249pp,
152x229mm,
November 2005;
HB,
£39.95,
1845191226:9781845191221
, Sussex Academic Press
} |
 |
AGRICULTURE IN QAJAR IRAN
[Willem Floor]
Agriculture was the mainstay of Iran's economy in the nineteenth century, yet little is known about it. Historians have rarely taken that important reality into account when writing on the economic or social history of that period, and until now there have been no comprehensive studies of Iranian agriculture. Now, in Agriculture in Qajar Iran, renowned scholar Willem Floor has compiled an all-encompassing analysis of nineteenth-century Iranian agriculture based on extensive research into previously untapped Persian and European archives. Floor presents farming in Iran from the ground up and in its every dimension. His investigation covers farming methods like irrigation and seeding, the raising of livestock, and the range of crops cultivated, from wheat, barley, and rice, to the more notorious cash crops of tobacco and opium. Floor also delves into methods of forestry and fishing, subjects about which very little is known and even less has been written, until now. Agriculture in Qajar Iran traces the commercialisation of Iranian farming, and explains how this process altered the structure of Iran's economy. The change included the rise in cash crops, the growth of wage labor, the rise in off-farm employment, and the market economy's growing influence in the countryside. Floor also highlights the importance of trade within this burgeoning system, and gauges the impact of the commercialisation of agriculture on the rural population's socioeconomic status.
{
692pp,
210x280mm,
December 2003;
PB,
£66.99,
0934211787:9780934211789
, Mage Publishers
} |
 |
CROSSROADS TO ISLAM
: The Origins of the Arab Region & the Arab State
[Yehuda D Nevo & Judith Koren]
In the consensus view of early Muslim history, the Arab tribes, united and inspired by Muhammad's teachings, embarked on a military jihad that wrested Syria and Palestine from a weakened Byzantine Empire in the years after 630AD. But according to this radical revisionist treatise by the late Israeli archaeologist Nevo and Koren, an 'information specialist', every particular of this orthodoxy is wrong. Basing their arguments on a detailed examination of archaeology, contemporary texts, linguistic analyses and evidence from coins, the authors arrive at a thesis that will surely be incendiary to Islamic believers. The authors argue that Byzantium voluntarily transferred her eastern provinces to Arab client states in continuance of an imperial policy stretching back for centuries. The Arabs who took over the region after 630AD were not Muslims, but a mixture of pagans and adherents of a Judeo-Christian 'indeterminate monotheism' from which Islam evolved over succeeding decades. Muhammad was not a historical person, they argue, but a mythical figure who became, starting in the 690s, a 'National Arab Prophet' of a new official religion for the consolidating Arab state. In addition to the Muslim ire that the authors' religious debunking will raise, specialists in the field may have objections to their treatment as well. Especially unconvincing is their rational-actor account of Byzantine policy towards the eastern provinces, where, they assert, the Byzantine government deliberately fomented and then persecuted heresies, stoked hatred of the emperor himself and left its territories open to military incursions by rival powers, all in order to reconcile the inhabitants to their long-planned abandonment by the empire.
{
462pp,
June 2003;
HB,
£21.50,
1591020832:9781591020837
, Prometheus Books
} |
 |
DECLINE OF ARAB UNITY
: The Rise & Fall of the United Arab Republic
[Elie Podeh]
Analyses the political and socioeconomic processes that led to the rise and fall of the UAR, as well as the ramifications of this episode on the Arab world. The analysis is presented in the wider context of pan-Arab ideology. The formation of the union constituted both the culmination of this ideology and the beginning of its decline. With the disintegration of the UAR, the dream of an all-Arab nation in one state evaporated. Despite its short duration, the UAR episode is considered one of the major developments in the modern history of the Arab world. This is the first book in English to tell the story of this important, yet neglected, episode in Arab history. The research is based on archival material located in the US, Britain, Canada, and Israel, as well as all the available sources in Arabic. The use of these primary sources allows for a fresh look at the UAR forty years after its establishment.
{
292pp,
155x230mm,
January 1999;
HB,
£49.95,
1902210204:9781902210209
, Sussex Academic Press
} |
 |
ECONOMIC DIMENSIONS OF MIDDLE EASTERN HISTORY
: Essays in Honor of Charles Issawi
[Haleh Esfandiari & A L Udovitch (eds)]
In this celebratory volume, a group of eminent scholars pays tribute to Professor Issawi's distinguished career with a number of studies that examine key issues in the economic history of the Middle East. Essays cover such subjects as: British and American efforts to organise the Middle East; aspects of the Middle East oil industry; the Middle East in World Trade; economic justice in contemporary Islamic thought; property rights in the Islamic Republic or Iran; the growth of public sector enterprise in the Middle East; and international commerce in the eleventh century.
{
368pp,
155x230mm,
January 1990;
HB,
£16.99,
0878500707:9780878500703
, Darwin Press
} |
 |
EMERGENCE OF STATES IN A TRIBAL SOCIETY
: Oman Under Sa‘id bin Taymur, 1932-1970
[Uzi Rabi]
This book reassesses the reign of Sa‘id bin Taymur, who was deposed by his son, Qabus bin Sa‘id, in a coup in July 1970. Contemporary historiography of the period of Sa‘id’s rule (1932-1970) views Oman as medieval and isolationist; Qabus’ later government is seen as progressive and enlightened, with his ascendancy to the throne often described as the 'rebirth of Oman' from its 'medieval slumber' into a thriving and prosperous Sultanate. This study refutes the prevailing view that Sa‘id’s four-decade reign should be perceived as a place where time stood still. The author offers a critical look at the economic, political, social and cultural aspects of Oman during the reign of Sa‘id bin Taymur. The book mainly focuses on tribe-state relations, emphasizing their dynamic interaction, with particular attention paid to the relationships between the tribal groups. Uzi Rabi’s book reinterprets a significant timescale in the modern history of the Arabian Peninsula and pre-oil societies, and will be essential reading for both students and scholars of Middle Eastern history, culture and society.
{
299pp,
152x229mm,
October 2006;
HB,
£55.00,
1845190807:9781845190804
, Sussex Academic Press
} |
 |
FROM ANCIENT PERSIA TO CONTEMPORARY IRAN
: Selected Historical Milestones
If what follows can smooth the path of any pupil or teacher in the difficult and arduous task of clambering out of the pit that we have dug for ourselves and which has been, and is being dug for us, I shall be well satisfied. As, however, the ideas contained in the pages that follow arise from the truth of experience in learning and teaching this most important of techniques, they can have universal application. It is open to any one to find the meanings contained therein. I would also like to say that I speak for myself. Different people interpret Alexander differently and I lay no claim to speak the only truth. From the Preface. Patrick Macdonald's book comprises his Notebook Jottings (teaching notes and aphorisms); five chapters on learning and teaching the Technique; and an index which enables easy access to subjects such as direction and movement, inhibition and tension.
{
14pp,
125x280mm,
January 2000;
PB,
£3.50,
0934211574:9780934211574
, Mage Publishers
} |
 |
JOURNEY TO THE PROMISED LAND
: Crusading Theology in the Historia de Profectione Danorum in Hierosolyman (c. 1200)
[Karen Skovgaard-Petersen]
Towards the end of the 1190s a Norwegian canon -- his name is unknown -- composed a dramatic account of the Danish-Norwegian expedition drawing upon a series of literary and theological themes used in connection with crusading in the twelfth century.
{
84pp,
150x220mm,
January 2001;
PB,
£14.00,
8772897147:9788772897141
, Museum Tusculanum Press
} |
 |
KUWAIT
: The Growth of a Historic Identity
[Ben J Slot (ed)]
The Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in 1990 -- 1 placed the questions of Kuwait’s origins and statehood under the spotlight as never before, making them a matter of pressing concern both for the Kuwaitis themselves and for the world at large. During the 1990s a great deal of scholarly effort has been focused on the particular circumstances of Kuwait’s emergence as a state, and as a result much new material has been brought to light. This series of papers, presented at Peterhouse College, Cambridge, on 19 May 1995 by five leading scholars in the field, explores the historical, political and social processes which governed the birth, survival, prosperity and ultimate sovereignty of this unique Arab maritime polity.
REVIEW: "This most handsomely produced volume consists of five essays. Each is an authoritative contribution to the history of Kuwait..." -- Asian Affairs, Mar 2004.
{
144pp,
155x235mm,
October 2002;
HB,
£30.00,
0954479211:9780954479213
, Arabian Publishing Ltd
} |
 |
NAPOLEON & PERSIA
: Franco-Persian Relations Under the First Empire
[Iradj Amini]
Franco-Persian relations have long been neglected by Napoleonic scholars, however, they show how Napoleon's political and strategic thinking extended far beyond the frontiers of Europe. This volume discusses in detail those years of delicate diplomacy, complicated by the problem of distance, the intrigues of Britain and the intransigence of Russia. The dangerous existing conditions, the unique personalities of the protagonists, and the formidable subtlety of the Persian make this a riveting tale of international politics. Written in a style which brings together historical facts and entertaining anecdotes, 'Napoleon and Persia' will appeal not only to scholars, but to a wide readership interested in the history of Europe, military studies, and international relations.
{
228pp,
255x230mm,
December 1999;
HB,
£23.50,
0934211582:9780934211581
, Mage Publishers
} |
 |
SONS OF SINDBAD
: Sailing with the Arabs in their Dhows, in the Red Sea, Round the Coasts of Arabia, & to Zanzibar & Tanganyika; Pearling in the Persian Gulf; & the Life of the Shipmasters & the Mariners of Kuwait
[Alan Villiers; Edited by William Facey, Yacoub Al-Hijji & Grace Pundyk]
Reprint of Alan Villiers’ classic account, first published in 1940, of his voyage as a crew-member in a Kuwaiti dhow from Aden to Zanzibar and Rufiji, and then back to the Gulf and Kuwait with the monsoon winds. Villiers also spent some weeks with the Kuwaiti pearling fleet in the Gulf. Vivid and highly readable, Sons of Sindbad is not only a classic of maritime writing but also one of the finest books of Arabian travel.
REVIEW: "...a book that is at once a real pleasure to read but also, on account of its very useful and informative introduction, one that can be placed in the 'serious books' category." -- Erik Gilbert, International Journal of Maritime History, 2007.
{
416pp,
156x234mm,
July 2006;
HB,
£25.00,
0954479238:9780954479237
, Arabian Publishing Ltd
} |
|
