Middle East

by H W F Saggs , Language: English

For many centuries it was accepted that civilization began with the Greeks and Romans. During the last two hundred years, however, archaeological discoveries in Egypt, Mesopotamia, Crete, Syria, Anatolia, Iran, and the Indus Valley have revealed that rich cultures existed in these regions some two thousand years before the Greco-Roman era. In this fascinating work, H.W.F Saggs presents a wide-ranging survey of the more notable achievements of these societies, showing how much the ancient peoples of the Near and Middle East have influenced the patterns of our daily lives.

by Sebastian Maisel , John A Shoup , Language: English

This extremely timely and helpful ready reference will familiarize all students and readers with the Gulf region and Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Dubai, the UAE, Kuwait, Oman, Yemen, and Qatar. These states are bound by the desert culture, the Gulf, new oil economy, and Islam, to name some commonalities. Most Americans know something about the region, such as oases, dates, camels, oil, Bedouin tribes, and the legends of Lawrence of Arabia to Osama bin Laden. Islamic concepts and practices are still unfamiliar.

by Joceline Chabot , Richard Godin , Stefanie Kappler , Sylvia Kasparian , Language: English

The role of the mass media in genocide is multifaceted with respect to the disclosure and flow of information. This volume investigates questions of responsibility, denial, victimisation and marginalisation through an analysis of the media representations of the Armenian genocide in different national contexts.

by Thomas De Waal , Language: English

In Great Catastrophe, the eminent scholar and reporter Thomas de Waal looks at the changing narratives and politics of the Armenian Genocide and tells the story of recent efforts by courageous Armenians, Kurds, and Turks to come to terms with the disaster as Turkey enters a new post-Kemalist era. The story of what happened to the Armenians in 1915-16 is well-known. Here we are told the much less well-known story of what happened to Armenians, Kurds, and Turks in its aftermath. First Armenians were divided between the Soviet Union and a worldwide diaspora, with different generations and communities of Armenians constructing new identities, while bitter intra-Armenian quarrels sometimes broke out into violence.

by Mark Healy , Angus McBride , Language: English

Osprey’s examination of the New Kingdom of Egypt (16th – 11th Century BC) and it’s people. Builders of the Pyramids and most ancient of all the powers of the biblical world, the Egyptians remain one of history’s most fascinating and enigmatic peoples. During the New Kingdom era, Egypt reached the peak of its power, wealth, and territory. Through the intensive military campaigns of Pharaoh Thutmose III (1490-1436BC), Palestine, Syria, and the northern Euphrates area in Mesopotamia were all brought within the New Kingdom.

by Christopher Chant , Language: English

In August 1990 Saddam Hussein’s Iraqi forces invaded and occupied the small Arab state of Kuwait. This book analyses the ensuing Gulf War (16 January – 28 February 1991) – a war fought to expel Iraq and restore Kuwaiti independence if not, as one British MP tartly observed, to defend democracy. The allies under General Schwarzkopf launched five weeks of air attacks, deploying 1,800 technologically highly advanced aircraft from the US, British, French and Saudi air forces. Many of these machines, including the British Tornadoes and US F-117A Stealth fighters, had never before engaged in combat, and their combined assault, watched by millions on TV, combined impressive accuracy with firepower to which the Iraqi forces had no answer.

by Renée Worringer , Language: English

The roots of today’s “clash of civilizations” between the Islamic world and the West are not solely anchored in the legacy of the crusades or the early Islamic conquests: in many ways, it is a more contemporary story rooted in the nineteenth-century histor

by Dominique Avon , Anaïs-Trissa Khatchadourian , Jane Marie Todd , Language: English

For thirty years, Hezbollah has played a pivotal role in Lebanese and global politics. That visibility has invited Hezbollah’s lionization and vilification by outside observers, and at the same time has prevented a clear-eyed view of Hezbollah’s place in the history of the Middle East and its future course of action. Dominique Avon and Anais-Trissa Khatchadourian provide here a nonpartisan account which offers insights into Hezbollah that Western media have missed or misunderstood. Now part of the Lebanese government, Hezbollah nevertheless remains in tension with both the transnational Shiite community and a religiously diverse Lebanon.

by Mike Ryan , Language: English

This sensational book reveals the true and compelling story of the Special Force units of the Coalition, such as the SAS, SBS and Delta Force who worked in the shadows, often unseen, unheard and unsung. It describes their missions behind the lines from the early days, well before hostilities opened formally. It was an open secret that groups were deployed probably operating in the western desert against Saddam’s forces and the Scud missile threat. What was actually going on is revealed here and until now their roles and actions have not been described in any detail.

by Nicole Chareyron , Language: English

"Every man who undertakes the journey to the Our Lord’s Sepulcher needs three sacks: a sack of patience, a sack of silver, and a sack of faith."-Symon Semeonis, an Irish medieval pilgrim As medieval pilgrims made their way to the places where Jesus Christ lived and suffered, they experienced, among other things: holy sites, the majesty of the Egyptian pyramids (often referred to as the "Pharaoh’s granaries"), dips in the Dead Sea, unfamiliar desert landscapes, the perils of traveling along the Nile, the customs of their Muslim hosts, Barbary pirates, lice, inconsiderate traveling companions, and a variety of difficulties, both great and small.

by Martin Gilbert , Language: English

Sir Martin Gilbert (born October 25, 1936 in London) is a British historian and biographer and author of over seventy books on a range of historical subjects. He is primarily known as the official biographer of Sir Winston Churchill, British Prime Minister during World War II.He studied modern history at Magdalen College, Oxford, graduating in 1960 with a BA. He was knighted in 1995 for services to British history and international relations. An Honorary Fellow of Merton College, Oxford University, he lives in London and since 2002 has been a Distinguished Fellow of Hillsdale College, Michigan.T

by Mehrdad Izady , Language: English

Without doubt the most authoritative, in-depth and wide-ranging book on the Kurds and Kurdish culture, history and religion, to name but a few topics.
While some books on Kurds centre on political matters this engaging book actually discusses Kurdish life, history and politics in a highly informative manner without ever dulling the reader. And the author’s erudition bristles.

by Toni Alaranta , Language: English

The nature and content of Kemalist ideology in Turkey during the last twenty years is analysed in this book. In order to place the current manifestations of this Turkish official modernising ideology in the two-part context of globalisation and the re-sacralisation of the world, Contemporary Kemalism scrutinises the texts of five prominent Kemalist intellectuals.After defining the unquestioned ideological premises of Kemalism, such as its implied liberal philosophy of history, and its idea about human nature, the book describes Kemalism’s vision of the ideal society.

by Richard Holmes , Language: English

From the bestselling author of Tommy and Redcoat, a magnificent and rich history of the British soldier in India from Clive to the end of empire, making full use of personal accounts of soldiers who served in the vast and varied nation that made up the jewel in Britain’s imperial crown. Sahib is a broad and sweeping military history of the British soldier in India, but its focus, like that of Tommy and Redcoat before it, will be on the men who served in India and the women who followed them across that vast and dusty continent, bore their children, and, all too often, mopped their brows as they died.

by Charles Glass , Patrick Cockburn , Language: English

What are the origins of the Syrian crisis, and why did no one do anything to stop it?Since the upsurge of the Arab Spring in 2011, the Syrian civil war has claimed in excess of 200,000 lives, with an estimated 8 million Syrians, more than a third of the country’s population, forced to flee their homes. Militant Sunni groups, such as ISIS, have taken control of large swathes of the nation. The impact of this catastrophe is now being felt on the streets of Europe and the United States.Veteran Middle East expert Charles Glass combines reportage, analysis, and history to provide an accessible overview of the origins and permutations defining the conflict.

by James Waterson , Language: English

Few people know the truth about the enigmatic organization known as the Assassins, an underground group of political killers, they were ready to kill Christians and Muslims alike with complete disregard for the consequences of their actions. Although their empire was destroyed in the 13th Century, have a controversial legacy which still resonates in the world today. The Assassins were meticulous in their killing. They often slew their victims in public, thereby cultivating their terrifying reputation.

by Christopher Tyerman , Language: English

God’s War offers a sweeping new vision of one of history’s most astounding events: the Crusades.From 1096 to 1500, European Christians fought to recreate the Middle East, Muslim Spain, and the pagan Baltic in the image of their God. The Crusades are perhaps both the most familiar and most misunderstood phenomena of the medieval world, and here Christopher Tyerman seeks to recreate, from the ground up, the centuries of violence committed as an act of religious devotion.The result is a stunning reinterpretation of the Crusades, revealed as both bloody political acts and a manifestation of a growing Christian communal identity.

by Yaron Ayalon , Language: English

This book explores the history of natural disasters in the Ottoman Empire and the responses to them on the state, communal, and individual levels. Yaron Ayalon argues that religious boundaries between Muslims and non-Muslims were far less significant in Ottoman society than commonly believed. Furthermore, the emphasis on Islamic principles and the presence of Islamic symbols in the public domain were measures the state took to enhance its reputation and political capital – occasional discrimination of non-Muslims was only a by-product of these measures.

by Lindsey Hilsum , Language: English

Over a quarter century, the renowned British international correspondent Lindsey Hilsum has covered crisis and conflict around the world. In February 2011, at the first stirrings of revolt, she went to Libya, and began to chronicle the personal stories of people living through a time of unprecedented danger and opportunity. She reported the progress of the revolution on the ground, from the conflict of the early months, through the toppling of Gaddafi’s regime and his savage death in the desert.

by Rashid Khalidi , Language: English

Winner of the 2014 Lionel Trilling Book AwardAn examination of the failure of the United States as a broker in the Palestinian-Israeli peace process, through three key historical moments For more than seven decades the conflict between Israel and the Palestinian people has raged on with no end in sight, and for much of that time, the United States has been involved as a mediator in the conflict. In this book, acclaimed historian Rashid Khalidi zeroes in on the United States’s role as the purported impartial broker in this failed peace process.

by Udo Worschech , Language: English

This book is a first presentation of pottery samples from el-Bālū‛ in the northern Ard el-Kerak, the ancient Moabitis which today is Central Jordan. The forms presented here are dating from the Late Bronze and Early Iron Age down to the Persian periods of occupation of the site of el-Bālū‛. The book does not discuss the pottery in the wider context of Jordanian or Palestinian ceramics; however, the intention was to present pottery from the hitherto only sparsely published Iron Age pottery of the region.

by Terry Crowdy , Christa Hook , Language: English

by Edward J Erickson , Language: English

This book offers a comprehensive look at the growth and activities of the Armenian revolutionary committees and the corresponding Ottoman counterinsurgency responses from 1890-1915.

by Michael Asher , Language: English

The British campaign in the Sudan in Queen Victoria’s reign is an epic tale of adventure more thrilling than any fiction. The story begins with the massacre of the 11,000 strong Hicks Pasha column in 1883. Sent to evacuate the country, British hero General Gordon was surrounded and murdered in Khartoum by a vast army of dervishes commanded by the Mahdi. The relief mission arrived two days too late. The result was a national scandal that shocked the Queen and led to the fall of the British government.