OFTEN DESCRIBED as Iraq's elder statesman, Dr Adnan Pachachi has enjoyed one of the longest and most distinguished political careers of modern times, both domestically and on the world stage. In a life spanning nine decades, he has served his country as Ambassador to the United Nations and as Foreign Minister, and has worked tirelessly to establish a secular and anti-sectarian political culture in Iraq. At the UN, where he was an eloquent advocate of the Palestinian cause, he was much admire...
First published in 1999. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.
Secularism in the Arab World (In Translation: Modern Muslim Thinkers)
by Aziz Al-Azmeh
Published in Association with the Aga Khan University Institute for the Study of Muslim Civilisations Explores secularism and secularisation in Arab societies since the mid-19th century Traces the concrete secular transformations in Muslim societies which occurred at particular times and by specific social agenciesExplores how secular changes influenced the functioning of different strata and groups, and the central attitudes of their membersDevotes considerable attention to religious reform in...
Saudi Arabia and Iran (Library of Modern Middle East Studies)
by Simon Mabon
In the wake of the 1979 Iranian revolution, relations between states in the Middle East were reconfigured and reassessed overnight. Amongst the most-affected was the relationship between Iran and Saudi Arabia. The existence of a new regime in Tehran led to increasingly vitriolic confrontations between these two states, often manifesting themselves in the conflicts across the region, such as those in Lebanon and Iraq, and more recently in Bahrain and Syria. In order to shed light upon this rivalr...
Since March 2015, a Saudi-led international coalition of forces-supported by Britain and the United States-has waged devastating war in Yemen. Largely ignored by the world's media, the resulting humanitarian disaster and full scale famine threatens millions. Destroying Yemen offers the first in-depth historical account of the transnational origins of this war, placing it in the illuminating context of Yemen's relationship with major powers since the Cold War. Bringing new sources and a deep unde...
For the first time, the story of Iraq's purebred Arabian horses is recounted in words and pictures by a prominent Iraqi whose family has been breeding horses for generations, since the family migrated north from Arabia with their prize horses to settle on the grasslands around Mosul in northern Iraq in the 17th century. Dr Mohammed Al-Nujaifi has a deep understanding of the purebred desert Arabian horse, its origins, history and qualities, and his narrative corrects the Western-held belief that...
In 2017, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the UAE and Egypt severed diplomatic ties with Qatar, launching an economic blockade by land, air and sea. The self-proclaimed 'Anti-Terror Quartet' offered maximalist demands: thirteen 'conditions' recalling Austria-Hungary's 1914 ultimatum to Serbia. They may even have intended military action. Well into its second year, the standoff in the Gulf has no realistic end in sight. With the Bahraini and Emirati criminalisation of expressing support for Qatar, and the...
The World of the Tahawy Bedouin and Their Pure-Bred Arabian Horses
by Kirsten Radtke and Bernd Radtke
The Tahawy Bedouin have been famed breeders of pure-bred Arabian horses for centuries. Part of the great tribe of Banu Sulaym, they roamed the Nejd of the Arabian peninsula until a wave of tribal migration nearly a millennia ago took them through the Levant and North Africa until they settled in their present homeland: Sharqiya and the Salihiya desert region of Lower Egypt. The Tahawy's horses have been an integral part of their history, their lives dependent on the strength, stamina and courage...
On a sweltering day in July, 1878 the men of the 42nd Royal Highlanders - the Black Watch - waded ashore at Larnaca Bay to begin the British occupation of Cyprus. Today, Britons on sunbeds colonise the same stretch of sand, the latest visitors to an island which has long held a special place in the English imagination - and a controversial role in British imperial ambitions. Drawing on largely unpublished material, Tabitha Morgan reflects on why successive administrations failed, so catastrophic...
In early 2007, writer and theatre director Michael Schindhelm was appointed by the Dubai authorities as consultant on a projected opera house, and in early 2008 found himself with a broader remit as director of the newly founded Dubai Culture and Arts Authority. His diary of 2008 is a partly fictionalized account of his first twelve months of both working and living in Dubai. It is a meditation, from a cultural perspective, on the nature of this extraordinary city and its project to reinvent its...
The GCC and the International Relations of the Gulf (Library of International Relations)
by Matteo Legrenzi
The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), made up of Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), is one of the most resilient sub-regional organizations in the world, and the most successful in the Arab world. it has been the forum through which much security cooperation in this volatile sub-region has taken place, as well as the main representative for the UAE's territorial dispute with Iran over the Abu Musa and tunbs islands. the organization aims to enhance defen...
Arab World Antoun
Educating Palestine, through the story of education and the teaching of history in Mandate Palestine, reframes our understanding of the Palestinian and Zionist national movements. It argues that Palestinian and Hebrew pedagogy could only be truly understood through an analysis of the conscious or unconscious dialogue between them. The conflict over Palestine, the study shows, shaped the way Arabs and Zionists thought, taught, and wrote about their past. British rule over Palestine promised the J...
This is a portrait of Kuwait and its people, bringing together the Western view and the Kuwaitis' view of themselves. Kuwait is the first oil-city state. In 30 years, the desert kingdom has grown from a backward and impoverished society into a radical and progressive state. Kuwait has retained its neutrality despite the presence of neighbours such as Saudi Arabia, Iran and Iraq. It has used its new-found wealth to achieve a social transformation and a programme of investment in its future. Peter...
In December 2009 the US government launched an air strike against the tiny Yemeni village of al-Majalah where al-Qaeda militants were believed to be in hiding. A second attack a week later targeted the prominent religious leader Anwar Awlaki. He escaped unharmed but many villagers were killed. These two strikes were intended to set back al-Qaeda's operations in Yemen but, within 24 hours, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab - a 23-year-old Nigerian man and one of Awlaki's followers - boarded a plane to De...
The recent history of the Arab World presents a dismal story of pain, horror, and suffering. The causes are many and the blame game endless. However, the happy experiences of one Englishman throw a quite contrary light on current events, and have been written down as a way of saying thank you to all the Arabians involved for their unrivalled hospitality and friendship, as well as for sharing so much hilarious merriment. The author has collected stories over the course of many years that highligh...