On Companionship and Belief (Epistles of the Brethren of Purity)
The Ikhwan al-Safa' (Brethren of Purity), the anonymous adepts of a tenth-century esoteric fraternity based in Basra and Baghdad, hold an eminent position in the history of science and philosophy in Islam due to the wide reception and assimilation of their monumental encyclopaedia, the Rasa 'il Ikhwan al-Safa' (Epistles of the Brethren of Purity). This compendium contains fifty-two epistles offering synoptic accounts of the classical sciences and philosophies of the age; divided into four classi...
Catastrophes, Crashes and Crimes in the UAE (with Teaching Resource)
Like any country, the United Arab Emirates have had their share of criminals, accidents, natural disasters and downright weird incidents. Most of these events merit a few pages in the newspapers before disappearing from history. This book brings the tragic, strange and illuminating stories from the 1970s back to life in a compilation of 168 of the best, drawn from past UAE newspapers - UAE News, Emirates News, Abu Dhabi News and the Gulf Weekly Mirror. The common theme of the articles are that t...
El autor de El Círculo vuelve con la increíble historia verdadera de Mokhtar Alkhanshali, un joven norteamericano de origen yemení que regresó a su país para recuperar el cultivo ancestral del café y se vio atrapado en una guerra civil.Mokhtar Alkhanshali, hijo de inmigrantes yemeníes, ha crecido en el barrio más conflictivo de San Francisco y a sus veinticuatro años es incapaz de pagarse la universidad. Mientras trabaja de portero en un bloque de pisos de lujo, descubre que...
Root of Terrorism in Muslim Countries and Other Parts of the World
by Milisa Jackson
The Emirate of Kuwait hardly resembles the city-State it was at the start of the 20th century. The discovery of oil in 1938 rapidly transformed the tiny tribal sheikhdom of the Al-Sabah into a modern oil-producing state where, by the early 1980s, citizens were enjoying one of the highest standards of living in the world. While much has been written on the reasons why and how the Al-Sabah became a ruling dynasty, little is known about the nature of their authority and its relationship to Kuwait'...
Assyrian Royal Rituals and Cultic Texts (State Archives of Assyria, #20)
by Simo Parpola
Sandra Mackey lived in Saudi Arabia for four years, and as far as the authorities knew, she was simply the wife of an American doctor. But she saw things and traveled to places rarely viewed by any outsider, let alone a Western woman, and she succeeded in smuggling out a series of crucial articles on Saudi culture and politics. The Saudis offers a fascinating portrait of Saudi life, chronicling Mackey's extraordinary travels and experiences and depicting Saudi Arabia's strange metamorphosis from...
Yemen is justly famed as one of the world's most dramatically beautiful countries. Seen in the Yemen brings the people, architecture and landscapes of this ancient culture alive to the reader through the medium of the author's remarkable black-and-white photographs, taken in the 1970s, and here reproduced in duotone. His book is also a tribute to one of the most famous of all Arab and Asian travellers, the late Dame Freya Stark (1893-1993). In the mid-1970s, at the age of eighty-three, she made...
En estos tiempos en que los medios de comunicación nos inundan y se ven inundados por imágenes y estereotipos que se refieren al Islam y a los musulmanes, Edward W. Said nos ofrece una descripción rigurosa y esclarecedora de la formación y desarrollo de estas «ideas recibidas» o tópicos que muchas veces impiden o sesgan nuestra visión. En Orientalismo, Edward W. Said nos ofrece una descripción esclarecedora de la formación y desarrollo de los tópicos sobre el islam y los musulmanes, que muchas...
In this definitive history of the modern Arab world, award-winning historian Eugene Rogan draws extensively on five centuries of Arab sources to place the Arab experience in its crucial historical context. In this updated and expanded edition, Rogan untangles the latest geopolitical developments of the region to offer a groundbreaking and comprehensive account of the Middle East. The Arabs is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the modern Arab world. "Deeply erudite and distin...
Saudi Arabia under Ibn Saud (Library of Middle East History, #75)
by Dr. J. E. Peterson
At its founding in 1932, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia was characterized by tribal warfare, political instability, chronic financial shortages and economic crises. As a desert chieftain, Abd al-Aziz Ibn Saud, the ruler and king until 1953, had the skills, the cunning and the power to control the tribes and bring peace to this realm. But financial and economic matters were not his forte and these he left mostly to a single individual, Abdullah al-Sulayman al-Hamdan. He was entrusted with nearly all...
Reveals a riveting portrait of a nation mired in complexities. In recent years Saudi Arabia has promoted itself as an open country: oil-rich but investing in culture, tourism, social innovation, and establishing itself as a beacon in the Middle East mired in violence. But the murder in October 2018 of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the Istanbul embassy reveals a darker reality: the intensification of the repression of religious and political criticism and protest driven by the war in Yemen, sect...
Abu Dhabi, the United Arab Emirates and the Gulf Region
by Frauke Heard-Bey
Rarely has a state changed its character so completely in so short a period of time. Previ- ously content to play a role befitting its small size, Qatar was a traditional, risk-averse Gulf monarchy until the early 1990s. A bloodless coup in 1995 brought to power an emerging elite with a progressive vision for the future. Financed by gas exports and protected by a US security umbrella, Qatar diversified its foreign relations to include Iran and Israel, established the satellite broadcaster Al Jaz...
A startling spotlight on the darkest corners of America's "War on Terror," where nothing is quite what it seems. The Convenient Terrorist is the definitive inside account of the capture, torture, and detention of Abu Zubaydah, the first "high-value target" captured by the CIA after 9/11. But was Abu Zubaydah, who is still being indefinitely held by the United States under shadowy circumstances, the blue-ribbon capture that the Bush White House claimed he was? Authors John Kiriakou, who led the...
Final Report of the Task Force on Combating Terrorist and Foreign Fighter Travel
The report addresses the urgent and growing threat of terrorist travel by Americans to Syria and Iraq. Despite the government's efforts to control this travel, hundreds of Americans have attempted to reach the conflict zones to join the jihadists. Using numerous briefings, interviews, site visits, and document analysis, the Task Force makes thirty-two key findings dealing with government strategy, identification of terrorists, and disruption of foreign fighter travel, including: Key Finding 1:...