An introduction to the history of this turbulent region from the beginnings of Islam to the present day, this ... text by Arthur Goldschmidt Jr. is distinguished by its clear style, broad scope, and balanced treatment. This book explores the evolution of Islamic institutions and culture, the influence of the West, the modernization efforts of Middle Eastern governments, the struggle of various peoples for political independence, the Arab-Israeli conflict,...

A riveting, comprehensive history of the Arab peoples and tribes that explores the role of language as a cultural touchstone This kaleidoscopic book covers almost three thousand years of Arab history and shines a light on the footloose Arab peoples and tribes who conquered lands and disseminated their language and culture over vast distances. Tracing this process to the origins of the Arabic language, rather than the advent of Islam, Tim

...

Bernard Lewis is recognized around the globe as one of the leading authorities on Islam. Hailed as the world's foremost Islamic scholar (Wall Street Journal ), as a towering figure among experts on the culture and religion of the Muslim world (Baltimore Sun ), and as the doyen of Middle Eastern studies (New York Times ), Lewis is nothing less than a national treasure, a trusted voice that politicians, journalists, historians, and the general public...

"In early 2014, the Islamic State clinched its control of Raqqa in Syria. Baghdadi, the leader of ISIS, urged Muslims around the world to come join the caliphate. Witnessing the brutal oppression of the Assad regime in Syria, and moved to fight for justice, thousands of men and women heeded his call. At the heart of this story is a cast of unforgettable young women who responded. Emma, from Germany; Sharmeena from Bethnal Green, London; Nour from...

The Speed Sisters are the first all-woman race car driving team in the Middle East. Grabbing headlines and turning heads at improvised tracks across the West Bank, these five women have sped their way into the heart of the gritty, male dominated Palestinian street car racing scene. Weaving together their lives on and off the track, this takes viewers on a surprising journey into the drive to go further and faster than anyone thought they could.

"Wondrous . . . Compelling . . . Piercing." -The New York Times Book Review Award-winning writer Matti Friedman's tale of Israel's first spies has all the tropes of an espionage novel, including duplicity, betrayal, disguise, clandestine meetings, the bluff, and the double bluff-but it's all true. The four spies were young, Jewish, and born in Arab countries. In 1948, at the outbreak of war in Palestine, they went undercover in Beirut, spending...

"The Greater Middle East, the vast region between the Mediterranean and China encompassing much of the Arab world, parts of northern Africa, and Asia, existed for millennia as the crossroads of empire: Macedonian, Mongol, Ottoman, Russian, British. But with the dissolution of empires in the twentieth century, postcolonial states have struggled to maintain stability in the face of power struggles between factions, leadership vaccuums, and the fact...

"A book about young men transformed by war, written by a veteran whose dazzling literary gifts gripped my attention from the first page to the last." -The Wall Street Journal "Friedman's sober and striking new memoir . . . [is] on a par with Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried -- its Israeli analog." -The New York Times Book Review It was just one small hilltop in a small, unnamed war in the late 1990s, but it would send out ripples that...

A revelatory and game-changing narrative that rewrites everything we thought we knew about the modern history of the Islamic world. With majestic prose, Christopher de Bellaigue presents an absorbing account of the political and social reformations that transformed the lands of Islam in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Flying in the face of everything we thought we knew, The Islamic Enlightenment becomes an astonishing and revelatory...

A young boy determinedly follows the instructions of the Grand Master in the hope of gaining knowledge, only to be surprised as how he acquires it. Based on a Sufi tale.