There is much controversy over the number of wives attributed to the Prophet Mohammed: various claims range from four to nine or more. On one point, however, everyone agrees: Aishah was his favourite.The story of this remarkable woman has been concealed or ignored for generations. She lived for several decades after the Prophet's death and was deeply involved in the turbulent political conflict that shaped the early Muslim nation. Certainly, Aishah did not conform to any proscription against women in Islamic public life.Having extensively mined scholarly Arabic source material, Abbott nonetheless tells her story in a popular,narrative style. Aishah is not only a gripping tale, but also an attempt to recover part of the lost history of Muslim women who resisted the restrictions Islam sought to impose on them.

Aishah: The Beloved of Mohammed

Abbott, Nabia

Religion & Spirituality

Al Saqi

Forbidden Agendas: Intolerance & Defiance in the Middle East

For decades now, the Middle East has been torn by violent conflicts of the most savage kind. There have been five Arab-Israeli wars; wars between other states; numerous civil wars, small and large; struggles by women, students, workers, peasants; religious and class battles. Innumerable books on these subjects have been published; however, Forbidden Agendas: Intolerance and Defiance in the Middle East, a collection of seventeen articles from the journal Khamsin, stands alone. The contributors - who hail from Israel, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and Iran - tackle themes proscribed in much of the region, such as Oriental Jews and Palestinian workers in Israel; women in Israel and the Arab countries; the politics of religion and religious revivalism in the Arab world, Iran, and Israel; the civil war in Lebanon and so on. Moreover, these themes are treated in unorthodox ways: few of these articles are likely to please committed partisans of any of the contending political forces. Readers of this anthology will find iconoclastic analysis of some of the issues underlying the many conflicts of the region, in the place of the usual repetitions of commonplace claims and the banal jargon of Middle Eastern politics, whether left or right.

Forbidden Agendas: Intolerance and Defiance in the Middle East

History

Khamsin

Middle East

Since pre-Islamic days, poetry has been the mass art form of the Arabic language. In modern times poets in the region have had a greater impact on popular culture than novelists, and there can be no doubt that Mahmud Darwish, Samih al-Qasim and Adonis are among the leading poets of the Arab world today. Victims of a Map: A Bilingual Anthology of Poetry presents fifteen newly translated poems by each poet. It includes thirteen poems by Darwish never before published in book form, even in Arabic, and a long work by Adonis written during the 1982 siege of Beirut which has also never been published. The poems have been translated by Abdullah al-Udhari. The Arabic text of each poem is printed on the pages facing each translation, making this anthology a powerful learning tool for students of Arabic as well as a showcase of one of the most vibrant of all Arab arts.

Victims of a Map: A Bilingual Anthology of Arabic Poetry (English and Arabic Edition)

Literature & Fiction

Darwīsh, Maḥmūd

Poetry

The Crusades Through Arab Eyes (English and French Edition)

European and Arab versions of the Crusades have little in common. For Arabs, the twelfth and thirteenth centuries were years of strenuous efforts to repel a brutal and destructive invasion by barbarian hordes. In "The Crusades Through Arab Eyes", Amin Maalouf has sifted through the works of a score of contemporary Arab chroniclers of the Crusades, eyewitnesses and often participants in the events. He retells their stories in their own vivacious style, giving us a vivid portrait of a society rent by internal conflicts, and shaken by a traumatic encounter with an alien culture. He retraces two critical centuries of Middle Eastern history, and offers fascinating insights into some of the forces that shape Arab and Islamic consciousness today.

MAALOUF, AMIN

Europe

The Lure of Zion: The Case of the Iraqi Jews

Shiblak, Abbas

Ever greater numbers of people are learning Arabic and/or coming into some kind of contact with the Arab world. Anyone who wishes to learn the language faces a hitherto formidable initial challenge: the alphabet. This book proceeds, step by step, through all the letters of the Arabic alphabet, showing the sounds they stand for and how they are combined into words. Nothing essential is left out, and no unnecessary complications added. Readers will make rapid progress and will be surprised at the relative ease with which they master the first steps towards command of this increasingly important world language. The Arabic Alphabet: How to Read and Write It belongs on the desk of every student of the language; in the luggage of every visitor to the Middle East; in the briefcase of business people with Arab clients; and in the back pocket of every employee of British or American companies working in Arab countries.

The Arabic Alphabet: How to Read & Write It (Arabic Edition)

Awde, Nicholas

Samano, Putros

The Janissaries

From the fifteenth to the sixteenth century, the janissaries were the scourge of Europe. With their martial music, their muskets and their drilled march, it seemed that no one could withstand them. Their loyalty to their corps was infinite as the Ottomans conquered the Balkans as far as the Danube, and Syria, Egypt and Iraq. They set up semi-independent states along the North African coast and even fought at sea. Their political power was such that even sultans trembled. Who were they? Why were they an elite? Why did they decline and what was their end? These are some of the questions which this book attempts to answer. It is the story of extraordinary personalities in both victory and defeat. The book begins by exploring the origins of the janissary corps with the careful selection of youths from Christian families in the Balkans. It then introduces the pillars of the Ottoman state which these recruits were to serve. The Ottoman armed forces are reviewed, followed by a panoramic survey of the victorious years of this elite corps--culminating in the glorious conquest of Hungary and the establishment of the Danube frontier. By the middle of the sixteenth century discipline among the janissaries had declined, but the real fault lay with the sultan and his ministers. The devirme (levy) system of recruitment faltered and the corps became a refuge for society's misfits. By the end of the eighteenth century the janissaries were more interested in trade than in war. Ill-disciplined and arrogant, they turned both rulers and the ruled against them. Yet their political power was such that it took years of patient and careful planning before they could be suppressed. When their bubble finally burst, a raw army filled the void and matured into the veterans of the Crimean war.

Goodwin, Godfrey

Here is a cookbook with a difference: a mouthwatering selection of traditional recipes, as prepared in Lebanese homes, that are also ideal for today's health-conscious public. Accompanied by superlative full-colour photographs and wood engravings, the text is full of health tips and entertaining and informative anecdotes about ingredients, dishes and the culinary tradition of Lebanon. Nadeh Saleh, who is of Lebanese origin and also a Western-educated nutritionist, has cleverly adapted the recipes of her homeland for a healthy and nutritious diet. While respecting the authentic flavours of the dishes, she has, for example, reduced the amounts of saturated fats and substituted olive oil, and emphasized ingredients that are rich in mineral salts, vitamins and antioxidants.

Fragrance of the Earth: Lebanese Home Cooking

Cookbooks, Food & Wine

Saleh, Nada

Regional & International

A celebration of the female dancers of the Arab world and their impact on the West, this book explains the origins of this ancient art, which has survived in the face of commercialism, religious disapproval and changing times. Focusing on the 19th- and early-20th centuries, the book shows how Arabic dance came to be influenced by Western ideas about art and entertainment. But the influence was two-way. In the heyday of Orientalism, Arabic dance exerted a powerful influence on the Western imagination - on such writers and artists as Flaubert, David Robers and Jean-Leon Gerome, and imitators Colette and Mata Hari. Their fascination was often based on common fantasies about the women of the Middle East. Yet, as the book's illustrations show, this obsession also produced evocative images. At the turn of the century, the genre also had an impact on fashion, theatre and popular entertainment.

Serpent of the Nile: Women and Dance in the Arab World (Spanish and English Edition)

Arts & Photography

Buonaventura, Wendy

Photography & Video

In the early sixties, Marilyn Stafford spent over a year in Lebanon and became fascinated with the country and its people. She travelled extensively, journeying to the most remote villages and recording scenes of everyday life. This album is a selection of 120 of these outstanding photographs. Although there are some architectural scenes and views of towns and villages, the main focus is on the Lebanese people and their way of life: shopkeepers and soups, weddings and religious festivities, cafés and night life, fortune-tellers and street urchins . . . In her personal account of a vibrant society, Stafford reveals a land of contrasts - an intricate blend of east and west, tradition and modernity, which gave Lebanon its unique identity. Stafford's work is far more than a nostalgic remembrance of a Lebanon that was. It is a beautiful and evocative photographic record of a society that is often misrepresented and misunderstood. Even without the war, this book would have been an important contribution to the illustrated modern history of Lebanon. Now,it is an invaluable document in its own right.

Silent Stories: A Photographic Journey Through Lebanon in the Sixties

Stafford, Marilyn

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