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Middle East

Lighting in Early Byzantium
Laskarina Bouras
Maria Parani
This book is the first general survey of lighting in Byzantium. The first part of the book discusses the technology and types of lighting devices and explains their decorative symbolism and social function. The second half illustrates this narrative by drawing on a Dumbarton Oaks exhibition.
Paperback May 2009
Makina/Medina
Edited by Aziza Chaouni
Edited by Hashim Sarkis
Paperback May 2009
The Lost Capital of Byzantium
Steven Runciman
Foreword by John Freely
Paperback April 2009
Two Faiths, One Banner
Ian Almond
Hardcover April 2009
Three Byzantine Military Treatises
Edited and translated by George T. Dennis
Threatened on all sides by relentless enemies for a thousand years, the Byzantines needed ready armies and secure borders. To this end, experienced commanders compiled practical handbooks of military strategy. Three such manuals are presented here. These treatises provide information not only on tactics and weaponry but also on the motivations of the men who risked their lives to defend the empire.
Paperback March 2009
Arab-Byzantine Coins
Clive Foss
This illustrated handbook presents a concise history of the development of the coinage of the early Arab caliphate in the seventh century. The historical introduction, which includes descriptions of all the basic types, is followed by a summary catalogue of the recently acquired collection of Arab-Byzantine coins at Dumbarton Oaks.
Paperback February 2009
Histoires Grecques
Maurice Sartre
Translated by Catherine Porter
Sartre spans the grand narrative of Greek culture over a thousand years and a vast expanse of land and sea. Ranging from Afghanistan to the Mediterranean world, these excursions amount to a panoramic vision of one of the most important civilizations of all time.
Hardcover January 2009
Sowing the Dragon's Teeth
Eric McGeer
The military achievements of the emperors Nikephoros Phokas, John Tzimiskes, and Basil II brought the Byzantine Empire to the height of its power by the early eleventh century. This volume presents new editions and translations of two military treatises–the Praecepta militaria of Nikephoros Phokas and the revised version included in the Taktika of Nikephoros Ouranos.
Paperback November 2008
Everyday Jihad
Bernard Rougier
Translated by Pascale Ghazaleh
As southern Lebanon becomes the latest battleground for Islamist warriors, Rougier plunges us into the heavily populated Palestinian refugee camp at Ain al-Helweh, which became a site for militant Sunni Islamists in the early 1990s. Rougier documents how Sunni fundamentalists, through their own interpretations of sacred texts and jihad, took root in this Palestinian milieu, and explains how radical religious allegiances overcome traditional nationalist sentiment in communities marked by poverty and despair.
Paperback October 2008
From Egypt to Babylon
Paul Collins
For those who believe that globalization is a purely modern phenomenon, this book holds a startling and absorbing lesson. Readers are immersed in a world of exotic empires and states as they waxed and waned and interacted in a period of extraordinary internationalism—all before the rise of the Persian Empire.
Hardcover October 2008
Spiritual Wayfarers, Leaders in Piety
Daphna Ephrat
This book represents the first continuous history of Sufism in Palestine. Covering the period between the rise of Islam and the spread of Ottoman rule and drawing on vast biographical material and complementary evidence, the book describes the social trajectory that Sufism followed.
Paperback September 2008
Dreaming Across Boundaries
Edited by Louise Marlow
This volume explores the context of theological speculations and political aspirations through the medium of dreams to present fascinating insights into the social history of the pre-modern Islamic world in all its cultural diversity. Wider cultural exchanges are discussed through concrete examples such as the Arabic version of the Aristotelian treatise De divinatione per somnum, and some of the current scholarly assumptions about dreams are challenged by personal reports that express individual personalities, self-awareness, and spiritual development.
Hardcover July 2008
Dreaming Across Boundaries
Edited by Louise Marlow
This volume explores the context of theological speculations and political aspirations through the medium of dreams to present fascinating insights into the social history of the pre-modern Islamic world in all its cultural diversity. Wider cultural exchanges are discussed through concrete examples such as the Arabic version of the Aristotelian treatise De divinatione per somnum, and some of the current scholarly assumptions about dreams are challenged by personal reports that express individual personalities, self-awareness, and spiritual development.
Paperback July 2008
Jerusalem
Simon Goldhill
Jerusalem is more than a tourist site—it is a city where every square mile is layered with historical significance, religious intensity, and extraordinary stories. It is a past marked by three great forces: religion, war, and monumentality. In this book, Goldhill takes on this peculiar archaeology of human imagination, hope, and disaster to provide a tour through the history of this most image-filled and ideology-laden city.
Hardcover May 2008
Al Qaeda in Its Own Words
Edited by Gilles Kepel
Edited by Jean-Pierre Milelli
Introduction and notes by Omar Saghi
Introduction and notes by Thomas Hegghammer
Introduction and notes by Stephane Lacroix
Translated by Pascale Ghazaleh
To reveal Al Qaeda’s inner workings, Gilles Kepel and his collaborators, all scholars of Arabic and Islam, have collected and brilliantly annotated key texts of the major figures from whom the movement has drawn its beliefs and direction. The resulting volume offers an unprecedented glimpse into the assumptions of the salafist jihadists who have reshaped political life at the beginning of the third millennium.
Hardcover April 2008
The Quest for Democracy in Iran
Fakhreddin Azimi
The Constitutional Revolution of 1906 launched Iran as a pioneer in a broad-based movement to establish democratic rule in the non-Western world. In a book that provides essential context for understanding modern Iran, Azimi traces a century of struggle for the establishment of representative government.
Hardcover April 2008
The Economic History of Byzantium
Edited by Angeliki E. Laiou
Paperback March 2008
Holon
Michael Chazan
Liora Kolska Horwitz
Excavations at the open-air site of Holon, carried out by Tamar Noy between 1963 and 1970, were some of the first successful salvage projects in the region. This volume brings together the results of interdisciplinary research on the site of Holon--geology, dating, archaeology, paleontology, taphonomy, and spatial analysis--by a team of leading international researchers. This book will be an essential point of reference for students and specialists working in the archaeology of human evolution.
Paperback January 2008