Middle Eastern History

This seminal text by renowned Israeli historian, Ilan Pappé, discusses one of the most significant periods in the Arab-Israeli conflict. Based on archival material, it presents the reader with a comprehensive and general history of the origins and consequences of the 1948 war. While among Arabs, and especially Palestinians, the events of that year are known as the nakba -...

In September 2014, the Kurdish Syrian city of Kobane was subjected to a massive attack by fighters of the movement Islamic State (IS). As a result, the plight of the Kurds of Syria became known around the world. Less well-known, however, is their struggle before these dramatic and violent events. This struggle was mostly aimed at having their voices heard...

Published to accompany an exhibition at the British Museum in 2012, this beautifully illustrated book celebrates the relationship between horses and humans through the ages, revealing the immense influence of horses on human history. From the domestication of the Arabian horse circa 3500 BC to the present day, The Horse explores how entire peoples and cultures have been characterised by...

A major new history of the epic siege of the island fortress of Malta. Even as the great siege began, it was understood by both sides to be an epic—a potentially decisive encounter between an uneasy assortment of soldiers, native Maltese, adventurers, and Knights Hospitaller on a strategically crucial but near waterless island, and a vast, seemingly all-powerful Ottoman armada....

How the Middle East can achieve political change and social progress. The Middle East is in upheaval: a widening chasm between state and society, the failure of governing elites to address citizens' genuine grievances, and massive economic mismanagement, all made worse by repeated interventions by Western powers. Why has political change been so difficult to achieve? In The Great Betrayal,...

The pivotal years that laid the foundations for our times – in the Middle East and the world. In the latter half of the twentieth century, a revolutionary idea promised to upend the global order. Anti-imperialist militancy, bolstered by international solidarity, would lead to not only the national liberation of oppressed peoples but universal emancipation, shattering the division between the...

In this companion volume to his bestselling Ancient Israel: What Do We Know and How Do We Know It?, Lester L. Grabbe provides the background history of the main ancient Near Eastern peoples and empires: Babylonia, Assyria, Urartu, Hittites, Amorites, and Egyptians. Grabbe's focus is on Palestine/Canaan and covers the early second millennium, including the Middle Bronze Age and the...

The Arab-Israeli Conflict: A Guide for the Perplexed explains what the term "Arab-Israeli Conflict" refers to, providing an accurate and dispassionate description of the current situation, its origins, as well as the people involved and their motivations. It outlines in an accessible manner the past and present events that have led to the current divisions and hostilities. Using a thematic...

This title includes a new Foreword by WM. Roger Louis. On 26 July 1956, the British Empire received a blow from which it would never recover. On this day, Egypt's President Gamal Abdul Nasser nationalised the Suez Canal Company, one of the gems of Britain's imperial portfolio. It was to be a fateful day for Britain as a world power....

In Road to October 7, Erik Skare argues that Palestinian Islamism has been continuously shaped and determined by the fierce discussions and competition between moderates and hardliners about the way forward. The largest death toll in post-World War II Jewish history was caused by Islamist hardliners taking control over strategy because the moderates had few, if any, victories to show...

The eastern frontier of the Roman Empire – its network of roads, trade routes, towns, and forts – is often conceived of as an “edge” of both empire and civilisation. However, this “borderland” is also part of a rich cultural landscape. Our awareness and appreciation of these cultures has increased dramatically over the course of the last century. Scholarship has...

How the Palestine Liberation Organization Research Center informed the PLO's relationship to Zionism and Israel In September 1982, the Israeli military invaded West Beirut and Israel-allied Lebanese militiamen massacred Palestinians in the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps. Meanwhile, Israeli forces also raided the Palestine Liberation Organization Research Center and trucked its complete library to Israel. Palestinian activists and supporters protested...

A groundbreaking history that shows how peace between Egypt and Israel ensured lasting Palestinian statelessness. The 1978 Camp David Accords and the signing of the Egypt-Israel peace treaty are widely viewed as a triumph of U.S. diplomacy in the Middle East. Yet the Palestinians—the would-be beneficiaries of this vision for a comprehensive regional settlement—remain without a state to this day....

On the fortieth anniversary of the Camp David Accords, a groundbreaking new history shows how Egyptian-Israeli peace ensured lasting Palestinian statelessness. For seventy years, Israel has existed as a state, and for forty years, it has honoured a peace treaty with Egypt that is widely viewed as a triumph of U.S. diplomacy in the Middle East. Yet the Palestinians—the would-be...

The Nabataean Arabs, one of the most gifted peoples of the ancient world, are today known only for their hauntingly beautiful rock-carved capital—Petra, a magnificent city carved out of the mountains, and one of the most breath-taking achievements of the ancient world. Yet they were famous in their day—Herod the Great and his sons, and a kaleidoscope of Roman emperors...

Since the 1993 Oslo Accords, the Occupied Palestinian Territory has been the subject of extensive international peacebuilding and statebuilding efforts coordinated by Western donor states and international finance institutions. Despite their failure to yield peace or Palestinian statehood, the role of these organisations in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is generally overlooked owing to their depiction as tertiary actors engaged in technical...

2024 Winner, Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature, The Sami Rohr Jewish Literary Institute. One of the Wall Street Journal's 10 Best Books of 2023. Named a Booklist Editors' Choice in History: Adult Books, 2023. Finalist, Writing Based on Archival Material: National Jewish Book Awards. Finalist, Sophie Brody Medal, American Library Association. "[Kessler] has done an exceptional job and opened...

2024 Winner, Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature, The Sami Rohr Jewish Literary Institute. One of the Wall Street Journal's 10 Best Books of 2023. Named a Booklist Editors' Choice in History: Adult Books, 2023. Finalist, Writing Based on Archival Material: National Jewish Book Awards. Finalist, Sophie Brody Medal, American Library Association. "[Kessler] has done an exceptional job and opened...

Anger and distrust have strained the U.S.-Israeli alliance as the Obama administration and Netanyahu government have clashed over Israeli settlements, convulsions in the Arab world, and negotiating with Iran. Our Separate Ways is an urgent examination of why the alliance has deteriorated and the dangers of its neglect. Powerful demographic, cultural, and strategic currents in Israel and the United States...

In 1921, a small group of self-appointed patriots set out to avenge the deaths of almost one million victims of the Armenian Genocide. They named their operation Nemesis after the Greek goddess of retribution. Over several years, the men tracked down and assassinated former Turkish leaders. The story of this secret operation has never been fully told until now. Eric...

The terrorist massacre committed by Hamas against innocent Israelis on October 7, 2023, brought great trauma to the State of Israel. But it also has brought great clarity. It is this clarity that tells us we must try something new. It is this clarity that tells us Israel must plan its future on its own and not obsess about what...

In this book, first published in Hebrew in 1975 and now available in English for the first time with an introduction by Noam Chomsky, Amnon Kapeliouk traces the policies and attitudes that led to the 1973 Arab-Israel war. He describes the multiple diplomatic overtures from Egyptian presidents Nasser and Sadat after 1967 that Israel ignored or contemptuously rejected, as well...

Loved Egyptian Night fundamentally reassesses the Arab Spring, debunking the stories the Western powers fed to the world. There is no doubt that the toppling of Ben Ali in Tunisia in January 2011 constituted a political revolution. Was the same ever really true of events in Egypt, Syria or Libya, countries with quite different social topographies? The bitter ends of...

During the 1948 war, looting was a general and widespread phenomenon whereby Israeli fighters and residents alike plundered Palestinian property—including homes, shops, businesses, and farms—left behind by those who were expelled or fled during the war. This bitter truth was then silenced and forgotten by the Jewish public in Israel over the years: thousands of shops and tens of thousands...

Welcome to the exotic world of Istanbul in the year 1750! Palaces & mosques, coffee houses and baths - this is your pocket guide to the city of the Sultans. This entertaining and informative guide takes you on a journey back to the era of the Grand Tour, when Istanbul was a favourite destination for enterprising travellers. Learn how to...

Israel on the Brink explores the precarious state of Israel following the events of 7 October and its subsequent invasion of Gaza. These incidents have exposed the deep-seated issues within the nation, revealing it as a country struggling to safeguard its citizens. It is starkly divided between messianic theocrats and selective liberals, resented by its neighbours, and gradually losing the...

It is quite possible that before too long the Iranian people will chase the Pahlavi dictator and his associates from power… So wrote historian Fred Halliday in the conclusion to this prescient work on Iran in the twentieth century. Just months later, the revolution of 1979 saw Shah Reza Pahlavi ousted and an Islamic theocracy established under Ayatollah Khomeini. Following...

From the War on Terror to resistance in Ramallah and traumatic dislocation in the Middle East, Berger explores the uses of art as an instrument of political resistance. Visceral and passionate, Hold Everything Dear is a profound meditation on the far extremes of human behaviour, and the underlying despair. Looking at Afghanistan, Palestine, and Iraq, he makes an impassioned attack...

The Ottoman Empire was a hub of flourishing intellectual fervour, geopolitical power, and enlightened pluralistic rule. At the helm of its ascent was the omnipotent Sultan Selim I (1470-1520), who, with the aid of his extraordinarily gifted mother, Gulbahar, hugely expanded the empire, propelling it onto the world stage. Aware of centuries of European suppression of Islamic history, Alan Mikhail...

A 2024 Choice Outstanding Academic Title This book discusses some of the most urgent current debates over the study, commemoration, and politicisation of the Holocaust through key critical perspectives. Omer Bartov adeptly assesses the tensions between Holocaust and genocide studies, which have repeatedly both enriched and clashed with each other, whilst convincingly arguing for the importance of local history and...

The Syrian state is less than 100 years old, born from the wreckage of World War I. Today it stands in ruins, shattered by brutal civil war. How did this happen? How did the lands that are today Syria survive incorporation with the Ottoman Empire in the sixteenth century and the trials and vicissitudes of the Sultan's rule for four...

How was Istanbul, once the capital of the Ottoman Empire and now the financial heart of contemporary Turkey, provisioned in the early 19th century? Tracing how the sovereign's duty to provision the city and protect his subjects from hunger was gradually transferred to the market and became a responsibility of the subjects (later, citizens) alone, Feeding Istanbul makes a compelling...

Fascinating - Guardian, 'Book of the Day' 'A truly masterly book... A tour de force that will be read for a very long time.' - Peter Hennessy Selected by the New Statesman as an essential read for 2022 Britain shaped the modern Middle East through the lines that it drew in the sand after the First World War and through...

A bold call for the American Left to extend their politics to the issues of Israel-Palestine Except for Palestine argues that progressives and liberals who oppose regressive policies on immigration, racial justice, gender equality, LGBTQ rights, and other issues must extend these core principles to the oppression of Palestinians. In doing so, the authors take seriously the political concerns and...

A bold call for the American Left to extend their politics to the issues of Israel-Palestine Except for Palestine argues that progressives and liberals who oppose regressive policies on immigration, racial justice, gender equality, LGBTQ rights, and other issues must extend these core principles to the oppression of Palestinians. In doing so, the authors take seriously the political concerns and...

Afghanistan, August 2021. As the clock ticks down to a total Allied withdrawal and the Taliban go door to door to execute 'collaborators', a small, semi-official force of allied Paratroopers and Marines set about evacuating as many Afghans and their families as possible. The evacuation of Kabul in August 2021 will go down in military history as one of the...

Diary of a Crisis explores the past tumultuous and traumatic year in Israel-Palestine. The eminent historian Saul Friedländer began a diary of Israeli politics in January 2023 as the country was convulsed by protests against Netanyahu’s attempt to overhaul the judiciary. Hundreds of thousands took to the streets to demonstrate against this threat to democracy. However, the protests said nothing...

Following the Arab Spring, Syria descended into civil and sectarian conflict. It has since become a fractured warzone which operates as a breeding ground for new terrorist movements, including ISIS, as well as the root cause of the greatest refugee crisis in modern history. In this important book, former Special Envoy of the Netherlands to Syria, Nikolaos Van Dam, explains...

Since the 1979 revolution, Iranian leaders have persisted in advancing a foreign policy aimed at achieving regional prominence and, in particular, rebuffing U.S. efforts to limit Iran’s influence. But how are foreign policy decisions made in light of the country’s tumultuous history? How do the challenges posed by regional and global actors impact Iranian decision-making? And how can we expect...

The fragmentary evidence allows us only tantalising glimpses of the sophisticated and complex society of the ancient Egyptians, but the Greek historian Herodotus believed that the Egyptians had 'reversed the ordinary practices of mankind' in treating their women better than any of the other civilisations of the ancient world. Carolyn Graves-Brown draws on funerary remains, tomb paintings, architecture, and textual...

Terrorism, radicalisation and violent extremism dominate sociological, political and cultural concerns in today’s polarised social and political world. However, the role of governments and issues relating to state terrorism and the counter-terror state remain important considerations. Countering Violent Extremism presents an understanding of the concept from a critical terrorism studies perspective, using case studies from different countries while examining the...

On 8 February 1971, Marxist revolutionaries attacked the gendarmerie outpost at the village of Siyahkal in Iran’s Gilan Province. Barely two months later, the Iranian People’s Fada’i Guerrillas officially announced their existence and began a long, drawn-out urban guerrilla war against the Shah’s regime. In Call to Arms, Ali Rahnema provides an exhaustive history of the Fada’is, beginning by asking...

In this urgent and timely book, Patrick Cockburn writes the first draft of the history of the current crisis in the Middle East. Here he charts the period from the recapture of Mosul in 2017 to Turkey's attack on Kurdish territory in November 2019, and recounts the new phase in the wars of disintegration that have plagued the region, leading...

In this urgent and timely book, Patrick Cockburn writes the first draft of the history of the current crisis in the Middle East. Here he charts the period from the recapture of Mosul in 2017 to Turkey's attack on Kurdish territory in November 2019 and recounts the new phase in the wars of disintegration that have plagued the region, leading...

The iconic deserts of the American southwest could not have been colonised and settled without the help of desert experts from the Middle East. For example, in 1856, a caravan of thirty-three camels arrived in Indianola, Texas, led by a Syrian cameleer the Americans called "Hi Jolly." This "camel corps," the US government hoped, could help the army secure the...

In 2018, Palestinians marked the 70th anniversary of the Nakba, when over 750,000 people were uprooted and forced to flee their homes in the early days of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Even today, the bitterness and trauma of the Nakba remains raw, and it has become the pivotal event both in the shaping of Palestinian identity and in galvanising the resistance...

When this provocative text was first published, Lemche presented a new model of how we should understand Israelite society, its history, and its religion. Lemche argues first that Israel was the result of a social development among the Canaanite population of Palestine in the second half of the second millennium BCE. This implies that Israelite religion was originally ‘Canaanite’ and...

The Orontes Valley in western Syria is a land 'in between', positioned between the small trading centres of the coast and the huge urban agglomerations of the Euphrates Valley and the Syro-Mesopotamian plains beyond. As such, it provides a critical missing link in our understanding of the archaeology of this region in the early urban age. A Land in Between...

In this comprehensive and up-to-date history, from prehistoric proto-Indo-Iranian times to the post-Soviet period, Richard Foltz traces the complex linguistic, cultural, and political history of the Tajiks, a Persian-speaking Iranian ethnic group from the modern-day Central Asian states of Tajikistan, Afghanistan, and Uzbekistan. In eight chapters, the author explores the revitalisation of Persian culture under the Samanid Empire in the...

The importance of this collection lies in its origins: for the first time, leading Saudi Arabian historians have created a history of the Arabian Peninsula which analyses that history from an internal Arabian perspective. A History of the Arabian Peninsula explores the original Bedouin settlement of the region, the development of the major urban areas of Arabia during the Umayyad...

A unique, stunning collection of images of Palestine in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and a testament to the vibrancy of Palestinian society prior to occupation. Against Erasure tells the story, in both English and Arabic, of a land full of people—people with families, hopes, dreams, and a deep connection to their home—before Israel's establishment in 1948, known...

After Alexander: The Hellenistic and Early Roman Periods at Pella in Jordan details the excavation of Hellenistic and Early Roman period horizons carried out at Pella in Jordan by the University of Sydney since 1979. It deals with both the stratigraphy of the Hellenistic and Early Roman levels at Pella and catalogues the pottery recovered from them. Short summaries of...

A major history of Afghanistan and its changing political culture. Afghanistan traces the historic struggles and the changing nature of political authority in this volatile region of the world, from the Mughal Empire in the sixteenth century to the Taliban resurgence today. Thomas Barfield introduces readers to the bewildering diversity of tribal and ethnic groups in Afghanistan, explaining what unites...

The Tale of a Wall by Nasser Abu Srour is a Palestinian prisoner's memoir of thirty years' captivity, and a love letter to the wall that encircles and comforts him. This is the story of a wall that somehow chose me as the witness of what it said and did. Nasser Abu Srour grew up in a refugee camp in...

Until his assassination by US drone strike in January 2020, military commander Qassem Soleimani was one of the most powerful men in Iran. A widely popular but also feared maverick operator, he helped to establish the Islamic Republic as a major force in the Middle East. This was a long way from where he began as a youth, living on...

As the Commander of U.S. Central Command, General Frank McKenzie oversaw some of the most important—and controversial—operations in modern U.S. military history. He had direct operational responsibility for the strikes on Qassem Soleimani and two successive leaders of ISIS, the many months of deterrence operations against Iran and its proxies, and the methodical drawdown in Iraq. He directed the noncombatant...

The Ottoman chronicles recount that the first sultan, Osman, dreamt of the dynasty he would found — a tree, fully-formed, emerged from his navel, symbolising the vigour of his successors and the extent of their domains. Osman's Dream is the first book to tell the full story of the Ottoman dynasty that for six centuries held sway over territories stretching,...

How the conflict between political Islamists and secular-leaning nationalists has shaped the modern Middle East. In Making the Arab World, Fawaz Gerges, one of the world's leading authorities on the Middle East, describes how the clash between pan-Arab nationalism and pan-Islamism has shaped the history of the region from the 1920s to the present. He tells this story through an...

In Search of Fatima reflects the author's personal experiences of displacement and loss against a backdrop of the major political events which have shaped conflict in the Middle East. Karmi was born in Jerusalem, but her family was forced out in 1948, following the Nakba, when Palestinians were dispossessed of their lands at the hands of the Israeli state. In...

The definitive account of the life and thought of the medieval Arab genius who wrote the Muqaddima. Ibn Khaldun (1332-1406) is generally regarded as the greatest intellectual ever to have appeared in the Arab world—a genius who ranks as one of the world's great minds. Yet the author of the Muqaddima, the most important study of history ever produced in...

The definitive account of the life and thought of the medieval Arab genius who wrote the Muqaddima. Ibn Khaldun (1332-1406) is generally regarded as the greatest intellectual ever to have appeared in the Arab world—a genius who ranks as one of the world's great minds. Yet the author of the Muqaddima, the most important study of history ever produced in...

This gripping biography documents the life and reign of Hattusili, one of the most famous and well-documented Hittite rulers. Hattusili, the Hittite Prince Who Stole an Empire takes us to the ancient kingdom of Anatolia (modern Turkey) during the 2nd millennium BC, where Hattusili reigned. He was both a political rival and treaty-partner of the Egyptian pharaoh Ramesses the Great....

'If we were different people, to write down these words might be to leave them behind us. But words are our artifacts, and I am seeding a trail for the journey, home.' What does the daughter of a Nakba survivor inherit? It is not property or tangible heirlooms, nor the streets and neighbourhoods of a father's childhood and the deep...

The diaries of Dr Hussein Fakhri al-Khalidi offer a unique insight into the peculiarities of colonialism that have shaped Palestinian history. Elected mayor of Jerusalem—his city of birth—in 1935, the physician played a leading role in the Palestinian Rebellion of the next year, with profound consequences for the future of Palestinian resistance and British colonial rule. One of many Palestinian...

The full and untold story of Israeli politics penned by one of Israel’s most distinguished political journalists. “The phones had been installed in every corner of the apartment, and all started ringing at once. Golda Meir knew exactly what the sound meant—but she was afraid to pick up. Then she woke up with a jolt, covered in a cold sweat....

'A city so rich in trees it looks like a cloth of brocade spread out upon the land.' Shamsaddin al-Dimashqi, geographer (1256-1327) This is Gaza—a place of humanity and creativity, rich in culture and industry. A place now utterly devastated, its entire population displaced by a seemingly endless onslaught, its heritage destroyed. Daybreak in Gaza is a record of an...

Forgotten is a search for hidden or neglected memorials and places in historic Palestine—now Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories—and what they might tell us about the land and the people who live on our small slip of earth between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River. From ancient city ruins to the Nabi 'Ukkasha mosque and tomb, acclaimed writers...

The story of the ancient world's most spectacular library, and the civilisation that created it. When a team of Victorian archaeologists dug into a grassy hill in Iraq, they chanced upon one of the oldest and greatest stores of knowledge ever seen—the library of the Assyrian king Ashurbanipal, seventh century BCE ruler of a huge swathe of the ancient Middle...

In this groundbreaking book, the outspoken and radical Israeli historian Ilan Pappe examines the most contested ideas concerning the origins and identity of the contemporary state of Israel. This has been updated with a new afterword on the 2023 invasion of Gaza. Ten Myths About Israel addresses the following key myths: 1. Palestine was an Empty Land 2. The Jews...

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Shia Revival A gripping account that overturns simplistic portrayals of Iran as a theocratic pariah state, revealing how its strategic moves on the world stage are driven by two pervasive threats: external aggression and internal dissolution. Iran presents one of the most significant foreign policy challenges for America and the West,...

Original and illuminating ... what a good book this is - Jonathan Dimbleby A love letter to the people of the Old City - Jerusalem Post In Jerusalem, what you see and what is true are two different things. Maps divide the walled Old City into four quarters, yet that division doesn't reflect the reality of mixed and diverse neighbourhoods....

An incisive account of Erdoğan’s Turkey – showing how its troubling transformation may be short-lived. Since coming to power in 2002, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has overseen a radical transformation of Turkey. Once a pillar of the Western alliance, the country has embarked on a militaristic foreign policy, intervening in regional flashpoints from Nagorno-Karabakh to Libya. Its democracy, sustained by the...

The Syriac World by Françoise Briquel Chatonnet and Muriel Debié offers a comprehensive survey of Syriac Christianity, tracing its origins from Hellenistic and ancient Near Eastern cultures to the present day. Often referred to as the third main language of Christianity after Latin and Greek, Syriac remains a foundational classical, literary, and religious language throughout the world. Originating in Mesopotamia...

Turkey is a land torn between East and West, between its glorious past and a dangerous, unpredictable future. After the violence of an attempted military coup against President Erdogan in 2016, an event which shocked the world, journalist and novelist Kaya Genç travelled around his country on a quest to find the places and people in whom the contrasts of...

'An exceptional account.' - Prospect 'Enlightening.' - Spectator For the first time in millennia, we live without formal empires. But that doesn't mean we don't feel their presence rumbling through history. The Great Imperial Hangover examines how the world's imperial legacies are still shaping the thorniest issues we face today. From Russia's incursions in the Ukraine to Brexit; from Trump's...

A compelling history of the Ptolemies, the decline of Egypt, and the rising power of the Roman Empire The Ptolemaic era, Egypt's last and one of its longest dynasties, was in many ways a gilded age. Its early rulers restored and even expanded Egyptian power. Over a span of 300 years, the period was witness to intellectual enlightenment, imaginative state-building,...

The Crusader Armies provides a major new history of the Crusades, illuminating the strength and sophistication of both the Western and Muslim armies. During the Crusades, these armies developed a variety of highly sophisticated strategies for attack and defense, which evolved throughout the course of the battles. In this ambitious work, Steve Tibble draws upon an extensive range of Muslim...

This sweeping history reorients our understanding of the Middle East, placing the Gulf at the heart of globalised trade and cross-cultural encounters. World history began in the Persian Gulf. The ancient port cities that dotted its coastlines created the first global seaboard, a place from where faiths and cultures from around the world set sail and made contact. More than...

Shortlisted for the Palestine Book Awards 2017 From the author of the bestselling study of the 1948 War of Independence comes an incisive look at the Occupied Territories, picking up the story where The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine left off. In this comprehensive exploration of one of the world’s most prolonged and tragic conflicts, Pappe uses recently declassified archival material...

An unprecedented analysis of the crucial but underexplored roles the United States and other nations have played in shaping Syria’s ongoing civil war. “One of the best informed and non-partisan accounts of the Syrian tragedy yet published.”—Patrick Cockburn, Independent Syria’s brutal, long-lasting civil war is widely viewed as a domestic contest that began in 2011 and only later drew foreign...