Middle Eastern History

The untold story of how the Arabic Qur'an became the English Koran For millions of Muslims, the Qur'an is sacred only in Arabic, the original Arabic in which it was revealed to the Prophet Muhammad in the seventh century. To many Arab and non-Arab believers alike, the book literally defies translation, yet English translations are growing in both number and...

Originally published in 1896 as Der Judenstaat, The Jewish State has taken its place among the likes of The Communist Manifesto and Common Sense as polemic writings which have changed modern history. Theodor Herzl's advocacy for a separate, independent Jewish state as a remedy for centuries of hostility and persecution served as the basis for modern Zionism. Although his vision...

From the organisers of the Palestine Festival of Literature, this anthology of essays connects Palestinian resistance with global freedom struggles against settler colonialism and calls on us to think more concretely about the practice of solidarity. The Palestine Festival of Literature, or PalFest, was created in 2008 as 'a cultural initiative committed to the creation of language and ideas for...

The companion to the Oscar-nominated documentary, an unparalleled look inside Israel's security establishment. In The Gatekeepers, which is based on extensive and lengthy interviews conducted to produce the award-winning film of the same name, six former heads of the Shin Bet speak with unprecedented candour on how they handled the toughest and tensest moments of their lives; on matters of...

Turkish republicanism is commonly thought to have originated with Mustafa Kemal Atatürk and the founding of modern Turkey in 1923, and is understood exclusively in terms of Kemalist ideals characterised by the principles of secularism, nationalism, statism, and populism. Banu Turnaoğlu challenges this view, showing how Turkish republicanism represents the outcome of centuries of intellectual dispute in Turkey over Islamic...

Perhaps no other Western writer has more deeply probed the bitter struggle in the Muslim world between the forces of religion and law and those of violence and lawlessness as Noah Feldman. His scholarship has defined the stakes in the Middle East today. Now, in this incisive book, Feldman tells the story behind the increasingly popular call for the establishment...

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 Ark Before Noah, British Museum expert Dr Irving Finkel reveals how decoding the symbols on a 4,000-year-old piece of clay enables a radical new interpretation of the Noah's Ark myth. A world authority on the period, Dr Finkel's enthralling real-life detective story began with a most remarkable event at the British Museum—the arrival one day in 2008 of...

New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice Why the conventional wisdom about the Arab Spring is wrong. The Arab Spring promised to end dictatorship and bring self-government to people across the Middle East. Yet everywhere except Tunisia it led to either renewed dictatorship, civil war, extremist terror, or all three. In The Arab Winter, Noah Feldman argues that the Arab...

The Palestine War has been by far the most important military encounter in the history of the Arab-Israeli conflict. This book examines the origins of the war and its progression through two distinct stages: the guerrilla warfare between the Arab and Jewish communities of Mandatory Palestine, and the conventional inter-state war between the State of Israel and the invading Arab...

A compact, incisive history of one of the defining conflicts of our time. Leaving almost half a million dead and displacing an estimated twelve million people, the Syrian Civil War is a humanitarian catastrophe of unimaginable scale. Syrian Requiem analyses the causes and course of this bitter conflict—from its first spark in a peaceful Arab Spring protest to the tenuous...

A compact, incisive history of one of the defining conflicts of our time Leaving almost half a million dead and displacing an estimated twelve million people, the Syrian Civil War is a humanitarian catastrophe of unimaginable scale. Syrian Requiem analyses the causes and course of this bitter conflict — from its first spark in a peaceful Arab Spring protest to...

Syria's descent into chaos since 2011 has claimed hundreds of thousands of lives, while more than nine million people have fled their homes. In this timely account, John McHugo charts the history of Syria from the First World War to the present and considers why Syria's foundations as a nation have proved so fragile. He examines the country's thwarted attempts...

What does the politics of solidarity look like in practice, and how can left-wing organisations grow—in numbers and power—while remaining accountable to the broader movements of which they are a part? Against enormous odds and in the face of fierce pushback, the Palestine solidarity movement has succeeded in transforming the landscape of American politics. The movement has catapulted Palestine from...

Situated at the crossroads of three continents, the Middle East has confounded the ambition of conquerors and peacemakers alike. Christianity, Judaism and Islam all had their genesis in the region but with them came not just civilization and religion, but also some of the great struggles of history. A Short History of the Middle East makes sense of the shifting...

A close look at the early life, military experiences and key battlefield exploits of Al-Malik al-Nasir Yusuf Ibn Najm al-Din Ayyub Ibn Shahdi Abu'l-Muzaffar Salah al-Din, broadly regarded as the greatest hero of the Crusades, even in Europe. Most chroniclers present him as a man of outstanding virtue, courage and political skill. More recently, however, efforts have been made to...

During the First World War, the British High Commissioner in Egypt, Sir Henry McMahon, secretly promised the Sharif of Mecca an independent Arab state, including Palestine, after the war. In exchange, the Sharif allied with Britain against the Ottomans. Two years later, however, Britain declared that Palestine would be for the global Jewish community. Through a meticulous analysis of official...

Great Britain ruled Palestine from 1917 to 1948. The British presence replaced 500 years of Turkish control and led to the State of Israel, which celebrated its 50th anniversary in 1998. The British brought Palestine into the 20th century: when they arrived, the country lay in a Levantine nirvana; by the time they left, it had become the arena for...

The Iranian nuclear crisis has dominated world politics since the beginning of the century, with the country now facing increasing diplomatic isolation, talk of military strikes against its nuclear facilities, and a disastrous Middle East war. What is Iran's nuclear programme all about? What is its genesis? There is little real understanding of Iran's nuclear programme, particularly its history, which...

From the first rumblings of dissent in 2011, No Turning Back shows the unravelling of a nation: peaceful protests in Damascus collapsing into violence, families on both sides shattered by nighttime shellings, and religious conviction sharpened by rage to a radical point. Abouzeid shows Syrians finding new ways to live and resist even as the cruelty of President Bashar al-Assad’s...

A fascinating insight into the dogfights that took place during the Six Day War, complete with first-hand accounts and fully illustrated throughout. Although the opposing forces of the Six Day War were both flying comparable third-generation Mach 2 jet fighters, the pilots were trained to different standards and were expected to utilise different tactics. Using up-to-date research, first-hand accounts, and...

A stunning journey through the Holy Land, as told by the rare maps and prints that have long inspired Jewish, Christian, and Muslim pilgrimages. From the earliest days of the Roman Empire to the current war between Israel and Hamas, mapping the Holy Land has been a never-ending source of high aspirations and bitter conflict. Sacred to Jews, Christians, and...

Levant is a book of cities. It describes Smyrna, Alexandria, and Beirut when they were windows on the world, escapes from nationality and tradition, centres of wealth, pleasure, and freedom. Using unpublished family papers, Philip Mansel describes their colourful, contradictory history, from the beginning of the French alliance with the Ottoman Empire in the sixteenth century to their decline in...

Aryeh Lightstone, former Senior Advisor to the U.S. Ambassador to Israel and Special Envoy for the Abraham Accords, is uniquely poised to unravel the past, present, and, most importantly, the future of U.S. foreign policy with the Middle East. "A powerful affirmation of humanity's capacity to achieve the extraordinary." - Jared Kushner, Senior Advisor to the President, 2017-2021 "Aryeh demonstrates...

It is now more than seventy years since the creation of the state of Israel, yet its origins and the British Empire's historic responsibility for Palestine remain little known. Confusion persists too as to the distinction between anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism. In Legacy of Empire, Gardner Thompson offers a clear-eyed review of political Zionism and Britain's role in shaping the history...

‘This intelligent, incisive account...and her cool analysis of the humanity and hypocrisy at the heart of the Israeli/Palestinian fighting is striking' - The Times ‘A reader only vaguely aware of the reality behind the headlines will find much that is observant and saddening in her vivid portrait of this tribal dispute' - Independent ‘This book must be one of the...

From inside a surreal bubble of pure Americana known as the Green Zone, the US-led Coalition Provisional Authority attempted to rule Iraq following the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime. Drawing on interviews and internal documents, Rajiv Chandrasekaran tells the memorable story of this ill-prepared attempt to build American democracy in a war-torn Middle Eastern country. The book details not only...

Written by Trevor Bryce, one of the world's leading experts on the Hittites, this book charts the rise and fall of a warrior people famed for their ferocity, who built an empire which stretched from Mesopotamia to Syria and Palestine. For nearly a century, the Hittites fought a draining war against the Egyptians—the climax of which saw the Hittites defeated...

Drawn to the Promised Land charts the dramatic history of Palestine from the Balfour Declaration to the creation of the state of Israel. Through the acerbic wit of leading political cartoonists from Britain, the United States, and other countries, we see how Britain's policies changed repeatedly after it captured Palestine from the Ottomans in 1917. From the Arab riots through...

Seminary Co-Op, Notable books for 2020 The Federalist, Notable Books for 2020 A vivid portrait of the early years of biblical archaeology from the acclaimed author of 1177 B.C.: The Year Civilization Collapsed. In 1925, James Henry Breasted, famed Egyptologist and director of the Oriental Institute at the University of Chicago, sent a team of archaeologists to the Holy Land...

Why did Hamas attack? What is Israel trying to achieve? Did this catastrophe have to happen? And is there a way forward? The book's expert contributors address these and other questions, which have never been more urgent. In September 2023, US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan boasted that the Middle East "is quieter today than it has been in two...

#1 Best Seller - Over 50,000 Copies Sold Hailed by Israel's founder David Ben-Gurion, Days of Lead is a gripping best seller recounting the author's life on the front line during Israel's War of Independence. Exquisitely written with a poetically beautiful touch, Days of Lead is the page-turning true story of a young soldier's brave escapades during Israel's War of...

Cuneiform script on tablets of clay is, as far as we know, the oldest form of writing in the world. The choice of clay as a writing medium in ancient Mesopotamia meant that records of all kinds could survive down to modern times, preserving fascinating documents from ancient civilisation, written by a variety of people and societies. From reading these...

‘Poignant and compelling… will resonate with anyone who cares about justice and the abuse of power’ - Lindsey Hilsum, Channel 4 News International Editor and author of Sandstorm 'Essential and urgent' - Kim Ghattas, journalist and author of Black Wave All She Lost by Dalal Mawad explores the crisis in Lebanon and the wider Middle East through a series of...

The incredible story of an Israeli mission that rescued 103 hostages from a hijacked jetliner. On July 27, 1976, Air France Flight 139 was hijacked by terrorists and flown to Entebbe Airport in Uganda. In the following agonising days, Israeli passengers were singled out and held hostage. A week later, on July 4, one hundred Israeli commandos raced 2,500 miles...

_______________ 'A memoir to inspire' - Aminatta Forna 'I cannot recommend this book highly enough' - Nassim Assefi, author of Aria 'Fascinating insight on a topic much discussed but rarely understood from a human perspective. Recommended reading for anyone with an interest in the Middle East' - Image Magazine _______________ The story of three generations of Iranian women - Kamin,...

How the conflict between political Islamists and secular nationalists has shaped the history of the modern Middle East. In 2013, just two years after the popular overthrow of Hosni Mubarak, the Egyptian military ousted the country's first democratically elected president—Mohamed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood—and subsequently led a brutal repression of the Islamist group. These bloody events echoed an older...

In Lives Between the Lines, Michael Vatikiotis traces the journey of his Greek and Italian forebears from Tuscany, Crete, Hydra, and Rhodes, as they made their way to Egypt and the coast of Palestine in search of opportunity. In the process, he reveals a period where the Middle East was a place of ethnic and cultural harmony—where Arabs and Jews...

A SUNDAY TIMES AND TLS BOOK OF THE YEAR 'Fascinating and important' Natalie Haynes, author of Stone Blind 'Monumental and vividly imagined' Daily Telegraph 'Wonderfully entertaining' Sunday Times 'Lively and engrossing' Literary Review On a sparsely populated Egyptian coastline, Alexander the Great sketched his vision of a metropolis into the sand. Situated on the cusp of three continents, it became...

WINNER OF THE 2024 SOMERSET MAUGHAM AWARD Its name means 'centre of the world', and since the dawn of history, the Mediterranean Sea has formed the shared horizon of innumerable cultures. Here, history has blurred with legend. The glittering surface of the sea conceals the remnants of lost civilisations, wrecked treasure ships, and the bones of long-drowned sailors, traders, and...

Its name means 'centre of the world', and since the dawn of history, the Mediterranean Sea has formed the shared horizon of innumerable cultures. Here, history has blurred with legend. The glittering surface of the sea conceals the remnants of lost civilisations, wrecked treasure ships, and the bones of long-drowned sailors, traders, and modern refugees. Of the many cities that...

Europeans are in denial. Against a backdrop of Islamophobia, they are increasingly distancing themselves from their cultural debt to the Muslim world. But while the legacy of Islam and the Middle East is in danger of being airbrushed out of Western history, its traces can still be detected in some of Europe's most recognisable monuments, from Notre-Dame to St Paul's...

In 1187, Saladin's armies besieged the holy city of Jerusalem. He had previously annihilated Jerusalem's army at the Battle of Hattin, and behind the city's high walls, a last-ditch defence was being led by an unlikely trio - including Sibylla, Queen of Jerusalem. They could not resist Saladin, but, if they were lucky, they could negotiate terms that would save...

A Short History of Islamic Thought by Fitzroy Morrissey is a brilliant guide to Islamic thought, tracing its development from the seventh century to the present day. 'A magisterial accomplishment' — Professor Eugene Rogan 'The best guide to Islamic thinking that I've read' — James Barr 'I greatly enjoyed [it]' — Peter Frankopan, Spectator, Books of the Year Day after...

‘Very few people in parliament can match Nadhim’s childhood experience, his understanding of international affairs, his skills as a businessman and his passion for politics.’ — Rory Stewart ‘From Baghdad to number 11 Downing Street: in any other country it would be fiction. You have to read it to believe it.’ — Jeffrey Archer An Observer Book of the Week...

In 2014, northeastern Syria might have been the last place you would expect to find a revolution centred on women's rights. But that year, an all-female militia faced off against ISIS in a little town few had ever heard of: Kobani. By then, the Islamic State had swept across vast swathes of the country, taking town after town and spreading...

In 1966, the Palestinian poet Mourid Barghouti, then twenty-two, left his country to return to university in Cairo. A year later came the Six Day War, and Barghouti, like many Palestinians living abroad, was denied entry into his homeland. Thirty years later, he was finally allowed to visit Ramallah, the city he had grown up in. A rickety wooden bridge...

A lost imperial city, full of wonder and marvels. An empire that was the largest the world had ever seen, established with astonishing speed. A people obsessed with travel, knowledge, and adventure. Winner of the Indie Book Awards 2023 Non Fiction Book of the Year Shortlisted for the BookPeople Non Fiction Book of the Year 2023 When Richard Fidler came...

The Tale of a Wall by Nasser Abu Srour is a Palestinian prisoner's memoir chronicling thirty years of captivity. It serves as 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...

The riveting and definitive biography of the Islamic world's most famous military hero. Superbly researched and enormously entertaining... One of the outstanding books of the year - The Times An epic story of empire-building and bloody conflict, this ground-breaking biography of one of history's most venerated military and religious heroes opens a window on the Islamic and Christian worlds' complex...

The dramatic history of a massacre in Damascus, and the collapse of the old Ottoman world order. This remarkable book recreates one of the watershed moments in the history of the Middle East—the ferocious outbreaks of disorder across the Levant in 1860, which resulted in the massacre of thousands of Christians in Damascus. Eugene Rogan brilliantly recreates the lost world...

Accompanying a major 5-part BBC2 series from BAFTA-award winning documentary maker James Bluemel, a riveting oral history of the Iraq War, told from all sides of the conflict. In war, there is no easy victory. When troops invaded Iraq in 2003 to topple Saddam Hussein's regime, most people expected an easy victory. Instead, the gamble we took was a grave...

The gripping true story of a spymaster, a bomb-maker and two brothers - one undercover in ISIS, the other his handler. The Spymaster of Baghdad is the gripping story of the Falcons - the top-secret Iraqi intelligence unit that infiltrated the Islamic State. Against the backdrop of the most brutal conflict of recent decades, we chart the spymaster's struggle to...

In the beginning was the Word, says the Gospel of John. This sentence—and the words of all four gospels—is central to the teachings of the Christian church and has shaped Western art, literature, language, and the Western mind. Yet, in the years after the death of Christ, there was not merely one word, nor any consensus as to who Jesus...

AN ECONOMIST BOOK OF THE YEAR Rise and Kill First is an exceptional work by Ronen Bergman that delves deeply into the shadowy world of Israel's state-sanctioned assassination programmes. From the country's inception in 1948, Israel has adopted a policy of targeted assassinations to protect its citizens and secure its borders. This instinct of self-preservation has seen a wide array...

THE PERSIANS is a definitive new history of the Persian Empire, the world's first superpower. The Great Kings of Persia ruled over the largest Empire of antiquity, stretching from Libya to the Steppes of Asia, and from Ethiopia to Pakistan. At the heart of the Empire was the fabled palace-city of Persepolis, where the Achaemenid monarchs held court in unparalleled...

A new, updated, revised edition of Jerusalem: The Biography, presents the broader history of the Middle East through the lens of the Holy City, from King David to modern times. Unfolding like a sprawling epic, Jerusalem: The Biography delves into the intricate and often turbulent history of one of the world's most significant cities. Simon Sebag Montefiore meticulously chronicles the...