gingko gb (96 results)

Paperback. Condition: New. Well beyond the Arab world, El Saadawi's fiction and non-fiction work, from Woman at Point Zero to The Fall of the Imam to her prison memoirs, have earned her a reputation as a refreshing voice of feminism in the Arab World. This series of essays form a selection of El Saadawi's most recent musings, memories and reflections, considering the role of women in Egyptian and wider Islamic society, the inextricability of imperialism from the patriarchy, the meeting point of East and West, and the image and body politic of the woman in the intersections of those cultures. These musings leave no stone unturned and no view unchallenged, and offer the interested reader new insight into El Saadawi's thoughts and reflections.

Paperback. Condition: New. The familiar and heartwarming story of Christmas is one of hope, encapsulated by the birth of the infant Jesus. It is also a story that unites Christianity and Islam--two faiths that have often been at odds with each other. The accounts of the Nativity given by the Evangelists Luke and Matthew find their parallels in Surahs 3 and 19 of the Qur'an, which take up the Annunciation to Mary, the Incarnation from the Holy Spirit, and the Nativity. Christmas and the Qur'an is a sensitive and precise analysis of the Christmas story as it appears in the Gospels and the Qur'an. Karl-Josef Kuschel presents both scriptures in a convincing comparative exegesis and reveals startling similarities as well as significant differences. Kuschel explores how Christians and Muslims read these texts and reveals an intertwining legacy that serves as a base for greater understanding. Without leaving the realm of theology, Kuschel approaches his analysis in a theocentric way by emphasizing the shared belief that God is almighty, which, he argues, can act as a healing suture between Christianity and Islam. Christmas and the Qur'an gives the reader the chance to remember the message of hope that the birth of Jesus brings and invites to a dialogue between Muslims and Christians.

Paperback. Condition: New. In 1814, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe read the poems of the great fourteenth-century Persian poet Hafiz in a newly published translation by Joseph von Hammer-Purgstall. For Goethe, the book was a revelation. He felt a deep connection with Hafiz and Persian poetic traditions, and was immediately inspired to create his own West-Eastern Divan as a lyrical conversation between the poetry and history of his native Germany and that of Persia. The resulting collection engages with the idea of the other and unearths lyrical connections between cultures. The West-Eastern Divan is one of the world's great works of literature, an inspired masterpiece, and a poetic linking of European and Persian traditions. This new bilingual edition expertly presents the wit, intelligence, humor, and technical mastery of the poetry in Goethe's Divan. In order to preserve the work's original power, Eric Ormsby has created this translation in clear contemporary prose rather than in rhymed verse, which tends to obscure the works sharpness. This edition is also accompanied by explanatory notes of the verse in German and in English and a translation of Goethe's own commentary, the "Notes and Essays for a Better Understanding of the West-Eastern Divan." This edition not only bring this classic collection to English-language readers, but also, at a time of renewed Western unease about the other, to open up the rich cultural world of Islam.

Paperback. Condition: New. The Fertile Crescent region has long been regarded as pivotal to the rise of civilisation. Alongside the story of human development, innovation, and progress, there is a culinary tradition of equal richness and importance. The Culinary Crescent shows Heine's deep knowledge of the cookery traditions of the Umayyad, Abbasid, Ottoman, Safavid, and Mughal courts. In addition to a fascinating history, Heine presents more than seventy recipes-from the modest to the extravagant-with dishes ranging from those created by the celebrity chefs of the bygone Mughal era, up to gastronomically complex presentations of modern times. Beautifully produced, and designed for both reading and cooking, The Culinary Crescent is sure to provide a delectable window into the history of food in the Middle East.

Paperback. Condition: New. In 1814, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe read the poems of the great fourteenth-century Persian poet Hafiz in a newly published translation by Joseph von Hammer-Purgstall. For Goethe, the book was a revelation. He felt a deep connection with Hafiz and Persian poetic traditions, and was immediately inspired to create his own West-Eastern Divan as a lyrical conversation between the poetry and history of his native Germany and that of Persia. The resulting collection engages with the idea of the other and unearths lyrical connections between cultures. The West-Eastern Divan is one of the world's great works of literature, an inspired masterpiece, and a poetic linking of European and Persian traditions. This new bilingual edition expertly presents the wit, intelligence, humor, and technical mastery of the poetry in Goethe's Divan. In order to preserve the work's original power, Eric Ormsby has created this translation in clear contemporary prose rather than in rhymed verse, which tends to obscure the works sharpness. This edition is also accompanied by explanatory notes of the verse in German and in English and a translation of Goethe's own commentary, the "Notes and Essays for a Better Understanding of the West-Eastern Divan." This edition not only bring this classic collection to English-language readers, but also, at a time of renewed Western unease about the other, to open up the rich cultural world of Islam.

Paperback. Condition: New. In 1914 the Middle East was still dominated, as it had been for some four centuries, by the Ottoman Empire; by 1923, its political shape had changed beyond recognition as the result of the insistent claims of Arab and Turkish nationalism and of Zionism. This book examines that historic transformation, taking as its focus the work of three leaders. The Hashemite Emir Feisal hoped to head an Arab kingdom in Syria but was thwarted by the French. The Turkish war hero Mustafa Kemal defied the imperial ambitions of the European powers, inspiring a new Turkish nationalism and founding a secular republic on the ruins of a defeated empire. The Russian-born scientist Chaim Weizmann seized the chance to secure the Balfour Declaration in favour of Zionism from the British in 1917, and then successfully argued for a British mandate for Palestine which would carry this out.

Paperback. Condition: New. When Mahfouz retired from his job as a civil servant in 1971 he took up an appointment as a member of the editorial staff at Egypt's Al-Ahram newspaper. Many of his novels were serialised in Al-Ahram; less well known, however, are the essays he also published through the newspaper. This fascinating volume brings together Mafouz's non-fiction writings penned during the era of Sadat, whose presidency comprised some of the most dramatic events in Egyptian history: from Sadat's "Corrective Revolution" to the Yom Kippur War with Israel and the eventual peace accord between the two countries, as well as his eventual assassination by Islamic extremists in 1981. In this collection Mahfouz deals with diverse political topics, such as socio-economic class, democracy and dictatorship, Islam and extremism - topics which still seem highly pertinent in relation to the situation in Egypt today. While Mahfouz's opinions are often considered to be obscured in his fiction writing, here we gain an extraordinarily clear insight into his personal views - views which helped shape his novels. Essays of the Sadat Era is the second of four volumes that will see Mahfouz's non-fiction work translated into English for the first time.

Paperback. Condition: New. The first writer in Arabic to win the Nobel Prize for Literature, Naguib Mahfouz's novels helped bring Arabic literature to an international readership. This collection of his early writing, from his time as a student of philosophy, reveals the intellectual ferment of the young author, grappling with two millennia of philosophers and writers and establishing his own voice among them. Available in English for the first time, these essays tackle a vast array of subjects, from Presocratic Philosophy to love and the sexual impulse. The intellectual development demonstrated here forms the foundation of Mahfouz's literary work, granting insight into the mind behind such famed work as the Cairo Trilogy, and Children of The Alley.

Hardback. Condition: New. In honour of Goethe and the 200th anniversary of the first publication of his outstanding poem sequence the West-Eastern Divan (1819), A New Divan contains outstanding original poems by twenty-four leading poets - twelve from the `East' and twelve from the `West' - and presents a truly international poetic dialogue inspired by the culture of the Other and Goethe's late, great work. The poets come from across the East - from Morocco to Turkey, Syria to Afghanistan - and from across the West - from Germany to the USA, Estonia to Brazil. Writing in Arabic, Persian and Turkish, and English, French, German, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish and Slovenian, each pair of poets has responded to one of the themes of the twelve books of Goethe's original Divan, including `The Poet', `Love', `The Tyrant', `Faith' and `Paradise'. Working directly with the original poets or via a bridge translation the twenty-two English-language poets have created new poems that draw on the poetic forms and cultures of the poets taking part. Three pairs of essays enhance and complement the poems, mirroring Goethe's original `Notes and Essays for a Better Understanding of the West-Eastern Divan'. A New Divan is a life-enhancing, lyrical conversation at a time when understanding of the Other has never been more important. In celebrating Johan Wolfgang von Goethe, it also celebrates the art of poetry and the art of translation.

Paperback. Condition: New. This book reviews and analyses the modern history of Kuwait by telling the story of Abd al-Aziz Sa'ud al-Babtain (b. 1936), a businessman, philanthropist, and poet whose own story closely interweaves with the history of the state. 'The Poet and Businessman' takes a uniquely wide-ranging view of this history and is a rare study of an individual from a generation in the Gulf who experienced it firsthand and witnessed the benefits of the discovery of oil. It was this discovery, which came with costs alongside the many benefits, that has played a crucial part in the socio-economic and cultural development of Kuwait and across the wider Gulf region. Constructing an overview of the modern history of Kuwait in parallel with the life of Abd al-Aziz Sa'ud al-Babtain, Stenberg succeeds in filling a lacuna in contemporary scholarship on the Middle East, especially on a neglected area of Arabian history. The result is a balanced account of the state of Kuwait enriched by the story of a remarkable and influential individual.

Paperback. Condition: New. Part visual history, part memoir, You Can Crush the Flowers is the celebrated Egyptian-Lebanese artist Bahia Shehab's chronicle of the Egyptian Revolution of 2011 and its aftermath, as it manifested itself not only in the art on the streets of Cairo but also through the wider visual culture that emerged during the Revolution. Marking the ten year anniversary of the revolution, the book tells the stories that inspired both her own artwork and those of her fellow-revolutionaries. It narrates the events of the revolution as they unfolded, describing on one hand the tactics deployed by the regime to drive protesters from the street, from the use of tear gas and snipers to employing brute force, intimidation techniques and virginity tests, and on the other hand the retaliation by the protesters online and on the street in marches, chants, street art and memes. Throughout this powerful and moving account, and using a vast array of over 250 images, Bahia Shehab responds to what she has witnessed as both artist and activist. The result bears witness to the brutality of the regime and pays tribute to the protestors who bravely defied it.

Paperback. Condition: New. The history of Pahlavi Iran has traditionally been written as prologue to the 1979 Iranian Revolution and firmly located within a national historical context. However, the reign of the last Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi (1941-1979), in fact marked the high-point of Iran's global interconnectedness. Never before had Iranians felt the impact of global political, social, economic, and cultural forces so intimately in their national and daily lives, nor had Iranian actors played such an important global role, on battlefields, barricades, and in board rooms far beyond Iran's borders.Engaging with a national historical narrative, The Age of Aryamehr writes Iran into the global history of the 1960s and 1970s, so as to understand the transnational connections that in many ways formed modern Iran.

Paperback. Condition: New. The Qur'an identifies Jesus as a sign of God, and he holds a place as one of the most important prophets in Islam. Looking at Jesus in Islam also reveals both deep differences from and rich connections to the view of Jesus in Christianity. In The Other Prophet, Mouhanad Khorchide and Klaus von Stosch explore and explain the position of the Qur'anic Jesus, with one scholar working from the Muslim and the other from the Christian theological perspective. Their combined research presents a history of Jesus' presence in the Qur'an and provides astute observations to deepen the understanding of both Christians and Muslims. Here we find that a common view of Jesus from the Muslim and Christian sides is not only possible but also expands our understanding of Jesus and his message.

Paperback. Condition: New. An entire chapter (surah) is dedicated to her, and she is the only woman mentioned by name in the Qur'an-indeed, her name appears more frequently than that of either Muhammad or Jesus. From the earliest times to the present day, Mary, the mother of Jesus, continues to be held in high regard by Christians and Muslims alike, yet she has also been the cause of much tension between these two religions.In this groundbreaking study, Muna Tatari and Klaus von Stosch painstakingly reconstruct the picture of Mary that is presented in the Qur'an and show how veneration of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the Roman Catholic Church intersects and interacts with the testimony of the Qur'an. This sensitive and scholarly treatise offers a significant contribution to contemporary interfaith dialogue.

Hardback. Condition: New. In 1721, in his famous Lettres persane (The Persian Letters), the French philosopher Montesquieu posed the question 'Comment peut-on être persan?' The answer to that question is perhaps an even more wide-ranging, challenging and fascinating conundrum today. In his exploration of where such an answer might be found, the renowned contemporary philosopher Ramin Jahanbegloo turns to the writings of the politician and diplomat Muhammad Ali Foroughi (1877-1942), and his vision of what 'being' a Persian might embrace. After centuries of invasion, murder, destruction and authoritarian rule, this philosophical investigation examines Montesquieu's original question against a backdrop in which a common, plural subjectivity of Persian-ness has been frustrated for centuries, and at a time when the country is wrestling with the possibility of an extended period of political, social and cultural decline. Even so, the battle for social and political freedoms is still underway in Iran; and in The Idea of Persia, the concept of nationhood is presented as the means by which Iranians may liberate themselves from the heroes and saints of old, and remake their political mentality in a manner that stays true to an age-old idea of Persian-ness, and to the author's own belief in freedom as a virtue that has to be taught.

Paperback. Condition: New. The first writer in Arabic to win the Nobel Prize for Literature, Naguib Mahfouz's novels helped bring Arabic literature to an international readership. This collection of his early writing, from his time as a student of philosophy, reveals the intellectual ferment of the young author, grappling with two millennia of philosophers and writers and establishing his own voice among them. Available in English for the first time, these essays tackle a vast array of subjects, from Presocratic Philosophy to love and the sexual impulse. The intellectual development demonstrated here forms the foundation of Mahfouz's literary work, granting insight into the mind behind such famed work as the Cairo Trilogy, and Children of The Alley.

Paperback. Condition: New. This book gathers together leading scholars in the field to examine the impact of the First World War on the Middle East, so crucial to understanding the conflicts unfolding in the region today.In addition to recounting the international politics of the Great Powers that drew lines in the sand, contributors address topics ranging from the war's effects on women, the experience of the Kurds, sectarianism, the evolution of Islamism, and the importance of prominent intellectuals like Ziya Gökalp and Michel 'Aflaq. They examine the dissolution of the Ottoman empire, the exploitation of notions of Islamic unity and Pan-Arabism, the influences of Wilson and American ideals on Middle East leaders, and likewise the influence of Lenin's vision of a communist utopia. Altogether, they tell a story of promises made and promises broken, of the struggle between self- determination and international recognition.

Paperback. Condition: New. An entire chapter (surah) is dedicated to her, and she is the only woman mentioned by name in the Qur'an-indeed, her name appears more frequently than that of either Muhammad or Jesus. From the earliest times to the present day, Mary, the mother of Jesus, continues to be held in high regard by Christians and Muslims alike, yet she has also been the cause of much tension between these two religions.In this groundbreaking study, Muna Tatari and Klaus von Stosch painstakingly reconstruct the picture of Mary that is presented in the Qur'an and show how veneration of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the Roman Catholic Church intersects and interacts with the testimony of the Qur'an. This sensitive and scholarly treatise offers a significant contribution to contemporary interfaith dialogue.

Paperback. Condition: New. The 1923 Treaty of Lausanne may have been the last of the post-World War One peace settlements, but it was very different from Versailles. Like its German and Austro-Hungarian allies, the defeated Ottoman Empire had initially been presented with a dictated peace in 1920. In just two years, however, the Kemalist insurgency turned defeat into victory, enabling Turkey to claim its place as the first sovereign state in the Middle East. Meanwhile those communities who had lived side-by-side with Turks inside the Ottoman Empire struggled to assert their own sovereignty, jostled between the Soviet Union and the resurgence of empire in the guise of League of Nations mandates. For 1.5m Ottoman Greeks and Balkan Muslims, 'making peace' involved forced population exchanges, a peace-making tool now understood as ethnic cleansing. Chapters consider competing visions for a postOttoman world, situate the population exchanges relative to other peace-making efforts, and discuss economic factors behind the reallocation of Ottoman debt as well as refugee flows and oil politics. Further chapters consider Arab, Armenian, American and Iranian perspectives, as well as the long shadow cast by Lausanne over contemporary politics, both inside Turkey and out.

Paperback. Condition: New. The history of Pahlavi Iran has traditionally been written as prologue to the 1979 Iranian Revolution and firmly located within a national historical context. However, the reign of the last Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi (1941-1979), in fact marked the high-point of Iran's global interconnectedness. Never before had Iranians felt the impact of global political, social, economic, and cultural forces so intimately in their national and daily lives, nor had Iranian actors played such an important global role, on battlefields, barricades, and in board rooms far beyond Iran's borders.Engaging with a national historical narrative, The Age of Aryamehr writes Iran into the global history of the 1960s and 1970s, so as to understand the transnational connections that in many ways formed modern Iran.

Hardback. Condition: New. Set against the backdrop of Iran s struggle against the rising powers of Russia and Britain, the memoirs of Mirza Riza Khan Arfa -ed-Dowleh otherwise known as Prince Arfa (1853 1902) are packed with picaresque adventures as the prince tells the story of his rise from humble provincial beginnings to the heights of the Iranian state. With this translation, his incredible story is brought to life for the first time in English. Prince Arfa writes with arresting wit about the deadly intrigues of the Qajar court. Lamentingly, but resolutely, he chronicles the decline of Iran from a once great empire to an almost bankrupt, lawless state, in which social unrest is channelled and exploited by the clergy. He describes the complex interactions between Iran and Europe, including an account of Naser-od-Din Shah s profligate visits to Britain and France; the splendor and eccentricities of the doomed Tsar Nicholas II s court; the Tsar s omen-laden coronation; and his own favor with the Tsarina, who would grant him concessions on matters of vital importance to his country. The result is a memoir of extraordinary political intrigue. ".

Paperback. Condition: New. This lavishly illustrated volume of essays introduces a fascinating array of subjects, each exploring an aspect of the far-reaching "mercantile effect" and its impact across western Asia in the early modern era. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries the increased movement of merchants and goods from China to Europe brought desirable commodities to new markets, but also spread ideas, tastes, and technologies across western Asia as never before. Through the newly-established Dutch, English, and French East India companies, as well as much older mercantile networks, commodities including silk, ivory, books, and glazed porcelains were transported both east and west. The Mercantile Effect shows a fascinating array of trade objects and the customs and traditions of traders that brought about a period of intense cultural interchange.

Hardback. Condition: New. As the Egyptian revolution unfolded throughout 2011 and the ensuing years, no one was better positioned to comment on it - and try to push it in productive directions - than best-selling novelist and political commentator Alba Al Aswany. For years a leading critic of the Mubarak regime, Al Aswany used his weekly newspaper column for Al-Masry Al-Youm to propound the revolution's ideals and to confront the increasingly troubled politics of its aftermath. This book presents, for the first time in English, all of Al Aswany's columns from the period, a comprehensive account of the turmoil of the post-revolutionary years, and a portrait of a country and a people in flux. Each column is presented along with a context - setting introduction, as well as notes and a glossary, all designed to give non-Egyptian readers the background they need to understand the events and figures that Al Aswany chronicles. The result is a definitive portrait of Egypt today - how it got here, and where it might be headed.

Hardback. Condition: New. Current developments in Iran are forcing a fundamentalreassessment of the relationship between Islam and democracyand the processes of democratization in the Muslim world.While some scholars have argued that 'Islam' and 'democracy'are essentially incompatible, others have sought to portraythe advent of political Islam as a transitional phenomenonto be overcome before democratization can take root. Ansari,in tracing the historical roots of political development inIran, argues that what is in fact taking place is an intellectualsynthesis of ideas drawing from both Western and traditionalIranian norms. The author analyzes the origins and dynamicof this development, and discusses the possible consequencesfor Iran and the region, as well as Iran's relationship with thewider world. This new edition includes political developmentsin Iran since 2016. It looks at the increasing polarity of viewsand the changing nature of 'reformism' in light of successivesetbacks and growing international tensions.

Hardback. Condition: New. Frederic Leighton (1830-96) was celebrated as one of the most successful and influential artists of his day, and as the creator of some of the most iconic and well-loved paintings of the Victorian era, including Flaming June and Perseus and Andromeda. The house he built in Holland Park was his home, his studio, and his passion. He lavished money and attention on it throughout his life, but its centrepiece was the 'Arab Hall' - the extraordinary suite of spaces on the ground floor of the house that Leighton decorated with a spectacular collection of tiles and ceramics brought back from his travels across the Middle East.Many books have been written on Frederic Leighton, but this is the first to explore his activities as traveller and collector; uncovering the story of how he travelled, where he stayed and how he acquired the artworks that went into the making of what has been called 'the most beautiful room in London'. This lavishly decorated space, with its golden dome and tiles from Damascus and Iznik, was hailed as an extraordinary creative and artistic triumph from the moment of its first public unveiling in 1881, with one visitor described it as 'quite the eighth wonder of the world'. It continues to astonish, delight and inspire today.The Arab Hall details the history of these rooms, and the role played in their creation by such figures as Leighton's architect George Aitchison; the ceramicist William De Morgan and the designer Walter Crane; by Owen Jones, interior designer for the Great Exhibition of 1851; by Arthur Liberty, founder of the store that still bears his name, and by such fascinating 'extras' as the explorer and writer Richard Burton and his wife Isabel, and the garden designer Gertrude Jekyll, one of whose earliest commissions was to make cushions for a seat from which Leighton could admire his tiled walls.This volume also includes a complete translation of the inscriptions in the Arab Hall by Hidaya Abbas, and selections from Leighton's correspondence with Val Prinsep.

Hardback. Condition: New. This book provides an overview of the range of seminarian thinking in Iran on the controversial topic of the hijab. During the modern period, Iran has suffered a great deal of conflict and confusion caused by the impact of Western views on the hijab in the 19th century, Riza Shah Pahlavi's 1936 decree banning Islamic head coverings, and the imposition of the veil in the wake of the Islamic Revolution in 1979. Hijab addresses the differences of opinion among seminarians on the hijab in the Islamic Republic of Iran, focusing on three representative thinkers: Murtaza Mutahhari who held veiling to be compulsory, Ahmad Qabil who argued for the desirability of the hijab, and Muhsin Kadivar who considers it neither necessary nor desirable. In the first chapter, the views of these three scholars are contextualized within the framework known as 'new religious thinking' among the seminarians. Comprehending the hermeneutics of this new religious thinking is key to appreciating how and why the younger generation of scholars have offered divergent judgements about the hijab. Following the first chapter, the book is divided into three parallel sections, each devoted to one of the three seminarians. These present a chronological approach, and each scholar's position on the hijab is assessed with reference to historical specificity and their own general jurisprudential perspective. Extensive examples of the writings of the three scholars on the hijab are also provided.

Hardback. Condition: New. This authoritative work sheds light on the religious world of the Kalasha people of the Birir valley of the Pakistani districtof Chitral, focusing on their winter feasts which culminate in a great winter solstice festival. The Kalasha representthe last example of the pre-Islamic cultures of the Hindu Kush/Karakorum, but are also the only observable example,worldwide, of an archaic Indo-European religion. Cacopardo addresses the historical and cultural context of the area and,referencing an array of relevant literature, offers comparisons with the Indian world and the religious folklore of Europe.Interdisciplinary and based on extensive field research, Pagan Christmas is the first extended ethnographic study devotedto this little known Kalasha community and represents a standard international reference source on the anthropology,ethnography and history of religions of Pakistan and Central South Asia.Augusto S. Cacopardo has conducted anthropological research in Pakistan under the aegis of the Istituto Italianoper l'Africa e l'Oriente and is Professor of Ethnography at the University of Florence.His publications include themonograph Gates of Peristan: History, Religion and Society in the Hindu Kush (2001), co-authored with his brother Alberto M. Cacopardo.

Hardback. Condition: New. Javanmardi is one of those Persian terms that is heard frequently in discussions associated with Persian identity, and yet its precise meaning, conveying all the nuances inherent within it, is so difficult to comprehend. A number of equivalents have been offered, including chivalry and manliness, and while these terms are not incorrect, javanmardi transcends them. The concept encompasses character traits of generosity, selflessness, hospitality, bravery, courage, honesty, truthfulness and justice - and yet there are occasions when the exact opposite of these is required for one to be a javanmard. At times it would seem that being a javanmard is about knowing and doing the right thing, although this is not an adequate definition at all. The present collection is the product of a three-year project, financed by the British Institute of Persian Studies on the theme of `Javanmardi in the Persianate world'. The articles in this volume represent the sheer range, influence and importance that the concept has had in contributing and creating Persianate identities over the past one hundred and fifty years. A conscious decision was taken to make the contributions as wide-ranging as possible. Rather than focus, for example, on medieval Sufi manifestations of javanmardi, both medieval and modern studies were encouraged, as were literary, artistic, archaeological and sociological studies among others. The opening essays examine the concept's origin in medieval history and legends throughout a geographical background that spans from modern Iran to Turkey, Armenia and Bosnia, among both Muslim and Christian communities. Subsequent articles explore modern implications of javanmardi within such contexts as sportsmanship, political heroism, gender fluidity, cinematic representations and the advent of digitalisation.

Hardback. Condition: New. Amman, the capital of Jordan, contends with a crisis of identity rooted in how it grew to become a symbol for the Anglo-Hashemite government first, and a city second. As a representation of the new centralised authority, in 1921 Amman became the seat of the mandatory government that orchestrated the development of Transjordan. Despite its diminutive size, the city grew to house all the components necessary for a thriving and cohesive state by the end of the British mandate in 1946. However, in spite of its modernising and regulatory ambitions, the Transjordan government did not control all facets of life in the region. Instead, the story of Transjordan is one of tensions between the state and the realities of the region, and these limitations forced the government to scale down its aspirations. This book presents the history of Amman's development under the rule of the British mandate from 1921-46 and illustrates how the growth of the Anglo-Hashemite state imbued the city with physical, political, and symbolic significance.

Paperback. Condition: New. Twenty chapters, authored by leading scholars from around the world, explore the astonishing variety of building styles and traditions that have evolved over millennia in a region of diverse terrains, extreme climates and distinctive local histories. Generations of highly-skilled masons, carpenters and craftspeople have deftly employed the materials-to-hand and indigenous technologies to create urban architectural assemblages, gardens and rural landscapes that dialogue harmoniously with the natural contours and geological conditions of southern Arabia. A sharp escalation in military action and violence in the country since the 1990s has had a devastating impact on the region's rich cultural heritage. In bringing together the astute observations and reflections of an international and interdisciplinary group of acclaimed scholars, the principal aim of this book is to raise awareness among the general public and policy makers of Yemen's long history of cultural creativity, and of the very urgent need for international collaboration to protect it and its people from the destructive forces that have beset the region.Following the editor's introduction, the book is divided into three parts.Part One introduces readers to the astonishing variety of architecture and building traditions across the country, from the Red Sea coast, eastward into the mountainous highlands, to the edge of the Sahara desert, and southward into the deep, dramatic wadis of the Hadhramaut. Part Two is dedicated to exploring the issues and the challenges of conserving and preserving Yemen's rich architectural heritage. Part Three offers vivid personal insights - both historical and contemporary - into the making of place and the construction of identities.