Middle East Books

Although this excellent book came out in 1989, it remains highly relevant, for it takes an historian's view to place current events in their larger context, to successfully interpret the long shadow of the past--antique cultures steeped in political volatility--and show its effect on the present.

A case in point: In April 1981 a semi-official Egyptian weekly pronounced Ibn Taymiya, the renowned Syrian theologian who lived from 1268 to 1328, the most harmful influence on Egypt's youth. A few months later, Ibn Taymiya became the basis for the actions of 3 of Anwar Sadat's 4 assassins, who had read him extensively.

Pipes divided the book into 5 sections, each including 4 or 5 articles. He groups them somewhat loosely and the articles run the gamut.

Islam and Public Life first discusses fundamentalist views of America and Russia, also touching on how the secular, traditional and reform branches of Islam relate to public life. It next examines religious similarities between Judaism and Islam--both of which stress correct action, compared with Christianity's focus on faith. Pipes shows the far-reaching extent of Muslim anti-Semitism, which stemmed from a patronizing view of other religions that became virulently anti-Jewish in the 20th century--and found welcome among Western Protestants, human rights activists, reporters, academic committees and even liberals seeking a "respectable forum in which to vent their own views about Jews." Pipes also covers the Muslims of Central Asia--which border Taliban Afghanistan's fundamentalist hotbed.

A section on the Persian Gulf attributes the origins of the Iraq-Iran war not to religious differences, but to economic and geographic factors--including the Shatt al-'Arab River and its vast water resources. Pipes also discusses the dangers that oil wealth poses to Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Libya. The oil windfall made these desert sheikdoms dependent on a continued oil boom, unless new sources of income could be found. So far, none have emerged. Pipes praised Kuwait in 1986 when its government refused to buckle under US pressure to release imprisoned terrorists, and later toured the oil state as the guest of Minister of Information, Sheik Nasir. He found the Bedouin descendants' grand hospitality and intellect reflective of the Arabian Nights. Next, he considered the Saudi Arabian kingdom formed by Wahhabi leader Abd al-Aziz, dissecting various histories, including Peter Mansfield's The New Arabians, funded by the Bechtel Corporation.

Pipes' prescient take on the Arab-Israeli conflict also still holds value. The conflict is fueled, he believes, not by Israel but by the conflicting claims of Palestinian separatists, Arab nationalists and the Jordanian and Syrian governments, among others, over Palestine and its boundaries. The latters' perpetual incapacity to unify stems from irreconcilable goals. An Arab government's sponsorship of the PLO grows, he wrote, proportionate to its distance from Israel. Pipes considered no Arab nation eager to end the conflict. By implication, he believed that nothing Israel could do unilaterally would improve the conflict's complexion. Were the PLO, fundamentalists or Syria to inherit the Arab claim, he predicted that the conflict would last longer--which is precisely what happened with Arafat's violent rejection of Oslo in 2000. Pan-Arabism spawned the PLO, prompting Saudi Arabia to give Arafat's organization $250 million a year by the late 1970s, and other oil states, smaller sums. But this funding dictated that PLO behavior would reflect weighted-Arab demands for Israel's destruction, more than Palestinian needs. Meanwhile, the PLO dictatorship brutalizes its own people, as evidenced during its reign of terror in Southern Lebanon from 1975 through 1982.

Another real gem is the section on terrorism. Pipes provides background for suicide terrorism, which is not rooted so much in Islam as in state-sponsorship. The first major instance of suicide terror was the 1981 destruction of the Iraqi embassy in Beirut, which killed 27 and wounded over 100. The phenomenon picked up political steam with the 1982 murder of Lebanon's Bashir Jumayyil and went international with the 1983 bombing of the US embassy in Beirut, which killed 63. Later the same year, a truck bomb killed 241 US servicemen, also in Lebanon. State sponsorship, he shows, was behind most suicidal actions. Many suicides were recruited via blackmail or under other duress. The way to combat it, he wrote, is to punish states that sponsor this violence.

And finally, for the finale, we learn pointedly what is wrong with media coverage of the Middle East. "Put simply, American journalists are interested in only two topics in the Middle East: Israel and the United States. Whatever takes place that is related to these countries is amplified...;whatever does not is ignored." From 1972 to 1980, for example, ABC, CBS and NBC devoted an average of 98.4 minutes annually to Israel, only 54.7 minutes to Egypt, 42.4 minutes to the PLO, 25.7 minutes to Syria, 18.4 minutes to Lebanon, 12.7 minutes to Saudi Arabia, 8.5 to Jordan and 7.2 to Iraq. But the US and the Middle East won an average of 153 minutes of coverage annually. "Israel is imagined to be more powerful than it really is because it is watched so closely," Pipes writes. Similarly, attention given to Palestinian refugees far is out of proportion to their suffering, which in any case is caused by their own leaders' refusal to accept peace. During the same era far greater numbers of Vietnamese, Cambodian, Afghan, Somali and other refugees , whose ranks now include some 2 million Sudanese, suffered far worse tribulations, which shamefully got far less press attention. Being overexposed, Pipes rightly concludes, means that Israel is "held to impossible moral standards." Israel is measured "not in relation to [its enemies] or other states, but in relation to abstract ideals."

Pipes offers 10 times the wisdom of many other volumes, despite the book's age. Alyssa A. Lappen

This book came out fifteen years ago, but it is still worth reading now. One benefit is that we can be sure it hasn't been influenced by more recent events!

Pipes points out that he writes as an historian, placing events in their larger historical context. And that there are two main factors that make this perspective worthwhile. First, there is the feeling that things today are going poorly, which leads to a fascination with the past. Second is the unsettled politics which make recent events hard to explain unless one can put them in a larger context.

There's an essay about the risks of supporting fundamentalist Muslims against communism, something we all should have taken more seriously. There's an article comparing Jewish and Muslim life, and pointing out that in both religions, people are becoming less observant of traditions, and that as a result, there has been more emphasis on faith in both religions, making them both a little more like Christianity in that respect. There's another fine essay about the roots of Muslim antisemitism and Western receptivity to it. And some interesting material about the Muslims of Central Asia (my ancestors!) as part of the then Soviet Empire. We also get to read about the origins of the Iraq-Iran war.

We discover how oil-rich Saudi Arabia and Kuwait treat foreign workers (mostly Muslim Arabs themselves). And there is a (pre-invasion) analysis of Kuwait in particular: it has become very rich from its oil. What will it do with all that wealth? Anything useful?

We all know that many Arabs want to get rid of Israel. Pipes asks what they want to replace it by. A bigger Syria? A bigger Jordan? A Pan-Arab nation? A local Arab tyrant? A fundamentalist state? A nation of local residents? And he asks why Arafat was always so unsuccessful militarily. Most folks who keep losing battles either start winning or get replaced. Why was Arafat so successful at getting support even though he never accomplished anything of value to anyone in the region? Pipes explains that Arafat's support came from Arab states, not from local Arabs.

There's an article on suicide terrorism, "the new scourge," which also ought to have been taken more seriously fifteen years ago.

An excellent essay deals with the way President Carter mishandled the Iran hostage situation. Objectively, Carter did a terrible job here, allowing American foreign policy to be determined "on the interests of a handful of individuals." Pipes predicted that this could set a precedent for more American helplessness when confronted by terrorists.

Three of the more interesting articles deal with the United States and the Middle East. The author points out that the debate between American pro-Israeli and anti-Israeli camps crosses party lines. One can be liberal or conservative and support either side. The pro-Israeli side sees the Arab conflict with Israel as a symptom of Arab instability. It recommends Arab reform and says that were Israel to vanish, all the Arab problems would remain. The anti-Israeli side sees the Arab conflict with Israel as a cause of Arab instability. It blames Israel for all the problems between the Arabs and the West and recommends doing something about Israel. It says that were Israel to vanish, we'd all live in peace together, our problems gone. Pipes explains that the fact that people on both sides are taking similar positions gives the United States a unique opportunity to help resolve the conflict. And he then gets into the question of the extent to which American Presidents determine our Middle East policy (it's to a significant extent). And how our record in that region isn't too good: we've come up with a big bunch of plans for resolving the Arab-Israeli conflict and none have gotten off the ground (by the way, in the ensuing fifteen years, we've come up with many more plans and we're no closer).

Perhaps the most interesting essay is near the end of the book, on the media and the Middle East. As Pipes shows, the media do not merely report the news here, they create a fair amount of it. And he quite properly says that the preoccupation on Israel and on Arafat certainly gave us all a very narrow and misleading view of the region. It made Israel appear far more important than it is in real life. And I think it made Arafat appear to be something like the most important person who ever lived. While one can make a hero out of anyone (consider Horst Wessel), it isn't always useful to do so.

Yes, this book is still worth reading, in spite of all the wild happenings and misadventures that have gone on in the region in the past fifteen years.

Lost Blood by Marco Abraham

Marco Abraham did not write a non-fiction book about the continuing conflict between the Palestinians and Israelis; instead he retells and relives this painful massacre on September 16, 1982, a date that is best buried, but should never be forgotten. Lost Blood takes the readers to the unstable political unrest in the Middle East. It is a dark historical time in which hate, genocide, and evil battle and sometimes trupimph over love, humanity, and faith. Amidst the killing fields of Sabra and Shatila, a beautiful angel lives and love is born. Abraham intimately shares this private love so tenderly; the reader temporarily escapes, "hell on earth".

Unapologetically, Abraham violently forces the readers to face each victim. He is the tortured elderly man who dies defending his honor. He is the screaming woman whose unborn child aborts her womb. He is the innocent child who suffers the unspeakable rape. He is the young man who comforts his mother with his last dying breath. He is the angle who prays that her love will survive. He is Marco Abraham, a survivor. These are innocent victims, not merely characters in a book. Lost Blood challenges the readers to see the suffering, hear the cries of injustice, feel the hands of evilness, taste the bittersweet fruit of love, and ultimately touch death by the thousands.

Lost Blood evokes so many emotions from its readers; it takes courage to finish this story. Abraham is ruthless in his quest to remind the readers that indifference or even ignorance may, will, and did result in a massacre. The atrocity of Sabra and Shatila so painfully and powerfully vivid with Abraham's words transcend age, gender, race, and religion. It calls for all Jews, Christians, and Muslims to learn from the past and move forward with peace. Lost Blood must be told. It is told through the voice of Marco Abraham. Read Lost Blood and you can never remain voiceless; be their voice.

This book by Marco is riveting. He makes you feel all the emotions that he observed during the trying time. When you recieve the book, it will keep you captive until you finish! MUST READ!!

This is a very well structured overview of the basic history of the middle east. It gives a balanced account, mostly centered on the United States' role. One gets a sinking feeling that Harry Truman could have predicted where we would wind up 50 years on...

This work provides more insight into the development of US policies toward Israel than any other available. Extremely well written! Provocative and entertaining, it traces the development of US cultural attitudes toward the emergence of Israel and the Arab world and the development of policies during the Truman administration. An excellent chapter on US oil policy in the Middle East and the Palestine Question. Highly recommended.

This book is a must read. The author begins speaking of the two rabbis who approached the so-called "land without a people" in 1898 and observed how beautiful a place it was but that it was 'married to another man'. Karmi focuses on the point that the 1948 'Nakba' has over time been sidelined in negotiations and mainstream media to be replaced by more recent 'realities on the ground' caused since 1967 in the occupied (now "disputed" due to weak journalism) territories. There is also some extremely interesting early European Jewish history in the opening stages of the book, later only to be wiped out by the apathy of Europe and the horrors of the Nazi holocaust.
Karmi's summary of the timeline from this date through the first Camp David accords to the 2006 Gaza implosion is told beautifully. Each time she describes the internal inefficiency that paralysed the Palestinians from coherent action in talks, she explains how Israel rejected every attempt by the Arab states who compromised for peace and preferred to do separate deals with them individually fragmenting their unity. Eventually the Arab states must take responsibility for their weakness.
This was a diplomatic coup for Israel but aded to the catastrophic situation in the occupied territories.
Karmi uses UN Resolutions, international law, and the International Declaration of Human Rights throughout the book as a basis for her argument and her greatest achievement in the end is to suggest various alternatives and solutions to the situation. She provides analysis of why each might fail and succeed, but she is the first author since Richard Crowley's 'Dispatches from the Middle East' that has succeeded in suggesting plausible answers. Both authors have produced the finest accounts of the conflict I have read, and both acknowledge that no Peace Treaty between the two sides can hope for LASTING success, unless it starts on the foundation of equality and most importantly justice.

A Solution for an Enduring Dilemma from a Renaissance Type Scholar and Activist

Nineteenth Century Europe witnessed the height of nationalism and colonialism. Almost every nation ventured out to conquer a piece of the world, believing that any land not inhabited by Europeans is figuratively empty. And why not the Jews? Central and East European Jews, of Turkic/Slavic stock, commonly known as Ashkenazim, and currently constituting 80% of world Jewry, established their first colony in Palestine in 1882. That same year, the British invaded and occupied Egypt, and the colonialist Cecil Rhodes established a colony in south eastern Africa naming it after himself (now Zimbabwe).
It is said that the leaders of the Zionist Movement dispatched two rabbis to report on the country of their colonialist ambition. The rabbis reported back: "The bride is beautiful, but alas, she is already married to another man", meaning that the country was well- populated. That did not deter the leaders who persisted with their project to create a colonial-settler state, to be named Israel, and in the process cleansing out most of its endogenous population. Thus the enduring dilemma of what is to be done with the Palestinians and resolve this conflict that continues to cause so much misery for the whole population of that area and threaten world peace. This is the meaning of the title of this book.
The relationship of an author to her book is akin to that of the mother to her daughter. Thus a brief introduction of the author is worthwhile. Ghada Karmi, the nine year old of a prominent scholar, was more fortunate than most of those who were driven out of Jerusalem. Her family landed in England in 1949. If every cloud has its silver lining, the catastrophe that befell the Palestinians had its positive effects. Losing their land and homes, they turned to education as their means of survival and source of pride.
Ghada seems to have internalized this culture par excellence. She first qualified in and practiced medicine, and followed this with a doctorate in History of Medicine, and continues to teach, research and consult on these subjects. At the same time, she has been continuously involved in politics as a scholar and activist. I know of a man who would be proud of Dr. Karmi. He is Rudolph Virchow, the great German physician and scientist, and a leader of the 1848 revolution in Germany and Europe. When asked how he justified taking time from his medical pathology research to be active in politics replied: " Politics is medicine on a large scale".
This book is the latest of several books in and scores of articles written by this author. One of these books is an autobiography entitled "In Search for Fatima". Consider this fact: this memoir is rated as 9 on the Flesh-Kincaid Readability Index, meaning that it can be understood by a reader with 9 years education. In contrast "Married to Another Man" is rated 16. Few authors can be so versatile.
Eloquent, assertive and attractive, Dr. Karmi gained access to high political circles. This book benefits from her first-hand experience. It is also a scholarly and well- documented treatise. Even the most informed will find new material in it. The book is divided into seven chapters, an introduction, and an epilogue. Each chapter can be read on its own, but all serve as a useful background to understand the dilemma and the logic of the proposed solution. Two of the chapters are on the cost of Israel to the Arabs and the Palestinians.
Two others delve into the reasons the Jews and the West established and continue to sustain Israel. A chapter is titled " The Peace Process", and another discusses the various solutions that have been proposed, including the two-state proposal. The book culminates with a chapter arguing that the only logical solution is one democratic state for all those who live on the land of historic Palestine and Palestinian refugees.
To those who are pessimistic about finding a satisfactory solution to this enduring conflict, the author answers that this pessimism is unwarranted if one thought through the logic of the situation. To those with quick accusations of utopianism, anti-Semitism , or even treachery, she counters that such judgments are a lazy way out of having to think about ideas that conflict with what has become familiar, conventional and also serves vested interests. It is worthwhile taking the time to find out.

This book is the premiere comprehensive analysis of how the battlefield death of the Shiite's third Imam Hoseyn/Hussain at Karbala, Iraq, led to the development of Shiite religious rituals that were used by the Shiite imams in influencing their successful dethronment of Iran's Mohammed Reza Shah in late 1978. This book is really about the historical development of Shiite symbols and rituals commemorating the martyrdom of Hoseyn, rather than an expansive history of the 1970s-era of student demonstrations against the shah of Iran. The battle resulting in Hoseyn's martyrdom occurred on 10 October 680 C.E. (Ahsura Moharram 352 A.H.). The author presented two reasons as to why Hoseyn started his ride towards his martyrdom. The author clearly opined that Hoseyn rode towards Damascus to at least upbraid the new Muslim caliph Yazid for being cruel and despotic to his Muslim minions. [Yazid's father, Muawiyah had moved the Muslim government from Mecca to Damascus in 661-662.] This makes Hoseyn's adventure look really unselfish, and even highly moralistic. However, what is obliquely mentioned in the book (on pages 7 and 93), but not as clearly portrayed, is the contention that Hoseyn really rode forth in an armed coup attempt to unseat Yazid. Briefly, when the Muslim prophet Mohammad died, his successors were: (#1) caliph Bakr (Sunni), (#2) caliph Umar/Omar (Sunni), (#3) caliph Uthman/Othman (Sunni), and (#4) caliph Ali (while all Sunni respect Ali has the fourth caliph, as the Shiites regard Ali as the first proper successor to his uncle Mohammad, Ali is the first Shiite imam). As Ali attempted to consolidate his rule, he was opposed by the military-governor of Damascus: General Muawiyah/Moaviyeh (who had been appointed governor of Syria by #2 Sunni caliph Umar in 640). Following the Battle of Saffin, Ali defaulted rule to Moaviyeh, but with the alleged understanding/treaty/deal/agreement that upon Moaviyeh's death, the Islamic caliphcy would return to Ali's clan. Ali's oldest son Hassan/Hasan (the second Shiite imam) was championed by Ali's clan in becoming his successor. However, after realizing that the three previous caliphs had been assassinated while serving as caliph, Hassan apparently wasn't as divinely inspired as his predecessors had been, and decided that he really didn't want to be caliph. Thus, Hassan figuratively resigned and passed the Shiite-caliph baton to his younger brother: Hoseyn/Hussain/Husayn. Recognizing the weakness in Ali, power-hungry Muawiyah of Damascus agreed to become the ruling caliph. Muawiyah, most likely, had the hidden design of eventually turning the caliphcy over to his son Yazid, instead of returning it to the Ali lineage to Ali's grandson Hoseyn. Anyway, upon Muawiyah's death, his son Yazid seized the title of the caliphcy over all Muslims -- and ignored the 'agreement' to return power to Hoseyn. For power is what we are really talking about here; power to control the tax-treasury of the Muslim community. Muslims are required to pay 10% of their annual wealth by an annual tax to the Muslim treasury. Literally watching the coinage of the Muslim treasury slip through their fingers to Yazid, Hoseyn's clan took umbrage with Yazid's seizure of power and urged Hoseyn to travel to Damascus and remind Yazid of his father's 'deal' that Hoseyn was to be recognized as the next rightful caliph. However, as Yazid had no desire of turning the tax-treasury over to Hoseyn, Yazid sent a large army under the command of general Omar ibn Saad to repulse Hoseyn's upcoming 'invasion' of Damascus. When Hoseyn tried to parley with Omar at Karbala, he and most of his small retinue of 80 soldiers were surrounded and killed. While Hoseyn's youngest son Ali Asghar was killed, his older son Zayn al-Abedin (who was ill and incapacitated during the battle), Hoseyn's wife, and a number of other newly minted widows and orphaned children where captured and taken to Yazid. As radio personality Paul Harvey would say: "Now you know the rest of the story" -- and a very important part of it. Part of Hoseyn's motive in talking to Yazid to resign as caliph was most likely due his being repulsed by Yazid's highhandedness, but the clear motive was to restore and secure power for Hoseyn-Ali's lineage in controlling the caliphcy to control the Muslim treasury. This is my one little snit here that I believe the author "short changed" the coup explanation for Hoseyn's journey. Otherwise, Prof. Aghaie superlatively analyzed how the Karbala battle was ritualized into annual public performances (rowzeh khanis) and parades (dasteh) that were later used as rallying demonstrations for the Shiite imams to reassert their political power that the Pahlvai shahs had tried to curtail through their liberal Westoxification of Iran. Also, see the author's related book: "The Women of Karbala: Ritual Performance and Symbolic Discourses in Modern Shi'i Islam."

The Shi'i branch of Islam makes up only about 15 percent of the religion. But counting for nearly the entire population of Iran and 60 percent of Iraq's, the Shi'i have a crucial influence on Middle East and world affairs from their numbers in these strategically important countries. A professor of Islamic and Iranian history at the U. of Texas-Austin, Aghaie gives a view of Shi'i culture in Iran that is eye-opening and germane for Western readers. Basically, one sees that for the Shi'i there is no clear, or even worthwhile, distinction between religion and other aspects of society, including most significantly government. Whereas such a distinction is a part of the foundation of the U. S. and other democracies, Shi'i culture was founded with the defeat of the Prophet Mohammad's grandson Hoseyn and the massacre of his family by the caliph Yazidin in the 680AD battle of Karbala. Shi'i religious ceremonies, motives for behavior, social purposes, and community goals grew out of this defeat. A special intensity and commitment, as well as sacrifice, was called for so Islam as expressed by Mohammad and his descendants would not be lost. This branch of Islam faith is distinguished from that reflected in the institutional rule of the caliphs came about throughout most of the Middle East. Aghaie's subject is the relationship between Iranian leaders from the Qajars of the 19th and early 20th century through the Shah of Iran to today's Islamic Republic and the symbols and rituals of Shiism. The Shah of Iran was overturned in a revolution because in an effort to modernize Iran, he sought to minimize the symbols and rituals. The work brings an insight into the Shi'i culture that is timely and germane considering current events in Iran and Iraq and U. S. ambitions to institute democracy in this area.

Wonderfully and entertainingly written history of ideas based on personalities and events of the Middle Ages. Amazing parallels with the world condition today, may be drawn. Read it.

Norman Cantor's book is a fascinating collection of a very diverse and pivotal period in history. The Middle Ages, for Cantor, extend from the year 312 (the advent of the first Christian Roman Emperor, signaling in many respects the end of the Classical Age) to the year 1517, the outbreak of the Protestant Reformation, another key paradigm shift in the world. This is reader largely of pieces contemporary for the Middle Ages - there is some commentary provided, but the bulk of the task of presenting the Middle Ages rests upon the texts themselves, most translated anew into English by Cantor and other scholars.

This is also a Western civilisation reader - the Middle Ages is of a time as a well as of a place. The geography is Western Europe, from Ireland to Germany, from Scotland and Scandanavia to Italy and Spain. This was the land of Latin Catholicism, pollinated occasionally by Islamic culture from the south and Byzantine Christianity from the east, but largely undisturbed in its development. This culture represents a system of ideas political, religious and otherwise that formed much of the basis for modern Western culture, whose dominance in the world today is, for better or worse, unmistakable.

Cantor's anthology of 100 key texts is meant to simply the task of determining what is worthwhile reading from this period. Primary texts from the Middle Ages, so defined as comprising more than a thousand years, would include literally thousands of volumes - the output of writers such as Augustine alone could take a lifetime to read. Cantor arranges key texts topically, according to certain classifications - Nobility (including the primary families of the period, a sort of Social Register of royal and landed persons who controlled most of what would be considered state power), Church (the hierarchy and the overall institution), and the Middle Class (yes, there was a Middle Class, both urban and rural, that included knights, gentry, artisans and the like). Taking these classifications, Cantor arranges first texts that show them in as isolated a form as possible, then looks at the ways they interact with each other. The final portions of the text include works that look at problems and crises, and ends with documents of resolution, pacification and incorporation.

This is no mere chronology of texts - the emphasis here is on developing the patterns of society over time in the different strata. Literary works utilised include Beowulf, the Song of Roland, El Cid, the works of Dante, Chaucer, and Malory. Church writers from Augustine, Anselm, Bernard and Aquinas are combined with political writings from those such as Petrarch, Erasmus, and various anonymous documents and letters.

There are some real stunning pieces here - Bernard Gui's Inquisitor's Manual, Maimonides' reflections on Christianity (and one of his radical followers trying to explain why Jewish sex is preferable to Christian sex - something that must be read to be believed!), an account of the murder of Thomas Becket, and more.

Take and read!

When I first purchased this book through a mail order book club I was very dubious about ever reading it. It looked very uninteresting. But like the saying goes you can't judge a book by it's cover! And it's true this book has introduced me to so many other medieval authors that it's impossible to count them all. If it had not been for Norman Cantor I would have lost out on a lot of good Medeival reading! Thanks Mr. Cantor.

I have to say that I had always stayed away from Mediterranean books as I did not think I needed one.I thought my mom had already taught me enough and somehow all other Mediterranean cookbooks I had seen were merely a representation of the culinary traditions of three or four countries anyways. This book on the other hand includes recipes from truly all Mediterranean countries as the name suggests. The recipes are so diverse and true to their origin that will delight or at least surprise any one with their uniqueness. The book is divided by regions. As i already said this book has recipes true to their origin so in order to really appreciate and enjoy the recipes the cook and whoever tries them needs to have an open mind on flavors and spices. I am so glad I got this book as even though my grandmas recipes on the savory pies still have that extra flavor, no other book has had a better recipe for them. If you enjoy and want true Mediterranean cooking beyond the americanized fixed and switched recipes, this book is a must!

This book has some unusual recipes from a variety of Mediterranean countries, some of which can delight the palate. A great companion book to this one, which features easy cooking methods for some great Mediterranean dishes, is Mary El-Baz's "Easy and Healthful Mediterranean Cooking."

For me the best part of this book is not its engagement with some of the world's current sources of real and political pain, but its recommendation and honest appraisal of other books. Mr. Alcalay writes informatively and with tasteful purpose. Even the essays of a more personal nature I found moving, but the books he has read and recommends are the diamonds that too often remain beneath the rubble. I cannot say there is anywhere else I would have found some of these authors recommended or reviewed. Mr. Alcalay writes with enthusiasm about authors whose literatures will never make the weekend book page. These authors are diverse in approach (poets, novelists, essayists, historians) and smart. They provide more immediate accounts of other places and states, some of the light and the heavy. This book fills a need by providing the names necessary for readers to get better acquainted with writers in the Middle East and some chosen Eastern European regions. I recommend this book highly.

Memories Of Our Future is an outstanding anthology of essays surveying the complexities of Mediterranean cultures; the diverse, changing space of the Balkans, Middle East, and North Africa -- areas of diasporas, dislocations, and genocidal exterminations provoked nationalism and religious fanaticism. As a Sephardic-Croatian Jew, Ammiel Alcalay confronts the deep resistance to change of any kind in this region, and describes his personal intellectual, cultural, spiritual, and political endeavor to help break down barriers between peoples, nations, and languages. Of special interest is his observations and analysis of the Israeli/Palestinian confrontation, Arab/Jewish poetics, and Jewish identity in America. Memories Of Our Future is seriously recommended reading for students of Balkan, Middle Eastern, and North African studies.

Compiled, organized and edited by Rachel Elior (Professor of Jewish Philosophy and Mysticism, Depart. of Jewish Thought, Hebrew University of Jerusalem), and published in cooperation with the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute, Men And Women: Gender, Judaism And Democracy is an impressive and diverse collection of essays and articles contributed by eleven scholars and writers on the socio-legal status of women in Israel; the religious and cultural context of women's rights in Israel; and women's equality within the context of the religious codes and civil laws of Israel. A seminal contribution to Women's Studies, Judaic Studies, and Contemporary Israeli Social Issues Studies, Men And Women is especially recommended reading for students of the legal, social, and cultural issues under debate in Israel, along with insightful commentary with respect to the religious and political heritage of the past.

In her introduction to this volume Rachel Elior points out something, I for one, despite years of learning in Jewish sources, had never thought of i.e. that there is not a single Halachic, or Jewish philosophical or musar work authored by a woman until the eighteenth century. Things certainly have changed since then in the world of Jewish learning, but in its most frum bastions it is still an exclusively male reserve.
This group of scholarly essays discusses various aspects of the woman's present role in Judaism. It will provide original and interesting perspectives even for those who may be reserved about some of its arguments and conclusions.

I liked this short, compact book very much. It is composed of several essays written by noted scholars, diplomats, heads of state, and journalists, in which different viewpoints are represented with respect to Middle Eastern issues. Many diverse subjects are addressed such as: America's role in the Middle East, the Israeli-Palestinian Peace Process, Iraq, Iran, and many, many more topics. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in the Middle East, because it is thorough, yet easy to understand.

This was a very clear and succint book in which several essays regarding the Middle East are presented. Each essay is written by a different author who espouses a different viewpoint. Scores of Middle Eastern issues are addressed such as: the Israeli-Palestinian conflict/peace process, Iraq, Iran, the US role in the Middle East, Islamic fundamentalism, etc. I highly recommend this book because many different perceptions are presented, thereby allowing the reader to come to his/her own conclusions concerning Middle Eastern issues. The book is unbiased, concise, and compelling.