Middle East Books

This book explains why Raphael Patai's book "The Arab Mind" is wrong and stereotyped.
Barakat explains here everything accurately. A must read!

This book explains why Raphael Patai's book "The Arab Mind" is wrong and stereotyped.
Barakat explains here everything accurately. A must read!

This was a gift for the Egyptian Dig student in the family, who wants to learn more. She loved it.

Such book is an important addition to two fields of studies. The first is the anthropology of language, namely the connection between languages and the phenomena of nationalism and national identity. The second field concerns nationalism and national identities in the Arab Middle East, especially the relationship between the Arabic language and national identity. This book embodies a rich effort to examine the works and ideas of prominent thinkers and scholars in the field of nationalism studies by examining its applicability in the case of the Arab nationalism. Moreover Sulieman uses a wide range of primary classical and modern sources, some of these sources have received only minor attention from scholars, despite their indicative content in studying Arab nationalism and the question of identity. Bu using these sources Suleiman shows how language has played an active role in shaping an Arab nationalism that had clear cultural character.
The book studies also territorial nationalism in the Arab Middle East and how this relates to the language issue as a factor in the conceptualization of national identity. In particular the ideas of Greater Syrian, Egyptian nationalism and Lebanese nationalism.

The Arabic Translation
This is the first ecumenical translation ever in Arabic and one of the fruits of the blessed labors of the Bible society which coordinated Catholic scholarship (mainly society of Jesus), hand in hand with the continuos efforts of the evangelical missions since Dr. Van Dyke of blessed memory, started his first Arabic translation with Lebanese support more than 150 years ago.

How unique is this edition? Very unique indeed.
Here comes the genius of the Orthodox Church tradition: the Controlling authority of the Septuagint and the wider canon of the Alexandrine fathers, as stipulated by Papa Athanasius in his Pascal letter 357, still applicable in the Roman Church, even if the sequence of the Catholic epistles followed by the Pauline was reversed long ago by Amphilochius of Iconium.

Translation principles and rules:
Starting with the best available Hebrew text (Stuttgart: 1968-76),with reference to Aramaic (Syriac) whenever needed. As for the New Testament translation (4th edn.,1994) Koine (Old Greek) the used text was UBS 3, and Nestle Alland no 26. The goal was ultimately rendering in Middle Eastern Arabic speakers a simple modern Arabic language understood by a wide spectrum readership. The word to word translation was avoided in favor of the dynamic equivalent given that translation from Hebrew to Arabic is more expressive due their Semitic brotherhood.
So beautiful is the statement of faith "Throughout history, Bible scholars labored with great erudite and hard work to recover and preserve the original text unblemished" Starting with the ancient clerical traditions the Jews learned in Ancient Egypt illustrated by the ten commandments inscription on stone to the great Alexandrine tradition of the Scriptorium that produced all the great Uncial codices: Alexandrinus, Aphraemi, Sinaticus, and Vaticanus.

Two Variant Editions:
The Bible society has chosen to produce two editions, the full Alexandrine Canon used by the majority Orthodox of the Orient from Antioch to Alexandria,and a minority Roman Unite Churches.
A shorter 'mutilated' edition ( in the words of F. Temple, Archbishop of Canterbury), without O.T. Apocrypha, for the scattered born again brothers. The color code is Brown for the full canon and blue for the shorter, shown by Amazon.com.

Study bible:
Sure, and a good one, which avoids dictating dogmatic influenced interpretations, due to the blessings of ecumenical fellowship.
How? Simply by supporting this annotated Bible with commonly agreed footnotes, and scholarly proven facts, explanations and comments. Four colored maps and two indicative sketches, are helpful tools for novice students, together with general introduction and brief introductions for each book.

For eight years we have been using this bible in Egypt, in the fuller canon edition, which includes the Apochrypha in addition to the hebrew books canonized in jabneh by closing the Hagiographa around the end of the first century.
This scholarly upgraded translation, a friut of the hard work of Bible society translation team, for two decades, was very much needed to satisfy an urgent need in Coptic Egypt and students of the holy word allover the Arab speaking world. It served to clearly instruct in the way of salvation by having the Good News in contemporary plain Arabic. Language was and is the main draw back to the Van Dyke translatiom, that served weii for 150 years.
The other alternative is the Living bible which is a paraphrasing, while the Catholic translation by Jesuits is good but reltively expensive, which render it out of the reach of the population.
To complement the excellent review by Didakialex, I would like to emphasize that the present translation took into account the power of habit of hearing certain expressions. I recommend to compare and check against this transltion whatever translation you use,in Arabic or English.

Do you want to understand the Scriptures better? Do you want detailed information? Do you want to know more about the Holy Land? Better have a copy of this encyclopedia. This book will give you a better knowledge about the stories in the Bible. Biblical artifacts, places, and people are well documented. So much has happened in the Holy Land that you need to brush up yourself too. This would give you more information about the different Abrahamic faiths. An eye-opener for lukewarm followers.

The 2003 edition of AEHL is an excellent reference to all the major excavation sites in Israel! Compared to the 4- or 5-volume set, "Encyclopedia of Archaeological Excavations in the Holy Land" (& its "New..." edition), which is hard to find & expensive, AEHL is a tremendously beneficial aid to students who just need the basic facts to help them understand what's been revealed in this territory.

It not only acts as a reference work for well-known sites like Jerusalem & Lachish, but also introduces readers to obscure ones like Ras (a small site SW of Jerusalem where farmers built terraces for their crops during the Iron Age) & distinguishes 2 places named Socoh (one in northern Judah that functioned as an administrative fortress, & another in southern Judah that was home to a family of scribes).

Each of the classifications discusses its excavation history, its relevance to the Biblical record, & important artifacts discovered there such as the Gezer calendar, the Tel Dan "House of David" stela, & the Siloam Tunnel inscription.

More than 300 black/white photos, maps, & drawings appear with their respective listings, & besides the sites, there are also categories for peoples (e.g., Canaanites, Hittites, etc.), Roads, Seals; in fact, you could read sections on Agriculture, Building Materials, Churches, Cult Objects, Housing, Lamps, Metals, Money, Musical Instruments, Pottery, Temples, Time, Transport, Weapons & Warfare, Weights & Measures as if they were chapters of a book!

Unlike books written from a limited perspective, or magazines/journals edited by a common-bias staff, AEHL maintains its objectivity by presenting over 800 entries studied by more than 100 experts in their respective fields. You will not find a better summary of this material in compact, paper format elsewhere.

While Elam civilization looks as not important or as a minor one for many other historians, Mr. Potts created a great book about these forgotten ancient Iranian people. I enjoyed reading the book a lot. Thank you for your great courage.
I hope you will continue this great job by writing a book about the Medes. That is also a forgotton civilization.

This is a well designed and well produced textbook, which seems to have been organised with students and teachers in mind. Potts has given us a cohesive and logically developed narrative; a big advance on the two chapters by the late René Labat in the 3rd edition of the Cambridge Ancient History. Pott's aim has been "to provide a cogent, readable synthesis of Elam" (p. xxi). And he has achieved this admirably. Features of the text of the book are the summaries at the beginning of each chapter (`text boxes'), the clear site maps for each chapter, and the chronological outlines. All very useful.

The book is cultural and historical as well as archaeological in character and in its emphasis. The contents deal with pottery, seals, sculpture, glyptic art, rock reliefs, the texts of clay documents, inscriptions, architecture, site plans, ivories, coins, figurines, burials and grave goods. Comprehensiveness and scope are notable marks of this book, in the search for the origins and the influence of Elam. It covers its pre-history (c. late fifth millennium B.C.) and continues all the way to the eighth century A.D.

In this volume, Elam and the Elamites are dealt with as a polity in their own right, and not merely seen as a troublesome heterogeneous nation in relation to its neighbours, the Assyrians, Babylonians and Persians. Potts stresses the chameleon-like character ("transformations") of Elam over the centuries, as viewed through the lens of contrasting if not conflicting sources of evidence. He argues that courte durée, rather than longue durée, is the historical concept which best helps to account for the periodic changes which characterised the history Elam.

Despite the incompleteness of the data, Potts has succeeded in bringing Elam and its people into sharper focus than has hitherto been the case. It is a worthy successor to Carter and Stolper's Elam: Surveys of Political History and Archaeology (1984), which was probably the best synthesis of that land and its culture before the advent of the present volume. Professor Potts is to be congratulated on his achievement. Particularly on his desire to communicate the results of his research to his readers in a format and language which strive to make the significance of these results clear and intelligible. This new work should become a standard text in the hands of teaching staff and students alike in tertiary institutions for some time to come.

The illustrations and plates are clear, relevant and help to elucidate the text and its interpretation. A copious 35 page bibliography and a generally adequate index round off the volume.

Watch Video Here: http://www.amazon.com/review/R2W26JLLT74FPL I've always been fascinated by Dubai's architectural growth.

This book is a showcase of some of the finest and spectacular architecture in Emirates. 20 architects are featured, under them a few buildings.

Some of the buildings include Dancing Towers, Pentominium, Strata Towers, Burj Al Arab, Opus Office Tower, Manhal Oasis, National Bank of Abu Dhabi and many others.

It's hard to review an architecture book so I've included a video.

Here's the product description from the book jacket:

The small emirates and states located on the Gulf, at the eastern edge of the Saudi Arabian peninsula, are building new cities in the desert at an astonishing rate, from Bahrain to Doha, and south to the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Comprised of Abu Dhabi, Ajman, Dubai, Fujairah, Ras al-Khaimah, Sharjah, and Umm al-Quwain, the UAE is an oil-and-gas-rich region that has experienced an unparalleled architectural boom in recent years. With a dizzying array of ultra-modern towers popping up throughout the area, it's no surprise that the Gulf region has attracted many of the world's most prominent architects, including Tadao Ando, Frank Gehry, Zaha Hadid, and Jean Nouvel, who are all designing groundbreaking projects for the ambitious Cultural District project on Saadiyat Island off the coast of Abu Dhabi. With these and many more remarkable, large-scale projects recently built or in progress, the Gulf emirates are perhaps today's top architectural hotspot.

I know nothing about Architecture, but I love it.

I mean, I love watching nice buildings and knowing what's beyond them -who made them, how, etc.-.

So, this GREAT BOOK -as all Taschen publications- allows you to travel to the Emirates without even moving from the coziness of your living room.

If you like architecture you'll love it -and i you know, even more-.

A great book for those who like to know more about this fantastic paradise of zillion bucks buildings...

In this very good biography of Ariel Sharon his life comes alive in simple and concise language. A great introduction to Middle Eastern politics and the life of Sharon. This is one of the first in a stream of new biographies of Ariel Sharon, the Prime Minister of Israel from 2000 to 2005. He was many things. Firstly a son of rebellious Moshavniks who didn't like the reform of Kibbutz life. He fought in Israel's 1948 war of Independence and was wounded at the battle of Latrun. He led the paratroopers in revenge raids in the 1950s, famously in charge of unit 101. In 1956 he led the paratroopers at Mitle pass in the Sinai and suffered heavy losses. In 1967 he fought a set piece battle at Abu Agheila, defeating the Egyptian army, again in Sinai. In 1973 he famously crossed the canal into Egypt and helped surround the Egyptian third army, but was almost relieved for command for going to far. He helped found the Likud party, combining his own party, ShlomTzion, with Begin's Herut. He was in the agriculture ministry and also in charge of settlements at various times after 1977 and in the 1980s. He was famously discredited as Defense minister for his role in leading the 1982 war in Lebanon and the slaughter at Sabra and Shatilla. In 2000 he returned, Nixon like, from his ranch in the Negev and came to power as the country turned to him, a tough man, to wage war on the Palestinian terrorists then taking dozens of lives weekly. In 2005 he famously led the disengagement from the Gaza strip, reversing years of settlement in the territories. He fell into a coma in the late fall of that year after founding his new Kadima political party.

A fair and good introduction.

Seth J. Frantzman

This book is written by Norman H. Finkelstein the author of thirteen nonfiction books for young readers on history and biography. It is written with elegance and balance, and has a sure narrative flow. The story of Ariel Sharon's life is told against the background of Israeli and Zionist history, the history in the Middle East through the past century.
Finkelstein is eminently fair in his depiction of Sharon, and indicates major mistakes he has made, strong criticism he has received from the outside world. However his approach to Ariel Sharon is by and large a sympathetic one, and he sees him , rightly in my opinion, as primarily a person who dedicated his whole life to the defense and building of Israel.
Born to strongly Zionist parents Sharon was raised with his sister in Kfar Malal, a small dusty farming settlement fifteen miles north of Tel Aviv. As a young man he joined the Haganah and was involved in key battles in the Israeli War of Independence. Critically wounded in the battle of the Kastel he and a friend dragged their way out of the range of enemy fire. He returned to the war afterwards, and continued to contribute to the struggle for Independence. Determination, and strong will would be the central mark of his character.
Finklestein chronicles Sharon's varied contributions to the Israeli Army including the founding of the first commando anti- terror Unit 101. He is not uncritical of Sharon's actions as commander. He shows how Sharon's disregard of orders would characterize his military career throughout. The battles of the Sinai campaign, where an insubordinate Sharon took his men up the Mitla Pass , of the War of Attrition, of the Six Day War, of the Yom Kippur War are all related here summarily, but with accuracy . Finkelstein also tells Sharon's family story including the two great personal tragedies, the death of his first wife, and the accidental shooting death of his oldest son at the age of twelve. Finkelstein however indicates how strong a family person Sharon was, and indicates the major role his second wife Lilly, who was sister of his first, played in his career.
Finkelstein tells the story of Sharon's political career again capsulizing and giving us the highlights in an accurate way. Sharon's joining the Likud becoming a member of the Knesset, the story of his various roles as minister, including Defense Minister in the Lebanon War are also related.His central role in the Settlement movement and the Jewish building in Judea and Samaria is also described. The book closes in the year 2005 as Sharon is about to order the disengagement from Gaza. This prompts Finkelstein to make the point that Sharon was guided always not so much by a fixed program, but as to what he saw would in the situation bring true security to Israel.
Since the book was published Ariel Sharon has had two strokes, the second of which he apparently will never fully recover from.
This book tells his story in a clear, concise and fair way. It indicates that he has been throughout a person of dedication to the survival of Israel and the Jewish people. It shows how he took heroic and courageous actions, time and time again to forward what he saw as the wellbeing of Israel. It indicates clearly where most believe he erred, and gives a realistic evaluation of his life.
I cannot think of a better brief narrative history of a major military and political figure than this small book.

International arms sales is one of the issues that I got into as a student of IR in the early 80s. I read Andrew Pierre's Global Politics of Arms Sales, which was so good that I almost pursued the issue as a career concern. I read Sampson's book at that time, and it was the perfect complement to the academic side of it: Sampson went to the places where catastrophe was brewing from arms sales run amok, evoking it in the vivid language of a real writer and with the eye of a first-rate reporter.

Sampson explains the economics, investigates the characters, and describes the environments they operate in. It is a true tour de force, as only the best journalists can accomplish.

However, the book is dated, as it was written in the latter part of the Cold War. With the US-Soviet rivalry, the dynamic was altogether different from today, when it was far more political to sell to your allies and potential clients. Now, it is pure economics on the selling side, while the buyers are more or less mercenary capitalist brutes.

Warmly recommended. But the interest is largely historical.

Hello!
I lve in New delhi , INDIA, I am an avid reader of books on defence , military history, great discoveries, technological innovations, construction, urban planning, architecture and geography. I work as a consultant.

I went through the amazon site and looked at the entire listing of books that iwanted to buy, i got the titles and authors. But could not decide which book is the latest one

there are name of the same book with slightly different titles, hence i am not able to decide whether it is the same book or they are differnt books altogteher, i mean do the contents vary from book to book with the same title

I am refeering to the books like

1 A The arms bazar from lebanon to Lockhhed
1 B The arms bazar - the companies, the dealers,the bribes, from vickers to Lockheed ( are the two books same)?? the price varies)

similarly

The Seven Sisters the world they made ??
The seven sisters the world they shaped ??

i would be thankful to any one who can help me clarify the above points

I would like to Buy the following three books ( Old ones)

The Arms Bazar

The Seven Sisters

The Money Lenders
all written by Anthony Sampsosn
I
I have read the first two books about ten years ago from the US Library in New delhi India, they donot have the copies any more.

I would like to buy them for my persosnal collection.

Is it safe to buy from amazon using a international master card, credit card. Please advise.

I donot want any one accross the internet (and the world) to have access to my card no. and misuse to make fake and fradulent charges to my card which in actual I have not undertaken/ purchased/ bought.

I shall only honour the legitimate purchase of books purchased by me only.

Thanks in anticipation of your help
Best regards,

Ananda Kishore Das

Telphone no 091 - 011 - 26973950 (Available bewteen: 10 AM - 5 PM IST)
( IST = GMT + 05.30 Hours)

This is a very interesting book about legitimacy and divine sanctions in Iranian kingship during different Iranian dynasties, Achaemenid, Sasanian, Mughal, and Il Khanid.
As a Turko-Mongol Muslim ruler, the emperor ruler Akbar encountered problem to get an acceptable legitimate right to rule based on Islamic principle of legitimacy and his Vizir based Akbar's Legitimacy on a more acceptable principle of Farre Izadi (Divine glory) and Kayan Kharra (Kayanid Glory) which had deep roots in Iranian culture.
The book consists of 4 chapters:
Chapter I: Khvarnah symbolism is discussed during different dynasties and its connection to Mithraic symbolism.
Chapter II: Reinterpreting Sasanian reliefs: The author has introduced new ways to analyse Sasanian iconography and has rejected the classical translation of Sasanian regal inscriptions which describes the king as `whose seed is from the gods' and a correct translation is `image of god', Chihr az Yazdan.
In this chapter he has also discussed Apam-Napat/Anahita and Mithra as protector of Khvarnah and how Ahura Mazda rose to prominence, while Mithra and Apam-Napat were demoted to a secondary position during Zoroasrtianism.
Chapter III: Symbols of authority for a nascent empire: he traces back the origins of symbolic winged disc to Egyptian art which represented the sky-god and Assyrians used lotus as regal iconography
And it provided Achaemenids with new ideas of combining the lotus and sunflower for a dual representation of the Khvarnah.
Chapter IV Aspects of Farr duality: he has discussed common roots of Iranian and Roman Mithra
The book is very easy to read and is based on calligraphic, pictorial and textual analysis and last 33 pages provides the reader with helpful images and have fantastic footnotes.
I thank Ahura Mazda for having dedicated people like Mr Soudavar among us and recommend this book to readers with love and passion for Iranian history.

Bibliotheca Iranica must be congratulated in sanctioning the publication in it's Intellectual Traditions Series, a unique and novel study on the Aura of Kings, particularly in reference to Ancient Persian and Iranian Kings by Abolala Soudavar.

Since early antiquity, rulers and kings of various dynasties in varied civilizations have claimed themselves or had their chosen ministers proclaim some kind of divine connection with the Divinity. Claiming a divine connection, makes the task of ruling
and formulating policies much easier as few (if any) would like to defy the ultimate source of all power in this universe. Pre-Achemenid, Achemenid, Parthian and Sassanian Kings of Persia were no exception to this rule. This divine connection, legitimacy and sanction of Persian kings was acheived by the ideological concept of the "khvarnah" or the "Divine Glory" usually, visually symbolized as a circular disk or a ringed circle around the head of the king. In early antiquity it was also iconographed as a winged circular disc above the head of the ruling king. Persian literature and sculptures abound with references to the ruler's "Divine Glory" and past studies often emphasized the centrality of this theme to the topics of authority and power. Yet so far little attention and studies have been devoted to this visual symbolism of the "khvarnah" and it's potential for shedding more light on the understanding of Ancient Iranian history. Abolala Soudavar has attempted in his bold daring and novel publication to develop this wealth of iconographic material available into an essential tool for Ancient Iranian historiography.

Soudavar's study traces back the "khvarnah" symbolism from the Mughal era which gives textual references on the subject of kingly "khvarnah" and it's representation to the Il-Khanid era in which legitimacy symbols of pre-Islamic Iran were revived, to the Sassanian era, where multiple ways of the "khvarnah" representaions were created, back to the Achaemenid era when universal symbols of authority were created to demonstrate divine connectedness.

Readers interested in Ancient Iranian history, art and culture would do well to give this book their undivided attention as it is a novel and bold approach at studying a rare and difficult subject, where the past written words are scarce. The book has an excellent bibliography with many new and "fresh" references in the Persian language. However the black and white plate reproduction at the end of the book is marginally satisfactory. The publisher could have provided coloured plates and the layout more spread out for easy reading and comparison.

The book does open up new avenues for discussion and will serve a good reference source for some time.

Dr. A. R. George has given the rich post-modern Babylonian Cuneiform scholarly community a standard to be emulated in all ancient text scholarship, especially, the cuneiform tablet textual tradition.

Not only will the reader of this treatise learn mankind's fetish for immortality, male virility, and homoerotic warrior tanist love affairs (Gilgamesh and Enkidu), (s)he will learn the literary, historical and religious traditions that produced and preserved this oldest, long poetical treatise in human written record (40 centuries of production, dissemination and reception). You will also receive the standard insight of the ancient mind into the netherworld and the above-world of gods.

Dr. George has produced a 'masterpiece', if I made use that over-used, vulgar, trite term. But in Dr. George's case, it is more than a truthful attribution. This model scholarship will set the bar very high for future Babylonian cuneiform textual scholars to achieve. Dr. George's industry in ferreting out all the fragments of this Semitic epic composition in their Old Babylonian, Middle Babylonian & Assyrian editions is a feat of labor few scholars are capable of. Not only does he possess the mental power of tenacity, but also the artistic powers of beauty in presentation, love & passion for his field, and an extremely acute intelligence of the highest order. In short, he is a savant!

The price is a mere $564.00 for this brilliant work of scholarship. It is 1,176 pages in two volumes. One would expect to pay more for the publishing feat of reproducing ancient Babylonian cuneiform ligatures in written print on paper. Oxford University Press is to be congratulated for undertaking this great challenge.

If you are a young scholar or student, start saving your money to buy this treatise. It will change your life and ennoble your humanity! You will learn from this ancient corpus that not much has changed in the human condition! We have only learned to be more brutal, lethal and destructive towards our planet and our fellow man, since this great artistic composition was composed.

If you are thinking of pursuing a M.Phil. Degree from Oxford University, Oxford, England in its Babylonian Cuneiform Coarsework, you are blackmailed---you must purchase this learned, scholarly treatise!

John E.D.P. Malin,
Chairman of the Board & Chief Executive Officer
Executive Division
P.O. Drawer 460
Cecilia, Louisiana 70521-0460

Contact: InformaticaMalin@gmail.com

The best edition available. Not cheap, but worth the
price for those interested in the original.