iBooks Top Middle East History Ebooks

Chart of the most popular and best selling Middle East history ebooks at the Apple iBookstore.

Chart list of the top Middle Eastern history ebook ebook best sellers was last updated:

History Ebook Best Sellers

Top Middle East History Ebook Best Sellers

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The Cauldron - Simon Sebag Montefiore Cover Art

The Cauldron

The Cauldron The Making of the Modern Middle East by Simon Sebag Montefiore

A #1 SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER • An essential guide to the making of the modern Middle East from 1900 to the present: a spellbinding history by the New York Times bestselling author of Jerusalem and The Romanovs "Superb. . . . The Cauldron is a triumph of blood-and-thunder narrative history.” — The Wall Street Journal Renowned historian Simon Sebag Montefiore wades into the ideological battles and geopolitical tensions of the Middle East with a comprehensive and nuanced chronicle that situates the region in the context of its last one hundred and twenty-five years. Few understand the real history of the Middle East; fewer still understand its variety and cosmopolitanism, its complexity and interconnectedness. The Cauldron is a fresh and unique survey of the region in all its diversity. Taking the reader on a spectacular journey from the Ottoman sultanate to the Trump presidency, from Morocco to Iran, this is a dazzling panorama of faith and fanaticism, creativity and tolerance, dictatorship and democracy brought to life by an extraordinary cast of kings, warriors, poets, terrorists, and peacemakers. With his signature style of voice-driven history that made Jerusalem a national bestseller, Montefiore reveals a stunning portrait of the world we have inherited and interrogates the prevailing historical narratives. This is the essential story of how the Middle East of 1900 led to the Middle East of today—and tomorrow.

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Black Wave - Kim Ghattas Cover Art

Black Wave

Black Wave Saudi Arabia, Iran, and the Forty-Year Rivalry That Unraveled Culture, Religion, and Collective Memory in the Middle East by Kim Ghattas

A New York Times Notable Book of 2020 “[A] sweeping and authoritative history" ( The New York Times Book Review ), Black Wave is an unprecedented and ambitious examination of how the modern Middle East unraveled and why it started with the pivotal year of 1979. Kim Ghattas seamlessly weaves together history, geopolitics, and culture to deliver a gripping read of the largely unexplored story of the rivalry between between Saudi Arabia and Iran, born from the sparks of the 1979 Iranian revolution and fueled by American policy. With vivid story-telling, extensive historical research and on-the-ground reporting, Ghattas dispels accepted truths about a region she calls home. She explores how Sunni Saudi Arabia and Shia Iran, once allies and twin pillars of US strategy in the region, became mortal enemies after 1979. She shows how they used and distorted religion in a competition that went well beyond geopolitics. Feeding intolerance, suppressing cultural expression, and encouraging sectarian violence from Egypt to Pakistan, the war for cultural supremacy led to Iran’s fatwa against author Salman Rushdie, the assassination of countless intellectuals, the birth of groups like Hezbollah in Lebanon, the September 11th terrorist attacks, and the rise of ISIS. Ghattas introduces us to a riveting cast of characters whose lives were upended by the geopolitical drama over four decades: from the Pakistani television anchor who defied her country’s dictator, to the Egyptian novelist thrown in jail for indecent writings all the way to the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in 2018. Black Wave is both an intimate and sweeping history of the region and will significantly alter perceptions of the Middle East.

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Sword and Scimitar - Raymond Ibrahim & Victor Davis Hanson Cover Art

Sword and Scimitar

Sword and Scimitar Fourteen Centuries of War between Islam and the West by Raymond Ibrahim & Victor Davis Hanson

A sweeping history of the often-violent conflict between Islam and the West, shedding a revealing light on current hostilities. "With passion, Raymond Ibrahim offers an edgy and eye-opening introduction to a millennium of warfare between the Muslim and Christian worlds before the modern age." —Thomas Madden, award-winning author of Istanbul , Venice , and Concise History of the Crusades The West and Islam—the sword and scimitar—have clashed since the mid-seventh century, when, according to Muslim tradition, the Roman emperor rejected Prophet Muhammad’s order to abandon Christianity and convert to Islam, unleashing a centuries-long jihad on Christendom. Sword and Scimitar chronicles the decisive battles that arose from this ages-old Islamic jihad, beginning with the first major Islamic attack on Christian territory in 636, through the Muslim occupation of nearly three-quarters of Christendom (prompting the Crusades), followed by renewed Muslim conquests by Turks and Tatars, and the European colonization of the Muslim world in the 1800s, when Islam largely went on the retreat—until its reemergence in recent times. Using original sources in Arabic and Greek, preeminent historian Raymond Ibrahim describes each battle in vivid detail and explains how these wars and the larger historical currents of the age reflect the cultural fault lines between Islam and the West. The majority of these landmark encounters—including the battles of Yarmuk, Tours, Manzikert, the sieges at Constantinople and Vienna, and the crusades in Syria and Spain—are now forgotten or considered inconsequential. Yet today, as the West faces a resurgence of this enduring Islamic jihad, Sword and Scimitar provides the needed historical context to understand the current relationship between the West and the Islamic world, and why the Islamic State is merely the latest chapter of an old history.

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Destiny Disrupted - Tamim Ansary Cover Art

Destiny Disrupted

Destiny Disrupted A History of the World Through Islamic Eyes by Tamim Ansary

“A must read for anyone who wants to learn more about the history of the Islamic world” ( San Francisco Chronicle )                 We in the West share a common narrative of world history. But our story largely omits a whole civilization whose citizens shared an entirely different narrative for a thousand years as the Islamic world saw it, from the time of Mohammed through the fall of the Ottoman Empire to the events of 9/11 and beyond.     In Destiny Disrupted , Tamim Ansary tells the rich story of world history as the Islamic world saw it. He clarifies why our civilizations grew up oblivious to each other, what happened when they intersected, and how the Islamic world was affected by its slow recognition that Europe—a place it long perceived as primitive and disorganized—had somehow hijacked destiny.     With sympathy to Muslim and Western perspectives alike, Destiny Disrupted offers a fresh and vital perspective on world conflicts we thought we understood.

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Istanbul - Bettany Hughes Cover Art

Istanbul

Istanbul A Tale of Three Cities by Bettany Hughes

Istanbul has long been a place where stories and histories collide, where perception is as potent as fact. From the Koran to Shakespeare, this city with three names--Byzantium, Constantinople, Istanbul -- resonates as an idea and a place, real and imagined. Standing as the gateway between East and West, North and South, it has been the capital city of the Roman, Byzantine, and Ottoman Empires. For much of its history it was the very center of the world, known simply as "The City," but, as Bettany Hughes reveals, Istanbul is not just a city, but a global story. In this epic new biography, Hughes takes us on a dazzling historical journey from the Neolithic to the present, through the many incarnations of one of the world's greatest cities--exploring the ways that Istanbul's influence has spun out to shape the wider world. Hughes investigates what it takes to make a city and tells the story not just of emperors, viziers, caliphs, and sultans, but of the poor and the voiceless, of the women and men whose aspirations and dreams have continuously reinvented Istanbul. Written with energy and animation, award-winning historian Bettany Hughes deftly guides readers through Istanbul's rich layers of history. Based on meticulous research and new archaeological evidence, this captivating portrait of the momentous life of Istanbul is visceral, immediate, and authoritative -- narrative history at its finest.

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Fall of Civilizations - Paul Cooper Cover Art

Fall of Civilizations

Fall of Civilizations Stories of Greatness and Decline by Paul Cooper

"A treasure trove of myths and terror… Atmospheric as hell… Immersive."―The Times Based on the podcast with over one hundred million downloads, Fall of Civilizations brilliantly explores how a range of ancient societies rose to power and sophistication, and how they tipped over into collapse. Across the centuries, we journey from the great empires of Mesopotamia to those of Khmer and Vijayanagara in Asia and Songhai in West Africa; from Byzantium to the Maya, Inca and Aztecs of Central America; from Roman Britain to Rapa Nui. With meticulous research, breathtaking insight and dazzling, empathic storytelling, historian and novelist Paul Cooper evokes the majesty and jeopardy of these ancient civilizations, and asks what it might have felt like for a person alive at the time to witness the end of their world.

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The Hundred Years' War on Palestine - Rashid Khalidi Cover Art

The Hundred Years' War on Palestine

The Hundred Years' War on Palestine A History of Settler Colonialism and Resistance, 1917–2017 by Rashid Khalidi

A landmark history of one hundred years of war waged against the Palestinians from the foremost US historian of the Middle East, told through pivotal events and family history In 1899, Yusuf Diya al-Khalidi, mayor of Jerusalem, alarmed by the Zionist call to create a Jewish national home in Palestine, wrote a letter aimed at Theodore Herzl: the country had an indigenous people who would not easily accept their own displacement. He warned of the perils ahead, ending his note, “in the name of God, let Palestine be left alone.” Thus Rashid Khalidi, al-Khalidi’s great-great-nephew, begins this sweeping history, the first general account of the conflict told from an explicitly Palestinian perspective. Drawing on a wealth of untapped archival materials and the reports of generations of family members—mayors, judges, scholars, diplomats, and journalists— The Hundred Years' War on Palestine upends accepted interpretations of the conflict, which tend, at best, to describe a tragic clash between two peoples with claims to the same territory. Instead, Khalidi traces a hundred years of colonial war on the Palestinians, waged first by the Zionist movement and then Israel, but backed by Britain and the United States, the great powers of the age. He highlights the key episodes in this colonial campaign, from the 1917 Balfour Declaration to the destruction of Palestine in 1948, from Israel’s 1982 invasion of Lebanon to the endless and futile peace process. Original, authoritative, and important , The Hundred Years' War on Palestine is not a chronicle of victimization, nor does it whitewash the mistakes of Palestinian leaders or deny the emergence of national movements on both sides. In reevaluating the forces arrayed against the Palestinians, it offers an illuminating new view of a conflict that continues to this day.

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Israel - Daniel Gordis Cover Art

Israel

Israel A Concise History of a Nation Reborn by Daniel Gordis

Winner of the Jewish Book of the Year Award The first comprehensive yet accessible political history of the state of Israel from its inception to present day, from Daniel Gordis, "one of the most respected Israel analysts" ( The Forward ) living and writing in Jerusalem. In the landscape of Middle East history, Israel is a tiny state, and yet it has captured the world’s attention, aroused its imagination, and lately, been the object of its opprobrium. Why does such a small country speak to so many global concerns? More pressingly: Why does Israel make the decisions it does? And what lies in its future? We cannot answer these questions until we understand Israel’s people and the questions and conflicts, the hopes and desires, that have animated their conversations and actions. Though Israel’s history is rife with conflict, these conflicts do not fully communicate the spirit of Israel and its people: they give short shrift to the dream that gave birth to the state, and to the vision for the Jewish people that was at its core. Guiding us through the milestones of modern Israel, Gordis relays the drama of the Jewish people’s story and the creation of the state. Clear-eyed and erudite, he illustrates how Israel became a cultural, economic and military powerhouse—but also explains where Israel made grave mistakes and traces the long history of Israel’s deepening isolation. With Israel , public intellectual Daniel Gordis offers us a brief but thorough account of the cultural, economic, and political history of this complex nation, from its beginnings to the present. Accessible, levelheaded, and rigorous, Israel sheds light on the Israel’s past so we can understand its future. The result is a vivid portrait of a people, and a nation, reborn. This thorough and riveting account illuminates the pivotal events and complex questions at the heart of the nation’s story: Zionism and the Birth of a Nation: Explore the dream that gave birth to the state and the drama of the Jewish people’s story, guided by one of the most respected Israel analysts writing from Jerusalem. The Arab-Israeli Conflict: Trace the long history of Israel’s deepening isolation and understand why the nation makes the decisions it does through a clear-eyed look at its gravest mistakes and greatest military triumphs. A Nation Reborn: Go beyond the headlines to see how a tiny state became a cultural, economic, and military powerhouse while navigating the hopes, desires, and conflicts that animate its people. Comprehensive Israeli History: Follow the milestones of the state from its inception to the present day in a rigorous, accessible, and levelheaded account of this complex nation's past and future.

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The Story of the Jews, - Simon Schama Cover Art

The Story of the Jews,

The Story of the Jews, Finding the Words 1000 BC-1492 AD by Simon Schama

In this magnificently illustrated cultural history—the tie-in to the PBS and BBC series The Story of the Jews —Simon Schama details the story of the Jewish experience, from their beginnings as an ancient tribal people to the opening of the New World in 1492. It is a story like no other: an epic of endurance against destruction, of creativity in oppression, joy amidst grief, the affirmation of life against the steepest of odds. This epic of world history spans the millennia and the continents—from India to Andalusia and from the bazaars of Cairo to the streets of Oxford. It takes you to unimagined places: to a Jewish kingdom in the mountains of southern Arabia; a Syrian synagogue glowing with radiant wall paintings; the palm groves of the Jewish dead in the Roman catacombs. And its voices ring loud and clear, from the severities and ecstasies of the Bible writers to the love poems of wine bibbers in a garden in Muslim Spain. In The Story of the Jews, the Talmud burns in the streets of Paris, massed gibbets hang over the streets of medieval London, a Majorcan illuminator redraws the world; candles are lit, chants are sung, mules are packed, ships loaded with spice and gems founder at sea. And a great story of Jewish history unfolds. Not—as often imagined—of a culture apart, but of a Jewish world immersed in and imprinted by the peoples among whom they have dwelled, from the Egyptians to the Greeks, from the Arabs to the Christians. Which makes the story of the Jews everyone’s story, too. Ancient and Medieval History: From a surprising Jewish kingdom in the mountains of southern Arabia to the burning of the Talmud in the streets of Paris. Art and Culture: Discover a Syrian synagogue glowing with radiant wall paintings, love poems from Muslim Spain, and the work of a Majorcan illuminator who redrew the world. Stories of Resilience: An epic of endurance against destruction, of joy amidst grief, and the affirmation of life against the steepest of odds. Companion to the PBS/BBC Series: Go deeper into the magnificently illustrated cultural history seen in the acclaimed documentary series, The Story of the Jews .

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Thirteen Days in September - Lawrence Wright Cover Art

Thirteen Days in September

Thirteen Days in September The Dramatic Story of the Struggle for Peace by Lawrence Wright

A dramatic, illuminating day-by-day account of the 1978 Camp David conference, when President Jimmy Carter convinced Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin and Egyptian President Anwar Sadat to sign a peace treaty--the first treaty in the modern Middle East, and one which endures to this day.   With his hallmark insight into the forces at play in the Middle East and his acclaimed journalistic skill, Lawrence Wright takes us through each of the thirteen days of the Camp David conference, delving deeply into the issues and enmities between the two nations, explaining the relevant background to the conflict and to all the major participants at the conference, from the three heads of state to their mostly well-known seconds working furiously behind the scenes. What emerges is not what we've come to think of as an unprecedented yet "simple" peace. Rather, Wright reveals the full extent of Carter's persistence in pushing peace forward, the extraordinary way in which the participants at the conference--many of them lifelong enemies--attained it, and the profound difficulties inherent in the process and its outcome, not the least of which has been the still unsettled struggle between the Israelis and the Palestinians. In Thirteen Days in September , Wright gives us a gripping work of history and reportage that provides an inside view of how peace is made.

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The Story of the Jews Volume Two - Simon Schama Cover Art

The Story of the Jews Volume Two

The Story of the Jews Volume Two Belonging: 1492-1900 by Simon Schama

In the second volume of this magnificently illustrated cultural history, the tie-in to the PBS and BBC series The Story of the Jews , Simon Schama details the story of the Jewish people from 1492 through the end of nineteenth century. A sweeping work of narrative history, volume two of this epic incorporates the stories of many who seldom figure in Jewish histories: not just the rabbis and the philosophers but a poetess in the ghetto of Venice; a boxer in Georgian England; a Bible showman in Amsterdam; a teacher of the deaf in eighteenth-century Germany. The story of the Jewish diaspora unfolds in Kerala and Mantua, the starlit hills of Galilee, the rivers of Colombia, the kitchens of Istanbul, the taverns of Ukraine and the mining camps of California. It sails in caravels, rides the stagecoaches and the railways; trudges the dawn streets of London, hobbles along with the remnant of Napoleon’s ruined army. Through Schama’s passionate and intelligent telling, a story emerges of the Jewish people that feels as if it is the story of everyone, of humanity packed with detail. Schama’s history is a global tapestry woven from the threads of individual lives: Lost Tribes and Messianic Hope: Follow the incredible journeys of figures like David Ha-Reuveni, the self-proclaimed prince from a lost Israelite kingdom, as messianic fervor sweeps through Renaissance Europe. Escape from the Inquisition: Witness the daring escape of the powerful Mendes family, led by the legendary Doña Gracia Nasi, as they navigate a treacherous path from Portugal to the safety of the Ottoman Empire. A Wider Cultural History: Discover the stories of those often left out of Jewish history—from a poetess in the Venetian ghetto and a boxer in Georgian England to a Bible showman in Amsterdam. A Truly Global Story: Journey from the rivers of Colombia and the kitchens of Istanbul to the mining camps of California, tracing the vibrant, surprising, and resilient threads of the Jewish people across the world.

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The Case for Israel - Alan Dershowitz Cover Art

The Case for Israel

The Case for Israel by Alan Dershowitz

The Case for Israel is an ardent defense of Israel's rights, supported by indisputable evidence. Presents a passionate look at what Israel's accusers and detractors are saying about this war-torn country.Dershowitz accuses those who attack Israel of international bigotry and backs up his argument with hard facts.Widely respected as a civil libertarian, legal educator, and defense attorney extraordinaire, Alan Dershowitz has also been a passionate though not uncritical supporter of Israel.

13

Goliath - Max Blumenthal Cover Art

Goliath

Goliath Life and Loathing in Greater Israel by Max Blumenthal

From a New York Times bestselling author, a journey through the badlands and high roads of Israel-Palestine, painting a startling portrait of Israeli society under siege as the Palestinian occupation deepens. "An eye-opening and stunningly insightful book about the dramatic plight of a country central to America's political fortunes." —Glenn Greenwald, New York Times bestselling author of No Place to Hide Beginning with the national elections carried out during Israel's war on Gaza in 2008-09, which brought into power the country's most right-wing government to date, Blumenthal tells the story of Israel in the wake of the collapse of the Oslo peace process. As Blumenthal reveals, Israel has become a country where right-wing leaders like Avigdor Lieberman and Bibi Netanyahu are sacrificing democracy on the altar of their power politics; where the loyal opposition largely and passively stands aside and watches the organized assault on civil liberties; where state-funded Orthodox rabbis publish books that provide instructions on how and when to kill Gentiles; where half of Jewish youth declare their refusal to sit in a classroom with an Arab; and where mob violence targets Palestinians and African asylum seekers scapegoated by leading government officials as "demographic threats." Blumenthal interviews the demagogues and divas in their homes, in the Knesset, and in the watering holes where their young acolytes hang out, and speaks with those political leaders behind the organized assault on civil liberties. As his journey deepens, he painstakingly reports on the occupied Palestinians challenging schemes of demographic separation through unarmed protest. Through his far-ranging travels, Blumenthal illuminates the present by uncovering the ghosts of the past: the histories of Palestinian neighborhoods and villages now gone and forgotten; how that history has set the stage for the current crisis of Israeli society; and how the Holocaust has been turned into justification for occupation. A brave and unflinching account of the real facts on the ground, Goliath is an unprecedented and compelling work of journalism. Lannan Foundation Cultural Freedom Notable Book Award

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A History of Modern Morocco - Susan Gilson Miller Cover Art

A History of Modern Morocco

A History of Modern Morocco by Susan Gilson Miller

Morocco is notable for its stable and durable monarchy, its close ties with the West, its vibrant cultural life and its centrality to regional politics. This book, by distinguished historian Susan Gilson Miller, offers a richly documented survey of modern Moroccan history. Arguing that pragmatism rather than ideology has shaped the monarchy's response to crisis, the book begins with the French invasion of Algeria in 1830 and Morocco's abortive efforts at reform, the duel with colonial powers and the loss of independence in 1912, the burdens and benefits of France's forty-four year dominion and the stunning success of the nationalist movement leading to independence in 1956. In the post-independence era, the book traces the monarchy's gradual monopolization of power and the resulting political paralysis, with a postscript bringing events up to 2012. This concise, readable book will inform and enthral students and all those searching for the background to present-day events in the region.

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The People of Palestine 1921 - E. Grant Cover Art

The People of Palestine 1921

The People of Palestine 1921 by E. Grant

INTRODUCTORY. THE COUNTRY OF WESTERN PALESTINE. GENERAL FEATURES This little book will make no attempt to tell all that could be said of its subject, but we hope that its selection of things to tell will be gratifying to you. Our wish is that not many of its pages may be condemned as dry, but that most of them may have interest and refreshment. If sometime when you are tired you can sit down and be pleased with some of these pages, here or there, you will know a little of how the trudging peasant of the village feels as, going over hill after hill, from each top he gazes off towards the west and sees the evening mists thickening and looking like good, cool mountains in the sea. It is pleasant to see the face of the native light up as he catches sight of the clouds heavy with blessings of moisture. Perhaps fierce sirocco days have followed one another for some time, longer than usual. Such days are usually looked for in trios at least, but often they hold for a longer time. Their peculiarly enervating heat is very trying, and when they have passed one welcomes eagerly an evening that brings the heavy mist. This announces that the succession of hot days is broken and that some days of respite are coming. The welcome moisture blesses the vineyards, the fig orchards, the tomatoes, squashes and melons, and it is sure to bring out ejaculations of blessing from the fervent peasant, praising the Father of all, whose favoring mercy he feels. 12 Look out on a morning early and you will see the mists[1] scudding, drifting, veiling and dissevering like masses of gauze, like streamers of truant hair. Perhaps some near mountain may be cut off from the little hill half-way down by a moat filled with billowing fog. Soon the sun cuts it and scatters it away and the hot, dry day sets in. The roads and rocks are powdered with lime dust, the somber morning tones on the hills are touched with whitening brightness. Here and there is the dusty gray of an olive-orchard or the bright green of vineyards. Overhead, the brightest blue is set with one yellow gem of fire that creeps up and up until noon, and then the toiling peasantry, who have watched this timepiece of the heavens, sit down in the nearest shade to eat their food and chat. That done, they roll over for the luxury of a nap and forget a hot, dry hour in a healthy doze. The click of the chisel in the quarry ceases, the hoe is cast aside, the driver is lying on his face, fast asleep, while the donkey nibbles and rolls his load-sore back deliciously in the dust. The camel sits like a salamander, apparently minding no change of weather. Little birds pant for breath. All is very still and hot. But work-time comes again before the heat goes, and the workmen half sit up, looking around, perhaps playfully tossing a stick or clod on the head of a lazier comrade. The work-saddles are roped on the backs of the animals. The camel, long habituated to complaining, whether made to kneel or rise again, utters grating gutturals from his long throat. He is the Oriental striker, objecting, vocally, at least, to every new demand upon him. Well waked, the countryside begins to be busy again and work goes on until sundown. As the afternoon slips into the evening you will see traveling peasants hastening to make their villages. The hills are touched with pinks and purples that shade into dark blue. The gray owl calls, the foxes reconnoiter the fields, the village  13 dogs bark, lights straggle out from the settlements. One may hear the song of a watcher in a vineyard or the bang of his musket as he shoots at a dog or fox meddling with the vines. As we hastened one evening through a village two hours distance from our own, the people, sitting about the doors and in the alleys, seemed astonished and urged us to stop overnight, not understanding our preference to travel on in the growing dusk. But we went on, passing possible sites for Ai, then Bethel and Beeroth, and so to our own Râm Allâh. The way was precarious and stony, with only the starlight to help us, and the evening was chilly. We might call Palestine, even the western part of it, which is more familiar to us, a world in little, so much has been packed into this little space between the Jordan and the Mediterranean. Sometimes it has been a kingdom and sometimes kingdoms. As a province or provinces it has acknowledged masters on the south, east, north and west. Far back in time the country was the range of numerous unruly tribes. To-day it contains several districts within the Asiatic holdings of the Turkish Empire. As one looks inland from the Mediterranean on the Judean country, first comes the straight unindented coast line of sand, then a fertile strip of land parallel to it in which the orange and the grains flourish. Next comes the secondary ridge of Judean hills; then its primary ridge of mountains. These latter are thirty-five miles from the sea and three fifths of a mile above its level. Now, as we stand on the mountain range, we have only twenty miles between us and the country of the Dead Sea, but a rapid fall in levels which, in so short a distance, makes the sand-hills seem to drop down and away from us in a precipitous stairway to one of the lowest spots on earth, the basin in which the Jordan River and the Dead Sea lie, the so-called Ghôr. This depression is a quarter of a mile below sea-level and hence three quarters  14 of a mile below the high country in the neighborhood of Jerusalem. Western Palestine is a limestone country that is, geologically speaking, new. Faulting, erosion and earthquake as well have been hard at work in comparatively recent geological times to make a most diversified surface in a land of short distances. Its rocks are peppered with nodules of flint. The weather wear on the country rocks of some districts allows the flint nodules to drop out, thus leaving a peculiar worm-eaten look in the stones and cliffs. In other localities the cherty material runs in ribbon-like bands within the limestone. The lime rock is often beautified by geode-like recesses of lime crystal, and the slabs of lamellar stone so much used for flooring, window-seats and roofing are frequently penciled with exquisite dendritic markings. Often the face of cleavage between blocks of building material is glazed with a native pink. There are a few houses in the villages whose external walls are constructed of regular blocks so arranged as to alternate in a manner resembling checkerwork of pink and white squares. One thought that may occur to an American or European as he looks at the numerous hills and mountains up and down the middle and back of Western Palestine is that never before has he had such a fine opportunity to see the shapes of hills and valleys. For at home he seldom sees the whole, real shape of a hill or a mountain, so covered is it with trees or smaller growth. But here there is very little clothing on the hills. Their knobs and shoulders, cliffs and ribs, are almost as naked of trees as the blue skies above them. The rock layers stand out at the worn edges very plainly. Some hills are banded round and round horizontally with successive layers of rock. Others are made up of layers slightly inclined, and some look like giant clam-shells set down on the land. In yet other hills the twistings and heavings have given the sedimentary layers a vertical position up and  15 down over the mountains, as if they had been tipped over. These bands of rock are usually of limestone interspersed with chunks of chert. Ordinarily the tops of the hills assume a long, sloping, rounded shape because of the soft nature of the rock and the wearing power of the deluging rains. All around the highland country of Western Palestine are mellow plains and fertile valleys. Up and down the western border between the highlands and the Mediterranean is the Maritime Plain, from eight to fifteen miles wide. Along the eastern edge is the great depression of the Ghôr, the low fertile basin that separates Western from Eastern Palestine and provides a bed for the plunging current of the Jordan and a sink for the Dead Sea. These two fertile strips are barely connected toward the north by an arm of the Ghôr, formerly called the Valley of Jezreel, that reaches to the site of ancient Jezreel, and a succession of plains formerly called the Plain of Esdraelon, that touch the Maritime Plain around the nose of Carmel. The highland country is pierced by many a cut called, in the language of the country,  wâd , or  wâdy , the equivalent ordinarily of our  valley , though the climate of Palestine is such as to make it almost always the case that a wâdy is a brook in the rainy weather of winter and a dry gully during the rest of the year.[2] Some of these wâdys are of considerable breadth and offer arable lands; others are narrow, deep gorges. Into some of these gorges the débris from the hillsides has tumbled so as to make it impossible to use the valley bed as a road even in dry weather. Many of the passes mentioned in the literature of Palestine are really highland paths. Valleys must often be avoided as impassable during the winter rains and as stiflingly hot in summer. Invading armies would seldom risk using narrow valleys for their approach, as they would be easily assailable from the hillsides. 16 The limestone is full of holes and caves varying in size from a pocket to a palace. The caves may be near the surface or far in the secret places of the deep-chested mountains. They make reservoirs for the catching of the rain from the surface and hold it through the long dry season, giving some of it in springs[3] and probably losing floods of it in lower and lower caverns. Sometimes the caves are like small rooms,[4] let into the sides of the cliffs, as at ‛Ayn Fâra in the Wâdy Fâra, a few hours northeast of Jerusalem, where there is a suite of four connecting rooms in the side wall of the valley, thirty feet above the path. In front of the rooms is a narrow ledge overhanging the path, and up through this natural platform is a manhole which offers the one way of access from below. All up and down this wâdy are caves, some having been improved, probably for purposes of hermit dwelling. In Wâdy es-Suwaynîṭ, that is, the valley of Michmash, there are a good many such cliff dwellings[5] which seem to be approachable only by a rope let down from the top of the precipice above. All through the wild gorges of the country one is apt to come upon these caves with signs of use in some previous age by troglodytes and hermits. When possible they are now used as goat-pens, and thus offer unclean but dry quarters to any one caught in a rain. At the cave near Kharayṭûn the entrance is difficult to reach, up in the side of a precipitous mountain. It is a narrow passage leading to a large, high, vaulted room, a sort of natural cathedral, with a large side chamber. Thence one may go through a low, tortuous passage to other smaller rooms as far as most of the adventurous care to go, the natives say to Hebron, but the guide-books, something over five hundred feet. About Jeba‛, east of er-Râm, the ground sounds hollow under foot because of caves to which one may descend, in some  17 cases by cut stairs, to find that the caves have been enlarged and cemented. About two thirds of the way from el-Bîreh to Baytîn, on the left of the path, is a cave which has been made to do service as a catch-basin for the water from the spring above. The mouth of the spring has been enlarged artificially and connected by a rock-cut channel with the cave. This channel has little grooves branching from it and there seem to be here the conveniences of an ancient laundering or fulling place. In the cave are two supporting columns cut from the rock. The interior is well adorned to-day with a pretty growth of delicate maidenhair ferns. There are many caves in the hillsides of what is called the Samson Country,[6] through which the railway from Jaffa to Jerusalem passes. In and about Jerusalem are caves the discussion of which does not belong here, though they can hardly have failed, in their long association with the history of that city, of having much significant connection with the political and religious history of the people of the country. Such are the caves about the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, the little one under the great rock beneath the Dome of the Rock, the artificially enlarged caves on the south side of the Valley of Hinnom, the huge cave of Jeremiah, north of the city, under the hill where the Moslems have a cemetery, not to mention its counterpart across the road and under the city, called Solomon’s Quarry or the Cotton Grotto. Near the village of Ḳubâb, but nearer the tiny village of Abu Shûsheh, is a large cave now used as a sheep and goat pen. It is called by the neighboring Moslems Noah’s Cave. The top of it has evidently at some time fallen in, thus diminishing its size, but giving it an immense mouth, quite conspicuous all about the neighboring country to the north. The peasantry, in their double desire to account for it and also to say something against the Jews, tell this story about  18 the cave. They say that Noah was making war against the Jews who, being hard pressed, ran into this cave for shelter. Thereupon Noah brought up his heavy guns and bombarded the cave with such effect as to crush in the top, which fell on the Jews, killing them all. In connection with caves the peasants tell certain stories of hyenas. To the peasant any story that has to do with these creatures is gruesome. The hyena, they say, will accost a lone pedestrian, rub up against him and cast a spell over him until, in a dazed way, the man follows the animal to its cave, where the hyena will despatch him. The tale is continued to describe how the hyena is captured. They say that a man strips himself naked and crawls into the cave of the hyena, carrying one end of a rope which is held by his companions outside. Once inside, his condition deceives the hyena, as does also a cajoling tone which he uses until the creature, quite unsuspecting, begins to fawn and roll over. The man at once secures a leg of the hyena with his rope, whereupon the men outside draw out the beast and kill it with their clubs. New graves are usually loaded with heavy stones and watched at night to prevent the hyenas from exhuming the dead bodies. As the rock of the country is of a quickly dissolving kind, the torrential force of the winter rains greatly facilitates soil-making. The ground is strewn with loose stones, in some places so thickly that the soil cannot be seen a few rods away. Soil is carried rapidly about, so that where there are no terraces or pockets to catch it the shelving rock is soon denuded and the only deep earth is found in the valleys or hollow plains. The Jordan and the ‛Aujâ (Crooked) are the two largest rivers of Palestine; Ḥûleh (Merom), Tiberias (Galilee) and Baḥret Lût (the Dead Sea), its three lakes. There are many streams, brooks and winter ponds that disappear with the  19 rainy season. In a few deep-cut beds, where strong springs supply the brooks, water flows in a current all the year. The watershed of Western Palestine is considerably nearer to the Jordan than to the Mediterranean, being about thirty-five or forty miles from the Sea, but scarcely more than twenty miles on the average from the river. The valley courses of the streams generally take a southeasterly direction from the watershed to the Jordan basin, and a northwesterly direction towards the Mediterranean Sea. Those on the east are narrower and more precipitous, since they have on that side of the country the shorter distance and the more remarkable fall in levels. Fertility and population have generally favored the western side of the watershed, with some notable exceptions. This western slope is flanked by the low-lying hills of the Shephelah and comes gradually down to the Maritime Plain. The hills and plain on this side have very great historical interest and have formed the bridge of the civilizations to the north and to the south of Palestine. At the present time, when travel comes by sea from the Western world, this country is a threshold to the shrines and ancient sites of Syria and the East. The only ponds in the country are the winter ponds called by the native name,  balû ‛ a . These are formed by the winter rains. They stand for about five months in low places, and then disappear until the next rainy season.[7] Robinson, in 1838, passed by one of these on his way from el-Bîreh to Jifnâ. As his journey that way was on June 13, the pond was then dry. But this same pond may now be seen every winter and spring full of water. The new carriage road cuts the eastern end of it at a point a little over a mile north of el-Bîreh. Another of these ponds may be seen just under the village of Baytûnyeh, towards Râm Allâh. Were it not for such short-lived ponds many of the country people would  20 have little idea of any body of water larger than a rainwater cistern. The Dead Sea may be seen from the high hills to the east of these ponds and the Mediterranean from those to the west, but only a small proportion of the peasantry ever get to see either one of them. A distant view gives the unexperienced no adequate notion of their size. People living in Jaffa, on the sea, have been known to poke fun at the upland folk and bewilder them with yarns about the sea. One story that they impose on the credulous countryman is that every night, at dark, a cover is put over the sea, as one would cover over a jar of water, or a bowl of dough. One man, on reaching Jaffa late in the afternoon for his first visit, hastened down to the beach in order to see the water before the cover should be put on for the night. Perhaps the best known winter ponds are in the extensive  sunken meadows  of the Plain of Esdraelon, athwart the way from Jenîn to Nazareth. The springs of Palestine are its eyes, as the Arabs put it, and when they are sparkling with life the whole face of the country lights up with a wholesome expression.[8] In places where the springs are remote from the present settlements, and now used only for the flocks or by travelers, there are often to be seen remains of former buildings. Sometimes villas or even villages may be traced; old aqueducts also, and ruined reservoirs, showing how great pains were once taken to utilize the water supply. At ‛Ayn Fâra is a copious supply of water forming one of the few perennial brooks. In its deeper pools the herdsmen water and wash their flocks.[9] There is a very feeble attempt at gardening in the vicinity, but for the most part the precious treasure flows away unused. The valley sides show ancient masonry belonging to more thrifty times. On the hill ‛Aṭâra, a mile south of el-Bîreh, are ruined reservoirs to which the waters of the spring now called ‛Ayn en-Nuṣbeh were carried by stone  21 conduits, of which only small pieces remain. So may similar indications be seen at ‛Ayn Ṣôba, at ‛Ayn Jeriyût, ‛Ayn Kefrîyeh, all of which are west of Râm Allâh. Present-day villages are often a considerable distance from the spring on which they depend for drinking water. Many large places are provided with but one spring. Nazareth and Jerusalem are thus limited to one good spring each. Around the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea are warm, even hot, springs once much prized as watering-places. They are generally sulphurous in character. Those at Tiberias, on the Sea of Galilee, are used now as baths.

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Solimán El Magnífico - Santiago Machain Cover Art

Solimán El Magnífico

Solimán El Magnífico by Santiago Machain

En el convulso siglo XVI, Solimán el Magnífico transformó al Imperio otomano en una potencia que disputó a Europa, Persia y el Mediterráneo el control del mundo conocido. Este libro recorre su ascenso al trono, sus campañas decisivas y su visión de Estado como Kanuni, el legislador que consolidó leyes, justicia y administración. Al mismo tiempo, revela el rostro íntimo del poder: el papel de Hürrem Sultan, el harén como institución política y la feroz lucha sucesoria. Entre esplendor cultural, conquistas y dilemas humanos, la obra reconstruye el hombre detrás del mito y el legado que definió una era.

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Israel on Trial - Roy K. Altman Cover Art

Israel on Trial

Israel on Trial Examining the History, the Evidence, and the Law by Roy K. Altman

New York Times Bestseller USA Today Bestseller When the slogans are louder than the facts, evidence becomes a moral imperative. In Israel on Trial: Examining the History, the Evidence, and the Law , United States District Judge Roy K. Altman brings legal rigor to the world’s most contentious debate. Applying courtroom-tested standards—burden of proof, corroboration, chain of custody—he examines claims of colonialism, apartheid, and genocide with dispassionate precision. In an era shaped by viral slogans and curated outrage, Judge Altman offers a disciplined method for discerning truth from propaganda. Through historical records, archaeological evidence, genetic data, and international law, Israel on Trial shows what it means to demand proof—and what’s at stake when we stop asking for it. Key takeaways include: • How to evaluate modern political claims using legal reasoning • Why historical evidence still matters in present-day discourse • What international law actually says about occupation, apartheid, and genocide • How antisemitic tropes have evolved into mainstream talking points • A framework for intellectual integrity in an age of ideological warfare This is not just a book about Israel. It’s a guide for anyone who believes facts still matter. 2026 NYC Big Book Awards Distinguished Favorite in Book Cover Design - Nonfiction

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1453 - Anthony Kaldellis Cover Art

1453

1453 The Conquest and Tragedy of Constantinople by Anthony Kaldellis

A detailed account of the siege and fall of Constantinople in 1453, a watershed year that closed the book, once and for all, on the Roman Empire and confirmed for Europeans their worst fears about an expanding Ottoman Empire. Anthony Kaldellis offers a new narrative of the siege and fall of Constantinople in 1453, a watershed year that closed the book, once and for all, on the Roman Empire and confirmed for Europeans their worst fears about an expanding Ottoman Empire. By the fifteenth century, Constantinople had seen better days, but it was still a vibrant center of learning, worship, commerce, and information. 1453 sketches the tense but exciting shared world of Italians, Turks, and Romans that was thrown into crisis by Mehmed II's decision to conquer the city. Kaldellis showcases a detailed reconstruction following events on a day-by-day basis, pulling from gripping eye-witness testimonies in Latin, Italian, Greek, Russian, and Turkish. He weighs the strategies of both the attackers and defenders, and proves that, contrary to the fatalism that marks almost all narratives written with hindsight, in reality the defense was hardly a lost cause. The defenders knew exactly what they were doing. They were willing to risk their lives, but it was not their intention to become martyrs. Instead, it was the sultan who was scrambling to neutralize a seemingly impregnable defense. That he did so was a testament to his ingenuity and tenacity. The final chapters of 1453 trace the fate of the vanquished and their captivity. It also weighs the impact of the city's fall on the conquerors, the conquered, and on world history. 1453 was not merely a symbol for the passing of the Middle Ages and the onset of early modernity: it changed the very nature of the Ottoman empire and redirected the transmission of cultural legacies, especially those of Greek classical scholarship. The fall of Constantinople is therefore a nexus of converging pathways between east and west, medieval and modern, ends and beginnings.

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Mossad - Michael Bar-Zohar & Nissim Mishal Cover Art

Mossad

Mossad The Greatest Missions of the Israeli Secret Service by Michael Bar-Zohar & Nissim Mishal

"This book tells what should have been known and isn't—that Israel's hidden force is as formidable as its recognized physical strength." — Israeli President Shimon Peres For decades, Israel's renowned security arm, the Mossad, has been widely recognized as the best intelligence service in the world. In Mossad , authors Michael Bar-Zohar and Nissim Mishal take us behind the closed curtain with riveting, eye-opening, boots-on-the-ground accounts of the most dangerous, most crucial missions in the agency's 60-year history. These are real Mission: Impossible true stories brimming with high-octane action—from the breathtaking capture of Nazi executioner Adolph Eichmann to the recent elimination of key Iranian nuclear scientists. Anyone who is fascinated by the world of international espionage, intelligence, and covert "Black-Ops" warfare will find this electrifying narrative non-fiction reading. Mossad unveils the defining and most dangerous operations, unknown heroes, and mysterious agents of the world's most respected—and most enigmatic—Israeli secret service. Here are the thrilling true spy stories of daring top secret missions, including the capture of Adolf Eichmann, the eradication of Black September, the destruction of the Syrian nuclear facility, and the elimination of key Iranian nuclear scientists. Drawn from intensive research and exclusive interviews with Israeli leaders and Mossad operatives, this riveting history brings to life the brave agents, deadly villains, and major battlegrounds that have shaped Israel and the world at large for more than sixty years. This definitive account of the Israeli secret service reveals: Top Secret Missions: Go inside the breathtaking capture of Nazi executioner Adolf Eichmann, the country-by-country hunt for the masterminds of Black September, and the daring eradication of the Syrian nuclear facility. Shadow War with Iran: Uncover the story behind the elimination of key Iranian nuclear scientists and the sabotage of enemy nuclear programs through fearless covert operations. Unprecedented Access: Drawn from intensive, confidential research and exclusive interviews with the brave agents, Mossad operatives, and Israeli leaders who were actually there. High-Stakes Espionage: Discover the real-life stories of clandestine operatives, deadly villains, and mysterious agents who shaped the fate of Israel and the modern Middle East.

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In the War Room - Yonah Jeremy Bob & Elliot Kaufman Cover Art

In the War Room

In the War Room The Inside Story of Israel's Fight Against Hamas and the Iranian Axis by Yonah Jeremy Bob & Elliot Kaufman

The inside story of the leaders, debates, and decisions that shaped Israel’s longest war. In the War Room is the inside story of the leaders, debates, and decisions that shaped Israel’s longest war—a multifront battle that eventually led Israeli and then US jets to the heart of Iran. This book also explains the current debates in Israeli society and the clashes or cooperation with US presidents that may shape the future of US–Israel relations, beyond the current government, for those who want to understand what will come next. Led not merely by a team of rivals but by a war room of bitter enemies, Israel fought back from the October 7 massacre all the way to Tehran. To do so, the Jewish state had to defy the world and the expert predictions that claimed Israel’s strategy would lead it to calamity. Israel did fail at times, especially in Gaza, and it lost significant public support among Americans. But Israel succeeded enough to set back the Iranian proxy axis substantially. Drawing from their unique access to top Israeli and US officials, including secret intelligence sources, Bob and Kaufman reveal how Israel came back from its lowest moment to outmaneuver Iran in late 2024 and 2025, leading to their greatest confrontation yet in 2026.

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The Future Is Peace - Aziz Abu Sarah & Maoz Inon Cover Art

The Future Is Peace

The Future Is Peace A Shared Journey Across the Holy Land by Aziz Abu Sarah & Maoz Inon

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Two lifelong peace activists and guides to Israel/Palestine, both of whom have lost family in the conflict, take readers on a revealing life-changing journey across this holy, bloodstained land and discover the mythic, political, and personal history that divides but also binds them and their peoples. “[A] short but immensely poignant account of a shared journey across Israel and the West Bank . . . raw with pain and rage and yet bravely insistent on the imperative of hope.”— The New York Times “We do not see ourselves as Palestinians and Israelis, or as Jews and Arabs, but as human beings who believe in fostering a culture of dialogue, a culture of forgiveness, and a culture of peace. To those who see only division lines, we say: If you must divide us, let it be as those who believe in peace and equality and those who don’t ... yet.” Palestinian Aziz Abu Sarah and Israeli Maoz Inon forged a bond of brotherhood when the world expected them to be enemies. Both have lost family to the conflict. Both have known the bitterness of righteous anger. Yet, they chose a different path. In The Future Is Peace , Sarah and Inon take readers on a transformative weeklong journey across a sacred and bloodstained land. Facing competing narratives, they explore how compassion and unity can pull humanity back from the precipice of blind hatred. Throughout their travels, they have been constantly asked: In the face of so much loss, how can we ever find hope? Their answer is always the same. One cannot find hope. We must create it. This book is a rebuttal to a broken world and a bold challenge to the belief that more violence can ever bring security. Told with unflinching honesty, their story is proof that peace is not a naive dream, but a courageous choice—for reconciliation to heal the wounds of revenge, for partnerships to change a destiny of war, and for empathy to save us from drowning in sorrow. Pairing unapologetic candor and inspirational prose, Sarah and Inon are sending an urgent message that the people have the power to make change. Peace is inevitable. For Palestinians, for Israelis, and for the world that awaits their example, it is not just possible—it is the future.

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A Peace to End All Peace - David Fromkin Cover Art

A Peace to End All Peace

A Peace to End All Peace The Fall of the Ottoman Empire and the Creation of the Modern Middle East by David Fromkin

Published with a new afterword from the author—the classic, bestselling account of how the modern Middle East was created The Middle East has long been a region of rival religions, ideologies, nationalisms, and ambitions. All of these conflicts—including the hostilities between Arabs and Israelis, and the violent challenges posed by Iraq's competing sects—are rooted in the region's political inheritance: the arrangements, unities, and divisions imposed by the Allies after the First World War. In A Peace to End All Peace , David Fromkin reveals how and why the Allies drew lines on an empty map that remade the geography and politics of the Middle East. Focusing on the formative years of 1914 to 1922, when all seemed possible, he delivers in this sweeping and magisterial book the definitive account of this defining time, showing how the choices narrowed and the Middle East began along a road that led to the conflicts and confusion that continue to this day. A new afterword from Fromkin, written for this edition of the book, includes his invaluable, updated assessment of this region of the world today, and on what this history has to teach us.

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The Jews - Howard Fast Cover Art

The Jews

The Jews Story of a People by Howard Fast

The " epic and stirring story" of 4,000 years of Judaism—told by a #1 New York Times –bestselling author ( Jewish Quarterly ). From their nomadic beginnings and the rise of Moses to the kings David and Solomon through the Diaspora and the unthinkable horror of the Holocaust—and culminating in the founding of the state of Israel—this is the sweeping tale of the Jews. Howard Fast, author of the classic Spartacus, displays his gift for compelling narrative throughout this eminently readable and well-researched saga.   In Fast's telling, truth is stranger, and more inspiring, than fiction. "Here, I decided, was one of the most exciting and romantic adventures in all the history of mankind," he explains in his introduction. "It had a continuity that spanned most of recorded history. It was filled with drama, passion, tragedy, and faith; and with all due reverence for the scholars, it pleaded for a storyteller to tell it as a story, indeed as the story of all stories."   Fast's accomplishment is required reading not only for lovers of great literature but also for anyone interested in the march of civilization. Barry Holtz, the editor of The Schocken Guide to Jewish Books hails The Jews as "an exciting and pleasurable [introduction] to a four-thousand-year epic."   This ebook features an illustrated biography of Howard Fast including rare photos from the author's estate.

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Sex and the Citadel - Shereen el Feki Cover Art

Sex and the Citadel

Sex and the Citadel Intimate Life in a Changing Arab World by Shereen el Feki

** Kirkus Best Books of the Year (2013)** If you really want to know a people, start by looking inside their bedrooms.   As political change sweeps the streets and squares, the parliaments and presidential palaces of the Arab world, Shereen El Feki has been looking at an upheaval a little closer to home—in the sexual lives of men and women in Egypt and across the region. The result is an informative, insightful, and engaging account of a highly sensitive and still largely secret aspect of Arab society.   Sex is entwined in religion, tradition, politics, economics, and culture, so it is the perfect lens through which to examine the complex social landscape of the Arab world. From pregnant virgins to desperate housewives, from fearless activists to religious firebrands, from sex work to same-sex relations, Sex and the Citadel takes a fresh look at the sexual history of the region and brings new voices to the debate over its future.   This is no peep show or academic treatise but a highly personal and often humorous account of one woman’s journey to better understand Arab society at its most intimate and, in the process, to better understand her own origins. Rich with five years of groundbreaking research, Sex and the Citadel gives us a unique and timely understanding of everyday lives in a part of the world that is changing before our eyes.

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The Shortest History of Israel and Palestine - Michael Scott-Baumann Cover Art

The Shortest History of Israel and Palestine

The Shortest History of Israel and Palestine From Zionism to Intifadas and the Struggle for Peace by Michael Scott-Baumann

An accessible chronicle of how the Israel-Palestine conflict originated and developed over the past century. The Shortest History books deliver thousands of years of history in one riveting, fast-paced read. The ongoing struggle between Israel and Palestine is one of the most bitter conflicts in history, with profound global consequences. In this book, Middle East expert Michael Scott-Baumann succinctly describes its origins and charts its evolution from civil war to the present day. Each chapter offers a lucid explanation of the politics and ends with personal testimony from Palestinians and Israelis whose lives have been impacted by the dispute. While presenting competing interpretations, Scott-Baumann examines the key flash points, including the early role of the British, the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948, the Six-Day War of 1967, and the Trump administration’s peace plan, pitched as “the deal of the century,” in 2020. He delineates both the nature of Israeli control over the Palestinian territories and Palestinian resistance—going to the heart of the clashes in recent decades. The result is an indispensable history, including a time line, glossary, and analysis of why efforts to restore peace have continually failed and what it will take to succeed. The Shortest History books deliver thousands of years of history in one riveting, fast-paced read.

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Lords of the Horizons - Jason Goodwin Cover Art

Lords of the Horizons

Lords of the Horizons A History of the Ottoman Empire by Jason Goodwin

"An elegantly written, thoroughly entertaining work of popular history" examining the Ottoman Empire and its legacy ( Kirkus Reviews ). For six hundred years, the Ottoman Empire swelled and declined. Islamic, martial, civilized, and tolerant, it advanced in three centuries from the dusty foothills of Anatolia to rule on the Danube and the Nile. At its height, Indian rajahs and the kings of France beseeched the empire's aid. In its last three hundred years the empire seemed ready to collapse, a prodigy of survival and decay. In this striking evocation of the empire's power, Jason Goodwin explores how the Ottomans rose and how, against all odds, they lingered on. In doing so, he also offers a long look back at the origins of problems that plague present-day Kosovars and Serbs. Praise for Lords of the Horizons "Jason Goodwin's deftly written and beguiling history of the Ottoman Empire is particularly pertinent today, when the cauldron of ancient hatred once more boils over, but his prose would be welcome at any time." — The Boston Globe "A work of dazzling beauty . . . the rare coming together of historical scholarship and curiosity about distant places with luminous writing." — The New York Times Book Review

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Land Between the Rivers - Bartle Bull Cover Art

Land Between the Rivers

Land Between the Rivers A 5,000-Year History of Iraq by Bartle Bull

The epic, five millennia history of the region between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers that was the birthplace of civilization and remains today the essential crossroads between East and West At the start of the fourth millennium BC, at the edge of historical time, civilization first arrived with the advent of cities and the invention of writing that began to replace legend with history. This occurred on the floodplains of southern Iraq where the great rivers Tigris and Euphrates meet the Persian Gulf. By 3000 BC, a city called Uruk (from which “Iraq” is derived) had 80,000 residents. Indeed, as Bartle Bull reveals in his magisterial history, “if one divides the 5,000 years of human civilization into ten periods of five centuries each, during the first nine of these the world’s leading city was in one of the three regions of current day Iraq”—or to use its Greek name, Mesopotamia.  Inspired by extensive reporting from the region to spend a decade delving deep into its history, Bull chronicles the story of Iraq from the exploits of Gilgamesh (almost certainly an historical figure) to the fall of the Iraqi monarchy in 1958 that ushered in its familiar modern era. The land between the rivers has been the melting pot and battleground of countless outsiders, from the Akkadians of Hammurabi and the Greeks of Alexander to the Ottomans of Suleiman the Magnificent. Here, by the waters of Babylon, Judaism was born and the Sunni-Shia schism took its bloody shape. Central themes play out over the millennia: humanity’s need for freedom versus the co-eternal urge of tyranny; the ever-present conflict and cross-fertilization of East and West with Iraq so often the hinge. We tend to view today’s tensions in the Middle East through the prism of the last hundred years since the Treaty of Versailles imposed a controversial realignment of its borders. Bartle Bull’s remarkable, sweeping achievement reminds us that the region defined by the land between the rivers has for five millennia played a uniquely central role on the global stage.

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One State, Two States - Benny Morris Cover Art

One State, Two States

One State, Two States Resolving the Israel/Palestine Conflict by Benny Morris

̶What is so striking about Morris’s work as a historian is that it does not flatter anyone’s prejudices, least of all his own,” David Remnick remarked in a New Yorker article that coincided with the publication of Benny Morris’s 1948: A History of the First Arab-Israeli War. With the same commitment to objectivity that has consistently characterized his approach, Morris now turns his attention to the present-day legacy of the events of 1948 and the concrete options for the future of Palestine and Israel. The book scrutinizes the history of the goals of the Palestinian national movement and the Zionist movement, then considers the various one- and two-state proposals made by different streams within the two movements. It also looks at the willingness or unwillingness of each movement to find an accommodation based on compromise. Morris assesses the viability and practicality of proposed solutions in the light of complicated and acrimonious realities. Throughout his groundbreaking career, Morris has reshaped understanding of the Israeli-Arab conflict. Here, once again, he arrives at a new way of thinking about the discord, injecting a ray of hope in a region where it is most sorely needed.

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How to Sell a Genocide - Adam H. Johnson Cover Art

How to Sell a Genocide

How to Sell a Genocide The Media's Complicity in the Destruction of Gaza by Adam H. Johnson

“Vivid and meticulous ... Through painstaking documentation, Johnson shows how anti-Palestinian racism among elite liberals and liberal institutions primed Western audiences for genocide” from the foreword by Noura Erakat, author of Justice for Some As bombs rained down on Gaza in October 2023, images of mass death and destruction gripped the world, and openly genocidal statements from Israeli leaders foretold the magnitude of horrors to come. But the US media was quick to downplay, obscure, and repackage an emerging campaign of extermination into a slick “war on terror” framework.  How to Sell a Genocide is an indictment of the US corporate media’s role in enabling—and, at times, directly inciting—one of the most devastating campaigns of mass killing in modern memory. Johnson unpacks how major news outlets like the New York Times , CNN, and MSNBC systematically sanitized Israel’s war crimes, hid the US’s central role, and dehumanized the Palestinian people. Drawing from deep, original data-driven analysis, Johnson dissects the mechanics of propaganda, from the selective empathy, strategic omissions, overt racism, and repetition of state-sanctioned falsehoods, to the demonization of humanitarian workers and dishonest coverage of campus protests. With clarity and moral force, Johnson argues that the genocide could not have been sustained without the active, ongoing complicity of the US media. All royalties from the book will be donated to the Middle East Children’s Alliance. Adam Johnson is a media analyst and co-host of the podcast Citations Needed. His writing has been featured in the Nation , In These Times , the Intercept , Los Angeles Times , and San Francisco Chronicle .

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Essential Israel - Arnon Golan, Maoz Azaryahu, Michael Brenner, Alan Dowty, David Makovsky, Gil Troy, Yedidia Stern, Donna Robinson Divine, Steven Bayme, David Ellenson, Yaakov Ariel, Norman Stillman, Rachel S. Harris, Ranen Omer-Sherman, S. Ilan Troen & Rachel Fish Cover Art

Essential Israel

Essential Israel Essays for the 21st Century by Arnon Golan, Maoz Azaryahu, Michael Brenner, Alan Dowty, David Makovsky, Gil Troy, Yedidia Stern, Donna Robinson Divine, Steven Bayme, David Ellenson, Yaakov Ariel, Norman Stillman, Rachel S. Harris, Ranen Omer-Sherman, S. Ilan Troen & Rachel Fish

"An excellent tool in Middle Eastern politics classes [and] an intellectual resource for experts who want to learn more about the complexities of Israel."— Reading Religion Americans debate constantly about Israel, its place in the Middle East, and its relations with the United States. Essential Israel examines a wide variety of complex issues and current concerns in historical and contemporary contexts to provide readers with an intimate sense of the dynamic society and culture that is Israel today, providing a broader and deeper understanding to inform the conversation.   The expert contributors to this volume address the Arab-Israeli conflict, the state of diplomatic efforts to bring about peace, Zionism and the impact of the Holocaust, the status of the Jewish state and Israeli democracy, foreign relations, immigration and Israeli identity, as well as literature, film, and the other arts. This unique and innovative volume provides solid grounding to understandings of Israel's history, politics, culture, and possibilities for the future.

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The Antiquities of the Jews (Annotated) - Flavius Josephus & e-artnow Cover Art

The Antiquities of the Jews (Annotated)

The Antiquities of the Jews (Annotated) Enriched Edition. History of the Jewish People from Adam and Eve to Jewish–Roman Wars; Including Author's Autobiography by Flavius Josephus & e-artnow

The Antiquities of the Jews is Josephus's expansive retelling of Jewish history from the creation of the world to the outbreak of the revolt against Rome in 66 CE. Written in polished Greek prose for a Greco-Roman readership, it recasts biblical narrative, Second Temple politics, and recent Judean history in the forms of classical historiography. Its style combines paraphrase, apologetic argument, moral exemplum, and archival citation, situating Jewish antiquity alongside the venerable traditions of Greece and Rome. Flavius Josephus, born Yosef ben Mattityahu, was a Jerusalem priest, aristocrat, and commander in the Jewish revolt before becoming a client of the Flavian emperors. His divided experience—Jewish insider, Roman captive, and imperial historian—shaped his effort to defend the dignity, antiquity, and rationality of Jewish law and tradition. The work reflects both personal survival and a broader cultural need to explain Judaism after catastrophe. This book is indispensable for readers of biblical studies, ancient history, Judaism, and early Christianity. Though never neutral, it offers a uniquely rich witness to how one learned Jew interpreted his people's past for the Mediterranean world. This enriched edition has been carefully crafted to add value to your reading experience. - A comprehensive Introduction outlines these selected works' unifying features, themes, or stylistic evolutions. - The Author Biography highlights personal milestones and literary influences that shape the entire body of writing. - A Historical Context section situates the works in their broader era—social currents, cultural trends, and key events that underpin their creation. - A concise Synopsis (Selection) offers an accessible overview of the included texts, helping readers navigate plotlines and main ideas without revealing critical twists. - A unified Analysis examines recurring motifs and stylistic hallmarks across the collection, tying the stories together while spotlighting the different work's strengths. - Reflection questions inspire deeper contemplation of the author's overarching message, inviting readers to draw connections among different texts and relate them to modern contexts. - Lastly, our hand‐picked Memorable Quotes distill pivotal lines and turning points, serving as touchstones for the collection's central themes.

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Voices of the Nakba - Diana Allan Cover Art

Voices of the Nakba

Voices of the Nakba A Living History of Palestine by Diana Allan

***Winner of an English PEN Award 2021*** During the 1948 war more than 750,000 Palestinian Arabs fled or were violently expelled from their homes by Zionist militias. The legacy of the Nakba - which translates to ‘disaster’ or ‘catastrophe’ - lays bare the violence of the ongoing Palestinian plight. Voices of the Nakba collects the stories of first-generation Palestinian refugees in Lebanon, documenting a watershed moment in the history of the modern Middle East through the voices of the people who lived through it. The interviews, with commentary from leading scholars of Palestine and the Middle East, offer a vivid journey into the history, politics and culture of Palestine, defining Palestinian popular memory on its own terms in all its plurality and complexity.

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A Short History of the Crusades - J.I. Mombert Cover Art

A Short History of the Crusades

A Short History of the Crusades by J.I. Mombert

            In tracing the causes of the Crusades, that fearful drama whose nine acts ran the weary length of nearly two centuries, and at a low computation cost Europe two millions of lives, the word itself becomes our guide.             The dictionaries give the obsolete croisade as well as the modern form crusade, and plainly show that the word, like the thing itself, is of French origin, and in the first instance denoted a league of Christians against heretics and infidels, especially miscreants of the Mohammedan faith; afterwards it was applied to Christian expeditions undertaken in vindication of the right of pilgrims to visit the Holy Sepulchre. These pilgrims wore on their garments a cross, the sign and pledge of their new vocation. Thus the French croix, cross, gave to the expeditions the name croisade, crusade, and to the pilgrims that of crusaders. Public opinion in the tenth and eleventh centuries approve as holy not only the primary object of the crusades viz; free access to the Holy Sepulchre, but also the conquest of the Holy Land, into which it speedily expanded, and for this reason the crusades are often defined as Holy Wars. A holy war may justly strike us as a strange combination, especially when we call to mind the incontestable fact that of all wars those called holy are the most sanguinary and cruel.             From the very dawn of Christianity Jerusalem was endeared to believers as the scene of some of the most affecting events in the life of our Lord. Who can doubt that the Apostles and Disciples regarded with the most tender and loving veneration every spot hallowed by His memory? Pre-eminently localities like the Cave at Bethlehem, the House at Nazareth, the Garden of Gethsemane, Golgotha, the rock-hewn Sepulchre, the Mount of Olives, and Bethany, must have been cherished and sacred from the very first, and remained so until Titus, A. D. 70, took Jerusalem and commanded the Tenth Legion to destroy it. The work of demolition, though not entire, was almost complete, for excepting a portion of the wall, and the three towers of Herod, preserved as memorials, the whole place, "the entire City and the Temple," were "so thoroughly laid even with the ground by those that dug it up to the foundation that there was left nothing to make those that came thither believe it had ever been inhabited." 

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The History of the Jews: From the War with Rome to the Present Time - Henry Cadwallader Adams Cover Art

The History of the Jews: From the War with Rome to the Present Time

The History of the Jews: From the War with Rome to the Present Time by Henry Cadwallader Adams

It is not proposed in these pages to deal with the history of the Jews during the long period which intervened between the origin of the nation in the family of Abraham and their final revolt from the Roman power. The records of those times are to be found in the inspired volume, or in the narrative of Josephus; and we have no further concern with them than to inquire how the various changes in their fortunes—from bondage to freedom, and from freedom to bondage, under lawgiver, judge and high priest, foreign tyrant and native sovereign, contributed to the formation of their national character—the most strongly marked, it may confidently be affirmed, that ever distinguished any people. The childhood of the Jewish nation was a hard and harsh one. They grew up into national existence under alien rulers, who feared and hated them, imposed on them intolerable burdens, and would have destroyed them from off the face of the earth, but for the Divine protection extended over them. Delivered by the same visible display of Divine power from these tyrants, they were transported to a rich and genial land, powerful and warlike nations being ejected to make way for them. Their first national, and true, idea must needs have been their special privileges as the favoured people of Heaven; but to this they added the untrue persuasion that nothing could ever forfeit them; and this rooted itself so deeply in their belief, that all the experience of after generations was unable to destroy, or even modify it. Their own participation in the sins of neighbouring nations—those very sins which had drawn down Divine vengeance on them —did not shake this confidence in their secure possession of Almighty favour. Visited with sharp chastisement for disobedience, they were for the moment alarmed and humbled; but they resumed their old complacency the moment that deliverance from suffering was vouchsafed. The woes of foreign subjugation, exile and captivity, so far affected them, that they abandoned the idolatry which had been the main cause of their miseries. But it did not abate their sense of ascendency over all other races, and of their special and inalienable possession of the favour of the Most High. It was impossible, they believed, that they could be under the dominion of any foreign people. They might seem to be so for a while, but they were not really so. The fact that they were for seventy years the vassals of the King of Babylon; for two hundred more the dependants, to use a mild term, of the sovereigns of Persia; for several generations afterwards at the mercy of one potentate or another, who dealt with them as his caprice might dictate; that their own Asmonæan kingdom was, in reality, but a dependency of Imperial Rome, existing only so long as she chose to permit it—all this went for nothing with them. Nay, even the reduction of Judæa to the status of a Roman province, and the residence of a Roman procurator in Judæa, did not prevent them from replying to our Lord that ‘they were Abraham’s children, and had never been in bondage to any man.’ So long as it was possible, on any pretext however transparent, to assert their independence, they persisted in doing so.

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What Now - Tareq Baconi Cover Art

What Now

What Now On Palestine, Freedom, and Our Global Future by Tareq Baconi

A soul-stirring philosophical and political treatise on what liberation for Palestine—and all people—will look like in the twenty-first century, in the vein of Frantz Fanon, Angela Davis, and Edward Said . Palestine is a litmus test for our global future. The ongoing genocide is showcasing what it means for Palestinians to be taken to the brink of extermination. The outcome will have repercussions that will go beyond the Middle East, extending outward across the world, and will determine whether the struggle for decolonization will succeed or fail, whether our world will move toward collective freedom or fascism. Drawing from Tareq Baconi’s extensive academic and organizing work with Palestinian and international activists, and from decades of long-standing strategies, What Now distills three strategic principles for a free Palestine to guide activists and allies: refuse the prospect of a divided homeland, reclaim the historic revolutionary politics at the heart of the Palestinian struggle, and decompose Zionism. Imagining a free Palestine is a political act of resistance. This is not the same as turning back the clock to pre-1948, Baconi writes, but a new struggle for a just future. A free Palestine would heal the wounds left in the wake of the Second World War, by challenging and upturning the racism, colonialism, and imperialism that continue to animate global politics. It will tilt the world off its axis, away from annihilatory racism toward justice and peace.

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Israel - Omer Bartov Cover Art

Israel

Israel What Went Wrong? by Omer Bartov

A leading Israeli American scholar of the Holocaust explores and explains his native country's intensifying turn toward violence and exclusion. The distinguished historian Omer Bartov was born on a kibbutz, grew up in Tel Aviv, and served in the Israel Defense Forces during the Yom Kippur War. He went on to become a leading scholar of the German army and the Holocaust, before turning his attention to his native country. In Israel: What Went Wrong? , Bartov sketches the tragic transformation of Zionism, a movement that sought to emancipate European Jewry from oppression, into a state ideology of ethno-nationalism. How is it possible, he asks, that a state founded in the immediate aftermath of the Holocaust, an event that gave legitimacy to a national home for the Jews, stands credibly accused of perpetrating large-scale war crimes? How do we come to terms with the fact that Israel’s war of destruction is being conducted with the support, laced with denial and indifference, of so many of its Jewish citizens? Tracing the roots of the violent events currently unfolding in Israel and the occupied territories, Bartov tracks his country's moral tribulations and considers the origins of Zionism, the intertwining of Israel’s independence with Palestinian displacement, the politics of the Holocaust, controversies over the term "genocide," and the uncertain future. The result is a searing and urgent critique that addresses today’s debates over Zionism and the future of Israel with rigor and depth.

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THE MUQADDIMAH-The Modern English Edition - Ibn Khaldun Cover Art

THE MUQADDIMAH-The Modern English Edition

THE MUQADDIMAH-The Modern English Edition by Ibn Khaldun

The Muqaddimah by Ibn Khaldun is one of the most influential works in the history of historiography and social sciences, yet its profound insights have often been lost in translation or obscured by dense, outdated language. This modern English edition brings the timeless wisdom of this 14th-century masterpiece to life for today’s readers. Renowned for its deep analysis of human behavior, civilization, and the rise and fall of societies, The Muqaddimah remains as relevant now as it was centuries ago. But understanding it requires more than just a translation — it needs clarity, context, and guidance. This edition was crafted specifically for modern readers who want to engage with the book on their own terms. Every page has been carefully rewritten for clarity and accessibility without losing the essence of Ibn Khaldun’s original vision. This is more than just a book — it's a gateway to one of the greatest intellectual achievements of the medieval world. Whether you're a student, a history enthusiast, or a lifelong learner, this version provides the tools to fully appreciate the depth of the text. Included in this edition are six key features designed to enhance your reading experience: an original introduction that sets the historical and cultural context, a detailed author bio that sheds light on Ibn Khaldun’s life and legacy, a student-friendly character guide that simplifies complex figures, a chronological timeline that helps you follow the narrative flow, a literary analysis that unpacks the themes and structure, and 20+ discussion questions to spark thoughtful conversations. This is the definitive way to explore The Muqaddimah — without the barriers of archaic language or lack of guidance. If you're ready to dive into one of the most important works of historical and philosophical thought, this is the edition you’ve been waiting for. Start your journey today and discover why The Muqaddimah still matters.

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Jerusalem - Simon Sebag Montefiore Cover Art

Jerusalem

Jerusalem The Biography by Simon Sebag Montefiore

FULLY REVISED AND UPDATED FOR 2024 NATIONAL BESTSELLER • A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK • JEWISH BOOK COUNCIL BOOK OF THE YEAR "Spectacular. [Montefiore] really tells you what the life of the city has been like and why it means so much. You fall in love with the city. It’s a treasure. It’s a wonderful book." —Bill Clinton "Impossible to put down. . . . Vastly enjoyable." — The New York Times Book Review The history of Jerusalem is the story of the world: Jerusalem is the universal city, the capital of two peoples, the shrine of three faiths. The Holy City and Holy Land are the battlefields for today’s multifaceted conflicts and, for believers, the setting for Judgment Day and the Apocalypse. How did this small, remote town become the Holy City, the “center of the world” and now the key to peace in the Middle East? Why is the Holy Land so important not just to the region and its many new players, but to the wider world too? Drawing on new archives and a lifetime’s study, Montefiore reveals this ever-changing city and turbulent region through the wars, love affairs and revelations of the kings, empresses, amirs, sultans, caliphs, presidents, autocrats, imperialists and warlords, poets, prophets, saints and rabbis who created, destroyed, chronicled, and believed in Jerusalem and the Holy Land. A classic of modern literature, this is not only the epic story of 3,000 years of faith, slaughter, fanaticism, co-existence, power and myth, but also a freshly updated, carefully balanced history of the Middle East, from King David to the new powers of the twenty-first century, from the birth of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam to the Israel-Palestine conflict. This is how today’s Middle East was forged, how the Holy Land became sacred and how Jerusalem became Jerusalem—the only city that exists twice—in heaven and on earth. “Magnificent. . . . Montefiore barely misses a trick or a character intaking us through the city’s story with compelling, breathless tension.” — The Wall Street Journal

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King of Kings - Scott Anderson Cover Art

King of Kings

King of Kings The Iranian Revolution: A Story of Hubris, Delusion and Catastrophic Miscalculation by Scott Anderson

PULITZER PRIZE FINALIST • A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK • NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • FINALIST FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD FOR NONFICTION • KIRKUS PRIZE WINNER • From the author of the landmark bestseller Lawrence in Arabia comes a stunningly revelatory narrative history of the Iranian Revolution, one of the most momentous events in modern times. This groundbreaking work exposes the jaw-dropping stupidity of the American government and traces the rise of religious nationalism, offering essential insights into today's global unrest. “A masterful and propulsive account that chronicles a devastatingly transformative series of events whose aftereffects reverberate to this day.” —The Kirkus Prize 2025 Jury “An exceptional and important book. Scrupulous and enterprising reporting rarely combine with such superb storytelling.” — The New York Times Book Review “A masterful and gripping account. Anderson gives us a page-turning history lesson that is more relevant than ever.” —Rajiv Chandrasekaran, author Imperial Life in the Emerald City, a finalist for the National Book Award On New Year’s Eve, 1977, on a state visit to Iran, President Jimmy Carter toasted Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, King of Kings, Light of the Aryans, Shadow of God on Earth, praising Iran as “an island of stability “ due to “your leadership and the respect and admiration and love which your people give to you.” Iran had the world’s fifth largest army and was awash in billions of dollars in oil revenues.  Construction cranes dotted the skyline of its booming capital, Tehran.  The regime’s feared secret police force SAVAK had crushed communist opposition, and the Shah had bought off the conservative Muslim clergy inside the country.  He seemed invulnerable, and invaluable to the United States as an ally in the Cold War.  Fourteen months later the Shah fled Iran into exile, forced from the throne by a volcanic religious revolution led by a fiery cleric named Ayatollah Khomeini. The ensuing hostage crisis forever damaged America’s standing in the world.  How could the United States, which had one of the largest CIA stations in the world and thousands of military personnel in Iran, have been so blind? The spellbinding story Scott Anderson weaves is one of a dictator blind to the disdain of his subjects and a superpower blundering into disaster. Scott Anderson tells this astonishing tale with the narrative brio, mordant wit, and keen analysis that made his bestselling Lawrence of Arabia one of the key texts in understanding the modern Middle East.  The Iranian Revolution, Anderson convincingly argues, was as world-shattering an event as the French and Russian revolutions.  In the Middle East, in India, in Southeast Asia, in Europe, and now in the United States, the hatred of economically-marginalized, religiously-fervent masses for a wealthy secular elite has led to violence and upheaval – and Iran was the template.  King of Kings is a bravura work of history, and a warning.

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Persians - Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones Cover Art

Persians

Persians The Age of the Great Kings by Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones

A stunning portrait of the magnificent splendor of ancient Persia and its enduring legacies for today's Iran. “A brilliant feat of resurrection.” -Tom Holland, author of Dominion The Achaemenid Persian kings ruled over the largest empire of antiquity, stretching from Libya to the steppes of Asia and from Ethiopia to Pakistan. From the palace-city of Persepolis, Cyrus the Great, Darius, Xerxes, and their heirs reigned supreme for centuries until the conquests of Alexander of Macedon brought the empire to a swift and unexpected end in the late 330s BCE. In Persians , historian Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones tells the epic story of this dynasty and the world it ruled. Drawing on Iranian inscriptions, cuneiform tablets, art, and archaeology, he shows how the Achaemenid Persian Empire was the world’s first superpower—one built, despite its imperial ambition, on cooperation and tolerance. This is the definitive history of the Achaemenid dynasty and its legacies in modern-day Iran, a book that completely reshapes our understanding of the ancient world.

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Lives of the Companions [Book One] - Asim Ahmad Cover Art

Lives of the Companions [Book One]

Lives of the Companions [Book One] by Asim Ahmad

In a time when we are running short on role models, we need not look beyond the exemplary lives of the Sahaba. This group was hand-picked by Allah and raised by the Prophet (sa) to imbue the prophetic message and carry it on to their successors. The stories of their extraordinary lives have been capsuled in this first part of a three-part collection which touches on every aspect of their inspiring lives, reveals their humanness and how they dreamed and breathed like us. The one outstanding difference was that their hearts beat with the love of Allah and His Prophet (sa), which empowered them to overcome every struggle and live free of idolization of any culture, nation, or ideology. Like the Prophet (sa) said, "If one of you gives equal to Mount Uhud in charity it would not equal to one mudd or even half a mudd they gave in charity" (Bukhari). In essence, they lived of, by, and for Allah only. This modern translation of the first volume of Hayat al-Sahaba is the first of its kind on the market in reflowable eBook format with a comprehensive commentary that provides relevance and extracts valuable lessons for our times. The volume begins with a detailed description of the Prophet's (sa) physical characteristics, how the work of da'wah started and how the Sahaba carried it out in their era. The Hayat al-Sahaba series has inspired millions to understand Islam beyond concept, theory, and interpretations. It immerses us into the reality of living Islam past, present, and future and that we can all be shaded by the mercy of Allah despite our differences like the Sahaba who all achieved the pleasure of Allah despite their many differences.

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Marco Polo - John Man Cover Art

Marco Polo

Marco Polo The Journey that Changed the World by John Man

"I have read everything written on Marco Polo, and John Man's book is, by far, my favorite work on the subject. It's not only an over-due and important historical study, it's an entertaining ride every step of the way." — John Fusco, Creator of the Netflix original series Marco Polo Go behind the Netflix original series Marco Polo with the true story of the world’s most famous traveler. In 1271, a young Venetian explorer named Marco Polo embarked on a groundbreaking expedition along the historic Silk Road, a legendary journey that would take him from Venice to the heart of the Mongol Empire in China. His extraordinary reports introduced medieval Europe to an exotic new world of emperors and concubines, incredible riches, and the wonders of Xanadu—the summer capital of the great Mongol emperor, Kublai Khan. Almost 750 years later, acclaimed author John Man traveled in Marco Polo’s footsteps to Xanadu, on to Beijing, and through modern China in search of the truth behind the legend. In this enthralling work of historical biography and travelogue, Man draws on his own journey, new archaeological findings, and deep archival study to paint a vivid picture of the real Marco Polo and the great court of Kublai Khan during the Yuan dynasty. Man’s journey to the heart of the Mongol Empire reveals a story more complex and fascinating than the legend. The Real Xanadu: Journey with the author to the ruins of Kublai Khan’s legendary summer capital, where new archaeological findings reveal the truth behind the myth. Kublai Khan’s Court: Explore the inner workings of the Mongol emperor’s opulent court, a world of immense power, complex politics, and cultural collision. Separating Fact from Fiction: Drawing on deep archival study, Man meticulously untangles the truths, exaggerations, and outright fabrications in Polo’s famous account, The Travels . A Modern Retracing: Follow in Polo’s footsteps as the author undertakes his own contemporary expedition across Asia, offering a unique dual perspective on this historic journey.

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Iran's Grand Strategy - Vali Nasr Cover Art

Iran's Grand Strategy

Iran's Grand Strategy A Political History by Vali Nasr

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Shia Revival Now with a new afterword by the author, this gripping account overturns simplistic portrayals of Iran as a theocratic pariah state, revealing how its strategic moves on the world stage are driven by two pervasive threats—external aggression and internal dissolution Iran presents one of the most significant foreign policy challenges for America and the West, yet very little is known about what the country’s goals really are. Vali Nasr examines Iran’s political history in new ways to explain its actions and ambitions on the world stage, showing how, behind the veneer of theocracy and Islamic ideology, today’s Iran is pursuing a grand strategy aimed at securing the country internally and asserting its place in the region and the world. Drawing on memoirs, oral histories, and original in-depth interviews with Iranian decision makers, Nasr brings to light facts and events in Iran’s political history that have been overlooked until now. He traces the roots of Iran’s strategic outlook to its experiences over the past four decades of war with Iraq in the 1980s and the subsequent American containment of Iran, invasion of Iraq in 2003, and posture toward Iran thereafter. Nasr reveals how these experiences have shaped a geopolitical outlook driven by pervasive fear of America and its plans for the Middle East. Now with an afterword by the author that addresses recent developments in Iran’s domestic and world affairs, Iran’s Grand Strategy challenges the notion that Iran’s foreign policy simply reflects its revolutionary values or theocratic government. It provides invaluable insights into what Iran wants and why, explaining the country’s resistance to the United States, its nuclear ambitions, and its pursuit of influence and proxies across the Middle East.

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Istanbul - Thomas F. Madden Cover Art

Istanbul

Istanbul City of Majesty at the Crossroads of the World by Thomas F. Madden

For more than two millennia Istanbul has stood at the crossroads of the world, perched at the very tip of Europe, gazing across at the shores of Asia. The history of this city—known as Byzantium, then Constantinople, now Istanbul—is at once glorious, outsized, and astounding. Founded by the Greeks, its location blessed it as a center for trade but also made it a target of every empire in history, from Alexander the Great and his Macedonian Empire, to the Romans and later the Ottomans. At its most spectacular, Istanbul was re-founded by Emperor Constantine I as New Rome, the capital of the eastern Roman Empire. He dramatically expanded the city, filling it with artistic treasures, and adorning the streets with opulent palaces. Constantine built new walls around it all—walls that were truly impregnable and preserved power, wealth, and withstood any aggressor—walls that still stand for tourists to visit. From its ancient past to the present, we meet the city through its ordinary citizens—the Jews, Muslims, Italians, Greeks, and Russians who used the famous baths and walked the bazaars, and the rulers who built it up and then destroyed it, including Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the man who christened the city "Istanbul" in 1930. Thomas Madden's entertaining narrative brings to life the city we see today, including the rich splendor of the churches and monasteries that spread throughout the city. Istanbul  draws on a lifetime of study and the latest scholarship, transporting readers to a city of unparalleled importance and majesty that holds the key to understanding modern civilization. In the words of Napoleon Bonaparte, "If the Earth were a single state, Istanbul would be its capital."

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Crusade and Jihad - William R. Polk Cover Art

Crusade and Jihad

Crusade and Jihad by William R. Polk

Crusade and Jihad is the first book to encompass, in one volume, the entire history of the catastrophic encounter between the Global North—China, Russia, Europe, Britain, and America—and Muslim societies from Central Asia to West Africa. William R. Polk draws on more than half a century of experience as a historian, policy planner, diplomat, peace negotiator, and businessman to explain the deep hostilities between the Muslim world and the Global North and show how they grew over the centuries.   Polk shows how Islam arose and spread across North Africa into Europe, climaxed in the vibrant and sophisticated caliphate of al-Andalus in medieval Spain, and was the bright light in a European Dark Age. Simultaneously, Islam spread from the Middle East into Africa, India, and Southeast Asia. But following the Mongol invasions, Islamic civilization entered a decline while Europe began its overseas expansion. Portuguese buccaneers dominated the Indian Ocean; the Dutch and the English established powerful corporations that turned India and Indonesia into colonies; Russian armies pushed down the Volga into Central Asia, destroying its city-states; and the Chinese Qing dynasty slaughtered an entire Central Asian people. Britain crushed local industry and drained off wealth throughout its vast colonies. Defeated at every turn, Muslims tried adopting Western dress, organizing Westernstyle armies, and embracing Western ideas.   None of these efforts stopped the conquests. For Europe and Russia, the nineteenth century was an age of colonial expansion, but for the Muslim world it was an age of brutal and humiliating defeat. Millions were driven from their homes, starved, or killed, and their culture and religion came under a century-long assault.   In the twentieth century, brutalized and and disorganized native societies, even after winning independence, fell victim to “post-imperial malaise,” typified by native tyrannies, corruption, and massive poverty. The result was a furious blowback.   A sobering, scrupulous, and frank account of imperialism, colonialism, insurgency, and terrorism, Crusade and Jihad is history for anyone who wishes to understand the civilizational conflicts of today’s world.

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Stolen Revolution - Yeganeh Torbati & Bozorgmehr Sharafedin Cover Art

Stolen Revolution

Stolen Revolution Betrayal and Hope in Modern Iran by Yeganeh Torbati & Bozorgmehr Sharafedin

A moving and harrowing portrait of the lives of Iranians across five decades, tracing the promise of the 1979 Iranian revolution, its betrayal by forces of autocracy, and a people’s undying spirit of resistance "One of the most perceptive books on modern Iran in years." — The New York Times Book Review "The best book to understand Iran today. . . . impossible to put down." —EDWARD FISHMAN, author of Chokepoints "A masterwork of reporting. . . . a kind of skeleton key for understanding the present moment." —JONATHAN BLITZER, author of Everyone Who Is Gone Is Here In 1979, a revolution in Iran swept aside a monarchy, fueled by the Iranian people’s dreams of social justice and political freedom. But in the years that followed, the movement’s leader, Ayatollah Khomeini, and his acolytes instead built a system that served their narrow faction and worsened beyond imagination the brutality and corruption that had existed under the previous government. In Stolen Revolution, award-winning journalists Yeganeh Torbati and Bozorgmehr Sharafedin tell the entwined stories of six Iranians who, together, have lived the arc of modern Iranian history in all its bitter twists and enduring hopes. We meet Mehdi Karroubi, a devotee of Khomeini, who rose to the heights of power before being cast out of the inner circle. Hila Sedighi, a young activist, gave voice through her poetry to her peers’ hopes and shattered dreams. Amir Moghadam, an ambitious government bureaucrat, witnessed corruption and graft on a scale that impelled him to take enormous risks to expose the truth. Said Rahmani returned to Iran to spark a start-up boom in his native country and encountered a ruthless security state. And Rozhin Yousefzadeh and Kosar Eftekhari, both born in the 1990s, joined a mass movement that confronted a ferocious state apparatus: the Woman, Life, Freedom protests. All have paid an enormous price for resisting the government’s strangling rule. Today, Iran is caught between crisis and hope. In this vivid and unforgettable narrative, Stolen Revolution centers ordinary Iranians and their destiny, and conveys a gutting view of life in a modern authoritarian state.

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The Jews of Ottoman Izmir - Dina Danon Cover Art

The Jews of Ottoman Izmir

The Jews of Ottoman Izmir A Modern History by Dina Danon

"Opens new windows onto the changing socioeconomic realities and values of Jews in a major port city of the late Ottoman Empire. . . . [A] fascinating study." —Julia Phillips Cohen, Vanderbilt University By the turn of the twentieth century, the eastern Mediterranean port city of Izmir had been home to a vibrant and substantial Sephardi Jewish community for over four hundred years. The Jews of Ottoman Izmir tells the story of this long overlooked Jewish community, drawing on previously untapped Ladino archival material. Across Europe, Jews were often confronted with the notion that their religious and cultural distinctiveness was somehow incompatible with the modern age. Yet the view from Ottoman Izmir invites a different approach: what happens when Jewish difference is totally unremarkable? Dina Danon argues that while Jewish religious and cultural distinctiveness might have remained unquestioned in this late Ottoman port city, other elements of Jewish identity emerged as profound sites of tension. Through voices as varied as beggars and mercantile elites, journalists, rabbis and housewives, Danon demonstrates that it was new attitudes to poverty and class, not Judaism, that most significantly framed this Sephardi community's encounter with the modern age. "This monograph will be regarded as the central work on the Jews of Izmir in the last Ottoman century." —Tamir Karkason, Middle East Journal "A major contribution to the study of a Jewish community in general, and an Ottoman one in particular." —Rachel Simon, Association of Jewish Libraries Reviews "Eloquently written and expertly researched." —Eyal Ginio, The American Historical Review "An important landmark." —Jacob Barnai, Association for Jewish Studies Review "This work should be treasured. . . . a well-wrought and at times elegant addition to the Judaic Studies." —Jeffrey Kahrs, Tikkun

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The History of the Crusades: All Volumes - Joseph François Michaud Cover Art

The History of the Crusades: All Volumes

The History of the Crusades: All Volumes by Joseph François Michaud

*Includes Table of Contents The History of the Crusades: All Volumes is a massive history of the all the Crusades, comprising three volumes and over 700 pages.

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Destruction of Black Civilization - Samuel M. Goldstein Cover Art

Destruction of Black Civilization

Destruction of Black Civilization by Samuel M. Goldstein

Destruction of Black Civilization: The Rise, Fall, and Legacy of African Greatness from Ancient Times to the Modern Era is a profound and eye-opening history of Africa's pivotal role in the story of human civilization. This book uncovers the forgotten or suppressed history of Africa's ancient civilizations, from the grandeur of Egypt and Nubia to the flourishing kingdoms of Mali and Zimbabwe. Through the lens of both triumph and tragedy, it examines the impact of centuries of invasion, colonization, and cultural erasure, and how these forces sought to displace the truth of Africa's intellectual, political, and artistic contributions to the world. At its core, this work is a powerful call for reclaiming African history, not as an act of nostalgia but as a form of resistance and empowerment. It challenges the false narratives imposed by colonialism and Eurocentric thought, asserting the resilience of African civilizations in the face of systematic suppression. With insights drawn from African-centered scholarship, oral traditions, and archaeological evidence, Destruction of Black Civilization serves as both a historical testament and a roadmap for future empowerment, urging African people globally to reconnect with their heritage and rebuild their identity on their own terms. Rich in historical analysis, cultural examination, and intellectual thought, this book is an essential read for anyone seeking to understand Africa's central role in shaping the world and the ongoing journey of reclaiming its rightful place in history.

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Countercoup: The Struggle for the Control of Iran - Kermit Roosevelt, Jr. Cover Art

Countercoup: The Struggle for the Control of Iran

Countercoup: The Struggle for the Control of Iran by Kermit Roosevelt, Jr.

“With the publication of this exciting story, told well and in detail, there is little mystery left about the overthrow of Mohammed Mossadeq in 1953. Not just the CIA but the Shah himself, key Iranians, and the support the Shah then had in the armed forces and the populace made success possible. At the center of planning (from 1951) and operations was Kermit Roosevelt, acting with the backing of the highest officials of the U.S. and the British governments. Although the Americans assumed that Mossadeq had become an ally or instrument of the Russians, the book provides no new evidence on the Soviet role.” — Foreign Affairs “Roosevelt recounts his previous experiences in Iran with the OSS, and then runs through the details of the coup with a heavy concentration on individual personalities — consistently depicting Mossadegh and his allies as morally or physically weak, while pro-Shah types are invariably strong... Roosevelt and his operatives fanned the flames of the pro-Shah forces while coordinating the military-backed dismissal of Mossadegh. The moral is that if the CIA is going to overthrow a government, it should make sure of the support of the population and — oh yes, the military.” — Kirkus “Roosevelt is surprisingly candid in his effort to recreate the feel of the times, the dialogue of the participants, the sequence of events, and the ease with which Great Powers, through their agents, could control events. It is a circus atmosphere in which the author himself is at the center of attention and power.” — Review of Middle East Studies “This book is so outrageous in so many ways that there is real danger that it will be dismissed. It should not be. Miles Copeland’s Game of Nations and Wilbur Crane Eveland’s Ropes of Sand are far less outrageous, but they are of the same genre: descriptions of major American interventions carried out by adventurers with barely a surface comprehension of the complex societies with which they were playing. To be sure, the three authors have a grossly exaggerated sense of self-importance, and actual American policy was surely very different from their descriptions. But there is no reason to question the centrality of their roles, and it is most enlightening to see the reality of American policy as they remember it. American policy is the product of a complex process which the academic analyst must attempt to describe. What Roosevelt, Copeland, and Eveland are telling us is that individual adventurism at the near top was an important aspect of that process.” — Iranian Studies “As a first book totally devoted to the 1953 coup... Countercoup is a welcome addition. With all of its limitations and Roosevelt’s personal biases, this book sheds some light on this dark area in the history of Iran.” — Journal of Political & Military Sociology

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