A World of Trouble : America in the Middle East by Patrick Tyler

$18.00 NZD

Category: America | Reading Level: very good

Presents the history of the national strategies and internal stratagems that governed the American state's involvement in the Middle East, from Nixon's Cold War manoeuvring to George W Bush's Axis of Evil.

The Great War for Civilization - The Conquest of the Middle East by Robert Fisk

$25.00 NZD

Category: Middle East | Reading Level: very good

O Jerusalem! by Larry Collins & Dominique Lapierre

$14.00 NZD

Category: Middle East | Reading Level: very good

Now a major motion picture, this remarkable classic recounts, moment by moment, the spellbinding process that gave birth to the state of Israel. Collins and Lapierre weave a brilliant tapestry of shattered hopes, fierce pride and breathtaking valor as the Arabs, Jews and British collide in their fig ht for control of Jerusalem. O Jerusalem! meticulously re-creates this historic struggle. Collins and Lapierre penetrate the battle from the inside, exploring each party's interests, intentions and concessions as the city of all of their dreams teeters on the brink of destruction. From the Jewish fighters and their heroic commanders to the charismatic Arab chieftain whose death in battle doomed his cause but inspired a generation of Palestinians, O Jerusalem! tells the three-dimensional story of this high-stakes, emotional conflict. Now with a new introduction by Dominique Lapierre, "O Jerusalem! remains, as ever, a towering testament to the fiery dawn of Israel and an unforgettable tale of faith and violence, of betrayal and indomitable courage. ...Show more

Istanbul: Memories and the City by Orhan Pamuk

$12.00 NZD

Category: Middle East

A shimmering evocation, by turns intimate and panoramic, of one of the world's great cities, by its foremost writer. Orhan Pamuk was born in Istanbul and still lives in the family apartment building where his mother first held him in her arms. His portrait of his city is thus also a self-portrait, refra cted by memory and the melancholy-or "h"u"z"u"n-" that all "Istanbullus" share: the sadness that comes of living amid the ruins of a lost empire. With cinematic fluidity, Pamuk moves from his glamorous, unhappy parents to the gorgeous, decrepit mansions overlooking the Bosphorus; from the dawning of his self-consciousness to the writers and painters-both Turkish and foreign-who would shape his consciousness of his city. Like Joyce's Dublin and Borges' Buenos Aires, Pamuk's "Istanbul "is a triumphant encounter of place and sensibility, beautifully written and immensely moving. ...Show more

Balcony Over Jerusalem: A Middle East Memoir by John Lyons

$16.00 NZD

Category: Travel | Reading Level: very good

A gripping memoir of life in Jerusalem from one of Australia's most experienced Middle East correspondents. Leading Australian journalist John Lyons will take readers on a fascinating personal journey through the wonders and dangers of the Middle East. From the sheer excitement of arriving in Jerusalem with his wife and eight-year-old son, to the fall of dictators and his gripping account of what it feels like to be taken by Egyptian soldiers, blindfolded and interrogated, this is a memoir of the Middle East like no other. Drawing on a 20-year interest in the Middle East, Lyons has had extraordinary access - he's interviewed everyone from Israel's former Prime Ministers Shimon Peres and Ehud Olmert to key figures from Hezbollah and Hamas. He's witnessed the brutal Iranian Revolutionary Guard up close and was one of the last foreign journalists in Iran during the violent crackdown against the 'Green Revolution'. He's confronted Hamas officials about why they fire rockets into Israel and Israeli soldiers about why they fire tear gas at Palestinian school children. By telling the story of his family travelling through the region, this book is extremely readable and entertaining, full of humour, colour. It is sometimes dazzling in its detail, sometimes tragic. Lyons says he has written it in a way that readers can feel they are there with him - so they can smell the wonderful markets of the Middle East and feel the fear of what it is like to be blindfolded and have your hands bound with electrical cord. Lyons also looks at 50 years of Israeli occupation of the West Bank - the mechanics of how this works and the effect it now has on both Israelis and Palestinians.Lyons explains the Middle East through every day life and experiences - his son's school, his wife's friends and his own dealings with a range of people over six years. If you only read one book on the Middle East, this is it. ...Show more

Persian Folk and Fairy Tales by Anne Sinclair Mehdevi

$14.00 NZD

Category: Mythology | Reading Level: very good

Egypt After Mubarak: Liberalism, Islam, and Democracy in the Arab World by Bruce K. Rutherford

$15.00 NZD

Category: Middle East | Series: Princeton Studies in Muslim Politics | Reading Level: very good

Which way will Egypt go now that Husni Mubarak's authoritarian regime has been swept from power? Will it become an Islamic theocracy similar to Iran? Will it embrace Western-style liberalism and democracy? Egypt after Mubarak reveals that Egypt's secularists and Islamists may yet navigate a middle path that results in a uniquely Islamic form of liberalism and, perhaps, democracy. Bruce Rutherford draws on in-depth interviews with Egyptian judges, lawyers, Islamic activists, politicians, and businesspeople. He utilizes major court rulings, political documents of the Muslim Brotherhood, and the writings of Egypt's leading contemporary Islamic thinkers. Rutherford demonstrates that, in post-Mubarak Egypt, progress toward liberalism and democracy is likely to be slow. Essential reading on a subject of global importance, this edition includes a new introduction by Rutherford that takes stock of the Arab Spring and the Muslim Brotherhood's victories in the 2011-2012 elections. ...Show more

The Culture of Sectarianism - Community, History, and Violence in Nineteenth-Century Ottoman Lebanon by Ussama S. Makdisi

$16.00 NZD

Category: Middle East | Reading Level: very good

Focusing on Ottoman Lebanon, Ussama Makdisi shows how sectarianism was a manifestation of modernity that transcended the physical boundaries of a particular country. His study challenges those who have viewed sectarian violence as an Islamic response to westernization or simply as a product of social an d economic inequities among religious groups. The religious violence of the nineteenth century, which culminated in sectarian mobilizations and massacres in 1860, was a complex, multilayered, subaltern expression of modernization, he says, not a primordial reaction to it. Makdisi argues that sectarianism represented a deliberate mobilization of religious identities for political and social purposes. The Ottoman reform movement launched in 1839 and the growing European presence in the Middle East contributed to the disintegration of the traditional Lebanese social order based on a hierarchy that bridged religious differences. Makdisi highlights how European colonialism and Orientalism, with their emphasis on Christian salvation and Islamic despotism, and Ottoman and local nationalisms each created and used narratives of sectarianism as foils to their own visions of modernity and to their own projects of colonial, imperial, and national development. Makdisi's book is important to our understanding of Lebanese society today, but it also makes a significant contribution to the discussion of the importance of religious discourse in the formation and dissolution of social and national identities in the modern world. ...Show more

Reconstructed Lives - Women and Iran's Islamic Revolution by Haleh Esfandiari

$14.00 NZD

Category: Middle East | Series: Woodrow Wilson Center Press Ser. | Reading Level: very good

The Islamic revolution of 1979 transformed all areas of Iranian life. For women, the consequences were extensive and profound, as the state set out to reverse legal and social rights women had won and to dictate many aspects of women's lives, including what they could study and how they must dress and r elate to men.Reconstructed Lives presents Iranian women telling in their own words what the revolution attempted and how they responded. Through a series of interviews with professional and working women in Iran--doctors, lawyers, writers, professors, secretaries, businesswomen--Haleh Esfandiari gathers dramatic accounts of what has happened to their lives as women in an Islamic society. She and her informants describe the strategies by which women try to and sometimes succeed in subverting the state's agenda. Esfandiari also provides historical background on the women's movement in Iran. She finds evidence in Iran's experience that even women from "traditional" and working classes do not easily surrender rights or access they have gained to education, career opportunities, and a public role. ...Show more

The Lion's Grave: Dispatches from Afghanistan by Jon Lee Anderson

$10.00 NZD

Category: Military | Reading Level: very good

The New Yorker correspondent and author of Che Guevara: A Revolutionary Life shares a series of reports from Afghanistan in the wake of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, describing a dangerous world of violence, feudal society, conspiracy, religious fanaticism, hardship, and war. Reprint.

From Babel to Dragomans - Interpreting the Middle East by Bernard Lewis

$25.00 NZD

Category: Middle East | Reading Level: very good

Bernard Lewis is recognized around the globe as one of the leading authorities on Islam. Hailed as "the world's foremost Islamic scholar" (Wall Street Journal), as "a towering figure among experts on the culture and religion of the Muslim world" (Baltimore Sun), and as "the doyen of Middle Eastern studi es" (New York Times), Lewis is nothing less than a national treasure, a trusted voice that politicians, journalists, historians, and the general public have all turned to for insight into the Middle East.Now, this revered authority has brought together writings and lectures that he has written over four decades, featuring his reflections on Middle Eastern history and foreign affairs, the Iranian Revolution, the state of Israel, the writing of history, and much more. The essays cover such urgent and compelling topics as "What Saddam Wrought," "Deconstructing Osama and His Evil Appeal," "The Middle East, Westernized Despite Itself," "The Enemies of God," and "Can Islam Be Secularized?" The collection ranges from two English originals of articles published before only in foreign languages, to previously unpublished writings, to his highly regarded essays from publications such as Foreign Affairs and The New York Review of Books. With more than fifty pieces in all, plus a new introduction to the book by Lewis, this is a valuable collection for everyone interested in the Middle East.Here then is a rich repository of wisdom on one of the key areas of the modern world--a wealth of profound reflections on Middle Eastern history, culture, politics, and current events. ...Show more

Warrior Race: A Journey Through the Land of the Tribal Pathans by Imran Khan

$16.00 NZD

Category: Travel | Reading Level: very good

Imran Khan's family are Pathans from the fiercely independent tribal areas of the north-west frontier province of Pakistan and in this book he describes their way of life, culture and traditions. The author makes a journey through wild and hostile terrain, finding a proud and warlike people who received him with great generosity and quiet courtesy. Every Pathan male carries a gun and defends his independence and the honour of his family and his tribe, to the death. ...Show more