mideast religion

Hardcover. NY, Cambridge University Press, 1st, 2014, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover in pictorial boards, 318 pages. As the architect of the Iranian Revolution of 1979, Ayatollah Khomeini remains one of the most inspirational and enigmatic figures of the twentieth century. The revolution placed Iran at the forefront of Middle East politics and of the Islamic revival. Twenty years after his death, Khomeini is revered as a spiritual and political figurehead in Iran and in large swathes of the Islamic world, while in the West he is remembered by many as a dictator and as the instigator of Islamist confrontation. Arshin Adib-Moghaddam brings together both distinguished and emerging scholars in this comprehensive volume, which covers all aspects of Khomeini's life and critically examines Khomeini the politician, the philosopher, and the spiritual leader. The book details Khomeini's early years in exile from Iran, the revolution itself, and events that took place thereafter including the hostage crisis and the Iran-Iraq war. Lastly, the book considers his legacy in Iran - where Khomeini's image has been used by both reformist and conservative politicians to develop their own agendas - and further afield in other parts of the Islamic world and in the West. Written by scholars from varying disciplinary backgrounds, the book will prove invaluable to students and general readers interested in the life and times of Khomeini and the politics of Islam that he inspired.

Softcover. NY, Columbia University Press, 2nd pr., 2009, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 496 pages. During the second half of the twentieth century, the Arab intellectual and political scene polarized between a search for totalizing doctrines-nationalist, Marxist, and religious-and radical critique. Arab thinkers were reacting to the disenchanting experience of post-independence Arab states, as well as to authoritarianism, intolerance, and failed development. They were also responding to successive defeats by Israel, humiliation, and injustice. The first book to take stock of these critical responses, this volume illuminates the relationship between cultural and political critique in the work of major Arab thinkers, and it connects Arab debates on cultural malaise, identity, and authenticity to the postcolonial issues of Latin America and Africa, revealing the shared struggles of different regions and various Arab concerns. Clean copy.

Softcover. London, Phoenix Press, reprint, 2002, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 500 pages. The youngest member ever of the esteemed Academie Francaise--and winner of the Legion of Honor--produces a towering, erudite study of the humble men and women who were Christ's very first followers. Historically rich, it captures everything from the occupations, families, and homes to the flowers and birds native to the land. ".wealth of information.about customs, language, habits, clothes, food and all the other features.will make the reading of the New Testament far more real and vivid."--The Times. Clean copy.

Hardcover. New York, Aperture, 1st, 1998, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. 96 pages, color photographs, Like new in publisher's shrinkwrap. Doors of the Kingdom is a unique collection of photographs depicting the ancient and disappearing craft of doormaking in Arabia. The Islamic concept of hurma, or sanctity of a place of dwelling or worship, is recurrent throughout Arabic poetry and literature. The door (bab), preserver of sanctity, becomes symbolic of the boundary between public and private space, and between the profane and the sacred. In 1995, Haajar Gouverneur traveled throughout the Arabian Peninsula photographing each region's distinctive doorways and the remaining artisans who make them. The doors of Arabia, painstakingly hand-carved from the wood of the Al-Athel trees, last in their exquisite variety for hundreds of years. This ancient craft, passed down from generation to generation in the central and northern regions of Saudi Arabia, is now nearly extinct. Modern materials, technology, and changing priorities threaten the continuity of the sacred and artisanal tradition of doormaking.

Softcover. Oxford UK, Oneworld, 1st, 2005, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 152 pages. Renowned expert William Chittick covers the life and works of this legendary Sufi writer. The importance of Muhyi al-Din Ibn al-Arabi (1165-1240) for Islamic mysticism lies in the fact that he was a speculative thinker of the highest order, albeit diffuse and difficult to understand. His central doctrine is the unity of all existence. In this text, William Chittick explores how, through the work of Ibn Al-Arabi, Sufism moves away from anguished and ascetic searchings of the heart also conscience and becomes a matter of speculative philosophy and theosophy. Ex-lib with stamping and stickers on front endpapers, cover, otherwise clean.

Softcover. NY, Columbia University Press, 1st, 1998, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 264 pages, b&w illustrations. The first book to chart responses in the Muslim Middle East to modernity through an examination of the evolution of the Baha'i faith--a millenarian movement led by the nineteenth-century Iranian prophet Baha'u'llah ("the Glory of God"). This volume illuminates the complexity and ambiguity that characterized the changing relationship of Baha'u'llah and his followers to modernity, considered as a transnational and fluid political and cultural field of contestation. The insights presented here into these responses to modernity illuminate not only the genesis of a new world-religion but also important facets of Middle Eastern-particularly Iranian-social and cultural shifts in the nineteenth century. Drawing on the work of Habermas, Giddens, Touraine and Bryan Turner, among others, Juan R. I. Cole considers some of the ways in which Middle Eastern society was affected by five developments central to modernity: the lessening entanglement of the state with religion, the move from absolutism to democracy, the rise of sovereign nation-states, the advent of nationalism, and the women's movement. Clean copy.

Hardcover. NY, Pantheon, 1st, 2013, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 345 pages. 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. Clean copy.

Hardcover. UK, Oxford University Press, 2nd pr., 2002, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 327 pages. John Damascene, a monk near Jerusalem in the early 700s, never set foot in the Byzantine Empire, yet he had a great influence on Byzantine theology. This book, the first to present an overall account of John's life and work, sets him in the context of the early synods of the Church that took place in the Palestinian monasteries during the first century of Arab rule.

Hardcover. Albany, State University of New York Press, 2nd pr., 1973, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover in glazed boards, 184 pages with index. The renowned Islamic scholar combines his research into Sufi doctrine and history with a rich account of the spiritual and metaphysical significance of sufism as a living tradition. Clean copy.

Hardcover. Malden MA, Blackwell , 1st, 2005, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 311 pages, b&w illustrations. A succinct narrative of Iranian history from the time of Cyrus the Great in 558 BC to the present day. The book traces events from the rise of the Persian empire, through competition with Rome and conquest by the Arabs, through to the re-establishment of a Persian state in the sixteenth century, and finally the Islamic Revolution of 1979 and the establishment of the current Islamic Republic. For each period, the author utilizes the most recent scholarship in order to examine Iran's political, social, and cultural history. He presents this history within an analytical framework which focuses on rulership as the central theme of identity for Iranians. He also considers the part played in Iranian identity by land, political culture, religion, and the arts. Clean copy.

Softcover. Louisville KY, Fons Vitae , Revised Ed., 2009, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 197 pages. Some of the earliest, most rare, formative, and concise examples of Sufi methodology to appear in translation, these works examine the inherently defective nature of the soul, the roles it must assume, the path it must travel towards purification, and how to best manage that itinerary while avoiding the pitfalls and obstacles of the journey. Clean copy.