MidEast History

Softcover. University of Chicago Press, reprint, 1996, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 568 pages, b&w illustrations. Out of a lifetime of study of the ancient Near East, Professor Olmstead has gathered previously unknown material into the story of the life, times, and thought of the Persians, told for the first time from the Persian rather than the traditional Greek point of view. "The fullest and most reliable presentation of the history of the Persian Empire in existence."-M. Rostovtzeff. Clean copy.

Hardcover. Princeton NJ, Princeton University Press, 2nd pr., 1994, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover in green cloth covers, 188 pages, b&w illustrations. In this provocative examination of collective identity in Jordan, Linda Layne challenges long-held Western assumptions that Arabs belong to easily recognizable corporate social groups. Who is a "true" Jordanian? Who is a "true" Bedouin? These questions, according to Layne, are examples of a kind of pigeonholing that has distorted the reality of Jordanian national politics. In developing an alternate approach, she shows that the fluid social identities of Jordan emerge from an ongoing dialogue among tribespeople, members of the intelligentsia Hashemite rulers, and Western social scientists. Many commentators on social identity in the Middle East limit their studies to the village level, but Layne's goal is to discover how the identity-building processes of the locality and of the nation condition each other. She finds that the tribes creates their own cultural "homes" through a dialogue with official nationalist rhetoric and Jordanian urbanites, while King Hussein, in turn, maintains the idea of the "homeland" in many ways that are powerfully influenced by the tribespeople. Clean copy, no dust jacket.

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. Berkeley CA, Mizan Press, 1st pbk., 1981, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 460 pages. This unprecedented collection in English of notable works by Imam Khomeini, ranging in date from 1941 to 1980, makes it possible for non-Iranians to become directly acquainted with hsi ideas and to examine the convictions that underlay his indomitable mien. He was undeniably one of the most important figures of the age, not only for his roles as principle strategist of a successful revolutionary movement and supervisor of the Islamic order it ushered in, but also for his unhesitating promotion of what he saw as a global Islamic mission -- the union of all Muslim peoples. Clean copy.

Hardcover. NY, Knopf, 1st, 1976, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 360 pages. Published in association with the American Heritage Publishing Co. Text by Bernard Lewis, Richard Ettinghausen, Oleg Grabar, Fritz Meier, Charles Pellat, A. Shiloah, A.I. Sabra, Edmund Bosworth, Emilio Garcia Gomex, Roger M. Savory, Norman Itzkowitz, S.A.A. Rizvi, Elie Kedourie. Illustrated with 495 reproductions, photographs, drawings, and maps, 160 of them in full color.

Hardcover. NY, Oxford University Press, 1st, 1990, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 199 pages. This book examines Syria's religious, intellectual, and political history during the period of transformation before World War I. Focusing on an attempt to reform Islamic belief and practice at the turn of the century, Commins shows how the reformers used debates over the religious law of Islam to advance their visions of a progressive Islamic state. Based on a wide variety of previously unpublished sources, the book will shed new light on a period that is of considerable importance for the modern history of the Middle East. Clean copy.

Hardcover. Syracuse University Press, 1st, 1987, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 350 pages. Describes Israel's use of spies in Lebanon during the seventies, the secret relations between Israel and Jordan, and U.S. secret channels to the PLO. Posner focuses on violence and terrorism employed by the Palestinians in their quest for nationhood, and on inter-communal violence in the Middle East in general and more specifically in Lebanon. He treats the little-known Circassion community in Jordan, that community's role in the Arab-Israeli conflict, the Sadat peace initiative, and the role of the United States in seeking a peaceful resolution of the civil war in Lebanon. A good book to gain a perspective on contemporary diplomacy and Middle East politics. Clean copy.

Hardcover. UK, Cambridge University Press, 1st, 1989, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 288 pages, map illustration. Includes bibliographical references (pages 261-277) and index. Subjects: To 1917; Jewish-Arab relations History To 1917; Jews Colonization Palestine; Labor Zionism Palestine; Land settlement Palestine; Palestine Social conditions; Palestine History 1799-1917. Name, date on front fly leaf otherwise clean, tight copy.

Hardcover. NY, Knopf, 1st, 2008, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 723 pages. During his long reign (1953-1999), King Hussein of Jordan was one of the most dominant figures in Middle Eastern politics and a consistent proponent of peace with Israel. This is the first major account of his life, written with access to his official documents and with the cooperation (but not approval) of his family and staff, and also extensive interviews with international policy makers. For more than forty years, Hussein walked a tightrope between the Palestinians and Arab radicals on the one hand and Israel on the other. Avi Shlaim reveals that, for the sake of dynastic and national survival, Hussein initiated a secret dialogue with Israel in 1963 that encompassed more than one thousand hours with Golda Meir, Shimon Peres, Yitzhak Shamir, Yitzhak Rabin, and countless others. Shlaim reconstructs this dialogue across battle lines from previously untapped Israeli records and the firsthand accounts of key participants, and makes clear that it was Israeli intransigence that was largely responsible for the failure to achieve a peaceful settlement between 1967 and 1994. Clean copy.

Softcover. Wiltshire UK, Gibb Memorial, reprint, 1999, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 109 pages with a modern double spread line map, a glossary and a biographical index. The description of his mission to the court of the Shah Tahmasp I of Persia by the Venetian Michele Membre is one of the most informative as well as one of the most individual of the few European accounts of 16th century Persia. Clean copy.

Softcover. Princeton NJ, Princeton University Press, reprint, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 311 pages. Clean, like new.

Hardcover. NY, Macmillan, 1st, 1958, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Good, Hardcover in a lightly worn dust jacket. In 1483 Friar Felix Fabri, a Dominican brother from Ulm, Germany, left his priory on two occasions to visit the Holy Land. this account chronicles the homeward journey of the Friar's second trip. Miss Prescott draws from a detailed daily log the Friar kept and supplements his description of the pilgrimage with her own vivid and colorful observations. B&w illustrations, index. Small name on inside front cover, otherwise clean.

Hardcover. Paris, Flammarion, 1st, 2009, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 202 pages. Like new in publisher's shrink-wrap. Pays homage to the ultimate travel dream of that era. This collection of over 100 autochrome, sepia, and black and white photographs captures delicate, lost details: the dusty, labyrinthine walls of the casbah; the dappled sunlight on the market stall of a souk; the intricate metal work of traditional jewelry. Each image is accompanied by an informative text that situates the photograph in its historical reality.

Hardcover. Cambridge MA, Harvard University Press, 1st, 1967, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, brown cloth boards and spine with bright gilt lettering on spine. Maps as endpapers. 333 pages, b&w illustrations. This book covers the first contacts between the United States and the Middle East from the earliest times (1800s) to the mid-nineteenth century. The author describes exotic people and places in the Middle East and how American interests there were far from marginal although centered around the American Protestant missionary activity during that period. Clean copy.

hardcover. New York, Cambridge University Press, 1st, 2007, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, 314 pages. Hardcover with dust jacket. SIGNED AND INSCRIBED ON FRONT FLY LEAF BY JOOST (AUTHOR) Clean, tight copy with only minor wear to dust jacket. In March 1988, during the Iran-Iraq war, thousands were killed in a chemical attack on a town in Iraqi Kurdistan. Both sides accused the other. Gradually it emerged that Saddam Hussein, with the tacit support of his western allies, was responsible. This book tells the story of the gassing of Halabja, and how Iraq amassed chemical weapons to target Iranian soldiers and Kurdish villagers as America looked the other way. Today, as the Middle East sinks further into turmoil, these policies are coming back to haunt the West.

Softcover. Costa Mesa CA, Mazda Publishers, 1st, 1999, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 134 pages. The history of Iran is a subject attracting increasing interest, and in it the history of the Qajar period, here dated 1796-1925, occupies a pivotal transitional place. The Qajar rulers reunited Iran after a century of weakness and division, and helped create modern Iran and its response to western power. Although the Qajars were not great reformers, their period saw the development of many new trends of thought, ranging from new religious ideas and groups to the adapting of modern ideas to Iranian circumstances. This book covers intellectual trends and equally it covers the political and socioeconomic history of Iran, including the growth of western incursions and control, which led to social, economic, and political disruptions and helped lead to a major revolution that gave Iran a modern constitution. Later developments culminated in a modernizing central government under the Pahlavi shahs. The period 1796-1925 saw a flowering of Iran's visual arts, politically oriented literature, popular culture, and crafts and carpets, and the beginnings of photography and film. The book interprets all these developments as part of a readable and comprehensible history of a period that helped bring Iran into the modern world while continuing its cultural greatness. Clean copy.

Hardcover. Berkeley, University of California Press, 1st, 2004, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 390 pages, b&w illustrations. From the stony desolation of Jordan's desert, it is but a step through a doorway into the bath house of the Qusayr 'Amra hunting lodge. Inside, multicolored frescoes depict scenes from courtly life and the hunt, along with musicians, dancing girls, and naked bathing women. The traveler is transported to the luxurious and erotic world of a mid-eighth-century Muslim Arab prince. For scholars, though, Qusayr 'Amra, probably painted in the 730s or 740s, has proved a mirage, its concreteness dissolved by doubts about date, patron, and meaning. This is the first book-length contextualization of the mysterious monument through a compelling analysis of its iconography and of the literary sources for the Umayyad period. It illuminates not only the way of life of the early Muslim elite but also the long afterglow of late antique Syria. Clean copy.

Softcover. NY, Oxford University Press, reprint, 1992, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover in pictorial wraps, 184 pages, coloe illustrations. From before the days of Moses up through the 1960s, slavery was a fact of life in the Middle East. Pagans, Jews, Christians, and Muslims bought and sold at the slave markets for millennia, trading the human plunder of wars and slave raids that reached from the Russian steppes to the African jungles. But if the Middle East was one of the last regions to renounce slavery, how do we account for its--and especially Islam's--image of racial harmony? How did these long years of slavery affect racial relations? In Race and Slavery in the Middle East, Bernard Lewis explores these questions and others, examining the history of slavery in law, social thought, and practice over the last two millennia. Bright, clean copy.

Softcover. Berkeley CA, University of California Press, 1st, 1997, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 370 pages. Focuses on the religious beliefs and political actions of Muslim elites and their followers in Algeria and Tunisia. In this study the author provides a detailed analysis of resistance and accommodation to colonial rule. Clean, bright copy.

Hardcover. NY, George H. Doran Company, 1st US, 1927, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, 335 pages including index. First Printing stated, with the letter B at the bottom of the copyright page. Brown cloth, lacking the dust jacket. B&w illustrations, foldout map in fine condition in rear. Lawrence's firsthand account of the Arab Revolt during WWI, detailing guerrilla warfare campaigns from sabotaging the Hejaz Railway to the push toward Damascus. This book, originally written in 1919, was printed for the author and his friends, not for general publication. Lawrence abridged the original work and the present volume is about one-half the size of the original. Clean copy.

Softcover. NY/Oxford, Osprey Publishing, 1st, 2005, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 64 pages illustrated in color and b&w. An unrivaled illustrated reference source on fighting men and commanders of the period. The Sassanians ruled the last great imperial Empire of Persia before the Arab conquests of the 7th century. Rome's only equal in the classical world, the Sassanian Empire had an enormous impact on the development of architecture, mythology, arts, music, military tactics and technology. Within the Sassanian military, the cavalry was the most influential element, and Sassanian cavalry tactics were adopted by the Romans, Arabs, and Turks. 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.

Softcover. NY, Columbia University Press, 1st pbk., 1997, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 232 pages, b&w illustrations. Focusing on the immediate pre-revolutionary period and the first decade of the Islamic Republic, Bayat discusses the economic and political strategies of 'ordinary'[Iranian] people, mainly in Tehran.... He demonstrates that, for these people at least, the populist revolution did not bring about the changes that they needed or wanted. Clean copy.

Hardcover. Costa Mesa CA, Mazda, 1st, 1997, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, red cloth stamped in gilt, 335 pages. Translated by Nayer Mostofi Glenn. Clean, bright copy. Volume I ONLY of a three volume set.