Assuming no previous knowledge of the subject, Arabic Literature - An Overview gives a rounded and balanced view of Arab literary creativity. 'High' literature is examined alongside popular folk literature, and the classical and modern periods, usually treated separately, are presented together. Cachia's observations are not subordinated to any pre-formed literary theory, but describe and illustrate the directions taken, in order to present an overall picture of the field of relev...

The period of Muslim occupation in Spain represents the only significant contact Islam and Europe was ever to have on European soil. In this important as well as fascinating study, Watt traces Islam's influence upon Spain and European civilization - from the collapse of the Visigoths in the eighth century to the fall of Granada in the fifteenth, and considers Spain's importance as a part of the Islamic empire. Particular attention is given to the golden period of economic and political sta...

This is a highly unusual and beautifully written book. It is the double memoir of a mother and son, Anna and Pierre, and the story takes us from Anna's childhood in Russia and subsequent arrival in Egypt in 1901 to Pierre's enrollment at the American University in Cairo in the late 1930s. It is fascinating, therefore, not only as a personal account of an interesting group of people but also as a social document that portrays a segment of Egypt's society in the first forty years of the twen...

Hallucinatory phenomena have held the fascination of science since the dawn of medicine, and the popular imagination from the beginning of recorded history. Their study has become a critical aspect of our knowledge of the brain, making significant strides in recent years with advances in neuroimaging, and has established common ground among what normally are regarded as disparate fields. The Neuroscience of Hallucinations synthesizes the most up-to-date findings on these intriguing auditor...

From secular-minded autocrats like Saddam Hussein to religious fundamentalists like Osama bin Laden, powerful voices in the Islamic world have been united by a fierce hatred of the West. If we want to know why they think the way they do, we have to understand the history of Islam and its continuous interactions with the West.This masterly collection of essays by a leading expert on Islam and the Middle East ranges over the whole sweep of Islamic history and Western attempts to comp...

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLERLaurie R. King’s New York Times bestselling novels of suspense featuring Mary Russell and her husband, Sherlock Holmes, comprise one of today’s most acclaimed mystery series. Now the couple is separated by a shocking circumstance in a perilous part of the world, each racing against time to prevent an explosive catastrophe that could clothe them both in shrouds.In a strange room in Morocco, Mary Russell is trying to...

**A groundbreaking critique of the West's historical, cultural, and political perceptions of the East that is—decades after its first publication—one of the most important books written about our divided world. • With a new foreword by Ussama Makdisi"Intellectual history on a high order ... and very exciting." —The New York Times**In this wide-ranging, intellectually vigorous study, Said traces the origins of "orientalism" to the centuries-long period during which ...

A brilliant and fascinating portrait of medieval Spain explores the golden age when Muslims, Jews, and Christians lived together in an atmosphere of tolerance.This enthralling history, widely hailed as a revelation of a "lost" golden age, brings to vivid life the rich and thriving culture of medieval Spain, where for more than seven centuries Muslims, Jews, and Christians lived together in an atmosphere of tolerance, and where literature, science, and the arts flou...

Usually, the situations most feared by those suffering from social phobia are those that involve the need to do something before other people, such as exposing a relationship or just sign up, call or eat can sometimes create anxiety just walk into a room where there are people already seated, or talk with your friend. People who suffer from social phobia are afraid of appearing anxious and show the "signs", i.e. fear of becoming red-faced, trembling, stuttering, sweating, having palpitatio...

Fourteen centuries of Islamic thought have produced a legacy of interpretive readings of the Qu'ran written almost entirely by men. Now, with Qu'ran and Woman, Amina Wadud provides a first interpretive reading by a woman, a reading which validates the female voice in the Qu'ran and brings it out of the shadows. Muslim progressives have long argued that it is not the religion but patriarchal interpretation and implementation of the Qu'ran that have kept women oppressed. For many, t...

From the two-time Pulitzer Prize–winning author, God’s Crucible brings to life “a furiously complex age” (New York Times Book Review).Resonating as profoundly today as when it was first published to widespread critical acclaim a decade ago, God’s Crucible is a bold portrait of Islamic Spain and the birth of modern Europe from one of our greatest historians. David Levering Lewis’s narrative, filled with accounts of some of the most epic ba...

"Poignant . . . deeply personal . . . an indelible history of the largely forgotten Jews of Egypt . . . "—Miami HeraldIn vivid and graceful prose, Lucette Lagnado re-creates the majesty and cosmopolitan glamour of Cairo in the years before Gamal Abdel Nasser's rise to power. With Nasser's nationalization of Egyptian industry, her father, Leon, a boulevardier who conducted business in his white sharkskin suit, loses everything, and departs with the family for any land that w...