Amidst political upheaval and the decline of the Ottoman Empire, the State of Kuwait emerged as an independent country under British protection in 1899, with Sheikh Mubarak Al Sabah widely accredited as the instrument of its foundation. But the path to power for Mubarak was not a simple or smooth one. The author here presents […]
The formation of the United Arab Emirates in 1971, under Shaikh Zayid Bin Sultan Al Nahyan, Ruler of Abu Dhabi, is one of the most significant milestones in recent Gulf history. He pioneered the modernization of the country and ultimately created an effective framework for collaboration with neighbouring Gulf states. This full-length biography analyzes the […]
When Peter Clark arrived in Damascus 1992 to open the new British Council office, he was not to know that the next five years were to give him an unique window on the upper echelons of Syrian society in the last few years of Hafez Al-Assad’s rule. Here we see the dramas and routines of […]
Almost fifty years after Britain and France left the Middle East, the toxic legacies of their rule continue to fester. To make sense of today’s conflicts and crises, we need to grasp how Western imperialism shaped the region and its destiny in the half-century between 1917 and 1967. Roger Hardy unearths an imperial history stretching […]
Until the middle of the nineteenth century there was little evidence of the great civilizations that flourished for over three thousand years between the Tigris and the Euphrates, apart from a few allusions in the Bible. Almost every trace of the arts, sciences and literature of the Sumerians, Akkadians, Babylonians and Assyrians was obliterated, hidden […]
Expanded with new material and a new Afterword by Craig Unger, this book reveals new evidence of the controversial Saudi-Bush relationship and its effect on terrorism. In this updated edition, Craig Unger probes with documents and intelligence sources into the religious extremism of Saudi Arabia under its particular brand of Wahhabi Islam espoused by the […]
During the Middle Ages, a thriving center for learning and research was Muslim Spain, where students gathered to consult Arabic manuscripts of earlier scientific works and study with famous teachers. One of these teachers was Sa’id al-Andalusi, who in 1068 wrote Kitab Tabaqat al-‘Umam, or “Book of the Categories of Nations,” which recorded the contributions […]
Gerald Butt, BBC Radio’s Middle East Correspondent, explains the workings of the Arab world through the unfolding of events in the 20th century, showing how political, economic and social developments have combined to make the region the way it is today. The book shows how the Arabs have viewed the involvement of foreign powers in […]
This history of the countries where Arabic is the main language of speech and culture, stretching from Morocco to Iraq, covers the period from the 7th to the 10th century, when the new religion of Islam carried the Arabic language with it and created an Arabic Muslim world. The story is carried up to the […]