Mass Mediations: New Approaches to Popular Cultures in the Middle East & Beyond

Edited by Walter Armbrust,

Published 2000

Pages:378 PB

Price: 24.000  JD

This collection examines how popular culture through mass media defines the scale and character of social interaction in the Middle East. The unfolding of modernity in colonial and postcolonial societies has been little analyzed until now.  In addressing transnational aspects of Middle Eastern societies the contributors also challenge conventional assumptions about the region and its relation to the West.

Struggle And Survival In The Modern Middle East

Edited by Edmund Burke III

Published:2005

Pages: 395 PB

Price: 25.000 JD

This collection includes the life stories of twenty four Middle Eastern men and women living in various countries.  The Variety of these Biographies work to undermine current stereotypes about the Arab Mind or Islam and challenge elite centered accounts of how the Middle East has changed in modern times.  We come to see how specific ecologies, ways of life and ethnicity, class and gender shaped individual possibilities of human action.

The Rule of Law in the Middle East & the Islamic world:

Human Rights & the Judicial Process

Edited by Eugene Cotran & Mai Yamani

Published :2000

Pages:288

Price:76.500 JD

Are international standards observed by Middle Eastern & Islamic governments? And are they enforced by their judiciaries? Should they be adopted or adapted to suit local conditions?

This book examines questions repeatedly asked in various countries such as Egypt, Kuwait, Israel, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan etc.

There is a recurrent theme & debate of how concepts of the ”rule of law “& “ human rights” are being applied & enforced in the changing social & political climates of these countries, & how governments, through the legislative processes, & judges through the courts, are adapting these concepts to Islamic principles & the Shari’a.

No simple answer is or can be provided for these intricate questions but it provides some food for thought and generates ideas for further research in the subject.

Tormented Births: Passages to Modernity in Europe & the Middle East

By Isam Al-Khafaji

Published : 2004

Pages: 288 HC

Price: 60.000JD

Tormented Births seeks to provide an answer as to what is the Middle East today? What defines it? Where is it going?

Based on a wealth of empirical data, Isam Al-Khafaji presents a radically new explanation of the process of social, political & economic development in the Middle East over the past two centuries.

He proposes that the M.E.’s path to modernity must be understood in comparison with the European experience. In a sweeping attack on the existing literature, Al-Khafaji shows that the stress on the cultural distinctiveness of the M.E. vis-à-vis Europe is misguided & that the experience of colonialism & imperialism has not irrevocably distorted the region’s natural development. On the contrary Al-Khafaji shows the striking similarities in the formation & evolution of power structures, social groups & rural-urban spaces in the M.E. & Europe.

The book concludes by presenting a novel explanation of the persistence of authoritarian regimes in the region.

Iran, Saudi Arabia & the Gulf: Power Politics in Transition

Faisal Bin Salman Al-Saud

Published :2003
Pages:200 PB

Price:65.000 JD

This study shows how the collapse of Pax Britannica in 1968 created a power vacuum that Iran under the Shah, tried to fill with consequences that affect regional politics to this day.

The author offers a chronicle of events, some of them dramatic, and an analysis of political, military and diplomatic moves that set the agenda for the Gulf region for a generation.

Nasser the Last Arab: A Biography

By Said K. Aburish

Published :2004

Pages:355 HC

Price:30.000 JD

Since the death of Gamal Abdel Nasser in 1970, there has been no ideology to capture the imagination of the Arab world except Islamic fundamentalism. What we see today in the Middle East is the direct result of western opposition to Nasser’s Arab Nationalist Ideals & his belief in the supremacy of the secular state. Nasser was extremely popular & his pan Arab Ideology appealed to many & produced a chance for Arab unity & a cluster of relatively democratic incorruptible governments. Nowadays the Arab world is Islamic, anti-Western, & teetering on the edge of disaster. This searching account of Nasser’s life asks whether the interests of the West & the Arab world are reconcilable. Although Nasser’s ambitions came to an end because the West opposed him, what replaced him is infinitely more dangerous.

The Library of Alexandria Center of Learning in the Ancient World
Edited by Roy Macleod

Published : 2004

Pages :256

Price :21.000 JD
The Library of Alexandria explores Alexandria as the largest & greatest Hellenistic city in the ancient world and its site was, in Alexander the Greats’ own words, ‘the very best in which to found a city that would prosper ; and not only did it prosper’, it became the home of the greatest library in the ancient world. It was the icon and guardian of Greek learning and culture, containing a host of scientific, mathematical & medical literature which would decisively influence the medieval and modern worlds
A study of the library sheds light on the organization of higher education, & even the book trade in the ancient world.
 

Wahhabi Islam : From Revival & Reform to Global Jihad
By Natana J. DeLong-Bas

Published : 2004

Pages:384 PB

Price :28.000 JD
In the first study ever undertaken of the writings of Wahhabism’s founder, Muhammad Ibn Abd Al-Wahhab, Natan DeLong-Bas shatters these stereotypes & misconceptions. Her reading of Ibn Abd al- Wahhab’s works produces a revisionist thesis: He was not the godfather of contemporary terrorist movements. Rather, he was a voice of reform reflecting mainstream eighteenth-century Islamic thought. His vision of Islamic society was based upon monotheism in which Muslims, Christians, and Jews were to enjoy peaceful co-existence & cooperative commercial treaty relations.
In this most comprehensive study of Ibn Abd al-Wahhab’s interpretation of Jihad ever written, DeLong-Bas details a vision in which Jihad is strictly limited to self-defense of the Muslim community against military aggression.
Contemporary extremists like Osama Bin Laden do not have their origins in Wahhabism, she shows.

Women and Globalization in the Arab Middle East Gender, Economy & Society

By :Eleanor Abdella Doumato,(Editor), Marsha Pripstein Posusney

Published: 2002

Pages: 260 Pb

Price:25.500 JD

The New A – Z of the Middle East
By Alain Gresh & Dominique Vidal

Published :2004

Pages:464 PB

Price :22.000 JD

The Middle East dominates world affairs: Iraq, Israel/Palestine & Islamic extremism are issues that affect the planet. It has become the new global battlefield. Pulled between countless political forces – whether it be the US, Europe, Israel, China or Russia – and between countless ideological forces- from Islam, through pan-Arabism, opposition to Israel & Anti-Americanism, to democracy & liberal Capitalism-the Middle East is one of the most complex regions in the world. Here, in over a hundred entries, Alain Gresh & Dominique Vidal, present the region as it is. It is a book to refer to as well as to read.

Standing Trial: Law & the Person in the Modern Middle East
Edited by Baudouin Dupret

Published: 2004

Pages :288 HC

Price : 53.000 JD
The Book focuses on the relationship between the Law & the concept of the person in modern Arab societies. It directly addresses the questions of continuities, transformations & ruptures of such notions. Standing trial is the first truly interdisciplinary study of its subject, combining legal, historical and socio-legal perspectives. It is a highly original and important contribution to the study both of the language of law & the history of Law in the Middle East.

Dreaming of Damascus: Arab Voices from a Region in Turmoil

Price :31.000JD