In Crucible of Light, Elizabeth Drayson pulls together the epic interwoven history of the Muslim and Christian worlds over an 800-year span, taking in the conquest and re-conquest of Spain, the meteoric rise of Arabo-Norman Sicily, the Ottoman renaissance of the 16th to 18th centuries, the ebb and flow of Balkan history and the fate of contested islands like Cyprus and Malta, with their very different outcomes. Focusing on major turning points, individual stories and key places, from Mecca to Cordoba, from Damascus to Venice, and from Vienna to Istanbul, Drayson tracks the themes that unite us - classical learning preserved in Islamic libraries, the enduring influence of Moorish architecture and design, the food we share, the goods we have traded and the continuing discourse between individuals and cultures that has permeated Europe's history and shaped its borders. Drayson also explores the growing dialogue between Muslims and Christians across Europe today, a dialogue prefigured in the history of medieval and early modern Europe, in which harmony and enlightenment rise above perennial conflicts. These ideas challenge the way contemporary European identity is defined and point to the vital impact of Islamic civilization upon the continent. Surprisingly few people are aware of how much Europe owes to its Islamic heritage except via pockets of tourism, and this book aims to correct that while exploring the endless complexities that this vexed relationship throws up. At a time when Islam is so narrowly identified with terrorism and migration in Europe it is a necessary corrective"--publisher's description.

Searching reflections on the crisis in Israel and Gaza by a Pulitzer Prize-winning historian of the Holocaust. Diary of a Crisis explores the past tumultuous and traumatic year in Israel-Palestine. The eminent historian Saul Friedl nder began a diary of Israeli politics in January 2023 as the country was convulsed by protests against Netanyahu's attempt to overhaul the judiciary. Hundreds of thousands took to the streets to demonstrate against this threat to democracy. But the protests said nothing about the Palestinian question-the elephant in the room, according to Friedl nder, who resumed his diary on the eve of Hamas's October 7 assault on southern Israel. Israel was facing one of the worst crises in its history, he observes, under the worst possible internal conditions. Diary of a Crisis weaves together profound reflections on the history of the country in the life of which Friedlander was an active participant. He memorably describes how Prime Minister Golda Meir once flatly declared to him, "there is no Palestinian people." For Friedl nder, on the other hand, the fight for democracy is inseparable from equality of treatment for Arab and Jewish citizens and an end to Israeli domination over Palestinians in the Occupied Territories. Despite the continuing bloodshed, Friedl nder argues that a two-state solution remains only the long-term answer to this most intractable of conflicts.

The focus of this book is on the authoritarian character of the state of Pakistan which owes this character to its colonial past. In the last seven and a half decades, an all powerful state largely dissociated with the citizens ' interest and argues has remained in operations with two pivotal institutions of Military and bureaucracy dominating the power structure.

From the late Roman Empire onwards, monasteries and convents were a common sight throughout Europe. But who were monasteries for? What kind of people founded and maintained them? And how did monasticism change over the thousand years or so of the Middle Ages? Andrew Jotischky traces the history of monastic life from its origins in the fourth century to the sixteenth. He shows how religious houses sheltered the poor and elderly, cared for the sick, and educated the young. They were centres of intellectual life that owned property and exercised power but also gave rise to new developments in theology, music, and art. This book brings together the Orthodox and western stories, as well as the experiences of women, to show the full picture of medieval monasticism for the first time. It is a fascinating, wide-ranging account that broadens our understanding of life in holy orders as never before.

Summary:Studies Iran's soft power in Afghanistan and Pakistan in cultural, religious, social, ideological and educational spheresBased on primary sources including Persian sources and materials collected through semi-structured interviews with research participantsDiscusses case studies about Iran's historical resources and instruments which it uses to increase its soft power reach, the reasons why Iran seeks to exercise soft power in both countries, and the outcomes Iran has been able to achieve through its soft powerFrom a theoretical perspective, it engages with Iran's soft power in light of the political theories of soft powerBrings together materials from a range of disciplinary areas - history, politics, Islamic studiesThis book explores Iran's soft power in two of its eastern neighbours - namely Afghanistan and Pakistan - in key areas including the cultural, religious, social, media, ideological and educational spheres. It explains what resources and instruments Iran has used to project its soft power in the two selected countries since the establishment of the Islamic Republic of Iran in 1979, and how Iran's attempt to increase its reach has been perceived by elites and opinion makers in Afghanistan and Pakistan. It therefore offers the most up-to-date examination of Iranian soft power tools and strategies and how they are received in both countries - topics which have not hitherto been fully explored. The book reflects the ideas of local Afghan and Pakistani participants from civil society, government, military, media, academia, think tanks and policymaking, explaining the extent to which research participants perceived Iranian soft power in a positive or negative manners.

Summary:Madinat al-Zahra, a tenth-century palace-city on the western outskirts of Córdoba, Spain, and a UNESCO World Heritage Site, stands as a testament to the multicultural environment fostered by its founders. Built by ¿Abd al-Rahman III (r. 929-961), a member of the Umayyad dynasty and the first caliph of al-Andalus, the city symbolized the caliph's aspiration to rule over the Fatimid Caliphs of Ifriqiya in North Africa and the Abbasid Caliphs in Baghdad and was the site of vast cultural and artistic creation. The companion volume to an exhibition at New York University's Institute for the Study of the Ancient World, this book showcases the complex visual vocabulary of Madinat al-Zahra, which derived from diverse cultural traditions and was translated into new and unique architectural and material cultures. Thematic essays examine the history of the Islamic Caliphate in Muslim Iberia (al-Andalus), the cultural and artistic traditions of the time, and the resulting multicultural society, while shorter, object-focused chapters explore the variety of works found at the ancient site--from jewelry and ceramics to medical texts and epigraphic materials.

With the development of the B-29 "Superfortress" in summer 1944, strategic bombing, a central component of the Allied war effort against Germany, arrived in the Pacific theater. In 1945 Japan experienced the three most deadly bombing attacks of the war. The firebombing of Tokyo in March burned the city's most densely populated sector, killed some 85,000 residents, and left more than one million homeless. The attack was part of a months-long campaign of incendiary bombing that destroyed almost two-thirds of Japan's cities. The two atomic blasts in August killed hundreds of thousands in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, most of them civilians. The bombing brought a destabilizing devastation that, combined with a declaration of war by the Soviet Union, induced Japan, as they put it, to terminate the war. Many at the time and since have credited American air power, and especially the two atomic bombs, with Japan's surrender. But Richard Overy tells a different, more dimensional story. Drawing on his expertise on the war and its bombing campaigns, he delivers a precise recounting of these aerial attacks, and a balanced, informed assessment of how and why they occurred. Overy is astute on the Allied decision-making, and, notably, integrates the Japanese leadership as well. He ably navigates the dramatic endgame of the war, which featured factional infighting within the Japanese cabinet, a scramble by American officials to formulate an acceptable version of "unconditional surrender," and the crucial role played by the emperor, Hirohito. The atomic bombing emerges as impactful but not decisive in this rich, multilayered history.

Saudi Arabia is one of the wealthiest countries in the world, a major player on the international stage and the site of Islam's two holiest cities. It is also one of the world's only absolute monarchies. How did Saudi Arabia get to where it is today? In this comprehensive account, David Commins narrates the full history of Saudi Arabia from oasis emirate to present-day attempts to leap to a post-petroleum economy. Moving through the ages, Commins traces how the Saud dynasty's reliance on sectarianism, foreign expertise, and petroleum to stabilize power has unintentionally spawned secular and religious movements seeking accountability and justice. He incorporates the experiences of activists, women, religious minorities, Bedouin, and expatriate workers as the country transformed from subsistence agrarian life to urban consumer society.

When Ovid was exiled from Rome to a border town on the Black Sea, he despaired at his new bleak and barbarous surroundings. Like many Greeks and Romans, Ovid thought the outer reaches of his world was where civilisation ceased to exist. Our fascination with the Greek and Roman world, and the abundance of writing that we have from it, means that we usually explore the ancient world from this perspective too. Was Ovid's exile really as bad as he claimed? What was it truly like to live on the edges of these empires, on the boundaries of the known world?Thanks to archaeological excavations, we now know that the borders of the empires we consider the 'heart' of civilisation were in fact thriving, vibrant cultures – just not ones we might expect. This is where the boundaries of 'civilised' and 'barbarians' began to dissipate; where the rules didn't always apply; where normally juxtaposed cultures intermarried; and where nomadic tribes built their own cities.Taking us along the sandy caravan routes of Morocco to the freezing winters of the northern Black Sea, from Co-Loa in the Red River valley of Vietnam to the rain-lashed forts south of Hadrian's Wall, Owen Rees explores the powerful empires and diverse peoples in Europe, Asia and Africa beyond the reaches of Greece and Rome. In doing so, he offers us a new, brilliantly rich lens with which to understand the ancient world.

For centuries, men have been writing histories of antiquity filled with warlords, emperors and kings. But when it comes to incorporating women aside from Cleopatra and Boudica, writers have been more comfortable describing mythical heroines than real ones. While Penelope and Helen of Troy live on in the imagination, their real-life counterparts have been relegated to the margins. In The Missing Thread, Daisy Dunn inverts this tradition and puts the women of history at the centre of the narrative.These pages present Enheduanna, the earliest named author, the poet Sappho and Telesilla, who defended her city from attack. Here is Artemisia, sole female commander in the Graeco-Persian Wars, and Cynisca, the first female victor at the Olympic Games. Cleopatra may be the more famous, but Fulvia, Mark Antony’s wife, fought a war on his behalf. Many other women remain nameless but integral. Through new examination of the sources combined with vivid storytelling Daisy Dunn shows us the ancient world through fresh eyes, and introduces us to an incredible cast of ancient women, weavers of an entire world.

The tenth century was a formative period for Islamic culture and Adam Mez's Renaissance of Islam offers a detailed survey of the Muslim world during that period. No other single work covers the subject as comprehensively. Mez drew upon a vast range of sources to produce a detailed account of all aspects of Islamic culture and society - finance, religion, geography, industry and trade, law, morals, navigation, etc. The result is a lucid and engaging work that even today remains a key resource for researchers and students alike. The original edition is now very rare. This new edition, introduced by Julia Bray, one of the leading scholars of the period, makes the work available once again and includes a bibliography and index specially prepared for this edition.

In 1880 most of the continent was ruled by Africans, and barely explored. By 1902, five European Powers (and one extraordinary individual) had grabbed almost the whole continent, giving themselves 30 new colonies and protectorates and 10 million square miles of new territory, and 110 million bewildered new subjects. Thomas Pakenham's story of the conquest of Africa is recognised as one of the finest narrative histories of the last few decades.

In this comprehensive guide to the most widespread conflict in contemporary history, Vladislav Zubok traces the origins of the Cold War in post-war Europe, through the tumultuous decades of confrontation, to the fall of the Berlin Wall and beyond. With remarkable clarity and unique perspective, Zubok argues that the Cold War, often seen as an existential battle between capitalist democracy and totalitarian communism, has long been misunderstood. He challenges the popular Western narrative that economic superiority and democratic values led the USA to victory. Instead, he looks beyond the familiar images of East-West rivalry, shining a light on the impact of non-Western actors and placing the war in the context of global decolonization, Soviet weakness and the accidents of history. Here, he interrogates what happens when stability and peace are no longer the default, when treaties are broken and when diplomacy ceases to function.

Jon Lee Anderson first reported from Afghanistan in the late 1980s, covering the US-backed mujahideen’s insurrection against the Soviet-backed regime in Kabul. Within days of the 9/11 attacks, he was again on the ground as an early eyewitness to the new war launched by the US against the Taliban and their Al Qaeda allies. His reportage from the first year of the war won a number of awards and was published in book form as The Lion’s Grave: Dispatches from Afghanistan. At the time, the American military had prevailed on the battlefield, and the newfound peace seemed to offer a precious space for Afghan society to restore itself and to forge a democratic future. But all was not well: Osama bin Laden was still in hiding, the Taliban were stealthily reorganizing for a comeback, and the United States was about to turn its attention to Iraq.To Lose a War collects Anderson’s writing from Afghanistan over a near-quarter-century span. Containing the stories from The Lion’s Grave and all of those he published since, as well as important writing appearing here for the first time, the book offers a chronological account of a monumental tragedy as it unfolds. The colossal waste, missed signals, and wishful thinking that characterized the twenty-year arc of the US-led war in Afghanistan have consecrated it as one of the greatest foreign policy failures of the modern era, and a bellwether of a larger American imperial decline.

In this book of dialogue, Dr. Mubarak Ali touches variety of topics covering history, philosophy, and sociology. He provides clues and insights that make us think where we stand a society Much like Bertrand Russel a history of Western philosophy, this book does not require that the reader starts it from the chapter one, you can start from any chapter. This book is the conversation between Dr. Mubarak Ali and his interviewer Buland Iqbal from Canada.

In the wake of the 9/11 attacks, journalist Andrew North arrived in Afghanistan for the first time. Meanwhile, the lives of five young Afghans were about to change forever: Farzana had been banned from attending school as a child, but education would take her further than she could have imagined. Bilal's dream of becoming a journalist was about to come true, but it would also expose him to untold danger. Abdul was on the cusp of finally becoming a doctor after his studies were delayed by years of war. Jahan's shoe-shine business was beginning to take a completely unexpected turn. And Naqibullah's life in a quiet province was soon to be shattered by the arrival of Western forces. 'War & Peace & War' tells their stories, and those of many others North came to know over twenty years.