Across the Empty Quarter
• Wilfred Thesiger
TRAVEL NARRATIVE •
2007 •
PAPER
• 96 PAGES
Intrepid British explorer Thesiger (Arabian Sands, The Marsh Arabs) trekked across Saudi Arabia's Empty Quarter -- one of the last unmapped regions of the earth -- to prove to the world and himself that he could. This is the heroic tale of his 650-mile journey across the desert with the Bedu who guided him.
(GEN559, $8.25) |
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America's Kingdom, Mythmaking on the Saudi Oil Frontier
• Robert Vitalis
HISTORY •
2009 •
PAPER
• 353 PAGES
Vitalis debunks the many myths surrounding the United States's "special relationship" with Saudi Arabia, or what is less reverently known as "the deal": oil for security. In telling the 70-year history of the Arabian American Oil Company, ARAMCO, he reveals a story of racial hierarchy and exploitation.
(ARB109, $19.95) |
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The Arabian Diaries, 1913-1914
• Gertrude Bell
• Rosemary O'Brien
BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR •
2000 •
HARD COVER
• 224 PAGES
In the days before she began molding British foreign policy in the Middle East, Gertrude Bell kept herself busy crossing the Arabian desert alone (or sometimes in company with bandits). As a travel and adventure writer, she has the very great advantage of literary talent: her diaries are neither fusty nor musty. Her book is a candid portrait of Arabia, and her accounts of encounters with sheikhs and Bedouins are markedly unexotic. They were her companions or her enemies, and she writes of them as a more domestic author might have written about the parish curate or the town lout.
(ARB52, $29.95) |
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Arabic, a Language Map
• Kristine K. Kershul
LANGUAGE & PHRASEBOOKS •
2003 •
PLASTIC CARD
This durable, foldout card, featuring 1,000 words and phrases, works as a quick reference for travelers.
(ARB70, $7.95) |
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The Arabs, A Short History
• Philip K. Hitti
HISTORY •
2006 •
PAPER
• 273 PAGES
An overview by the influential historian of the Arab world.
(ARB63, $14.95) |
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The Art and Architecture of Islam 1250-1800
• Sheila Blair
• Jonathan Bloom
ART & ARCHITECTURE •
1996 •
PAPER
• 368 PAGES
An illustrated survey of the great monuments and art produced by Muslim peoples from the 13th to 19th centuries, including the Taj Mahal and the Alhambra. Highly recommended for anyone with an interest in the art and architecture of the Medieval Arab world.
(ISL27, $40.00) |
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Contesting The Saudi State, Islamic Voices from a New Generation
• Madawi Al-Rasheed
HISTORY •
2006 •
HARD COVER
• 308 PAGES
Drawing on classical religious sources, contemporary readings and interviews, Al-Rasheed explores changing Saudi Arabian society in the twenty-first century and the fluidity of the boundaries between the religious and political. He also addresses the ambiguous terms Wahhabi and Salafi.
(ARB107, $38.00) |
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Democracy and Terrorism, Volume I: The Roots of Terrorism
• Louise Richardson
HISTORY •
2006 •
PAPER
• 192 PAGES
This in-depth study takes in psychological and political factors to provide an analysis of terrorism and it origins.
(GEN361, $47.95) |
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The End of Oil, On the Edge of a Perilous World
• Paul Roberts
NATURAL HISTORY •
2005 •
PAPER
• 416 PAGES
A eye-opening overview of rising oil consumption and its consequences.
(GEO36, $14.95) |
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From Beirut to Jerusalem
• Thomas L. Friedman
CULTURAL PORTRAIT •
2006 •
AUDIO CD
A clear, illuminating, and heartfelt exploration of the complexity of the Middle East conflict. Pulitzer Prize-winner Friedman (who reported from Beirut and Jerusalem for the "New York Times" throughout the 1980s, and is now its foreign affairs columnist) provides a personal and a scholarly perspective on the roots of conflict.
(MDE98, $22.95) |
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Geography of Religion: Where God Lives, Where Pilgrims Walk
• Susan T. Hitchcock
• John Esposito
• Desmond Tutu
• Mpho Tutu
RELIGION •
2006 •
PAPER
• 416 PAGES
A handsomely produced tour of the five major world religions and the places that each holds sacred. This oversize book by National Geographic features 210 photographs, illustrations and maps, along with essays by contributing scholars.
(REL05, $24.00) |
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Globalization and the Politics of Development in the Middle East
• Clement M. Henry
• Robert Springborg
CULTURAL PORTRAIT •
2001 •
PAPER
• 280 PAGES
An analysis of the Middle East's responses to the changing world economy and the prospect of globalization at the turn of the twenty-first century. The authors, political economists both, offer a richly detailed argument bolstered by quantitative data.
(MDE76, $29.99) |
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A History of the Middle East
• Peter Mansfield
• Nicolas Pelham
HISTORY •
2004 •
PAPER
• 429 PAGES
An incisive, illuminating guide to understanding this crucial and volatile nerve center of the modern world.
(MDE84, $17.00) |
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House of Bush, House of Saud
• Craig Unger
HISTORY •
2004 •
PAPER
• 384 PAGES
Subtitled The Secret Relationship Between the World's Two Most Powerful Dynasties.
(ARB66, $16.00) |
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Islamic Art and Architecture, 650-1250
• Richard Ettinghausen
• Oleg Grabar
ART & ARCHITECTURE •
2003 •
PAPER
• 360 PAGES
An illustrated survey of the great monuments and art produced by Muslim peoples during medieval times, including the Dome of the Rock, as well as many small aritfacts.
(ISL26, $40.00) |
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Muhammad, A Prophet for Our Time
• Karen Armstrong
RELIGION •
2007 •
PAPER
• 240 PAGES
In this extended essay, a volume in the Eminent Lives series, Armstrong looks at the significance of Mohammed's life and teachings. A former Catholic nun and member of the Association of Muslim Social Services, she writes widely on religion.
(ISL60, $14.99) |
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No god but God
• Reza Aslan
RELIGION •
2011 •
PAPER
• 310 PAGES
Geared for a popular audience, this provocative book is both a call for reform and a history of early Muslim life and practice. Fully revised and updated, with a new preface and closing chapter. Born in Tehran in 1972 and educated in the West, Alsan is a leading expert and commentator on the Middle East.
(ISL50, $17.00) |
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Palace and Mosque, Islamic Art from the Middle East
• Tim Stanley
ART & ARCHITECTURE •
2004 •
HARD COVER
• 144 PAGES
This beautiful, wide-ranging survey of the architecture and art of the Islamic Middle East includes color photo-graphs and insightful commentary by Tim Stanley, a curator at the Victoria & Albert Museum.
(MDE78, $50.00) |
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Pimsleur Quick & Simple Arabic (Eastern)
• Pimsleur Language Method
LANGUAGE & PHRASEBOOKS •
2005 •
AUDIO CD
An audio CD with eight 30-minute lessons in basic Eastern Arabic, covering elementary vocabulary and phrases used in travel and everyday situations. The Pimsleur method emphasizes the use of listening skills without reading materials (so there isn't a book to follow along). It's advertised as "Totally audio: hear it, learn it, speak it."
(ARB69, $19.95) |
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Pimsleur Quick & Simple Arabic (Eastern)
• Pimsleur Language Method
LANGUAGE & PHRASEBOOKS •
2005 •
AUDIO CD
An audio CD with eight 30-minute lessons in basic Eastern Arabic, covering elementary vocabulary and phrases used in travel and everyday situations. The Pimsleur method emphasizes the use of listening skills without reading materials (so there isn't a book to follow along). It's advertised as "Totally audio: hear it, learn it, speak it."
(ARB69, $19.95) |
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Power, Faith, and Fantasy, America in the Middle East, 1776 to the Present
• Michael B. Oren
HISTORY •
2007 •
HARD COVER
• 672 PAGES
Covering the full sweep of U.S. involvement in the land of the Ottomans from early advantures along the Barbary coast to Iraq, Oren tackles not just events but also the passions, personalities, successes and failures in the region, putting recent history into context.
(MDE115, $35.00) |
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Princess: A True of Story of Life Behind the Veil in Saudi Arabia
• Jean P. Sasson
CULTURAL PORTRAIT •
2001 •
PAPER
• 283 PAGES
A sensational account of everyday life in a Saudi royal family as told to an American friend and writer. It's a powerful indictment of a society where women are chattel and the threat of violence is real.
(ARB31, $12.99) |
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Salmon Fishing in the Yemen
• Paul Torday
LITERATURE •
2008 •
PAPER
• 352 PAGES
Torday skewers government, the eccentricities of overblown royal families and, of all things, fly fishing, in this entertaining satire of Sheikh Mohammad ibn Zaidi bani Tihima and his determination to create a salmon river in a desert oasis in Yemen with Dr. Aldred Jones, the unassuming British scientist at the National Centre for Fisheries Excellence.
(MDE116, $29.95) |
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The Wahhabi Mission And Saudi Arabia
• David Dean Commins
RELIGION •
2006 •
HARD COVER
• 276 PAGES
A definitive and authoritative account of Wahhabism, the conservative interpretation of Islam that is the official creed of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Commins offers original findings as to how Wahhabism rose to dominance in Arabia and projected its influence in the Muslim world and assesses the challenges that it faces from radical militants within the Kingdom.
(ISL83, $95.00) |
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Walking the Bible, A Journey by Land Through the Five Books of Moses
• Bruce S. Feiler
TRAVEL NARRATIVE •
2005 •
AUDIO CD
An illuminating account of a 10,000-mile odyssey with Israeli archaeologist Avner Goren across the Biblical lands of the Middle East. It's part travelogue, part pilgrimage, and part quest for religious meaning.
(MDE99, $14.95) |
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The War for Muslim Minds, Islam and the West
• Gilles Kepel
RELIGION •
2004 •
HARD COVER
• 327 PAGES
A provocative analysis of the impact of the war on terrorism and U.S. military activity on the stability and future of the Middle East. A distinguished Arabist, Gilles Kepel argues that the Islamic terrorists and fanatics are creating chaos in their own countries and losing support of the faithful. Kepel is a professor at the Institute for Political Studies in Paris
(ISL47, $23.95) |
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What Went Wrong? The Clash Between Islam and Modernity in the Middle East
• Bernard Lewis
HISTORY •
2003 •
PAPER
• 208 PAGES
The prolific Middle East scholar Bernard Lewis traces the history of what was once a powerful player on the world stage and what is now an area dominated, in his words, by "shabby tyrannies... modern only in their apparatus of repression and terror," in this incisive examination of the history of Middle Eastern civilization.
(ISL44, $12.99) |
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Workers and Peasants in the Modern Middle East
• Joel Beinin
HISTORY •
2001 •
PAPER
• 226 PAGES
A study of the working class in the Middle East, beginning with the period of the Ottoman Empire.
(MDE77, $34.99) |
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The World of Islam
• Don Belt
CULTURAL PORTRAIT •
2001 •
PAPER
• 288 PAGES
Collecting more than twenty five National Geographic articles from the last one hundred years, this glimpse into the Islamic world is a fascinating examination of the evolving relationship between East and West. With photographs and illustrations thoughout.
(ISL30, $22.00) |
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