Edited by Olga M. Davidson, Ph.D. 1983
Many spectacular works of classical Persian art—miniature paintings as well as architectural decorations—survive to the present day, safeguarded in Istanbul and beyond. But the fragmentation of these works over time calls for careful historical research in reconstructing the history of the art…
Edited by Petra Sijpesteijn, Ph.D. 2004.
Authority and Control in the Countryside looks at the economic, religious, political and cultural instruments that local and regional powers in the late antique to early medieval Mediterranean and Near East used to manage their rural hinterlands. Measures of direct control – land…
Yossef, Rapoport, Ph.D. 2002.
Winner of the 2019 Middle East Medievalists biennial Book Prize, which recognizes significant contributions to the study of the medieval Middle East. Authors must be current members in good standing of Middle East Medievalists to be considered.
This study of a unique and unparalleled thirteenth…
Olivia Remy Constable, Ph.D. 1989.
What do clothing, bathing, or dining habits reveal about one's personal religious beliefs? Nothing, of course, unless such outward bodily concerns are perceived to hold some sort of spiritual significance. Such was the case in the multireligious world of medieval Spain, where the ways in…
Yossef Rapoport, Ph.D. 2002.
Richly annotated and with a detailed introduction, this volume offers the first academic edition and translation of a first-hand account of the Egyptian countryside, offering a key insight into the rural economy of medieval Islam.
Medieval Islamic society was overwhelmingly a society of peasants,…
Co-edited by Abderrahmane El Moudden, Ph.D. 1992.
Shahab Ahmed, Ph.D. 1999.
One of the most controversial episodes in the life of the Prophet Muhammad concerns an incident in which he allegedly mistook words suggested by Satan as divine revelation. Known as the Satanic verses, these praises to the pagan deities contradict the Islamic belief that Allah is one and absolute. Muslims…
Edited by Saiyad Nizamuddin Ahmad, Ph.D. 2000.
Contains a series of studies into the philosophical trends and thinkers associated with the Shīʻī tradition from a symposium held September 2-4, 2015, at the Warburg Institute in London, England. The volume offers insight into the rich intellectual history in Shīʻah Islam of examining…
Translated by Robert Finn, Ph.D. 1978.
A novel of magical realism that encompasses love, aging, and the role of memory, The Black Rose of Halfeti takes readers on a journey through the landscapes of Turkey.
Edited by William F. McCants, Ph.D. 2006.
Shows an in-depth understanding of the ideology and goals of Islamist movements Features the original field research of leading specialists who interviewed Islamist leaders and activists in 12 countries across the Middle East and Asia Provides a nuanced and thorough analysis of…
Edited by Samer Traboulsi, Ph.D. 2005.
The Ikhwan al-Safa' (Brethren of Purity), the anonymous adepts of a tenth-century esoteric fraternity based in Basra and Baghdad, hold an eminent position in the history of science and philosophy in Islam due to the wide reception and assimilation of their monumental encyclopaedia, the Rasa …
Peter Poullada, B.A. 1975.
In the mid-eighteenth century the Russian tsar sent two expeditions across the Caspian Sea in response to an extraordinary plea for assistance from the recently subjugated Kalmyk Khan. The official journals of these expeditions, here translated into English for the first time, record the encounters of…
Leslie Peirce, Ph.D. 1988.
In Empress of the East, historian Leslie Peirce tells the remarkable story of a Christian slave girl, Roxelana, who was abducted by slave traders from her Ruthenian homeland and brought to the harem of Sultan Suleyman the Magnificent in…
Edited by Saiyad Nizamuddin Ahmad, Ph.D. 2000.
The Universal Science (ʿIlm-i kullī) by Mahdī Ḥāʾirī Yazdī, is a concise, but authoritative, outline of the fundamental discussions in Islamic…
Much of what we know about life in the medieval Islamic Middle East comes from texts written to impart religious ideals or to chronicle the movements of great men. How did women participate in the societies these texts describe? What about non-Muslims, whose own religious traditions descended partly from pre-Islamic late antiquity?
…
Orit Baskin, Ph.D. 2005.
Co-Winner of the 2018 Nikki Keddie Book Award, sponsored by the Middle East Studies Association.
Between 1949 and 1951, 123,000 Iraqi Jews immigrated to the newly established Israeli state. Lacking the resources to absorb them all, the Israeli government resettled them in maabarot, or…
Translation by Victoria Rowe Holbrook, Ph.D. 1985
This visual tour of every one of Le Corbusier's buildings across the world represents the most comprehensive photographic archive of the architect's work. In 2010, photographer Cemal Emden set out to document every building designed by the master architect Le Corbusier. Traveling…
This volume has its origins in a conference held at the UCLA G. E. von Grunebaum Center for Near Eastern Studies in October 2013 and brings together scholars from various disciplines and fields to consider Islamic revelation, with particular focus on the Qur'an. The collection provides a wide-ranging survey of the development and current state…
Edited by Intisar Rabb, Ph.D. 2009.
"The papers in this volume largely arise out of proceedings from a conference organized in honor of Professor Roy Mottahedeh upon the occasion of his retirement."
This book presents an in…
Amit Bein, Ph.D. 2006.
To better understand the lasting legacy of international relations in the post-Ottoman Middle East, we must first re-examine Turkey's engagement with the region during the interwar period. Long assumed to be a period of deliberate disengagement and ruptured ties between Turkey and its neighbours, Amit Bein…
Edited by Petra Sijpesteijn, Ph.D. 2004.
This volume is a tribute to the work of legal and social historian and Arabist Rudolph Peters (University of Amsterdam). Presenting case studies from…
Ruth Miller, Ph.D. 2003.
Proposes a new feminist theory of nonhuman biopolitics. Argues that gender and sexuality are essential in understanding nostalgia as a political force. Reconceptualizes the politics of reproduction. Decenters the brain as the sole site of political thought.Biopolitics and posthumanism have been passé…
Special Issue title: Insularity in the Ottoman World
Guest editor: Antonis Hadjikyriacou
Islands have no single obvious attribute, geographic or otherwise. Insularity, then, should not be taken literally, i.e. isolation. Rather, it addresses the question of what it means to be, and be perceived as,…
Şuhnaz Yılmaz, Ph.D. 2000
Online resource.
The terms “middle powers” and “regional powers” are increasingly used by politicians, pundits, and scholars, even though both words remain vague and their meanings are contentious. Middle powers often refer to states that occupy a middle-level position in the international power…
Translated by Adam Sabra, Ph.D. 1998.
This mirror for princes sheds light on the relationship between spiritual and political authority in early modern Egypt
This guide to political behavior and expediency offers advice to Sufi shaykhs, or spiritual guides, on how to interact and negotiate with powerful secular officials,…
Co-translated by Mona Zaki, Ph.D. 2015.
Longlisted for the Best Translated Book Award for poetry.
The Operating System is honored to publish the first Arabic-English full translation of Ashraf Fayadh's singular volume of poetry, INSTRUCTIONS WITHIN, which was published by the Beirut- based Dar al-Farabi in 2008 and later…
Co-translated by Mona Zaki, Ph.D. 2015.
Longlisted for the Best Translated Book Award for poetry.
The Operating System is honored to publish the first Arabic-English full translation of Ashraf Fayadh's singular volume of poetry, INSTRUCTIONS WITHIN, which was published by the Beirut- based Dar al-Farabi in 2008 and later…
Ali S. Shihabi, B.A. Politics, Certificate in Near Eastern Studies, 1981.
"The Saudi Kingdom presents a candid and insightful analysis of Saudi Arabia’s political instability in light of the mounting domestic and international challenges facing the country today. Directly addressing Saudi Arabia’s inert monarchical ruling system, its…
Translated by Luke Yarbrough, Ph.D. 2012.
Patronage, power, and competition in the Sultan’s court. The Sword of Ambition opens a new window onto interreligious rivalry among elites in medieval Egypt. Written by the unemployed…
Shahab Ahmed, Ph.D. 1999.
What is Islam? How do we grasp a human and historical phenomenon characterized by such variety and contradiction? What is "Islamic" about Islamic philosophy or Islamic art? Should we speak of Islam or of islams? Should we distinguish the Islamic (the religious) from the Islamicate (the cultural)? Or should we…
Boaz Shoshan, Ph.D. 1978
The early Arab conquests pose a considerable challenge to modern-day historians. The earliest historical written tradition emerges only after the second half of the eighth century- over one hundred years removed from the events it contends to describe, and was undoubtedly influenced by the motives and…
Covering the period from the early nineteenth century to the present day, Modern Iran: A History in Documents brings together primary sources in translation that shed light on aspects of the political, social, cultural, and intellectual history of modern Iran. It makes use of a combination of…
Jessica Marglin, Ph.D. 2012.
A previously untold story of Jewish-Muslim relations in modern Morocco, showing how law facilitated Jews’ integration into the broader Moroccan society in which they lived
Morocco went through immense…
Kenneth J. Perkins, Ph.D. 1973.
The demographically modest, but strategically significant, country of Tunisia has experienced profound and revolutionary change in the almost two decades since the publication of the previous edition of this volume (1997). Most dramatically, a populist uprising in 2011 ousted the entrenched dictatorship…
Louise Marlow, Ph.D. 1987
A textual and contextual study of an early Arabic mirror for princes
Mirrors for princes form a substantial and important genre in many pre-modern literatures. Their ostensible purpose is to advise the king; at the same time they assert that the king, if he is truly virtuous, will appreciate being…
Martin S. Kramer, Ph.D. 1982
In 'The War on Error', historian and political analyst Martin Kramer presents a series of case studies, some based on pathfinding research and others on provocative analysis, that correct misinformation clouding the public's understanding of the Middle East. He also offers a forensic exploration of how…
Translated by Victoria Rowe Holbrook, Ph.D. 1985
As the midfiwe announces the birth of a girl at the home of a government minister, a bomb exploding at the Istanbul mosque where the Sultan is attending the congregational prayer resounds over the Bosphorus.
Rana will grow up amidst the frenzied politics of the fall of the…
Nevzat Uyanık, Ph.D. 2012.
“Prior to World War I, American involvement in Armenian affairs was limited to missionary and educational interests. This was contrary to Britain, which had played a key role in the diplomatic arena since the Treaty of Berlin in 1878, when the Armenian question had become a subject of great power…
Translated by Eric L. Ormsby, Ph.D. 1981
Two major events occurred in the early centuries of Islam that determined its historical and spiritual development in the centuries that followed: the formation of the sacred scriptures, namely the Qur'an and the Hadith, and the chronic violence that surrounded the succession of the Prophet,…
Zachary Lockman, B.A. 1974.
Field Notes reconstructs the origins and trajectory of area studies in the United States, focusing on Middle East studies from the 1920s to the 1980s. Drawing on extensive archival research, Zachary Lockman shows how the Carnegie, Rockefeller, and Ford foundations played key roles in conceiving, funding,…
Ruth A. Miller, Ph.D. 2003.
Insightful reinterpretation of data-gathering, surveillance, cloning, and reproductive tissue and their implications for democratic politics.
Challenging the posthumanist canon that celebrates the preeminence of matter, Ruth Miller, in Flourishing Thought contends that what…
Caner K. Dagli, Ph.D. 2006.
Ibn al-'Arabi (d. 1240) was one of the towering figures of Islamic intellectual history, and among Sufis still bears the title of al-shaykh al-akbar, or "the greatest master."
