Contrary to the conventional wisdom that sectarianism is intrinsically linked to violence, bloodshed, or social disharmony, Max Weiss uncovers the complex roots of Shiʿi sectarianism in...

"A fluent introduction to Syria's recent past, this book provides the backstory to the country's collapse into brutal civil conflict" (Andrew Arsan, author of Lebanon: A Country in Fragments). The...

A robust defense of a poetic geniusAbū Tammām (d. 231 or 232/845 or 846) is one of the most celebrated poets in the Arabic language. Born in Syria to Greek Christian parents, he converted to Islam...

Stories silenced or sequestered by a century of mass displacement between Europe and the Middle East—recovered and retold at lastIn 1923, the Greco-Turkish Population Exchange uprooted and swapped...

How Israel is dividing American JewsTrouble in the Tribe explores the increasingly contentious place of Israel in the American Jewish community. In a fundamental shift, growing numbers of American...

How the conflict between political Islamists and secular-leaning nationalists has shaped the history of the modern Middle EastIn 2013, just two years after the popular overthrow of Hosni Mubarak, the...

"At the turn of the nineteenth century, the Ottoman Empire straddled three continents and encompassed extraordinary ethnic and cultural diversity among the estimated thirty million people living...

"In 1925, James Henry Breasted, famed Egyptologist and director of the Oriental Institute at the University of Chicago, sent a team of archaeologists to the Holy Land to excavate the ancient site of...

An essential history of Wahhābism from its founding to the Islamic StateIn the mid-eighteenth century, a controversial Islamic movement arose in the central Arabian region of Najd that forever...

A major history of the British Empire’s early involvement in the Middle East Napoleon’s invasion of Egypt in 1798 showed how vulnerable India was to attack by France and Russia. It forced the...

This dictionary provides a handy and accessibly written reference guide to an often bewildering array of kings and dynasties, gods and goddesses, temples and tombs.

From the Nobel Prize winner and acclaimed author of My Name is Red comes a portrait of Istanbul by its foremost writer, revealing the melancholy that comes of living amid the ruins of a lost empire...

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Shia Revival A gripping account that overturns simplistic portrayals of Iran as a theocratic pariah state, revealing how its strategic moves on the...

Today, it is hard to imagine a time and place when public school teachers were considered among the elite strata of society. But in the lands controlled by the Ottomans, and then by the British in...

With Hezbollah's entry into the Lebanese government in 2009 and recent forceful intervention in the Syrian civil war, the potent Shi'i political and military organization continues to play an...

Daniel Byman's hard-hitting and articulate book is the first to study countries that support terrorist groups. Focusing primarily on sponsors from the Middle East and South Asia, it examines the...

A New York Times Book Review Editors' ChoiceThe first comprehensive biography of the most influential, controversial, and celebrated Palestinian intellectual of the twentieth centuryAs someone who...

The mention of Persian painting conjures up images of beautifully illuminated manuscripts filled with tiny, intricate pictures, each a miniature festival of color. Anyone who has seen Persian...

Against Massacre looks at the rise of humanitarian intervention in the nineteenth century, from the fall of Napoleon to the First World War. Examining the concept from a historical perspective,...

The Muslim Brotherhood has achieved a level of influence nearly unimaginable before the Arab Spring. The Brotherhood was the resounding victor in Egypt's 2011-2012 parliamentary elections, and six...