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This companion volume to the highly successful Islam in Malaysian Foreign Policy explores the extent to which foreign policy in…
the world's largest Muslim nation has been influenced by Islamic considerations.This work is a combination of an account of a most captivating Lebanese personality with a penetrating analysis of the…
historical and religious contours of Lebanon. Mordechai Nisan spent much time with Etienne Sakr between 2000 and 2001. Set within the context of the national political narrative of Lebanon, this volume offers a portrait of Sakr and the times in which he lived before his exile to Israel in May 2000. Personal testimonies from Lebanese residents and conversations with others outside of Lebanon who knew Abu-Arz, in addition to interviews with Israelis aquainted with him, provide the authenticity to the portrait of this remarkable man.Islam and Political Legitimacy
By Shahram Akbarzadeh, Abdullah Saeed. 2003
Akbarzadeh and Saeed explore one of the most challenging issues facing the Muslim world: the Islamisation of political power. They…
present a comparative analysis of Muslim societies in West, South, Central and South East Asia and highlight the immediacy of the challenge for the political leadership in those societies. Islam and Political Legitimacy contends that the growing reliance on Islamic symbolism across the Muslim world, even in states that have had a strained relationship with Islam, has contributed to the evolution of Islam as a social and cultural factor to an entrenched political force. The geographic breadth of this book offers readers a nuanced appraisal of political Islam that transcends parochial eccentricities. Contributors to this volume examine the evolving relationship between Islam and political power in Bangladesh, Indonesia, Iran, Malaysia, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Uzbekistan.Researchers and students of political Islam and radicalism in the Muslim world will find Islam and Political Legitimacy of special interest. This is a welcome addition to the rich literature on the politics of the contemporary Muslim world.In this book, Emmers addresses the key question: to what extent may the balance of power play a part in…
such cooperative security arrangements and in the calculations of the participants of ASEAN and the ART? He investigates the role of the power balance in detailed examinations of the creation of the forum, ASEAN's response to the Indochina confliMughal Warfare: Indian Frontiers and Highroads to Empire 1500-1700
By J.J.L. Gommans. 2003
Mughal Warfare offers a much-needed new survey of the military history of Mughal India during the age of imperial splendour…
from 1500 to 1700. Jos Gommans looks at warfare as an integrated aspect of pre-colonial Indian society.Based on a vast range of primary sources from Europe and India, this thorough study explores the wider geo-political, cultuThe Arab Winter: A Tragedy
By Noah Feldman. 2020
Why the conventional wisdom about the Arab Spring is wrongThe Arab Spring promised to end dictatorship and bring self-government to…
people across the Middle East. Yet everywhere except Tunisia it led to either renewed dictatorship, civil war, extremist terror, or all three. In The Arab Winter, Noah Feldman argues that the Arab Spring was nevertheless not an unmitigated failure, much less an inevitable one. Rather, it was a noble, tragic series of events in which, for the first time in recent Middle Eastern history, Arabic-speaking peoples took free, collective political action as they sought to achieve self-determination.Focusing on the Egyptian revolution and counterrevolution, the Syrian civil war, the rise and fall of ISIS in Syria and Iraq, and the Tunisian struggle toward Islamic constitutionalism, Feldman provides an original account of the political consequences of the Arab Spring, including the reaffirmation of pan-Arab identity, the devastation of Arab nationalisms, and the death of political Islam with the collapse of ISIS. He also challenges commentators who say that the Arab Spring was never truly transformative, that Arab popular self-determination was a mirage, and even that Arabs or Muslims are less capable of democracy than other peoples.Above all, The Arab Winter shows that we must not let the tragic outcome of the Arab Spring disguise its inherent human worth. People whose political lives had been determined from the outside tried, and for a time succeeded, in making politics for themselves. That this did not result in constitutional democracy or a better life for most of those affected doesn't mean the effort didn't matter. To the contrary, it matters for history—and it matters for the future.Three Kingdoms: A Historical Novel
By Guanzhong Luo. 2000
"A material epic with an astonishing fidelity to history."—New York Times Book ReviewThree Kingdoms tells the story of the fateful…
last reign of the Han dynasty (206 B.C.–A.D. 220), when the Chinese empire was divided into three warring kingdoms. Writing some twelve hundred years later, the Ming author Luo Guanzhong drew on histories, dramas, and poems portraying the crisis to fashion a sophisticated, compelling narrative that has become the Chinese national epic. This abridged edition captures the novel's intimate and unsparing view of how power is wielded, how diplomacy is conducted, and how wars are planned and fought. As important for Chinese culture as the Homeric epics have been for the West, this Ming dynasty masterpiece continues to be widely influential in China, Korea, Japan, and Vietnam and remains a great work of world literature.Classical Telugu Poetry: An Anthology (Voices from Asia #13)
By David Shulman, Velcheru Narayana Rao. 2002
The classical tradition in Telugu, the mellifluous language of Andhra Pradesh in southern India, is one of the richest yet…
least explored of all South Asian literatures. In this volume, Velcheru Narayana Rao and David Shulman have brought together mythological, religious, and secular texts by twenty major poets who wrote between the eleventh and nineteenth centuries, providing an authoritative volume overview of one of the world's most creative poetic traditions. An informative, engaging introduction fleshes out the history of Telugu literature, situating its poets in relation to significant literary themes and historical developments and discussing the relationship between Telugu and the classical literature and poetry of Sanskrit.Naoroji: Pioneer of Indian Nationalism
By Dinyar Patel. 2020
The definitive biography of Dadabhai Naoroji, the nineteenth-century activist who founded the Indian National Congress, was the first British MP…
of Indian origin, and inspired Gandhi and Nehru. Mahatma Gandhi called Dadabhai Naoroji the “father of the nation,” a title that today is reserved for Gandhi himself. Dinyar Patel examines the extraordinary life of this foundational figure in India’s modern political history, a devastating critic of British colonialism who served in Parliament as the first-ever Indian MP, forged ties with anti-imperialists around the world, and established self-rule or swaraj as India’s objective. Naoroji’s political career evolved in three distinct phases. He began as the activist who formulated the “drain of wealth” theory, which held the British Raj responsible for India’s crippling poverty and devastating famines. His ideas upended conventional wisdom holding that colonialism was beneficial for Indian subjects and put a generation of imperial officials on the defensive. Next, he attempted to influence the British Parliament to institute political reforms. He immersed himself in British politics, forging links with socialists, Irish home rulers, suffragists, and critics of empire. With these allies, Naoroji clinched his landmark election to the House of Commons in 1892, an event noticed by colonial subjects around the world. Finally, in his twilight years he grew disillusioned with parliamentary politics and became more radical. He strengthened his ties with British and European socialists, reached out to American anti-imperialists and Progressives, and fully enunciated his demand for swaraj. Only self-rule, he declared, could remedy the economic ills brought about by British control in India. Naoroji is the first comprehensive study of the most significant Indian nationalist leader before Gandhi.Freedom at Midnight
By Larry Collins, Dominique Lapierre. 2007
First published in 1975, this 2009 edition is a new edition of the best-selling book described as irreplaceable by Le…
Monde, Paris. It is a poignant reminder of the defining moments of the end of the British Raj, the independence of 400 million people, their division into India and the newly created Pakistan.In Western tradition, St. George is known as the dragon slayer. In the Middle East, he is called Khidr ("Green…
One"), and in addition to being a dragon slayer, he is also somehow the prophet Elijah. In this book, Robert D. Miller II untangles these complicated connections and reveals how, especially in his Middle Eastern guise, St. George is a reincarnation of the Canaanite storm god Baal, another "Green One" who in Ugaritic texts slays dragons.Combining art history, theology, and archeology, this multidisciplinary study demystifies the identity of St. George in his various incarnations, laying bare the processes by which these identifications merged and diverged. Miller traces the origins of this figure in Arabic and Latin texts and explores the possibility that Middle Eastern shrines to St. George lie on top of ancient shrines of the Canaanite storm god Baal. Miller examines these holy places, particularly in modern Israel and around Mount Hermon on the Syrian-Lebanese-Israeli border, and makes the convincing case that direct continuity exists from the Baal of antiquity to the St. George/Khidr of Christian lore.Convincingly argued and thoroughly researched, this study makes a unique contribution to such diverse areas as ancient Near Eastern studies, Roman history and religion, Christian hagiography and iconography, Quranic studies, and Arab folk religion.Journey Among Brave Men
By Dana Adams Schmidt. 1964
A gripping account of an award-winning journalist&’s journey into the heart of rebel territory during the First Iraqi-Kurdish War. …
On July 4, 1962, New York Times foreign correspondent Dana Adams Schmidt left his post in Beirut to be voluntarily smuggled into Iraqi Kurdistan. It was the beginning of a nearly two-month journey that would climax in a days-long visit with the leader of the Kurdish rebellion, the most loved and feared man in Kurdistan, Mullah Mustafa Barzani. Accompanied by armed Kurdish guides and a 72-year-old Turkish interpreter, the six-feet-three-inch, seersucker-suit-clad Schmidt traveled, often at night, a secret route by foot, mule, horse and, on two occasions, jeep into the high Kurdish mountains to report on &“the fightingest people in the Middle East&” as no foreign journalist had done before. The physical dangers were acute—his group was strafed more than once by the Iraqi air force. Along the way, Schmidt learned about the history and culture of the Kurds, whose cause Barzani hoped Schmidt could convey to the world. Originally published in 1964 and now back in print with a new foreword by historian Charles Glass, Journey Among Brave Men is an enduring testament to the power of audacious journalism and to the strong will of the Kurds, an embattled people who remain in search of an independent state today. &“One can only marvel at the author&’s indefatigable industry and power of enthusiasm, which makes him one of the most reliable of all daily paper reporters . . . An excellent, fair and patently honest piece of work.&”—The New York TimesSiria, el país de las almas rotas: De la revolución al califato del ISIS
By Javier Espinosa, Mónica G. Prieto. 2016
El estremecedor relato de la guerra civil siria desde dentro, desde primera línea, por los reporteros Javier Espinosa y Mónica…
G. Prieto. Cuando la revolución se extendió por Siria en marzo de 2011, pocos podían esperar que manifestaciones pacíficas fueran reprimidas con bombardeos aéreos, armas químicas y una cuidada estrategia para fomentar el odio sectario que avivó las diferencias religiosas consagrando al país al conflicto civil y haciendo de Siria un tablero de juegos para el mundo. Conscientes de la dimensión del problema, Javier Espinosa y Mónica G. Prieto cubrieron desde los primeros días los entresijos de la tragedia, cruzando ilegalmente fronteras y exponiéndose a la salvaje represión del régimen de El Asad hasta que el extremismo devoró la revolución y el secuestro de uno de ellos, a manos del ISIS, elevó hasta lo insoportable su nivel de implicación. Inquietante y estremecedor, este vibrante relato desenmaraña las complejas dinámicas subyacentes al conflicto civil sirio, exponiendo un tema de total y triste actualidad, contado desde el terreno y desde dentro.This book examines the role of the international community in the handover of the Dutch colony of West Papua/Irian Jaya…
to Indonesia in the 1960s and questions whether or not the West Papuan people ever genuinely exercised the right to self-determination guaranteed to them in the UN-brokered Dutch/Indonesian agreement of 1962. Indonesian, Dutch, US, Soviet, Australian and British involvement is discussed, but particular emphasis is given to the central part played by the United Nations in the implementation of this agreement. As guarantor, the UN temporarily took over the territory's administration from the Dutch before transferring control to Indonesia in 1963. After five years of Indonesian rule, a UN team returned to West Papua to monitor and endorse a controversial act of self-determination that resulted in a unanimous vote by 1022 Papuan 'representatives' to reject independence. Despite this, the issue is still very much alive today as a crisis-hit Indonesia faces continued armed rebellion and growing calls for freedom in West Papua.Re-enchanting Modernity: Ritual Economy and Society in Wenzhou, China
By Mayfair Yang. 2020
In Re-enchanting Modernity Mayfair Yang examines the resurgence of religious and ritual life after decades of enforced secularization in the…
coastal area of Wenzhou, China. Drawing on twenty-five years of ethnographic fieldwork, Yang shows how the local practices of popular religion, Daoism, and Buddhism are based in community-oriented grassroots organizations that create spaces for relative local autonomy and self-governance. Central to Wenzhou's religious civil society is what Yang calls a "ritual economy," in which an ethos of generosity is expressed through donations to temples, clerics, ritual events, and charities in exchange for spiritual gain. With these investments in transcendent realms, Yang adopts Georges Bataille's notion of "ritual expenditures" to challenge the idea that rural Wenzhou's economic development can be described in terms of Max Weber's notion of a "Protestant Ethic". Instead, Yang suggests that Wenzhou's ritual economy forges an alternate path to capitalist modernity.Projecting the Nation: History and Ideology on the Israeli Screen
By Eran Kaplan. 2020
Projecting the Nation: History and Ideology on the Israeli Screen is a wide-ranging history of over seven decades of Israeli…
cinema. The only book in English to offer this type of historical scope was Ella Shohat’s Israeli Cinema: East West and the Politics of Representation from 1989. Since 1989, however, Israeli cinema and Israeli society have undergone some crucial transformations and, moreover, Shohat’s book offered a single framework through which to judge Israeli cinema: a critique of orientalism. Projecting the Nation contends that Israeli cinema offers much richer historical and ideological perspectives that expose the complexity of the Israeli project. By analyzing Israeli films which address such issues as the Arab-Israeli conflict, the Ashkenazi-Mizrahi divide, the kibbutz and urban life, the rise of religion in Israeli public life and more, the book explores the way cinema has represented and also shaped our understanding of the history of modern Israel as it evolved from a collectivist society to a society where individualism and adherence to local identities is the dominant ideology.In the decades following the introduction of Communist Party rule in Shanghai in 1949, the city's economy, infrastructure and links…
with the world all atrophied. However, the past decade has seen far-reaching economic reforms implemented to recreate Shanghai as a cosmopolitan, world financial and trade centre. This book focuses on the lives of local residents and their perceptions of their changing city, and presents an evocative series of ethnographic perspectives of the city's shifting sociological landscape in this period of transition.Women and the Family in Chinese History (Asia's Transformations/Critical Asian Scholarship)
By Patricia Ebrey. 2002
This is a collection of essays by one of the leading scholars of Chinese history, Patricia Buckley. In the essays…
she has selected for this fascinating volume, Professor Ebrey explores features of the Chinese family, gender and kinship systems as practices and ideas intimately connected to history and therefore subject to change over time. The essays cover topics ranging from dowries and the sale of women into forced concubinary, to the excesses of the imperial harem, excruciating pain of footbinding, and Confucian ideas of womanly virtue.Patricia Ebrey places these sociological analyses of women within the family in an historical context, analysing the development of the wider kinship system. Her work provides an overview of the early modern period, with a specific focus on the Song period (920-1276), a time of marked social and cultural change, and considered to be the beginning of the modern period in Chinese history.With its wide-ranging examination of issues relating to women and the family, this book will be essential reading to scholars of Chinese history and gender studies.Collective Goods: Collective Futures in East and Southeast Asia
By Sally Sargeson. 2002
This edited collection explores issues surrounding the provision of collective goods within the context of post-crisis East and Southeast Asia.…
It includes case studies on Korea, Indonesia, China, Laos, Malaysia and Singapore among others.North Korea under Communism: Report of an Envoy to Paradise
By Cornell Erik. 2002
After the collapse of the Soviet world, North Korea alone has continued on the rigid communist way, in spite of…
its economic consequences leading the state beyond ruin to famine. What are the reasons behind this peculiar choice of direction? Why did the leaders in Pyongyang pursue a policy abandoned not only by the Soviet Union, but also by China and Vietnam? The author of this book spent three years as head of the embassy of Sweden in Pyongyang. Until a few years ago, it was the only Western embassy in North Korea. His unique experiences are related with descriptions of day-to-day life and with analyses of economic, political and ideological conditions. A picture is drawn of a society and a political order that defy both human nature and common sense.