Naguib Mahfouz, the Arab world's only Nobel literature laureate, is best known internationally for his short stories and novels, including The Cairo Trilogy. But in Egypt he was equally familiar to newspaper readers for the column he wrote for many y...

In these essays Naguib Mahfouz comments on Egyptian politics, the role of Parliament, and the institutional changes that took place in Egypt after Honsi Mubarak became President in 1981. 

This kaleidoscopic book covers almost 3,000 years of Arab history and shines a light on the footloose Arab peoples and tribes who conquered lands and disseminated their language and culture over vast distances. Tracing this process to the origins of...

In this enchanting book, Merav Mack and Benjamin Balint explore Jerusalem's libraries to tell the story of this city as a place where some of the world's most enduring ideas were put into words. The writers of Jerusalem, although renowned the world o...

Osman, the founder of the Ottoman Empire, had a dream in which a tree sprouted from his navel.  As the tree grew, its shade covered the earth; as Osman's empire grew, it, too, covered the earth. This is the most widely accepted foundation myth of the...

For sale in CIS only! It was the original forever war, which went on interminably, fuelled by religious fanaticism, personal ambition, fear of hegemony, and communal suspicion. It dragged in all the neighbouring powers. It was punctuated by repeated...

For sale in CIS only! When India and Pakistan held nuclear tests in 1998, they restarted the clock on a competition that had begun half a century earlier. Nuclear weapons restored strategic parity, erasing the advantage of India's much larger size a...

Baryalai Popal sees his Western-educated professors at Kabul University replaced by communists. He witnesses his classmates "disappearing". The communist takeover uproots Popal from his family and home. Thus begins Crossing the River Kabul, the true...

A lively analysis of the Arab Gulf states' stunning rise to global power over the last half-century and of the daunting challenges they confront today Once just sleepy desert sheikdoms, the Arab Gulf states of Saudi Arabia, Oman, the United Arab Emir...

For sale in CIS only! Spared by the Arab revolts, Bouteflika's Algeria continues to intrigue observers. How does its political system function? Who really governs? Who are behind the protests? How strong are the Islamists? Are there alternatives to...