The Best Middle Eastern History Books 2026

1. Afghanistan: A Short History of Its People and Politics, (Paperback)

Afghanistan: A Short History of Its People and Politics

Afghanistan: A Short History of Its People and Politics, (Paperback) Author: Harper Perennial ISBN: 9780060505080 Format: Paperback Publication Date: 2002-09-17 Page Count: 368

2. Pre-Owned Pledge

The Pledge

The Pledge (Paperback)

3. Lords of the Horizons: A History of the Ottoman Empire, (Paperback)

"A work of dazzling beauty...the rare coming together of historical scholarship and curiosity about distant places with luminous writing." --The New York Times Book Review Since the Turks first shattered the glory of the French crusaders in 1396, the Ottoman Empire has exerted a long, strong pull on Western minds. For six hundred years, the Empire swelled and declined. Islamic, martial, civilized, and tolerant, in three centuries it advanced from the dusty foothills of Anatolia to rule on the Danube and the Nile; at the Empire's height, Indian rajahs and the kings of France beseeched its aid. For the next three hundred years the Empire seemed ready to collapse, a prodigy of survival and decay. Early in the twentieth century it fell. In this dazzling evocation of its power, Jason Goodwin explores how the Ottomans rose and how, against all odds, they lingered on. In the process he unfolds a sequence of mysteries, triumphs, treasures, and terrors unknown to most American readers. This was a place where pillows spoke and birds were fed in the snow; where time itself unfolded at a different rate and clocks were banned; where sounds were different, and even the hyacinths too strong to sniff. Dramatic and passionate, comic and gruesome, Lords of the Horizons is a history, a travel book, and a vision of a lost world all in one.

Lords of the Horizons: A History of the Ottoman Empire, (Paperback) Author: Picador USA ISBN: 9780312420666 Format: Paperback Publication Date: 2003-01-01 Page Count: 368

4. Pre-Owned The Gulfwar 1991 (Paperback) 1841765740 9781841765747

The Gulf War of 1991 heralded a new type of warfare that was characterised by astonishing speed and high technology with remarkably low numbers of casualties amongst the coalition forces. Just under a million coalition personnel were deployed to the Gulf region to face a variety of threats from extreme temperatures to weapons of mass destruction (biological, chemical and suspected nuclear) and a formidable Iraqi occupation force. This book assesses the defensive Operation Desert Shield (the build up of coalition forces) and the offensive Operation Desert Storm (the liberation of Kuwait) as well as the key personalities on both sides.

Title: The Gulfwar 1991 Book Format: Paperback ISBN10: 1841765740 EAN: 9781841765747 Genre: HISTORY / Military / Persian Gulf War (1991) Author: Finlan, Alastair Pre-Owned Condition- Pages can include limited notes and highlighting, and the copy can include 'From the library of' labels or previous owner inscriptions. Accessories such as CD, codes, toys, may not be included.

5. Arabic Thought in the Liberal Age 1798-1939, (Paperback)

Arabic Thought in the Liberal Age 1798-1939 is the most comprehensive study of the modernizing trend of political and social thought in the Arab Middle East. Albert Hourani studies the way in which ideas about politics and society changed during the nineteenth and the first half of the twentieth centuries, in response to the expanding influence of Europe. His main attention is given to the movement of ideas in Egypt and Lebanon. He shows how two streams of thought, the one aiming to restate the social principles of Islam, and the other to justify the separation of religion from politics, flowed into each other to create the Egyptian and Arab nationalisms of the present century. The last chapter of the book surveys the main tendencies of thought in the post-war years. Since its publication in 1962, this book has been regarded as a modern classic of interpretation. It was reissued by the Cambridge University Press in 1983 and has subsequently sold over 8000 copies.

Arabic Thought in the Liberal Age 1798-1939, (Paperback) Author: Cambridge University Press ISBN: 9780521274234 Format: Paperback Publication Date: 1983-06-23 Page Count: 418

6. The Saudis, (Paperback)

Sandra Mackey lived in Saudi Arabia for four years, and as far as the authorities knew, she was simply the wife of an American doctor. But she saw things and traveled to places rarely viewed by any outsider, let alone a Western woman, and she succeeded in smuggling out a series of crucial articles on Saudi culture and politics. The Saudis offers a fascinating portrait of Saudi life, chronicling Mackey's extraordinary travels and experiences and depicting Saudi Arabia's strange metamorphosis from backward desert kingdom to world power. Mackey reveals the chaos of a country in transformation: grappling with modernity, coming to terms with its own wealth, and battling to maintain an influential stance in an altogether new world. This updated edition provides the essential background to the new Saudi crisis as the mother state of international terrorism.

The Saudis, (Paperback) Author: W. W. Norton & Company ISBN: 9780393324174 Format: Paperback Publication Date: 2002-10-01 Page Count: 466