Islamic & Middle Eastern Studies

Melek Hanım, an Ottoman woman of Greek, Armenian, and French heritage, accompanied her husband to various postings in Palestine and Serbia, and shared with him the frustrations of the arbitrary periodic dismissals that characterized late Ottoman politics. Her account of life in Turkey contains details of political intrigue, corruption and demonstrates the influence and mobility available to women in the official households of the Ottoman elite. Filled with maneuvers, murder, divorce, political machinations, and vengeance, Hanım's life was an attempt to gain access to property she viewed as legitimately her own. This book was written during her later exile in Paris.

Grace Ellison (d. 1935) actively encouraged dialogues between Turkish and British women at the outset of the twentieth century. Connected with progressive Ottoman elites discussing female and social emancipation, Ellison stayed in an Ottoman harem. Working as a respected journalist, she published articles about British-Turkish relations, Turkish nationalism, and the status of women across cultures. This book recounts Ellison’s stay with her friend Fâtima and features reports on motherhood, employment, polygamy, slavery, harem life, modernization, veiling, and prominent women writers. Despite an impressive legacy, Ellison and her work have almost disappeared from the historical record; the republication of this 1915 work aims to address this neglect.

This is a pioneering historical investigation of the Assyrian, Chaldean, and Syrian Christian minorities during World War I, who suffered the same fate as the Armenians. Ethnic cleansing and large-scale massacres occurred throughout northern Mesopotamia and parts of Ottoman-occupied Iran. Based on primary sources from official archives, as well as hitherto unused manuscript sources and oral histories published here for the first time, this book attempts to give a full picture of the events of 1915. The book concentrates on the Assyrians of Urmia and Hakkari and on the Syrians of Diyarbekir province, particularly in Tur Abdin.

This book is a pioneering introduction in English to Islamic law, based directly on the Arabic texts. It has stood the test of time as an ample account of Muslim legal theories with regard to state finance, done in English, using the terms of the legal texts themselves.

The Unveiled Ladies of Istanbul (Stamboul) is a picturesque description of women's life in post-World War I Turkey during a period of social and political turmoil. Here Demetra Vaka (1877-1946), an expatriate of Ottoman Turkey, established American journalist and acquaintance of Prince Sabaheddin, returns to her native Istanbul after a 20-year absence. Describing women's lives in post-World War I Turkey, she reports on the successful project of female emancipation pursued by Mustafa Kemal as part of the nationalist agenda. Noting how much this project had benefited upper- and middle-class Turkish women, Vaka nonetheless regrets that the gradual emergence of the monocultural, modern Republic was bringing an end to the multiethnic character of the Ottoman State.

Morony compares conditions in late Sasanian and early Islamic Iraq in the seventh century AD and depicts both the emergence of a local form of Islamic society, and the interaction of Muslim conquerors from Arabia with the native population.

A collection of folktales from Iraq, dating from the 1930s, found in the archives of the famous English Lady E. S. Drower (1879–1972), who was novelist, folklorist, specialist on the Mandaeans, and writer of travel accounts. New tales edited by Jorunn Buckley form a second volume of Drower’s Folktales. The stories—carrying recognizable Near Eastern folk-tale features—feature monsters and heroes, maidens and fairies and they give a vivid picture of a now extinct oral folktale tradition. This Gorgias Press edition includes previously unpublished tales in addition to those of the 1931 edition.

Isaac Armalet’s catalogue gives the first detailed description of the Syriac, Garshuni and Arabic manuscripts at the Syriac Catholic Patriarchal Library at the Monastery of Charfet in Lebanon. The manuscript collection was established there in the eighteenth century and contains biblical, liturgical, and theological texts of importance to understanding the Christian heritage of the East.

This book sheds light on the first three Crusades (1097-1191) by introducing material from several medieval Syriac and Arabic sources and reconciling their accounts with those provided by Western sources. It presents the Crusades as an extension of the conflict between Christianity and Islam, which began with the Arabs’ first incursions into Christian territory in the seventh century and continued with their conquest of the Iberian peninsula.

Gives a travelogue and a journal of his missionary activities in the Middle East between 1834 and 1841, primarily with the Church of the East.

This book gives the biography of William Ambrose Shedd (1876-1918), written by Mary Lewis Shedd, the wife of his last years. W. A. Shedd was an American Protestant missionary who was born in Urmia, Iran, and spent most of his life there among the Assyrian Christians of northwestern Iran. He received his education in Princeton.

In the tradition of older oriental literatures, Arabic literature contains numerous proverbs, moral sayings and worldly-wise dicta, as well as great collections of homiletic and religious sayings. This anthology of Wit and Wisdom is a small drop from a deep ocean – that of the rich aphoristic and proverbial literature of the Arabs. It comprises five hundred items, ranging from the seventh to the twentieth centuries, and is organized under a number of headings which provide a broad classification of the subject matter.

In this edition of Cheikho’s literary survey of Arabic literature of the nineteenth century, the reader will find the Arabic original of Cheikho’s fine text. Difficult to locate outside the Middle East, Gorgias Press is now bringing this uncommon find to Arabists in the western world.

A historical dictionary translating Syriac into Arabic, this handy volume brings together the language of the author’s Chaldean Church and the Arabic of his contemporary culture. This scarce volume, now available in the west, is sure to be of considerable interest to scholars of Syriac and Arabic alike.

The first English biography ever written about Saladin, this thoroughly researched biography by a reputable scholar retains its readability and interest for those interested in this major Islamic leader of the twelfth century.

A sanctioned biography of T. E. Lawrence, known popularly as “Lawrence of Arabia,” this work by the eminent Robert Graves attempts to provide a fair and balanced treatment of the man. Based on interviews with Lawrence and his close associates, this account clearly displays its authenticity.

The continuing developments in Islam since Wismar’s time make this book as relevant today as it was when it was published. The question explored here is what the approach of Islam is towards religious tolerance. To get at the answer, Wismar went back to the Quran and the practice of Muhammad, Abu Bakr, and Umar Ibn al-Khattab, the first two Caliphs, in order to determine what the primary sources taught on the issue.

A fine example of Arabic science, Shams ed-Din abu-Abdullah Muhammad al-Dimashqi’s Cosmography has almost been forgotten by the Western world. Translated into French by A. F. Mehren, this important historical text will now be widely available.

This written travelogue of Ella Sykes’ historic first journey across central Asia has been considered a classic of women’s studies as well as a historic travel account. Detailing the impressions of Sykes while traveling with her diplomat brother through central Asia in the nineteenth century, this illustrated volume has a wide appeal to those interested in Iran as it used to be.

A fascinating travelogue through southern and central Iran, this early nineteenth-century account is written with wit and insight; the polymathic Copley Amory Jr. proves an able tour guide. The reader is taken from Tehran to Kerman and back, along a trail that highlights ancient sites of historical importance. Along the way, the culture of “tribes and tents” is described, as well as a plucky misadventure involving encounters with camel caravans and excessive automobile troubles. Written in a witty and engaging style, this account of a classic journey contains an education in the history and customs of a vanishing way of life.

Concerned that many in his day did not understand basic Muslim teaching led Shukri to produce this brief monograph. In it he explores the various schools of Islamic jurisprudence and the teachings concerning the legal issues of marriage and divorce, including the topic of the equalities of the partners.

More of a grammatical tool than an actual grammar, this Arabic publication of ten ancient treatises on Arabic philology is a useful tool for the student of Arabic who already knows the basics of the language. Each piece begins with a description of the manuscript and what is known of the author and is accompanied by footnotes and an index.

Part travelogue and part memoir, this account of Major Sir Hubert Young’s time spent in the Middle East in diplomatic and military roles provides a rare insider’s look at political developments in that part of the world. Sympathetic with the rich Arabic heritage of Mesopotamia, Arabia, and what is now Jordan and Syria, Young writes a lucid narrative spanning the time from his first involvement up to the Iraqi Mandate.

The original manuscript of the Arabic Improvement of the Moral Qualities was examined by Wise in order to prepare this edition. The text includes a copy of the original Arabic, a translation into English, and an essay on the place of Solomon ibn Gabirol in the development of Jewish ethics.