Review – Books

In his new book Media of the Masses: Cassette Culture In Modern Egypt, Andrew Simon recounts how, on 12 June, 1974, US President Richard Nixon landed in Cairo for...

Since it was first published in 1959, Naguib Mahfouz's 'Children of the Alley' has drawn objections from scholars at Al-Azhar and instigated an attack on his life. Then in 1988...

"From a deep history perspective, Ottoman rule in Iraq — the land of ancient Babylonia — was a political oddity," writes Faisal Husain in Rivers of the Sultan: The...

Maurice Ebileeni's study of Palestinian literary narratives and the imaginings of the Palestinian homeland highlights the need to rethink both. Being There, Being Here: Palestinian Writings in the World...

How does history look at non-urban, rural populations who lived through the last century of the Ottoman Empire and the rise of the Turkish republic? Chris Gratien's The Unsettled...

In January 2022, Kazakhstan made international headlines when it was hit by waves of popular protests which were suppressed by the authorities in the Central Asian state. What began...

"Palestine revealed itself to me in layers," reflects Becky Klein, the Jewish American protagonist and narrator in Alison Glick's novel, The Other End of the Sea (Interlink Books, 2021),...

Genetic Crossroads: The Middle East and the Science of Human Heredity by Elise Burton, is a sweeping history of 'genetic nationalism' in the 20th century covering Iran, Turkey, Israel,...

Jocelyn Hendrickson takes us on a historical and legal tour exploring Islamic responses to Christian conquests in Spain and North West Africa in her book Leaving Iberia: Islamic Law...

Pluto Press has published the fourth, and rewritten edition of Paul Roger's "Losing Control: Global Security in the 21st Century". The first edition was published a little while after...

"The occupation has remained unchallenged by an international order that seems willing to legitimise it as long as there is no accepted agreement to end it." Sara Roy's succinct...

"Tyranny is the origin of every perversity," claims the author of The Nature of Tyranny and the Devastating Results of Oppression. "Tyranny corrupts the mind by restrictions, and degrades...

The author of Reinventing the Sheikhdom: Clan, Power and Patronage in Mohammed bin Zayed's UAE had his own brush with the security apparatus in the sheikhdom when he was...

Memory trajectories and their loss are well portrayed in Mustafa Kabha and Nahim Karlinsky's book, "The Lost Orchard: The Palestinian-Arab Citrus Industry, 1850-1950" (Syracuse University Press, 2021). In the...

Situating the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) within the colonial and humanitarian context provides a great deal of insight into the...

In a village in Palestine long ago the women are not allowed to leave or learn to read, and the elders have banned bright clothes because they consider them...

If there was one figure central to postcolonial studies and the intellectual force behind the Palestinian meeting with Western academia, it was undoubtedly the late Edward W Said. Although...

Without oral testimonies, a good part of history is thrown into oblivion. What remains, then, is the reported, or publicised façade, one that disseminates a rudimentary sketch while abandoning...

If Palestine is treated as an exception, the settler-colonial narrative is legitimised. Marc Lamont Hill and Mitchell Plitnick's book, Except for Palestine: The Limits of Progressive Politics is an...

Growing up, taking a zeit and za'atar sandwich to school for lunch was not cool, nor was my humous and falafel sandwich. The delicious food my grandmothers, mother, and...

Whether it is Israeli soldiers assualting and detaining groups of Palestinian schoolchildren, Syrian refugee children stranded in camps in sub zero temperatures without protection and food, or Uyghur minors...

Sahar Mustafah’s debut novel is a deep dive into the complexities of being a Muslim immigrant family in America

"Walking through the town square in El-Bireh, I'd noticed a little Palestinian boy selling Wrigleys — they call it taxi gum — five shekels for five pieces. The child...

Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) is often described as the most militant of the main Palestinian resistance factions yet, when compared with the likes of Hamas and Fatah, little is...

The decolonial approach in this collection of studies offers an important and at times over looked perspective of how Palestinians have become ensnared in a settler-colonial and neoliberal project....

This new book by Cigdem Oguz, who teaches history at Bologna University, reveals the growing concern in Ottoman society during the First World War about the decline in public...

Capital and State Building in the West Bank

The sheer speed and scale of the early Islamic conquests following the death of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) in 632 CE has captivated the imaginations of historians...

The author of The Last Great War of Antiquity makes the point that its writing was "no easy task… but given the importance of the war, it is worth...

It is safe to say that Ali Ibn Abi Talib is one of the most important figures in early Islamic history, recognised as the fourth Rightly Guided Caliph by...

So many stories of Palestine and Palestinians remain untold. The brevity associated with news reports barely scratches the surface of the ramifications of Israeli settler-colonialism, let alone allow non-Palestinians...

At a time when Palestine is becoming increasingly isolated, and the Palestinian struggle for liberation is being smothered under the normalisation agreements, the importance of internationalist solidarity cannot be...