Middle Times History

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 the Arabic language, rather than the advent of Islam, Tim Mackintosh-Smith begins his narrative more than a thousand years before Muhammad and focuses on how Arabic, both spoken and written, has functioned as a vital source of shared cultural identity over the millennia.

The Middle East has long been a region of rival religions, ideologies, nationalisms, and ambitions. All of these conflicts are rooted in the region's political inheritance: the arrangements, unities, and divisions imposed by the Allies after the First World War. Author David Fromkin reveals how and why the Allies drew lines on an empty map that remade the geography and politics of the Middle East. Focusing on the formative years of 1914 to 1922, when all seemed possible, he delivers in this sweeping and magisterial book the definitive account of this defining time.

Drawing from both Christian and Islamic sources, Reconquest and Crusade in Medieval Spain demonstrates that the clash of arms between Christians and Muslims in the Iberian peninsula that began in the early eighth century was transformed into a crusade by the papacy during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Successive popes accorded to Christian warriors willing to participate in the peninsular wars against Islam the same crusading benefits offered to those going to the Holy Land.

New York Times Bestseller * A New Yorker Best Book of the Year * A Washington Post Notable Book of the Year * A New York Times Editors' Choice "No one has opened up the CIA to us like Weiner has, and The Mission deserves to win Weiner a second Pulitzer." —The Guardian A masterpiece of...

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER From the acclaimed author of No god but God comes “a lucid, intelligent page-turner” (Los Angeles Times) that challenges long-held assumptions about Jesus. “Riveting . . . [Reza] Aslan synthesizes Scripture and scholarship to create an original account...

In an Arizona desert a man wanders in a daze, speaking words that make no sense. Within twenty-four hours he is dead, his body swiftly cremated by his only known associates. Halfway around the world archaeologists make a shocking discovery at a medieval site. Suddenly they are swept off to the...

A stunning exploration of the Greater Middle East, where lasting stability has often seemed just out of reach but may hold the key to the shifting world order of the twenty-first century “Engaging . . . Even those who resist Kaplan’s tragic sensibility have much to learn from his look at the...

He built monuments, but he destroyed everyone he loved. Herod the Great ruled the Holy Land for thirty-seven years, transforming a backwater province into the jewel of the Roman Empire. His architectural marvels—including the magnificent Second Temple—still inspire awe today. But behind the golden façade lay a man consumed by paranoia, whose quest for absolute power would cost him his family, his soul, and ultimately his sanity. From his rise as a young military commander to his final, blood-soaked years, “Herod the Great: The Last King” traces the epic tragedy of history’s most ...

A true story as exhilarating as a great spy thriller, as turbulent as today's headlines from the Middle East, A Time to Betray reveals what no other previous CIA operative's memoir possibly could: the inner workings of the notorious Revolutionary Guards of Iran, as witnessed by an Iranian man inside their ranks who spied for the American government.

Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction Nominated for the National Book Award for Nonfiction From the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Ghost Wars and The Achilles Trap, the epic and enthralling story of America's intelligence, military, and diplomatic efforts to...

This book is about an idea - namely, that Scripture mandates a Jewish return to the historical region of Palestine - which in turn morphed into a political movement, rallied around a popular slogan ("A country without a nation for a nation without a country"), and eventually contributed to the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948. Christian Zionism continues to influence global politics, especially US foreign policy, and has deeply affected Jewish-Christian and Muslim-Christian relations.

An engineer finds himself in an alternate reality, Cornwall, in the year 715 A.D. He awakens in the body of a young Baron. A retired Lieutenant General, former head of the Army Corp of Engineers, lies dying at the age of ninety-two. Leading a full life, he is a decorated veteran of World War II, Korea, and Vietnam. After a long illness, he lies dying. His last thought is, "What a waste of such wonderful knowledge." As he fades to black, the fun begins. He is to build a modern civilization without being burned as a witch!

You may not know a lot about Ancient Egypt, but this book is here to tell you all of the most important points and teach you how awesome Ancient Egyptians were.

Despite the flames of record-breaking temperatures licking at our feet, most people fail to fully grasp the gravity of environmental overheating. What acquired habits and conveniences allow us to turn a blind eye with an air of detachment? Using examples from the hottest places on earth, Heat, a History shows how scientific methods of accounting for heat and modern forms of acclimatization have desensitized us to climate change.

The next-true life NCIS story from New York Times bestselling authors Mark Harmon and Leon Carroll, Jr. Read by the author. Panama, 1989. The once warm relationship between United States and Gen. Manuel Noriega has eroded dangerously. Newly elected President George Bush has declared the...

History is usually taught as something finished. Dates memorized. Speeches quoted. Pictures frozen in black and white. But history was never meant to stay still. For Calvin, learning about the civil rights movement in school stirred something deeper than curiosity. It raised questions textbooks couldn’t answer—questions about fairness, courage, fear, and what it really means to stand up when standing up comes with a cost. And Calvin isn’t the kind of boy who can ignore questions like that. With his loyal beagle, Pudge, by his side, Calvin does something few people ever get the chance ...

Muhammad presents a fascinating portrait of the founder of a religion that continues to change the course of world history. Muhammad’s story is more relevant than ever because it offers crucial insight into the true origins of an increasingly radicalized Islam. Countering those who dismiss Islam as fanatical and violent, Armstrong offers a clear, accessible, and balanced portrait of the central figure of one of the world’s great religions.

When Jax, Marcus, and Devin travel back to ancient China, they expect to witness one of history's greatest construction projects. Instead, they land in the middle of a desperate race against time. A wounded messenger, a chain of beacon towers, and an army of raiders bearing down on an unsuspecting garrison—the boys have only hours to carry a warning across the mountains before it's too late. The Great Wall of China wasn't just stone and earth. It was a communication system spanning hundreds of miles, built by ordinary people doing extraordinary things. Now three friends from the present ...

What if you only had six hours to save a family from history's most famous disaster? Best friends Jax, Marcus, and Devin are back—and this time, their time-travel device has dropped them in the worst possible place at the worst possible moment. They've landed in the ancient Roman city of Pompeii on the morning of August 24, 79 CE. The mountain looming over the city isn't just any mountain. It's Vesuvius. And in a few short hours, it's going to explode. When the boys witness a family in trouble, they make a choice that will test everything they've learned about courage, teamwork, and what ...

Two thousand years ago, Jesus walked across Galilee; everywhere he traveled he gained followers. His contemporaries are familiar historical figures: Julius Caesar, Caesar Augustus, Herod the Great, Pontius Pilate. It was an era of oppression, when every man, woman, and child answered to the...