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  • Geschiedenis Midden Oosten - Netherlands

    • Hoe houd je je hart zacht?

      Natascha van Weezel

      Geschiedenis Midden-Oosten Een persoonlijke zoektocht naar het belang van zachte krachten in een harde oorlog. 7 oktober 2023 was voor veel mensen de dag waarop de wereld veranderde. Zo ook voor Natascha van Weezel. In haar door de Holocaust getekende familiegeschiedenis werd Israël altijd gezien als verzekeringspolis, een veilige uitwijkmogelijkheid voor áls het in Europa weer mis mocht gaan. Nu twijfelt ze aan haar liefde voor het land onder Netanyahus heerschappij, en bloedt haar hart ook voor de vele doden in Gaza. Wat doet het met je als je moet huilen om die gruwelijk wrede oorlog, maar tegelijk niet vindt dat Israël als land moet worden opgedoekt? In de huidige gepolariseerde werkelijkheid word je haast gedwongen om óf voor Israël, óf voor Palestina te kiezen. Natascha zoekt steeds weer naar een verbindende positie in het midden. In dit essay stelt ze de vraag: kan een middenpositie ook radicaal zijn, een constructieve kracht die bijdraagt aan verbetering? De positie tussen twee vuren heeft zijn pr

    • Mijn beloofde land

      Ari Shavit

      Geschiedenis Midden-Oosten Indringend boek over de geschiedenis van Israël Aan de hand van menselijke verhalen, ogenschijnlijk kleine gebeurtenissen en gesprekken met hoofdrolspelers vertelt Ari Shavit in Mijn beloofde land het complexe verhaal van de moderne geschiedenis van de staat Israël. Israël bevindt zich momenteel in een existentiële crisis. Ari Shavit, een van de invloedrijkste journalisten van Israël, gaat de dialoog aan met zijn landgenoten en hun historie. Hoe is Israël, ooit een bastion van idealisme en democratische beginselen, op dit verontrustende punt beland? In plaats van het bekende verhaal – van de oorlogen, de bestanden en de bekende politieke kopstukken – vertelt Shavit het verhaal van de leiders van de volksopstanden, van de boeren, de immigranten, de kolonisten en van de Arabieren: kortom, de mensen die het (morele) fundament vormen van het land Israël. Ari Shavit is een van de meest gewaardeerde journalisten van Israël. Hij is politiek columnist van Haaretz, de invloedrijkst

    • The Hundred Years' War on Palestine

      Rashid I. Khalidi

      Geschiedenis Midden-Oosten THE SUNDAY TIMES AND NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER 'Riveting and original ... a work enriched by solid scholarship, vivid personal experience, and acute appreciation of the concerns and aspirations of the contending parties in this deeply unequal conflict ' Noam Chomsky The twentieth century for Palestine and the Palestinians has been a century of denial: denial of statehood, denial of nationhood and denial of history. The Hundred Years War on Palestine is Rashid Khalidi's powerful response. Drawing on his family archives, he reclaims the fundamental right of any people: to narrate their history on their own terms. Beginning in the final days of the Ottoman Empire, Khalidi reveals nascent Palestinian nationalism and the broad recognition by the early Zionists of the colonial nature of their project. These ideas and their echoes defend Nakba - the Palestinian term for the establishment of the state of Israel - the cession of the West Bank and Gaza to Jordan and Egypt, the Six Day War and t

    • Een goede man slaat soms zijn vrouw

      Joris Luyendijk

      Geschiedenis Midden-Oosten 'Andere volken zien mij niet als superieur en willen niet worden zoals ik. Deze aardverschuiving in mijn wereldbeeld besloot ik centraal te zetten in 'Een goede man slaat soms zijn vrouw'. Daarom ook koos ik de titel; een meisje dat zegt dat een kerel die nooit de handen laat wapperen, geen geloofwaardige huwelijkskandidaat is… Verder van mijn westerse mens- en wereldbeeld kon ik niet komen.' Lang voordat immigratie van moslims in Nederland een hot issue werd, probeerde Joris Luyendijk het omgekeerde: integreren in een islamitisch land. Hij schreef zich in aan de Universiteit van Caïro en leefde een jaar lang tussen Egyptische leeftijdgenoten. Luyendijk sprak met hen over liefde, islam, het Westen, seks, democratie, homo’s, joden, fundamentalisme, emancipatie en de zin van het bestaan.

    • Israël-Palestina

      Derk Walters

      Geschiedenis Midden-Oosten De aanval van Hamas op Israël van 7 oktober 2023 schokte de regio en de wereld. Voor Israëliërs resulteerde de aanval in een groot psychologisch trauma. Bij de militaire reactie, met bombardementen en een grondinvasie in Gaza, werden tienduizenden Palestijnen gedood en bijna twee miljoen mensen van huis en haard verdreven. Het Israëlisch-Palestijnse conflict stond in de jaren hiervoor in het Westen steeds minder in de belangstelling. Dat is in één klap veranderd. Historisch gezien is Israël altijd al onderwerp geweest van felle debatten over religie, de Holocaust, kolonialisme en terrorisme. In dit Elementair Deeltje gaat Derk Walters in op de historische context van het conflict. Hij legt uit waarom mensen langs elkaar heen praten als het over dit onderwerp gaat, en waarom oplossingen ver buiten bereik liggen.

    • Rise and Kill First

      Ronen Bergman

      Geschiedenis Midden-Oosten NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The first definitive history of Israel’s targeted killing programs, which have shaped the Israeli nation, the Middle East, and the larger world—from the man hailed by David Remnick as “arguably [Israel’s] best investigative reporter.” “An exceptional work, a humane book about an incendiary subject . . . full of shocking moments, surprising disturbances in a narrative full of fateful twists and unintended consequences.”— The New York Times WINNER OF THE NATIONAL JEWISH BOOK AWARD IN HISTORY • ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: Jennifer Szalai, The New York Times • A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: The Economist, The New York Times Book Review, BBC History Magazine, Mother Jones The Talmud says: “If someone comes to kill you, rise up and kill him first.” This instinct to take every measure, even the most aggressive, to defend the Jewish people is hardwired into Israel’s DNA. From the very beginning of its statehood in 1948, protecting t

    • Israël. 7 oktober

      Lee Yaron

      Geschiedenis Midden-Oosten Getuigen van de terreuraanval door Hamas Op 7 oktober 2023 lanceerde Hamas vanuit Gaza een ongekende aanval op Israël. Circa 1200 burgers lieten het leven. Er vielen meer dan 2500 gewonden. Zo'n 250 mensen werden ontvoerd. Het was de dodelijkste dag voor het Joodse volk sinds de Tweede Wereldoorlog. Onderzoeksjournalist Lee Yaron interviewde honderden overlevenden, nabestaanden en hulpverleners. Van het Tribe of Nova-muziekfestival tot Kibboets Be'eri, van een bedoeïenenfamilie tot een overlevende van de Holocaust, haar verslag legt elk detail van dit tragische bloedbad vast.

    • SAS: de gijzeling

      Ben Macintyre

      Geschiedenis Midden-Oosten Bestsellerauteur Macintyre neemt je mee naar 1980: de bezetting van de Iraanse ambassade in Londen en de nagelbijtend spannende reddingsactie van de SAS, een gebeurtenis die een directe historische link vormt met de tragedie van 9/11 Toen de Iraanse gijzelingscrisis in de Amerikaanse ambassade in Iran in het voorjaar van 1980 zijn zevende maand inging, bestormden zes zwaarbewapende schutters de Iraanse ambassade in Londen en verschansten zich daar met 26 gegijzelden. Wat volgde was een gespannen zesdaagse impasse, die elk moment kon ontsporen in een bloedbad. Agent Trevor Lock zou de avond van 30 april 1980 naar het theater gaan. In plaats daarvan werd hij overmeesterd en de ambassade binnen gevoerd. De schutters waren Arabieren die hoopten Groot-Brittannië te kunnen dwingen hun kant te kiezen in hun onafhankelijkheidsstrijd tegen de hoogste Iraanse leider: ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. Achter de schermen loerde de wrede Iraakse dictator Saddam Hoessein, die de hele affaire had gefina

    • Seven Pillars of Wisdom

      T.E. Lawrence

      Geschiedenis Midden-Oosten Seven Pillars of Wisdom is the autobiographical account of T.E. Lawrence - also known as 'Lawrence of Arabia' - of his service in the Arab Revolt during the First World War, published in Penguin Modern Classics. Although 'continually and bitterly ashamed' that the Arabs had risen in revolt against the Turks as a result of fraudulent British promises of self-rule, Lawrence led them in a triumphant campaign which revolutionized the art of war. Seven Pillars of Wisdom recreates epic events with extraordinary vividness. In the words of E. M. Forster, 'Round this tent-pole of a military chronicle, Lawrence has hung an unexampled fabric of portraits, descriptions, philosophies, emotions, adventures, dreams'. However flawed, T.E. Lawrence is one of the twentieth century's most fascinating figures. This is the greatest monument to his character and achievements, and formed the basis for the Oscar-winning film Lawrence of Arabia , staring Peter O'Toole and Alec Guinness. This edition includes

    • Lawrence in Arabia

      Scott Anderson

      Geschiedenis The Sunday Times Top Ten Bestseller 2014 New York Times top ten bestseller 2014 Amazon.com's Top Ten History Books of the Year 2014 New York Times Book of the Year 2014 The Arab Revolt against the Turks in World War One was, in the words of T.E. Lawrence, 'a sideshow of a sideshow'. Amidst the slaughter in European trenches, the Western combatants paid scant attention to the Middle Eastern theatre. As a result, the conflict was shaped to a remarkable degree by a small handful of adventurers and low-level officers far removed from the corridors of power. At the centre of it all was Lawrence. In early 1914 he was an archaeologist excavating ruins in the sands of Syria; by 1917 he was battling both the enemy and his own government to bring about the vision he had for the Arab people. Operating in the Middle East at the same time, but to wildly different ends, were three other important players: a German attaché, an American oilman and a committed Zionist. The intertwined paths of these

    • A Durable Peace

      Benjamin Netanyahu

      Geschiedenis Midden-Oosten This examination of the Middle East's troubled history traces the origins, development and politics of Israel's relationship with the Arab world and the West. It argues that peace with the Palestinians will leave Israel vulnerable to Iraq and Iran.

    • Brevissima storia del conflitto tra Israele e Palestina

      Ilan Pappé

      Geschiedenis Midden-Oosten L’attacco di Hamas del 7 ottobre 2023 e gli orrori che ne sono seguiti hanno sconvolto il mondo. Ma il conflitto israelo-palestinese non è iniziato quel giorno. E neppure nel 1967, quando Israele ha occupato la Cisgiordania, o nel 1948, quando è stato proclamato lo Stato ebraico. È iniziato nel 1882, quando i primi coloni sionisti sono arrivati in quella che era la Palestina ottomana. Il celebre storico israeliano Ilan Pappé – autore del bestseller internazionale La pulizia etnica della Palestina – ricostruisce qui la vicenda di due popoli che ora condividono una sola terra. Dalle origini del sionismo come movimento coloniale alla pulizia etnica del 1948, dalla resistenza palestinese all’occupazione, al fallimento della soluzione dei due Stati, fino al 7 ottobre 2023 e alle politiche genocide nella Striscia di Gaza, Pappé fa luce con chiarezza e competenza sui principali eventi, personaggi e processi storici per spiegare come mai questo sanguinoso con itto lungo oltre un

    • Op zoek naar de vijand

      Bette Dam

      Geschiedenis Midden-Oosten Tijdens een bezoek aan de Nederlandse troepen in Afghanistan in 2006 ontdekte Bette Dam hoe weinig de soldaten wisten over hun vijand. Ze besloot het militaire kamp te verlaten en zelfstandig op zoek te gaan naar de gevreesde talibanleider moellah Omar. Op zoek naar de vijand is het verslag van een adembenemende zoektocht die haar tot in de gevaarlijkste delen van Afghanistan voerde. We lezen over Omars eerste Koranlessen, de jihad tegen de Sovjet-Unie, zijn opstand tegen gewelddadige krijgsheren, zijn hoop op hulp van de internationale gemeenschap en zijn verbittering over wat de Amerikanen sinds 2001 in zijn land hebben aangericht. Dam reconstrueert als eerste westerse journalist het leven van Omar en doet baanbrekende ontdekkingen over een regime waar zo vele aannames over bestaan, maar waar, zo blijkt, weinig concreet onderzoek naar gedaan is. Op basis van riskant veldwerk en grondig onderzoek plaatst Dam de taliban in een nieuw perspectief. Ze laat zien hoe de taliban, binnen het

    • De Bagdad-Berlijnexpress

      Ana van Es

      Geschiedenis Midden-Oosten Wat een honderd jaar oude Europese spoorlijn vertelt over de Arabische wereld van nu We stellen ons het Midden-Oosten voor als een regio vol oorlog en chaos. Maar er rijdt ook nog een trein doorheen, over een Europese spoorlijn van ruim een eeuw oud – aangelegd door Duitsers, Britten en Fransen die op zoek waren naar olie, oudheden en onontgonnen land. Hoe werkt het koloniale verleden door in het Irak en Syrië van nu? In De Bagdad-Berlijnexpress  reist Ana van Es langs dit spoor, vanaf de Perzische Golf, door het voormalige kalifaat van IS. Op de spoorlijn is de dood nooit ver weg. Maar op het Centraal Station van Bagdad durven ze ook te dromen: over toeristen die terugkeren en een snelle verbinding naar Europa.

    • De honderdjarige oorlog tegen Palestina

      Rashid Khalidi

      Geschiedenis Midden-Oosten De Palestijnse geschiedenis in kaart gebracht In 1899 schreef de burgemeester van Jeruzalem, gealarmeerd door de oproep om een joodse staat in Palestina te vestigen, een bezorgde brief aan Theodor Herzl, grondlegger van het moderne zionisme. De brief eindigde met de woorden: ‘In naam van God, moge Palestina met rust gelaten worden.’ Zo begint Rashid Khalidi, de achter-achterneef van deze burgemeester, dit boek. Op basis van niet eerder gebruikt archiefmateriaal en verslagen van generaties familieleden, zet Khalidi gangbare interpretaties van het Israëlisch-Palestijnse conflict op hun kop. Hij schetst het patroon van een oorlog tegen de Palestijnen, van de Balfourverklaring in 1917 tot de Arabisch-Israëlische oorlog van 1948, de Israëlische invasie van Libanon in 1982 en het steeds weer falende vredesproces. De honderdjarige oorlog tegen Palestina is geen verhaal van slachtofferschap, noch probeert het de fouten van Palestijnse leiders of de opkomst van nationalistische beweging

    • My Promised Land

      Ari Shavit

      Geschiedenis Midden-Oosten NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW AND ECONOMIST BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR “ A deeply reported, deeply personal history of Zionism and Israel that does something few books even attempt: It balances the strength and weakness, the idealism and the brutality, the hope and the horror, that has always been at Zionism’s heart.”—Ezra Klein, The New York Times Winner of the Natan Book Award, the National Jewish Book Award, and the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award Ari Shavit’s riveting work, now updated with new material, draws on historical documents, interviews, and private diaries and letters, as well as his own family’s story, to create a narrative larger than the sum of its parts: both personal and of profound historical dimension. As he examines the complexities and contradictions of the Israeli condition, Shavit asks difficult but important questions: Why did Israel come to be? How did it come to be? Can it survive?    Culminating with an analysis

    • We haten elkaar meer dan de Joden

      Els van Diggele

      Geschiedenis Midden-Oosten Dit boek gaat over verdeeldheid tussen Palestijnen onderling en niet over Israël en de bezetting van de Palestijnse gebieden. Het handelt over een vraag die doorgaans niet gesteld wordt: waarom zijn Palestijnen soms banger voor elkaar dan voor de Israëliërs? De broederstrijd, een constante in de Palestijnse geschiedenis, blijft verborgen achter de schermen van de wereldpolitiek, terwijl de gewone Palestijn er dagelijks schade van ondervindt. Rechtvaardigt de inmiddels vijftig jaar durende bezetting het negeren van dit drama? Tien jaar na de burgeroorlog tussen Hamas en Fatah lijkt een Palestijnse onafhankelijke staat een gepasseerd station en stevenen de Palestijnen af op hun eigen tweestatenoplossing. Is dat het lot van een volk dat zich kan verheugen in een obsessieve media-aandacht en in de hoogste ngo-dichtheid ter wereld? Els van Diggele bezoekt dissidenten en andere goed geïnformeerde onafhankelijke Palestijnen: mensen met lef, die vrijuit spreken. Ze woonde in Ramallah en m

    • 1967

      Tom Segev

      Geschiedenis Midden-Oosten "A marvelous achievement . . . Anyone curious about the extraordinary six days of Arab-Israeli war will learn much from it."— The Economist Tom Segev's acclaimed works One Palestine, Complete and The Seventh Million overturned accepted views of the history of Israel. Now, in 1967 —a number-one bestseller in Hebrew—he brings his masterful skills to the watershed year when six days of war reshaped the country and the entire region. Going far beyond a military account, Segev re-creates the crisis in Israel before 1967, showing how economic recession, a full grasp of the Holocaust's horrors, and the dire threats made by neighbor states combined to produce a climate of apocalypse. He depicts the country's bravado after its victory, the mood revealed in a popular joke in which one soldier says to his friend, "Let's take over Cairo"; the friend replies, "Then what shall we do in the afternoon?" Drawing on unpublished letters and diaries, as well as government memos and military records

    • The Story of the Jews

      Simon Schama

      Geschiedenis In this magnificently illustrated cultural history—the tie-in to the pbs and bbc series The Story of the Jews—simon schama details the story of the jewish people, tracing their experience across three millennia, from their beginnings as an ancient tribal people to the opening of the new world in 1492 It is a story like no other: an epic of endurance in the face of destruction, of creativity in the face of oppression, joy amidst grief, the affirmation of life despite the steepest of odds. It spans the millennia and the continents—from India to Andalusia and from the bazaars of Cairo to the streets of Oxford. It takes you to unimagined places: to a Jewish kingdom in the mountains of southern Arabia; a Syrian synagogue glowing with radiant wall paintings; the palm groves of the Jewish dead in the Roman catacombs. And its voices ring loud and clear, from the severities and ecstasies of the Bible writers to the love poems of wine bibbers in a garden in Muslim Spain. In The Story of t

    • A Line in the Sand

      James Barr

      Geschiedenis ‘The very grubby coalface of foreign policy … I found the entire book most horribly addictive’ Independent ‘One of the unexpected responses to reading this masterful study is amazement at the efforts the British and French each put into undermining the other’ Spectator A fascinating insight into the untold story of how British-French rivalry drew the battle-lines of the modern Middle East. In 1916, in the middle of the First World War, two men secretly agreed to divide the Middle East between them. Sir Mark Sykes was a visionary politician; François Georges-Picot a diplomat with a grudge. They drew a line in the sand from the Mediterranean to the Persian frontier, and together remade the map of the Middle East, with Britain’s 'mandates' of Palestine, Transjordan and Iraq, and France's in Lebanon and Syria. Over the next thirty years  a sordid tale of violence and clandestine political manoeuvring unfolded , told here through a stellar cast of politicians, diplom

    • De zeven steden

      Violet Moller

      Geschiedenis ‘Een fantastisch debuut van een talentvolle jonge auteur. Violet Moller brengt tot leven hoe kennis ons heeft weten te bereiken van de oudheid tot nu in een boek dat leest als een avonturenroman.’ Peter Frankopan, auteur van De zijderoutes Een schitterend onderzoek naar hoe kennis over de astronomie, wiskunde en geneeskunde sinds de oudheid is blijven bestaan De zeven steden laat zien hoe de wetenschap zich heeft ontwikkeld tussen de klassieke oudheid en de renaissance; een periode die van groot belang is geweest voor ons huidige denken. We volgen de belangrijkste ideeën, de basis van de hedendaagse geneeskunde, wiskunde en astronomie, op een spannende reis die werd voortgedreven door een onverzadigbare nieuwsgierigheid naar de wereld. Violet Moller schetst de afgelegde route, langs zeven steden en over een periode van meer dan duizend jaar. We worden meegenomen naar het zesdeeeuwse Alexandrië en het negende-eeuwse Bagdad, naar het islamitische Córdoba en het katholieke To

    • Israel, een onherstelbare vergissing

      Chris van der Heijden

      Geschiedenis Midden-Oosten Zestig jaar geleden, 14 mei 1948, werd de staat Israël uitgeroepen. Het leek het begin van een veiliger fase in de geschiedenis. Het tegendeel blijkt het geval: in de loop van ruim een halve eeuw is Israël steeds meer het brandpunt geworden van het wereldgeweld, en voor de direct betrokkenen, joden en Palestijnen, een almaar grotere nachtmerrie. De vraag, hoe precair ook, is daarom onvermijdelijk: is de stichting van de staat Israël een vergissing geweest? Zo ja, hoe was zo'n vergissing mogelijk? En hoe moet het nu verder? Israël. Een onherstelbare vergissing is niet alleen een compacte geschiedenis van een land, maar vooral een zoektocht naar een standpunt. Daarbij ligt de klemtoon op de periode dat het land ontstond, de jaren kort na de Tweede Wereldoorlog.

    • The Map of Knowledge

      Violet Moller

      Geschiedenis 'Violet Moller brings to life the ways in which knowledge reached us from antiquity to the present day in a book that is as delightful as it is readable.' – Peter Frankopan, author of The Silk Roads In The Map of Knowledge Violet Moller traces the journey taken by the ideas of three of the greatest scientists of antiquity – Euclid, Galen and Ptolemy – through seven cities and over a thousand years. In it, we follow them from sixth-century Alexandria to ninth-century Baghdad. From Muslim Cordoba to Catholic Toledo. From Salerno’s medieval medical school to Palermo, capital of Sicily’s vibrant mix of cultures. And – finally – to Venice, where that great merchant city’s printing presses would enable Euclid’s geometry, Ptolemy’s system of the stars and Galen’s vast body of writings on medicine to spread even more widely. In tracing these fragile strands of knowledge from century to century, from east to west and north to south, Moller also reveals the web of connecti

    • Arabieren kijken

      Hassnae Bouazza

      Geschiedenis Midden-Oosten De Arabische wereld wordt vaak beschreven vanuit een historisch en politiek perspectief. Onderdrukking, religieus extremisme en rechteloosheid zijn enkele van de kwalificaties die vaak vallen. Voeg daar een flinke scheut vrouwenonderdrukking aan toe en we hebben de kern van het gemiddelde boek over de Arabische wereld te pakken. Voor het gemak wordt vergeten dat er vooral gewone mensen in de Arabische landen leven. Mensen die niet, zoals de beelden in de media ons willen laten geloven, dagelijks vlaggen verbanden en de westerse wereld haten, maar mensen met universele verlangens en gevoelens. Mensen van vlees en bloed. In Arabieren kijken toont Hassnae Bouazza ons de gewone mens in de Arabische wereld zoals wij die niet vaak zien. Ze gaat in op de rol van de media en hoe deze heeft bijgedragen aan de huidige politieke omwentelingen en beschrijft de geschiedenis van de regio, de huidige samenlevingen en de religie. Het resultaat is een prachtig boek over de Henk en Ingrid van de Arabis

    • Manhunt

      Peter Bergen

      Geschiedenis Midden-Oosten Al Qaeda expert and CNN national security analyst Peter Bergen paints a multi-dimensional picture of the hunt for bin Laden over the past decade, as well as the recent campaign that gradually tightened the noose around him. Other key elements of the book include: * A careful account of Obama's decision-making process throughout the final weeks and days during which the raid was planned, as well as what NSC cabinet members were advising him. The fascinating story of a group of (mostly female) analysts at the CIA in the HVT (High Value Target) section, who never gave up assembling the tiniest clues about OBL's whereabouts. * The untold and action-packed history of the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) and the SEALs, which accounts for the confidence Obama had in tasking them with the mission. * An analysis of what the death of OBL means for al Qaeda, for the wider jihadist movement that looked to him for inspiration and strategic guidance, and for Obama's legacy.

    • The One That Got Away

      Chris Ryan

      Geschiedenis Midden-Oosten Eight members of the SAS set off on the mission. Only one evaded capture. This is his true story. The SAS mission conducted behind Iraqi lines is one of the most famous true stories of courage and survival in modern warfare. Late on the evening of 24 January 1991, the patrol was compromised deep behind enemy lines in Iraq. A fierce firefight left the eight men miraculously unscathed, but they were forced to run for their lives. Their aim was to reach the Syrian border, 120 kilometres to the north-west, but during the first night the patrol accidentally broke into two groups of five and three. Chris Ryan found himself left with two companions. Nothing had prepared them for the vicious cold of the desert winter, and after a blizzard and a desperate search for food, Chris Ryan found himself the last man standing. Left on his own, Ryan narrowly escaped an Iraqi attack and set out alone, trying to reach the border through some of the most lethal country in the world. This is the story of c

    • The Fall of the Ottomans

      Eugene Rogan

      Geschiedenis Midden-Oosten *FULLY UPDATED WITH A NEW FOREWORD* THE SUNDAY TIMES TOP TEN BESTSELLER WINNER OF THE BRITISH ARMY MILITARY BOOK OF THE YEAR 2016 'Truly essential' Simon Sebag Montefiore The final destruction of the Ottoman Empire - one of the great epics of the First World War, from bestselling historian Eugene Rogan For some four centuries the Ottoman Empire had been one of the most powerful states in Europe as well as ruler of the Middle East. By 1914 it had been drastically weakened and circled by numerous predators waiting to finish it off. Following the Ottoman decision to join the First World War on the side of the Central Powers the British, French and Russians hatched a plan to finish the Ottomans off: an ambitious and unprecedented invasion of Gallipoli... Eugene Rogan's remarkable book recreates one of the most important but poorly understood fronts of the First World War. Despite fighting back with great skill and ferocity against the Allied onslaught and humiliating the British both at G

    • Iran: Empire of the Mind

      Michael Axworthy

      Geschiedenis Midden-Oosten FULLY UPDATED SECOND EDITION, NOW WITH NEW POSTSCRIPT BY ALI ANSARI Iran often appears in the media as a hostile and difficult country. But beneath the headlines there is a fascinating story of a nation of great intellectual variety and depth, and enormous cultural importance. A nation whose impact has been tremendous, not only on its neighbours in the Middle East but on the world as a whole - and through ideas and creativity rather than by the sword. From the time of the prophet Zoroaster, to the powerful ancient Persian Empires, to the revolution of 1979, the hostage crisis and current president Mahmud Ahmadinejad - a controversial figure within as well as outside the country - Michael Axworthy traces a vivid, integrated account of Iran's past. He explains clearly and carefully both the complex succession of dynasties that ruled ancient Iran and the surprising ethnic diversity of the modern country, held together by a common culture. With Iran again the focus of the world's attentio

    • Dit vuur dooft nooit

      Frederike Geerdink

      Geschiedenis Midden-Oosten Een jaar onder de Koerdische strijders De succesvolste strijders tegen IS zijn de Koerden. Tijdens haar werk als correspondent in Zuidoost-Turkije, waar overwegend Koerden wonen, leerde Fréderike Geerdink de Koerden en de PKK kennen. Nadat ze in 2015 vanwege haar werk Turkije werd uitgezet, trok ze naar Irak en Syrië om zich onder de PKK en de daaraan gelieerde groepen te begeven. Een jaar lang bevond Geerdink zich als eerste journalist in deze unieke positie. Wat drijft deze Koerdische strijders en strijdsters? Waarom nemen zij het als geen ander op tegen IS? Wat heeft die oorlog te maken met de Koerdische strijd in Turkije?  Dit boek, een mix van journalistiek, reisverhaal en oorlogsverslaggeving, beantwoordt al deze vragen. Een bijzonder insidersverhaal over de PKK.

    • Inside the Kingdom

      Robert Lacey

      Geschiedenis Saudi Arabia is a country defined by paradox: it sits atop some of the richest oil deposits in the world, and yet the country's roiling disaffection produced sixteen of the nineteen 9/11 hijackers. It is a modern state, driven by contemporary technology, and yet its powerful religious establishment would have its customs and practices rolled back to match those of the Prophet Muhammed over a thousand years ago. In a world where events in the Middle East continue to have geopolitical consequences far beyond the region's boundaries, an understanding of this complex nation is essential. With Inside the Kingdom , British journalist and bestselling author Robert Lacey has given us one of the most penetrating and insightful looks at Saudi Arabia ever produced. More than twenty years after he first moved to the country to write about the Saudis at the end of the oil boom, Lacey has returned to find out how the consequences of the boom produced a society at war with itself. Filled with storie

    • The Museum of Innocence

      Orhan Pamuk

      Geschiedenis Midden-Oosten The Museum of Innocence - set in Istanbul between 1975 and today - tells the story of Kemal, the son of one of Istanbul's richest families, and of his obsessive love for a poor and distant relation, the beautiful Fusun, who is a shop-girl in a small boutique. In his romantic pursuit of Füsun over the next eight years, Kemal compulsively amasses a collection of objects that chronicles his lovelorn progress-a museum that is both a map of a society and of his heart. The novel depicts a panoramic view of life in Istanbul as it chronicles this long, obsessive love affair; and Pamuk beautifully captures the identity crisis experienced by Istanbul's upper classes that find themselves caught between traditional and westernised ways of being. Orhan Pamuk's first novel since winning the Nobel Prize is a stirring love story and exploration of the nature of romance. Pamuk built The Museum of Innocence in the house in which his hero's fictional family lived, to display Kemal's strange collection

    • Righteous Victims

      Benny Morris

      Geschiedenis Midden-Oosten Righteous Victims , by the noted historian Benny Morris, is a comprehensive and objective history of the long battle between Arabs and Jews for possession of a land they both call home. It appears at a most timely juncture, as the bloody and protracted struggle seems at last to be headed for resolution. With great clarity of vision, Professor Morris finds the roots of this conflict in the deep religious, ethnic, and political differences between the Zionist immigrants and the native Arab population of Palestine. He describes the gradual influx of Jewish settlers, which was eventually fiercely resisted by the Arabs during the decades of  British Mandatory government following World War I. The establishment of the State of Israel in 1947 - 48 gave the Jews a homeland in the wake of the Holocaust, but the ensuing flight of the Palestinian Arabs shattered their society and led to the birth of a festering refugee problem. Morris describes these epic events and the Arab onslaught

    • The Places In Between

      Rory Stewart

      Geschiedenis Winner of the RSL Ondaatje Prize Shortlisted for the Guardian First Book Award ‘A striding, glorious book . . . A flat-out masterpiece’ The New York Times Book Review Caught between hostile nations, warring factions and competing ideologies, Afghanistan was in turmoil following the US invasion. Travelling entirely on foot and following the inaccessible mountainous route once taken by the Mughal emperor Babur the Great, Rory Stewart was nearly defeated by the extreme, hostile conditions. Only with the help of an unexpected companion, and the generosity of the people he met on the way, did he survive to report back on his journey with unique insight on a region closed to the world by twenty-four years of war. ‘This evocative book feels like a long-lost relic of the great age of exploration’ The Guardian

    • Spies Against Armageddon -- Inside Israel's Secret Wars

      Dan Raviv & Yossi Melman

      Geschiedenis Midden-Oosten In a prologue, 25 action-packed chapters, and detailed endnotes, SPIES AGAINST ARMAGEDDON: INSIDE ISRAEL'S SECRET WARS covers more ground than any other book about modern-day Israel. It is filled with colorful characters, who risk their lives and reputations in the secret service of their nation. Recent upheavals in the Middle East include Syria's civil war, coups in Egypt, a controversial nuclear deal with Iran, and a sense of despair between Israelis and Palestinians. This history of the Mossad and the other espionage and security agencies of Israel spotlights unique people who have contributed to the survival, success, but continuing crises of the Jewish state. The authors had a national best seller in 1990, "Every Spy a Prince: The Complete History of Israel's Intelligence Community" and also wrote about U.S.-Israel relations in "Friends In Deed." Dan Raviv is an i24NEWS TV correspondent based in Washington, and Yossi Melman is an award-winning Israeli journalist based in Tel Aviv

    • Dwars door het Midden-Oosten

      Carolien Roelants

      Geschiedenis Midden-Oosten Oorlog in Syrië, oorlog in Jemen. Straks misschien ook nog oorlog tegen Iran, want de moellahs vormen een groot gevaar voor de wereldvrede. Of valt het wel mee met dat gevaar? Die leuke, jonge Saudische hervormer blijkt bij nader inzien een ordinaire dictator te zijn die wild om zich heen slaat en elke criticus opsluit. Dat geeft niet; met Trump in het Witte Huis komen mensenrechten ver achter wapenleveranties. Oude allianties houden geen stand meer, nieuwe duren vaak niet lang. Het Israëlisch-Palestijnse conflict dat het gebied zo lang domineerde, is voorlopig naar de achtergrond verdreven. Wie begrijpt nog iets van het Midden-Oosten? In dit boek beschrijft Midden-Oostenspecialist Carolien Roelants een aantal complexe problemen die op dit moment spelen. Ze legt uit hoe ze zijn ontstaan en hoe ze in elkaar zitten. Dwars door het Midden-Oosten is een ideaal boek voor mensen die graag op een toegankelijke manier iets over het Midden-Oosten willen leren. Journalist Carolien Roelants (1

    • The Great War for Civilisation

      Robert Fisk

      Geschiedenis Midden-Oosten An astonishing and timely account of 50 years of bloodshed and tragedy in the Middle East from one of our finest and most revered journalists. ‘The Great War for Civilisation’ is written with passion and anger, a reporter’s eyewitness account of the Middle East’s history. All the most dangerous men of the past quarter century in the region – from Osama bin Laden to Ayatollah Khomeini, from Saddam to Ariel Sharon – come alive in these pages. Fisk has met most of them, and even spent the night out at a guerrilla camp with Bin Laden himself. In a narrative of blood and mass killing, Fisk tells the story of the growing hatred of the West by millions of Muslims, the West's cynical support for the Middle East's most ruthless dictators and America's ever more powerful military presence in the world's most dangerous lands as well as its uncritical, unconditional support for Israel's occupation of Palestinian land. It is also a story of journalists at war, of the rage, humour and f

    • Revolutionary Iran

      Michael Axworthy

      Geschiedenis Midden-Oosten FULLY UPDATED THIRD EDITION, NOW WITH NEW POSTSCRIPT BY ALI ANSARI 'If you were to read only one book on present-day Iran you could not do better than this' Ervand Abrahamian, Times Higher Education For some 40 years the Islamic Republic has resisted widespread condemnation, sanctions, and sustained attacks by Iraq in an eight-year war. Many policy-makers today share a weary wish that Iran would somehow just disappear as a problem. But with Iran's continuing commitment to a nuclear programme and its reputation as a trouble-maker in Syria, Afghanistan, Lebanon and elsewhere, this is unlikely any time soon. An unending stream of assertions about the revolution's finally running down continue to be defied by events, and Iran's institutions are still formidable. This is the definitive history of this subject, from one of the world's principal experts.

    • A Peace to End All Peace

      David Fromkin

      Geschiedenis Midden-Oosten Published with a new afterword from the author—the classic, bestselling account of how the modern Middle East was created The Middle East has long been a region of rival religions, ideologies, nationalisms, and ambitions. All of these conflicts—including the hostilities between Arabs and Israelis, and the violent challenges posed by Iraq's competing sects—are rooted in the region's political inheritance: the arrangements, unities, and divisions imposed by the Allies after the First World War. In A Peace to End All Peace , 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, showing how the choices narrowed and the Middle East began along a road that led to the conflicts and confusion that continue to this day. A new afterword from Fro

    • Het andere Iran

      Peyman Jafari

      Geschiedenis Midden-Oosten Ons beeld van Iran wordt beheerst doordat van zijn omstreden conservatieve president: Ahmadinejad zou de Holocaust ontkennen, zou Israël het liefst van de kaart geveegd zien worden en werkt openlijk aan de ontwikkeling van een kernwapen. Tegelijk zien we fotos van moderne, stadse Iraanse vrouwen, met westerse zonnebrillen en een iPod. Wat is het ware Iran? In een toegankelijk geschreven boek schetst Peyman Jafari de ontwikkeling van het land sinds de revolutie van 1979: van de opkomst van ayatollah Khomeini en zijn politieke islam, de gijzeling van Amerikaans ambassadepersoneel tot de Iran-Irakoorlog en de meest recente politieke ontwikkelingen. Het andere Iran corrigeert het eenzijdige beeld van Iran als het islamistische en nucleaire gevaar voor het Westen. Het laat zien dat verleden en heden van Iran door velerlei factoren gevormd zijn: impulsen voor democratisering, sociale bewegingen van vrouwen, studenten en vakbonden, intellectuele debatten vanuit religieuze en seculiere persp

    • History of the Ottoman Empire

      William Deans

      Geschiedenis Dean’s treatise, History of the Otttoman Empire , chronicles 600 years of the empire from 1250 to 1850, including the Siege of Constantinople, the Battle of Lepanto, the Siege of Vienna, the war with Russia, and Greece’s independence.  A table of contents is included for easy navigation. 

    • De Nakba

      Ilan Pappe

      Geschiedenis In ‘De Nakba’ vertelt hoogleraar Ilan Pappe hoe na het uitroepen van de staat Israël in 1948 circa een miljoen mensen gedwongen werden Palestina te verlaten. In 2023 is het 75 jaar geleden dat de staat Israël uitgeroepen werd. In ‘De Nakba’ vertelt Ilan Pappe hoe de Arabisch-Israëlische Oorlog, in het Arabisch de Nakba (ramp) genoemd, leidde tot een van de grootste gedwongen migraties uit de moderne geschiedenis. Circa een miljoen mensen werden uit hun huizen verdreven, Palestijnse dorpen werden verwoest, burgers werden vermoord. Ilan Pappe, een vooraanstaand historicus uit Israël, toont aan hoe de Joden zich in 1948 schuldig maakten aan etnische zuiveringen, en hoe het kon dat de internationale gemeenschap niet ingreep. Het boek werpt nieuw licht op de oorsprong en de ontwikkeling van het Israëlisch-Palestijnse conflict.

    • The First Crusade

      Peter Frankopan

      Geschiedenis FROM THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF THE SILK ROADS Discover 'the most significant contribution to rethinking the origins and course of the First Crusade for a generation' (Mark Whittow, TLS ) 'Filled with Byzantine intrigue, in every sense this book is important, compellingly revisionist and impressive' Simon Sebag Montefiore In 1096, an expedition of extraordinary scale and ambition set off from Western Europe on a mass pilgrimage to Jerusalem. Three years later, after a journey which saw acute hardship, the most severe dangers and thousands of casualties, the knights of the First Crusade found themselves storming the fortifications and capturing the Holy City. Against all the odds, the expedition had returned Jerusalem to Christian hands. Frankopan paints a strikingly original picture of this infamous confrontation between Christianity and Islam. Focusing on Constantinople and the Byzantine Empire, a truly fresh interpretation of a very old story emerges that radically alter

    • Sultan-ı Cihan Abdülhamid Han

      Yavuz Bahadıroğlu

      Geschiedenis Midden-Oosten Kimi "Kızıl Sultan" dedi, kimi "Ulu Hakan"; Sultan II. Abdülhamid, "ifrat" ile "tefrit" arasında kaldı.  Hâlbuki o, bütün tanımlamaların ve yakıştırmaların dışında, sadece devletini korumaya çalışan, bunu yaparken de sürekli ihanetlerle, suikastlarla karşılaşan, buna rağmen çok zor bir dönemde en zor görevi 33 yıl fasılasız sürdüren "Son İmparator"dur! Temelde kendisi gibi inanan insanların bile hışmına uğramış, o "devlet" derken "hürriyet" diyenler tarafından hırpalanmıştır. Derme-çatma "Hareket Ordusu"nun İstanbul’u kuşatması karşısında "Kardeş kanı dökülmesin" diye tahttan çekilmeyi kabul etmesi bile tam manasıyla anlaşılamamış. Bir taraf "korktu-bıktı-kaçtı" derken, diğer taraf "kişisel fedakârlık yaptı" demiştir.  Biz ise muhaliflerinin ve taraftarlarının öne sürdükleri gerekçelerle ona/zamana bakıp hiçbir hüküm vermeden onu ve zamanını okumaya/anlamaya çalıştık. Günümüzü kav

    • Wie wind zaait

      Michael Lüders

      Geschiedenis Midden-Oosten Wie wind zaait rekent af met de westerse politiek, die graag claimt dat ze in het Midden-Oosten ‘waarde-georiënteerd’ optreedt, maar vooral verschroeide aarde achterlaat. Wie de huidige conflicten in het Midden-Oosten, zoals de opmars van ‘Islamitische Staat’, het atoomconflict met Iran of de oorlog in Syrië wil begrijpen moet zich in het verleden verdiepen. In Wie wind zaait beschrijft Michael Lüders de westerse interventies in het Midden-Oosten sinds de koloniale tijd en legt verbanden met de huidige politieke situatie in de regio. Zijn boek leest als een thriller, maar beschrijft helaas de realiteit. Zakelijke belangen, geo- en machtspolitiek en niet zozeer de invoering van democratieën zijn de ware redenen voor de westerse interventies in het Midden-Oosten. Voor veel moslims is deze dubbelmoraal een affront. Wie weten wil hoe in het Midden-Oosten alles met elkaar verband houdt, leest dit Zwartboek van de westerse politiek in de Oriënt. De verhouding tussen Iran en het

    • De Arabische storm

      Sinan Can

      Geschiedenis Midden-Oosten Vijf jaar na de Arabische Lente reist journalist Sinan Can door de Arabische wereld, van Tunesië tot aan Syrië. Wat hebben de opstanden en het vertrek van langzittende regimes de bevolking opgeleverd? Kregen ze waar ze van droomden? In dit boek laat Can een groot aantal inwoners aan het woord over de stand van zaken in hun regio - en over de opkomst van IS. Met al die prachtige, kleine verhalen toont hij de hoop, de chaos en het verdriet van de volkeren van het Midden-Oosten. Want oorlog is verschrikkelijk, maar het zijn de menselijke verhalen die ons pas echt beroeren.

    • Snow

      Orhan Pamuk

      Geschiedenis Midden-Oosten A magnificent love story and powerful tale of religious fanaticism, from the internationally bestselling Nobel laureate. ** PRE-ORDER THE NEW NOVEL FROM ORHAN PAMUK, NIGHTS OF PLAGUE ** Winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature 'Not only an engrossing feat of tale-spinning, but essential reading for our times.' Margaret Atwood, The New York Times 'A major work. . . with suspense at every dimpled vortex' John Updike, The New Yorker 'Powerful. . . astonishingly timely' Vogue 'Orhan Pamuk is the sort of writer for whom the Nobel Prize was invented.' Daily Telegraph An exiled poet returns to the remote city of Kars on the Turkish border to investigate troubling reports of a suicide epidemic among its young women. While there, he reconnects with the beautiful Ipek, and finds himself drawn irresistibly back into their love story. But Kars has become a touchpoint for religious and political violence and religious extremists are poised to win the local elections. As the snow falls and suspicio

    • The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine

      Ilan Pappe

      Geschiedenis Midden-Oosten The book that is providing a storm of controversy, from ‘Israel’s bravest historian’ (John Pilger) Renowned Israeli historian, Ilan Pappe's groundbreaking work on the formation of the State of Israel. 'Along with the late Edward Said, Ilan Pappe is the most eloquent writer of Palestinian history.' NEW STATESMAN Between 1947 and 1949, over 400 Palestinian villages were deliberately destroyed, civilians were massacred and around a million men, women, and children were expelled from their homes at gunpoint. Denied for almost six decades, had it happened today it could only have been called 'ethnic cleansing'. Decisively debunking the myth that the Palestinian population left of their own accord in the course of this war, Ilan Pappe offers impressive archival evidence to demonstrate that, from its very inception, a central plank in Israel’s founding ideology was the forcible removal of the indigenous population. Indispensable for anyone interested in the current crisis in the Midd

    • Black Wave

      Kim Ghattas

      Geschiedenis Midden-Oosten A New York Times Notable Book of 2020 “[A] sweeping and authoritative history" ( The New York Times Book Review ), Black Wave is an unprecedented and ambitious examination of how the modern Middle East unraveled and why it started with the pivotal year of 1979. Kim Ghattas seamlessly weaves together history, geopolitics, and culture to deliver a gripping read of the largely unexplored story of the rivalry between between Saudi Arabia and Iran, born from the sparks of the 1979 Iranian revolution and fueled by American policy. With vivid story-telling, extensive historical research and on-the-ground reporting, Ghattas dispels accepted truths about a region she calls home. She explores how Sunni Saudi Arabia and Shia Iran, once allies and twin pillars of US strategy in the region, became mortal enemies after 1979. She shows how they used and distorted religion in a competition that went well beyond geopolitics. Feeding intolerance, suppressing cultural expression, and encouraging secta

    • Return of a King

      William Dalrymple

      Geschiedenis From William Dalrymple—award-winning historian, journalist and travel writer—a masterly retelling of what was perhaps the West’s greatest imperial disaster in the East, and an important parable of neocolonial ambition, folly and hubris that has striking relevance to our own time. With access to newly discovered primary sources from archives in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Russia and India—including a series of previously untranslated Afghan epic poems and biographies—the author gives us the most immediate and comprehensive account yet of the spectacular first battle for Afghanistan: the British invasion of the remote kingdom in 1839. Led by lancers in scarlet cloaks and plumed helmets, and facing little resistance, nearly 20,000 British and East India Company troops poured through the mountain passes from India into Afghanistan in order to reestablish Shah Shuja ul-Mulk on the throne, and as their puppet. But after little more than two years, the Afghans rose in answer to the call

    • Mossad

      Michael Bar-Zohar & Nissim Mishal

      Geschiedenis Midden-Oosten "This book tells what should have been known and isn't—that Israel's hidden force is as formidable as its recognized physical strength." — Israeli President Shimon Peres For decades, Israel's renowned security arm, the Mossad, has been widely recognized as the best intelligence service in the world. In Mossad, authors Michael Bar-Zohar and Nissim Mishal take us behind the closed curtain with riveting, eye-opening, boots-on-the-ground accounts of the most dangerous, most crucial missions in the agency's 60-year history. These are real Mission: Impossible true stories brimming with high-octane action—from the breathtaking capture of Nazi executioner Adolph Eichmann to the recent elimination of key Iranian nuclear scientists. Anyone who is fascinated by the world of international espionage, intelligence, and covert "Black-Ops" warfare will find Mossad electrifying reading. Mossad unveils the defining and most dangerous operations, unknown heroes, and m

    • Tarihimiz ve Biz

      İlber Ortaylı

      Geschiedenis Midden-Oosten İlber Ortaylı, tarih yapan bir milleti geçmişiyle buluşturuyor! Tarih yapan milletlerden biri olarak biz Türkler tarih bilincine ne derece sahibiz? Geçmiş belgelerimize ne kadar yakın, ne ölçüde uzağız? Prof. Dr. İlber Ortaylı derin vukufiyeti ve benzersiz üslubuyla bizi tarihimizle tanıştırıyor, yüzleştiriyor. Osmanlı’nın klasik dönemini, XVIII ve XIX. asırlardaki toplumsal ve siyasî panoramayı, bugünkü Avrupa’yı var eden koşulları, Türk, Rus ve Japon modernleşme yolculuklarını, kısacası dünya medeniyetinin kökenlerini gözler önüne seriyor. - Anadolu’da Osmanlı Hâkimiyeti - Bir Balkan İmparatorluğu Olarak Osmanlı - Viyana Kuşatması: Yeni Bir Osmanlı’ya Doğru… - Osmanlı Modernleşmesi - Doğu ve Batı Ayrımları - Avrupa Nedir, Nereleri Kapsar? - Batı’da Türk İmajı - Yabancıların Gözüyle Osmanlı: Seyahatnameler - Türkiye’nin Oluşumu - Romalılık, Osmanlılık, Türkiyelilik - Osmanlı Zamanında Sanat -

    • Heeft China al gewonnen?

      Kishore Mahbubani

      Geschiedenis Midden-Oosten China is al aardig op weg om nummer één van de wereld te worden. Het denkt en opereert op mondiale schaal en neemt ambitieuze initiatieven, onder leiding van een van de meest competente en pragmatische wereldleiders. Amerika daarentegen is al enige tijd op z'n retour en heeft te maken met een economisch model dat door de financiële crisis van 2008 behoorlijk aan kracht heeft ingeboet. Amerika staat voor een ongekende uitdaging: een grondige herijking van zijn binnen- en buitenlandse politiek, die inmiddels het sociale fundament van het land heeft aangetast en het aanzien in de wereld ernstig heeft verzwakt. In Heeft China al gewonnen? is Mahbubani op z'n best met zijn scherpzinnige kijk op de strategische stappen en misstappen van Amerika en China in een wedstrijd op wereldschaal. 'Zelden is zo duidelijk geworden, zo indringend beschreven hoe de machtsverhoudingen in de wereld veranderd zijn en wat gevolgen dat heeft.' De Standaard 'Laat het maar aan Mahbubani over om te provoceren

    • Enemies and Neighbours

      Ian Black

      Geschiedenis Midden-Oosten SUNDAY TIMES AND GUARDIAN BOOKS OF THE YEAR 2017 'Comprehensive and compelling ... A nuanced, landmark study that has deservedly won plaudits from both Palestinian and Israeli historians' Justin Marozzi, The Times A century after Britain's Balfour Declaration promised a Jewish 'national home' in Palestine, veteran Guardian journalist Ian Black has produced a major new history of one of the most polarising conflicts of the modern age. Drawing on a wide range of sources - from declassified documents to oral testimonies and his own decades of reporting - Enemies and Neighbours brings much-needed perspective and balance to the long and unresolved struggle between Arabs and Jews in the Holy Land. Beginning in the final years of Ottoman ruleand the British Mandate period, when Zionist immigration transformed Palestine in the face of mounting Arab opposition, the book re-examines the origins of what was a doomed relationship from the start. It sheds fresh light on critical events such as the

    • The Arabs

      Eugene Rogan

      Geschiedenis Midden-Oosten Eugene Rogan has written an authoritative new history of the Arabs in the modern world. Starting with the Ottoman conquests in the sixteenth century, this landmark book follows the story of the Arabs through the era of European imperialism and the Superpower rivalries of the Cold War, to the present age of unipolar American power. Drawing on the writings and eyewitness accounts of those who lived through the tumultuous years of Arab history, The Arabs balances different voices - politicians, intellectuals, students, men and women, poets and novelists, famous, infamous and the completely unknown - to give a rich, complex sense of life over nearly five centuries. Rogan's book is remarkable for its geographical sweep, covering the Arab world from North Africa through the Arabian Peninsula, and for the depth in which it explores every facet of modern Arab history. Charting the evolution of Arab identity from Ottomanism to Arabism to Islamism, it covers themes including the conflict betwee

    • On Saudi Arabia

      Karen Elliott House

      Geschiedenis Midden-Oosten From the Pulitzer Prize–winning reporter who has spent the last thirty years writing about Saudi Arabia—as diplomatic correspondent, foreign editor, and then publisher of The Wall Street Journal —an important and timely book that explores all facets of life in this shrouded Kingdom: its tribal past, its complicated present, its precarious future. Through observation, anecdote, extensive interviews, and analysis Karen Elliot House navigates the maze in which Saudi citizens find themselves trapped and reveals the mysterious nation that is the world’s largest exporter of oil, critical to global stability, and a source of Islamic terrorists. In her probing and sharp-eyed portrait, we see Saudi Arabia, one of the last absolute monarchies in the world, considered to be the final bulwark against revolution in the region, as threatened by multiple fissures and forces, its levers of power controlled by a handful of elderly Al Saud princes with an average age of 77 years and an extended

    • Six Days of War

      Michael B. Oren

      Geschiedenis Midden-Oosten NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The first comprehensive account of the epoch-making Six-Day War, from the author of Ally —now featuring a fiftieth-anniversary retrospective   Though it lasted for only six tense days in June, the 1967 Arab-Israeli war never really ended. Every crisis that has ripped through this region in the ensuing decades, from the Yom Kippur War of 1973 to the ongoing  intifada , is a direct consequence of those six days of fighting. Writing with a novelist’s command of narrative and a historian’s grasp of fact and motive, Michael B. Oren reconstructs both the lightning-fast action on the battlefields and the political shocks that electrified the world. Extraordinary personalities—Moshe Dayan and Gamal Abdul Nasser, Lyndon Johnson and Alexei Kosygin—rose and toppled from power as a result of this war; borders were redrawn; daring strategies brilliantly succeeded or disastrously failed in a matter of hours. And the balance of power c

    • In Ishmael's House

      Martin Gilbert

      Geschiedenis “In this epic examination, [a] celebrated historian explores the evolution of Judaism and Islam through a lens of Middle Eastern stability.” ( Publishers Weekly)   The relationship between Jews and Muslims has been a flashpoint that affects stability in the Middle East with global consequences. In this eloquent book, Martin Gilbert presents a fascinating account of the hope and fear that have characterized these two peoples through the 1,400 years of their intertwined history.   Harking back to the Biblical story of Ishmael and Isaac, Gilbert takes the reader from the origins of the fraught relationship—the refusal of Medina’s Jews to accept Mohammed as a prophet—through the ages of the Crusader reconquest of the Holy Land and the great Muslim sultanates to the present day. He explores the impact of Zionism in the early twentieth century, the clash of nationalisms during the Second World War, the mass expulsions and exodus of 800,000 Jews from Muslim lands followin

    • Israël

      Coen Verbraak

      Geschiedenis Midden-Oosten In mei 1948 werd de staat Israël gesticht. Coen Verbraak beschrijft de Hollandse zoektocht naar het beloofde land. Een portret van Israël door de ogen van Nederlandse Joden. 75 jaar geleden werd de staat Israël gesticht. Ter gelegenheid daarvan sprak Coen Verbraak met een breed palet aan mensen; van jong tot oud, bekend en onbekend. Maar allemaal hebben ze diezelfde liefde voor Israël. Waarom gingen ze er wonen? En waarom keerden sommigen toch weer terug? Sta je als Joodse Nederlander per definitie aan de kant van Israël, of is dat geen vanzelfsprekendheid? Verbraak tekent verhalen op over hoopvolle tijden en bange dagen. Hij spreekt getuigen van de Zesdaagse Oorlog, de aanslagen op de Olympische Spelen, het Eichmann-proces en de Intifada. Hij schrijft over Sabra en Shatila en de geheime dienst Mossad. Dit boek is niet alleen een portret van Israël door de ogen van Nederlandse Joden, maar ook een portret van de Joodse gemeenschap in Nederland.

    • Israel

      Daniel Gordis

      Geschiedenis Midden-Oosten Winner of the Jewish Book of the Year Award The first comprehensive yet accessible history of the state of Israel from its inception to present day, from Daniel Gordis, "one of the most respected Israel analysts" (The Forward) living and writing in Jerusalem. Israel is a tiny state, and yet it has captured the world’s attention, aroused its imagination, and lately, been the object of its opprobrium. Why does such a small country speak to so many global concerns? More pressingly: Why does Israel make the decisions it does? And what lies in its future? We cannot answer these questions until we understand Israel’s people and the questions and conflicts, the hopes and desires, that have animated their conversations and actions. Though Israel’s history is rife with conflict, these conflicts do not fully communicate the spirit of Israel and its people: they give short shrift to the dream that gave birth to the state, and to the vision for the Jewish people that was at its core. Guidin

    • The Middle Ages

      Morris Bishop

      Geschiedenis In this indispensable volume, one of America's ranking scholars combines a life's work of research and teaching with the art of lively narration. Both authoritative and beautifully told, The Middle Ages is the full story of the thousand years between the fall of Rome and the Renaissance - a time that saw the rise of kings and emperors, the flowering of knighthood, the development of Europe, the increasing power of the Catholic Church, and the advent of the middle class. With exceptional grace and wit, Morris Bishop vividly reconstructs this distinctive era of European history in a work that will inform and delight scholars and general readers alike.

    • Bloedbroeders

      Sinan Can & Ara Halici

      Geschiedenis Het persoonlijke verhaal van Sinan en Ara over de Armeense genocide Honderd jaar geleden vond er in het Ottomaanse Rijk een groot drama plaats. Meer dan 800.000 Armeniërs vonden de dood. Het leidt al een eeuw tot discussie en spanningen en de diepe wonden van deze verschrikkelijke gebeurtenis zijn nog lang niet geheeld. Aan beide kanten van het conflict heerst een taboe op de kwestie en de partijen staan nog steeds lijnrecht tegenover elkaar. Vele bijzondere verhalen zijn zo verloren gegaan. Niet alleen de verhalen over de verschrikkingen, maar ook de verhalen over verzoening, vriendschap en vertrouwen tussen Turken en Armeniërs. Onderzoeksjournalist Sinan Can (van Turkse afkomst) en acteur Ara Halici (van Armeense afkomst) gaan terug naar het gebied waar het zich allemaal heeft afgespeeld en waar hun families vandaan komen. Wat is er 100 jaar geleden gebeurd? Welke rol hebben de grootouders van Sinan gespeeld tijdens de massamoord op de Armeniërs? Wat is er gebeurd met de familiel

    • Lawrence in Arabia

      Scott Anderson

      Geschiedenis Midden-Oosten NATIONAL BESTSELLER • A New York Times Notable Book • Finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award in Biography •  A thrilling and revelatory narrative of one of the most epic and consequential periods in 20th century history – the Arab Revolt and the secret “great game” to control the Middle East “A fascinating book, the best work of military history in recent memory and an illuminating analysis of issues that still loom large today."— The New York Times "Brilliant. . . . A dazzling accomplishment that combines superb historical research with a compelling narrative.” —The Seattle Times The Arab Revolt against the Turks in World War I was, in the words of T. E. Lawrence, “a sideshow of a sideshow.” As a result, the conflict was shaped to a remarkable degree by a small handful of adventurers and low-level officers far removed from the corridors of power. At the center of it all was Lawrence himself. In early 1914 he was an archaeologis

    • Constantinople

      Roger Crowley

      Geschiedenis Midden-Oosten 'Engagingly fresh and vivid . . . The 21-year-old Mehmet [the Ottoman Sultan] emerges from this book as ruthless but innovative, irascible but versatile and, above all, indefatigable - a worthy successor to Alexander and the Roman emperors he admired as much as any Muslim hero.' Malise Ruthven, Sunday Times In the spring of 1453, the Ottoman Turks advanced on Constantinople in pursuit of an ancient Islamic dream: capturing the thousand-year-old capital of Christian Byzantium. During the siege that followed, a small band of defenders, outnumbered ten to one, confronted the might of the Ottoman army in an epic contest fought on land, sea and underground. 'In this account of the 1453 siege, written in crackling prose by former Istanbul resident Roger Crowley - his first book and not, I hope, his last - we are treated to narrative history at its most enthralling.' Christopher Silvester, Daily Express 'A vivid and readable account of the siege . . . [And] an excellent traveller's guide to

    • Warriors of God

      Nicholas Blanford

      Geschiedenis Midden-Oosten Hezbollah is the most powerful Islamist group operating in the Middle East today, and no other Western journalist has penetrated as deeply inside this secretive organization as Nicholas Blanford. Now Blanford has written the first comprehensive inside account of Hezbollah and its enduring struggle against Israel. Based on more than a decade and a half of reporting in Lebanon and conversations with Hezbollah’s determined fighters, Blanford reveals their ideology, motivations, and training, as well as new information on military tactics, weapons, and sophisticated electronic warfare and communications systems. Using exclusive sources and his own dogged investigative skills, Blanford traces Hezbollah’s extraordinary evolution—from a zealous group of raw fighters motivated by Iran’s 1979 Islamic revolution into the most formidable non-state military organization in the world, whose charismatic leader vows to hasten Israel’s destruction. With dramatic eyewitness accounts, includi

    • Shah of Shahs

      Ryszard Kapuściński

      Geschiedenis Shah of Shahs depicts the final years of the Shah in Iran, and is a compelling meditation on the nature of revolution and the devastating results of fear. Here, Kapuscinski describes the tyrannical monarch, who, despite his cruel oppression of the Iranian people, sees himself as the father of a nation, who can turn a backward country into a great power - a vain hope that proves a complete failure. Yet even as Iran becomes a 'behemoth of riches' and as the Shah lives like a European billionaire, its people live in a climate of fear, terrorized by the secret police. Told with intense power and feeling, Kapuscinski portrays the inevitable build-up to revolution - a cataclysmic upheaval that delivered Iran into the rule of the Ayatollah Khomeini.

    • Vier seizoenen in Damascus

      Fernande van Tets

      Geschiedenis Midden-Oosten Verslag van een land in oorlog In maart 2018, als de oorlog in Syrië zijn achtste jaar ingaat, verhuist Fernande van Tets naar Damascus. Terwijl om haar heen het Syrische leger de laatste opstandige gebieden door middel van uithongering en bombardementen tot overgave dwingt, leeft zij als communicatiemedewerker voor de Verenigde Naties in de weelde van het Four Seasons Hotel, met de geheime dienst in de lobby. Tijdens het zogeheten ‘jaar van de overwinning’ ziet ze wat die overwinning gekost heeft: een land in puin en een bevolking op drift. Ze praat met Syriërs over hoe zij de toekomst zien – van de angst om te verdwijnen in een Syrische gevangenis tot het vinden van een geschikte partner nu zoveel mensen dood of gevlucht zijn. Syrië stuurt aan op de terugkeer van vluchtelingen uit het buitenland, en ook in Nederland vinden we dat het tijd is voor de Syriërs om naar huis te gaan. Maar wat is er voor hen nog om naar terug te keren? Fernande van Tets schetst een indrukwekkend

    • Israel

      Noa Tishby

      Geschiedenis Midden-Oosten A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER A “fascinating and very moving” (Aaron Sorkin, award-winning screenwriter of The West Wing and The Social Network ) chronological timeline spanning from Biblical times to today that explores one of the most interesting countries in the world—Israel. Israel. The small strip of arid land is 5,700 miles away but remains a hot-button issue and a thorny topic of debate. But while everyone seems to have a strong opinion about Israel, how many people actually know the facts? Here to fill in the information gap is Israeli American Noa Tishby. But “this is not your Bubbie’s history book” (Bill Maher, host of Real Time with Bill Maher ). Instead, offering a fresh, 360-degree view, Tishby brings her “passion, humor, and deep intimacy” (Yossi Klein Halevi, New York Times bestselling author of Letters to My Palestinian Neighbor ) to the subject, creating an accessible and dynamic portrait of a tiny country of outsized relevance. Through bite-sized chunks

    • De Saoedi's

      Mark Blaisse

      Geschiedenis Midden-Oosten Het moderne Saoedi-Arabië is een mysterie, bij de meeste mensen alleen bekend aan de hand van steekwoorden: olie, woestijn, Mekka, islamitisch, steenrijk, vrouwonvriendelijk en recentelijk ook moordzuchtig. Sinds kroonprins Mohammed bin Salman een even ambitieus als controversieel moderniseringsprogramma begon, is er echter van alles gaan schuiven. Hoe zal het land zich ontwikkelen in de eenentwintigste eeuw? Mark Blaisse reisde veel en langdurig door het land om een antwoord op die vraag te vinden. Hij overnachtte bij prinsen in de woestijn, verkende de weg naar Mekka, plukte dadels, bezocht galerieën met verboden kunst en verbaasde zich over het behendige geflirt in winkelcentra. Hij ontdekte een paradoxaal maar ook verbazingwekkend openhartig Saoedi-Arabië, dat we niet kennen uit de krant. In dit fascinerende boek ontsluiert hij een koninkrijk tussen streng-conservatieve waarden en een open samenleving met autorijdende vrouwen, gemengde collegezalen, theaters en pretparken. Zelf

    • Debriefing the President

      John Nixon

      Geschiedenis A riveting, revealing and news-making account of the CIA's interrogation of Saddam, written by the CIA agent who conducted the questioning. In December 2003, after one of the largest, most aggressive manhunts in history, US military forces captured Iraqi president Saddam Hussein near his hometown of Tikrit. Beset by body-double rumors and false alarms during a nine-month search, the Bush administration needed positive identification of the prisoner before it could make the announcement that would rocket around the world. At the time, John Nixon was a senior CIA leadership analyst who had spent years studying the Iraqi dictator. Called upon to make the official ID, Nixon looked for telltale scars and tribal tattoos and asked Hussein a list of questions only he could answer. The man was indeed Saddam Hussein, but as Nixon learned in the ensuing weeks, both he and America had greatly misunderstood just who Saddam Hussein really was. Debriefing the President presents an astounding, candid

    • The Story of the Jews Volume Two

      Simon Schama

      Geschiedenis In the second of two volumes of this magnificently illustrated cultural history—the tie-in to the PBS and BBC series The Story of the Jews—Simon Schama details the story of the Jewish people, spanning from their expulsion from Spain during the Inquisition across six hundred years to the present day. It is a story like no other: an epic of endurance against destruction, of creativity in the face of oppression, joy amidst grief, the affirmation of life against the steepest of odds. It spans the centuries and the continents—from the Iberian Peninsula and the collapse of “the golden age” to the shtetls of Russia to the dusty streets of infant Hollywood. Its voices ring loud and clear, from the philosophical musings of Spinoza to the poetry written on slips of paper in concentration camps. Within these pages, the Enlightenment unfolds, a great diaspora transforms a country, a Viennese psychiatrist forever changes the conception of the human mind. And a great story unfolds. Not—

    • The Yom Kippur War

      Abraham Rabinovich

      Geschiedenis Midden-Oosten An updated edition that sheds new light on one of the most dramatic reversals of military fortune in modern history. The easing of Israeli military censorship after four decades has enabled Abraham Rabinovich to offer fresh insights into this fiercest of Israel-Arab conflicts. A surprise Arab attack on two fronts on the holiest day of the Jewish calendar, with Israel’s reserves un-mobilized, triggered apocalyptic visions in Israel, euphoria in the Arab world, and fraught debates on both sides. Rabinovich, who covered the war for  The Jerusalem Post,  draws on extensive interviews and primary source material to shape his enthralling narrative. We learn of two Egyptian nationals, working separately for the Mossad, who supplied Israel with key information that helped change the course of the war; of Defense Minister Moshe Dayan’s proposal for a nuclear “demonstration” to warn off the Arabs; and of Chief of Staff David Elazar’s conclusion on the fifth day of battle tha

    • After the Prophet

      Lesley Hazleton

      Geschiedenis Midden-Oosten In this gripping narrative history, Lesley Hazleton tells the tragic story at the heart of the ongoing rivalry between the Sunni and Shia branches of Islam, a rift that dominates the news now more than ever.   Even as Muhammad lay dying, the battle over who would take control of the new Islamic nation had begun, beginning a succession crisis marked by power grabs, assassination, political intrigue, and passionate faith. Soon Islam was embroiled in civil war, pitting its founder's controversial wife Aisha against his son-in-law Ali, and shattering Muhammad’s ideal of unity.     Combining meticulous research with compelling storytelling, After the Prophet explores the volatile intersection of religion and politics, psychology and culture, and history and current events. It is an indispensable guide to the depth and power of the Shia–Sunni split.

    • Anonymous Soldiers

      Bruce Hoffman

      Geschiedenis Midden-Oosten Winner of the National Jewish Book Award Winner of the Washington Institute Book Prize One of the Best Books of the Year St. Louis Post-Dispatch * Kirkus Reviews In this groundbreaking work, Bruce Hoffman—America’s leading expert on terrorism—brilliantly re-creates the crucial thirty-year period that led to the birth of Israel. Drawing on previously untapped archival resources in London, Washington, D.C., and Jerusalem, Anonymous Soldiers shows how the efforts of two militant Zionist groups brought about the end of British rule in the Middle East. Hoffman shines new light on the bombing of the King David Hotel, the assassination of Lord Moyne in Cairo, the leadership of Menachem Begin, the life and death of Abraham Stern, and much else. Above all, he shows exactly how the underdog “anonymous soldiers” of Irgun and Lehi defeated the British and set in motion the chain of events that resulted in the creation of the formidable nation-state of Israel. One of the most detail

    • Destiny Disrupted

      Tamim Ansary

      Geschiedenis Midden-Oosten Destiny Disrupted , “a must-read for anyone who wants to learn more about the history of the Islamic world,” ( San Francisco Chronicle ) tells the history of the world from the Islamic point of view, and restores the centrality of the Muslim perspective, ignored for a thousand years. In Destiny Disrupted , Tamim Ansary tells the rich story of world history with the evolution of the Muslim community at the center. His story moves from the lifetime of Mohammed through a succession of far-flung empires, to the tangle of modern conflicts that culminated in the events of 9/11. He introduces the key people, events, ideas, legends, religious disputes, and turning points of world history, imparting not only what happened but how it is understood from the Muslim perspective. He clarifies why two great civilizations—Western and Muslim—grew up oblivious to each other, what happened when they intersected, and how the Islamic world was affected by its slow recognition that Europe

    • All the Shah's Men

      Stephen Kinzer

      Geschiedenis Midden-Oosten With a thrilling narrative that sheds much light on recent events, this national bestseller brings to life the 1953 CIA coup in Iran that ousted the country’s elected prime minister, ushered in a quarter-century of brutal rule under the Shah, and stimulated the rise of Islamic fundamentalism and anti-Americanism in the Middle East. Selected as one of the best books of the year by the Washington Post and The Economist , it now features a new preface by the author on the folly of attacking Iran.

    • A History of the Arab Peoples

      Albert Hourani

      Geschiedenis Midden-Oosten In a bestselling work of profound and lasting importance, the late Albert Hourani told the definitive history of the Arab peoples from the seventh century, when the new religion of Islam began to spread from the Arabian peninsula westwards, to the present day. It is a masterly distillation of a lifetime of scholarship and a unique insight into a perpetually troubled region. This updated edition by Malise Ruthven adds a substantial new chapter which includes recent events such as 9/11, the US invasion of Iraq and its bloody aftermath, the fall of the Mubarak and Ben Ali regimes in Egypt and Tunisia, and the incipient civil war in Syria, bringing Hourani's magisterial History up to date. Ruthven suggests that while Hourani can hardly have been expected to predict in detail the massive upheavals that have shaken the Arab world recently he would not have been entirely surprised, given the persistence of the kin-patronage networks he describes in his book and the challenges now posed to th

    • Egypte

      Alexander Weissink

      Geschiedenis Midden-Oosten Het Egyptische regime wist lang de schijn op te houden. Met succes presenteerde Hosni Mubarak zich als een gematigd leider en een betrouwbare bondgenoot van het Westen in het onrustige Midden-Oosten. Het land zat economisch in de lift en het volk zou daar spoedig de vruchten van plukken. Toch kwamen de Egyptenaren in januari 2011 massaal in opstand tegen de president die al dertig jaar aan de macht was. Alexander Weissink, die correspondent was in Egypte voor NRC Handelsblad en Het Financieele Dagblad en recentelijk nog vanuit Caïro verslag deed van de protesten in het land, beschrijft vanuit eigen waarneming de opmaat naar de revolutie en de ontknoping daarvan. Niet zonder ironie schrijft hij over Mubarak, over de dubbelhartige houding van het volk en over een land dat gekenmerkt wordt door onderontwikkeling, overbevolking, wanbeleid, repressie, ontevredenheid en een groeiende populariteit van fundamentalistische stromingen. Egypte is een indringend portret heet van de naald van een

    • Cambridge Medieval History: The Eastern Roman Empire

      J.B. Bury

      Geschiedenis Midden-Oosten The Cambridge Medieval History collection on the Eastern Roman Empire is a must-have for anyone interested in the history of  the Eastern Empire, from the Balkans to Armenia. The collection is an exhaustive resource,  discussing  the empire from 500 – 1500 A.D.  Topics such as the history of the Bulgarian kingdom, Armenia, the Venetian occupation of Greece , the Golden Horde, the Seljuqs, and the Ottomans and their conquests in Europe are discussed. A table of contents is included to navigate through the 24 chapters and over 750 full length pages

    • Turkey: a Past and a Future

      Arnold Toynbee

      Geschiedenis Midden-Oosten According to Wikipedia: "Arnold Joseph Toynbee CH (April 14, 1889 – October 22, 1975) was a British historian whose twelve-volume analysis of the rise and fall of civilizations, A Study of History, 1934–1961, was a synthesis of world history, a metahistory based on universal rhythms of rise, flowering and decline, which examined history from a global perspective. A religious outlook permeates the Study and made it especially popular in the United States, for Toynbee rejected Greek humanism, the Enlightenment belief in humanity's essential goodness, and what he considered the "false god" of modern nationalism. Toynbee in the 1918-1950 period was a leading British consultant to the government on international affairs, especially regarding the Middle East."

    • The Middle Ages

      Edwin S. Grosvenor

      Geschiedenis Between the Fall of Rome and the Renaissance were the Middle Ages. Once seen as a thousand years of warfare, religious infighting, and cultural stagnation, they are now understood to be the vital connection between the past and the present. Along with the battles that helped shape the modern world are a rich heritage of architecture, arts, and literature, of empire and its dissolution. It was the era of the Crusades and the Norman Conquest, the Black Death and the fall of Constantinople. It is a landscape both familiar and foreign, dark and foreboding at times, but also filled with the promise and potential of the future.

    • The Nabataeans, Builders of Petra

      Dan Gibson

      Geschiedenis Midden-Oosten A fascinating look at the ancient Nabataean Kingdom! During the time of the Greek and Roman Empires, this small Arabian empire built spectacular cities in the Arabian Desert. Their ships and camel caravans traveled to far off exotic places to bring luxury goods to European markets. Since they held a monopoly on almost all eastern goods, they slowly raised their prices, until they almost brought the great European Empires to their knees. Flush with cash, they built the incredible city of Petra, hidden away in a mountain ravine. Discover all this and more in this exciting book!

    • Five Chimneys: A Woman Survivor’s True Story Of Auschwitz [Illustrated Edition]

      Olga Lengyel

      Geschiedenis Olga Lengyel tells, frankly and without compromise, one of the most horrifying stories of all time. This true, documented chronicle is the intimate, day-to-day record of a beautiful woman who survived the nightmare of Auschwitz and Birkenau. This book is a necessary reminder of one of the ugliest chapters in the history of human civilization. It was a shocking experience. It is a shocking book. “... Thank you for your very frank, very well written book. You have done a real service by letting the ones who are now silent and most forgotten speak ...With best regards and wishes, — A. Einstein.” “This book is a horrifying, but necessary, reminder of one of the ugliest chapters in the history of human civilisation. Passionate, tormenting’”—New York Herald-Tribune “It is a picture of utter hell”—Saturday Review of Literature

    • A Year in Treblinka

      Jankiel Wiernik

      Geschiedenis An Inmate Who Escaped Tells The Day-To-Day Facts Of One Year Of His Torturous Experiences. Jankiel Wiernik was a Jewish property manager in Warsaw when the Nazis invaded Poland and was forced into the ghetto in 1940. Despite surviving the horrors of the ghetto at the advanced age of 52, he was sent to a fate worse than death at the notorious death camp at Treblinka, which he immortalized in his memoirs. “On his arrival at Treblinka aboard the Holocaust train from Warsaw, Wiernik was selected to work rather than be immediately killed. Wiernik’s first job with the Sonderkommando required him to drag corpses from the gas chambers to mass graves. Wienik was traumatized by his experiences. He later wrote in his book: “It often happened that an arm or a leg fell off when we tied straps around them in order to drag the bodies away.” He remembered the horrors of the enormous pyres, where “10,000 to 12,000 corpses were cremated at one time.” He wrote: “The bodies of women were us

    • The Ottoman Endgame

      Sean McMeekin

      Geschiedenis Midden-Oosten 'An outstanding history ... one of the best writers on the First World War' Simon Sebag Montefiore Shortlisted for the Duke of Westminster Medal for Military Literature The Ottoman Endgame is the first, and definitive, single-volume history of the Ottoman empire's agonising war for survival. Beginning with Italy's invasion of Ottoman Tripoli in September 1911, the Empire was in a permanent state of emergency, with hardly a frontier not under direct threat. Assailed by enemies on all sides, the Empire-which had for generations been assumed to be a rotten shell-proved to be strikingly resilient, beating off major attacks at Gallipoli and in Mesopotamia before finally being brought down in the general ruin of the Central Powers in 1918. As the Europeans planned to partition all its lands between them and with even Istanbul seemingly helpless in the face of the triumphant Entente, an absolutely unexpected entity emerged: modern Turkey. Under the startling genius of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk,

    • Gideon's Spies

      Gordon Thomas

      Geschiedenis Midden-Oosten In the secret world of spies and covert operations, no other intelligence service continues to be as surrounded by myth and mystery as the Mossad. Gordon Thomas reveals that all too often the truth exceeds all the fantasies about the Mossad. Revised and updated for 2015, this new edition includes: - Mossad's secret meeting in 2013 with Saudi Arabia's intelligence chief to plan for Israel to use Saudi to attack Iran should the Geneva discussion fail to be honored by Iran. - The attack on Iraq's nuclear reactor that will be the flight path to an attack on Iran's nuclear facilities. - Mossad's new cyber-war unit preparing to launch its own pre-emptive strike. - Why Mossad's former director, Meir Dagan, has spoken out against an attack on Iran. - Mossad agents who operate in the "Dark Side" of the internet to track terrorists. - Mossad's drone and its first killing. - Mossad's role in the defense of Israel's Embassy in Cairo during the Arab Spring. - An introduction to Mossad's new direct

    • Bible and Sword

      Barbara W. Tuchman

      Geschiedenis Midden-Oosten From Barbara W. Tuchman, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Guns of August, comes history through a wide-angle lens: a fascinating chronicle of Britain’s long relationship with Palestine and the Middle East, from the ancient world to the twentieth century.   Historically, the British were drawn to the Holy Land for two major reasons: first, to translate the Bible into English and, later, to control the road to India and access to the oil of the Middle East. With the lucidity and vividness that characterize all her work, Barbara W. Tuchman follows these twin spiritual and imperial motives—the Bible and the sword—to their seemingly inevitable endpoint, when Britain conquered Palestine at the conclusion of World War I. At that moment, in a gesture of significance and solemnity, the Balfour Declaration of 1917 established a British-sponsored mandate for a national home for the Jewish people. Throughout this characteristically vivid account, Tuchman demonstrates that the see

    • The Bin Ladens

      Steve Coll

      Geschiedenis Midden-Oosten The Bin Ladens are shrouded in secrecy, living in one of the most closed, unaccountable countries on earth. Little has been known about the world that created Osama - until now. In this gripping account prizewinning journalist Steve Coll has interviewed those closest to the family who rose from Yemeni peasants to jetsetting millionaires in two generations. In doing so, he reveals a Saudi Arabia torn between religious purity and the temptations of the West, telling a story of oil, money, power, patronage and dangerous cultural extremes.

    • The Siege of Mecca

      Yaroslav Trofimov

      Geschiedenis 20 November 1979: as morning prayers began, hundreds of hardline Islamist gunmen, armed with rifles smuggled in coffins, stormed the Grand Mosque in Mecca. With thousands of terrified worshippers trapped inside, the result was a bloody siege that lasted two weeks, caused hundreds of deaths, prompted an international diplomatic crisis and unleashed forces that would eventually lead to the rise of al Qaeda. Journalist Yaroslav Trofimov takes us day-by-day through one of the most momentous – and heavily censored – events in recent history, interviewing many direct participants in the siege and drawing on secret documents to reveal the truth about the first operation of modern global jihad.

    • Israel zegt geen sorry meer

      Derk Walters

      Geschiedenis Midden-Oosten Per 1 juli 2017 kreeg Derk Walters geen nieuwe werkvergunning meer van de Israëlische autoriteiten, waarmee er een einde kwam aan zijn tijd als buitenlandcorrespondent voor NRC Handelsblad. De krant schreef het besluit niet anders te kunnen zien dan als ‘een poging van Israël om vrije en kritische nieuwsgaring over dat land te belemmeren’. In zijn boek beschrijft Walters zijn uitzetting als een goed voorbeeld van Israëls toenemende zelfverzekerdheid. Zo schaamt het land zich niet langer voor de bezetting, maar zegt het nu openlijk: de Westelijke Jordaanoever behoort ons toe. Voor een buitenlandse journalist betekent dit extra inzet en scherpte, meedogenloosheid wat betreft de feiten en een rechte rug. In Israël zegt geen sorry meer schrijft Derk Walters aan de hand van zijn eigen ervaringen over de druk die wordt uitgeoefend door de autoriteiten, en op de sociale media. Israël levert een continue pr-strijd, die volgens het land zelf letterlijk van levensbelang is. Maar w

    • No Turning Back: Life, Loss, and Hope in Wartime Syria

      Rania Abouzeid

      Geschiedenis Midden-Oosten Winner of the Overseas Press Club of America's Cornelius Ryan Award Finalist for the Lionel Gelber Prize “Rania Abouzeid has produced a work of stunning reportage from the very heart of the conflict, daring to go to the most dangerous places in order to get the story.” —Dexter Filkins, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Forever War Award-winning journalist Rania Abouzeid dissects the tangle of ideologies and allegiances that make up the Syrian conflict through the dramatic stories of four young people seeking safety and freedom in a shattered country. Hailed by critics, No Turning Back masterfully “[weaves] together the lives of protestors, victims, and remorseless killers at the center of this century’s most appalling human tragedy” (Robert F. Worth). Based on more than five years of fearless, clandestine reporting, No Turning Back brings readers deep inside Bashar al-Assad’s prisons, to covert meetings where foreign states and organizations manipulated the rebels, an

    • Master Builders of the Middle Ages

      David Jacobs

      Geschiedenis Today, the great cathedrals of Europe stand as beautiful, imposing monuments - the pride of parishioners and the wonder of tourists. It is difficult for us now, even with all our engineering and architectural skills, to imagine the extraordinary ways these medieval houses of worship were constructed. Midway through the twelfth century, the building of cathedrals became a crusade to erect awe-inspiring churches across Europe. In their zeal, bishops, monks, masons, and workmen created the architectural style known as Gothic, arguably Christianity’s greatest contribution to the world’s art and architecture. The style evolved slowly and almost accidentally as medieval artisans combined ingenuity, inspiration, and brute strength to create a fitting monument to their God. Here are the dramatic stories of the building of Saint-Denis, Notre Dame, Chartres, Reims, and other Gothic cathedrals.

    • Oorlog onder de mensen

      Martijn Kitzen

      Geschiedenis Midden-Oosten Moderne oorlogen verschillen wezenlijk van de grootschalige conflicten in de vorige eeuw. Recente ervaringen in Irak en Afghanistan tonen aan dat het tegenwoordig niet langer gaat om het overmeesteren van een alom bekende, gelijksoortige vijand. De tegenstander verschuilt zich nu meer onder de lokale bevolking, wat het onmogelijk maakt massaal militair geweld in te zetten. Dit inzicht is niet nieuw, maar terug te zien in het koloniale verleden. Martijn Kitzen, politicoloog en oud-militair, vergelijkt de missie in Uruzgan (2006- 2010) met de meest omvangrijke koloniale oorlog die ons land ooit heeft gekend: de Atjeh-oorlog (1873-1913). In beide gevallen streed het Nederlandse leger tegen een onbekende tegenstander. Aan de hand van deze twee casestudies laat voormalig militair Kitzen zien dat in moderne oorlogen de sleutel tot de overwinning bij de leiders van de lokale bevolking ligt. Door zijn wetenschappelijke inzichten te combineren met zijn persoonlijke ervaringen en observaties in

    • Istanbul

      Thomas F. Madden

      Geschiedenis Midden-Oosten For more than two millennia Istanbul has stood at the crossroads of the world, perched at the very tip of Europe, gazing across at the shores of Asia. The history of this city—known as Byzantium, then Constantinople, now Istanbul—is at once glorious, outsized, and astounding. Founded by the Greeks, its location blessed it as a center for trade but also made it a target of every empire in history, from Alexander the Great and his Macedonian Empire, to the Romans and later the Ottomans. At its most spectacular, Istanbul was re-founded by Emperor Constantine I as New Rome, the capital of the eastern Roman Empire. He dramatically expanded the city, filling it with artistic treasures, and adorning the streets with opulent palaces. Constantine built new walls around it all—walls that were truly impregnable and preserved power, wealth, and withstood any aggressor—walls that still stand for tourists to visit. From its ancient past to the present, we meet the city through its ordi

    • The Fall of Heaven

      Andrew Scott Cooper

      Geschiedenis Midden-Oosten An immersive, gripping account of the rise and fall of Iran's glamorous Pahlavi dynasty, written with the cooperation of the late Shah's widow, Empress Farah, Iranian revolutionaries and US officials from the Carter administration In this remarkably human portrait of one of the twentieth century's most complicated personalities, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, Andrew Scott Cooper traces the Shah's life from childhood through his ascension to the throne in 1941. He draws the turbulence of the post-war era during which the Shah survived assassination attempts and coup plots to build a modern, pro-Western state and launch Iran onto the world stage as one of the world's top five powers. Readers get the story of the Shah's political career alongside the story of his courtship and marriage to Farah Diba, who became a power in her own right, the beloved family they created, and an exclusive look at life inside the palace during the Iranian Revolution. Cooper's investigative account ultimately deliver

    • Notes from the Warsaw Ghetto: The Journal of Emmanuel Ringelblum

      Emmanuel Ringelblum

      Geschiedenis When the walls of the Warsaw Ghetto first went up in November 1940, Emmanuel Ringelblum was there. In the face of horrendous persecution and palpable danger, his goal was to create a written record of life in the Ghetto, not just the destitution and brutality of life under Nazi rule, but out of the shining acts of nobility and heroism by people under the most dire circumstances. From Inside the Ghetto, Ringelblum, a well-respected historian and archivist, compiled his journal recording daily life in the Ghetto, from its beginnings to the eve of the Ghetto uprising in April 1943. Using accounts and anecdotes from his many friends and neighbours, Ringelblum created a detailed, colourful, and emotional record of one of the most terrible epochs in human history. Notes from the Warsaw Ghetto is an unflinching, first-hand account of history unfolding before your very eyes.

    • Smoke Over Birkenau [Illustrated Edition]

      Seweryna Szmaglewska

      Geschiedenis Includes 204 photos, plans and maps illustrating The Holocaust Arrested by the Gestapo in 1942 for involvement in the resistance, the author spent three years in Birkenau. Severyna Szmaglewska (1916-1992) began writing this book immediately after escaping from an evacuation transport in January 1945, and it is the first account of the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp and an eloquent and important analysis of the individual experience of modern war. It was ready for print before the end of 1945, after several months of feverish work. In February 1946 the International Tribunal in Nuremberg included it in the material making up the charges against the Nazi perpetrators, and called upon the author to give testimony. Since 1945, Smoke over Birkenau has been reprinted frequently and widely translated. Critics, and three generations of readers, praised it for truthfulness, accuracy, and lasting literary merit: as memories of war-time genocide fade with the passage of time, Szmaglewska’s readers ar

    • Robert Fisk on Israel: The Obama Years

      Robert Fisk

      Geschiedenis Midden-Oosten No journalist has chronicled the tragedies of the Israelis and the Palestinians so exhaustively, so authoritatively - or so controversially - as Robert Fisk, the Independent’s correspondent in the region for 25 years. No US president has entered the White House carrying so much hope of peace and progress in the region as Barack Obama. Yet how much has the Nobel prize-winning icon of reconciliation actually delivered, halfway through his second term of office? And how much objectivity has the world’s media brought to its coverage of his Middle-Eastern initiatives? This unique anthology of six years of reporting and analysis allows you to re-examine a crucial period of history by following it episode by episode, through the ferociously clear-sighted eyes of one of the great foreign reporters of our times. Based on decades of first-hand experience of the Holy Land’s troubles and intrigues, it is a saga of cruelty, betrayal, complacency, selfishness, missed chances, broken promises

    • The Middle East For Dummies

      Craig S. Davis

      Geschiedenis Midden-Oosten Demystifies the area's culture, politics, and religions Explore Middle Eastern history from ancient to modern times Looking to better understand the Middle East? This plain-English guide explains the importance of the region, especially in light of recent events. You'll meet its people and their leaders, discover the differences and similarities between Arab and Western mindsets, and examine the wars and conflicts - including the Israeli-Palestinian turmoil - that led up to the current political situation. The Dummies Way * Explanations in plain English * "Get in, get out" information * Icons and other navigational aids * Tear-out cheat sheet * Top ten lists * A dash of humor and fun

    • Dereliction of Duty

      H. R. McMaster

      Geschiedenis "The war in Vietnam was not lost in the field, nor was it lost on the front pages of the New York Times or the college campuses. It was lost in Washington, D.C."  —H. R. McMaster (from the Conclusion) Dereliction Of Duty is a stunning analysis of how and why the United States became involved in an all-out and disastrous war in Southeast Asia. Fully and convincingly researched, based on transcripts and personal accounts of crucial meetings, confrontations and decisions, it is the only book that fully re-creates what happened and why. McMaster pinpoints the policies and decisions that got the United States into the morass and reveals who made these decisions and the motives behind them, disproving the published theories of other historians and excuses of the participants. A page-turning narrative, Dereliction Of Duty focuses on a fascinating cast of characters: President Lyndon Johnson, Robert McNamara, General Maxwell Taylor, McGeorge Bundy and other top aides who deliberately d

    • Naar Irak

      Michael Palin

      Geschiedenis Midden-Oosten Michael Palin op ontdekkingsreis door Irak In Naar Irak neemt voormalig Monty Python-ster en wereldreiziger pur sang Michael Palin ons mee op een bijzondere reis door Irak. Het is een regio die ooit aan de wieg stond van onze beschaving, maar in de recente geschiedenis werd opgeschrokken door oorlogen en bloedvergieten. Tijdens zijn reis ontdekt Palin de scherpe en vaak wrede contrasten die het land kenmerken. Het ene moment verkent hij de historische straten van Bagdad of de oude ruïnes van Babylon, het andere moment loopt hij door de door oorlog verwoeste straten van Mosul of luistert hij naar verhalen over het bloedbad van Camp Speicher. Met zijn onmiskenbaar Britse warmte en humor voert Palin ons mee naar de vele uiteenlopende plekken die hij bezoekt en de bijzondere mensen die hij ontmoet. In combinatie met de foto’s die hij tijdens zijn reis maakte, schetst Palin een levendig portret van een complex land dat maar weinig buitenstaanders écht te zien krijgen. Sir Michael Palin

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