New Books Network
Middle Eastern Studies
Middle Eastern Studies June 25, 2021

Ahmad ibn Tulun

Governor of Abbasid Egypt, 868–884

Matthew S. Gordon

Hosted by Christopher Rose
Ahmad Ibn Tulun: Governor of Abbasid Egypt, 868-884 (Oneworld Academic, 2021), by Matthew S. Gordon (Miami University (Ohio)) is an innovative look at the Abbasid governor of Egypt from …

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Middle Eastern Studies June 24, 2021

Brokers of Faith, Brokers of Empire

Armenians and the Politics of Reform in the Ottoman Empire

Richard Antaramian

Hosted by Deren Ertas
In today's program, I speak with Richard E. Antaramian about his recent monograph, Brokers of Faith, Brokers of Empire: Armenians and the Politics of Reform in the Ottoman Empire (Stanford University Press, 2020).  …
Anthropology June 22, 2021

Migrant Dreams

Egyptian Workers in the Gulf States

Samuli Schielke

Hosted by Fulya Pinar
A vivid ethnography of Egyptian migrants to the Arab Gulf states, Migrant Dreams: Egyptian Workers in the Gulf States (AU in Cairo Press, 2020) is about the imagination which migration …
Middle Eastern Studies June 21, 2021

A Physician on the Nile

A Description of Egypt and Journal of the Famine Years

Tim Mackintosh-Smith, trans.

Hosted by Christopher Rose
A Physician on the Nile: A Description of Egypt and Journal of the Famine Years (NYU Press, 2021) is a unique text that will fascinate specialists and general readers alike. Written by …
Journalism June 16, 2021

On Heels in the Middle East

Xenia Svetlova

Hosted by Yakir Englander
On Heels in the Middle East (Pardes Publishing, 2020) is the first book of Ksenia Svetlova, an Israeli journalist of Russian origin who covered the Middle East extensively during the last …
Art June 9, 2021

The Empress and I

How an Ancient Empire Collected, Rejected and Rediscovered Modern Art

Donna Stein

Hosted by Kirstin Ellsworth
In the 1970s, American curator Donna Stein served as an art advisor to Empress Farah Diba Pahlavi, the Shahbanu of Iran. Together, Stein and Pahlavi generated an art market in …
Mobilities and Methods June 8, 2021

Working Out Desire

Women, Sport, and Self-Making in Istanbul

Sertaç Sehlikoglu

Hosted by Alize Arıcan
Working Out Desire: Women, Sport, and Self-Making in Istanbul (Syracuse UP, 2020) examines spor merakı as an object of desire shared by a broad and diverse group of Istanbulite women. Sehlikoglu …
Islamic Studies June 4, 2021

Law, Empire, and the Sultan

Ottoman Imperial Authority and Late Hanafi Jurisprudence

Samy Ayoub

Hosted by SherAli Tareen
In his majestic and magisterial new book Law, Empire, and the Sultan: Ottoman Imperial Authority and Late Hanafi Jurisprudence (Oxford UP, 2020), Samy Ayoub examines and demonstrates the entanglement of Islamic law …
Middle Eastern Studies June 2, 2021

The Dangers of Poetry

Culture, Politics, and Revolution in Iraq

Kevin M. Jones

Hosted by Reuben Silverman
Poetry has long dominated the cultural landscape of modern Iraq, simultaneously representing the literary pinnacle of high culture and giving voice to the popular discourses of mass culture. As the …
Mobilities and Methods June 1, 2021

Iran in Motion

Mobility, Space, and the Trans-Iranian Railway

Mikiya Koyagi

Hosted by Alize Arıcan
Completed in 1938, the Trans-Iranian Railway connected Tehran to Iran's two major bodies of water: the Caspian Sea in the north and the Persian Gulf in the south. Iran's first …
Architecture May 28, 2021

Open Gaza

Architectures of Hope

Michael Sorkin and Deen Sharp

Hosted by Bryan Toepfer
The Gaza Strip is one of the most beleaguered environments on earth. Crammed into a space of 139 square miles (360 square kilometers), 1.8 million people live under an Israeli …
Jewish Studies May 26, 2021

Forging Ties, Forging Passports

Migration and the Modern Sephardi Diaspora

Devi Mays

Hosted by Makena Mezistrano
Forging Ties, Forging Passports: Migration and the Modern Sephardi Diaspora (Stanford University Press, 2020) is a history of migration and nation-building from the vantage point of those who lived between states …
Van Leer Institute Series on Ideas with Renee Garfinkel May 25, 2021

Not in Kansas Anymore

Academic Freedom in Palestinian Universities

Cary Nelson

Hosted by Renee Garfinkel
“Allying with a Hamas cell (on a Palestinian university campus) is not the same as joining the College Republicans at the University of Kansas...in the West Bank and Gaza, we …
Art May 25, 2021

The General's Stork

Heba Y. Amin

Hosted by Pierre d'Alancaisez
In 2013, Egyptian authorities detained a migratory stork for espionage. This incident is the focus of Heba Y. Amin’s The General’s Stork, an ongoing project that investigates the politics of …
Mobilities and Methods May 24, 2021

How to Make a Wetland

Water and Moral Ecology in Turkey

Caterina Scaramelli

Hosted by Alize Arıcan
How to Make a Wetland: Water and Moral Ecology in Turkey (Stanford UP, 2021) tells the story of two Turkish coastal areas, both shaped by ecological change and political uncertainty …
Middle Eastern Studies May 24, 2021

Teach-In on Sheikh Jarrah and Israel-Palestine

A Discussion of the May, 2021 Middle East Crisis

Hosted by Samee Siddiqui
Today, I am introducing a recording of an event on Israel-Palestine organized by members of the history department at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The event took …
Islamic Studies May 21, 2021

The Translator of Desires

Poems

Muhyiddin Ibn 'Arabi

Hosted by Shobhana Xavier
In this ground-breaking work, Michael Sells (the Barrows Professor Emeritus of the History and Literature of Islam and Professor emeritus of comparative literature at the University of Chicago) translates sixty-one …
Asian Review of Books May 20, 2021

Ghalib: a Wilderness at My Doorstep

A Critical Biography

Mehr Afshan Farooqi

Hosted by Nicholas Gordon
Mirza Ghalib is one of the most celebrated poets in the Urdu literary canon. Yet, at the time, Ghalib was prolific in both Urdu and Persian. His output in Persian …
Jewish Studies May 17, 2021

Founding God’s Nation

Reading Exodus

Leon R. Kass

Hosted by Hope J. Leman
Everything, in the end, comes down to Exodus. Everything that we are as a civilization goes back to Exodus. Every person, religious or not, who wants to consider him or …
Biblical Studies May 13, 2021

Yahweh

Origin of a Desert God

Robert D. Miller II

Hosted by Michael Morales
Recognizing the absence of a God named Yahweh outside of ancient Israel, this study addresses the related questions of Yahweh's origins and the biblical claim that there were Yahweh-worshipers other …