New Books Network

New Books in Middle Eastern Studies
Adi Schwartz and Einat Wilf, “The War of Return: How Western Indulgence of the Palestinian Dream Has Obstructed the Path to Peace” (All Point Books, 2020)
Adi Schwartz and Einat Wilf
The War of Return
How Western Indulgence of the Palestinian Dream Has Obstructed the Path to Peace
All Points Books, 2020

NBN Special SeriesNew Books in Israel StudiesNew Books in LawNew Books in Middle Eastern StudiesNew Books in Peoples & PlacesNew Books in PoliticsNew Books NetworkVan Leer Institute Series on Ideas with Renee Garfinkel August 6, 2020 Renee Garfinkel

Two prominent Israeli liberals argue that for the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians to end with peace, Palestinians must come to terms with the fact that there will be no “right of return.” In 1948, seven hundred thousand Palestinians were forced out of their homes by the first Arab-Israeli... Read More
Nathan Spannaus, “Preserving Islamic Tradition: Abu Nasr Qursawi and the Beginnings of Modern Reformism” (Oxford UP, 2019)
Nathan Spannaus
Preserving Islamic Tradition
Abu Nasr Qursawi and the Beginnings of Modern Reformism
Oxford University Press, 2019

New Books in Intellectual HistoryNew Books in Islamic StudiesNew Books in Middle Eastern StudiesNew Books in Peoples & PlacesNew Books in Politics & SocietyNew Books in ReligionNew Books in Religion & FaithNew Books in Russian and Eurasian StudiesNew Books Network August 5, 2020 Asad Dandia

What were some of the major transformations taking place for Muslim communities in the Russian Empire of the eighteenth century? How did the introduction of a state-backed structure for Muslim religious institutions alter Islamic religious authority in the empire? And who exactly was Abu Nasr Qursawi and what was his... Read More
Gaurav Desai, “Commerce with the Universe: Africa, India, and the Afrasian Imagination” (Columbia UP, 2013)
Gaurav Desai
Commerce with the Universe
Africa, India, and the Afrasian Imagination
Columbia University Press, 2013

Indian Ocean WorldNBN Special SeriesNew Books in African StudiesNew Books in Arts & LettersNew Books in HistoryNew Books in Literary StudiesNew Books in Middle Eastern StudiesNew Books in Peoples & PlacesNew Books in Politics & SocietyNew Books in South Asian StudiesNew Books Network August 3, 2020 Micheal Rumore and Ahmed AlMaazmi

Gaurav Desai’s Commerce with the Universe: Africa, India, and the Afrasian Imagination (Columbia University Press, 2013), offers an alternative history of East Africa in the Indian Ocean world. Reading the life narratives and literary texts of South Asians writing in and about East Africa, Gaurav Desai highlights many complexities in... Read More
Asma Barlas, “Believing Women in Islam: Unreading Patriarchal Interpretations of the Qur’an” (U Texas Press, 2019)
Asma Barlas
Believing Women in Islam
Unreading Patriarchal Interpretations of the Qur’an
University of Texas Press, 2019

New Books in Gender StudiesNew Books in Islamic StudiesNew Books in Middle Eastern StudiesNew Books in Peoples & PlacesNew Books in Politics & SocietyNew Books in ReligionNew Books in Religion & FaithNew Books Network August 3, 2020 Asad Dandia

In this revised edition of her classic and groundbreaking work, Believing Women in Islam: Unreading Patriarchal Interpretations of the Qur’an (University of Texas Press, 2019), Asma Barlas demonstrates how a Muslim believer can fully adopt an antipatriarchal reading of the Qur’anic text while maintaining belief in its Divine Providence. The... Read More
Paula Fredriksen, “When Christians Were Jews: The First Generation” (Yale UP, 2018)
Paula Fredriksen
When Christians Were Jews
The First Generation
Yale University Press, 2018

New Books in Christian StudiesNew Books in HistoryNew Books in Jewish StudiesNew Books in Middle Eastern StudiesNew Books in Peoples & PlacesNew Books in Politics & SocietyNew Books in ReligionNew Books in Religion & FaithNew Books NetworkVan Leer Institute Series on Ideas with Renee Garfinkel July 31, 2020 Renee Garfinkel

How did a group of charismatic, apocalyptic Jewish missionaries, working to prepare their world for the impending realization of God’s promises to Israel, end up inaugurating a movement that would grow into the gentile church? Committed to Jesus’s prophecy—“The Kingdom of God is at hand!”—they were, in their own eyes,... Read More
Danyel Reiche and Tamir Sorek, “Sport, Politics, and Society in the Middle East” (Oxford UP, 2019)
Danyel Reiche and Tamir Sorek
Sport, Politics, and Society in the Middle East

Oxford University Press, 2019

New Books in Israel StudiesNew Books in Middle Eastern StudiesNew Books in Peoples & PlacesNew Books in Politics & SocietyNew Books in SociologyNew Books in SportsNew Books Network July 29, 2020 James M. Dorsey

Sports scholars Danyel Reiche and Tamir Sorek’s edited volume, Sport, Politics, and Society in the Middle East (Oxford University Press, 2019), makes a significant contribution to what remains a largely understudied, yet critically important segment of Middle Eastern political and social life. It does so by discussing in eleven chapters multiple... Read More
Shahla Haeri, “The Unforgettable Queens of Islam: Succession, Authority and Gender” (Cambridge UP, 2020)
Shahla Haeri
The Unforgettable Queens of Islam
Succession, Authority and Gender
Cambridge University Press, 2020

New Books in Gender StudiesNew Books in HistoryNew Books in Islamic StudiesNew Books in Middle Eastern StudiesNew Books in Peoples & PlacesNew Books in Political ScienceNew Books in Politics & SocietyNew Books in Religion & FaithNew Books Network July 24, 2020 Shobhana Xavier

The Unforgettable Queens of Islam: Succession, Authority and Gender (Cambridge University Press, 2020) by Shahla Haeri (Associate Professor of Anthropology at Boston University) is a captivating book on the biographies of Muslim women rulers and political leaders. Drawing from extensive historical archives as well as from ethnographic research, Haeri reflects... Read More
Edward Alpers, “The Indian Ocean in World History” (Oxford UP, 2014)
Edward Alpers
The Indian Ocean in World History

Oxford University Press, 2014

Indian Ocean WorldNew Books in African StudiesNew Books in HistoryNew Books in Middle Eastern StudiesNew Books in Peoples & PlacesNew Books in Politics & SocietyNew Books in South Asian StudiesNew Books in Southeast Asian StudiesNew Books Network July 22, 2020 Ahmed Yaqoub AlMaazmi and Kelvin Ng

Edward Alpers’s The Indian Ocean in World History (Oxford University Press, 2014) is a concise yet an immensely informative introduction to the Indian Ocean world, which remains the least studied of the world’s geographic regions. Yet there have been major cultural exchanges across its waters and around its shores from... Read More
Sigurd Neubauer, “The Gulf Region and Israel: Old Struggles, New Alliances” (Kodesh Press, 2020)
Sigurd Neubauer
The Gulf Region and Israel
Old Struggles, New Alliances
Kodesh Press, 2020

New Books in Israel StudiesNew Books in Middle Eastern StudiesNew Books in National SecurityNew Books in Peoples & PlacesNew Books in Political ScienceNew Books in Politics & Society July 21, 2020 James M. Dorsey

Gulf scholar Sigurd Neubauer’s The Gulf Region and Israel: Old Struggles, New Alliances makes a significant contribution to our understanding of what drives shifting alliances in the Middle East, an ever more volatile part of the world. Shunned by Arab states for much of its existence, Israel has become in recent years... Read More

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