Product Description
Lavishly illustrated in colour and b/w. ... Read more

Product Description
Chapters: One Thousand and One Nights, Baghdad, Culture of Iraq, Music of Iraq, Thieves of Baghdad, Ufo Sightings in Iraq, Iraqi Map Pendant, Baghdad Conservatory, the Music and Ballet School of Baghdad. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 87. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: One Thousand and One Nights (Arabic: Kitb 'alf layla wa-layla; Persian: Hezr-o yek ab) is a collection of Middle Eastern and South Asian stories and folk tales compiled in Arabic during the Islamic Golden Age. It is often known in English as the Arabian Nights, from the first English language edition (1706), which rendered the title as The Arabian Nights' Entertainment. The work as we have it was collected over many centuries by various authors, translators and scholars across the Middle East and North Africa. The tales themselves trace their roots back to ancient and medieval Arabic, Persian, Indian, Egyptian and Mesopotamian folklore and literature. In particular, many tales were originally folk stories from the Caliphate era, while others, especially the frame story, are most probably drawn from the Pahlavi Persian work Hazr Afsn (Persian: , lit. Thousand Tales) which in turn relied partly on Indian elements. Though the oldest Arabic manuscript dates from the 14th century, scholarship generally dates the collection's genesis to around the 9th century. What is common throughout all the editions of the Nights is the initial frame story of the ruler Shahryar (from Persian: , meaning "king" or "sovereign") and his wife Scheherazade (from Persian: , possibly meaning "of noble lineage" ) and the framing device incorporated throughout the tales themselves. The stories proceed from this original tale; some are framed within other tales, while others begin and end of their own accord. Some editions contain only a few hu...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=43079 ... Read more

Product Description
This digital document is an article from Middle East Quarterly, published by Thomson Gale on June 22, 2007. The length of the article is 4698 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Culture in post-Saddam Iraq.(Focus on Iraq)
Author: Nimrod Raphaeli
Publication: Middle East Quarterly (Magazine/Journal)
Date: June 22, 2007
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 14Issue: 3Page: 33(10)

Distributed by Thomson Gale ... Read more

Product Description
This digital document is an article from APS Diplomat Fate of the Arabian Peninsula, published by Pam Stein/Input Solutions on June 4, 2001. The length of the article is 585 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: IRAQ - The Challenge Of Globalisation - Part 6.(Brief Article)
Publication: APS Diplomat Fate of the Arabian Peninsula (Newsletter)
Date: June 4, 2001
Publisher: Pam Stein/Input Solutions
Volume: 41Issue: 6Page: NA

Article Type: Brief Article

Distributed by Thomson Gale ... Read more

Product Description
This digital document is an article from APS Diplomat Fate of the Arabian Peninsula, published by Pam Stein/Input Solutions on June 4, 2001. The length of the article is 781 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: IRAQ - The Realities Facing Saddam.(Saddam Hussein and Iraq's internal situation)(Brief Article)
Publication: APS Diplomat Fate of the Arabian Peninsula (Newsletter)
Date: June 4, 2001
Publisher: Pam Stein/Input Solutions
Volume: 41Issue: 6Page: NA

Article Type: Brief Article

Distributed by Thomson Gale ... Read more

Product Description
This digital document is an article from Middle East Policy, published by Middle East Policy Council on June 1, 2000. The length of the article is 3961 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: TRIBALISM IN IRAQ, THE OLD AND THE NEW.
Author: Judith Yaphe
Publication: Middle East Policy (Refereed)
Date: June 1, 2000
Publisher: Middle East Policy Council
Volume: 7Issue: 3Page: 51

Distributed by Thomson Gale ... Read more

Product Description
This digital document is an article from APS Diplomat Fate of the Arabian Peninsula, published by Pam Stein/Input Solutions on June 4, 2001. The length of the article is 932 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: IRAQ - How Post-Embargo Iraq May Cope With Globalisation.(Brief Article)
Publication: APS Diplomat Fate of the Arabian Peninsula (Newsletter)
Date: June 4, 2001
Publisher: Pam Stein/Input Solutions
Volume: 41Issue: 6Page: NA

Article Type: Brief Article

Distributed by Thomson Gale ... Read more

Product Description
Iraqi cuisine or Mesopotamian cuisine has a long history going back some 10,000 years - to the Sumerians, Akkadians, Babylonians, Assyrians and Ancient Persians. Tablets found in ancient ruins in Iraq show recipes prepared in the temples during religious festivals - the first cookbooks in the world. Ancient Iraq, or Mesopotamia, was home to many sophisticated and highly advanced civilizations, in all fields of knowledge - including the culinary arts. However, it was in the medieval era when Baghdad was the capital of the Abbasid Caliphate that the Iraqi kitchen reached its zenith. Today, the cuisine of Iraq reflects this rich inheritance as well as strong influences from the culinary traditions of neighbouring Turkey, Iran and the Greater Syria area. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

What on earth is this????? No stars,please!! and for whom and what?
I was drawn to the title "Iraqi Cuisine," but the cover boasts "high quality content by Wikipedia articles"!!!!! What's going on here?? Why would I pay a hefty price for articles provided for free by Wikipedia???? Will somebody please explain this new fad (or scam?) to me?

I am holding my stars (but had to give at least one star to have my words published)until I get a legitimate explanation for this. ... Read more

Product Description
This digital document is an article from National Catholic Reporter, published by Thomson Gale on May 30, 2003. The length of the article is 1624 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: The American-Vatican divide: abuse crisis, war on Iraq revive historical distance between divergent cultures. (Analysis).(International)
Author: John L., Jr. Allen
Publication: National Catholic Reporter (Magazine/Journal)
Date: May 30, 2003
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 39Issue: 30Page: 7(1)

Distributed by Thomson Gale ... Read more

Product Description
Time magazine listed him as one of its "100 People Who Shape Our World." Newsweek featured him on its cover under the headline "How Al-Sadr May Control U.S. Fate in Iraq." Paul Bremer denounced him as a "Bolshevik Islamist" and ordered that he be captured "dead or alive." Who is Muqtada al-Sadr, and why is he so vital to the future of Iraq and, arguably, the entire Middle East?

In this compellingly readable account, prize-winning journalist Patrick Cockburn tells the story of Muqtada's rise to become the leader of Iraq's poor Shi'ites and the resistance to the occupation. Cockburn looks at the killings by Saddam's executioners and hit men of the young cleric's father, two brothers, and father-in-law; his leadership of the seventy-thousand-strong Mehdi Army; the fierce rivalries between him and other Shia religious leaders; his complex relationship with the Iraqi government; and his frequent confrontations with the American military, including battles that took place in Najaf in 2004. The portrait that emerges is of a complex man and a sophisticated politician, who engages with religious and nationalist aspirations in a manner unlike any other Iraqi leader.

Cockburn, who was among the very few Western journalists to remain in Baghdad during the Gulf War and has been an intrepid reporter of Iraq ever since, draws on his extensive firsthand experience in the country to produce a book that is richly interwoven with the voices of Iraqis themselves. His personal encounters with the Mehdi Army include a tense occasion when he was nearly killed at a roadblock outside the city of Kufa.

Though it often reads like an adventure story, Muqtada is also a work of painstaking research and measured analysis that leads to a deeper understanding both of one of the most critical conflicts in the world today and of the man who may well be a decisive voice in determining the future of Iraq when the Americans eventually leave. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (11)

Possibly the future ruler of Iraq.
I think this is a solid book by an author knowledgeable about Iraq.He wrote Out of the Ashes about Saddam's phoenix like rise after the Gulf War.I thought that book was very good.In this book, he shows that Al-Sadr is an important personality on the Iraqi political scene and therefore someone to take seriously.However, few of the American officials ever took this man seriously, and that is why he is standing in the wings, ready to lead the poor Shia to a place of power in Iraq.

This is a well written book about the political scene in Iraq in 2008.Although Al-Sadr has not taken any steps to assume power, he has become a political boss to the Shia and someone that will be powerful in a post American Iraq.

Would you buy a used Camel from this man?
This book tells alot about the Iraqi Civil War between the Shi'ites and the Sunni with Al-Queda playing both sides to fan the flames.The theme of the book seems to be-Muqtada says,"I don't need help from Iran or the rest of the world to destroy what's left of Iraq circa 2008.I can devastate Iraq all by myself." The first 112 pages of the book are devoted to the history of the Shias in Iraq and the surrounding region and their conflicts over power and influence with the Sunnis. You can't help but get a "desert culture" (no water)!!feeling for the Shias with all of the harsh laws. At the same time the Shias promote legislation and programs designed for the "poor masses",even at times advocating socialistic ideas.A complex combination of austere restrictions mixed with generous giveaway benefits for the "people"?.It somewhat takes the wind out of the sails of the American victory over Iraq in 1991 when one finds out the Iraqi Army(EXCEPT THE REPUBLICAN GUARD) was 80% Shiate and had largely deserted Kuwait well before "Desert Storm".In short the Shias have never wanted any part of Saddams government and they comprised about 60% of his people. The author potrays Muqtada as chaemeleonlike,that is able to adapt different political stances from extreme violence to Ghandilike peacefull resistance.
The latter part of the book goes into the Shia infighting with Muqtada (so far!!) rising to the top of the body count of the suicide bombings between the Shi'ites and the Sunni.Any pro-Western Shia Ayatollahs thus far have had "most unfortunate accidents",loosely(or strongly) linked to Muqtada's crowd.Muqtada inherited his position through family relations and marriages and numerous members of his family were imprisoned and murdered under Saddams' reign.
Is Muqtada a pawn of Iran? The answer is a mild yes and a strong no.Undoubtedly some of his equipment and ideologies are direct Iranian exports but Muqtada tries not to dip too far into the Iranian well.
The verdict on Muqtada's mixture of theocracy and politics is far from final.Good history as I've often heard isn't written until 10 years after the event.This book however looks like a good example of history repeating itself.I'm not holding my breath how this story is going to play out,probably another return to the middle ages ala Afghanistan.At least from the read of this credible work.The author offers a few sentences toward the end of the book about"missed opportunites for peace in Iraq",and offers a solution or two but it doesn't distract from the story as he tells it.right now it seems like Muqtada is at the head of the Shi'ite attempt to remove the Sunni from all the important political posts in Iraq.The Sunnis are not going peacefully.

Could have been great, but it is so biased you almost gag
Lots of good information, but in the end the author ends up suffering from the stockholm syndrome; he falls in love with Muqutada. If you loved "Imperial Life in the Emerald City," you'll love this book; Americans are totally clueless, not a brain among them. But if you recognize that, while George Bush or the Coalition didn't cover themselves in glory and did a lot of stupid things, the situation is amazingly complex, you'll probably get sick of the smug and superior cracks that fill the book.

All in all, its full of a lot of good information, and in conjunction with "The Shia Revival," gives you a good understanding of the Shia in Iraq and the forces that drive them.

A Personal View of the Shia Political Culture and Muqtada al-Sadr
The author provides both a first hand account of the Shia poltical environment after the fall of Saddam's regime as well as a history of the unique and bitter relationship between the Shia and Saddam that is most interesting for westerners as the author explains not only the conflicts between the Shia and Sunni but also between the Shia themselves. The book is not intended to be a bio of Muqtada al-Sadr but to underline his role in the Shia political conflicts within Iraq today. The most interesting aspects of the book is the telling of how the Shia were punished and killed during Saddam regime particularly Sayyid Muqtada al-Sadr's father, Grand Ayatollah Mohammad Mohammad Sadeq al-Sadr. In summary yet informative detail, the author explains how the murder of Grand Ayatollah Mohammad Mohammad Sadeq al-Sadr caused a split among the Shia particularly those leaders that fled the country and then returned after Saddam's fall. The best example of this violent split is when Sayyid Abdul Majid al-Khoei returns to Iraq to assume a leadership role among the Shia but then is brutally murdered almost at Muqtada al-Sadr's door step. The slaughter of the Shia after the coalition stopped during Deset Storm, after encouraging an uprising, is well discussed with the bitterness it invoked along with the post Iraq war misunderstandings by the U.S. occupation most noted by Paul Bremmer. This is a very concise but well written educational look at the political situation in Iraq. My only criticism is that books in detail on the middle east should have a glossary of terms and a defined character list, for those less familar with middle east terms and titles, and I include myself, to assist the reader.

In depth look at Iraqi Culture and Politics
Cockburn does a wonderful job using day to day interviews to paint a larger picture deserving of the many accolades he has received in the international press.Iraqi society, much more complex and modern than the American media ever paints, is a boiling cauldron fired by the legacy of Saddam, the sanctions, and now the US occupation.

This book is for anyone who wants an understanding of the Iraqi resistance and Muqtada al-Sadr that goes beyond the moronic simplicity of White House press releases. ... Read more

Product Description
This digital document is an article from Arena Magazine, published by Thomson Gale on April 1, 2004. The length of the article is 1085 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Methodical, precise and overwhelming: the war on Iraq is as much a cultural as a military conflict, with the US determined to install its own technocratic brand of democracy.(against the current)
Author: John Hinkson
Publication: Arena Magazine (Magazine/Journal)
Date: April 1, 2004
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Issue: 70Page: 5(2)

Distributed by Thomson Gale ... Read more

Product Description
This digital document is an article from APS Diplomat News Service, published by Pam Stein/Input Solutions on July 4, 2005. The length of the article is 2769 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: The Salafi Killing Culture In Iraq Is Getting More Dangerous To Middle East Regimes.
Publication: APS Diplomat News Service (Newsletter)
Date: July 4, 2005
Publisher: Pam Stein/Input Solutions
Volume: 63Issue: 1

Distributed by Thomson Gale ... Read more