Émile Lahood served in various positions in the Lebanese military, holding the title of commander-in-chief of the army for almost ten years. In 1998 the Lebanese Parliament amended the constitution to allow the commander-in-chief to run for office, and Lahood was subsequently elected as President of Lebanon.

Georges Corm’s work on the contemporary Middle East and the relationship between Europe and the East is now essential reading. This concise account of the history of the Middle East from before Islam to the present day is a vivid reminder of what Corm calls the “geology of cultures”.

Might Over Right provides a critical account of one of the most remarkable stories in the twenty century’s history of international relations – the history of how in the relatively short time of 30 years, Zionist leaders, managed, with the help of Western supporters but mainly the British, to wrestle a country away from its inhabitants, and in the process to profoundly affect the course of international relations and fundamentally transform the history of the Middle East.

Soon after their arrival in Spain the authors realized that the early Muslim art of Seville was curiously different from that of Cordova. This fascinated them and they undertook eight years of study in Seville, making use of the resources available to them in the city’s libraries to bring their audience this history of the Muslims in Spain, first published in 1912. Concentrating on Seville, they provide a chronological narrative of Spain from the Muslim invasion of 711 until the Reconquista of the fifteenth century.