This stunning novel brings to life the enthralling world of Cyrus the Great, the leader of Ancient Persia – the world’s first great empire – and the life and times of Cyrus himself, a magnificent leader whose passion won the hearts of his subjects and of two extraordinary women – the wildly beautiful warrior Roshan and the exquisite Cassadane.
Weeds don’t Perish is the story of Hanna Braun; a passionate, wry, rebellious woman with a zest for life, that throws a new light on the historical Israel-Palestine conflict.
Two Thousand Years of Bad Faith in the Christian Church
James McDonald
Who really founded Christianity?
Who and what did Jesus believe himself to be?
How old are Christian doctrines and where did they come from?
Was Christ the God a divinity created from several existing Middle Eastern gods? Beyond Belief seeks answers to these questions, and many more...
A Journey through the Turkish Baths of Damascus, Aleppo and Beyond
Richard Boggs
Legend has it that Damascus once had 365 hammams or ‘Turkish baths’: one for each day of the year. Originally part of an ancient Roman tradition, hammams were absorbed by Islam to such an extent that many became almost annexes to nearby mosques. For centuries, hammams were an integral part of community life, with some 50 hammams surviving in Damascus until the 1950s.
Journey from a Palestinian Refugee Camp to America
Jamal Krayem Kanj
A great deal has been written over the years addressing the Palestine–Israel conflict, and the creation of the Palestinian refugee problem. However, few works on the subject really present the personal aspect: What is it like to be a refugee? What propels a decent human being to take up arms, to become a freedom fighter or a “terrorist?”
Tibet is famed for its majestic beauty, and also for its ongoing struggle for cultural survival. This collection of photographs from the British Library, taken by two British diplomats in the early twentieth century, shows traditional Tibetan culture before Chinese rule was imposed. In Lhasa, a noble family take a picnic in a park, the women’s elaborate head-dresses adorned with pearls. Travelling folk-opera singers pose in costumes and masks.
First settled in the sixth or seventh century BC, Samarkand has known periods of prosperity and decline – its craftsmen traded and settled as far afield as the Chinese borders, and its great military leader Tamerlane fought wars against Persia, Syria and India. Samarkand is best known as a centre of Islamic learning and architecture. The photographs collected here were taken during the key period from 1871 to the 1890s, following the Tsarist conquest of 1868, but before the Soviet rule which resulted in the destruction of many Islamic landmarks.
Once known as the ‘Hermit Kingdom’, Korea was first prised open by Japan in 1876; it opened to the West in 1883, and even today it remains a little-known country. Yet its distinct culture and history could not be more colourful or fascinating. This book provides the first-ever comprehensive history of early photography in Korea and identifies many previously unattributed images.
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