Mahdavi, Pardis
Summary: "Book of Queens reaches back centuries to the Persian Empire and a woman disguised as a man, facing an invading army, protected only by light armor and the stallion she sat astride. Mahdavi draws a thread from past to present: from her fearless Iranian grandmother, who guided survivors of domestic violence to independent mountain colonies in Afghanistan where the women, led by a general named...
Format: text
Publisher / Publication Date: Hachette Books 2023
Copies Available at Woodmere
1 available in Adult Non-fiction, Call number: 636.1 MAHSummary: Few modern authors have not been influenced by the medieval Middle Eastern literary classic "The book of a thousand and one nights." Over one thousand years ago, a legend was told about a beautiful young woman who attempted to prolong her impending execution by telling adventure tales to a murderous sultan for a thousand and one nights. The tales she wove are set in India, Persia, Egypt,...
Format: moving image
Publisher / Publication Date: A & E Television Networks 2006
Copies Available at Woodmere
1 available in E-TV DVDs, Call number: DVD E-TV LEGToy, Sidney.
Format: text
Publisher / Publication Date: Dover Publications 1985
Copies Available at Woodmere
1 available in Adult Non-fiction, Call number: 355.7094 TOYFisk, Robert.
Format: text
Publisher / Publication Date: Alfred A. Knopf 2005
Copies Available at Woodmere
1 available in Adult Non-fiction, Call number: 956.04 FISGerolymatos, André.
Summary: Provides an account of the history of covert operations in the Middle East, looking at how the United States and other Western powers have tried to establish control over the region's resources and commerce, while at the same time working to prevent the spread of communism.
Format: text
Publisher / Publication Date: Thomas Dunne Books 2010
Copies Available at Woodmere
1 available in Adult Non-fiction, Call number: 327.1241 GERGiglio, Mike
Summary: The war against ISIS and the so-called caliphate it declared across Syria and Iraq was a battle to define not just the Middle East but the wider world. Growing from the aftermath of the U.S. war in Iraq and a brutal civil war in Syria, ISIS sought to usher in a new era of conflict as it launched terrorist attacks across Europe, while inflicting a savage extremism on the population in...
Format: text
Publisher / Publication Date: PublicAffairs 2019
Copies Available at Woodmere
1 available in Adult Non-fiction, Call number: 956.7044 GIGSummary: Continuing his trek across the Muslim world, art scholar Waldemar Januszczak introduces viewers to masterworks in Africa, the Middle East, and Central Asia-from the gigantic and surreal mud mosques of Mali; to a rare, 10th-century Egyptian ewer carved out of a single piece of rock crystal; to the inspired urban planning of the ancient city of Isfahan in Iran; to the stunning architecture of...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007
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Summary: As life among the aristocracy in Damascus and Baghdad attained its zenith of refinement, another important cultural center was developing in Islamic Cordoba. This program focuses on the remarkable cultural contributions of Ziryab, a talented young musician who fled the East for Andalusia and became the era's preeminent arbiter of style and taste. After creating a popular new form of music and...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
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Summary: Why was Islamic philosophy, once the epitome of Arab learning, eventually rejected by Muslims? And why, after assimilating it, did Europeans distance themselves from its formulators? This program seeks to understand the religious climate of the late Middle Ages, in which universities and madrassas became centers of power and models for evolving sociopolitical systems. The potentially heretical...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
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Summary: In this program, art critic Waldemar Januszczak travels through the heart of the Middle East and beyond to study a wide range of Islamic architecture, decoration, and art objects. Providing helpful historical background on the faith-with an eye on the explosive spread of early Islamic culture-the program examines the pristine beauty of India's Taj Mahal as well as one of the world's oldest...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007
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Hosken, Andrew
Summary: "In June 2014 Islamic State launched an astonishing blitzkrieg which saw them seize control of an area in the Middle East the size of Britain. The news was soon filled with their relentless acts of savagery, yet nobody seemed to know who they were or where they'd come from. Now, top BBC reporter Andrew Hosken delivers the inside story on Islamic State. Through extensive first-hand reporting, he...
Format: text
Publisher / Publication Date: Oneworld Publications 2015
Copies Available at Woodmere
1 available in Adult Non-fiction, Call number: 956 HOSHapka, Cathy.
Summary: In a mid-ninth-century Bedouin camp in the Arabian Desert, a horse is born to a prized Arabian war mare who dies during the birth, and the foal is raised with dreams of continuing her mother's glory as a war mare. Includes facts about Arabian horses and their importance to Bedouin tribes.
Format: text
Publisher / Publication Date: Random House 2011
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1 available in Beginning Readers - Independent Reader (Red), Call number: JBR RED HORLewis, Bernard.
Summary: This collection of essays, written by the foremost Western expert in Islamic studies, gives essential background on present Middle Eastern conflicts with the West, and how this religion, from its first expansion to the exploits of Saddam Hussein, has been fatefully involved with the Western world.
Format: text
Publisher / Publication Date: Open Court 2001
Copies Available at Woodmere
1 available in Adult Non-fiction, Call number: 909 LEWSummary: Since their appearance in Europe some 300 years ago, the stories of The Thousand and One Nights have entranced Western readers with visions of an exotic, magical Middle East. In this program, actor and director Richard E. Grant revisits the book he loved as a child and seeks to understand its persistent hold on the collective imagination. Grant travels to Paris to discover how the Arabist...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2011
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Summary: This engrossing documentary provides a historical overview of Shiites' religious suppression in Iraq-spanning 13 centuries-then enters the heart of Iraq's holy cities to see how Shiites initially react to recent spiritual liberties. It gives firsthand accounts of Saddam Hussein's merciless campaign against Shiites in Karbala during the Gulf War, and highlights the power struggle in Najaf's...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
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Summary: The precarious hopes and daily struggles of Gaza strip residents are documented in this compelling program, which focuses on the 2003 summer ceasefire-a chapter of Israeli-Palestinian history filled with American ambivalence, disappointing prisoner releases, and the eventual disintegration of the ceasefire itself. A pacifist Gazan artist, his militant-minded son, and the pragmatic widow of a...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
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Summary: From his childhood on a kibbutz through his contentious military career, this program presents a biographical sketch of Moshe Dayan. Complex and charismatic, Dayan became a hero and international icon with his aggressive approach to the issue of Palestine - but fell from grace after the Yom Kippur War. Archival footage gives viewers a vivid look at the Middle Eastern conflict in the early 20th...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2003
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Summary: Encompassing fairy tales, romances, legends, fables, parables, and anecdotes, The Thousand and One Nights is a composite of popular oral stories that developed over several centuries, mainly during the Empire of the Caliphate. This program scrutinizes the wonderfully audacious tale of Scheherazade and what it tells the attentive reader about the dreams of Arab men and women during the empire's...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
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Summary: No sooner had Europe declared an end to its Great War than the seeds of new conflict were sewn-in the dismemberment of the Ottoman Empire. With typical global awareness, photography patron and archivist Albert Kahn chose to document the historic changes occurring in the colonial Middle East. This program traces his team's expeditions into Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, and Palestine as Western powers...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009
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Summary: Segments from this program include: The Aftermath of Acre, Richard Stakes His Claim for the Holy Land, An Unlikely Friendship Develops, Saladin Faces a Crisis, The Armies Prepare for Battle, and The Truce.
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
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Summary: Each year millions of travelers flock to Mecca, undertaking the Haj, or pilgrimage, required of all devout Muslims. Few people outside of Islam, however, have seen this ancient and sacred city. This program offers an unprecedented look at the birthplace of Mohammed and the rituals that bring together the followers of the world's fastest-growing religion. Photographer Reza Deghati, himself a...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2010
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Summary: Called “remarkably balanced” by Jewish Week, this program examines the controversial military and political career of Ariel Sharon. Supporters and critics comment on the events that made Sharon a polarizing figure even in his own country: the Qibya Massacre, the bulldozing of refugees’ homes, the planting of Israeli settlements in densely populated Palestinian areas, the unpopular 1982 Lebanon...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2003
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Summary: By replacing paganism with monotheism and tribal life with empire-building, the Arabs of the Umayyad and Abbasid dynasties effected a complete paradigm shift in their worldview. This program studies the codification of Islamic law and assimilation of non-Arab texts-and the ensuing competition between the ulema, or doctors of the law, and the philosophers, who saw reason as an equal to divine...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
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Summary: My role as a writer is to create positive myths, says Amin Maalouf. The Lebanese-born novelist and journalist also acknowledges "the material that history gives me." This program features conversations with Maalouf about his imaginative, historically grounded novels and his identity as a Christian Arab living in Paris. On-screen readings by the author present excerpts and themes from Leo...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007