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Ancient mysteries Days that shook the world (Princeton, N.J.) Lorsque le monde parlait arabe Paradise found Richard the Lionheart and Saladin, Holy Warriors Slaves of the Sword The Wide Angle Collection: Human Stories, Global Issues Tkuma, Israel's first 50 years Wonderful World of Albert KahnFilter By Series
Ancient mysteries Days that shook the world (Princeton, N.J.) Lorsque le monde parlait arabe Paradise found Richard the Lionheart and Saladin, Holy Warriors Slaves of the Sword The Wide Angle Collection: Human Stories, Global Issues Tkuma, Israel's first 50 years Wonderful World of Albert KahnMahdavi, 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 LEGSummary: 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
View online at AVOD
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
View online at AVOD
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
View online at AVOD
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
View online at AVOD
Lewis, 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: 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: 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
View online at AVOD
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
View online at AVOD
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
View online at AVOD
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
View online at AVOD
Summary: Presented by former BBC Middle East correspondent Jeremy Bowen, this program provides an in-depth historical account of how the modern state of Israel was created, from both a military and geopolitical perspective. The film begins in the early years of the Zionist movement, unleashing a spectacular procession of archival footage and insider interviews-and shedding light on the Balfour...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009
View online at AVOD
Summary: Picking up mathematics and astronomy from where the ancient Greeks had left off, Arab scholars paved the way for the Copernican revolution and the rebirth of science in Europe. This program reveals the Empire of the Caliphate's role in developing the Indo-Arabic decimal system, algebra, and algorithms and in refining the science of optics and the Ptolemaic model of the solar system. The...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: Through coverage of Lebanon's 2005 legislative elections-the first since the end of its 15-year civil war without the presence of occupying Syrian forces-this Wide Angle report explores political change in the oldest democracy in the Middle East. It also provides a solid grounding in Lebanese politics for viewers studying current events in the region. A democracy advocate, a Hezbollah...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: Despite centuries of suffering and displacement, the fabric of Jewish culture has never broken. This program examines the theme of survival and its connection to Jewish achievements. Viewers will encounter a wide range of topics, including the origins of Judaism, the world's first major monotheistic religion; the flourishing of Jewish scholarship through Talmudic learning and Rabbinic Judaism;...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009
View online at AVOD
Summary: Following "The Night of Broken Glass," the world reacted with horror.and did nothing. So began the Holocaust. Who could have foreseen, at that low ebb of Judaism, that just ten years later a Jewish state, Israel, would finally be born? It was a victory for Jews everywhere. But it also signaled the further marginalization of the Palestinian population. This emotionally charged, highly realistic...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: It is the summer of 2006, and a bus filled with Iranian men and women sets out on a perilous journey to the holy sites of Najaf and Karbala in war-torn Iraq. Wide Angle accompanies them on their pilgrimage-revealing many of the attitudes, beliefs, and emotions that add to the complexity of modern Islam. As the bus rolls through breathtaking desert landscapes, the five-day odyssey takes on...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007
View online at AVOD
Summary: Many Americans still wonder how the United States became so reviled in the Muslim world. Digging up the historical roots of al Qaeda, this documentary examines the years of economic stagnation, religious fanaticism, and political and military oppression in the Middle East that gave rise to the attacks of September 11, 2001. It features rare footage and insightful commentary by leading scholars...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009
View online at AVOD
Summary: This program investigates the practice of medicine during the Abbasid Caliphate, offering profiles of Jurjis ibn Jibrail, personal doctor to Caliph al-Mansur; Yuhanna ibn Masawayh, head of Caliph al-Ma'amun's House of Wisdom; Rhazes, whose Kitab al-hawi outlines an exemplary clinical approach; Avicenna, universally known for his Canon of Medicine; and Abul Qasim al-Zahrawi, the father of modern...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: Israel was founded by Zionists, who viewed Israel as the Promised Land, the patrimony of the Jewish people. Today, many Israelis define themselves as a nation, not as a religion. Does being an Israeli mean embracing a religion, or is it a national identity? This program examines this divisive question that has pitted Israeli against Jew. Beginning with the forefathers who founded Israel on...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
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