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      • Trusted Partner
        Humanities & Social Sciences
        January 2022

        Reconstructing lives

        Victims of war in the Middle East and Médecins Sans Frontières

        by Vanja Kovacic, Bertrand Taithe

        This book attempts to establish a more holistic approach to the rehabilitation of war-injured civilians, one that adjusts to the patients' long-term needs. Kovacic not only offers an insight into the daily realities of patients during and after rehabilitation, but seeks to develop a new way to perceive, respect and involve them in health care. Based on comprehensive interviews with patients and MSF staff, as well as extended field observations, Reconstructing lives follows Syrian and Iraqi war-injured civilians in their journey to recovery. From their improvised medical treatment in their home countries, to the MSF-run hospital in Amman Jordan, to their return home, Kovacic explores how individuals attempt to pick up the pieces of their previous lives, add new elements from their treatment and travel experiences, and finally establish a new reconstructed reality. The book explores how the interaction between MSF staff and their patients contributes to the immense task of healing that awaits victims of war. The reader visits the intimate medical and domestic spaces that usually remain closed to the outside observer, spaces rich with human contact, perceptions, emotions, conflicts and reconciliations.

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        Fiction
        2022

        Where to, O Poem

        by Ali Jaafar Al Allaq

        This autobiographical work centers on literary creativity. Poet Ali Jaafar Alallaq recollects his academic and professional experiences, as well as their diverse ventures into poetic, literary, critical, and academic writing earlier in his life. The book covers the poet’s upbringing in a humble, impoverished village, his family’s subsequent move to Baghdad in the early 1950s, and his journey up until the present day. ///The biography details a plethora of human, cultural, and poetic events that impacted Alallaq’s perspective on events he witnessed, interacted with, or was involved in. These events range in intensity and scope, spanning from his childhood years in the countryside to navigating significant societal changes in Baghdad, and from his early explorations in writing and literary journalism to pursuing doctoral studies in the United Kingdom. He reflects on enduring two destructive wars that displaced Iraq’s people, leading to a life of exile and reliance on divine providence under the night sky. ///Beginning in 1991, Alallaq began a long period abroad that included six years of teaching at Sanaa University, followed by ten years of work at the United Arab Emirates University from 1997 to 2015. He produced a remarkable body of poetry and critical works during his tenure as a university instructor and his active involvement in cultural and poetic affairs in Sanaa and later in the UAE, which continues to this day. ///In this book, Alallaq takes on several roles, including narrator, contemplator, restorer, and descriptor, and expresses himself using elevated literary language. As a result, the work serves as an aesthetic testament to the purity of language as well as a cohesive account of the ups and downs of daily life. Despite living and working in a prosperous and stable environment for many years, he remains emotionally and imaginatively connected to the events and struggles affecting his country and the Arab world. He continues to document his aesthetic and patriotic testimony of current happenings, as clearly evidenced in his present autobiography.

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        MICHEL EZRA SAFRA & SONS

        by Amnon Shamosh

        Michel Ezra Safra & Sons is a family saga by a well-known Israeli writer, Amnon Shamosh. The story is semibiographical and takes place partly in Aleppo, Syria, the birthplace of the author. The book describes the life, struggles, and dispersion of a well-to-do Syrian Jewish family during the course of three generations, beginning in the mid-1930’s. The story of the Ezra Safra family is the tale of a Middle Eastern Jewish society and its basic traditional values, which are constantly challenged by other norms, both circumstantial and universal. Shaken by local and global upheavals, the family, headed by Michel and his pretty wife Linda, is driven from their hometown of Aleppo during riots in the aftermath of the United Nations resolution in late 1947 on the establishment of a Jewish state in Palestine. Michel, a practical figure, continues to rule his worldwide business empire. His grip on his children seems to loosen, however, though he still enjoys their respect and love. Rachmo, the eldest son and heir apparent, runs the Paris branch of the family business, but his conduct as a family man does not live up to his parents’ standards. Albert, his younger brother, abhors business and shuns the course he is expected to take. He finds an outlet in Zionist underground activity, including “smuggling” Jews into Palestine. Five other Safra sons and daughters emigrate to Europe, America, and Israel. What concerns Michel most, disturbing and haunting him, is not the state of his financial empire, but a grave “sin” that he has committed. When the old synagogue of Aleppo was set on fire, Michel rescued the “Aram Zova” Torah scroll and managed to keep it from burning. He removed a piece from this priceless, sacred scroll and secreted it in a safe in Nice, France. Although this treasure is protected, Michel construes the tragedies that befall the family as divine punishment. Throughout the novel, the reader follows Michel on his worldwide travels, settling family and business affairs, burdened by poor health and by his conscience. The life of his son Albert, now an influential member of a collective settlement in Israel, is completely alien to him. The saga of the Ezra Safra family draws to a finale when Michel dies heartbroken a few days after his grandson is killed during the 1967 Six-Day War. Later, Rachmo, who was made party to his father’s secret, dies of a heart attack upon learning that the scroll in Nice has been stolen. Linda agrees to join her children in Israel, but refuses to live with them. She chooses to live a solitary life, surrounded by photos and memories of the past. Michel Ezra Safra and Sons was made into a highly successful mini-series for  the Israeli television.   French and Spanish translations of the entire novel are available! 348 pages, 14.5X21 cm

      • Trusted Partner
        Humanities & Social Sciences
        January 2022

        Reconstructing lives

        by Vanja Kovacic

      • Trusted Partner
        Humanities & Social Sciences
        March 2017

        Air power and colonial control

        by David Omissi

        Air policing was used in many colonial possessions, but its most effective incidence occurred in the crescent of territory from north-eastern Africa, through South-West Arabia, to North West Frontier of India. This book talks about air policing and its role in offering a cheaper means of 'pacification' in the inter-war years. It illuminates the potentialities and limitations of the new aerial technology, and makes important contributions to the history of colonial resistance and its suppression. Air policing was employed in the campaign against Mohammed bin Abdulla Hassan and his Dervish following in Somaliland in early 1920. The book discusses the relationships between air control and the survival of Royal Air Force in Iraq and between air power and indirect imperialism in the Hashemite kingdoms. It discusses Hugh Trenchard's plans to substitute air for naval or coastal forces, and assesses the extent to which barriers of climate and geography continued to limit the exercise of air power. Indigenous responses include being terrified at the mere sight of aircraft to the successful adaptation to air power, which was hardly foreseen by either the opponents or the supporters of air policing. The book examines the ethical debates which were a continuous undercurrent to the stream of argument about repressive air power methods from a political and operational perspective. It compares air policing as practised by other European powers by highlighting the Rif war in Morocco, the Druze revolt in Syria, and Italy's war of reconquest in Libya.

      • Trusted Partner
        Humanities & Social Sciences
        March 2006

        Germany, pacifism and peace enforcement

        by Anja Dalgaard-Nielsen, Emil Kirchner, Thomas Christiansen

        Germany, pacifism and peace enforcement is about the transformation of Germany's security and defence policy in the time between the 1991 Gulf War and the 2003 war against Iraq. The book traces and explains the reaction of Europe's biggest and potentially most powerful country to the ethnic wars of the 1990s, the emergence of large-scale terrorism, and the new US emphasis on pre-emptive strikes. Based on an analysis of Germany's strategic culture it portrays Germany as a security actor and indicates the conditions and limits of the new German willingness to participate in international military crisis management that developed over the 1990s. It debates the implications of Germany's transformation for Germany's partners and neighbours and explains why Germany said 'yes' to the war in Afghanistan, but 'no' to the Iraq War. ;

      • Trusted Partner
        January 1993

        Metallgefäße im Iraq I

        (Von den Anfängen bis in die Akkad-Zeit). Mit naturwissenschaftlichen Beiträgen von Emmerich Pászthory und Ernst Pernicka

        by Müller-Karpe, Michael / Beiträge von Pászthory, Emmerich; Beiträge von Pernicka, Ernst

      • Trusted Partner

        In the Footsteps of Enayat Al-Zayyat

        by Iman Mersal

        ‘In the Footsteps of Enayat Al-Zayyat’ is a book that traces the life of an unknown Egyptian writer who died in 1963, four years before the release of her only novel. The book does not follow a traditional style to present the biography of Al-Zayyat, or to restore consideration for a writer who was denied her rights. Mersal refuses to present a single story as if it is the truth and refuses to speak on behalf of the heroine or deal with her as a victim, but rather takes us on a journey to search for the individuality that is often marginalised in Arab societies. The book searches for a young woman whose family burned all her personal documents, including the draft of her second novel, and was completely absent in the collective archives.   The narration derives its uniqueness from its ability to combine different literary genres such as fictional narration, academic research, investigation, readings, interviews, fiction, and fragments of the autobiography of the author of the novel. The book deals with the differences between the individuality of Enayat, who was born into an aristocratic family, graduated from a German school and wrote her narration during the domination of the speeches of the Nasserism period, and that of Mersal, a middle-class woman who formed her consciousness in the 1990s and achieved some of what Enayat dreamed of achieving but remained haunted by her tragedy.   The book deals with important political, social and cultural issues, as we read the history of psychiatry in modern Egypt through the pills that Enayat swallowed to end her life on 3 January 1963, while her divorce summarises the continuing suffering of women with the Personal Status Law. We also see how the disappearance of a small square from her neighbourhood reveals the relationship between modernity and bureaucracy, and how the geography of Cairo changes, obliterated as the result of changes in political regimes. In the library of the German Archaeological Institute, where Enayat worked, we find an unwritten history of World War II and, in her unpublished second novel, we see unknown stories of German scientists fleeing Nazism to Cairo. We also see how Enayat’s neglected tomb reveals the life story of her great-grandfather, Ahmed Rashid Pasha, and the disasters buried in the genealogy tree.

      • Trusted Partner

        On the Silk Road

        by Amnon Shamosh

        Amnon Shamosh, who made his name as an author with the well-known family saga “Michel Ezra Safra & Sons” as well as with the dozens of enthralling short stories that appeared in the collections entitled “My Sister the Bride” and “Wheels of the World,” surprises us once again with a novel that is modern, brilliant, and profound. The story revolves around age-old traditions and historical facts that complement one another, mingling in Shamosh’s imagination and impassioning the reader. In the year 1400, the great conqueror Timur Lang arrives in the Syrian city of Haleb (Aram Zoba) and from it sends ten Jewish families of silk dyers into exile, banishing them to Samarkand, capital of Timur’s empire, on the Silk Road. Timur Lang also kidnaps Jewish virgins, sequestering them in his harems. One of the virgins captures the heart of Timur’s son, a man of intellect and creation, who ruled under him. King Elias, “son of the Jewess,” who was raised in the Islamic faith, embarks on a quest to Spain in an effort to get to know and understand the Christian world as well as the Jewish one, which was flourishing in Spain at the time. Elias, seeking an identity and also a bride, finds them in Haleb, city of his maternal forefathers. His young wife came from the Dayan family, with ties to the dynasty of the House of David. The novel moves through three story lines. One is situated in the fifteenth century and centers mainly on the royal family and on the harem in Samarkand. The second occurs at the beginning of the twentieth century, in Jerusalem’s Bokharan Quarter, where immigrants from Bokhara and Haleb are crowded together, and the leaders of the new Jewish immigrant society visit the neighborhood. Story line number three concerns the last decade of the century, with the massive immigration of Soviet Jewry; the story here focuses mainly on the Bokharan immigrants. The spotlight is on Oshi Shauloff Ben-Shaul, born in the Bokharan Quarter, whose mother, of Halev origin, is a descendant of the above-mentioned House of Dayan and has roots in one of the families that were exiled from Haleb to Samarkand. This novel, excitingly erotic yet refined and restrained, has a style that is at once powerful and inspiring – as we have been led to expect from the works of Amnon Shamosh.   Born in Syria in 1929, Amnon Shamosh immigrated to Tel Aviv as a child and later became one of the founding members of Kibbutz Ma'ayan Baruch, where he resides today. A graduate of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, author of both poetry and prose for children and adults, his work has been translated into English, Spanish, and French. Amnon Shamosh is a recipient of the Agnon Prize, named after the celebrated Israeli Nobel Laureate in Literature, the Prime Minister's Prize for Creativity, the President of Israel's Award for Literature, and numerous other literary awards. 288 pages, 14.5X21 cm

      • Trusted Partner
        Humanities & Social Sciences
        January 2022

        Exiting war

        The British Empire and the 1918–20 moment

        by Romain Fathi, Margaret Hutchison, Andrekos Varnava, Michael Walsh, Alan Lester

        Exiting war explores a particular 1918-20 'moment' in the British Empire's history, between the First World War's armistices of 1918, and the peace treaties of 1919 and 1920. That moment, we argue, was a challenging and transformative time for the Empire. While British authorities successfully answered some of the post-war tests they faced, such as demobilisation, repatriation, and fighting the widespread effects of the Spanish flu, the racial, social, political and economic hallmarks of their imperialism set the scene for a wide range of expressions of loyalties and disloyalties, and anticolonial movements. The book documents and conceptualises this 1918-20 'moment' and its characteristics as a crucial three-year period of transformation for and within the Empire, examining these years for the significant shifts in the imperial relationship that occurred and as laying the foundation for later change in the imperial system.

      • Trusted Partner
        March 2013

        This is War: Teacher Yuan Tengfei's Lesson of WW1

        by Yuan Tengfei

        This book tells the story of WW1 in a clear and interesting way with historical facts. This book is totally different from any history book you have read. Readers can take a lot of joy and also understand the history of WW2 at the same time.

      • Trusted Partner
        January 2013

        This is War: Teacher Yuan Tengfei's Lesson of WW2 1

        by Yuan Tengfei

        This book tells the story of WW2 in a clear and interesting way with historical facts. This book is totally different from any history book you have read. Readers can take a lot of joy and also understand the history of WW2 at the same time.

      • Trusted Partner
        April 2013

        This is War: Teacher Yuan Tengfei's Lesson of WW2 2

        by Yuan Tengfei

        This book tells the story of WW2 in a clear and interesting way with historical facts. This book is totally different from any history book you have read. Readers can take a lot of joy and also understand the history of WW2 at the same time.

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      • Trusted Partner
        The Arts
        September 2024

        The renewal of post-war Manchester

        Planning, architecture and the state

        by Richard Brook

        A compelling account of the project to transform post-war Manchester, revealing the clash between utopian vision and compromised reality. Urban renewal in Britain was thrilling in its vision, yet partial and incomplete in its implementation. For the first time, this deep study of a renewal city reveals the complex networks of actors behind physical change and stagnation in post-war Britain. Using the nested scales of region, city and case-study sites, the book explores the relationships between Whitehall legislation, its interpretation by local government planning officers and the on-the-ground impact through urban architectural projects. Each chapter highlights the connections between policy goals, global narratives and the design and construction of cities. The Cold War, decolonialisation, rising consumerism and the oil crisis all feature in a richly illustrated account of architecture and planning in post-war Manchester.

      • Trusted Partner
        Children's & YA

        The Dinoraf

        by Hessa Al Muhairi

        An egg has hatched, and what comes out of it? A chicken? No. A turtle? No. It’s a dinosaur. But where is his family?  The little dinosaur searches the animal kingdom for someone who looks like him and settles on the giraffe. In this picture book by educator and author Hessa Al Muhairi, with illustrations by Sura Ghazwan, a dinosaur sets out in search of animals like him. He finds plenty of animals, but none that look the same...until he meets the giraffe. This story explores identity and belonging and teaches children about accepting differences in carefully crafted language.

      • Trusted Partner
        May 2022

        In the Shadow of War

        Diary notes from Ukraine

        by Christoph Brumme

        "What can you learn in war? Do you become numb, do you get used to it at some point? Does war make you "hard", uncaring, above pain? No. These are just clichés. Every day brings new horrors. At best, one learns for some time to suppress strong feelings, because to give in to them would weaken one's life instinct." In a very stirring and shocking, but sometimes humorous language, Christoph Brumme tells of the situation in Ukraine, the everyday life of his family and friends, of fears, longings and political assessments. The diary entries of the war and the resistance of the Ukrainians, starting from the first signs of the impending war in mid-January 2022 until the printing of this book, 1st May 2022, impressively bear witness to the brutality of these events.

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