Mansour Ajami

A detailed study of the literary debate among medieval Arab critics and philosophers about the use of truthfulness and untruthfulness in the poetry of the period. Emphasis on the critical schemes proposed by al-Jurjani and al-Qarta-janni. The book includes extensive notes, a bibliography, an index of personal names, and a useful glossary/index of literary and philosophical terms.  More >

edited and translated by Deborah S. Akers and Abubaker A. Bagader

The stories in Oranges in the Sun capture a distinctly unique vision of the world, embodying the range of emotional and material concerns of the peoples of the Arab Gulf region. The introduction to the collection provides historical context, as well as a broad overview of the selections.  More >

A. Haroon Akram-Lodhi

Hunger and obesity sit side by side in the world today—the result, argues A. Haroon Akram-Lodhi, of the growing polarization of global agriculture between the haves and an ever-increasing number of have-nots. In Hungry for Change, Akram-Lodhi explains how the creation, structure, and operation of the capitalist world food system is marginalizing small-scale farmers and landless rural workers  More >

Tawfiq al-Hakim, translated and introduced by William Maynard

Includes The Wisdom of Solomon, King Oedipus, Shahrazad, Princess Sunshine, and Angels’ Prayer.  More >

Tawfiq al-Hakim, translated by William Maynard Hutchins

This first collection of al-Hakim’s stories to be published in English includes 27 of the author’s best works written from 1927 to 1966. Some inspired by literature and others by Egyptian social conditions, the stories range from mock-autobiographical to science fiction and folk fantasy to allegory and philosophy.  More >

Tawfiq al-Hakim, translated by Denys Johnson-Davies

Includes The Song of Death, The Sultan's Dilemma, and Not a Thing Out of Place, as well as the title play, an absurdist comedy.  More >

Tawfiq al-Hakim, translated from the Arabic by Denys Johnson-Davies

In The Tree Climber, a detective, a lizard, a time-traveling dervish, and a magic tree all help to turn the quiet life of a married couple upside down. "Tawfiq al-Hakim’s plays deal with themes of universal rather than local application: the role of the artist in society, the predicament of man in the face of forces he neither controls nor understands, the use and abuse of power....  More >

Yasmin Husein Al-Jawaheri

Yasmin Husein Al-Jawaheri argues that the explosion of violence against Iraqi women since the removal of Saddam Hussein should not have taken people by surprise. The deterioration of gender relations was in fact, as she vividly demonstrates, a direct result of a decade of international economic sanctions. Al-Jawaheri explores the gender-related impact of those sanctions in the areas of  More >

Tawfiq al-Suwaydi, translated by Nancy Roberts and with an Introduction by Antony T. Sullivan

These memoirs of the distinguished Iraqi statesman Tawfiq al-Suwaydi (1892-1968) evocatively recapture a now largely vanished Arab world—and are an eloquent reminder that Iraq was once a far more open and tolerant society than it is today. Al-Suwaydi served as Iraq's prime minister three times (1929, 1946, 1950), as foreign minister on numerous occasions, and as ambassador to Iran,  More >

Hicham Alaoui and Robert Springborg, editors

Despite substantial spending on education and robust support for reform both internally and by external donors, the quality of education in many, if not most, Arab countries remains low. Which raises the question: why? The authors of The Political Economy of Education in the Arab World find answers in the authoritarian political economies that shape the architecture of national governance  More >