The 8:55 to Baghdad

The 8:55 to Baghdad PDF Author: Andrew Eames
Publisher: Abrams
ISBN: 1590209168
Category : Travel
Languages : en
Pages : 280

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Book Description
“A winning blend of travelogue and literary biography” by a British journalist who travels the journey Agatha Christie once did from London to Iraq. (Entertainment Weekly) With her marriage to her first husband over, Agatha Christie decided to take a much needed holiday; the Caribbean had been her intended destination, but a conversation at a dinner party with a couple who had just returned from Iraq changed her mind. Five days later she was off on a completely different trajectory. Merging literary biography with travel adventure, and ancient history with contemporary world events, Andrew Eames tells a riveting tale and reveals fascinating and little-known details of this exotic chapter in the life of Agatha Christie. His own trip from London to Baghdad--a journey much more difficult to make in 2002 with the political unrest in the Middle East and the war in Iraq, than it was in 1928--becomes intertwined with Agatha's, and the people he meets could have stepped out of a mystery novel. Fans of Agatha Christie will delight in Eames' description of the places and events that appeared in and influenced her fiction--and armchair travelers will thrill in the exotica of the journey itself. “Agatha Christie fans, as well as connoisseurs of fine travel writing, will relish British journalist Eames's gripping, humorous and eye-opening account of his train and bus trip across Europe and the Middle East on the eve of the second Gulf War.” Publisher’s Weekly Second;Iraq;Gulf;war;Kurds;Armenians;Palestinians;English;travel;writer;writing;1928;bestselling;mystery;author;English;crime;writer;Europe;passenger;train;memoir;literary;biography;adventure;travel;history;autobiography;holiday;Middle;East;Damascus;Ur;Syria;archaeology TRV026090 TRAVEL / Special Interest / Literary BIO007000 BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Literary Figures BIO026000 BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Personal Memoirs TRV015000 TRAVEL / Middle East / General 9781468306415 Candlemoth Ellory, R.J.

The 8:55 to Baghdad

The 8:55 to Baghdad PDF Author: Andrew Eames
Publisher: Abrams
ISBN: 1590209168
Category : Travel
Languages : en
Pages : 280

Get Book Here

Book Description
“A winning blend of travelogue and literary biography” by a British journalist who travels the journey Agatha Christie once did from London to Iraq. (Entertainment Weekly) With her marriage to her first husband over, Agatha Christie decided to take a much needed holiday; the Caribbean had been her intended destination, but a conversation at a dinner party with a couple who had just returned from Iraq changed her mind. Five days later she was off on a completely different trajectory. Merging literary biography with travel adventure, and ancient history with contemporary world events, Andrew Eames tells a riveting tale and reveals fascinating and little-known details of this exotic chapter in the life of Agatha Christie. His own trip from London to Baghdad--a journey much more difficult to make in 2002 with the political unrest in the Middle East and the war in Iraq, than it was in 1928--becomes intertwined with Agatha's, and the people he meets could have stepped out of a mystery novel. Fans of Agatha Christie will delight in Eames' description of the places and events that appeared in and influenced her fiction--and armchair travelers will thrill in the exotica of the journey itself. “Agatha Christie fans, as well as connoisseurs of fine travel writing, will relish British journalist Eames's gripping, humorous and eye-opening account of his train and bus trip across Europe and the Middle East on the eve of the second Gulf War.” Publisher’s Weekly Second;Iraq;Gulf;war;Kurds;Armenians;Palestinians;English;travel;writer;writing;1928;bestselling;mystery;author;English;crime;writer;Europe;passenger;train;memoir;literary;biography;adventure;travel;history;autobiography;holiday;Middle;East;Damascus;Ur;Syria;archaeology TRV026090 TRAVEL / Special Interest / Literary BIO007000 BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Literary Figures BIO026000 BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Personal Memoirs TRV015000 TRAVEL / Middle East / General 9781468306415 Candlemoth Ellory, R.J.

Blind Into Baghdad

Blind Into Baghdad PDF Author: James Fallows
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 0307482308
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 258

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Book Description
In the autumn of 2002, Atlantic Monthly national correspondent James Fallows wrote an article predicting many of the problems America would face if it invaded Iraq. After events confirmed many of his predictions, Fallows went on to write some of the most acclaimed, award-winning journalism on the planning and execution of the war, much of which has been assigned as required reading within the U.S. military. In Blind Into Baghdad, Fallows takes us from the planning of the war through the struggles of reconstruction. With unparalleled access and incisive analysis, he shows us how many of the difficulties were anticipated by experts whom the administration ignored. Fallows examines how the war in Iraq undercut the larger ”war on terror” and why Iraq still had no army two years after the invasion. In a sobering conclusion, he interviews soldiers, spies, and diplomats to imagine how a war in Iran might play out. This is an important and essential book to understand where and how the war went wrong, and what it means for America.

Thieves of Baghdad

Thieves of Baghdad PDF Author: Matthew Bogdanos
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 1596919841
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 370

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Book Description
Thieves of Baghdad is a riveting account of Colonel Matthew Bogdanos and his team's extraordinary efforts to recover over 5,000 priceless antiquities stolen from the Iraqi National Museum after the fall of Baghdad. A mixture of police procedural, treasure hunt, war-time thriller, and cold-eyed assessment of the international black market in stolen art, Thieves of Baghdad also explores the soul of a truly remarkable man: a soldier, a father, and a passionate, dedicated scholar.

The Story of the World

The Story of the World PDF Author: Susan Wise Bauer
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780329838515
Category : History, Modern
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Chronicles the history of the world from 1600 to 1850; discussing important events and prominent figures. Includes maps and illustrations.

Arabic Literary Salons in the Islamic Middle Ages

Arabic Literary Salons in the Islamic Middle Ages PDF Author: Samer M. Ali
Publisher: University of Notre Dame Pess
ISBN: 0268074976
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 312

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Book Description
Arabic literary salons emerged in ninth-century Iraq and, by the tenth, were flourishing in Baghdad and other urban centers. In an age before broadcast media and classroom education, salons were the primary source of entertainment and escape for middle- and upper-rank members of society, serving also as a space and means for educating the young. Although salons relied on a culture of oral performance from memory, scholars of Arabic literature have focused almost exclusively on the written dimensions of the tradition. That emphasis, argues Samer Ali, has neglected the interplay of oral and written, as well as of religious and secular knowledge in salon society, and the surprising ways in which these seemingly discrete categories blurred in the lived experience of participants. Looking at the period from 500 to 1250, and using methods from European medieval studies, folklore, and cultural anthropology, Ali interprets Arabic manuscripts in order to answer fundamental questions about literary salons as a social institution. He identifies salons not only as sites for socializing and educating, but as loci for performing literature and oral history; for creating and transmitting cultural identity; and for continually reinterpreting the past. A fascinating recovery of a key element of humanistic culture, Ali’s work will encourage a recasting of our understanding of verbal art, cultural memory, and daily life in medieval Arab culture.

The Silk Roads

The Silk Roads PDF Author: Peter Frankopan
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 1101946334
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 688

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Book Description
INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER • Far more than a history of the Silk Roads, this book is truly a revelatory new history of the world, promising to destabilize notions of where we come from and where we are headed next. "A rare book that makes you question your assumptions about the world.” —The Wall Street Journal From the Middle East and its political instability to China and its economic rise, the vast region stretching eastward from the Balkans across the steppe and South Asia has been thrust into the global spotlight in recent years. Frankopan teaches us that to understand what is at stake for the cities and nations built on these intricate trade routes, we must first understand their astounding pasts. Frankopan realigns our understanding of the world, pointing us eastward. It was on the Silk Roads that East and West first encountered each other through trade and conquest, leading to the spread of ideas, cultures and religions. From the rise and fall of empires to the spread of Buddhism and the advent of Christianity and Islam, right up to the great wars of the twentieth century—this book shows how the fate of the West has always been inextricably linked to the East. Also available: The New Silk Roads, a timely exploration of the dramatic and profound changes our world is undergoing right now—as seen from the perspective of the rising powers of the East.

Wahhabism and the Rise of the New Salafists

Wahhabism and the Rise of the New Salafists PDF Author: Namira Nahouza
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1838609822
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 282

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Book Description
Wahhabism is often described as one of the most conservative branches of Islam and its fundamentalist approach seen as fuelling jihadist extremism. But what is the theological basis of Wahhabism? How do Wahhabi beliefs and doctrine differ from branches of Sunni Islam? While previous scholarship has examined Wahhabism as a political phenomenon, this book turns attention to the complex religious issues that are central to its understanding. Tracing its roots in the 18th century up until the present day, Namira Nahouza shows why the Wahhabi movement has opposed traditional Islamic scholarship on the interpretation of the Qur'an and hadith. Of key importance, Nahouza shows, are the differing beliefs about the oneness of God and God's names and attributes, issues on which both Wahhabi and other Salafi groups are united. Based on extensive research into classical and contemporary Arabic religious sources, Nahouza presents the contours of Sunni theological debate and reveals how the Wahhabi movement became the predecessor to the Salafism we see today. In highlighting the far-reaching consequences of these theological divisions - both for Muslim communities and the world at large -the book fills a significant gap in existing research and is essential reading for scholars researching Islamic Theology, Islamic History, Security Studies and Islamic Radicalism.

The Cambridge History of Turkey: Volume 2, The Ottoman Empire as a World Power, 1453–1603

The Cambridge History of Turkey: Volume 2, The Ottoman Empire as a World Power, 1453–1603 PDF Author: Suraiya N. Faroqhi
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1316175545
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 864

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Book Description
Volume 2 of The Cambridge History of Turkey examines the period from the conquest of Constantinople in 1453 to the accession of Ahmed I in 1603. During this period, the Ottoman Empire moved into a new phase of expansion, emerging in the sixteenth century as a dominant political player on the world scene. With territory stretching around the Mediterranean from the Adriatic Sea to Morocco, and from the Caucasus to the Caspian Sea, the Ottomans reached the apogee of their military might in a period seen by many later Ottomans, and historians, as a golden age in which the state was strong, the sultan's might unquestionable, and intellectual life and the arts flourishing. In this volume, leading scholars assess the considerable expansion of Ottoman power and effervescence of the Ottoman intellectual and cultural world. They also investigate the challenges that faced the Ottoman state, particularly in the later period, as the empire experienced economic crises, revolts and drawn-out wars.

The House of Wisdom

The House of Wisdom PDF Author: Florence Parry Heide
Publisher: DK Publishing (Dorling Kindersley)
ISBN:
Category : Juvenile Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 48

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Book Description
Ishaq, the son of the chief translator to the Caliph of ancient Baghdad, travels the world in search of precious books and manuscripts and brings them back to the great library known as the House of Wisdom.

The Map of Knowledge

The Map of Knowledge PDF Author: Violet Moller
Publisher: Picador
ISBN: 9781509829620
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
"The foundations of modern knowledge--philosophy, math, astronomy, geography--were laid by the Greeks, whose ideas were written on scrolls and stored in libraries across the Mediterranean and beyond. But as the vast Roman Empire disintegrated, so did appreciation of these precious texts. Christianity cast a shadow over so-called pagan thought, books were burned, and the library of Alexandria, the greatest repository of classical knowledge, was destroyed. Yet some texts did survive and The Map of Knowledge explores the role played by seven cities around the Mediterranean--rare centers of knowledge in a dark world, where scholars supported by enlightened heads of state collected, translated and shared manuscripts. In 8th century Baghdad, Arab discoveries augmented Greek learning. Exchange within the thriving Muslim world brought that knowledge to Cordoba, Spain. Toledo became a famous center of translation from Arabic into Latin, a portal through which Greek and Arab ideas reached Western Europe. Salerno, on the Italian coast, was the great center of medical studies, and Sicily, ancient colony of the Greeks, was one of the few places in the West to retain contact with Greek culture and language. Scholars in these cities helped classical ideas make their way to Venice in the 15th century, where printers thrived and the Renaissance took root. The Map of Knowledge follows three key texts--Euclid's Elements, Ptolemy's The Almagest, and Galen's writings on medicine--on a perilous journey driven by insatiable curiosity about the world"--Pages [2-3] of cover.