The labours of Hercules are as nothing to those of archeo-botanists... tamarisk, red bryony, poplar etc and their role in traditional medicine - based on cuneiform inscriptions and intimate ... read more
An elucidating account of the conditions that led to, and subsequently shaped the Iraq war. This book casts a light on both CIA intrigue in the Middle East and Hussein's own political motiva... read more
In the C13th, the largest library in Europe contained fewer than 2000 books. Baghdad alone contained five libraries with between 200,000 and a million books.
How Mohammed-Reza Shah's close relationship with the US and his desire for autocratic rule sowed the seeds for the collapse of the Pahlavi dynasty and helped foment the Iranian revolution of... read more
Looks at three groups of wandering herders in three very different regions - the Central Sahara, the Arabian Gulf and the Central Eurasian steppes. Many photographs.
The long shadow of Ottoman rule: Mestyan argues that new local polities were based on recalibrated Ottoman structures rather than on European colonialism (with the exception of Palestine).
In a particularly elegant diplomatic gesture, the Caliph Harun al-Rashid sent an elephant to Aachen in 802 AD. This fresh perspective draws on many Arabic sources.
The great historian of late antiquity mixes the personal with the scholarly in telling the story of his life and work. Engagement with the non-European world has been intrinsic to his work.