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Books > Humanities > History > Asian / Middle Eastern history > General
Johann Michael Wansleben’s Travels in Turkey, 1673–1676 is a
hitherto unpublished version of a remarkable description of
Istanbul, Izmir, and Bursa by the German scholar traveller
Wansleben. Wansleben was in the Ottoman Empire to buy manuscripts,
statuary, and curios for the French king, but it is his off-hand
observations about Ottoman society that often make Wansleben’s
account such a valuable historical source. His experiences add to
our knowledge of such diverse topics as prostitution in the Ottoman
Empire, taxation, and the French consular system. His visit to
Bursa is also noteworthy because few Western travellers included
the first Ottoman capital in their tours of the East or described
it at such length.
The Moving City is a rich and intimate account of urban
transformation told through the story of Delhi's Metro, a massive
infrastructure project that is reshaping the city's social and
urban landscapes. Ethnographic vignettes introduce the feel and
form of the Metro and let readers experience the city, scene by
scene, stop by stop, as if they, too, have come along for the ride.
Laying bare the radical possibilities and concretized inequalities
of the Metro, and how people live with and through its built
environment, this is a story of women and men on the move, the
nature of Indian aspiration, and what it takes morally and
materially to sustain urban life. Through exquisite prose, Rashmi
Sadana transports the reader to a city shaped by both its Metro and
those who depend on it, revealing a perspective on Delhi unlike any
other.
This volume brings together contributions by scholars focussing on
peritextual elements as found in Middle Eastern manuscripts: dots
and various other symbols that mark vowels, intonation, readings
aids, and other textual markers; marginal notes and sigla that
provide additional explanatory content akin to but substantially
different from our modern notes and endnotes; images and
illustrations that present additional material not found in the
main text. These elements add additional layers to the main body of
the text and are crucial for our understanding of the text's
transmission history as well as scribal habits.
In 1967 Israel occupied the western section of Syria's Golan
Heights, expelling 130,000 residents and leaving only a few
thousand Arab inhabitants clustered in several villages. Sometimes
characterised as the 'forgotten occupation', the western Golan
Heights have been transformed by Israeli colonisation, including
the appropriation of land and water resources, economic development
and extensive military use. This landmark volume is the first
academic study in English of Arab politics and culture in the
occupied Golan Heights. It focuses on an indigenous community,
known as the Jawlanis, and their experience of everyday
colonisation and resistance to settler colonisation. Chapters cover
how governance is carried out in the Golan, from Israel's use of
the education system and collective memory, to its development of
large-scale wind turbines which are now a symbol of Israeli
encroachment. To illustrate the ways in which the current regime of
Israeli rule has been contested, there are chapters on the
six-month strike of 1982, youth mobilisation in the occupied Golan,
Palestinian solidarity movements, and the creation of Jawlani art
and writing as an act of resistance. Rich in ethnographic detail
and with chapters from diverse disciplines, the book is unique in
bringing together Jawlani, Palestinian and UK researchers. The
innovative format - with shorter 'reflections' from young Arab
researchers, activists and lawyers that respond to more traditional
academic chapters - establishes a bold new 'de-colonial' approach.
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