'Masterly work ... Leads the reader patiently but directly not merely into Qur'anic writing but into the heart of that Holy Book itself ... By the time we have followed Dr Ahmad to the end of this splendid work we have learned something new and indeed something uplifting about one of the world's great books.' Prof. F. E. Peters, New York University.

Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth in the United Kingdom offers a refreshing and insightful commentary to the Koren Haggada, together with illuminating essays on the themes and motifs of the Festival of Freedom. Sensitively translated, the traditional texts are carefully balanced alongside the Chief Rabbi's contemporary ideas, in a modern and user-friendly design. With new interpretations and in-depth analyses of the Passover liturgy and ritual, Rabbi Sacks' style is engaging, intelligent at times daring in its innovation and always inspiring. With essay titles as diverse as Pesah, Freud and Jewish Identity and Pesah and the Rebirth of Israel, as well as explorations of the role of women in the exodus, and the philosophy of leadership and nation-building, the Chief Rabbi's Haggada is a thought-provoking and essential companion at the Seder table.

This acclaimed spiritual masterpiece is widely regarded as one of the most complete and authoritative presentations of the Tibetan Buddhist teachings ever written. A manual for life and death and a magnificent source of sacred inspiration from the heart of the Tibetan tradition, The Tibetan Book Of Living and Dying provides a lucid and inspiring introduction to the practice of meditation, to the nature of mind, to karma and rebirth, to compassionate love and care for the dying, and to the trials and rewards of the spiritual path.

Long neglected by scholars, the Dead Sea scrolls rewriting Samuel-Kings shed precious light on the ancient Jewish interpretation of these books. This volume brings all these texts together for the first time under one cover. Improved editions of the fragments, up-to-date commentary, and detailed discussions of the exegetical traditions embedded in these scrolls will be of interest to both scholars and students of Second Temple Jewish literature.

John Penrice's Dictionary and Glossary of the Kor-an first published almost a century ago, has withstood the test of time, and has been an aid to generations of Kor-an students. According to Islamic doctrine the Kor-an is the literal word of God, and it would be introduced by the phrase, "Qiil Allah ta'iilii, God the Exalted said", and when a passage has been recited aloud it will be said, "$adaq Allah al-'Azim, God Almighty has truly spoken".

The series Beihefte zur Zeitschrift fur die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft (BZAW) covers all areas of research into the Old Testament, focusing on the Hebrew Bible, its early and later forms in Ancient Judaism, as well as its branching into many neighboring cultures of the Ancient Near East and the Greco-Roman world.

Ancient prophecy was not confined to Israel, yet the phenomenon of prophetic poetry as it developed there was unique. The impact of this poetry on civilization is incalculable, though its origins and motives largely remain mysterious. This book shows that this poetry is inseparable from the empires which determined the history of the ancient Near East and the fate of Israel and Judah from the late-8th century to the end of the 6th century BC - first Assyria, then Babylonia, and finally Persia. Each empire had its own characters and motives, and stimulated a distinct wave of prophecy, led in turn by Isaiah Ben Amos, Jeremiah and Ezekiel, and the second Isaiah. The book is an historical interpretation and an anthology of prophetic poetry which uses recent research on imperialism and creativity to produce a radically new interpretation of the biblical prophets. More than three dozen outstanding poems and fragments in new translation from the Hebrew Bible are arranged in a running narrative, from the late-8th century BC until the late-6th century BC.

Based on lectures delivered in Chichester Cathedral, this book mirrors typical nineteenth century English attitudes toward the non-European space. This needed Christianity and European political oversight, or its people would remain backward and spiritually lost. The book shows how someone whose inclinations were liberal could look at Islam and dislike what he saw. On the other hand, the book also shows that a non-specialist scholar in the second half of the nineteenth century could write seriously if not impartially about Islam using material available in European languages. This suggests that Islam was a subject of increasing interest in Victorian England.

First Order: Zeraim / Tractates Kilaim and eviit ist der dritte Band in der Edition des Jerusalemer Talmuds und ein grundlegendes Werk der Judischen Patristik. Der Band prasentiert grundlegende judische Texte aus dem Bereich der Landwirtschaft: verbotene Mischungen von Saaten, Tieren und Geweben (Kilaim) sowie das Verbot landwirtschaftlicher Tatigkeit im Sabbatjahr, in dem auch alle Schulden zu erlassen sind ( eviit). Dieser Teil des Jerusalemer Talmuds hat so gut wie keine Entsprechung im Babylonischen Talmud. Ohne seine Kenntnis bleiben die diesbezuglichen Regeln der judischen Tradition unverstandlich."

Since its discovery and the initial efforts toward its critical edition, the Paippaladasamhita of the Atharvaveda (PS) has attracted the attention of Vedic scholars and Indologists for several reasons. It constitutes a precious source for the study of the development of the earliest language. The text contains important information about various rites and magical practices, and hints about the oldest Indo-Iranian and Indo-European myths. All of this makes the PS a text of inestimable value for the study of Indian language and culture.

The study of Islam's origins from a rigorous historical and social science perspective is still wanting. At the same time, a renewed attention is being paid to the very plausible pre-canonical redactional and editorial stages of the Qur'an, a book whose core many contemporary scholars agree to be formed by various independent writings in which encrypted passages from the OT Pseudepigrapha, the NT Apocrypha, and other ancient writings of Jewish, Christian, and Manichaean provenance may be found. Likewise, the earliest Islamic community is presently regarded by many scholars as a somewhat undetermined monotheistic group that evolved from an original Jewish-Christian milieu into a distinct Muslim group perhaps much later than commonly assumed and in a rather unclear way. The following volume gathers select studies that were originally shared at the Early Islamic Studies Seminar. These studies aim at exploring afresh the dawn and early history of Islam with the tools of biblical criticism as well as the approaches set forth in the study of Second Temple Judaism, Christian, and Rabbinic origins, thereby contributing to the renewed, interdisciplinary study of formative Islam as part and parcel of the complex processes of religious identity formation during Late Antiquity.

Enter into the mystery of the Sabbath, into the wonder and light of the seventh day.

"We live in a world dominated by speed and distraction, with demands for our attention at every turn . We frequently forget the restorative blessing of stillness, our desperate need for rest a rest that brings us back to the center of existence, a calm that allows us to reconnect with the divine breath at the soul of All." from the Introduction

Enrich your spiritual experience of Shabbat by exploring the writings of mystical masters of Hasidism. Drawing from some of the earliest teachings in the family of the Ba'al Shem Tov through late nineteenth-century Poland and the homilies of the Sefat 'Emet, Eitan Fishbane evokes the Sabbath experience from candle lighting and donning white clothing to the Friday night Kiddush and the act of sacred eating. Fishbane also translates and interprets a wide range of Hasidic sources previously unavailable in English that reflect the spiritual transformation that takes place on the seventh day one that can shift your awareness into the realm that is all soul. Personal prayers of the Bratzlav (Breslov) Hasidic tradition express the spiritual dimension of Shabbat in the language of devotional and individual yearning."