One of the quickest ways to understand a people or a culture is to learn their proverbs. This anthology, first published in 1984, compiles in dictionary form proverbs from the Islamic world, particularly the Middle East and North Africa. The Arabs were the first to gather and annotate their own proverbs - the earliest collections date from the n

One of the quickest ways to understand a people or a culture is to learn their proverbs. This anthology, first published in 1984, compiles in dictionary form proverbs from the Islamic world, particularly the Middle East and North Africa. The Arabs were the first to gather and annotate their own proverbs - the earliest collections date from the n

In 922 AD, an Arab envoy from Baghdad named Ibn Fadlan encountered a party of Viking traders on the upper reaches of the Volga River. In his subsequent report on his mission he gave a meticulous and astonishingly objective description of Viking customs, dress, table manners, religion and sexual practices, as well as the only eyewitness account ever written of a Viking ship cremation. Between the ninth and fourteenth centuries, Arab travellers such as Ibn Fadlan journeyed widely and frequently into the far north, crossing territories that now include Russia, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan. Their fascinating accounts describe how the numerous tribes and peoples they encountered traded furs, paid tribute and waged wars. This accessible new translation offers an illuminating insight into the world of the Arab geographers, and the medieval lands of the far north.

This title tells the story of World War II at sea, told by the men who braved the oceans ruled by the German U-boats. It doesn't just provide the facts, it details the friendships made and the emotions felt also.

The origins of 'Aladdin' continue to fascinate scholars and readers of the tales. The story is believed to have first been written in French, by Antoine Galland, having been told to him in Paris in 1709 by Hanna Diyab - the author of this travel memoir. Written some five decades after this encounter, 'The Life and Times of Hanna Diyab' is part autobiography and part storytelling, a fascinating record of experiences, cultural observations, international relations, medicine, and hearsay. It traces a journey across land and sea from the author's home in Aleppo - through early eighteenth-century Lebanon, Jabal Druze, Cyprus, Egypt, Libya, Tunis, Livorno, Genoa and Marseille - to Paris in the time of Louis XIV; and the author's return to Aleppo across the 'lands of the East', now Turkey. The Foreword explains how this important translation into English came about and the Introduction provides background to some of the features of the memoir, including the Maronite Christian community of the period, the consular system of the Republics of Venice and Genoa, the role of Ottoman ambassadors, and of the French merchant, naturalist and traveller, Paul Lucas. Notes at the end of the book also help the non-specialist reader, and there are two bibliographies.

18 papers from the 1st Red Sea Project, held at the British Museum in October 2002. Contents: The Red Sea: the wind regime and location of ports (W. Facey); Arabian trade with ethiopia and the Horn of Africa: from ancient times to the 16th Century (R. Pankhurst); The elusive land of punt revisited (K.A. Kitchen); Pharaonic Egypt and the Red Sea arms trade (D.M. Dixon); Possible connections in Antiquity between the Red Sea coast of Yemen and the Horn of Africa (E.J. Keall); Ancient interaction across the southern Red Sea: new suggestions for investigating cultural exchange and complex societies during the 1st millennium BC (M.C. Curtis); The pre-Aksumite state in northern Ethiopia and Eritrea reconsidered (R. Fattovich); Pre-Aksumite Aksum and its neighbours (J. Phillips); Adulis to Aksum: charting the course of Antiquitys most important trade route in East Africa (W. Raunig); The Egyptp-Graeco-Romans and Panchaea/Azania: sailing in the Erythraean Sea (F. Chami); Reflections of ethnicity in the Red Sea commerce in Antiquity: evidence of trade goods, languages and religions from the excavations at Berenike (S.E Sidebottom); Gold dinars and silver dirhams in the Red Sea trade: the evidence of the Quseir documents (L. Guo); The merchants diet: food remains from Roman and medieval Quseir al-Qadim (M. Van der Veen); What the devil are you doing here? Arabic source for the arrival of the Portugese in the Red Sea and Indian Ocean (P. Lunde); Mamluk and Ottoman activity in Yemen in the 16th Century: coastal security and commercial significance (C. Smith); Quseir Fort and the archaeology of the Hajj (C. LeQuesne); Les echanges commerciaux entre les rives Africaine et Arabe de lespace Mer Rouge Golfe DAden aux seizieme et dix-septieme siecles (M. Tuchscherer); Luxury wares in the Red Sea: the Sadana Island shipwreck (C. Ward).