|
Showing 1 - 7 of
7 matches in All Departments
The Middle East, often referred to as the cradle of the three
monotheisms, is saturated with symbolism. Situated at the
crossroads of Asia, Africa and Europe, it is a land marked by the
rich confluence of religions and peoples. At the same time,
it has been the focal point of endemic tensions and conflicts, many
of which stretch back into the mists of time. In this new
history of the Middle East, Jean-Pierre Filiu looks beyond religion
and focuses his attention on the processes by which powers and
their areas of domination were established over time. His
starting point is 395 AD, the year when the Roman Empire was
divided into eastern and western halves: at that point, the Middle
East emerged as a specific entity, freed from external domination,
and a Christianity of the East asserted itself, turned towards
Byzantium rather than towards Rome. From this point on,
Filiu follows a strictly Middle Eastern dynamics, tracing the rise
and fall of powers linked to the three principal poles of Egypt,
Syria and Iraq and recounting the procession of empires, invasions
and assertions of imperialist ambition that have characterized the
region since then. The book closes in 2022, when the men and
women of the Middle East are still struggling for the right to
define their destiny by telling their stories in their own voices.
This magisterial and up-to-date history of the Middle East will be
essential reading for students and scholars of history and politics
and for anyone interested in history of one of the most important
and contested regions of the modern world.
In the third volume of their graphic history of US and Middle East
relations, Jean-Pierre Filiu and David B. cover the tumultuous
period that began with Iraq's invasion of Kuwait in 1990 and ended
with Obama's decision, in 2013, not to intervene in Syria. Taking
in the First Gulf War, the rise of al-Qaeda, the military response
to the September 11 attacks and the present conflict in Syria, Best
of Enemies: Part Three is propelled by a clash between four US
presidents and their Middle Eastern antagonists: on the one hand,
George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama;
on the other, Saddam Hussein, Osama bin Laden and Bashar al-Assad.
Covering thirty years of conflict and diplomacy, Best of Enemies:
Part Three is a breezy and engaging guide to the events that shaped
our current politics, from the rise of populism and the so-called
Islamic State to the global refugee crisis. |In the third volume of
their graphic history of US and Middle East relations, Jean-Pierre
Filiu and David B. cover the tumultuous period that began with
Iraq's invasion of Kuwait in 1990 and ended with Obama's decision,
in 2013, not to intervene in Syria. Taking in the First Gulf War,
the rise of al-Qaeda, the military response to the September 11
attacks and the present conflict in Syria, Best of Enemies: Part
Three is propelled by a clash between four US presidents and their
Middle Eastern antagonists: on the one hand, George H. W. Bush,
Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama; on the other, Saddam
Hussein, Osama bin Laden and Bashar al-Assad. Covering thirty years
of conflict and diplomacy, Best of Enemies: Part Three is a breezy
and engaging guide to the events that shaped our current politics,
from the rise of populism and the so-called Islamic State to the
global refugee crisis.
In his disturbing and timely book Jean-Pierre Filiu lays bare the
strategies and tactics employed by the Middle Eastern autocracies,
above all those of Syria, Egypt, Yemen and Algeria, that set out to
crush the democratic uprisings of the 'Arab Revolution'. In pursuit
of these goals they turned to the intelligence agencies and
internal security arms of the 'deep state', the armed forces and to
street gangs such as the Shabiha to enforce their will. Alongside
physical intimidation, imprisonment and murder, Arab counter-
revolutionaries discredited and split their opponents by boosting
Salafi - Jihadi groups such as Islamic State. They also released
from prison hardline Islamists and secretly armed and funded them.
The full potential of the Arab counter-revolution surprised most
observers, who thought they had seen it all from the Arab despots:
their perversity, their brutality, their voracity. But the wider
world underestimated their ferocious readiness to literally burn
down their countries in order to cling to absolute power.Bashar
al-Assad clambered to the top of this murderous class of tyrants,
driving nearly half of the Syrian population in to exile and
executing tens of thousands of his opponents. He has set a grisly
precedent, one that other Arab autocrats are sure to follow in
their pursuit of absolute power.
|
Apocalypse in Islam (Paperback)
Jean-Pierre Filiu; Translated by M.B. DeBevoise
|
R879
R655
Discovery Miles 6 550
Save R224 (25%)
|
Ships in 12 - 17 working days
|
This is an eye-opening exploration of a troubling phenomenon: the
fast-growing belief in Muslim countries that the end of the world
is at hand--and with it the "Great Battle," prophesied by both
Sunni and Shii tradition, which many believers expect will begin in
the Afghan-Pakistani borderlands. Jean-Pierre Filiu uncovers the
role of apocalypse in Islam over the centuries, and highlights its
extraordinary resurgence in recent decades. Identifying 1979 as a
decisive year in the rise of contemporary millenarian speculation,
he stresses the ease with which subsequent events in the Middle
East have been incorporated into the intellectual universe of
apocalyptic propagandists. Filiu also shows how Christian and
Jewish visions of the Final Judgment have stimulated alarmist
reaction in Islamic lands, both in the past and today, and examines
the widespread fear of Christian Zionist domination as an impetus
to jihad. Though the overwhelming majority of Muslims remains
unpersuaded, the mounting conviction in the imminence of apocalypse
is a serious matter, especially for those who are preparing for it.
|
|