Little is known in the West about the division of the Islamic world into Shiites and Sunnites and even less about the stratification of these two groups, with most of the attention going to the Sunnites. Moosa's comprehensive study of the origins and cultural aspects of the different extremist, or Ghulat, Shiite sects in the Middle East is a ground-breaking work. These sects whose 'extremism' is essentially religious are generally a peaceful people and, except for the Nusayris of Syria, are not political activists.

Little is known in the West about the division of the Islamic world into Shiites and Sunnites and even less about the stratification of these two groups, with most of the attention going to the Sunnites. Moosa's comprehensive study of the origins and cultural aspects of the different extremist, or Ghulat, Shiite sects in the Middle East is a ground-breaking work. These sects whose 'extremism' is essentially religious are generally a peaceful people and, except for the Nusayris of Syria, are not political activists.

This book covers the history of the Syrian church of India from its founding by the apostle Thomas in 52 A.D., until the first half of the 20th century. During which, the author explains the various obstacles the Indian Church faced in therms of theology and colonialism. The several delegations of the Apostolic See of Antioch to India from the 17th to the 20th centuries form an indispensable account of the vicissitudes of a struggling native Indian Church trying to preserve its Antiochene identity.

The History of the Za'faran Monastery is for the first time offered in English translation to the readers. It was written in 1917 by Patriarch Ignatius Aphram Barsoum (d. 1957) when he was still a monk at the monastery. The book details the history of the monastery from its inception until modern times. It deals with with everything, from construction to its significance as a center of Syriac learning and learned men. Without this small book, the first of its kind, a great and significant page of the history of the Syrian Church of Antioch would have been lamentably lost.

Barsoum's wrote many historical essays which he published in now hard-to-find journals, mainly al-Hikmah and al-Majalla al-Batriyarkiyya al-Suryaniyya (Jerusalem). This collection of articles, published in the original Arabic with an English translation by Matti Moosa, forms the core of Barsoum's historical writings.

Until he won the Nobel Prize for the literature in 1988, little was known in the West about the life and literary accomplishments of Naguib Mahfouz, an Egyptian and the first Arab to receive the award. His writing, here examined by Matti Moosa in its original Arabic, thereafter became widely available and widely scrutinized. Moosa introduces Mahfouz and his principal works to a Western audience by examining his treatment of social, political, and religious themes against the background of twentieth-century Egypt. Often compared to Dickens and Balzac, Mahfouz portrays the condition of the poor and oppressed in a realistic and classically Arabic style. Concentrating on the early novels, Moosa discusses such themes as conflict between generations, the changing role of women, and the humiliating inefficiency of bureaucracy. He describes how Mahfouz, a moderate Muslim, explains Islamic tradition and its place in a modern technological world. Moosa begins with Mahfouz's formative years as an essayist and ends with his Awlad Haratina (translated as Children of Gebelawi), which was considered blasphemous by Islamic fundamentalists when it was serialized in Cairo's daily newspaper in 1959. (It has never been published in book form in Egypt.) He devotes nearly half of the book to Mahfouz's Thulathiyya (Trilogy, completed in 1952), which Mahfouz considers his best work. These novels in particular, Moosa says, accurately convey Mahfouz's representation of both the religious ideas of the zealous Muslim Brotherhood and the tolerant ideas of many modern Muslims. At the same time they offer abundant insight into the social and religious attitudes of Egyptians from all walks of life and of Arab andIslamic culture and institutions.

This is an account of the family life of Prophet Muhammad, concerning the noble ladies who lived in his house. The author tries to visualize the life of each of the women, their relationships with the Prophet, and their roles as wives and women. The work is based on the most authentic Islamic sources such as Tabari, Waqidi, Ibn Ishaq, and Ibn Hisham. The author concentrates on the life of Muhammad among his wives, and on his treatment and discipline of them. This text gives an insight into the life of women in the beginning of the Islamic Era.

The exposition of the Liturgy of St. James, which is basically the Celebration of the Holy Eucahrist, is most significant for the understanding of the mystery of the God in offering His only Son a vicarious sacrifice for the redemption of man. The purpose of the liturgy is to show the believer the right path and leads him by faith to salvation and eternal life through the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ represented in the form of Bread and Wine. To make it understandable, Rev. Saka explains not only the meaning of terms connected with the liturgy but of all the components of the vessels, the vesting, the censoring, the candles and the propitiatory prayers associated with them. This exposition should benefit both church and liturgical scholars and lay people interested in the profound spiritual meaning of their faith.