Middle East War

The images that are evoked when one speaks of the Ottomans in the West is, without fail, Muslims in prayer, harems of exotic women, eunuch guards, lavish palaces, and colorful fashions. All these things, without doubt, were indeed part and parcel of the Ottoman society and their royal court. Here we will dive into their world, their history, and their society. The rise and fall of the Ottoman juggernaut informs and influences the Middle East to this day.

Faleeha Hassan became intimately acquainted with loss and fear while growing up in Najaf, Iraq. Now, in a deeply personal account of her life, she remembers those she has loved and lost.

The battle to defeat ISIS was an unremittingly brutal and dystopian struggle, a multi-sided war of gritty local commandos and militias. Mike Giglio takes listeners to the heart of this shifting, uncertain conflict, capturing the essence of a modern war. At its peak, ISIS controlled a self-styled "caliphate" the size of Great Britain, with a population cast into servitude that numbered in the millions. Its territory spread across Iraq and Syria as its influence stretched throughout the wider world.

The Ottoman Empire lasted more than six centuries. Its soldiers fought, died, and conquered lands on three different continents, making it one of the few stable multi-ethnic empires in history - and likely one of the last. Thus, it's somewhat inevitable that the history of its dissolution is at the heart of complex geopolitical disputes, as well as sectarian tensions that are still key to understanding the Middle East, North Africa and the Balkans.

In early 2022, veteran journalist Andrew North was kidnapped by the Taliban. By the time he found himself imprisoned in a jail cell, he had been reporting from Afghanistan for two decades, coming to know hundreds of Afghans along the way. This book brings together both his and their stories.

En los preludios de la Primera Guerra Mundial, en pleno apogeo del colonialismo europeo, un agente del Gobierno británico se interna en la península arábiga con la finalidad de subyugar una inminente rebelión anticolonial. El emisario es cuestión recorre, bajo un sol abrasador, amplias regiones desérticas. Trata con los enemigos del Imperio Británico y se gana su confianza. Se convierte en uno de ellos... y actúa de forma subrepticia a favor de los intereses de la metrópli, aunque le repugna tanto ejercer ese papel que acaba simpatizando con la causa árabe.

In this revealing journey through Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza itself, longtime journalist Mark Patinkin explores one of the world’s most divisive conflicts, capturing the stories of both sides in “The Holy Land at War.” He saw where Oct. 7 unfolded, and later witnessed Palestinian hardship - and hospitality - in Ramallah and Bethlehem. He traveled through the now dystopian landscape inside the war zone, spoke with wounded IDF soldiers, the parents of Israeli hostages, and heard the words of everyday Palestinians struggling to survive in Gaza.

The events of the Arab Spring have come to be overshadowed by the civil war in the Arabic-speaking nation of Syria, which has been ruled throughout the 21st century by Bashar al-Assad. Though he had not planned on ruling Syria, several events conspired to make Bashar the successor of his father, Hafez. Though the West frequently looked for signs that Bashar might be a reformer, due in part to his formerly popular Western wife, Assad remained part of a critical alliance with Iran and the sub-state groups Hamas and Hezbollah.

From the former USA Today journalist and author of The Chosen Few, the untold story of The Battle of Ramadi, which led to a war that would last seven years, claim thousands of lives and evolve into a traumatic legacy for the US military and its veterans.

While serving a portion of his time under the Special Operations Command, Benjamin Sledge fought to keep his humanity amid the killing fields of Iraq and Afghanistan. But war never leaves its participants unscathed. In Where Cowards Go to Die, Sledge reveals an unflinchingly honest portrait of war that few dare to tell.

In Bana's own words, and featuring short, affecting chapters by her mother, Fatemah, Dear World is not just a gripping account of a family endangered by war; it offers a uniquely intimate child's perspective on one of the biggest humanitarian crises in history. Bana has lost her best friend, her school, her home, and her homeland. But she has not lost her hope - for herself and for other children around the world who are victims and refugees of war and deserve better lives.

Eric Frattini, novelista y periodista de proyección internacional y analítica mirada, analiza en este rompedor audiolibro toda la situación política e histórica de Irak, en un repaso pormenorizado por sus confrontaciones políticas, sus conflictos e invasiones y la inevitable Guerra del Golfo, así como la situación actual en el marco geopolítico mundial. Una obra capital del ensayo histórico-político contemporáneo.

Where did writing, culture, and agriculture begin? The Middle East is the cradle of civilization - where humankind once roamed in small groups of hunter-gatherers and foraged for food and shelter, then learned to plant crops and build structures. Today, we are an advanced civilization that has conquered the skies, oceans, and even the moon. To understand how this transformation occurred, take a brief trip back into the history of the Middle East, where it all began.

Most violent jihadi movements in the 20th century focused on removing corrupt, repressive secular regimes throughout the Muslim world. But following the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, a new form of jihadism emerged - global jihad - turning to the international arena as the primary locus of ideology and action. With this book, Glenn E. Robinson develops a compelling and provocative argument about this violent political movement's evolution.

El Imperio Otomano se alió con Alemania y Austria-Hungría en la Primera Guerra Mundial. Esto resultó, entre otras consecuencias catastróficas, en la guerra que duró dos años más de lo que debería, las dos revoluciones rusas de 1917 y la dictadura bolchevique, el genocidio del pueblo armenio, quince millones de muertos y el desmembramiento del Imperio Otomano, con el nacimiento de una miríada de nuevos Estados en Oriente Medio cuya inestabilidad social, económica y política sigue sin resolverse un siglo después.

In the summer of 2004, the National Endowment for the Arts organized a series of writing workshops, led by prominent authors, to encourage U.S. troops and their families to record their experiences and reflections on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. The result is this extraordinary volume of first-hand letters, poems, journals, memoirs, and e-mails from the men and women directly involved in battle and their families back home.

Fallujah. Few names conjure up as many images of blood, sacrifice, and valor as does this ancient city in Al Anbar province 40 miles west of Baghdad. This sprawling concrete jungle was the scene of two major US combat operations in 2004. The first was Operation Vigilant Resolve, an aborted effort that April by US Marines intent on punishing the city’s insurgents. The second, Operation Phantom Fury, was launched seven months later. Richard Lowry’s New Dawn: The Battles for Fallujah is the first comprehensive history of this fighting.

Born to Palestinian refugees, Kassem Eid grew up in the small town of Moadamiya on the outskirts of the ancient city of Damascus. The streets that he and his many siblings played on were perfumed with jasmine. A precocious child, he excelled at school and had a natural gift for languages. But it didn't take long for Kassem to realise that he was treated differently at school because of his family's resistance to the brutal government regime.

Given how quickly its operations have achieved global impact, it may seem that the Islamic State materialized suddenly. In fact, al-Qaeda's operations chief, Sayf al-Adl, devised a seven-stage plan for jihadis to conquer the world by 2020 that included reestablishing the Caliphate in Syria between 2013 and 2016. Despite a massive schism between the Islamic State and al-Qaeda, al-Adl's plan has proved remarkably prescient. In summer 2014, ISIS declared itself the Caliphate after capturing Mosul, Iraq - part of stage five in al-Adl's plan.

Ron Leshem ist Autor, Journalist und ehemaliger israelischer Geheimdienstoffizier, Verwandte von ihm wurden ermordet oder entführt. Hier schildert er ein zutiefst gespaltenes Land, den Tag des Terrors und seine unabsehbaren Folgen. Am 7. Oktober 2023 überzog die Hamas Israel mit Terror, seither hält die Welt den Atem an – und überschlagen sich die Ereignisse. Ron Leshem zeichnet in seinem bewegenden Text jenen Tag und die Entwicklungen seither nach – und führt ein zutiefst gespaltenes Land vor Augen. Gerade der liberale, auf Verständigung bedachte Teil der Gesellschaft wurde getroffen.