Middle World

Different branches of the same religion are the exception more than the rule, and they have had a profound impact upon history. The schism between the Orthodox and Catholic Churches influenced relationships between nations across Europe, and religious intolerance based on different Christian faiths led to persecution and outright violence across the continent for centuries.

When a tiger cub escapes from a nature reserve near Neel's island village, the rangers and villagers hurry to find her before the cub's anxious mother follows suit and endangers them all. Mr. Gupta, a rich newcomer to the island, is also searching - he wants to sell the cub's body parts on the black market. Neel and his sister, Rupa, resolve to find the cub first and bring her back to the reserve where she belongs.

Muhammad wants to join the sheikh's camel race—but his camel, Jamila, is difficult and refuses to let Muhammad ride her. No matter what he does, she will not cooperate. With some help from his local imam and merchant, will Muhammad learn to train his camel in time for the race? Or will he be forced to watch from the sidelines?

Struggling to reconcile the Muslim society he was living in as a scientist and physician and the religion he was being raised in, Ali A. Rizvi eventually lost his faith. Discovering that he was not alone, he moved to North America and promised to use his new freedom of speech to represent the voices that are usually quashed before reaching the mainstream media - those of Atheist Muslims.

Scattered over the territory between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea lie the remnants of failed peace proposals, international summits, secret negotiations, UN resolutions, and state-building efforts. The conventional story is that these well-meaning attempts at peacemaking were repeatedly, perhaps terminally, thwarted by violence. Through a rich interweaving of reportage, historical narrative, and powerful analysis, Nathan Thrall presents a startling counterhistory.

Travel to Afghanistan. Find out the facts about this country in Asia.

Shortly after Emperor Hadrian came to power in the early second century CE, he decided to seal off Scotland from Roman Britain with an ambitious wall stretching from sea to sea. The sheer scale of Hadrian’s Wall still impresses people today, but as the Western Roman Empire collapsed in the late fifth century, Hadrian’s Wall was abandoned and Roman control of the area broke down. Little is known of this period of British history, but soon the Anglo-Saxons showed up and began to settle the land, creating a patchwork of little kingdoms and starting a new era of British history.

Malala Yousafzai won the Nobel Peace Prize at the age of 17 for speaking out against injustice even when it was terrifying to do so. She was an ordinary Muslim girl who wanted to attend school, and she refused to stop protesting for her rights even after being attacked by a powerful group in Pakistan who wanted women to remain in the shadows. She continues to fight for women’s rights and free education for children all over the world.

The drama that shaped today’s Iran, from the Revolution to the present day. In 1979, seemingly overnight - moving at a clip some 30 years faster than the rest of the world - Iran became the first revolutionary theocracy in modern times. Since then, the country has been largely a black box to the West, a sinister presence looming over the horizon. But inside Iran, a breathtaking drama has unfolded since then, as religious thinkers, political operatives, poets, journalists, and activists have imagined and reimagined what Iran should be.

Welcome to Syria! Picnic with locals at the ancient ruins of Palmyra. Taste rich foods like kibbeh and fattoush. Learn about the people, places, and traditions of this fascinating Middle Eastern country.

A portrait of the current Israeli prime minister, one of Israel's more noticeable leaders in recent decades. Benjamin Netanyahu is currently serving his fourth term in office as prime minister of Israel, the longest serving prime minister in the country's history. Now Israeli journalist Ben Caspit puts Netanyahu's life under a magnifying glass, focusing on his last two terms in office.

Travel to Egypt. Find out the facts about this country in Africa.

تتناول هذه الرواية تاريخ قبيلة "غمارة" شمال المغرب؛ القبيلة الشاسعة بامتدادها الحضاري والتاريخي الطويل، كأهم المناطق التي أولت اهتمامًا حقيقيًا للعلم والدراسات القرآنية، وتخرج من معاهدها آلاف الفقهاء والباحثين في علوم الدين، مستحضرة تعاقب احتلالين، برتغالي وإسباني، على منطقة شهدت حربًا قاسية في العشرينيات من القرن الماضي، أو ما يعرف بـ"حرب الريف"،وتم قصفها بالأسلحة الممنوعة دولياً مما أدى إلى استسلام الأمير محمد عبدالكريم الخطابي والمجاهدين.

As the tee-shirt slogans say, “If you can read this, thank the Phoenicians". The Phoenician achievements include creating the world’s first alphabet, which consisted of 22 consonant letters. If you’re sipping wine as you read, that’s another reason to thank the Phoenicians. From their travels, they learned which grapes were most suited for winemaking and spread those vines to the places along their trading routes. The Phoenicians were the masters of the Mediterranean Sea.

Afraid her sister (and maybe even herself) could lose sight of their Vietnamese identity, twelve-year-old Bom writes a poetic memoir to help them both remember—a love letter in verse to sisterhood and the places we leave behind. Bom can't believe that her sister doesn't see herself as Vietnamese, only American. She says she doesn't remember Vietnam or their lives there, their family there, their house and friends. How could her sister forget the terrible journey through Saigon and the airplanes and . . . everything?

Women are expected to be many things. They should be creative, but not crazy; passionate, but not angry. They should be fertile, feminine and self-reliant, not barren, butch or solitary. Women, in other words, are caught between social expectations and a much more complicated reality. In The Defiant Middle, Kaya Oakes draws on the wisdom of women mystics and explores how transitional eras or living in marginalized female identities can be both spiritually challenging and wonderfully freeing, ultimately resulting in a reinvented way of seeing the world and changing it.

During his more than 50 years in politics, Democratic strategist Douglas E. Schoen has produced nearly two dozen books that have deftly dissected national and international crises and offered prescriptions for solving them. Now, in The Politics of Life: My Road to the Middle of a Hostile and Adversarial World, Schoen delivers his most personal work. Bringing to life the antiwar youthquake of his Harvard years, Schoen introduces us to Cornel West, Walter Isaacson, Merrick Garland, and other classmates bound for glory.

Originally published in 1994, When the World Was Steady is award-winning author Claire Messud's first novel.

In this ground-breaking work, Norman Cantor explains how our current notion of the Middle Ages—with its vivid images of wars, tournaments, plagues, saints and kings, knights and ladies—was born in the 20th century. The medieval world was not simply excavated through systematic research. It had to be conceptually created: it had to be invented, and this is the story of that invention.

A whole year is the most beautiful in my life. I drank enough wine to quench the thirst of an elephant, and regret did not enter my heart for a moment. It seems that the heart has become corrupt. A whole year, my master, I drink every day with relish and enjoyment, and I sit with drunkards, I feel that they are my brothers, even closer.