{"title":"R Stephen Humphreys","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"between-memory-and-desire-book-r-stephen-humphreys-9780520246911","title":"Between Memory and Desire","description":"Middle Easterners struggle to find solutions to crises of economic stagnation, political gridlock, and cultural identity. The author presents an analysis of Islam's place in Middle East and integrates the medieval and modern history of the region to show how the sacred and secular are tightly interwoven in its political and intellectual life.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":49730451833105,"sku":"NGR9780520246911","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50157638975761,"sku":"GOR006446486","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50356112326929,"sku":"CIN0520246918G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":53521293345041,"sku":"NLS9780520246911","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0520246918.jpg?v=1751358568"},{"product_id":"between-memory-and-desire-book-r-stephen-humphreys-9780520214118","title":"Between Memory and Desire","description":"Middle Easterners today are caught between memories of the past and frustrated hopes for the future. They struggle to find solutions to crises of economic stagnation, political gridlock, and cultural identity. In recent decades Islam has become central to this struggle, and almost every issue involves fierce, sometimes violent debates over the role of religion in public life. R Stephen Humphreys' new book presents a much-needed and thoughtful analysis of Islam's place in today's Middle East. In clear, accessible language, he integrates the medieval and modern history of the region to show how the sacred and secular are tightly interwoven in its political and intellectual life. Humphreys discusses the conflicts over power and resources that engage Middle Eastern politicians and looks at the major ideologies that have shaped these conflicts. He focuses on the impact of Islam on public life and examines Muslim ways of thinking about the 'secular' versus the 'religious'.What values does Islam put into play? What challenges does it pose to 'ordinary' politics? What resources does it bring to the struggle for social justice? Humphreys recognizes the Western tendency to dismiss Middle Eastern politics as an incoherent tale of violence and fanaticism, and his book is especially valuable for its analysis of the deeper issues behind the headlines. These issues include the region's apparent inability to evolve democratic institutions, conflicts rooted in the peace settlements after World War I, and the unresolved debates over which cultural and moral values should drive Middle Eastern policy.\"Between Memory and Desire\" reminds us that Middle Easterners remember the past in specific ways: the shame of the colonial era; the disappointments since independence; and, the glory of the Middle Ages, when Muslim achievements were respected throughout the world. Even if these memories are only partially true, in defining the past, they also define what the future ought to be.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":49937538187537,"sku":"CIN0520214110G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50113387200785,"sku":"CIN0520214110VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0520214110.jpg?v=1751008225"},{"product_id":"islamic-history-book-r-stephen-humphreys-9781850433606","title":"Islamic History","description":"This introductory text guides students through the literature and source material on social and political medieval Islamic history (600-1500AD). The book combines bibliographical material with an inquiry into method. It covers topics from dynastic power struggles to the daily life of the peasantry.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49992475574545,"sku":"GOR002403757","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49994888380689,"sku":"GOR004086548","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1850433607.jpg?v=1751429412"},{"product_id":"islamic-history-book-r-stephen-humphreys-9780691008561","title":"Islamic History","description":"This book will be immensely helpful to those who wish to orient themselves to what has become a very large body of literature on medieval Islamic history. Combining a bibliographic study with an inquiry into method, it opens with a survey of the principal reference tools available to historians of Islam and a systematic review of the sources they will confront. Problems of method are then examined in a series of chapters, each exploring a broad topic in the social and political history of the Middle East and North Africa between A.D. 600 and 1500. The topics selected represent a cross-section of Islamic historical studies, and range from the struggles for power within the early Islamic community to the life of the peasantry. Each chapter pursues four questions. What concrete research problems are likely to be most challenging and productive? What resources do we possess for dealing with these problems? What strategies can we devise to exploit our resources most effectively? What is the current state of the scholarly literature for the topic under study?","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50358853435665,"sku":"CIN0691008566G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50918750683409,"sku":"CIN0691008566VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51005646602513,"sku":"NIN9780691008561","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":53226700079377,"sku":"GOR014815949","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ WELL_READ \/ SBYB","offer_id":53388982321425,"sku":"CIN0691008566A","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0691008566.jpg?v=1750743798"},{"product_id":"history-of-al-tabari-vol-15-book-r-stephen-humphreys-9780791401552","title":"The History of al-Tabari Vol. 15","description":"Before the caliphate of the ʿUthmān ibn ʿAffān, the Muslim community had grown from strength to strength in spite of a series of major crises—the Hirah, the death of the Prophet, the Riddah wars, the assassination of 'Umar by a Persian slave. But ʿUthmān's reign ended in catastrophe. His inability to manage the social and political conflicts that were now emerging among various factions within the community led to his death at the hands of Muslim rebels. The consequences of this tragic event were bitter: not only a century of civil war, but also political and religious schisms of such depth that they have not been entirely healed even now. Most medieval Muslim historians told this story in an overtly partisan manner, but al-Ṭabarī demands more of his readers. First of all, they must decide for themselves, on the basis of highly ambigous evidence, whether ʿUthmān's death was tyrannicide or murder. But, more than that, they must ask how such a thing could have happened at all; what had the Muslims done to bring about the near-destruction of their community?  Al-Ṭabarī presents this challenge within a broad framework. For, even while the internal crisis that issued in ʿUthmān's death was coming to a head, the wars against Byzantium and Persia continued. The first expeditions into North Africa, the conquest of Cyprus, the momentary destruction of the Byzantine fleet at the Battle of the Masts, the bloody campaigns in Armenia, the Caucasus, and Khurasan are all here, in narratives that shift constantly between hard reporting and pious legend. Muslim forces retain the offensive, but there are no more easy victories; henceforth, suffering and endurance will be the hallmarks of the hero. Most evocative in the light of ʿUthmān's fate is the moving account of the murder of the last Sāsānian king, Yazdagird III—a man betrayed by his nobles and subjects, but most of all by his own character.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52148979499281,"sku":"NLS9780791401552","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ LIKE_NEW \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":53334910370065,"sku":"GOR014855428","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9780791401552.jpg?v=1757605297"},{"product_id":"history-of-al-tabari-book-r-stephen-humphreys-9780791401545","title":"The History of Al-Tabari","description":"Before the caliphate of the ʿUthmān ibn ʿAffān, the Muslim community had grown from strength to strength in spite of a series of major crises—the Hirah, the death of the Prophet, the Riddah wars, the assassination of 'Umar by a Persian slave. 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