Western Palestine is extremely rich in Arabic inscriptions, whose dates range from as early as CE 150 until modern times. Most of the inscriptions date from the Islamic period, for under Islam the country gained particular religious and strategic importance, even though it made up only part of the larger province of Syria. This historical importance is clearly reflected in the hundreds of inscriptions, the texts of which cover a variety of topics: construction, dedication, religious endowments, epitaphs, Qur'anic texts, prayers and invocations, all now assembled in the Corpus Inscriptionum...

Ancient Synagogues - Archaeology and Art. New Discoveries and Current Research presents archaeological evidence - the architecture, art, Jewish symbols, zodiac, biblical tales, inscriptions, and coins - which attest to the importance of the synagogue. When considered as a whole, all these pieces of evidence confirm the centrality of the synagogue institution in the life of the Jewish communities all through Israel and in the Diaspora. Most importantly, the synagogue and its art and architecture played a powerful role in the preservation of the fundamental beliefs, customs, and...

Hamid Ghelichkhani, a calligrapher and scholar, has collected terms and expressions specific to Persian calligraphy in the first book of its kind. Descriptions and images are based on the 1000-year history of this art in Iran.

This book charts the development of Islamic ships and boats in the Western Indian Ocean from the seventh to the early sixteenth century with reference to earlier periods. It utilizes mainly Classical and Medieval Arabic literary sources with iconographical evidence and archaeological finds. The interdependence of various trading activities in the region resulted in a cross fertilization, not only of goods but also of ideas and culture which gave an underlying cohesion to the Arabian, Persian and Indian maritime peoples. This study has led to a re-evaluation of that maritime culture, showing...

This atlas offers a survey of the history of Southeast Europe from 1521 until 1699, from the first major land campaign undertaken by Sultan Suleyman I until the Treaty of Karlowitz at the end of the seventeenth century. It covers modern-day Hungary, Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Romania (Walachia and Transylvania), Dalmatia, Greece and Cyprus.

The El-Amarna Correspondence offers a completely new edition of the Amarna Letters based on personal inspection and reading of all the extant tablets. This edition includes new transcriptions and a translation along with an extensive introduction and glossary of the Amarna Letters.

As with any dictionary of a newly discovered dead language, the aim of this Dictionary of the Ugaritic alphabetic texts is to indicate the stage reached in its lexical description and to serve as a reference work for further study. In this connection, the main interpretative opinions have been included, since to a large extent Ugaritic lexicography remains uncertain. Also the most relevant comparative Semitic material has been provided in order to corroborate the lexical choices adopted by the authors and help readers to verify their own. The new material discovered since 1992 and recently...

Brockelmann's History of the Arabic Written Tradition offers bio-bibliographic information about works written in Arabic and their authors, with an emphasis on manuscripts from the classical period. This originally multivolume reference work is divided in chronologically organized sections, which are subdivided by literary genre. Individual entries typically consist of a biographical section and a list of the author's works in manuscript and print, with references to secondary literature. The "Brockelmann" , now also available in English, is an indispensable research tool for...

Since the author's publication of Die nordjemenitischen Dialekte. Teil 1: Atlas in 1985, a lot of new field work has been done in North Yemen and adjacent areas with new data especially from the extreme north of Yemen and neighbouring areas in Saudi Arabia. These are considered to be the most archaic Arabic dialect areas. The publication of a new atlas of the region in English therefore suggested itself. The atlas consists of 192 fully coloured maps with 30 phonetical and phonological maps, 100 morphological and 60 lexical ones. Depending on the subject the maps are accompanied by...

Brockelmann s History of the Arabic Written Tradition offers bio-bibliographic information about works written in Arabic and their authors, with an emphasis on manuscripts from the classical period. This originally multivolume reference work is divided in chronologically organized sections, which are subdivided by literary genre. Individual entries typically consist of a biographical section and a list of the author s works in manuscript and print, with references to secondary literature. The Brockelmann , now also available in English, is an indispensable research tool for...