The Middle East, defined here as extending from Morocco to Iran and Turkey to Sudan, lies at the crossroads of three continents Africa, Asia and Europe. With the largest reserves of petroleum in the world its importance is well beyond its physical size and population. Rapid urban growth has radically transformed Middle Eastern society in recent decades, but the associated problems are incompletely understood. This volume, first published in 1980, highlights some of the major issues of Middle Eastern urbanisation and provides a comprehensive statement about the current position of research....

A major result of the Second World War was the emergence of small states which vastly increased the membership of the international system. While a number of small states existed before the war many of these had made no effort to participate actively in the system; since then, the doctrine of equality of states has been established, in theory at least, through their admission to the UN. This book, first published in 1984, deals with the factors which have contributed to the emergence of such a large number of small states, the difficulties which they have experienced in achieving...

This book, first published in English in 1964, examines a wide range of topics concerning society in the Arab East. Chapters are concerned with woman and the family; religious and linguistic communities; bedouins, fellas and townsmen; and the various social and economic classes and strata. While there are no special sections devoted to geography, economics, culture, trends of thought, and the historical and political developments of the Arab Eastern countries, there is scarcely a page which does not touch on one or another of them.

The Arab theatre and cinema are among the most neglected subjects in the studies of Oriental literature and research into the history of theatre. This book, written by the acclaimed scholar Jacob M. Landau and first published in 1958, is a survey of the development of the Arab theatre and cinema as cultural and social phenomena and goes a long way in shedding some light on these neglected subjects.

The operation of schools in the Arab world is a topic about which very little is known in the West. This volume, first published in 1991, provides information about the Arab school and thus contributes to an understanding of what is taught, by whom, and under what conditions. It seeks to define the interaction between traditional elements and innovative forces impinging on the Arab school, as well as reviewing policies that concern the education of Arab children. It is maintained that Arab schools are in a state of transition, reproducing society and its norms on one hand while on the...

The organized play of the pre-school child with a group of peers in an educational atmosphere is now recognised as an important element in child development. The Arab states of the Gulf, as indeed most of the emerging countries, place special emphasis on the education of the young generation and are therefore particularly interested in the creation of pre-school education. This book, first published in 1985, highlights the interplay in Kuwait of the traditional Islamic / Arab approach to education with the more Western influenced ideas on the education of the pre-school child.

Changes in economic and social conditions throughout the Middle East have been profound, and perhaps nowhere has this been more evident than in the field of urban development and town planning. This book, first published in 1979, provides a view of the Middle East as it undergoes transition by identifying and analysing the symptoms of change.

This book, first published in 1969, brings out clearly and concisely the complex moulding of Arab identity. The present-day Arabic-speaking peoples may be traced back to the Arabian tribes that were later to be shaped into a people by Islam. With the Muslim conquests the language of the Arabian tribes became the vernacular of a vast cosmopolitan society extending throughout the Middle East and Southern Mediterranean.