Thomas Philipp's study of Acre combines the most extensive use to date of local Arabic sources with commercial records in Europe to shed light on a region and power center many identify as the beginning of modern Palestinian history. The third largest city in eighteenth-century Syria--after Aleppo and Damascus--Acre was the capital of a politically and economically unique region on the Mediterranean coast that included what is today northern Israel and southern Lebanon. In the eighteenth century, Acre grew dramatically from a small fishing village to a fortified city of some 25,000...

Thomas Philipp's study of Acre combines the most extensive use to date of local Arabic sources with commercial records in Europe to shed light on a region and power center many identify as the beginning of modern Palestinian history. The third largest city in eighteenth-century Syria--after Aleppo and Damascus--Acre was the capital of a politically and economically unique region on the Mediterranean coast that included what is today northern Israel and southern Lebanon. In the eighteenth century, Acre grew dramatically from a small fishing village to a fortified city of some 25,000...

For over half a millennium the Mamluks wielded power over Egypt. During this time they formed a remarkable political, military and economic elite, ruling as sovereigns from 1250 to 1517 and, after the Ottoman conquest, regaining much of their former influence under Turkish supremacy. In this collection of essays, some of the most distinguished scholars in the field provide an accessible introduction to the structure of political power under the Mamluks and its economic foundations. The essays also offer a unique insight into the Mamluk households and their relationship with the indigenous...

Jurji Zaidan's Contributions to Modern Arab Thought and Literature consists of a series of essays commissioned by the Zaidan Foundation for a Symposium sponsored by the Library of Congress, the Kluge Center and the Zaidan Foundation and held at the Library of Congress on June 5th, 2012 in Washington DC. The essays were prepared by a group of eminent scholars in literature, history and other disciplines in leading universities in the US, Canada, France and the Middle East working on the Nahda or Arab awakening of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and, in particular, on Jurji...