Mostyn, Trevor (editor)

Cambridge. 1988. Cambridge University Press. Very Good in Dustjacket. 0521321905. 504 pages. hardcover. Front jacket photograph: The Old City of Jerusalem and Dome of the Rock (Alistair Duncan). Back jacket photographs: Jewish children at the Western Wall, Old Jerusalem (Alistair Duncan); Omani women at the camel races (David Chappdll); The Lion Gate, Boghaz Kol, Turkey (Margaret Drower); Lutfullah Mosque, Isfahan, Iran (Anthony Hutt); Jeddah, Saudi Arabia (Trevor Mostyn); The Riafa Gate, Fez, Morocco (R. Turpin). keywords: Middle East Reference History. FROM THE PUBLISHER - The media image of the Middle East today is often that of sudden oil wealth, war and international terrorism, a sad contrast with the image that obsessed the nineteenth-century European writers and artists and an even sadder one when compared with that of the intense cultural energy that has characterized this vast region for millennia. The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the Middle East and North Africa analyses the region from its pre-Islamic period to the present day, from its golden ages to the contemporary era when it is struggling to retain its roots as it copes with regional conflicts and the penetration of modern technology. Academics and journalists who are international experts in their individual fields are gathered in this one volume to study the region in great depth and with perceptive and often colourful insights. The cultural influences of the three great monotheistic faiths born in the Region - Judaism, Christianity and Islam - are covered through all their main aspects such as history, the sciences and the arts. Although Islam has clearly had the greatest influence on the region, the early religions and Judaism and Christianity are thoroughly studied by specialist writers. So, too, are minority sects such as the Zoroastrians and the Druze and ethnic minority groups such as Berbers, Kurds and Pushtuns. The Middle East and North Africa, a region that spreads from Morocco in the west to Afghanistan in the east, Turkey in the north to Somalia and Djibouti in the south, contains many races and many religious groups and sub-groups. inventory #10823 ISBN: 0521321905.