by Sam Sweeney | Nov 15, 2020
By Sam Sweeney On January 31, 2020 the French government arrested a Syrian known as Islam Alloush, real name Majdi Nema, which caused a bit of a stir among those who had paid close attention to Syria over the last decade. Alloush was previously the spokesman for Jaysh...
by Fitzroy Morrissey | Jun 28, 2020
Making the Arab World: Nasser, Qutb, and the Clash that Shaped the Middle East by Fawaz A. Gerges. Princeton University Press, 2019. Paperback, 528 pages, $19.95 Reviewed by Fitzroy Morrissey One would be hard pressed to find two more iconic figures in the history of...
by Garrett Robinson | Jun 7, 2020
Sunnis and Shi’a: A Political History by Laurence Louër. Princeton University Press, 2020. Hardcover, 240 pages, $29.95. Reviewed by Garrett Robinson With the death of Hussein ibn Ali, grandson of Muhammad and the third imam, at the Battle of Karbala in 680, the unity...
by James Baresel | Dec 22, 2019
The Apple of His Eye: Converts from Islam in the Reign of Louis IX by William Chester Jordan. Princeton University Press, 2019. Hardcover, 200 pages, $35. Reviewed by James Baresel My suspicions are that barely a minority of well-read conservatives with an avid but...
by Fitzroy Morrissey | Mar 31, 2019
Caliphate Redefined: The Mystical Turn in Ottoman Political Thought by Hüseyin Yilmaz. Princeton University Press, 2018. Hardcover, 384 pages, $40. Reviewed by Fitzroy Morrissey In his very useful pocket-guide The Caliphate: A Pelican Introduction (2016), the...