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A delightful, well-written, and vastly informative ethnographic study, this is an account of Elizabeth Warnock Fernea's two-year stay in a tiny rural village in Iraq, where she assumed the dress and sheltered life of a harem woman. This volume gives a unique insight into a part of the Midddle Eastern life seldom seen by the West.

In Enki & Enlil, My Brother My Enemy, we will take you on an unimaginable and profound journey into the heart of ancient settings, musings, ancient mind-set, ancient histories, and ancient practices to reveal a breathtaking, hidden reality that will transform your understanding and life forever and in many ways. The suggestions in this work will show that we are debating present and ancient matters that will help uplift you spiritually. Spirituality, in this sense, is enlightenment—nothing else. Enlightenment is perhaps one of the reasons even the Gods are at each other’s throats up to ...

The history of reportage has often depended on outsiders—Ryszard Kapuściński witnessing the fall of the shah in Iran, Frances FitzGerald observing the aftermath of the American war in Vietnam. What would happen if a native son was so estranged from his city by war that he could, in essence, view it as an outsider? What kind of portrait of a war-wracked place and people might he present? A Stranger in Your Own City is award-winning writer Ghaith Abdul-Ahad’s vivid, shattering response.

A legendary civilization vanished under the Fertile Crescent and escaped a fate worse than death until Sumerologists questioned widely accepted truths. The Sumerians reemerged onto the extraordinary timeline of human history. Their tales of kings and gods, including the Epic of Gilgamesh, and their fearless trade in distant lands, during the remarkable Bronze Age, centered in the world’s first city-states that chronicled ancient rivalries and their enduring impact.

Ancient Mesopotamia history is defined by several key inventions that impacted the globe, including the concept of time, algebra, the wheel, sailboats, maps and writing. Another characteristic of Mesopotamia is the shifting succession of governing bodies from various regions and cities that seized power over a period of thousands of years.

Jeremy Bowen, the BBC’s Middle East Editor, has been covering the region since 1989 and is uniquely placed to explain its complex past and its troubled present. In this new book, in part based on his acclaimed podcast, Bowen takes us on a journey across the Middle East and through its history. He meets ordinary men and women on the front line, their leaders, whether brutal or benign, and he explores the power games that have so often wreaked devastation on civilian populations as those leaders, whatever their motives, jostle for political, religious and economic control.

When Emma Sky, an intrepid young British woman, volunteered to help rebuild Iraq after the overthrow of Saddam Hussein, she had little idea what she was letting herself in for: a tour that would last over a decade, longer than that of any senior military or political official. As the only adviser to the Coalition Provisional Authority in Kirkuk and the closest confidante to US General Odierno, Sky was valued for her controversial voice and outsider's point of view.

Was there an empire older and more important than mighty Egypt? There were a few, but the Akkadian Empire, born out of the cradle of civilization, is thought to be the first. And it was a game-changer. Its creation inspired conquerors and other empire-builders throughout history and spawned two world powers. Its epics, legends, and beliefs influence religions and cultures even today—and make for some darn good listening.

An award-winning military journalist tells the amazing stories of 22 soldiers who've won the Medal of Honor, the nation's highest military award.

This audiobook includes tales of gods and goddesses, both major and minor, as well as kings and heroes, both historical and mythical. One such king is the hero of what many scholars believe to be the first written epic: Gilgamesh. In addition to creating connections between the human world and the divine, Sumerian myths explain how the world came to be in the first place. These myths establish the cosmic order, which places the greater gods, or Annunaki, at the top of the hierarchy, with the lesser gods, or Igigi, below them.

Today, it is known by many names, like the First Iraq War, Kuwait War, and, most commonly, the Gulf War or the First Gulf War. It was a rather short conflict, lasting just shy of seven months between late 1990 and early 1991. Yet, it was still rather impactful because it showcased several essential innovations and changes in political and technological aspects of warfare, some of which are still part of modern conflicts.

Land Between the Rivers is the result of ten years of research, writing, and thinking about the subject. It is an enormous topic: five thousand years, beginning with Gilgamesh at the edge of historical time. It is a big topic in another way. More than anywhere else, the famous Land Between the Rivers, where civilization was born, where East and West have mixed and clashed since long before Alexander, has led an existence that could be called, from a certain perspective, a history of the world.

May 6, 1986: Nick Popaditch arrives at the Receiving Barracks, Marine Corps Recruit Depot, San Diego, California. April 9, 2003: An AP photographer captures a striking image seen around the world of the Gunny Sergeant smoking a victory cigar in his tank, the haunting statue of Saddam Hussein hovering in the background. Popaditch is immortalized forever as "The Cigar Marine."

The sheer importance of Sumerian culture in regards to world culture as a whole is impossible to overstate. This civilization is single-handedly responsible for some of the most major innovations in nearly every field relevant to maintaining a civilized society - this includes religion, lawmaking, architecture, schooling, art, literature, and even entertainment. Naturally, most of what we see as negative aspects of society were established in ancient Sumer as well. There wasn’t an aspect of Sumerian life that wasn’t plagued with corruption or devastation of one form or another.

From the high-ranking officer who wrote the still-classified British military analysis of the war in Iraq comes the authoritative history of two conflicts which have overshadowed the beginning of the 21st century. Inextricably linked to the ongoing ‘War on Terror’, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan dominated more than a decade of international politics and their influence is felt to this day.

The massacre of the Yazidi people by ISIS was nothing less than genocide. In refugee camps in Iraqi Kurdistan, the authors brought a skilled team to interview more than a hundred ISIS survivors and document what they experienced and saw. These former slaves observed their torturers and knew from the inside the secret facilities that ISIS has kept hidden from the world. What their testimony reveals is an organization whose ambition is power, regardless of their claim to be "soldiers of God."

Iran and Iraq served as the first WWII theater in which the US, the UK, and the USSR fought alongside each other. Historian Ashley Jackson charts the intense Allied military activity in Iran and Iraq and reveals how deeply the war impacted common people's lives. He also provides revelations about the true nature of Anglo-American relations in the region, the beginnings of the Cold War, and the continuing corrosive legacy of Western influence in these lands.

Embark on an extraordinary journey through time as you explore the pivotal Siege of Baghdad, a confrontation that forever altered the trajectory of human history. In "1258: The Siege of Baghdad," delve into the Mongol-Abbasid conflict of the 13th century—a clash not merely of empires but of civilizations, ideas, and destinies.

Explore the captivating history of Hammurabi. The story of Hammurabi is the story of 43 years jam-packed with conquest, temple- and wall-building, irrigation efforts, and lawmaking, but it’s also a story of broken relations and rising and falling empires. It’s a story of betrayal and shifting alliances, a story where even the gods take a backseat to the matters of common men. It’s a tale that’s both thousands of years old and, interestingly enough, just as contemporary as it was when Hammurabi still drew breath.

Mesopotamian Myths covers everything you'd want to know about Mesopotamian and Sumerian myths, including tales of gods and goddesses, creation myths, tales of kings and heroes, and also selections from the Epic of Gilgamesh. Get this captivating collection to know more about ancient times in Mesopotamia and Sumeria.