Tag Archives: Middle East

Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World

Posted on February 11, 2017 by smellincoffee

Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World© 2005 Jack Weatherford325 pages For all the differences and tensions between the West, Iran, and China, all can agree on one thing: the Mongols were mean. Genghis Khan roared out of … Continue reading →

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The Twilight War

Posted on January 12, 2017 by smellincoffee

The Twilight War: the Secret History of America’s Thirty-Year War with Iran656 pages© 2013 David Crist  In the presidential campaign of 2008, John McCain made plain what kind of aggressive foreign policy he would pursue by half-singing a chipper little … Continue reading →

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Glimpses of World History

Posted on December 26, 2016 by smellincoffee

Glimpses of World History© 1942 Jawaharlal Nehru1192 pages In 1930,  a man who would later become the first prime minister of India was thrown in jail for a period of two years. There, removed from his family and regretful that … Continue reading →

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Inside the Kingdom

Posted on December 24, 2016 by smellincoffee

Inside the Kingdom: Kings, Clerics, Modernists, Terrorists, and the Struggle for Saudi Arabia432 pages© 2009 Robert Lacey When I first began paying attention to politics, the cozy relationship between Saudi Arabia and the DC power-caste  confused me to no end. … Continue reading →

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Middle East Wrapup

Posted on December 21, 2016 by smellincoffee

Back in January I drew up a short list of five titles in early Islamic history, one which unexpectedly flared into a broader series on the middle east in general — and one with a strong Persian/Iranian bent. The original … Continue reading →

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Danger Heavy Goods

Posted on December 4, 2016 by smellincoffee

Danger Heavy Goods: Driving the Toughest, Most Dangerous Roads in the WorldAlso known as: Juggernaut: Trucking to Saudi Arabia© 1988 Robert Hutchinson288 pages “Makes Smokey and the Bandit Look Like Smokey and the Boy Scouts” When is a lorry not … Continue reading →

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Epic of Gilgamesh

Posted on December 4, 2016 by smellincoffee

The Epic of Gilgamesh© 1997 verse translation by Danny P. Jackson116 pages When I threw in with the Classics Club, I knew the Epic of Gilgamesh had to be  on there. The oldest known recorded story? How could it be missed? … Continue reading →

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Lost Enlightenment

Posted on November 28, 2016 by smellincoffee

Lost Enlightenment: Central Asia’s Golden Age from the Arab Conquest to Tamerlane © 2015 S. Frederick Starr618 pages Lost Enlightenment takes readers back to a time when Central Asia was the crossroads of the world, a hub of both commercial and … Continue reading →

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Jasmine and Stars

Posted on October 28, 2016 by smellincoffee

Jasmine and Stars: Reading More than Lolita in Tehran© 2007 Fatemeh Keshavarz180 pgs Fatemeh Keshavarz’s Jasmine and Stars: Reading More than Lolita in Tehran rebukes Azar Nefisi and other writers for contributing to a ‘new Orientalism’ that looks at Iran … Continue reading →

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Mideast Index

Posted on July 28, 2016 by smellincoffee

(The Pyramids, Shah Mosque, Nile River, Ishtar Gate, and Jerusalem) Cradle of Civilization: Ancient Mesopotamia The Near East,  Isaac Asimov The Egyptians,  Barbara Watterson Age of Empires The Lost History of Christianity, Phillip Jenkins The Persians: Ancient, Medieaval, and Modern … Continue reading →

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