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Middle East and North Africa brings together a group of influential analysts to examine a region which has experienced great territorial change from colonial times to the present. ... Read more

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With a population of more than 250 million and a notable strategic position between the North and the South, the Arab region constitutes a distinct region of the developing world. Its future development is a matter of crucial importance to the world. Unfortunately, however, the research environment in the Middle East and North Africa is not conducive to producing, accessing, or using development-related knowledge.

This book explores the current challenges and opportunities of research for development in the Arab countries of the Middle East and North Africa. Experts from the region and development professionals from around the world provide a detailed portrait of the research environment and explore the relationship between science and policy. They also present and discuss new research initiatives in the areas of social and economic development, natural resource management, and information and communication technologies.

Research for Development in the Middle East and North Africa will be of interest to development researchers and practitioners, policymakers in science and technology, and students and academics in development studies, Arab studies, and policy studies. ... Read more

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Is there enough water on this planet for a global population that will shortly double its present size? The answer is of great importance for people everywhere, but particularly to the peoples and political leaders of the Middle East and North Africa. In addition to explaining the particular issues of conflict in the region, Tony Allan argues that the answer to these problems lies at the global rather than local level.
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Customer Reviews (1)

Ships in the night: water experts and the Middle East.
This witty and wide-ranging book looks at the geographical, religious, cultural, legal and above all political aspects of water in the Middle East.It's a brilliant and wide-ranging explanation of why national water insecurity is simply not recognised there.And Allan argues that it does not, in fact, exist:although the area has run out of water, it imports itinvisibly in the form of grain - a rescue system which cannot, for domestic political reasons, be acknowledged.Along the way he exposes the arrogance of western water experts who think they can solve water problems in developing countries by advocating economic rationalism without taking account of the history and politics of the countries they advise (or the economic irrationality of their own nations).Little wonder that their solutions are not adopted by local power elites who think they are self-serving and ill-informed. Water is a contentious issue, says Allan, but only one part of the larger political relationships between countries.It will be the subject of dispute when that is politically expedient, but has hardly ever been in the past, and will be even less so in the future, a sufficient cause for war. This book puts all the "water wars" books into the shade.Its sophistication shows up the superficiality of narrow analyses that don't take account of global influences on local situations.It recognises that facts are what the powerful choose to see.Allan argues that, as countries develop socio-economically, they will be able to make policy changes that will make more efficient and effective use of water, as Israel already has.Only when an economy is strong and diverse can it support re-allocation of water from agriculture.He thinks there will be enough water to sustain the growing world population - and he has an entertaining and erudite analysis to convince the reader he's right. ... Read more

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The Cambridge Atlas is designed as a topical reference source on the whole Middle East, from Iran to North Africa, with an emphasis on economic and social developments. In 60 pages of two-colour maps, each accompanied by a page of commentary and supplementary figures, the Atlas presents detailed information on the Middle East essential to the international business, political and journalistic community and to a wide range of students and specialists. The Atlas represents map coverage of all these themes for some years and is one of the most accessible reference tools on the region. ... Read more

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In a never-ending battle to match population growth with food and energy production, the countries of the Middle East have been frenziedly developing water resources, including international rivers and groundwater, without considering their neighbors' needs as well. The inevitable result has been more frequent and increasingly bitter conflicts. At the same time, a halting Arab-Israeli peace process spurred by the collapse of the Soviet Union continues. Are we indeed entering a new era in a new Middle East? Do the region's leaders understand that reality has changed and that a transition is inevitable? Focusing on international rivers and ground water in the region, this timely study provides thoughtful-if pessimistic-answers to these questions. Encompassing all water sources in the Middle East, Arnon Soffer thoroughly explores the Nile, Tigris, Euphrates, Jordan, Orontes, and Litani Rivers, as well as international groundwater. He also weighs the implications of going to war over water and such unconventional solutions to the water shortage as desalination and importation. ... Read more

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Sicker explores the political history of the Middle East from antiquity to the Arab conquest from a geopolitical perspective. He provides ample evidence that geographical and religious factors conditioning political decision-making have tended to promote military solutions to essentially political problems, a pattern that characterizes subsequent events in the region. ... Read more

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The institution of slavery, which prevailed throughout the Islamic area from al-Andalus to Southeast Asia over many centuries, was one of the distinguishing features of Islamic civilization. In this volume, specialists in Middle Eastern and African studies consider the practice of slavery in different regionsfrom a comparative perspective, dealing with key issues: the ethnic origins of slave soliders and officials and the reasons for the development of the slave soldier system in comparison with non-elite slaves; the legal status of slave elites and the administrative roles of slave soliders and officials; the linguistic and cultural identity of slave elites and itsrelation to their society of origin and of residence; the economy of slave elites including payment and economic activities; and the relation of slave elite systems to Islamic civilization. Among the subjects covered are the Turkish military elite of Samarra, economic aspects of the 'manufacture' and sale of eunuchs, royal slavery in Kano, the concept of slavery in Ottoman and other Muslim societies and slavery, family and state in the Islamic Middle East. By focusing on similarities and differences in practice, the volume elucidates the transregionality and commonality of slave elites and Islam, and makes an important contribution to the understanding of the complexities underlying an institution of great historic interest. ... Read more

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Today nearly half of all people in the Middle East are under the age of fifteen. Yet little is known about the new generation of boys and girls who are growing up in a world vastly different from that of their parents, a generation who will be the leaders of tomorrow. This groundbreaking anthology is an attempt to look at the current situation of children by presenting materials by both Middle Eastern and Western scholars. Many of the works have been translated from Arabic, Persian, and French. The forty-one pieces are organized into sections on the history of childhood, growing up, health, work, education, politics and war, and play and the arts. They are presented in many forms: essays in history and social science, poems, proverbs, lullabies, games, and short stories. Countries represented are Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, Tunisia, Israel/West Bank, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Sudan, Lebanon, Turkey, Yemen, and Afghanistan. This book complements Elizabeth Fernea's earlier works, Women and the Family in the Middle East and Middle Eastern Muslim Women Speak (coedited with Basima Bezirgan). Like them, it will be important reading for everyone interested in the Middle East and in women's and children's issues. ... Read more

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Children in the Muslim Middle East
Children in the Muslim Middle East successfully aspires to open a whole new topic.Fernea brings together forty-one short pieces that range in area from Morocco to Afghanistan, in subject matter from orphanages to child soldiers, and in genre from scholarship and literature to speeches and lullabies.Over thirty of the book�s contributors hail from the Middle East, and a fair number of chapters have been specially translated from Middle Eastern languages.Together, they put Middle Eastern children on the research map.

Chapter titles signal the children�s bleak status.We learn of �girls� participation in combat� (in Lebanon), of �bodily mutilation of young females� (in Egypt), and of �working children in Cairo.�According to Hassan al-Ebraheem of the Kuwait Society for the Advancement of Arab Children, there are 90 million Arabic-speaking children, of which �half today are threatened in their physical health by the dangers of hunger, poverty, and war.� A majority of them, he reports, live in unsuitable dwellings, and 3,500 of them die each day from treatable diseases.

Then, of course, there is the particularly debased status of girls.A sixteen-year old Turkish girl who does piecework sewing for her father�s business sums up the predicament of her sex:�I work, but I have no value.� Nor are matters improving, for, as Fernea explains, �in general colonialism intensified traditional family patterns, particularly those involving differentials of gender identity,� and matters have changed little since independence.Taking on new roles in society appears not to have helped the status of females.

Middle East Quarterly, March 1996

Encyclopedic
This book consists of a very varied collection of essays about numerous aspects of children's lives in the Middle East, as well as some short fiction and poetry.The book is organized into the following sections: growing up; children's health; children and work; children's education; children, politics, and war; and children and the arts.At times, the book steps beyond its stated theme, describing in some cases situations that have more to do with poverty than Islam or the Middle East (particularly in the health section), or Christian women (at war in Lebanon).But on the whole, every piece is well written and extremely informative.This is an important contribution to Middle Eastern studies; it will also be of interest to those studying families or children across cultures. ... Read more

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During the Gulf crisis in the summer of 1990, the extent of the migrant worker phenomenon in the Middle East was highlighted by the plight of tens of thousands of refugees from Kuwait and Iraq - men, women and even children, mainly from North Africa and South and South-East Asia. The harrowing images and reports spreading across the world and the hastily constructed refugee camps demonstrated the vulnerability of the economic and social position of this floating labour force. This is a comprehensive study of the demographic, social and economic aspects of labour migration from Sri Lanka to the Middle East using both demographic and anthropological research methods. The authors have mainly based their work on labour migration from Sri Lanka as labour migration from that country shows a number of particularly interesting characteristics. The extent of Sri Lankan labour migration is much greater than that seen in other South and South-East Asian countries. l.3% of the Sri Lankan population work in the Middle East, of which 70% are women, working mainly in the domestic sector. ... Read more

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A truly comprehensive account of sea and land voyages, covering a thousand years of exploration from the ninth century to the epic voyages of Captain Cook. Kerr includes accounts of travels not easily available elsewhere and translations into English for the first time. This first set brings together travels undertaken by ambassadors, missionaries, adventurers as well as naval and military commanders to Europe, Asia and the Middle East and includes the journey of Ambassador Contarini to Persia, the voyage of Verthema to Egypt, English pilgramages to the Holy Land, Carpini's expedition to the great Khan of the Moghuls, and the mission of the Persian Ambassador to China. With an introduction by a leading scholar this handsome 5 volume set presents Kerr's outstanding achievement in a unique and informative way. ... Read more

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The Middle East is a region characterized by international concern and political unrest. With severe water shortages, it is water and not oil that threatens the renewal of military conflicts and social and economic disruption in the region. Water Resources and Conflict in the Middle East analyzes the river basins of the Euphrates, Tigris, Nile, and Jordan. The book provides a detailed study of the hydrography and geography of these river basins and an analysis of the needs of the countries bordering them. Nurit Kliot draws conclusions on the likely areas of conflict and sets them within the framework of the Helsinki and International Law Commission Rules. ... Read more