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"...A comprehensive portrait of slavery in the Islamic world from earliest times until today..."–Arab Book World

"I, Hasan the son of Muhammad the weigh-master, I, Jean-Leon de Medici, circumcised at the hand of a barber and baptized at the hand of a pope, I am now called the African, but I am not from Africa, nor from Europe, nor from Arabia. I am also called the Granadan, the Fassi, the Zayyati, but I come from no country, from no city, no tribe. I am the son of the road, my country is the caravan, my life the most unexpected of voyages."Thus wrote Leo Africanus, in his fortieth year, in this imaginary autobiography of the famous geographer, adventurer, and scholar Hasan al-Wazzan, who was born in Granada in 1488. His family fled the Inquisition and took him to the city of Fez, in North Africa. Hasan became an itinerant merchant, and made many journeys to the East, journeys rich in adventure and observation. He was captured by a Sicilian pirate and taken back to Rome as a gift to Pope Leo X, who baptized him Johannes Leo. While in Rome, he wrote the first trilingual dictionary (Latin, Arabic and Hebrew), as well as his celebrated Description of Africa, for which he is still remembered as Leo Africanus.

Isbister in the Orkneys is one of those extraordinary archaeological sites where the remains of Neolithic man and his works have been so well preserved that they give us an amazingly clear picture of the life and people of 5000 years ago.In Tomb of the Eagles John W. Hedges describes vividly the activities of a tribe which had as its totem the magnificent white-tailed sea eagle. For these people the building and use of the tomb was symbol and expression of their identity. It was here that the dead joined their ancestors–but only after the flesh had been stripped from their bones. It was here, too, that offerings were made. Here broken pots were piled; fish, eagles and joints of meat mouldered; and the hands of the living sorted the heaped bones of the dead.

This is the forth edition, revised and enlarged, of R.J.S. McDowall's classic book, which has been an enthusiastic and knowledgeable guide to the whiskies of Scotland for two decades.An international recession that closed many long-established distilleries, and a shift in drinking habits towards wines, and, paradoxically, toward the single malts, brought about many changes in the whiskey industry. Professor McDowall felt that few were as well qualified to assess those changes as his son-in-law, William Waugh, who owns perhaps even more to his father-in-law's tutelage than to his fine cellar.The Whiskies of Scotland is also a reliable guide to those distilleries that encourage visitors. Indeed, it is the book for all who are interested in whisky–from the novice, who innocently imagines that all Scotch is created equal, to the better informed, who appreciate the traditional skills that go into producing a distinctive whisky, unique and inimitable.

Italian as a national spoken language is a new experience for Italians; until very recently it was normal for the majority of the people to speak in a dialect, and Italian was a literary language used only by a minority. The first section of this book provides an outline of the language, and a sketch of the dialects. The authors also describe the formation of the modern standard language in its varieties (regional, social, and occupational).Part two is a reference grammar of contemporary educated Italian, presented in the way it is actually used, rather than according to traditional prescription.The book concentrates on contemporary usage and will enable the reader to understand and use appropriately a wide range of expressions, characterized where necessary according to their level of formality or their regional nature.The illuminating combination of historical perspective and contemporary grammer make this a unique contribution to Italian linguistics, and an invaluable reference book for all students and scholars in the field of Italian.The second edition has been revised throughout to bring it completely up to date.

Drinking with Dickens is a light-hearted sketch by Cedric Dickens, the great-grandson of Charles Dickens. There are vivid and memorable drinking scenes in Dickens' books, and Drinking with Dickens abounds in recipes, many based on the drinks of Dickensian England and America: Bishop, Dog's Nose, Hot Bowl Punch, Milk Punch, Mint Julep, Sherry Cobbler, Shrub and Negus, to mention only a few. Unbelievably it seems to be the first book on this vast and important subject, and Cedric has added some recipes and experiences of his own.The Victorian sources include a penny notebook dated 1859 and kept by "Auntie Georgie," Georgina Hogarth, when she was looking after the younger children of Charles Dickens at Gads Hill. It starts with a recipe for Ginger Beer, a teetotal drink which calls for a quart of brandy!Then there is the catalogue for the sale of Gads Hill after Charles Dickens died which shows what was in the cellar at that time. This book transcends the generations. Cedric, with an eye for people and detail, describes a whole series of joyous episodes where drink, wisely taken, has been the catalyst.

Books are fragile objects. In the wring environment, excessive bent and cold, humidity, animals and insects—even people— can cause rapid damage to a book's fabric.In this practical guide to maintaining a collection at its best, the author explains the reasons for decay in books and documents and gives straightforward advice on creating the right conditions for a library, large or small.*Fully revised and expanded edition of this authoritative work*Illustrated with photographs and line drawings. *An invaluable addition to any library

The correspondence of Katherine Mansfield and John Middleton Murry is a story in its own right, as compelling and poignant as any that Mansfield herself invented. Here, juxtaposed for the first time, are 300 letters exchanged between them during their extraordinary eleven-year relationship. The letters begin in January 1912, a month after their first meeting, when both were relative newcomers to the London literary scene; the last, a letter from Murry, was written four days before Katherine died, in Fontainebleau, in January 1923. The intervening years were ones of both feverish creativity and heartbreaking frustration; of intense closeness and unassailable distance; of shared idealism and, as Katherine's illness took its inexorable hold, of mutual recognition that the glittering partnership they'd once envisaged would be cut tragically short.Whether sparkling or witty, reflective or despairing, the letters have the immediacy of conversation and the candor of the very finest epistolary writing. They illustrate wonderfully the unique personal magnetism which has become part of the Mansfield legend, and indicate, too, that posterity has perhaps judged Murry more harshly than ever she did. As Katherine herself wrote: "I feel no other lovers have walked the earth more joyfully-in spite of all."

...a most disturbing portrait of the effects of nuclear weapons testing on the people of Micronesia...—Library Journal

This book offers the first accessible, systematic study of the five schools of thought that dominate modern political science in the West. The authors give an account of the intellectual origins and the methodology of pluralism, the New Right, elitism, Marxism, and neo-pluralism–concentrating on the models of political mobilization, state organization, and crisis that are posited by each. Dunleavy and O'Leary end with a strikingly original evaluation of rival analyses of the state, providing a new frame of reference for the study of political controversy in liberal democracies.

In 1937, the Scottish writer, Neil Gunn, gave up his job in the civil service, sold his house in Inverness, and bought a boat. With his wife and his brother John, he set off on a three-month voyage around Inner Hebrides.The boat had outlived its first youth, and its engine was somewhat cranky; she went tolerably under sail. These are not high recommendations, but for Gunn, and at times his fellow voyagers, the vessel was an argosy of freedom, of adventure and misadventure–for they were fairly inexperienced sailors, and the waters of the region are by no means placid.Gunn was a Scots nationalist in a sense that goes far beyond the political, even though he thought that an independent Scotland was the only proper basis for a reasonable civilization. He was by nature poetic, uplifted or cast down by changing skies, seascapes, and shores. His descriptions of those things, including their moods, are remarkably evocative. And he is also a passionate historian of his country, exalting its possibilities, anathematizing its shortcomings. The book is illustrated with Daisy Gunn's photographs taken on the voyage, which are palpably amateur but wonderfully telling.

The correspondence of Katherine Mansfield and John Middleton Murry is a story in its own right, as compelling and poignant as any that Mansfield herself invented. Here, juxtaposed for the first time, are 300 letters exchanged between them during their extraordinary eleven-year relationship. The letters begin in January 1912, a month after their first meeting, when both were relative newcomers to the London literary scene; the last, a letter from Murry, was written four days before Katherine died, in Fontainebleau, in January 1923. The intervening years were ones of both feverish creativity and heartbreaking frustration; of intense closeness and unassailable distance; of shared idealism and, as Katherine''s illness took its inexorable hold, of mutual recognition that the glittering partnership they''d once envisaged would be cut tragically short.Whether sparkling or witty, reflective or despairing, the letters have the immediacy of conversation and the candor of the very finest epistolary writing. They illustrate wonderfully the unique personal magnetism which has become part of the Mansfield legend, and indicate, too, that posterity has perhaps judged Murry more harshly than ever she did. As Katherine herself wrote: "I feel no other lovers have walked the earth more joyfully-in spite of all."

Books are fragile objects. In the wring environment, excessive bent and cold, humidity, animals and insects-even people- can cause rapid damage to a book''s fabric.In this practical guide to maintaining a collection at its best, the author explains the reasons for decay in books and documents and gives straightforward advice on creating the right conditions for a library, large or small.*Fully revised and expanded edition of this authoritative work*Illustrated with photographs and line drawings. *An invaluable addition to any library

Here is an updated edition of Joan Nunn''s detailed survey of costume in the Western world over the past eight centuries. She not only gives the reader a vivid visual impression of the clothes themselves, but also outlines the historical and social background and the changes in manufacturing techniques and fashionable life that have influenced the way costume has developed and the manner in which it has been worn. The book is illustrated throughout with hundreds of line drawings.

English artists have made a unique contribution to the art of watercolor painting. In no other Western country has this very attractive medium been used so consistently, or for works of such stature, as in England between 1750 and the present day. In this general survey of the whole period, Graham Reynolds, formerly Keeper of Paintings and of Prints and Drawings at the Victoria & Albert Museum, discusses the paintings of over 100 artists including the well-known watercolorists such as Cozens, Girtin, Cotman and De Wint, as well as artists who are equally known for their work in other media - Gainsborough, Turner, Constable, Sargent, Henry Moore. The 140 illustrations, 64 in color, show the work of these and lesser-known artists and reveal the versatility of this medium, so the reader will be introduced to its use for illustrative caricature and portraiture as well as to the finest examples of traditional landscape watercolors.

The author writes in his introduction that evening is the magical moment to wander about Rome: "That is the moment to see the city of conflicting moods as it always has been and still is, hateful and holy, wicked and wise, pagan and papal, sometimes so beautiful that it is scarcely to be endured, and always quite inscrutable. That is the supreme moment to rhapsodize and pay homage, to make the final assault upon the hidden secret of Rome's eternal decay, and to be deliciously deceived… The early morning on the other hand is more to our purpose, for it is not at all romantic." The early morning serves to light for Lees-Milne the eight Roman buildings–from the somber Pantheon first built by Marcus Agrippa in 27 B.C. to the Trevi fountain, whose waters were brought to Rome via aqueduct by the same Agrippa, but whose completion had to await the eighteenth century–that are in the author's opinion the chef architectural monuments of the city. All of them, he says, are powerful archetypes, and two among them, the Pantheon and the Tempietto, have individual features that are reflected in practically every town in Europe, the British Commonwealth, and America.

In this book Muslims, men and women alike, speak from the heart about what they believe and how they live. The central tenets of Islam are put forward by doctors, engineers, politicians, bankers and carpenters, as well as by theologians. Islam has a billion followers. The beliefs of Islam, like those of the other great religions, must be taken seriously if we wish to understand the world in which we live. What do followers of the Islamic tradition have to say about family life, money, education, racial equality and the ecology of our planet?Muslim readers of earlier editions of The Muslim Mind welcomed the Christian author who had portrayed their faith with fairness and candor. The sincere answers to her inquiries given by many Muslims afford a vivid insight into the spirit and practice of Islam.

In this beautifully written book, Maria Jose Sevilla describes the region through the eyes of men and women whose lives embrace every aspect of its cooking and culinary traditions, and records the recipes she has learned from them.

The book is a coming-of-age novel, something that in other languages is expressed more pointedly as the novel of education. Nol, "the judge's son,' is the person whose moral sentiments are being educated. But that education is acquired at the expense of an infinitely more valuable person, the young woman Nol loves, who has been exploited by men of weight and standing in their provincial community-all of them human, disgracefully human.Not tells the story from the time he was five years old, when, inspired by a rendition of one of Souza's marches in the garden where the brass band played, he danced with the conductor's daughter, taller and older than himself, before a bemused assemblage of adults. The web of incident and reflection in Nol's narration astonishes the reader with the texture of the lives it evokes, ending with Nol's small, crucial defection that precipitates tragedy. In The Garden Where the Brass Band Played, as with every real novel of the genre, it is the reader whose sentiments are educated, by the pain of it, and no doubt rather too late.

Rarely exhibited and in superb condition, the watercolor collection in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge is one of the finest in the world. This book contains the gems of that collection—approximately 150, all of them reproduced large and in color, mostly for the first time. The most famous artists of this, the 'Golden Age' of British watercolor art, are all represented (Turner, Cotman, DeWint, Cox, Cozens, Girtin, Palmer, Constable, Ruskin, Sandby, Towne, Varley) together with some less well known, or better known for work in other media—Wilson, Wright of Derby, Romney, Gainsborough, Holland, for example. But the collection is most remarkable for the outstanding quality of the individual paintings, and Jane Munro (Senior Assistant Keeper at the Museum) emphasizes this in a text that closely examines each particular work and locates it in the artist's career.

The West Indian kitchen today, five hundred years after Columbus, is a wonderful blend of flavors and cooking styles.

As well as fulfilling a functional need, furniture has always been an index of status. From the throne of Tutankhamen or the bed of State of Louis XIV to the austere Shaker chest or the Charles Eames chair and later modern pieces from Europe, the Far East and the United States, the style of each piece tells much about the outlook of the makers and the needs and skills of the time.This absorbing history traces the development of furniture design and production, from the days of ancient Egypt to the present, describing what articles were made in each period, how they were made, and what were the social and economic conditions that affected style and finish. The author discusses techniques such as joinery, turning, veneering, marquetry, polishing, upholstery, bentwood work and lamination. Many examples are shown in the illustrations, which are invaluable recognition sources and a lively visual accompaniment to the text.

This updated edition of Costumes for the Stage aims at simplicity in all aspects of designing and making costumes. It is designed primarily for those who need to dress plays on a small budget, whether for amateur, semi-professional, or professional groups. Starting with five pages illustrating the basic shapes of each period, Sheila Jackson provides practical advice for every kind of play, together with drawings, diagrams, and patterns from which to work. Included are sections on Greek plays, medieval miracles and mysteries, Shakespeare, seventeenth century, eighteenth century, Victorian and Edwardian costume, the twenties and thirties, and the present day. Each section covers the details of men's and women's clothes (hats, collars, shoes, jewelry, etc.) as well as methods for adapting and simplifying the style of the period. There are also sections on pantomimes and musicals, pageants and school plays, and invaluable advice on underwear, fabrics, measurements and fitting, the use of color, and simple ways to make masks, crowns, and decorations. The revised edition features expanded text and new illustrations. Hundreds of line drawings and no-nonsense, authoritative text combine to make this an essential book of costume design.

Compellingly written and even-handed in its judgments, this is by far the clearest account of what has happened through the years in the Northern Ireland conflict, and why. After a chapter of background on the period from 1921 to 1963, it covers the ensuing period—the descent into violence, the hunger strikes, the Anglo-Irish accord, the bombers in England—to the present shaky peace process. Behind the deluge of information and opinion about the conflict, there is a straightforward and gripping story. Mr. McKittrick and Mr. McVea tell that story clearly, concisely, and, above all, fairly, avoiding intricate detail in favor of narrative pace and accessible prose. They describe and explain a lethal but fascinating time in Northern Ireland's history, which brought not only death, injury, and destruction but enormous political and social change. They close on an optimistic note, convinced that while peace—if it comes—will always be imperfect, a corner has now been decisively turned. The book includes a detailed chronology, statistical tables, and a glossary of terms.

Here is an updated edition of Joan Nunn's detailed survey of costume in the Western world over the past eight centuries. She not only gives the reader a vivid visual impression of the clothes themselves, but also outlines the historical and social background and the changes in manufacturing techniques and fashionable life that have influenced the way costume has developed and the manner in which it has been worn. The book is illustrated throughout with hundreds of line drawings.

Hugh Goddard investigates the history of the relationships between Christians and Muslims over the centuries.

Hugh Goddard investigates the history of the relationships between Christians and Muslims over the centuries.

Our picture of a chimney sweep is often Dick Van Dyke in Mary Poppins. This meticulously researched examination shows a different side to this hazardous trade. The art and science of chimney sweeping are examined in detail for the first time in this lively and fascinating book. From the development of chimneys in the twelfth century, replacing the open cooking fire in a smoke-filled room with a plain hole in the roof, to the patenting of mechanical devices in the late nineteenth century that came to the rescue of many a poor climbing boy, all is revealed. The personalities who dominated the profession, which surprisingly included several women sweeps, are portrayed, along with many illustrations of the tools of the trade. Sweeping techniques, the impact of social reform and the place of the sweep in literature are explored in this absorbing work. With 75 black-and-white illustrations.