Focusing on the similarities and differences in skills between former dictator Hafez al-Assad and his successor son, Bashar, Ajami explains how an irresistible force clashed with an immovable object: the regime versus people who conquered fear to challenge a despot of unspeakable cruelty.

     The Samarkand Sheikh’s Harem is a series of romantic, sensual, erotic novellas intended for adults only. These sexy adventures, part-historical, part-fantasy, are the naughty little secret of a multi-published romance author. It’s midnight at the oasis city of Samarkand, which lies on the Silk Road from China through Persia to the Mediterranean Sea. In this land of silks and spices, caramel sand and lapis lazuli skies, Prince Tashfin ibn Ali takes his pleasure each night from one of the beautiful women in his harem. Part 1: The Sheikh's New Wife It’s Alesha’s wedding night. She’s Prince Tashfin’s fourth wife, sold to him like cattle by her father. Everyone keeps telling her she’s the luckiest woman in the world to be married to the rich, young, handsome Prince of Samarkand, but she’s a virgin, and she has no idea what to expect when he calls her to his bedchamber at midnight. She could never have imagined the truth… The Prince first saw Alesha when she was fifteen, and he’s waited three long years to marry her. He works hard by day and likes to fill his nights with earthly delights, and he enjoys giving and receiving pleasure in equal measure. But it’s been a while since he’s had a woman as innocent as his new wife. He thinks teaching her how to please him will be dull, but when he finally takes Alesha to bed, he discovers that introducing her to the pleasures of the body is an aphrodisiac in itself… Warning: The Samarkand Sheikh is young, handsome, and powerful, and there’s very little he won’t do in the bedroom to his wives, concubines, and slaves. This series features oral sex, anal sex, light bondage, multiple menage including M/F, M/M, F/F, and every other variety you can think of, and other sensual delights meant to arouse the senses. Strictly adults only.

    Elias is a Christian Arab living on the eastern side of the newly divided city, and Lila is a Jew living on the western side. A growing conflict between their cultures casts a heavy shadow over the region and their burgeoning relationship. Between them lie not only a wall of stone and barbed wire but also the bitter enmity of two nations at war.Told in the voice of Elias as he looks back upon the long years of his life, About the Night is a timely story of how hope can nourish us, loss can devastate us, and love can carry us beyond the boundaries that hold human beings apart.

    Showing how and why Soviet efforts to negotiate an end to the war came to nothing, Steele explains how negotiations today could put a stop to the tragedies that have afflicted Afghanistan for three decades.

    Now, 30 years later, he has completely rewritten and updated his earlier book to provide fresh evidence to support his original argument. Shroud boldly challenges the current post-radiocarbon dating view - that it is a fake. By arguing his case brilliantly and provocatively, Ian Wilson once more throws the matter into the public arena for further debate and controversy.

    

    As victims of political action, powerless to initiate change, what can they do? How do they live and survive?Frank McGuinness explores the daily crisis endured by hostages whose strength comes from communication, both subtle and mundane, from humour, wit and faith.Someone Who'll Watch Over Me premiered at the Hampstead Theatre, London, in 1992 before transferring to the West End. On Broadway, it was awarded the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award for Best Foreign Play and nominated for the Tony Award for Best Play in 1993.

    The book argues that Muslims, nurished by their own points of reference, can approach the modern epoch by adopting a specific social, political, and economic model that is linked to ethical values, a sense of finalities and spirituality. Rather than a modernism that tends to impose Westernization, it is a modernity that admits to the pluralism of civilizations, religions, and cultures.Table of Contents:ForewordIntroductionHistory of a ConceptThe Lessons of HistoryPart 1: At the shores of Transcendence: between God and ManPart 2: The Horizons of Islam: Between Man and the CommunityPart 3: Values and Finalities: The Cultural Dimension of the Civilizational Face to FaceConclusionAppendixIndexTariq Ramadan is a professor of Islamic Studies at the University of Oxford and a visiting professor in Identity and Citizenship at Erasmus University. He was named by TIME Magazine as one of the one hundred innovators of the twenty-first century.

    Set in gossipy late 18th-century England, with a fresh female voice, the play is full of humor, emotional depth, and bold theatricality. SENSE AND SENSIBILITY examines our reactions, both reasonable and ridiculous, to societal pressures. When reputation is everything, how do you follow your heart?

    His poems of spiritual love still speak directly to our hearts after more than seven hundred years. These classic selections contemplate separation and longing, intoxication and bliss, union and transcendence.

    When his father is kidnapped and held for ransom by ISIS gunmen in Syria, he takes matters into his own hands and begins to steal the only currency he has access to: secret government intelligence. He heads to Beirut with a haul of the most sensitive documents imaginable and recruits an unlikely ally – an alcoholic Swiss priest named Father Tobias. Despite barely surviving his previous contact with ISIS, Tobias agrees to travel into the heart of the Islamic State and inform the kidnappers that Jonas is willing to negotiate for his father’s life. When the British and American governments realise they may be dealing with betrayal on a scale far greater than that of Edward Snowden, they try everything in their power to stop Jonas, and he finds himself tested to the limit as he fights to keep the negotiations alive and play his enemies off against each other. As the book races towards a thrilling confrontation in the Syrian desert, Jonas will have to decide how far he is willing to go to see his father again.

    She has two daughters, yet a husband who demands a son. When she gives birth to another girl, Yalda, the impact on her marriage is immediate. In 1970s Iran, living within a culture where marital rights and gender roles are maintained with tradition and fervor, Rana is pushed to make the hardest decision of her life, and begins to set in motion a chain of events that will ripple through the next generation. A family saga, The Moon Daughter explores the universal dynamics of mothers and daughters, husbands and wives, and the struggles that define us.Advance Praise for The Moon Daughter: "Ghahremani s ability to tell the stories that have not yet been told about Iran enriches the landscape of American fiction and evokes the power of an emerging Iranian-American voice." Persis Karim, Director of Iranian Studies, San Jose State UniversityAt once tragic and triumphant, this spellbinding drama is riveting through the final page." Marjorie Hart, author of Summer at TiffanyReaders of Ghahremani s work are promised another novel that combines lyrical prose, exotic setting, and compelling story." Judy Reeves, author of A Writer s Book Of DaysZohreh Ghahremani writes in both her native language Persian and English. Her debut novel, Sky of Red Poppies, was selected by KPBS and the San Diego Public Library as the citywide reading selection for One Book, One San Diego in 2012. She lives in San Diego with her husband. Visit her online at www.zoeghahremani.com

    Gibran's mysticism, evident here as in all his works, reveals an intense preoccupation with the spiritual and visionary.

    This is about growing up as a young woman torn between her immigrant roots and her desire to be like everyone else.The humour is sometimes offset with the more sombre reminder of the racism that has always existed in this country, from misguided quips to more serious stories of harassment. The impact of recent world events shows that, more than ever, marginalised voices are needed in our cultural discourse.

    Consumed with anger and grief, Bashir retreats into a world of isolation, resentful of the pitiful looks and whispers of strangers. When he accidentally witnesses the murder of Tarek, a mysterious local metal smith, Bashir is unwittingly chosen as the new guardian of an ancient power that has remained hidden for centuries. With new abilities allowing him to manipulate the metal around him, Bashir must now decide how to use this gift and balance the line between justice and vengeance.