The definitive biography of a South Asian genius who conquered the international chess world on the eve of decolonizationIn the late 1920s and ’30s, the international chess scene was rocked by the success of Sultan Khan, a self-taught prodigy from colonial Punjab. In a brief international career, Khan stunned the chess elite by repeatedly defeating the world’s best players and winning the British Chess Championship three times. Despite his dazzling creativity and p...

10TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION - NOW WITH A NEW INTRODUCTION AND CONCLUSION BY THE AUTHORThe No. 1 Sunday Times and international bestseller | A Sunday Times Book of the Decade**'**Many books have been written which claim to be “A New History of the World”. This one fully deserves the title' The TimesFirst published in 2015 to unparalleled global acclaim, Peter Frankopan's Th...

FULLY UPDATED SECOND EDITION, NOW WITH NEW POSTSCRIPT BY ALI ANSARIIran often appears in the media as a hostile and difficult country. But beneath the headlines there is a fascinating story of a nation of great intellectual variety and depth, and enormous cultural importance. A nation whose impact has been tremendous, not only on its neighbours in the Middle East but on the world as a whole - and through ideas and creativity rather than by the sword.From th...

‘An exemplary work of investigative journalism that is also a wonderfully colourful book of history and travel’ Observer, Books of the Year‘A piece of postmodern historiography of quite extraordinary sophistication and ingenuity… [written with] exceptional delicacy and restraint’ TLSTo Westerners, the name ‘Timbuktu’ long conjured a tantalising paradise, an African El Dorado where even the slaves wore gold. Beginning in the late eighteenth ...

‘A superb account of the 1860 Damascus massacres—much neglected nowadays but central to the creation of the modern Middle East’ - Simon Sebag Montefiore‘A stunning portrait of the Ottoman Empire and of Damascus during a time of crisis. Absolutely riveting’ - Peter FrankopanThis remarkable book recreates one of the watershed moments in the history of the Middle East: the ferocious outbreaks of disorder across the Levant in 1860 which...

SHORTLISTED FOR THE BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZE 2017'An eye-opening, well-written and very timely book' Yuval Noah Harari**'The best sort of book for our disordered days: timely, urgent and illuminating' Pankaj Mishra'It strikes a blow…for common humanity' Sunday Times**The Muslim world has often been accused of a failure to modernise and adapt. Yet in this sweeping narrative and provocative retelling of modern history, C...

This is a study of the nature of Ottoman administration under Sultan Abdulhamid and the effects of this on the three provinces that were to form the modern state of Iraq. The author provides a general commentary on the late Ottoman provincial administration and a comprehensive picture of the nature of its interaction with provincial society. In drawing on sources of the Ottoman archives, bringing together and analyzing an abundance of complex documents, this book is a fascinating contribut...

A History of the Sudan by Martin Daly and PM Holt, sixth edition, has been fully revised and updated and covers the most recent developments that have occurred in Sudan over the last nine years, including the crisis in Darfur.The most notable developments that this text covers includes the decades-long civil war in the South (with the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement in January 2005); the emergence of the Sudan as an oil-producer and exporter, and its resulting...

The Ottoman Scramble for Africa is the first book to tell the story of the Ottoman Empire's expansionist efforts during the age of high imperialism. Following key representatives of the sultan on their travels across Europe, Africa, and Arabia at the close of the nineteenth century, it takes the reader from Istanbul to Berlin, from Benghazi to Lake Chad Basin to the Hijaz, and then back to Istanbul. It turns the spotlight on the Ottoman Empire's expansionist strategies in Africa a...

Muslims have been present in South Asia for 14 centuries. Nearly 40% of the people of this vast land mass follow the religion of Islam, and Muslim contribution to the cultural heritage of the sub-continent has been extensive. This textbook provides both undergraduate and postgraduate students, as well as the general reader, with a comprehensive account of the history of Islam in India, encompassing political, socio-economic, cultural and intellectual aspects.Using a chronological f...

The Safavid dynasty, which reigned from the late fifteenth to the eighteenth century, links medieval with modern Iran. The Safavids witnessed wide-ranging developments in politics, warfare, science, philosophy, religion, art and architecture. But how did this dynasty manage to produce the longest lasting and most glorious of Iran's Islamic-period eras?Andrew Newman offers a complete re-evaluation of the Safavid place in history as they presided over these extraordinary developments and the...

Debunking the Myths of Colonization. examines Salman Rushdie's thesis on the paradoxical nature of colonialism and its horrific impact on the psyche of the colonized. It probes Frantz Fanon's theories concerning the relationship between colonizers and colonized, and attempts to apply these theories to modern Arabic literature. Like Rushdi and Fanon, many Arab writers have embarked on a journey to the metropolis of their ex-colonial masters. Due to their encounter with English or F...