**The Best of The Economist’s Middle East coverage in 2024A searing exploration of authoritarianism in the Middle East through the legacy of Gamal Abdel Nasser’s years in power in Cold War–era Egypt.**Gamal Abdel Nasser, the larger-than-life Egyptian president who ruled for eighteen years between the coup d’état he led in 1952 and his death in 1970, is best known for wresting the Suez Canal from the British and French empires and befriending such iconic revolutiona...

Abu Nuwas, the pre-eminent bacchic bard of the classical Arabic canon, was loved and reviled in equal measure for his lyrical celebration of Abbasid Baghdad's dissolute nightlife, his cutting satires of religion and the clergy, and the extraordinary range and virtuosity of his literary talent. Vintage Humour contains approximately 120 translations, each replicating the monorhyme scheme of the originals, with commentary where appropriate, a brief history of the poet's life and time...

‘A gripping account. Essential reading to understand the roots of the 2011 Arab Spring and the conflicts that have devastated so much of the region' EUGENE ROGAN, author of The Arabs: A History______________________________________________President Gamal Abdel Nasser, who ruled Egypt for eighteen years from the coup d'etat of 1952, is best known in the West for wresting the Suez Canal from the British and French empires. He was a larger-than-life fi...

The supercharged facts about energy and waves can set your brain buzzing! You learn about huge rates of consumption (like the 35.3 quadrillion BTUs of petroleum used in the United States in 2011), huge timelines (it took 300 million years for our greatest source of energy, fossil fuels, to be created), and even huger mysteries (how long it will be before fossil fuels run out).How can all these big numbers and concepts make more sense? Infographics! The charts, maps, and illustratio...