August 23, 2023

Why Palestinians Are Known as the World’s “Best Educated Refugees”

Anne Irfan

In September 2018, a report from the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics found that Palestinians have one of the highest literacy rates in the world. The finding chimed with the Palestinians’ long-running reputation as the world’s “best-educated refugees” – a...

December 7, 2020

Three Questions That Make One

By Bashir Bashir and Leila Farsakh

“Drawing on philosophy, politics, poetry, psychoanalysis, and history, and extending from North Africa and the Mediterranean to Europe and North America, this powerful book poses the Arab and Jewish questions as inextricable, intimate, and hybrid forces that shape our desires...

November 19, 2020

In Celebration of Richard W. Bulliet’s Eightieth Birthday

By Jennifer Crewe

I write on the happy occasion of the eightieth birthday of one of the Press’s most prolific authors and one of our most important advisers and supporters. Richard W. Bulliet, Professor Emeritus of Middle East History at Columbia, was on the Press’s...

October 11, 2020

Q&A: M’hamed Oualdi on A Slave Between Empires

“M’hamed Oualdi’s biography cum social history is dazzling. In life and death, General Husayn Ibn ‘Abdallah’s story reveals unlikely itineraries, unsuspected traveling companions, and hidden transactions that call into question conventional histories of nineteenth-century North Africa and the Ottoman Empire....

October 10, 2020

Take a Tour of Our MESA Virtual Exhibit with Caelyn Cobb

Hello and welcome to the Columbia University Press virtual exhibit booth for this year’s meeting of the Middle East Studies Association. This year is unusual in more than one way for MESA. Not only are we all attending the conference...

June 30, 2020

Author Event! Join Lionel Barber in Conversation with Gilles Kepel

https://cupblog.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/In-Conversation-With-Globe-Book.mp4 Provocative discussions on the global issues of our time with world-class scholars, authors, and thought leaders The Middle East is one of the world’s most volatile regions. In recent years, it has presented key international security challenges, from the...

June 20, 2020

Q&A: Victor McFarland on the History of the U.S.-Saudi Alliance

“The extraordinary relationship between the United States and Saudi Arabia has influenced both countries, often for the worse. There is no better guide to the origins of this complex alliance than Victor McFarland’s new book. Anyone with an interest in...

October 17, 2019

Book Excerpt! Modern Things on Trial (prologue)

“By tracing the evolution of ‘laissez-faire Salafism’ in response to consumer concerns about the religious status of new commodities and technologies, Halevi positions Islam’s modern reformation as driven more by materialist than ideational forces. This is a highly original rethinking of...

October 16, 2019

Q&A: Leor Halevi on Modern Things on Trial

“This nuanced, meticulously researched, yet accessible study illuminates how significant early-twentieth-century debates on Islamic law often revolved around some surprisingly ordinary objects and how local anxieties and input shaped a reformist Islam with transregional appeal. Halevi’s focus on the material...

September 15, 2018

Book Excerpt! Ghalib: Selected Poems and Letters

September is National Translation Month. We have been sharing excerpts and guest posts throughout the month but have devoted Saturdays to featuring poetry titles in translation. Today we will be featuring selections from Ghalib: Selected Poems and Letters, translated by...

October 22, 2017

Safwan Masri on the success of Tunisian democracy after the Arab Spring

Watch four videos from Safwan M. Masri’s recent talk at George Washington University in support of his new book, TUNISIA: AN ARAB ANOMALY.

October 19, 2017

Tunisia and the Arab Spring

Listen to an interview with Safwan M. Masri, author of TUNISIA: AN ARAB ANOMALY!