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Shifting Sands

A Pocket Essential History of the Middle East

Gordon Kerr
As home to the earliest known civilization and three most widespread religions, the Middle East played a leading role in the advancement of humankind for centuries. Gordon Kerr explores the region’s complex history, from the urban centres established in the Mesopotamian Basin over 7,000 years ago, through the Byzantine and Ottoman Empires, to modern threats, concluding this updated edition of his 2016 text with notes on the October 2023 attack and war in Gaza.
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Product information:
  • Publisher: Oldcastle
  • Year: 2025
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 224pp
  • Illustrated: No
  • Dimensions: 196x128mm
  • ISBN: 9780857306166
  • Condition: New
  • Weight: 0.2kg
Product code:
545958
Product information
Full publisher description
Situated at the crossroads of three continents, the Middle East has confounded the ambition of conquerors and peacemakers alike. Christianity, Judaism and Islam all had their genesis in the region but with them came not just civilization and religion, but also some of the great struggles of history.

Shifting Sands: A Pocket Essential History of the Middle East makes sense of the shifting sands of Middle Eastern History, beginning with the early cultures of the area and moving on to the Roman and Persian Empires; the growth of Christianity; the rise of Islam; the invasions from the east; Genghis Khan's Mongol hordes; the Ottoman Turks and the rise of radicalism in the modern world symbolized by the Islamic State.

This updated and expanded new edition describes the turmoil of recent years including the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel by Hamas and the bloody and brutal Gaza War that followed.
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