Malta, officially the Republic of Malta, is a small island country located in the Mediterranean Sea, just south of Sicily, Italy. The country is divided into three main islands: Malta, Gozo, and Comino. Malta is known for its stunning coastline, pristine beaches, ancient ruins, and historic architecture. The capital city, Valletta, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and a popular tourist destination due to its rich history and cultural significance. Malta has a diverse population and a rich cultural heritage that is influenced by its location and history. The country has been inhabited since prehistoric times and has been ruled by numerous foreign powers, including the Phoenicians, Greeks, Romans, Arabs, and British. The blend of different cultures and influences can be seen in the country’s cuisine, language, music, and traditional festivals. Malta is also known for its warm climate, friendly people, and laid-back lifestyle, making it a popular destination for tourists and expatriates. Overall, Malta is a unique and enchanting country that offers visitors a blend of history, culture, and natural beauty.

This volume features nine articles, covering various aspects of Maltese linguistics: Part I, mostly dedicated to the Maltese lexicon, opens with Bednarowicz’s comparison of Maltese and Arabic adjectives. Fabri then categorizes various types of constructions involving the preposition ta’ ‘of’. The paper by Lucas and Spagnol discusses Maltese words containing an innovative final /n/. Part II deals with the syntax of Maltese: Azzopardi’s paper focuses on a construction in Maltese which consists of a sequence of two or more finite verbs. Just and Čéplö present the first corpus based study of differential object indexing in Maltese. In Part III on morphosyntax, Turek analyzes Arabic prepositions in Classical/Modern Standard Arabic and Arabic dialects and contrasts them with their Maltese equivalents. Stolz and Vorholt then analyze the structural and functional similarities and differences of spatial interrogatives in Maltese and Spanish. Vorholt then investigates the adpositions of sixteen European languages including Maltese and examines the relationship between length and frequency. The volume is closed with Part IV on phonology and Avram’s paper, in which the diachrony of voicing assimilation in consonant clusters is reconstructed.

Bird migration between Europe and Africa is a fraught journey, particularly in the Mediterranean, where migratory birds are shot and trapped in large numbers. In Malta, thousands of hunters share a shrinking countryside. They also rub shoulders with a strong bird-protection and conservation lobby. Drawing on years of ethnographic fieldwork, this book traces the complex interactions between hunters, birds and the landscapes they inhabit, as well as the dynamics and politics of bird conservation. Birds of Passage looks at the practice and meaning of hunting in a specific context, and raises broader questions about human-wildlife interactions and the uncertain outcomes of conservation.

Malta has experienced an impressive recovery from the pandemic and demonstrated resilience to shocks resulting from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. With weaker growth in Europe and waning post-pandemic pent-up demand, staff expect growth to decelerate somewhat but continue to expand by 61⁄4 percent in 2023 and 5 percent in 2024, among the highest in Europe. Persistent inflationary pressures are expected, while concern has risen about growing capacity constraints. The financial system has demonstrated resilience to successive shocks.

This book examines the diverse facets of popular music in Malta, paying special attention to għana (Malta’s folk song), the wind band tradition, and modern popular music. Ciantar provides intriguing discussions and examples of how popular music on this small Mediterranean island country interacts with other aspects of the island’s life and culture such as language, religion, history, customs, and politics. Through a series of ethnographic vignettes, the book explores the music as it takes place in bars, at festivals, and during village celebrations, and considers how it is talked about in the local press, at group gatherings, and on social media. The ethnography adopted here is that of a native musician and ethnomusicologist and therefore marries the author’s memories with ongoing observations and their evaluation.

The Maltese Dialogue is the first comprehensive treatise of the history, institutions, and political projects of the Order of the Knights of Saint John of the Hospital, commonly known as the Maltese Order. It was written during the tenure of Grand Master Fra Claude de la Sengle (1553-1557), although the conversation between Commendator Fra Giuseppe Cambiano, one of the Order’s most prominent sixteenth-century functionaries, and three Venetian patricians, on which the Dialogue is based, may have taken place even earlier. The contents of the Dialogue fall in three categories: the opening section is the first detailed precis of the Hospitallers’ history; then comes the bulk of the treatise, presenting a concise summary of the Order’s constitution, institutional and legal organization, election procedures, recruitment of knights, rituals of instalment, and financial matters. The remaining section is a polemical expose arguing for the benefit of the Order’s abandoning of Malta and the recapturing of Tripoli. The Dialogue offers a hitherto unexplored, first-rate source on the Maltese knights’ self-projection as a unique transnational institution of early modern Europe in the era of nation-states, on the power plays of the major political agents in the sixteenth-century Mediterranean, and on Western Christian strategies of engagement of Ottoman imperialism at the peak of its expansion in the region. Those interested in the history of Christian-Muslim interaction, the evolution of crusading practices in the era of early modern predatory warfare, and the construction of historical memory on the case study of the longest-lasting, and still extant, knightly order, will find it to be a highly intriguing and informative reading.

Malta’s economy rebounded strongly from the pandemic. However, the indirect impact of Russia’s war in Ukraine, including the anticipated slowdown in the European economy, high and volatile global energy prices, rising import costs, and weakened public finances following the pandemic are weighing on the outlook. The Maltese economy is expected to slow from 61⁄4 percent this year to 31⁄4 percent in 2023. The financial system has proved to be resilient to the pandemic with ample capital and liquidity buffers. In June 2022, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) removed Malta from its grey list of anti-money laundering and combatting the financing terrorism (AML/CFT) framework.