Se han reunido una serie de contribuciones que examinan la presencia de la alimentación en textos de época clásica, desde la literatura a los textos legales y jurídicos.

PA L A B R A S Q U E R E S C ATA R aporta 30 temas que pretenden hacer reflexionar al lector/a sobre otras tantas palabras que necesitan ser repensadas, porque la fe, como la vida misma, es continuo proceso de profundización. Lo más auténtico de nuestro ser no está en la superficie, ni siquiera en la inteligencia, sino en el descubrimiento de eso que llamamos "sabiduría divina", que se nos transmite en el contacto con la palabra, escuchada con el corazón y reflexionada también con un corazón sencillo, como de hijo que confía en su padre/madre. No todos los 30 capítulos tienen la misma longitud. Unos son más para ser leídos y otros, para ser trabajados. He buscado, en todos, palabras necesitadas de rescate, de actualización, palabras esenciales, como: voluntad, libertad, eucaristía, fe, perdón, Nueva Evangelización, familia, luz, oración, prueba, sufrimiento, servicio, vida cristiana, vida consagrada, acción de gracias, cuaresma, sanación, conversión, corrección fraterna, María, política y cristianismo... He tenido una doble intención: que pueda ser leído por adultos y jóvenes; y que los padres o educadores puedan usarlo con sus hijos o alumnos.

Concubines and Courtesans contains sixteen essays that consider, from a variety of viewpoints, enslaved and freed women across medieval and pre-modern Islamic social history. The essays bring together arguments regarding slavery, gender, social networking, cultural production (songs, poetry and instrumental music), sexuality, Islamic family law, and religion in the shaping of Near Eastern and Islamic society over time. They range over nearly 1000 years of Islamic history - from the early, formative period (seventh to tenth century C.E.) to the late Ottoman, Safavid and Mughal eras (sixteenth to eighteenth century C.E.) - and regions from al-Andalus (Islamic Spain) to Central Asia (Timurid Iran). The close, common thread joining the essays is an effort to account for the lives, careers and representations of female slaves and freed women participating in, and contributing to, elite urban society of the Islamic realm. Interest in a gendered approach to Islamic history, society and religion has by now deep roots in Middle Eastern and Islamic studies. The shared aim of the essays collected here is to get at the wealth of these topics, and to underscore their centrality to a firm grasp on Islamic and Middle Eastern history.

Volume 2 of The New Cambridge History of Islam is devoted to the history of the Western Islamic lands from the political fragmentation of the eleventh century to the beginnings of European colonialism towards the end of the eighteenth century. The volume embraces a vast area from al-Andalus and North Africa to Arabia and the lands of the Ottomans. In the first four sections, scholars – all leaders in their particular fields - chart the rise and fall, and explain the political and religious developments, of the various independent ruling dynasties across the region, including famously the Almohads, the Fatimids and Mamluks, and, of course, the Ottomans. The final section of the volume explores the commonalities and continuities that united these diverse and geographically disparate communities, through in-depth analyses of state formation, conversion, taxation, scholarship and the military.

The Fertile Crescent region—the swath of land comprising a vast portion of today’s Middle East—has long been regarded as pivotal to the rise of civilization. Alongside the story of human development, innovation, and progress, there is a culinary tradition of equal richness and importance. In The Culinary Crescent: A History of Middle Eastern Cuisine, Peter Heine combines years of scholarship with a personal passion: his knowledge of the cookery traditions of the Umayyad, Abbasid, Ottoman, Safavid, and Mughal courts is matched only by his love for the tastes and smells produced by the contemporary cooking of these areas today. In addition to offering a fascinating history, Heine presents more than one hundred recipes—from the modest to the extravagant—with dishes ranging from those created by the “celebrity chefs” of the bygone Mughal era, up to gastronomically complex presentations of modern times. Beautifully produced, designed for both reading and cooking, and lavishly illustrated in color throughout, The Culinary Crescent is sure to provide a delectable window in the history of food in the Middle East.