The Middle East: Context For Conflict

Iraq, Iran, Israel, Syria, Cyprus, Lebanon, Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and the Persian Gulf States.

Historical background and context for understanding today's news.

This CD contains the full text of 11 "Country Studies" published as printed books by the Federal Research Division of the Library of Congress between 1987 and 1995 under a program sponsored by the U.S. Department of Army. Each country study is presented as a single document in plain text form -- easy to read, to print, and to search.

In addition, we include:

• The CIA World Factbook, an interlinked set of hundreds of HTML documents, with detailed up-to-date reference information on every country in the world, with images of maps and flags.
• 228 classic works of history, literature, and religion, including 20 volumes of the Talmud, the Kabbalah, and the Koran, all in plain text form.

Intended for use with PCs (Windows or Linux) and recent Macs (OS X), our books (except for the World Factbook) are in plain-text format, not audio or video. You read them on your computer screen.

With the exception of the Persian Gulf States (which covers Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates), each of the Country Studies follows the same template, consisting of five chapters:

• Chapter 1 -- Historical Setting
• Chapter 2 -- The Society and Its Environment
• Chapter 3 -- The Economy
• Chapter 4 -- Government and Politics
• Chapter 5 -- National Security

Table of Contents:

Country Studies

• Cyprus
• tables (html)
• Egypt
• tables (html)
• Iran
• tables (html)
• Iraq
• tables (html)
• Israel
• tables (html)
• Jordan
• tables (html)
• Lebanon
• tables (html)
• Persian Gulf States
• tables (html)
• Saudi Arabia
• tables (html)
• Syria
• tables (html)
• Turkey
• tables (html)
•  Table A. Chronology of Major Kemalist Reforms

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2008 CIA World Factbook

with maps, flags, and up-to-date information on every country in the world). This is an interlinked set of hundreds of HTML documents. You should open it with your Web browser.

• Country list
• Other files

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History -- Ancient and Medieval

• The History of Herodotus translated by G.C. Macaulay
• volume 1
• volume 2
• Ancient Egypt by George Rawlinson
• L'Archeologie Egyptienne by G. Maspero, in French
• L'Egyptologie by G. Maspero
• Lettres Ecrites d'Egypte et de Nubie en 1828 et 1829 by Champollion, 1868
• The Treasury of Ancient Egypt
• History of Egypt, Chaldea, Syra, Babylonia, and Assyria by G. Maspero, volume 1
• How to Observe in Archaelogy, suggestions for Travellers in the Near and Middle East by the British Museum
• Manual of Egyptian Archaeology by G. Maspero
• Lord's Lectures, Beacon Lights of History
• volume 2 Jewish Heroes and Prophets
• volume 4 Imperial Antiquity
• volume 5 The Middle Ages
• Assyrian Historiography, a Source Study by Albert Ten Eyck Olmstead
• Seven Great Monarchies by George Rawlinson
• Volume 1 Chaldaea
• Volume 2 Assyria
• Volume 3 Media
• Volume 4 Babylonia
• Volume 5 Persia Proper
• Volume 6 Parthia
• Volume 7 The Sassanian or New Persian Empire
• Chaldea from the Earliest Times to the Rise of Assyria by Zenaide a. Ragozin
• History of Phoenicia by George Rawlinson
• Anabasis by Xenophon, Translation by H. G. Dakyns
• The Ancient East by D.G. Hogarth
• Patriarchal Palestine by Rev. A. H. Sayce
• Cleopatra by Jacob Abbott
• The Oldest Code of Laws in the World, the Code of Laws Prmulgated by Hammurabi, King of Babylon translated by C.H.W. Johns
• The Persian War by Herodotus
• volume 1
• volume 2
• Flavius Josephus
• Antiquities of the Jews
• Part 1
• Part 2
• Part 3
• Part 4
• Part 5
• Part 6
• Part 7
• Life of Flavius Josephus
• Wars of the Jews
• Part 1
• Part 2
• Part 3
• Part 4
• Part 5
• Part 6
• Part 7
•  Prolegomena to the History of Israel by Julius Wellhausen
• Early Israel and the Surrounding Nations by Rev. A.H. Sayce
• Edward Gibbon
• Fall of the Roman Empire (includes history of the Byzantine Empire)
• Volume 1
• Volume 2
• Volume 3
• Volume 4
• Volume 5
• Volume 6

History -- Modern

• The Land of Midian by Richard Burton
• volume 1
• volume 2
• Personal Narrative of a Pilgrimage to Al-Madinah and Meccah by Richard Burton
• volume 1
• volume 2
• The Life of Sir Richard Burton by Thomas Wright
• The Afghan Wars (1839-42 and 1878-80) by Archibald Forbes
• The Arabian Art of Taming and Training Wild and Viciious Horses by T. Gilbert, 1856
• A Dweller in Mesopotamia, being the adventures of an official artist in the Garden of Eden by Donald Maxell
• Palestine or the Holy Land, from the earliest period to the present time by Rev. Michael Russell
• Crescent and Iron Cross by E.F. Benson
• In Mesopotamia by Martin Swayne
• Letters from Mesopotamia, in 1915 and Jan. 1916
• Pictures of Jewish Home-Life Fifty Years Ago by Hannah Trager
• How Jerusalem was Won, being the record of Allenby's Campaign in Palestine by W.T. Massey
• Martyred Armenia by Fa'iz El-Ghusein
• Modern Persia by Mooshie G. Daniel
• Through Palestine with the Twentieth Machine-Gun Squadron [World War I], 1920
• With the Turks in Palestine by Alexander Aaronsohn, 1916
• War in the Garden of Eden by Kermit Roosevelt
• Persia Revisited by General Sir Thomas Edward Gordon, 1896
• Turkey: a Past and a Future by A.J. Toynbee, 1907
• Voyage dans l'Aures: Notes d'un Medecin Envoye en Mission Chez les Femmes Arabes by Dorothee Chellier, 1895
• With the British Army in the Holy Land by H.O. Lock, 1919
• With a Highland Regiment in Mesopotamia, 1918
• With Our Army in Palestine by antony Bluett, 1919
• The Women of the Arabs by Henry Harris Jessup

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Travel

• Innocents Abroad by Mark Twain
• The Itinerary of Benjamin Tudela (12th Century)
• Journeys Beyond Bagdad by Charles Brooks
• The Lands of the Saracen by Bayard Taylor, 1863
• Lady Duff Gordon's Letters from Egypt, 1902
• Oriental Encounters, Palestine and Syria (1894-1896) by Marmaduke Pickthall
• A Ride to India across Persia and Baluchistan by Harry de Windt
• A Peep into Toorkisthan by Captain Rollo Burslem, 1846
• Quinze Jours en Egypte by Fernand Neury, 1909, in French
• Southern Arabia by Theodore Dent
• Le Tour de Monde, Voyage de M. Guillaume Lejean dans l'Afrique Orientale, 1860, in French
• Travels in Arabia by John Lewis Burckhardt
• Travels in Morocco by James Richardson
• volume 1
• volume 2
• Travels in Syria and the Holy Land by John Lewis Burckhardt
• Visit to the Holy Land, Egypt, and Italy by Madame Ida Pfeiffer

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Literature

• Arabic Authors, a Manual of Arabian History and Literature by F.F. Arbuthnot
• Babylonian and Assyrian Literature edited by Epiphanius Wilson
• The Arabian Nights
• Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night (Arabian Nights, complete, translated by Richard Burton)
• Volume 1
• Volume 2
• Volume 3
• Volume 4
• Volume 5
• Volume 6
• Volume 7
• Volume 8
• Volume 9
• Volume 10
• Supplement Volume1
• Supplement Volume 2
• Supplement Volume 3
• Supplement Volume 4
• Supplement Volume 5
• Supplement Volume 6
• Arabian Nights Entertainments edited by Andrew Lang
• The Arabian Nights Entertainments, Windemere Series
• The Arabian Nights, Their Best-Known Tales edited by kate Douglas Wiggin and Nora A. Smith
• Alladdin and the Enchanted Lamp translated by John Payne
• The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, translated by John Payne
• volume 1
• volume 2
• volume 3
• volume 4
• Tales from the Arabic translated by John Payne
• Arabian Nights translated by anonymous (1813), volume 1 of 2
• Arabian Nights translated by Jonathan Scott (1890)
• The Improvement of Human Reason, Exhibited in the Life of Hai Ebn Yokdhan by Ibn Tufail, in English, 1708
• The Iranian Influence on Moslem Literature part 1 by M. Inostranzev
• The Kasidah of Haji Abdu El-Yezdi translated and Annotated by Richard Burton
• with accents
• without accents
• The Diwan of Abu'l-ala (Syrian 973 AD) by Henry Baerlin
• Flowers from a Persian Gardena nd other Papers by W.A. Clouston
• Halil the Pedlar, a Tale of Old Stambul by Maurus Jokai
• Leicestershires Beyond Baghdad by Edward J. Thompson
• The Madman: His Parables and Poems by Kahil Gibran (short)
• Moorish Literature, comprising romantic ballads, tales of the Berbers, stories of the Kabyles, Folk Lore and National Traditions
• Oriental Literature: The Literature of Arabia edited by Epiphanius Wilson, 1900
• The Story of Hassan of Baghdad by James Flecker
• The Rubaiyat by Omar Khayyam, translated by Edward Fitzgerald
• Tales of the Caliph by H.N. Crellin
• The Turkish Jester by Cogia Nasr Eddin Efendi, translated from Turkish by George Borrow

Historical Novels

• The Adventures of Hajji Baba of Ispahan by James Morier, 1895
• Almoran and Hamet by John Hawkesworth
• Alroy or The Prinnce of the Captivity by Benjamin Disraeli
• The Amours of Zeokinizul, King of the Kofirans, translated from the Arabic of the famous traveller Krinelbol, by Claude Prosper Jolyot de Crebillon (1707-1777), 1749
• Ben Hur by Lew Wallace
• A Boswell of Baghdad with Diversions by E.V. Lucas
• For Name and Fame or Through Afgahn Passes by G.A. Henty
• For the Temple by G.A. Henty
• Jerusalem Delivered by Tasso
• The Prince of India by Lew Wallace
• volume 1
• volume 2The Talisman by Sir Walter Scott
• The Valley of the Kings by Marmaduke Pickthall
• Vergilius, a Tale of the Coming of Christ by Irving Bacheller
• Zenobia by William Ware

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Religion and Philosophy

• Ancient
• Egyptian Ideas of the Future Life by E.A. Wallis Budge
• The Babylonian Story of the Deluge by E.A. Wallis Budge
• The Babylonian Legends of the Creation and the Fight Between Bel and the Dragon, told by Assyrian Tablets from Nineveh
• The Epic of Gilgamesh by Stephen Langdon
• An Old Babylonian Version of the Gilgamesh Epic by Morris Jastrow and Albert Clay
• Legends of Babylon and Egypt in Relation to Hebrew Tradition by Leonard W. King
• Legends of the Gods [Egyptian] by E.A. Wallis Budge
• Myths of Babylonia and Assyria by Donald Mackenzie
• The Egyptian Concept of Immortality by George Reisner, 1911
• The Religion of Babylonia and Assyria by Theophilus Pinches
• The Religion of Babylonia and Assyria by Morris Jastrow
• Moslem/Islam
• The Koran, translated by J.M. Rodwell
• The Koran in Three Translations, side-by-side
• The Qu'ran or Koran translated from the Arabic by E.H. Palmer (from the Sacred Books of the East collection, Volumes 6 and 9. The original html version is available on the Web at http://www.sacred-texts.com/isl/palm/index.htm )
• Christianity and Islam by C.H. Becker
• Correspondence Relating to Executions in Turkey for Apostacy from Islamism, 1844
• A Critical Exposition of the Popular Jiham, Showing that all the wars of Mohammad were defensive by Moulavi Gheragh Ali, 1885
• The Faith of Islam by Edward Sell, 1880
• The Future of Islam by Wilfrid Scawen Blunt, 1882
• Insights and Heresies Pertaining to the Evolution of the Soul by Ammyeetis (Persian), 1916
• Mahomet: Founder of Islam by G.M. Draycott
• Mohammed by E.E. Hayes
• Mohammedism by C. Snouck Hurgronje
• Mystics and Saints of Islam by Claud Field
• Two Old Faiths, Essays on the Religions of the Hindus and the Mohammedans by J. Murray Mitchell and Sir William Muir

 
• Judaism
• Chosen Peoples by Israel Zangwill
• Jewish History by S.M. Dubnow
• The Tanach, the Jewish Bible, 1917 Jewish Publication Societies' English translation (the original html version is avilalbe on the Web at http://www.sacred-texts.com/bib/jps/index.htm)
• The Babylonian Talmud translated by Michael L. Rodkinson
• all 20 volumes in a single file in html (Web) format, with links to all the sections
• as separate plain text files
• Volume 1 -- Tract Sabbath, volume 1
• Volume 2 -- Tract Sabbath volume 2
• Section Moed (Festivals)
• Volume 3 -- Tract Erubin
• Volume 4 -- Tracts Shekalim and Rosh Hashana
• Volume 5 -- Tract Pesachim
• Volume 6 -- Tracts Yomah and Hagiga
• Volume 7 -- Tracts Betzah, Succah, an Moed Katan
• Volume 8 -- Tracts Taanith, Megill, and Ebel Rabbathi
• Section Jurisprudence (Damages)
• Volume 9 -- Tracts Aboth, Derch-Eretz, and Zeta
• Volume 10 -- Tract Baba Kama, Part 1
• Volume 11 -- Tract Baba Kama Part 2 and Baba Metzia Part 1
• Volume 12 -- Tract Baba Metzia Part 2
• Volume 13 -- Tract Baba Bathra Part 1
• Volume 14 -- Tract Baba Bathra Part 2
• Volume 15 -- Tract Sanhedrin Part 1
• Volume 16 -- Tract Sanhedrin Part 2
• Volume 17 -- Tracts Maccoth, Shebuoth, and Eduyoth
• Volume 18 -- Tracts Abuda Zara and Horioth
• Volume 19 -- History of the Talmud volume 1
• Volume 20 -- History of the Talmud volume 2
• The Guide for the Perplexed by Moses Maimonides translated by M. Friedlander
• A Guide for the Religious Instruction of Jewish Youth, proposed to teachers by Isaac Reggio, 1855
• Hebraic Literature: translations from the Talmud, Midrashim and Kabbala
• Hebrew Life and Times by Harold B. Hunting, 1921
• Judaism by Israel Abraham
• Kabbala Denudat: The Kabbalah Unveiled, containing the following Books of the Zohar: The Book of Concealed Mystery, The Greater Holy Assembly, and The Lesser Holy Assembly, translated by S.L. MacGregor Mathers
• The Legends of the Jews by Louis Ginzberg
• volume 1
• volume 2
• Medieval Hebrew, featuring the Midrash and medieval collections of Jewish Biblical lore and legend (the original html version is available on the Web at  http://www.sacred-texts.com/jud/mhl/index.htm)
• Sayings of the Jewish Fathers (Pirqe Aboth) translated by Charles Taylor
• Tales and Maxims from the Midrash by Rev. Samuel Rapaport
• Philo-Judaeus of Alexandria by Norman Bentwick
• Zoroastrianism (originally from Persia, now Iran)
• Zend-Avesta
• Part 1: Avesta: Vendidad  (Sacred Books of the East Volume 4)
• Part 2 (Sacred Books of the East Volume 23):
• Khorda Avesta: Book of Common Prayer pt. 1
• Khorda Avesta: Book of Common Prayer pt. 2
• Part 3 (Sacred Books of the East Volume 31):
• Avesta: Yasna
• Avesta: Visperad (short)
• Avesta Fragments (short)
• Pahlavi Texts
• Part 1: The Bundahis-Bahman Yast and Shayast La-Shayast (Sacred Books of the East Volume 5)
• Part 3 (Sacred Books of the East Volume 24)
• Dadestan-i Denig
• Menog-i Khrad
• Sad Dar