Collection: Shop Middle Eastern

A Newbery Honor Book

Winner of a Newbery Honor, an exciting ancient Egyptian mystery!

Ranofer wants only one thing in the world: to be a master goldsmith like his beloved father was. But how can he when he is all but imprisoned by his evil half brother, Gebu? Ranofer knows the only way he can escape Gebu's abuse is by changing his destiny. But can a poor boy with no skills survive on the cutthroat streets of ancient Thebes? Then Ranofer finds a priceless golden goblet in Gebu's room and he knows his luck-and his destiny-are about to change.

"Exceptionally vivid, swiftpaced, and stirring."--The Horn Book

"An exhilarating story of the arduous fulfillment of a boy's dream . . . We are given a most worthy hero in Ranofer, one who struggles with his own fears and ideals, who smarts under his own cowardice, but who finds the power to rise to his own strength. This plus the vividly detailed setting make the book an excellent choice."--Kirkus Reviews

This simple but beautiful book helps children understand who Allah is. It introduces some of His divine attributes: His Oneness, His infinite Power, Love and Mercy, and it ends with the promise He has made to those who believe in Him and make Him happy.

It is a book to be treasured by children, with large, colourful illustrations and carefully written text that children will understand and enjoy.

A Washington Post Best Children's Book of 2017
Parents' Choice Recommended

Get to know Zaha Hadid in this nonfiction picture book about the famed architect's life and her triumph over adversity from celebrated author-illustrator Jeanette Winter.

Zaha Hadid grew up in Baghdad, Iraq, and dreamed of designing her own cities. After studying architecture in London, she opened her own studio and started designing buildings. But as a Muslim woman, Hadid faced many obstacles. Determined to succeed, she worked hard for many years, and achieved her goals--and now you can see the buildings Hadid has designed all over the world.

Ahmed was reluctant to pack labne sandwiches for lunch. He didn't want to stand out. With the help of his mother, he learns to embrace his Arab heritage by spreading his love of labne sandwiches with the world. But what happens when the rest of the school gets a taste of this delicious spread? Chaos ensues in the cafeteria and Ahmed learns his first lessons in business...

An intimate graphic memoir about an American girl growing up with her Egyptian father's new family, forging unexpected bonds and navigating adolescence in an unfamiliar country--from the award-winning author of I Was Their American Dream.

"What a joy it is to read Malaka Gharib's It Won't Always Be Like This, to have your heart expertly broken and put back together within the space of a few panels, to have your wonder in the world restored by her electric mind."--Mira Jacob, author of Good Talk: A Memoir in Conversations

ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: Book Riot

It's hard enough to figure out boys, beauty, and being cool when you're young, but even harder when you're in a country where you don't understand the language, culture, or social norms.

Nine-year-old Malaka Gharib arrives in Egypt for her annual summer vacation abroad and assumes it'll be just like every other vacation she's spent at her dad's place in Cairo. But her father shares news that changes everything: He has remarried. Over the next fifteen years, as she visits her father's growing family summer after summer, Malaka must reevaluate her place in his life. All that on top of maintaining her coolness!

Malaka doesn't feel like she fits in when she visits her dad--she sticks out in Egypt and doesn't look anything like her fair-haired half siblings. But she adapts. She learns that Nirvana isn't as cool as Nancy Ajram, that there's nothing better than a Fanta and a melon-mint hookah, and that her new stepmother, Hala, isn't so different from Malaka herself.

It Won't Always Be Like This is a touching time capsule of Gharib's childhood memories--each summer a fleeting moment in time--and a powerful reflection on identity, relationships, values, family, and what happens when it all collides.

A beautiful collector's hardcover of never-before-translated poems by the widely beloved medieval Persian poet Rumi. AN EVERYMAN'S LIBRARY POCKET POET

Rumi (1207-1273) was trained in Sufism--a mystic tradition within Islam--and founded the Sufi order known to us as the Whirling Dervishes, who use dance and music as part of their spiritual devotion. Rumi's poetry has long been popular with contemporary Western audiences because of the way it combines the sacred and the sensual, describing divine love in rapturously human terms.

However, a number of Rumi's English translators over the past century were not speakers of Persian and they based their sometimes very free interpretations on earlier translations. With Western audiences in mind, translators also tended to tone down or leave out elements of Persian culture and of Islam in Rumi's work, and hundreds of the prolific poet's works were never made available to English speakers at all.

In this new translation--composed almost entirely of untranslated gems from Rumi's vast ouevre--Brad Gooch and Maryam Mortaz aim to achieve greater fidelity to the originals while still allowing Rumi's lyric exuberance to shine."

Everyman's Library pursues the highest production standards, printing on acid-free cream-colored paper, with full-cloth cases with two-color foil stamping, decorative endpapers, silk ribbon markers, European-style half-round spines, and a full-color illustrated jacket.

The Mediterranean Cookbook features over 100 regional recipes that celebrate seasonal, healthy eating!

This book celebrates seasonal healthy eating with over 100 regional recipes. From Spain to Turkey, the cuisines that ring the Mediterranean are built around vegetables, fruit, whole grains, and eating meat and dairy in moderation.

Inside this cookbook, you will find:

• Over 50 simple recipes ready in 30 minutes or less
• More than 30 healthy soups and stews that comfort and nourish
• 35 light and flavorful meat dishes and refreshing seafood recipes
• Over 40 nutritious snacks and salads that are both healthy and satisfying

The recipes in this book are not a strict diet but a wholesome and balanced lifestyle choice that uses the best of seasonal, fresh food. Along with appealing images of the prepared recipes, atmospheric regional photographs will further demonstrate how varied this part of the world is in terms of food, culture, and landscapes. The Mediterranean Cookbook is a true omnivore's delight!

With breathtaking illustrations and informative text, Golden Domes and Silver Lanterns magnificently captures the world of Islam, celebrating its beauty and traditions for even the youngest readers. Sure to inspire questions and observations about world religions and cultures, this entrancing volume is equally at home in the classroom as it is being read to a child on a parent's lap.

Zomorod (Cindy) Yousefzadeh is the new kid on the block...for the fourth time.

California's Newport Beach is her family's latest perch, and she's determined to shuck her brainy loner persona and start afresh with a new Brady Bunch name--Cindy.

It's the late 1970s, and fitting in becomes more difficult as Iran makes U.S. headlines with protests, revolution, and finally the taking of American hostages. Even puka shell necklaces, pool parties, and flying fish can't distract Cindy from the anti-Iran sentiments that creep way too close to home.

A poignant yet lighthearted middle grade debut from the author of the bestselling Funny in Farsi.

California Library Association's John and Patricia Beatty Award WinnerFlorida Sunshine State Young Readers Award (Grades 6-8)New York Historical Society's New Americans Book Prize WinnerMiddle East Book Award for Youth Literature, Honorable MentionBooklist 50 Best Middle Grade Novels of the 21st Century

"Wondrous . . . Compelling . . . Piercing." --The New York Times Book Review

Award-winning writer Matti Friedman's tale of Israel's first spies has all the tropes of an espionage novel, including duplicity, betrayal, disguise, clandestine meetings, the bluff, and the double bluff--but it's all true.

The four spies were young, Jewish, and born in Arab countries. In 1948, at the outbreak of war in Palestine, they went undercover in Beirut, spending two years running sabotage operations and sending crucial intelligence back home. It was dangerous work. Of the dozen members of their ragtag unit, five would be caught and executed--but the remainder would emerge as the nucleus of the Mossad, Israel's vaunted intelligence agency.

Journalist and award-winning author Matti Friedman's masterfully told and meticulously researched tale of Israel's first spies reads like an espionage novel--but it's all true. Spies of No Country is about the slippery identities of these spies, but it's also about the complicated identity of Israel, a country that presents itself as Western but in fact has more citizens with Middle Eastern roots, just like the spies of this fascinating narrative.

Winner of the 2010 Lois Roth Persian Translation Prize

"In Wolpé's fresh and vital translation, a musical and compelling English version that draws the reader along and captures a sense of the exquisitely balanced pacing of Farrokhzad's language, and the immediacy and authenticity of her voice, the members of the Lois Roth jury found themselves experiencing Forugh's Persian poems with new eyes. "
--Excerpt from the Lois Roth judges' award statement

Sin includes the entirety of Farrokhzad's last book, numerous selections from her fourth and most enduring book, Reborn, and selections from her earlier work, and creates a collection that is true to the meaning, the intention, and the music of the original poems.

Sitto's Kitchen, A Treasury of Syrian Family Recipes Taught from Mother to Daughter for Over 100 Years, contains the original recipes and memories carried by the author's grandmother onto the shores of Ellis Island in 1912. Sitto's Kitchen is a treasury of Syrian family recipes, taught from mother to daughter for over 100 years in their own Arab kitchens. More than 165 recipes and over 100 full color appetizing photos of these delicious foods will take the reader, even a novice cook, on a homespun adventure in Middle Eastern cookery, as it has been prepared for generations!

Culinary delights, from an Aleppo breakfast of butter-soft turnovers to after-dinner Arab coffee and sweets, highlight this unique cuisine. Tantalizing Tamarind Meatballs, Open Meat Pies, aromatic Rice and Lentil Pilaf with caramelized onions and Syrian Stuffing are mouth-watering. Phyllo-encrusted Spinach Rolls, healthy vegetable soups, salads and grains, including several Bulgar Wheat dishes, will satisfy vegetarians. Appetizers and desserts include traditional favorites enjoyed all over Syria and the Levant.

The author remembers, "In 1966, I started compiling my grandmother's recipes in a little spiral notebook. Years later, as my worn and food-stained notebook captured the fruits of my own labors, I realized these recipes were too precious to lose. They're a testament to all those cooks before me who faithfully preserved their heritage, mother to daughter, through the generations."

Sitto's Kitchen begins with a Basics chapter that will guide the reader with tips on pantry staples, cook's tools and those necessary ingredients needed to begin creating this exciting cuisine. The cookbook's recipe titles are written in both English and Arabic. A glossary of spices and herbs, an index in English and Arabic, a Where to Buy It section and photos of many of the dishes are all included with today's cooks in mind.

The next generations of young Arab cooks who long for these traditional foods will be drawn into Sitto's Kitchen. Those exploring new cuisines will find that these Middle Eastern spices and fragrant herbs will carry them to new lands. For thousands of years, the distinctive cuisine of Aleppo, Syria has relied on the freshest of vegetables, fruits and nuts of the region. The accent on these foods, spices and grain-based dishes will appeal to vegetarians as well as those wanting an authentic adventure in delicious Syrian cookery. Sitto's Kitchen is a journey in Middle Eastern cooking with no mystery, simply prepared and traditionally preserved by generations of cooks who served these humble dishes to their families with love.

One Palestine, Complete explores the tumultuous period before the creation of the state of Israel. This was the time of the British Mandate, when Britain's promise to both Jews and Arabs that they would inherit the land, set in motion the conflict that haunts the region to this day.

Drawing on untapped archival materials, Tom Segev reconstructs an era (1917 to 1948) of limitless possibilities and tragic missteps. He introduces an array unforgettable characters, tracks the steady advance of Jews and Arabs toward confrontation, and puts forth a radical new argument: that the British, far from being pro-Arab, consistently favored the Zionist position, out of the mistaken--and anti-Semitic--belief that Jews turned the wheels of history. Rich in historical detail, sensitive to all perspectives, One Palestine, Complete brilliantly depicts the decline of an empire, the birth of one nation, and the tragedy of another.

"Tell me how to live so many lives at once ..."

Fowzi, who beats everyone at dominoes; Ibtisam, who wanted to be a doctor; Abu Mahmoud, who knows every eggplant and peach in his West Bank garden; mysterious Uncle Mohammed, who moved to the mountain; a girl in a red sweater dangling a book bag; children in velvet dresses who haunt the candy bowl at the party; Baba Kamalyari, age 71; Mr. Dajani and his swans; Sitti Khadra, who never lost her peace inside.

Maybe they have something to tell us.

Naomi Shihab Nye has been writing about being Arab-American, about Jerusalem, about the West Bank, about family all her life. These new and collected poems of the Middle East -- sixty in all -- appear together here for the first time.

The first English translation of recent poetry by the late Mahmoud Darwish, the most important Palestinian contemporary poet. Almond Blossoms and Beyond is one of the last collections of poetry that Mahmoud Darwish left to the world. Composed of brief lyric poems and the magnificent sustained Exile cycle, Almond Blossoms holds an important place in Darwish's unparalleled oeuvre. It distills his late style, in which, though the specter of death looms and weddings turn to funerals, he threads the pulses and fragilities and beauties of life into the lines of his poems. Their liveliness is his own response to the collection's final call to bid "Farewell / Farewell, to the poetry of pain."

By combining their expertise in English literature and anthropology, Ibrahim Muhawi and Sharif Kanaana bring to these folktales an integral method of study that unites a sensitivity to language with a deep appreciation for culture.

As native Palestinians, the authors are well suited to their task. Over the course of several years, they collected tales from the regions of the Galilee, Gaza, and the West Bank, determining which were the most widely known and appreciated and selecting the ones that best represent the Palestinian Arab folk narrative tradition. Great care has been taken with the translations to maintain the original flavor, humor, and cultural nuances in tales that are at once earthy and whimsical and that also parallel stories found in the larger Arab folk tradition. Featuring a new foreword by Ibtisam Barakat, Speak, Bird, Speak Again is an essential text in Palestinian culture and a must for those who want to deepen their understanding of an enduring people.