Mesopotamian mathematics is known from a great number of cuneiform texts, most of them Old Babylonian, some Late Babylonian or pre-Old-Babylonian, and has been intensively studied during the last couple of decades. In contrast to this Egyptian mathematics is known from only a small number of papyrus texts, and the few books and papers that have been written about Egyptian mathematical papyri have mostly reiterated the same old presentations and interpretations of the texts. In this book, it is shown that the methods developed by the author for the close study of mathematical cuneiform texts can also be successfully applied to all kinds of Egyptian mathematical texts, hieratic, demotic, or Greek-Egyptian. At the same time, comparisons of a large number of individual Egyptian mathematical exercises with Babylonian parallels yield many new insights into the nature of Egyptian mathematics and show that Egyptian and Babylonian mathematics display greater similarities than expected.

Positing the notions of coloniality of ignorance and geopolitics of ignorance as central to coloniality and colonisation, this book examines how colonialists socially produced ignorance among colonised indigenous peoples so as to render them docile and manageable. Dismissing colonial descriptions of indigenous people as savages, illiterate, irrational, prelogical, mystical, primitive, barbaric and backward, the book argues that imperialists/colonialists contrived geopolitics of ignorance wherein indigenous regions were forced to become ignorant, hence containable and manageable in the imperial world. Questioning the provenance of modernist epistemologies, the book asks why Eurocentric scholars only contest the provenance of indigenous knowledges, artefacts and scientific collections. Interrogating why empire sponsors the decolonisation of universities/epistemologies in indigenous territories while resisting the repatriation/restitution of indigenous artefacts, the book also wonders why Westerners who still retain indigenous artefacts, skulls and skeletons in their museums, universities and private collections do not consider such artefacts and skulls to be colonising them as well. The book is valuable to scholars and activists in the fields of anthropology, museums and heritage studies, science and technology studies, decoloniality, policymaking, education, politics, sociology and development studies.

During the crucial decade of the 1950s in Egypt, both Gamal Abdel Nasser and the idea of Arab nationalism were assuming more and more influence in Egypt and the greater Arab world. Exploring this phenomenon, James Jankowski also offers important insights into the political context in which Nasser maneuvered. Jankowski focuses on the period from the 1952 Revolution in Egypt to the dissolution of the short-lived union of Egypt and Syria in 1961 - and on the outlook and actions of Nasser, the dominant figure in Egypt's new revolutionary regime. Concisely and convincingly, he identifies the unique blend of ideological and practical considerations that led Egypt to a progressively deeper involvement in Arab nationalism. He draws on newly available materials from the U.S. and British archives and on the memoir literature now available in Arabic to present a detailed reconstruction of this formative period in Egyptian political history. Jankowski traces Egypt's - and Nasser's - movement from a peripheral to a central position in Arab nationalist politics.

This book argues that religious affiliation was the most influential shaper of communal identity in the Ottoman era.

Arab-Israeli Military/Political Relations: Arab Perceptions and the Politics of Escalation examines the escalatory patterns of Israel's relations with Arab countries, paying particular attention to the preconditions, conditions, and ultimate precipitants of wars that have broken out with some repetitiveness in the Middle East. The impact of the October 1973 War (known as the Yom Kippur War in the West and the Ramadan War in Arab countries) on the United States interests in the Middle East is also assessed. This book is comprised of seven chapters and opens with an overview of the October War; those Arab states actually involved in the war, especially Egypt and Syria; and those Arab states having geographical access to either the Mediterranean or Indian Oceans, including the oil-producing states. The wider political and military implications of the war are discussed, with specific reference to super power interests. The following chapters discuss the perceptual context of Arab politics; the wars of 1967 and 1973 and the impact of Arab conflict imagery on an inherently escalatory situation; the consequences and lessons of the June 1967 war, or Six-Day War; and Arab coalition politics between 1970 and 1973. The final two chapters focus on the combined Egyptian-Syrian battle plan, code-named Operation Badr, and the historical and political implications of the 1973 war. This monograph will be of interest to diplomats, policymakers, and government officials concerned with the politics of war and in international relations more generally.

Traditional studies of linkage politics tend to assume that internal political instability leads a government to divert attention from internal problems by initiating an external conflict or stressing the pressures of international problems. In contrast, quantitative studies typically conclude that there is little or no relationship between interna

This volume addresses the changes in the Middle East—and in the United States as well—that has significantly affected the US-Middle Eastern dynamic. It provides an objective, cross-cultural assessment of U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East.