Books & More

How often do we take nature for granted, assuming it will never vanish? In US-based folk illustrator Dinara Mirtalipova’s new children’s book, a sea is the main character: the one that provides livelihood and prosperity, until humans’ poor choices cause its demise.

What do we owe each other? What do we owe ourselves? These are the questions that Senegalese author Aminata Sow Fall has posed for nearly half a century.

In this painstaking work, Owning Books and Preserving Documents in Medieval Jerusalem, historians Said Aljoumani and Konrad Hirschler explore a culture in which books became woven into the fabric of daily life through the case of Burhān al-Dīn Ibrāhīm al-Nāsīrī.

What emerges from this volume by Nuha Alshaar, a professor of Arabic literature and Islamic studies, is a rounded picture of Sicily as a site of cultural exchange that shaped the medieval Mediterranean.

In categorizing the stones the ancient Egyptians used, author James A. Harrell unites geology, archeology and cultural history in one monumental reference.

By tracing ritual instead of commerce, anthropologist Ute Röschenthaler shows that the story of tea in West Africa involves multidirectional routes and local agency.

Safdar Nensey invites readers into one of the world's oldest and most sacred annual expeditions: the Muslim pilgrimage to Makkah.

Author Vadim S. Jigoulov’s The Phoenicians reveals that Phoenicia’s seafaring city-states bound the Mediterranean world via trade rather than conquest.

A bold reframing of how Ottoman governance shaped European ideals before Europe claimed them.

Author Giulia Paoletti’s Portrait and Place puts historical Senegalese photography in a fresh global context.

Constance L. Kirker and Mary Newman trace mango’s cultural and culinary significance around the world.

From Cairo to Khartoum to Casablanca, this volume traces how African artists have shaped—and reshaped—modern art over the past century.