Our English-Language Wishlist

Al-Manhal encourages critical reading and seeking in-depth, nuanced knowledge that resists oversimplifications and the temptation to look at complex issues with a black-and-white lens. We therefore try to offer a wide range of perspectives on subjects such as Syria, the Middle East, and the world. We do not necessarily endorse the views of all the books listed below, but we think that they are relevant for readers to delve into and form their own critical thoughts. 

Below you can find the latest version of  Al-Manhal's English wishlist. This list does not mention the books that we already have. The list is not exclusive, and there might be important and relevant books that we have not managed to add to our website yet. This list is subject to constant changes based on our needs and our stock’s growth. 

Syrian History and Politics Pre-2011

• Syria from Reform to Revolt: Volume 1: Political Economy and International Relations, edited by Raymond Hinnebusch Tina Zintl (Syracuse University Press)
• Syria from Reform to Revolt: Volume 2: Culture, Society, and Religion, edited by Christa Salamandra and Leif Stenberg (Syracuse University Press)
• Authoritarianism in Syria by Steven Heydemann
• Syria: Revolution from Above by Raymond A. Hinnebusch (Routledge)
• The Struggle for Syria: A Study in Post-War Arab Politics, 1945-1958 by Patrick Seale
• Syria's peasantry, the descendants of its lesser rural notables, and their politics by Hanna Batatu (Princeton University Press)
• Revolutions Aesthetic: A Cultural History of Ba'thist Syria by Max Weiss (Stanford University Press)
• The Great Syrian Revolt and the Rise of Arab Nationalism  by Michael Provence (University of Texas Press)

Syrian History and Politics Since 2011

• State and Tribes in Syria Informal Alliances and Conflict Patterns By Haian Dukhan (Routledge)
• Syria and the Neutrality Trap: The Dilemmas of Delivering Humanitarian Aid through Violent Regimes by Carsten Wieland (I.B. Tauris)
• Commanding Syria: Bashar Al-Asad and the First Years in Power by Eyal Ziser (I.B.Tauris)
• Syria, the Strength of an Idea: The Constitutional Architectures of Its Political Regimes by Karim Atassi (Cambridge University Press)
• The Life and Memoirs of Fakhri al-Barudi: The Renaissance Man of Syria, 1887–1966 by Sami Moubayed (AUC Press)
• Fragments of Memory by Hanna Mina
• Prophet of Reason: Science, Religion and the Origins of the Modern Middle East by Peter Hill (Oneworld Publications)
• Everyday Life and Consumer Culture in Eighteenth-Century Damascus by James Grehan (University of Washington Press)
• Syria After the Uprisings: The Political Economy of State Resilience by Joseph Daher (Pluto Press/Haymarket Books)
• The Last Ottoman Generation and the Making of the Modern Middle East by Michael Provence (Cambridge University Press)
• Religion and State in Syria: The Sunni Ulama from Coup to Revolution by Thomas Pierret (Cambridge University Press)
• The Age of Political Jihadism: A Study of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham by Aaron Y. Zelin
• Our Hearts Burned for Home: Uyghur Militants in Syria’s Civil War by Emily Feng
• In Search of Greater Syria: The History and Politics of the Syrian Social Nationalist Party by Christopher Solomon
• Damascus: Taste of a City by Rafik Schami and Marie Fadel

Syria's Diversity

• (Re)constructing Armenia in Lebanon and Syria: Ethno-Cultural Diversity and the State in the Aftermath of a Refugee Crisis by Nicola Migliorino
• The Resistance Network: The Armenian Genocide and Humanitarianism in Ottoman Syria, 1915–1918 Khatchig Mouradian
• Armenian Refugees in French Mandate Syria: Statelessness and Nation-Building in the Middle East by Victoria Abrahamyan
• The Kurds of Syria: Political Parties and Identity In the Middle East by Harriet Allsopp
• Resurgence and Revolution: The PKK and the Kurdish Fight in Turkey and Syria by Aliza Marcus
• Syria’s Kurds: History, Politics and Society by Jordi Tejel
• Governance of Resistance in North and East Syria: The Experience of Rojava, edited by Zeynep Kaya and Robert Lowe
• Statelet of Survivors: The Making of a Semi-Autonomous Region in Northeast Syria by Amy Austin Holmes
• Yezidis in Syria: Identity Building among a Double Minority by Sebastian Maisel
• The Yezidis: The History of a Community, Culture and Religion by Birgül Açıkyıldız
• Sense and Sadness: Syriac Chant in Aleppo by Tala Jarjour
• The Alawite State, 1920–46: Colonial Legacies and the Foundations of Assad's Syria, by Fadi Esber
• A History of the ʿAlawis: From Medieval Aleppo to the Turkish Republic by Stefan Winter
• The Nuṣayrī-ʿAlawīs: An Introduction to the Religion, History and Identity of the Leading Minority in Syria by Yaron Friedman
• The Alawis of Syria: War, Faith and Politics in the Levant by Michael Kerr
• The Bible Unearthed: Archaeology's New Vision of Ancient Israel and the Origin of Its Sacred Texts by Israel Finkelstein
• Christianity and the Qur'an: The Rise of Islam in Christian Arabia by Gabriel Said Reynolds
• The Church in the Shadow of the Mosque: Christians and Muslims in the World of Islam by Sidney H. Griffith
• The Bible in Arabic: The Scriptures of the "People of the Book" in the Language of Islam by Sidney H. Griffith
• Orthodoxy in Arabic Terms: A Study of Theodore Abu Qurrah's Theology in Its Islamic Context by Najib George Awad
• The Syriac World: In Search of a Forgotten Christianity Françoise Briquel Chatonnet
• The Syriac World, edited by Daniel King
• Massacres, Resistance, Protectors: Muslim-Christian Relations in Eastern Anatolia during World War I by David Gaunt
• Year of the Sword: The Assyrian Christian Genocide: A History by Joseph Yacoub
• Let Them Not Return: Sayfo—The Genocide against the Assyrian, Syriac and Chaldean Christians in the Ottoman Empire, edited by David Gaunt, Naures Atto and Soner O. Barthoma
• The Druzes: A New Study of Their History, Faith and Society by Nejla M. Abu Izzeddin
• The Druze Faith by Sami Nasib Makarem
• The Druze Realities and Perceptions, Edited by Kamal Salibi
• A Short History of the Ismailis by Farhad Daftary

Arab and Islamic Worlds' History

• Age of Coexistence: The Ecumenical Frame and the Making of the Modern Arab World by Ussama Makdisi
• The Crusader Storm: A Global History of the Wars for the Middle East by Nicholas Morton
• Hagarism: The Making of the Islamic World by Patricia Crone and Michael Cook
• Arabic Thought in the Liberal Age 1798 -1939 by Albert Hourani
• We Are Your Soldiers: How Gamal Abdel Nasser Remade the Arab World by Alex Rowell
• Umayyad Empire by Andrew Marsham
• Arabs in Turkish Political Cartoons, 1876-1950: National Self and Non-National Other by Ilkim Büke Okyar
• Trickster Travels: A Sixteenth-Century Muslim Between Worlds Davis by Natalie Zemon
• Crucible of Light: Islam and the Forging of European Civilization by Elizabeth Drayson
• Destiny Disrupted: A History of the World Through Islamic Eyes by Tamim Ansary 
• The Revolutionists: The Story of the Extremists Who Hijacked the 1970s Book by Jason Burke  
• Kicking the Hornet's Nest: U.S. Foreign Policy in the Middle East from Truman to Trump, Daniel Zoughbie

Islam and Christianity

• A Culture of Ambiguity: An Alternative History of Islam by Thomas Bauer
• The Renewal of Islam: Thinkers and Believers of the Modern Era by Fitzroy Morrissey
• The Emergence of Islam: Classical Traditions in Contemporary Perspective by Gabriel Said Reynolds
• In God's Path: The Arab Conquests and the Creation of an Islamic Empire by Robert G. Hoyland
• Misquoting Muhammad: The Challenge and Choices of Interpreting the Prophet's Legacy by Jonathan A.C. Brown

Modern Middle East

• The Cauldron: The Making of the Modern Middle East by Simon Sebag Montefiore (Knopf/Weidenfeld & Nicolson)
• What Really Went Wrong: The West and the Failure of Democracy in the Middle East by Fawaz Gerges
• Making the Arab World: Nasser, Qutb, and the Clash That Shaped the Middle East by Fawaz A. Gerges
•  From Life Itself: Turkey, Istanbul, and a Neighborhood in the Age of Erdoğan by Suzy Hansen
• Midnight at the Pera Palace: The Birth of Modern Istanbul by Charles King
• Wounded Tigris: A River Journey through the Cradle of Civilisation by Leon McCarron
• Desiring Arabs by Joseph Massad
•  Colonial Effects: The Making of National Identity in Jordan by Joseph Massad
• Bread from Stones: The Middle East and the Making of Modern Humanitarianism by Keith David Watenpaugh
• Missionary Diplomacy: Religion and Nineteenth-Century American Foreign Relations by Emily Conroy-Krutz

Ottoman Empire and al-Andalus

• Needs That Bind: Materializing Nationality in Post-Ottoman Regimes by Orçun Can Okan
• Kingdoms of Faith: A New History of Islamic Spain by Brian A. Catlos
• Empire of Manners: Ottoman Sociability and War-Making in the Long Eighteenth Century by James Grehan
• Crescent Dawn: The Rise of the Ottoman Empire and the Making of the Modern Age by Si Sheppard
• Disenchanting the Caliphate: The Secular Discipline of Power in Abbasid Political Thought by Hayrettin Yücesoy

Art, literature, agriculture, food, and heritage

• Damascus Tiles: Mamluk and Ottoman Architectural Ceramics from Syria by Arthur Millner
• Damascus: Hidden Treasures of the Old City by Brigid Keenan
• Finding Aladdin: The Hidden History of a Syrian Storyteller by Matthew Teller