The Bustan Sadi - If among the twenty-two works with which Sadi enriched the literature of his country the Gulistan rank first in popularity, the Bustan (lit. "Garden") may justly claim equal precedence in point of interest and merit. No comprehensive translation of this important classical work has hitherto been placed before the reading public, but it cannot be doubted that the character of its contents is such as to fully justify the attempt now made to familiarize English readers with the entertaining anecdotes and devotional wisdom which the Sage of Shiraz embodied in his Palace of Wealth. This is the name which he applies to the Bustan in an introductory chapter, and it is.one which springs from something more than a poets fancy, for the ten doors, or chapters, with which the edifice is furnished lead into a garden that is indeed rich in the fruits of knowledge gained by a wide experience of life in many lands, and earnest thought.Born in Shiraz, Iran, in 1184, Sdi (pseudonym of Muslih-ud-Din Mushrif ibn Abdullah) is considered one of the major medieval Persian poets. He traveled widely, through regions of what is today Syria, Turkey, Egypt and Iraq. Vignettes of gritty caravan and street scenes give life to his tales. In old age he returned to Shiraz, and composed his two best-known works, the poetic Bustan, or Orchard (in 1257), and the prose Gulistan, the Rose Garden (in 1258). He died in 1283 or possibly 1291.

Of the works of Persia's great poet Sa'di, the Bustan is second only to the Gulistan in reknown and popularity. Born in Shiraz sometime between 1184 and 1210 CE, Muslih-uddin Sa'di Shirazi received his education in Baghdad and spent several decades in travel and pilgrimage. In 1256, Sa'di returned to Shiraz. He wrote the Bustan in 1257, and the next year wrote the Gulistan.The Bustan or Orchard of Sa'di, intended as a 'mirror for princes,' was written entirely in verse and included 'ten doors of instruction,' that were the following ten chapters: Justice and Counsel, Benevolence, Love, Humility, Resignation, Contentment, Education, Gratitude, Repentance, and Prayer.This prose translation by A. Hart Edwards has been edited and updated by David Rosenbaum.

"The Bustan of Said" is a prose translation of Sadi, a 13th-century Muslim poet. Sadi (pseudonym of Muslih-ud-Din Mushrif ibn Abdullah) is considered one of the major medieval Persian poets. He found the inspiration and subjects for his works in frequent travels through regions of what is today Syria, Turkey, Egypt, and Iraq. Therefore, his tales are full of live characters and scenes that took real place in the streets of the Middle East centuries ago.

In the absence of a tradition of self-portraiture, how could artists signal their presence within a painting? Centred on late Timurid manuscript painting (ca. 1470-1500), this book reveals that pictures could function as the painter's delegate, charged with the task of centring and defining artistic work, even as they did not represent the artist's likeness. Influenced by the culture of the majlis, an institutional gathering devoted to intricate literary performances and debates, late Timurid painters used a number of strategies to shift manuscript painting from an illustrative device to a self-reflective object, designed to highlight the artist's imagination and manual dexterity. These strategies include visual abundance, linear precision, the incorporation of inscriptions addressing aspects of the painting and the artist's signature. Focusing on one of the most iconic manuscripts of the Persianate tradition, the Cairo Bustan made in late Timurid Herat and bearing the signatures of the painter Bihzad, this book explores Persian manuscript painting as a medium for artistic performance and self-representation, a process by which artistic authority was shaped and discussed.

This book offers diverse debates on the possible manifestations and meanings of the term "Middle East."

The Encyclopedia of Historians and Historical Writing contains over 800 entries ranging from Lord Acton and Anna Comnena to Howard Zinn and from Herodotus to Simon Schama. Over 300 contributors from around the world have composed critical assessments of historians from the beginning of historical writing to the present day, including individuals from related disciplines like Jürgen Habermas and Clifford Geertz, whose theoretical contributions have informed historical debate. Additionally, the Encyclopedia includes some 200 essays treating the development of national, regional and topical historiographies, from the Ancient Near East to the history of sexuality. In addition to the Western tradition, it includes substantial assessments of African, Asian, and Latin American historians and debates on gender and subaltern studies.

Your guide to Scottish Parliament: how its powers allow it to make laws and hold the Scottish Government to account

Despite the existence of about a thousand ethnolinguistic groups in Southeast Asia, very few historians of the region have engaged the complex issue of ethnicity. Leaves of the Same Tree takes on this concept and illustrates how historians can use it both as an analytical tool and as a subject of analysis to add further depth to our understanding of Southeast Asian pasts. Following a synthesis of some of the major issues in the complex world of ethnic theory, the author identifies two general principles of particular value for this study: the ideas that ethnic identity is an ongoing process and that the boundaries of a group undergo continual—if at times imperceptible—change based on perceived advantage. The Straits of Melaka for much of the past two millennia offers an ideal testing ground to better understand the process of ethnic formation. The straits forms the primary waterway linking the major civilizations to the east and west of Southeast Asia, and the flow of international trade through it was the lifeblood of the region. Privileging ethnicity as an analytical tool, the author examines the ethnic groups along the straits to document the manner in which they responded to the vicissitudes of the international marketplace. Earliest and most important were the Malayu (Malays), whose dominance in turn contributed to the "ethnicization" of other groups in the straits. By deliberately politicizing differences within their own ethnic community, the Malayu encouraged the emergence of new ethnic categories, such as the Minangkabau, the Acehnese, and, to a lesser extent, the Batak. The Orang Laut and the Orang Asli, on the other hand, retained their distinctive cultural markers because a separate yet complementary identity proved to be economically and socially advantageous for them. Ethnic communities are shown as fluid and changing, exhibiting a porosity and flexibility that suited the mandala communities of Southeast Asia. Leaves of the Same Tree demonstrates how problematizing ethnicity can offer a more nuanced view of ethnic relations in a region that boasts one of the greatest diversities of language and culture in the world. Creative and challenging, this book uncovers many new questions that should revitalize and reorient the historiography of Southeast Asia.