How does a Middle Eastern community create a modern image through its expression of heritage and authenticity? In Among the Jasmine Trees: Music and Modernity in Contemporary Syria, Jonathan H. Shannon investigates expressions of authenticity in Syria's musical culture, which is particularly known for embracing and preserving the Arab musical tradition, and which has seldom been researched in depth by Western scholars. Music plays a key role in the process of self-imaging by virtue of its ability to convey feeling and emotion, and Shannon explores a variety of performance genres, Sufi rituals, song lyrics, melodic modes, and aesthetic criteria. Shannon shows that although the music may evoke the old, the traditional, and the local, these are re-envisioned as signifiers of the modern national profile. A valuable contribution to the study of music and identity and to the ethnomusicology of the modern Middle East, Among the Jasmine Trees details this music and its reception for the first time, offering an original theoretical framework for understanding contemporary Arab culture, music, and society.

The first ethnographic study of music-making in modern Syria

A new publication fromthe Botanical MagazineMonograph series,Hardy Heathers is afully illustratedmonograph thatdescribes all Calluna,Daboecia and thoseErica species that grownaturally in thenorthern hemisphere.Distribution, history,conservation, classification and cultivation arecovered in detail, making this an indispensable bookfor the heather enthusiast, professional nurseryman,landscape architect, gardener, botanist, ecologist andconservationist with interests in heaths and heathlands. The close collaboration between the authorand the renowned botanical artist Christabel Kingmake this book an outstanding contribution to the artof botanical illustration.

The jasmine plant is Duke Cosimo de Medici's most treasured possession. When the gardener Antonio clips a sprig of the forbidden jasmine for his love, he is sent to prison. Now brave Donatella, Antonio's beloved, is his only hope for freedom. Full color.

A practical workbook to apply permaculture to any project from start to finish, this is a step-by-step guide for integrating places and people, buildings and ecosystems. The Permaculture Design Companion is a tried and tested process to creating a coherent, relevant and engaging design. Based on over 20 years of experience, this design guide has been used to teach over 1000 people. Many have gone on to establish thriving permaculture smallholdings, build their own natural homes and ethical businesses, and create productive urban food gardens. It is a thorough and effective design tool, suitable for absolute beginners and advanced practice. The process can be used for small to large projects, in urban spaces or the countryside--whatever your situation. This unique resource combines analysis, creativity and inner work. It will inspire you to design with nature, bring clarity and organisation to your ideas, and provide the momentum and support to make your designs become reality.

New York Times bestseller and Newbery Honor Book! A gorgeously written, hopeful middle grade novel in verse about a young girl who must leave Syria to move to the United States, perfect for fans of Jason Reynolds and Aisha Saeed. Jude never thought she’d be leaving her beloved older brother and father behind, all the way across the ocean in Syria. But when things in her hometown start becoming volatile, Jude and her mother are sent to live in Cincinnati with relatives. At first, everything in America seems too fast and too loud. The American movies that Jude has always loved haven’t quite prepared her for starting school in the US—and her new label of “Middle Eastern,” an identity she’s never known before. But this life also brings unexpected surprises—there are new friends, a whole new family, and a school musical that Jude might just try out for. Maybe America, too, is a place where Jude can be seen as she really is. This lyrical, life-affirming story is about losing and finding home and, most importantly, finding yourself.

Book three in this charming new chapter book series, starring a spunky Japanese-American heroine, Jasmine Toguchi!

When Jews left Aleppo, Syria, in the early twentieth century and established communities abroad, they carried with them a repertory of songs (pizmonim) with sacred Hebrew texts set to melodies borrowed from the popular Middle Eastern Arab musical tradition. Let Jasmine Rain Down tells the story of the pizmonim as they have continued to be composed, performed, and transformed through the present day; it is thus an innovative ethnography of an important Judeo-Arabic musical tradition and a probing contribution to studies of the link between collective memory and popular culture. Shelemay views the intersection of music, individual remembrances, and collective memory through the pizmonim. Reconstructing a century of pizmon history in America based on research in New York, Mexico, and Israel, she explains how verbal and musical memories are embedded in individual songs and how these songs perform both what has been remembered and what otherwise would have been forgotten. In confronting issues of identity and meaning in a postmodern world, Shelemay moves ethnomusicology into the domain of memory studies.

After the assassination of her husband, seventeen-year-old Jasmine leaves India to live with a middle-aged banker in a small Iowa town, only to retain some of the traditions and memories of the past.

The Dehlvi family made Delhi their home several hundred years ago. Sadia interlaces stories and memories of the city and its people, taking you inside its homes and kitchens, as well as the bazaars of the walled city. She shares recipes, many of which have not travelled outside of Dillwalla homes, and offers lived and real insights into the life and spirit of this ancient city through its changing customs, manners, cuisine and seasons. In Jasmine and Jinns, Sadia Dehlvi weaves tales of Delhi's ancient past with stories of her growing up in the city. As part of a large and hospitable family, she learned early the skill and pleasures of entertaining at home. In this lovingly crafted volume of food and memories, she recalls the conversations and carefully prepared dastarkhwan that enriched her childhood. She takes us inside her home and the kitchens of other Dilliwalas, sharing with us origin stories and recipes of many classic dishes including biryani, qorma, kofta, shaami kebab and kheer. In addition to these, there are recipes for season specialities and festivals. These home-cooked dishes are a distillation of Delhi's old cuisines and a reminder of how rich and historically layered our daily lives are. From home to bazaar, Sadia takes us through the famous by-lanes of the old city to show us where the best jalebi, dalbiji, aloo poori, dahi bhalla, nihari and mithai continue to be served. In her telling, and the photographs that accompany her words, the city she knows so well comes alive in all its magical, delicious complexity.