"In 1986 'Comrade September', a charismatic ANC operative and popular MK commander, was abducted from Swaziland by the apartheid security police and taken across the border. After torture and interrogation, September was 'turned' and before long the police had extracted enough information to hunt down and kill some of his former comrades. September underwent changes that marked him for the rest of his life: from resister to collaborator, insurgent to counter-insurgent, revolutionary to counter-revolutionary and, to his former comrades, hero to traitor. Askari is the story of these changes in an individual's life and of the larger, neglected history of betrayal and collaboration in the struggle against apartheid. It seeks to understand why September made the choices he did - collaborating with his captors, turning against the ANC, and then hunting down his comrades - without excusing those choices. It looks beyond the black-and-white that still dominates South Africa's political canvas, to examine the grey zones in which South Africans - combatants and non- combatants - lived." -- Publisher.

"But you are the Child of Muralia. You alone hold the key to our salvation... but beware, that same power can annihilate everything you hold dear." A young heir and a female warrior from enemy lands form an uneasy alliance and undertake a perilous journey to save their world from the ancient evil that threatens to destroy it. Their quest becomes more treacherous as forces from their respective lands pursue them for their betrayal of the laws. Death and destruction follow their pair as they make their way across the land of Muralia in search of the sacred stones that will complete the fabled Staff of Kulari, the only weapon capable of defeating the demons that have escaped abyss. Once they assemble the staff, they must find the prophesied Child of Muralia, the one with the power to wield the staff successfully. The last thing the expect is for the prophesied child to be even a greater threat to their world than the demons.

"Relaying Cinema in Midcentury Iran investigates how the cultural translation of cinema has been shaped by the physical translation of its ephemera. Kaveh Askari examines film circulation and its effects on Iranian film cultures in the period before foreign studios established official distribution channels and before Iran became a notable site of so-called world cinema. This transcultural history draws on cross-archival comparison of films, distributor memos, licensing contracts, advertising schemes, and audio recordings. Askari meticulously tracks the fragile and sometimes forgotten material of film as it circulated through the Middle East into Iran and shows how this material was rerouted, reengineered, and reimagined in the process. "--

The askari, African soldiers recruited in the 1890s to fill the ranks of the German East African colonial army, occupy a unique space at the intersection of East African history, German colonial history, and military history. Lauded by Germans for their loyalty during the East Africa campaign of World War I, but reviled by Tanzanians for the violence they committed during the making of the colonial state between 1890 and 1918, the askari have been poorly understood as historical agents. Violent Intermediaries situates them in their everyday household, community, military, and constabulary roles, as men who helped make colonialism in German East Africa. By linking microhistories with wider nineteenth-century African historical processes, Michelle Moyd shows how as soldiers and colonial intermediaries, the askari built the colonial state while simultaneously carving out paths to respectability, becoming men of influence within their local contexts. Through its focus on the making of empire from the ground up, Violent Intermediaries offers a fresh perspective on African colonial troops as state-making agents and critiques the mythologies surrounding the askari by focusing on the nature of colonial violence.

With GRIP back in his native land of Cuba and SONNY behind bars potentially facing the death penalty, RAHMELLO is anointed as the new boss of The Moreno Family. But when strict orders demand he lay dormant until the outcome of Sonny's trial, Rahmello becomes furious. No longer willing to stand by as the obedient younger brother, his lust for power accelerates into unpredictable actions. In a brash attempt to establish himself as his own boss, he forms an alliance with Sonny's arch nemesis--THE MEDELLIN CARTEL. With the Columbians backing him and a team of killers ready to annihilate anyone in his way, Rahmello will stop at nothing to reclaim the streets of Philly. Even if it means he has to go to war with his own family. The YBM, headed by THE REAPER, is on a full blown collision course with The Moreno Family. Unfortunately, Rahmello doesn't see it--he's too blinded by his own deceit. Will his thirst for power leave him vulnerable to the YBM's advance? Or will he reign supreme, totally independent of his family's bloodline?

New archaeological material and research underpins this extensive, detailed and beautifully illustrated account of the famous Mamluk Askars who are credited with finally defeating and expelling the Crusaders, halting the Mongol invasion of the Islamic Middle East, and facing down Tamerlane. Probably the ultimate professional soldiers of the medieval period they were supposedly recruited as adolescent slaves, though recent research has begun to undermine this oversimplified interpretation of what has been called the "Mamluk phenomenon".

"You bear countless stories in yourself." Said the Sun and the Man on their first encounter. On every page of this book there is a different story. Some narrated by the Sun and some by the Man.

Nasrin Askari explores the medieval reception of Firdausī’s Shāhnāma, or Book of Kings (completed in 1010 CE) as a mirror for princes. Through her examination of a wide range of medieval sources, Askari demonstrates that Firdausī’s oeuvre was primarily understood as a book of wisdom and advice for kings and courtly elites. In order to illustrate the ways in which the Shāhnāma functions as a mirror for princes, Askari analyses the account about Ardashīr, the founder of the Sasanian dynasty, as an ideal king in the Shāhnāma. Within this context, she explains why the idea of the union of kingship and religion, a major topic in almost all medieval Persian mirrors for princes, has often been attributed to Ardashīr.

This book offers a comprehensive study of the dynamics of civil-military relations in Pakistan. It asks how and why the Pakistan military has acquired such a salience in the polity and how it continues to influence decision-making on foreign and security policies and key domestic political, social and economic issues. It also examines the changes within the military, the impact of these changes on its disposition towards the state and society, and the implications for peace and security in nuclearized South Asia.