Sasanid Soldiers in Early Muslim Society

Download Sasanid Soldiers in Early Muslim Society PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Otto Harrassowitz Verlag
ISBN 13 : 9783447036528
Total Pages : 412 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (365 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Sasanid Soldiers in Early Muslim Society by : Mohsen Zakeri

Download or read book Sasanid Soldiers in Early Muslim Society written by Mohsen Zakeri and published by Otto Harrassowitz Verlag. This book was released on 1995 with total page 412 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

The Armies of the Caliphs

Download The Armies of the Caliphs PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1134531125
Total Pages : 373 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (345 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The Armies of the Caliphs by : Hugh Kennedy

Download or read book The Armies of the Caliphs written by Hugh Kennedy and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-06-17 with total page 373 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Armies of the Caliphs is the first major study of the relationship between army and society in the early Islamic period, and reveals the pivotal role of the military in politics. Through a thorough examination of recruitment, payment, weaponry and fortifications in the armies, The Armies of the Caliphs offers the most comprehensive view to date of how the early Muslim Empire grew to control so many people. Using Arabic chronicles, surviving documents, and archaeological evidence, this book analyzes the military and the face of battle, and offers a timely reassessment of the early Islamic State.

The Cambridge History of War: Volume 2, War and the Medieval World

Download The Cambridge History of War: Volume 2, War and the Medieval World PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 1108901190
Total Pages : 854 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (89 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The Cambridge History of War: Volume 2, War and the Medieval World by : David A. Graff

Download or read book The Cambridge History of War: Volume 2, War and the Medieval World written by David A. Graff and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2020-10-01 with total page 854 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Volume II of The Cambridge History of War covers what in Europe is commonly called 'the Middle Ages'. It includes all of the well-known themes of European warfare, from the migrations of the Germanic peoples and the Vikings through the Reconquista, the Crusades and the age of chivalry, to the development of state-controlled gunpowder-wielding armies and the urban militias of the later middle ages; yet its scope is world-wide, ranging across Eurasia and the Americas to trace the interregional connections formed by the great Arab conquests and the expansion of Islam, the migrations of horse nomads such as the Avars and the Turks, the formation of the vast Mongol Empire, and the spread of new technologies – including gunpowder and the earliest firearms – by land and sea.

The Oxford Handbook of Politics in Muslim Societies

Download The Oxford Handbook of Politics in Muslim Societies PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0190931051
Total Pages : 913 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (99 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The Oxford Handbook of Politics in Muslim Societies by : Melani Cammett

Download or read book The Oxford Handbook of Politics in Muslim Societies written by Melani Cammett and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2022-01-10 with total page 913 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Politics in Muslim societies : what's religion got to do with it? / Melani Cammett and Pauline Jones -- Islam and political structure in historical perspective / Eric Chaney -- State-formation, statist Islam, and regime instability : evidence from Turkey / Kristin E. Fabbe -- States, religion, and democracy in Southeast Asia : comparative religious regime formation / Kikue Hamayotsu -- Repression of Islamists and authoritarian survival in the Arab world : a case study of Egypt / Jean Lachapelle -- Regime types, regime transitions, and religion in Pakistan / Matthew J. Nelson -- Regime change under the Party of Justice and Development (AKP) in Turkey / Feryaz Ocaklı -- Islam, nationalism, and democracy in Asia : nations under gods or gods under nations? / Maya Tudor -- Military politics in Muslim societies / Nicholas J. Lotito -- Voting for Islamists : mapping the role of religion / Ellen Lust, Kristen Kao, and Gibran Okar -- Party systems in Muslim societies / Elizabeth R. Nugent -- Ideologies, brands, and demographics in Muslim Southeast Asia : "voting for Islam" / Thomas Pepinsky -- Religion and party politics in India and Pakistan / Steven I. Wilkinson -- Religion and electoral competition in Senegal / Dominika Koter -- Clientelism, constituency services, and elections in Muslim societies / Daniel Corstange and Erin York -- Religiosity and political attitudes in Turkey during the AKP era / S. Erdem Aytaç -- Religious practice and political attitudes among Shiites in Iran and Iraq / Fotini Christia, Elizabeth Dekeyser, and Dean Knox -- Repressive religious regulation and political mobilization in Central Asia : why Muslims (don't) rebel / Dustin Gamza and Pauline Jones -- How extraordinary was the Arab Spring? Examining "protest potential" in the Muslim world / Avital Livny -- Illicit economies and political violence in Central Asia / Lawrence P. Markowitz, and Mariya Y. Omelicheva -- Piety, devotion, and support for Shari'a : examining the link between religiosity and political attitudes in Pakistan / Niloufer A. Siddiqui -- Mapping and explaining Arab attitudes toward the Islamic State : findings from an Arab barometer survey and embedded experiment / Mark Tessler, Michael Robbins, and Amaney Jamal -- Social movements, parties, and political cleavages in Morocco : a religious divide? / Adria Lawrence -- The rise and impact of Muslim women preaching online / Richard A. Nielsen -- Religion and mobilization in the Syrian uprising and war / Wendy Pearlman -- Christian-Muslim relations in the shadow of conflict : insights from Kaduna, Nigeria / Alexandra Scacco and Shana S. Warren -- New media and Islamist mobilization in Egypt / Alexandra A. Siegel -- Islamically framed mobilization in Tunisia : Ansar al-Sharia in the aftermath of the Arab uprisings / Frédéric Volpi -- Islamist mobilization during the Arab uprisings / Chantal Berman -- Religious legitimacy and long run economic growth in the Middle East / Jared Rubin -- Islam and economic development : the case of non-Muslim minorities in the Middle East and North Africa / Mohamed Saleh -- State institutions and economic performance in 19th century Egypt / Lisa Blaydes and Safinaz El Tarouty -- Colonial legacies and welfare provision in the Middle East and North Africa / Melani Cammett, Allison Spencer Hartnett, and Gabriel Koehler-Derrick -- Islam and the politics of development : shrines and literacy in Pakistan / Adeel Malik and Rinchan Mirza -- Islam and economic development in sub-Saharan Africa / Melina R. Platas -- Islamic finance and development in Malaysia / Fulya Apaydin -- Welfare states in the Middle East / Ferdinand Eibl -- Islamist organizations and the provision of social services / Steven Thomas Brooke -- Exploring the role of Islam in Mali : service provision, citizenship, and governance / Jaimie Bleck and Alex Thurston -- Islamist parties and women's representation in Morocco : taking one for the team / Lindsay J. Benstead -- The Islamic State as a revolutionary rebel group : IS' governance and violence in historical context / Megan A. Stewart.

Mesopotamia in the Ancient World

Download Mesopotamia in the Ancient World PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Ugarit-Verlag
ISBN 13 : 3868351299
Total Pages : 678 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (683 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Mesopotamia in the Ancient World by : Robert Rollinger

Download or read book Mesopotamia in the Ancient World written by Robert Rollinger and published by Ugarit-Verlag. This book was released on 2015-04-07 with total page 678 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Melammu Project, founded in 1998, organized five successive conferences and a sixth in 2008. Melammu Symposia 7 now represents a new dawn for the project publishing the contributions of the meeting in Obergurgl in November 2013. This time it will not be an isolated event: Further conferences have already taken place and been planned (Kiel 2014, Helsinki and Tartu 2015, Kassel 2016, and Beirut 2017), the project board has been renewed, reinvigorated and rejuvenated, and plans are underway for a thorough reworking and updating of the project database. Its focus (now slightly reworded to be somewhat wider) is to investigate "the continuity, transformation and diffusion of Mesopotamian and Ancient Near Eastern culture from the third millennium BCE through the ancient world until Islamic times" (quoted from the Melammu Project website). Of course, Mesopotamia was not the source of all culture; but it was an important area in ancient history, that without doubt deserves such a project, dedicated to the study of its cultural impact and heritage. This volume assembles 42 contributions devoted to the topics "Prayers and Incantations", "Foreign Reception of Mesopotamian Objects", "The Use of Literary Figures of Speech", "Mesopotamia and the World", "The World of Politics", "Iran and Early Islam", and "Representations of Power".

The Cambridge World History: Volume 5, Expanding Webs of Exchange and Conflict, 500CE–1500CE

Download The Cambridge World History: Volume 5, Expanding Webs of Exchange and Conflict, 500CE–1500CE PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 1316297756
Total Pages : 749 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (162 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The Cambridge World History: Volume 5, Expanding Webs of Exchange and Conflict, 500CE–1500CE by : Benjamin Z. Kedar

Download or read book The Cambridge World History: Volume 5, Expanding Webs of Exchange and Conflict, 500CE–1500CE written by Benjamin Z. Kedar and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2015-04-09 with total page 749 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Volume 5 of the Cambridge World History series uncovers the cross-cultural exchange and conquest, and the accompanying growth of regional and trans-regional states, religions, and economic systems, during the period 500 to 1500 CE. The volume begins by outlining a series of core issues and processes across the world, including human relations with nature, gender and family, social hierarchies, education, and warfare. Further essays examine maritime and land-based networks of long-distance trade and migration in agricultural and nomadic societies, and the transmission and exchange of cultural forms, scientific knowledge, technologies, and text-based religious systems that accompanied these. The final section surveys the development of centralized regional states and empires in both the eastern and western hemispheres. Together these essays by an international team of leading authors show how processes furthering cultural, commercial, and political integration within and between various regions of the world made this millennium a 'proto-global' era.

The Cambridge World History

Download The Cambridge World History PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 0521190746
Total Pages : 749 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (211 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The Cambridge World History by : Merry E. Wiesner-Hanks

Download or read book The Cambridge World History written by Merry E. Wiesner-Hanks and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2015 with total page 749 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The most comprehensive account yet of the human past from prehistory to the present.

Violence in Early Islam

Download Violence in Early Islam PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN 13 : 075563800X
Total Pages : 273 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (556 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Violence in Early Islam by : Marco Demichelis

Download or read book Violence in Early Islam written by Marco Demichelis and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2021-03-25 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The concept of jihad holds a prominent place in Islamic thought and history. Beyond its spiritual meanings, the term has historically been associated with the sweeping Arab-Believers conquests of the 7-8th century BCE. But given advances in our understanding of the historicity and chronology of the Qur'an and early Islamic texts, is it correct to identify jihad and Islam with violent conquest? In this book, Marco Demichelis explores the history of the concept of jihad in the early proto-Islamic centuries (7-8th). Deploying an interdisciplinary approach which combines the hermeneutical study of the famous 'Verses of the Sword' within the Qur'an itself, with historical writing by Islamic chroniclers as well as non-Islamic sources, numismatics, epigraphical and architectural evidence, the book questions the relationship between the religious concept of jihad and the conquests. The book argues that Christian Byzantine Foederati forices who previously fought against the Persians may have had a formative effect on the later emergence of more bellicose rhetoric. In so doing, it calls into question assumptions about warlike attitudes inherent within Islamic doctrine, and reveals a more nuanced and complicated history of religious violence in the pre, proto and early Islamic period.

The Muslim Conquest of Iberia

Download The Muslim Conquest of Iberia PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1136588191
Total Pages : 274 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (365 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The Muslim Conquest of Iberia by : Nicola Clarke

Download or read book The Muslim Conquest of Iberia written by Nicola Clarke and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2012-07-26 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Medieval Islamic society set great store by the transmission of history: to edify, argue legal points, explain present conditions, offer political and religious legitimacy, and entertain. Modern scholars, too, have had much to say about the usefulness of early Islamic history-writing, although this debate has traditionally focused overwhelmingly on the central Islamic lands. This book looks instead at local and regional history-writing in Medieval Iberia. Drawing on numerous Arabic texts – historical, geographical and biographical – composed and transmitted in al-Andalus, North Africa and the Islamic east between the ninth and fourteenth centuries, Nicola Clarke offers a nuanced and detailed analysis of narratives about the eighth-century Muslim conquest of Iberia. Comparing how individual episodes, characters, and themes are treated in different texts, and how this treatment relates to intellectual debates, literary trends, and socio-political conditions at the time of writing, she shows how competing priorities shaped myriad variations on a single story and how the scholars and patrons of a corner of the Islamic world distant from Baghdad viewed their own history. Offering a framework in which historians of Christian Iberia (and of Christian Europe more generally) can approach and make sense of culturally-significant texts from Muslim Iberia, this book will also be relevant to broader debates about the historiography of early Islam. As such, it will be of great interest to scholars of historiography, world history and Islamic studies.

Non-Muslims in the Early Islamic Empire

Download Non-Muslims in the Early Islamic Empire PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 1139499157
Total Pages : 284 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (394 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Non-Muslims in the Early Islamic Empire by : Milka Levy-Rubin

Download or read book Non-Muslims in the Early Islamic Empire written by Milka Levy-Rubin and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2011-09-30 with total page 284 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Muslim conquest of the East in the seventh century entailed the subjugation of Christians, Jews, Zoroastrians and others. Although much has been written about the status of non-Muslims in the Islamic empire, no previous works have examined how the rules applying to minorities were formulated. Milka Levy-Rubin's remarkable book traces the emergence of these regulations from the first surrender agreements in the immediate aftermath of conquest to the formation of the canonic document called the Pact of 'Umar, which was formalized under the early 'Abbasids, in the first half of the ninth century. The study reveals that the conquered peoples themselves played a major role in the creation of these policies and that they were based on long-standing traditions, customs and institutions from earlier pre-Islamic cultures that originated in the worlds of both the conquerors and the conquered. In its connections to Roman, Byzantine and Sasanian traditions, the book will appeal to historians of Europe as well as Arabia and Persia.

The Fire, the Star and the Cross

Download The Fire, the Star and the Cross PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN 13 : 0857712667
Total Pages : 285 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (577 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The Fire, the Star and the Cross by : Aptin Khanbaghi

Download or read book The Fire, the Star and the Cross written by Aptin Khanbaghi and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2006-02-22 with total page 285 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Although today the region is mostly identified with Islam, it has been home to many other great cultures, and the civilization of the Islamic world is itself indebted to the various peoples that the Arabs subdued in the 7th and 8th centuries. Far from fading away after the Arab conquest, the inhabitants of the Iranian plateau and of Mesopotamia were central players in the lives of their regions. However, the magnitude of their contribution to the emergence of the early Islamic world has hitherto been neglected. In this fascinating and groundbreaking study, Khanbaghi offers a comprehensive discussion of those groups that resisted assimilation to the new Islamic order yet continued to participate actively in the socio-political life of their homeland. He concentrates on Iran, which due to its complex religious history offers unique opportunities for the study of non-Muslim communities, specifically of Zoroastrians, Jews and Christians.Aptin Khanbaghi has written an important and fascinating book which aims to present a thorough evaluation of the historical contributions made by religious minorities - Zoroastrians, Jews and Christians - to the societal and cultural physiognomy of the lands of Iran in pre-modern and early modern times. His general perspective and his broad treatment of the topic are quite new, while his use of sources and of the secondary literature is genuinely impressive. The Fire, the Star and the Cross makes a very significant and original contribution to our knowledge and understanding of Iranian history and civilization during an era when the foundations were laid for the emerging modern Iranian state.'BERT G FRAGNER, Director of the Institute of Iranian Studies, Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna

A History of Islamic Societies

Download A History of Islamic Societies PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 1139991507
Total Pages : 1019 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (399 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis A History of Islamic Societies by : Ira M. Lapidus

Download or read book A History of Islamic Societies written by Ira M. Lapidus and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2014-10-13 with total page 1019 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This new edition of one of the most widely used course books on Islamic civilizations around the world has been substantially revised to incorporate the new scholarship and insights of the last twenty-five years. Ira Lapidus' history explores the beginnings and transformations of Islamic civilizations in the Middle East and details Islam's worldwide diffusion. The history is divided into four parts. Part I is a comprehensive account of pre-Islamic late antiquity; the beginnings of Islam; the early Islamic empires; and Islamic religious, artistic, legal and intellectual cultures. Part II deals with the construction in the Middle East of Islamic religious communities and states to the fifteenth century. Part III includes the history to the nineteenth century of Islamic North Africa and Spain; the Ottoman, Safavid and Mughal empires; and other Islamic societies in Asia and Africa. Part IV accounts for the impact of European commercial and imperial domination on Islamic societies and traces the development of the modern national state system and the simultaneous Islamic revival from the early nineteenth century to the present.

Decline and Fall of the Sasanian Empire

Download Decline and Fall of the Sasanian Empire PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN 13 : 0857711997
Total Pages : 552 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (577 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Decline and Fall of the Sasanian Empire by : Parvaneh Pourshariati

Download or read book Decline and Fall of the Sasanian Empire written by Parvaneh Pourshariati and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2017-03-30 with total page 552 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: I.B.Tauris in association with the Iran Heritage Foundation Decline and Fall of the Sasanian Empire has been acclaimed as one of the most intellectually exciting books about late antique Persia to have been published for years. It proposes a convincing contemporary answer to an age-old mystery and conundrum: why, in the seventh century ce, did the seemingly powerful and secure Sasanian empire of Persia succumb so quickly and disastrously to the all-conquering armies of Islam? In her bold solution to this enigma, Parvaneh Pourshariati explains that the decentralized dynastic system of the Sasanian ruling hierarchy in fact contained the seeds of its own destruction. This confederacy, whose powerbase relied on patronage and preferment, eventually became unstable, and its degeneration sealed the fate of a doomed dynasty.

The Sage in Jewish Society of Late Antiquity

Download The Sage in Jewish Society of Late Antiquity PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1134642784
Total Pages : 191 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (346 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The Sage in Jewish Society of Late Antiquity by : Richard Kalmin

Download or read book The Sage in Jewish Society of Late Antiquity written by Richard Kalmin and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2002-02-07 with total page 191 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Sage in Jewish Society of Late Antiquity explores the social position of rabbis in Palestinian (Roman) and Babylonian (Persian) society from the period of the fall of the Temple to late antiquity. The author argues that ancient rabbinic sources depict comparable differences between Palestinian and Babylonian rabbinic relationships with non-Rabbis.

Sport Across Asia

Download Sport Across Asia PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 0415884381
Total Pages : 258 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (158 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Sport Across Asia by : Katrin Bromber

Download or read book Sport Across Asia written by Katrin Bromber and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume gathers work from a wide range of disciplines - anthropology, cultural studies, geography, history, law, sociology, and post-colonial studies - to explore the paradoxical processes of emulation, resistance and transformation that are at work in the global diffusion and development of "sport" and body cultures.

World Military History Bibliography

Download World Military History Bibliography PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : BRILL
ISBN 13 : 9047402103
Total Pages : 847 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (474 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis World Military History Bibliography by : Barton Hacker

Download or read book World Military History Bibliography written by Barton Hacker and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2003-06-01 with total page 847 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Preclassical and indigenous nonwestern military institutions and methods of warfare are the chief subjects of this annotated bibliography of work published 1967–1997. Classical antiquity, post-Roman Europe, and the westernized armed forces of the 20th century, although covered, receive less systematic attention. Emphasis is on historical studies of military organization and the relationships between military and other social institutions, rather than wars and battles. Especially rich in references to the periodical literature, the bibliography is divided into eight parts: (1) general and comparative topics; (2) the ancient world; (3) Eurasia since antiquity; (4) sub-Saharan Africa and Oceania; (5) pre-Columbian America; (6) postcontact America; (7) the contemporary nonwestern world; and (8) philosophical, social scientific, natural scientific, and other works not primarily historical.

The Armies of Ancient Persia

Download The Armies of Ancient Persia PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Pen and Sword
ISBN 13 : 1473883180
Total Pages : 746 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (738 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The Armies of Ancient Persia by : Kaveh Farrokh

Download or read book The Armies of Ancient Persia written by Kaveh Farrokh and published by Pen and Sword. This book was released on 2014-02-28 with total page 746 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Throughout most of the classical period, Persia was one of the great superpowers, placing a limit on the expansion of Western powers. It was the most formidable rival to the Roman empire for centuries, until Persia, by then under the Sassanians, was overwhelmed by the Islamic conquests in the seventh century AD. Yet, the armies of ancient Persia have received relatively little detailed attention, certainly in comparison to those of Rome. This work is the firsst of three volumes that will form the most comprehensive study of ancient Persian armies available.The Sassanians, the native Iranian dynasty that ousted their Parthian overlords in AD 226, developed a highly sophisticated army that was able for centuries to hold off all comers. They continued the Parthians famous winning combination of swift horse archers with heavily-armored cataphract cavalry, also making much use of war elephants, but Kaveh Farrokh interestingly demonstrates that their oft-maligned infantry has been much underestimated.The author, born in Athens, Greece, and expert in ancient Persian languages and military history, has been researching the military history and technology of Persia for a quarter of a century. He draws on the latest research and new archaeological evidence, focusing on the organization, equipment and tactics of the armies that dominated the ancient Middle East for so long.