Recent Acquisitions to SOAS Library reviewed
The following books have all been recently acquired by SOAS Library either in print or as e-books.
- Slandering the Jew: sexuality and difference in early Christian texts / Susanna Drake. [e-book only, via ebrary] – reviewed by Gail Labovitz on H-Net (who states that there is “much to be learnt” from this study on gender, sexuality and stereotypes of Jews within early Christian writings)
- Ancient Syria : a three thousand year history / Trevor Bryce – reviewed by Matteo Vigo (University of Copenhagen) in the Bryn Mawr Classical Review. This book traces Syrian history from the Bronze Age to the Muslim occupation of Damascus in 661 AD, and “should be read, studied or consulted by those who want to deepen their knowledge about an amazing country, cradle of cultures and civilizations“
- Music in antiquity : the Near East and the Mediterranean / edited by Joan Goodnick-Westenholz, Yossi Maurey, Edwin Seroussi. – reviewed by Sylvain Perrot (Ecole française d’Athènes) in the Bryn Mawr Classical Review. There are chapters on Mesopotamia and Ugarit and the ritual of music making as well as material on the Hellenistic and classical worlds. This book contains “bonnes idées à développer pour l’avenir des études sur les musiques de la Méditerranée orientale antique“
- Twilight of the saints : everyday religion in Ottoman Syria and Palestine / James Grehan – reviewed by Bassam Abed (New York University) on H-Net. This is “deeply engaging and delightful historical ethnography” looking at the lifestyles and religious practices of Christians, Muslims and Jews in rural Syria and Palestine between from the late 17th to the end of the 19th centuries.