A truly useful introduction to the Syriac language is a rare find. This practical initiation to the study of this ancient language of the Christian church speaks with clarity and authority. A fruitful integration of scholarly introduction and practical application, this primer is more than a simple grammar or syntactic introduction to the language. Writing in a style designed for beginners, Kiraz avoids technical language and strives for a reader-friendly inductive approach. Readings from actual Syriac texts allow the student to experience the language first hand and the basics of the grammar of the language are ably explained. The book comes with downloadable material so that readers may listen to all reading sentences and text passages in the book.

The late Patricia Crone reassesses one of the most widely accepted dogmas in contemporary accounts of the beginnings of Islam: the supposition that Mecca was a trading center. In addition, she seeks to elucidate sources on which we should reconstruct our picture of the birth of the new religion in Arabia.

As Abû ʿAbd Allâh al-Ḥusayn, son of ʿAlî and Fâṭima and grandson of Muḥammad, moved inexorably towards death on the field of Karbalâʾ, his sister Zaynab was drawn ever closer to the centre of the family of Muḥammad, the ‘people of the house’ (ahl al-bayt). There she would remain for a few historic days, challenging the wickedness of the Islamic leadership, defending the actions of her brother, initiating the commemorative rituals, protecting and nurturing the new Imâm, al-Ḥusayn’s son ʿAlî b. al-Ḥusayn b. ʿAlî b. Abî Ṭâlib, until he could take his rightful place. This is her story.

More than one hundred years after the publication of the BFBS volume of the Peshitta NT (1920), a critical edition of the Praxapostolos is still a desideratum. This edition fills the gap for the Corpus Paulinum. It expands the collations of the Scottish scholar John Pinkerton (1882–1916) up to some 60 manuscripts, incl. 5 lectionaries and 7 ‘masoretic’ manuscripts; it is based on the (slightly modified) BFBS text, which was established by the majority vote of Pinkerton’s collated manuscripts. The present edition turns the editorial principle of ‘majority vote’ into a textual history, considering the East-West-bifurcation of textual traditions, and the development of the Textus receptus by standardization. 9 printed editions are included, among which are 6 of the Textus receptus (incl. the editio princeps of 1555), thus covering the transmission of the Corpus Paulinum from the beginnings up to the 16th century.