Food holds an important place in people’s lives and in the social values of individuals and groups, shaping identities along religious, ethnic, linguistic, and national lines and according to gender, class, place (including identification with particular towns or landscapes), and other variables. In the Middle East and among Middle Eastern diasporic communities today, culinary culture remains a source of deep pride, while reflecting ethical values that people place on sharing food with gues...

Below the famously flat surface of the Netherlands lies a fascinating world of buried mountains and valleys, which can only be unraveled with drillings, geophysical techniques and geological understanding.

Thorough exploration for hydrocarbons, groundwater and minerals produced a wealth of data and knowledge about the Dutch subsurface and its various uses. The second edition of this book, originally published in 2007, provides access to that wealth with a thoroughly revised and updated descri...

This is a book about some of the unexpected people and places involved in cultivating knowledge of the natural world and mastery of scientific apparatus around 1800, taking readers across continental Europe from the Enlightenment to the onset of academic professionalisation. The authors widen the horizon of inquiry by looking beyond the scientific elite of academies and prestigious science sponsored by princely courts, the focus of previous major studies of this time period. They consider peo...

Situated within the vast Karakum desert of western Central Asia, the Merv oasis exhibits a trove of archaeological sites, owing to its rich ancient and medieval history. Likely due to its strategic location along the historic Silk Roads, the oasis boasts no less than three distinct urban sites, each corresponding to a different period.

During the Islamic Golden Age (8th-13th centuries CE), the city of Merv flourished as a significant centre of Islamic scholarship and occasionally served as a ...

John Duns Scotus (1266-1308) was one of the most important theologians and philosophers of the Middle Ages with a considerable infl uence on both christian and secular thought. He was called the Doctor Subtilis for his penetrating and subtle manner of thought. Despite his importance and greatness, little is known about his life, and information on his life in older literature is often not correct. In this volume, Antonie Vos presents a new biography based on the facts and on the informat...