Review
"A classic . . .one of the best expositions on the Arab world and Islam." Jay Winik, best-selling author of April 1865: The Month that Saved America. --Review provided by reviewer<br /><br />"A quarter-century-old book that I took with me to Baghdad last month helped explain what I saw when I got there." James R. Pinkerton, Newsday. --Newsday<br /><br />"A sympathetic wide-ranging study." --
The New Yorker<br /><br />[A]n impressive spread of scholarship...a major contribution in an important field. --Publishers' Weekly
About the Author
Raphael Patai was a prolific cultural anthroplogist, folklorist, historian, and Biblical scholar. He published more than 600 articles and thirty books, including The Arab Mind, The Jewish Mind, Arab Folktales from Palestine and Israel, and Jadid al-Islam: The Jewish "New Muslims" of Meshed (the latter two published posthumously). Dr. Patai began studying Arabic at the age of eighteen in his native Hungary. In his early twenties, he moved to Palestine and lived there for more than fifteen years before coming to the United States, where he taught at Princeton, Columbia, and other universities. He died in 1996. He was the founding editor of Encyclopedia of Jewish Folklore and Traditions, finally published in 2013