Book I in the Award-Winning Jerusalem Trilogy B.R.A.G. Medallion Honoree, Historical Novel Society Editor's Choice Hollywood made him a blacksmith; Arab chronicles said he was "like a king." He served a leper, but defied Richard the Lionheart. He was a warrior and a diplomat both. This is the first book of a three-part biography of the historical Balian d'Ibelin.
Balian, the landless son of a local baron, goes to Jerusalem to seek his fortune. Instead, he finds himself trapped into serving the young prince suffering from leprosy, an apparent sentence to obscurity and death. But the unexpected death of King Amalric makes the leper boy King Baldwin IV of Jerusalem, and Balian’s prospects begin to improve. The Byzantine princess Maria Comnena is just thirteen years old when she arrives in the Kingdom of Jerusalem at her great uncle’s orders to cement the alliance between the two Christian kingdoms in the East. The child wife of a man almost three times her own age, she is despite her excellent education and intelligence little more than a pretty doll in the eyes of her husband. When she fails to produce a male heir for the desperate king, her marriage becomes a gilded prison. Until suddenly the king is dead and Maria finds herself a wealthy widow at just twenty years of age. Meanwhile, the charismatic Kurdish leader Saladin has united the forces of Islam and vowed to drive the Christians into the sea. While King Baldwin IV—and Balian—struggle to save the Holy Land for Christendom by whatever means they can, the internal rivalries of Templars and Hospitallers, the advocates of offense and defense, and the bitter rivalries of barons threaten to tear the kingdom apart.
Balian has survived the devastating defeat of the Christian army on the Horns of Hattin, and walked away a free man after the surrender of Jerusalem, but he is baron of nothing in a kingdom that no longer exists. Haunted by the tens of thousands of Christians now enslaved by the Saracens, he is determined to regain what has been lost. The arrival of a vast crusading army under the soon-to-be-legendary Richard the Lionheart offers hope -- but also conflict, as natives and crusaders clash and French and English quarrel.
The 10th volume of the Profiles in Healing series presents the male and female healers from Bali, called Balians; discusses their healing practices; and shares the visions that have defined their way of life. In addition, the Lontar—a sacred text consisting of etchings on dried palm leaves—is presented and its medicinal teachings are explained. Illustrated by beautiful and mystic photos and drawings and accompanied by an audio CD of traditional music and readings from the Lontar, this books provides a penetrating examination of the ancient healing practices of Bali. Life stories, personal accounts of visions, and detailed descriptions of medical practice are interspersed throughout.
In a remote Turkish village, young Hanna's days are filled with merry adventures fueled by his father's tales of wonder and heroism. Meanwhile, his nights are spent in frightful vigil with his mother, as squads of brigands stalk the village defended by only his father and fellow villagers. Despite this precarious existence, Hanna can imagine no other home... until an unimaginable tragedy strikes and life as he knows it abruptly ends. As his family splinters apart, Hanna is thrust into an odyssey of lurking dangers, dashed hopes and thwarted ambitions. He finds refuge in a seminary in Jerusalem, where, now known as Jonah, he can cherish his heritage and new identity. Yet this sanctuary is also snatched away when Jonah finds himself caught in the crossfire of the Holy City's unholy wars. Banished back to Istanbul, Jonah narrowly escapes a campaign of purges by the feared Turkish secret service. Resorting to a fugitive subsistence in foreign lands, a despondent Jonah is recruited by his former rival to join a clandestine group. With the specter of a hellish existence in a Turkish prison as a constant threat, Jonah must choose between abandoning his principles to carry out a barbaric mission to exact revenge, or find a new path to pursue an improbable dream in the New World. Steeped in ancient rituals, Middle Eastern traditions and modern intrigue, Gray Wolves and White Doves is a unique, captivating story of a child's search for self amid rekindled feuds and the turmoil of a changing world.
Within the past two decades, there has been an increased interest in the study of culture and mental health relationships. This interest has extended across many academic and professional disciplines, including anthropology, psychology, sociology, psychiatry, public health and social work, and has resulted in many books and scientific papers emphasizing the role of sociocultural factors in the etiology, epidemiology, manifestation and treatment of mental disorders. It is now evident that sociocultural variables are inextricably linked to all aspects of both normal and abnormal human behavior. But, in spite of the massive accumulation of data regarding culture and mental health relationships, sociocultural factors have still not been incorporated into existing biological and psychological perspectives on mental disorder and therapy. Psychiatry, the Western medical specialty concerned with mental disorders, has for the most part continued to ignore socio-cultural factors in its theoretical and applied approaches to the problem. The major reason for this is psychiatry's continued commitment to a disease conception of mental disorder which assumes that mental disorders are largely biologically-caused illnesses which are universally represented in etiology and manifestation. Within this perspective, mental disorders are regarded as caused by universal processes which lead to discrete and recognizable symptoms regardless of the culture in which they occur. However, this perspective is now the subject of growing criticism and debate.
With 'Imagining Karma', Gananath Obeyesekere embarks on the comparison of rebirth concepts across a wide range of cultures. The book makes a case for disciplined comparison, a humane view of human nature, and a theoretical understanding of 'family resemblances' and differences across great cultural divides.
John d'Ibelin, son of the legendary Balian, will one day defy the most powerful monarch on earth. But first he must survive his apprenticeship as squire to a man determined to build a kingdom on an island ravaged by rebellion. The Greek insurgents have already driven the Knights Templar from the island, and now stand poised to destroy Richard the Lionheart's legacy to the Holy Land: a crusader foothold on the island of Cyprus.
