Heirs to Forgotten Kingdoms By Gerard Russell

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Name: Special Edition Heirs to Forgotten Kingdoms with Free PDF EDITION
Rating: 10 (8913 reviews)
Author: Gerard Russell

Books,History,World Heirs to Forgotten Kingdoms Gerard Russell

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Despite its reputation for religious intolerance, the Middle East has long sheltered many distinctive and strange faiths: one regards the Greek prophets as incarnations of God, another reveres Lucifer in the form of a peacock, and yet another believes that their followers are reincarnated beings who have existed in various forms for thousands of years. These religions represent the last vestiges of the magnificent civilizations in ancient history: Persia, Babylon, Egypt in the time of the Pharaohs. Their followers have learned how to survive foreign attacks and the perils of assimilation. But today, with the Middle East in turmoil, they face greater challenges than ever before. In Heirs to Forgotten Kingdoms, former diplomat Gerard Russell ventures to the distant, nearly impassable regions where these mysterious religions still cling to survival. He lives alongside the Mandaeans and Ezidis of Iraq, the Zoroastrians of Iran, the Copts of Egypt, and others. He learns their histories, participates in their rituals, and comes to understand the threats to their communities. Historically a tolerant faith, Islam has, since the early 20th century, witnessed the rise of militant, extremist sects. This development, along with the rippling effects of Western invasion, now pose existential threats to these minority faiths. And as more and more of their youth flee to the West in search of greater freedoms and job prospects, these religions face the dire possibility of extinction. Drawing on his extensive travels and archival research, Russell provides an essential record of the past, present, and perilous future of these remarkable religions.

At this time of writing, The Ebook Heirs to Forgotten Kingdoms has garnered 10 customer reviews with rating of 5 out of 5 stars. Not a bad score at all as if you round it off, it’s actually a perfect TEN already. From the looks of that rating, we can say the Ebook is Good TO READ!

Special Edition Heirs to Forgotten Kingdoms with Free PDF EDITION!

Most reviews of this book focus on its timeliness in the face of ISIS (let alone Modernity). This is no doubt a good reason to read it. But here are some other reasons:1. What insight into humanity's imagination!Every other page I exclaimed in delight at some marvelous story or ritual that Russell has uncovered - either in an ancient text he has found in some dusty archive, or by direct observation of its practice today. Consider the characters of Mandaean mythology. There is Krun, the flesh mountain, who according to Russell "sounds a bit like Jabba the Hutt"; the dragon Ur, who sits above an ocean of flammable oil, and, Russell's professed favorite, the demon Dinanukht, "who is half man and half book and 'sits by the waters between the worlds, reading himself.'"Or consider the Kalasha, whose rule-makers seem to have had a touch of OCD: "The right hand, the male sex, the high mountains, purity, odd numbers, and life all were affiliated with each other; to these were opposed the left hand, the female sex, the low valleys, impurity, even numbers, and death. So the men sat on the right-hand side of their houses and the women on the left. Likewise, it was men who herded the goats and women who planted crops, men who went into the mountains and women whose place was in the valleys, and women who were prone to all kinds of impurity." Russell then tells how "I was scolded for touching a village house as I passed it, since even this made it impure, and meant more juniper branches would need to be burned to restore its pristine state."2. You'll learn a lotThe author wears his learning lightly, yet it bursts through on every page. What I appreciated especially was the enormous range of his references. For example, a modern Mandaean tells Russell that "I am sure there was a time when Mandaean women could be priests, not just men." Russell not only is able to confirm the particular fact about Mandaeanism: "She was right: in the Drasa da Yehia [a Mandaean holy book], a Jewish woman converts to Mandaeanism and becomes a priest." But he also mentions in passing: "Similarly, in ancient Babylon women could serve as priests. For that matter, women occasionally achieved secular positions of power in the ancient Middle East. The ancient Persian navy had a female admiral - Artemisia, back in the fifth century BC - and in the third century AD Palmyra had a powerful queen, Zenobia."He also gives fascinating philosophical and historical context for many of his observations. For example, while describing asceticism, he speculates about the philosophical source of the self-denial: "Society was technologically advanced... Yet cesspits had to be cleaned out by hand, diseases such as typhoid were common, and wounds might easily develop gangrene. The body's weakness and foulness were in strange contrast to the intellect's amazing achievements. Since at this time it was not generally understood that the intellect had any connection with the brain (Galen realized that it did, but Aristotle had thought the brain existed just to release heat from the body), it was easy to suppose that the mind, or soul, could survive without the messiness of the body." What a striking thought - and how simply, and gracefully, argued.3. Last chance to see?Apart from at the very end, Russell does not say much about what *he* thinks about these religions and what's happening to them: he is the dispassionate academic observer, if one with unusual skill, intrepidity, and verve. He allows his subjects to speak for themselves. But when they do, it is often with considerable passion, beauty, and insight. Consider George, a Palestinian living in a Jewish neighborhood in Detroit. "Coming here [America] was the worst decision I ever made," he tells Russell. "I thought it would be like a salad, every ingredient taking on flavor from the other. It's more like a blender - everything ends up gray."And this is one reason these religions may not be here for much longer, to say nothing of their more violent and deliberate destruction in recent years and months. The modern world must bear a debt of gratitude to Russell for writing this book: the product of a lifetime of learning, and years of travel in the most dangerous places on earth. That his documentation of these ancient religions has yielded something of enduring beauty - and that is, dare I say it, a page-turner - is remarkable. I urge you to buy it.

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