English for High-Flyers

A reference book for those who wish to perfect their English

Why is it wrong to say 'of which three' instead of 'three of which'? Why should it be 'it is interesting' and not 'interesting is'? Did you know that we write and say 'insight into' and not 'insight in' and were you aware that the English word for alinea is 'paragraph' while a paragraaf is a 'section'?

These and hundreds of other linguistic pitfalls and grey areas have been skilfully identified, analysed and exp...

In the area of Boysun, present-day Uzbekistan, there is a living and vivid oral tradition based on stories from the epic Shah-nama. Barzu, son of Suhrab, is tragically killed at the hands of his famous father, the legendary hero Rustam.

The storytellers Jura Kamol and Mullo Ravshan composed two different versions of the story of Barzu in the Tajik as spoken in this area. This is the first printed version including a translation of these stories to appear.

The stories have been transcribed and...

Gog en Magog, als archetypen van het kwaad, spelen sinds hun verschijning in de Bijbel en de Koran een belangrijke rol. Van plattegronden tot literatuur en teksten, van middeleeuws Europa tot de Byzantijnse en Arabische wereld, van Berber tot Perzische en Indonesische tradities, en tot in het heden met teksten op internet: steeds weer komen deze monsterlijke wezens naar voren.

Deze 'Bijbelse' figuren worden in gezien als aankondigers van grote veranderingen, en worden afgebeeld met hondenhoof...

‘The Necklace of the Pleiades’ is een boek over Perzische literatuur, cultuur en religie door onderzoekers uit de hele wereld. Dit boek weerspiegelt de stand zaken op het gebied van de Perzische literaire studies en is niet alleen van wezenlijk belang voor onderzoekers van de Iranese cultuur, geschiedenis en religies, maar zeker ook voor onderzoekers op het gebied van het Midden-Oosten en Zuid-Aziatische studies.

The topics of the 24 essays range from the Persian Alexander romance, to Ferdow...

Language is more than just communication.

Learn Chinese in One Day discloses the

system of the Chinese characters and

analyzes how Confucianism and Taoism are

embedded in everyday language and how

language is used as a political, economic,

ethical, strategic and commercial tool.

Jeanne Boden (PhD) is author of

Contemporary Chinese Art. Post-socialist,

Post-traditional, Post-colonial; The

Wall behind China’s Open Door; Chinese

Propaganda Seducing the World; and

Cultural Quantum. A Practical ...

Abu ‘Abdollâh' Jafar ibn Mohammad Rudaki (c. 880 CE-941 CE) was a poet to the Samanid court which ruled much of Khorâsân (northeastern Persia) from its seat in Bukhara.

He is widely regarded as "the father of Persian poetry, for he was the first major poet to write in New Persian language, following the Arab conquest in the seventh and eighth centuries, which established Islam as the official religion, and made Arabic the predominant literary language in Persian-speaking lands for some two...

Eerste introductie op diverse aspecten van de 'Safina'.

De 'Safina' is een groot, goed bewaard gebleven manuscript uit het 14de-eeuwse Tabriz in Perzië, het toenmalige centrum van educatie en culturele activiteiten. Met zijn 209 werken in het Perzisch en Arabisch is het een schatkamer van informatie. De teksten in het compendium toont namelijk de canon voor de wetenschapper in de islamitische wereld van toen.

De 'Safina' omvat tradities, ethiek, mystiek, jurisprudentie, theologie, exegese, ge...

One Word – Yak Kaleme was one of the first treatises in the Middle East to demonstrate that Islam is compatible with the introduction of modern western forms of government, and specifically that the principles of the sharia can be incorporated in a codified law comparable to that found in European countries. This was a daring argument in the late 19th century, when it was extremely difficult to convince the rulers and religious class that a civil code of law was needed: would it not diminish...

Agreement Restrictions in Persian is the first comprehensive attempt to tackle the issue of verbal agreement in Persian from a cross-linguistic point of view. Persian is a field of research within theoretical linguistics that is yet to be sufficiently explored. This book adopts the Minimalist Program of Chomsky (1995-2004) which is at the forefront of recent theories of formal syntax and applies it to the Persian language.

Although it is commonly believed that in Persian the verb agrees with t...

"For us non-Iranian readers of Hafiz's 14th-century ghazal poems, Iranian

attitudes toward the premier lyric poet in the 1,000-year history of Persian

literature, are almost as intriguing as Hafiz's poetry itself. First is the

inclination of Iranian readers to find deep, spiritual meaning in that poetry.

Second is their personal identification with what they perceive as Hafiz's

philosophy. Third is their linking of Iranian cultural identity with Hafiz's life and works to the point where some educa...