{"product_id":"prophet-of-reason-peter-hill-9780861547364","title":"Prophet of Reason: Science, Religion and the Origins of the Modern Middle East","description":"\u003cb\u003e'An outstanding intellectual biography.' Eugene Rogan\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIn 1813, high in the Lebanese mountains, a thirteen-year-old boy watches a solar eclipse. Will it foretell a war, a plague, the death of a prince? Mikha'il Mishaqa's lifelong search for truth starts here. Soon he's reading Newtonian science and the radical ideas of Voltaire and Volney: he loses his religion, turning away from the Catholic Church. Thirty years later, as civil war rages in Syria, he finds a new faith - Evangelical Protestantism. His obstinate polemics scandalise his community. Then, in 1860, Mishaqa barely escapes death in the most notorious event in Damascus: a massacre of several thousand Christians. We are presented with a paradox: rational secularism and violent religious sectarianism grew up together. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eBy tracing Mishaqa's life through this tumultuous era, when empires jostled for control, Peter Hill answers the question: What did people in the Middle East actually believe? It's a world where one man could be a Jew, an Orthodox Christian and a Sunni Muslim in turn, and a German missionary might walk naked in the streets of Valletta.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Peter Hill\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 0861547365\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780861547364\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Oneworld Academic\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 06\/11\/2024\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 368\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 1.00lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.22h x 6.08w x 1.12d\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eReview Citation(s): \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e 05\/27\/2024","brand":"Peter Hill","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":45898513809663,"sku":"9780861547364","price":30.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/files\/img_49695b0c-ba20-4337-b84d-07a4e435a714.jpg?v=1721376487","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/prophet-of-reason-peter-hill-9780861547364","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}