William Wright

Ibn Jubayr, originally from an Arab family in Spain, is best known for the account he wrote of his journey to the East. The main part of the book covers eight months spent in Mecca and gives one of the fullest early descriptions of the city and its ritual activities. A short preface in English is followed by the Arabic text.

In 2002, a researcher for The Harvard Crimson came across a restricted archive labeled "Secret Court Files, 1920." The mystery he uncovered involved a tragic scandal in which Harvard University secretly put a dozen students on trial for homosexuality and then systematically and persistently tried to ruin their lives.In May of 1920, Cyril Wilcox, a freshman suspended from Harvard, was found sprawled dead on his bed, his room filled with gas--a suicide. The note he left behind revealed his secret life as part of a circle of (cut "young") homosexual students.The resulting witch hunt and the lives it cost remains one of the most shameful episodes in the history of America's premiere university. Supported by legendary Harvard President Lawrence Lowell, Harvard conducted its investigation in secrecy. Several students committed suicide;others had their lives destroyed by an ongoing effort on the part of Harvard to destroy their reputations. Harvard's Secret Court is a deeply moving indictment of the human toll of intolerance and the horrors of injustice that can result when a powerful institution loses its balance.

Originally published in 1871, Wright’s work was marked by the author’s diligent care to transmit the best manuscript sources at his disposal. Here, Wright’s two volumes of Syriac texts and English translations are presented in this Gorgias Press edition.

This standard edition of the Chronicle, composed in AD 507, is considered one of the most valuable authorities for the period with which it deals. The manuscript from which the text is derived is a palimpsest copied between 907 and 944.

The 1887 edition of Encyclopedia Britannica contained an extensive article on Syriac Literature by the late Professor W. Wright. The article was later reprinted in this book, with additional notes.

This work, first published in 1895, and here republished in facsimile, tells of the author's travels on horseback throughout that region of the Middle East centring on the oasis of Palmyra. Though largely a narrative of the author's travels, the true value of the work lies in the wealth of detailed information on the archaeological features of the area, and particularly important are the large number of plates and engravings of historical sites and artefacts, many of which are now lost. The republication of this work will be widely welcomed by historians and students of Middle Eastern history.