The spread of the Assyrian Empire over the entire Fertile Crescent in the second half of the 8th century BC introduced various forms of cooperation between the neighboring nomadic Arabs and the imperial authorities. The geographical conditions and resultant lifestyle of the Arabs facilitated a mutual dependence and delicate equilibrium between themselves and the Assyrian rulers, eager to capitalize on their unprecedented regional might. Henceforth, the Arabs appear as an organic component of the Fertile Crescent history rather than mere desert raiders.

Exploring the military, legal, social and literary aspects of ancient warfare this study examines the multifaceted nature of the siege phenomenon in the ancient Near East. The book is based on Akkadian and biblical (and, to lesser degree, Greek, Aramaic, Egyptian, Hittite and Ugaritic) sources as well as on the depictions on reliefs from Assyrian palaces and Egyptian temples. The analysis incorporates lexical study and military thinking and focuses on the technology of warfare and human behavior is a state of emergency.

A digital version of this book is available here The literary documentation on southern Palestine at the end of the Persian period and the beginning of the Hellenistic period is very poor. Hence recently discovered Aramaic ostraca data 361-311 BC are the almost exclusive source for the study of the ethnic structure and the economic life in the period under discussion. Containing Aramaic words which are unknown from other sources, they also bear linguistic significance. The book contains the photographs, transliteration and translation with a commentary of 201 ostraca. It also contains a detailed introduction about the substantial and historical significance of the ostraca, as well as a glossary and an index of the proper names.

The ancient Arabs presents the first comprehensive study of the nomadic peoples on the borders of the Bible lands, through an analysis of biblical and contemporary sources in Assyro-Babylonian, Greek and Ancient Arabic. A new synthesis of their relations with the great empires of the Ancient Near East, as well as the kingdoms of Israel and Judah emerges.