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A layman review
The book is a classical work on this very specific topic and contains a summary which is understandable to the layman of nearly one century of work on those equations. It is a very good start to follow more recent work on that topic ... Read more

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Chapters: Jan Swammerdam, Marc Van Roosmalen, Coenraad Jacob Temminck, Tiberius Cornelis Winkler, Albertus Seba, Max Carl Wilhelm Weber, Lipke Holthuis, Carel Van Schaik, Fredericus Anna Jentink, Pieter Bleeker, Anthonie Cornelis Oudemans, Leo Brongersma, Nicolaas Jan Van Strien, Laurens Theodorus Gronovius, Ambrosius Hubrecht, Wilhem de Haan. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 54. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: Jan Swammerdam (February 12, 1637, Amsterdam - February 17, 1680) was a Dutch biologist and microscopist. His work on insects demonstrated that the various phases during the life of an insectegg, larva, pupa, and adultare different forms of the same animal. As part of his anatomical research, he carried out experiments on muscle contraction. In 1668, he was the first to observe and describe red blood cells. He was one of the first people to use the microscope in dissections, and his techniques remained useful for hundreds of years. Swammerdam was born in Amsterdam. His father was an apothecary, and an amateur collector of minerals, coins, fossils, and insects from around the world. His mother died in 1661. The same year, when he was 24, Swammerdam entered the University of Leiden to study medicine. After qualifying as a candidate in medicine in 1663, he left for France, spending time in Issy, Saumur and Paris with Melchisédech Thévenot. He returned to Leiden in September 1665, and earned his M.D. on February 22, 1667. Once he left university, he spent much of his time pursuing his interest in insects. This choice caused a rift between Swammerdam and his father, who thought his son should practice medicine. The relationship between the two deteriorated; Swammerdam's father cut off his financial support for Swammerdam's entomological studies. As a result, Swammerdam was force...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=164968 ... Read more

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This Book Is In German. ... Read more

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This Book Is In German. ... Read more

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The Apostolic Churches of the East is currently the only complete history in English of the Syriac Church of the East. It covers the periods of the Sassanians, Arabs, Mongols, Ottomans, and the twentieth century. While the Arabs conquered the Middle East in the seventh century, the East Syriac missionaries had already reached the court of the Emperor of China, and in the European Middle Ages, the Church of the East was geographically far larger than the Roman Catholic Church, with congregations in Central Asia and India. The Church of the East is now scattered all over the world, with faithful in the Middle East, Europe, the USA, India and Australia. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Good information, but with problems
In this book the authors bring together a wealth of information about a Christian group that is now little known outside of its own small community. During the Middle Ages it was more widespread and numerous than the Catholic Church in Europe, but in recent centuries its numbers have fallen precipitously.

The book starts with a helpful introduction by Dietmar Winkler (each chapter is attributed to one or the other of the authors) that deals with the vexed question of what to call this group: the "Church of the East," the "Apostolic Church of the East," the "East Syriac Church," the "Holy Apostolic Catholic Assyrian Church of the East" or the "Ancient Church of the East." Winkler considers all of these labels acceptable. He most emphatically rejects the label "Nestorian" and doesn't care for "Pre-Ephesian" either.

In Chapter 1, "The Age of the Sassanians," Winkler is at great pains to state, restate, emphasize and re-emphasize that the Church of the East is NOT Nestorian (and neither was Nestorius, for that matter). Fine, but by the time I got to the end of the chapter this is about all I could remember because of the author's constant harping about it. However, Winkler does include other information, such as the route of the gospel to Mesopotamia, creeds, linguistic and doctrinal divergences from the west.

Chapter 2, "The Age of the Arabs," is by Baum. It deals with relations between Islam and Eastern Christianity, and also with the progress and fortunes of Eastern Christianity farther east, in China, India and neighboring areas. It also talks a little about the almost complete lack of communication between the Church of the East and Catholic Christianity.

Chapter 3, "The Age of the Mongols," is also by Baum. This chapter has a lot of information that will be new to most western readers, who will not be aware that there were close relations between the Church of the East and the various Mongol groups in Central Asia. The chapter also talks about the first tenuous contacts between eastern and western Christianity and the many misunderstandings that arose.

Chapter 4, "The Age of the Ottomans," is also by Baum. It deals with better documented recent centuries. It discusses developments in the "Chaldean" (speakers of modern Aramaic dialects) and Indian churches and their relations with Christianity in the west. By the 19th century Russian and British missionaries start to play a role in the Church of the East.

Chapter 5, "The Twentieth Century," is by Winkler. It deals with the fortunes of the Church of the East as the Ottoman Empire collapses and the British Mandate in the Middle East is in effect. It is in this period that the majority of the members of the Church of the East have emigrated to Europe and North America. This chapter ends with a helpful summary of the dioceses and parishes of the Church of the East in its diaspora. From tens of millions in the Middle Ages, it is now reduced to about 385,000 members in exile and 50-70,000 in its historic homelands in Iraq and Syria.

Chapter 6, "Language and Literature of the Church of the East," has contributions by three authors. Dietmar Winkler very briefly summarizes literature in Syriac and Arabic. Manfred Hutter contributes a few pages on literature in Iranian languages (Middle Persian, Sogdian). Wilhelm Baum has a brief section on literature in Turkish, Uighur and Chinese.

The book concludes with lists of the catholicoi of the Church of the East and lists of sovereigns of the various polities in which Eastern Christianity has existed historically.

This book is a translation from the German. It is pretty well done overall, but it could have used another set of eyes to proofread it. Aside from occasional awkward wording, there are remnants of German transcriptions of proper names, such as "Chorassan" for the more usual "Khorasan." Also, there is some inconsistency in transcriptions. One chapter has the German-style "Raschid," while another has the English-style "Rashid."

Finally, there is the issue of price. In the preface the authors state, "As the volume was written with a non-specialist audience in mind, we refrained from using scholarly transcription of names with diacritical signs, and there are no footnotes." Okay, as I scholar I would prefer footnotes, but I can accept the authors' wish to make this book friendly to the general public. However, Routledge has chosen to give this slim volume a price that puts it within the reach of only libraries and affluent individuals. (In June 2009, as I write this review, its list price is $180.) A book like this really should have wider potential circulation. If this book were in a paperback edition with a price of $20-30, it could easily sit on the shelves of major bookstores and enjoy much greater sales than it must currently have.

Basic Introduction to the History of the Church of the East
This is a basic introduction to the history of the Apostolic Church of the East, an ancient form of Middle Eastern and Asian Christianity whose leader once had more geographic area under his jurisdiction than any other religious leader in the world.Unlike Roman Catholicism, the Church of the East was never a state religion, and thus it was forced to operate under a succession of often hostile secular rulers.The two German authors (this is their English translation of the German orginal) thus appropriately break their work into chapters covering the Church under the Sassanian Persians, the Arabs, the Mongols, the Ottomans, and finally under 20th century states.It also includes a useful appendix with a chronology of both Church leaders and the secular rulers under which they operated.Although providing the basics, the book is unlikely to satisfy lay readers or scholars.The former would almost certainly note that there is very little flow to the book; it often comes close to being just a recitation of one fact after another.Scholars will be annoyed that nothing is footnoted, the authors instead referring the reader to the bibliography.Finally, the book is outrageously expensive (listing at approximately $90) for the 200 pages of information it provides.If you are interested, check it out of a library.A much better buy is Samuel Hugh Moffett's two volume "A History of Christianity in Asia."It is more readable, more scholarly, more detailed, and more reasonably priced. ... Read more

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This is an EXACT reproduction of a book published before 1923. This IS NOT an OCR'd book with strange characters, introduced typographical errors, and jumbled words.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more