This document provides an introduction to service oriented architectures (SOA) and related concepts. It begins with defining SOA and describing key SOA principles such as loose coupling and service contracts. It then discusses middleware and how it connects software components. Next, it explains web services and standards like SOAP, WSDL and UDDI. It presents the basic roles and communication models in SOA. The document concludes with an overview of the Palestinian e-Government architecture, which connects ministries through a government service bus based on SOA principles.