The Great Caliphs; The Golden Age of the 'Abbasid Empire

by Amira K. Bennison

• ISBN13: 9780300167986
• ISBN10: 0300167989
• Format: Trade Paper
• Copyright: 2010-08-31
• Publisher: Yale University Press

Summary

This accessible and informative history brings the classical Islamic world alive, illuminating its importance as the inheritor and interpreter of Greco-Roman traditions to the cultural history of Europe and America Book jacket.

Author Biography

Amira K. Bennison is senior lecturer in Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies at the University of Cambridge.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations	p. vii
Acknowledgements	p. ix
Note on Transliteration and Arabic Conventions	p. x
Introduction	p. 1
A Stormy Sea: The Politics of the 'Abbasid Caliphate	p. 10
The making of an empire
The Umayyads: Islam's first caliphal dynasty
The rise of the 'Abbasids
The early 'Abbasid caliphate
The Samarran interlude
The Shi'i century
The Saljuq sultanate and the 'Sunni revival'
The Crusades and the twilight of the caliphate
From Baghdad to Cordoba: The Cities of Classical Islam	p. 54
Arab urbanism at the dawn of Islam
The first Muslim towns
Umayyad urbanism
'Abbasid imperial cities and their imitators
Provincial cities in the 'Abbasid age
Princes and Beggars: Life and Society in the 'Abbasid Age	p. 94
Peasants and country folk
The people of the city
Women and children
The religious minorities
Beggars and tricksters
The Lifeblood of Empire: Trade and Traders in the 'Abbasid Age	p. 137
Routes and commodities
Merchants and pilgrims
Trade facilities
Baghdad's 'Golden Age': Islam's Scientific Renaissance	p. 158
The foundations of Islamic learning
The flowering of knowledge under the 'Abbasids
The 'Abbasid translation movement
Translations, translators and scientists
Knowledge and science after the translation movement
The 'Abbasid Legacy	p. 203
Notes	p. 216
Bibliography	p. 225
Index	p. 235
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