Historical Sources Of The Islamic World

Documents and the History of the Early Islamic World presents new Greek, Arabic and Coptic material from the seventh to the fifteenth centuries C.E. from Egypt and Palestine and explores its rich potential for historical analysis.

Imparting lessons from the past, historians endeavoured to present standards for man’s actions. As mentioned in the Qur’an (11: 100, 120), the histories of the prophets and nations and the exposition of the factors leading to the rise and decline of nations urge man to take lessons and tread the path towards guidance. Abu ‘Ali Miskawayh entitled his work ‘Experience of Nations’. Ibn al-Athir maintained that historical knowledge may foster human intellect and provide him with further stamina to face vicissitudes and urge rulers to administer justice in an unstable world. This volume includes the articles devoted to the historians of the Islamic world, selected from the 16 hitherto published volumes of the Encyclopaedia of the World of Islam (EWI) which was originally compiled in Persian. Other entries from this encyclopaedia which are available in English include History and Historiography, Historical Sources of the Isamic World, The Pahlavi Dynasty, Periodicals of the Muslim World, and Hawza-yi ‘Ilmiyya.

This volume examines the use of legal documents for the history of Muslim societies, presenting case studies from different periods and areas of the Muslim world from medieval Iran and Egypt to contemporary Yemen and Morocco, and involving multiple disciplinary approaches.

This book contains articles on historic cities of the Islamic world, ranging from West Africa to Malaysia, which over the centuries have been centres of culture and learning and of economic and commercial life, and which have contributed much to the consolidation of Islam as a faith and as a social and political institution. The articles have been taken from the second edition of the Encyclopaedia of Islam, completed in 2004, but in many cases expanded and rewritten. All have been updated to include fresh historical information, with note of contemporary social developments and population statistics. The book thus delineates the urban background of Islam has it has evolved up to the present day, highlighting the role of such great cities as Cairo, Istanbul, Baghdad and Delhi in Islamic history, and also brings them together in a rich panorama illustrating one of mankind's greatest achievements, the living organism of the city.

The Islamic World is an outstanding guide to Islamic faith and culture in all its geographical and historical diversity. Written by a distinguished international team of scholars, it elucidates the history, philosophy and practice of one of the world's great religious traditions. Its grounding in contemporary scholarship makes it an ideal reference source for students and scholars alike. Edited by Andrew Rippin, a leading scholar of Islam, the volume covers the political, geographical, religious, intellectual, cultural and social worlds of Islam, and offers insight into all aspects of Muslim life including the Qur’an and law, philosophy, science and technology, art, literature, and film and much else. It explores the concept of an ‘Islamic’ world: what makes it distinctive and how uniform is that distinctiveness across Muslim geographical regions and through history?

A panoramic history of the Muslim world from the age of the Prophet Muḥammad to the birth of the modern era This book describes and explains the major events, personalities, conflicts, and convergences that have shaped the history of the Muslim world. The body of the book takes readers from the origins of Islam to the eve of the nineteenth century, and an epilogue continues the story to the present day. Michael Cook thus provides a broad history of a civilization remarkable for both its unity and diversity. After setting the scene in the Middle East of late antiquity, the book depicts the rise of Islam as one of the great black swan events of history. It continues with the spectacular rise of the Caliphate, an empire that by the time it broke up had nurtured the formation of a new civilization. It then goes on to cover the diverse histories of all the major regions of the Muslim world, providing a wide-ranging account of the key military, political, and cultural developments that accompanied the eastward and westward spread of Islam from the Middle East to the shores of the Atlantic and the Pacific. At the same time, A History of the Muslim World contains numerous primary-source quotations that expose the reader to a variety of acutely insightful voices from the Muslim past.