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The rapid expansion of the early Islamic world is conventionally ascribed to a combination of perceptive military leadership and religious fervour. By looking at the administration and taxation which would be implemented by political rulers, Abd al-Aziz Duri demonstrates how these leaders were able to provide for growth, development and durability in a turbulent time, as well as efficient mechanisms for taxation and tax collection. Drawing on original research into the fiscal policies of this period, especially land tax and the tax on non-Muslim populations, Duri shows how different models evolved and renewed themselves. He examines the political systems that accompanied these fiscal regimes...
This is the first translation of a classic work (Bahth fi nnsh' at 'ilm al ta' rikh 'inda l-'Arab) by the eminent Arab historian A. A. Duri. Published in Beirut in 1960, Duri's book was the first comprehensive effort to trace the origins and early development of Arab historical writing, and to resolve some extremely complex and still debated questions about the reliability of the Arabic historical sources. Originally published in 1984. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.
"Muqarnas" is sponsored by The Aga Khan Program for Islamic Architecture at Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts. In "Muqarnas" articles are being published on all aspects of Islamic visual culture, historical and contemporary, as well as articles dealing with unpublished textual primary sources.
"This book will become a classic."—Barbara Aswad, President, Middle Eastern Studies Association
“Eric Davis eschews traditional histories of Iraq that have tended to emphasize political personalities and struggles amongst them, and focuses instead on the relationships between culture and political control, civil society and state institutions, and intellectuals and policy makers. The result is an innovative and multi-layered analysis that is a pleasure to read.”—Adeed Dawish, author or Arab Nationalism in the Twentieth Century: From Triumph to Despair "Eric Davis's book is a truly impressive tour de force of the cultural history of modern Iraq and the political struggles over the appropriation of national culture and memory. It is based not only on meticulous and detailed research, but also a thorough familiarity and sympathy with Iraqi society. Davis offers a particularly valuable cultural and intellectual history of modern Iraq, a country that has appeared in Western public discourse primarily in terms of its geo-political aspects and the bloody regime which ruled it until recent times."—Sami Zubaida, author of Law and Power in the Islamic World
This title is published in Open Access with the support of the University of Helsinki Library. The book surveys and analyzes changes in religious groups and identities in late antique Arabia, ca. 300-700 CE. It engages with contemporary and material evidence: for example, inscriptions, archaeological remains, Arabic poetry, the Qurʾān, and the so-called Constitution of Medina. Also, it suggests ways to deal with the later Arabic historiographical and other literary texts. The issue of social identities and their processes are central to the study. For instance, how did Arabian ethnic and religious identities intersect on the eve of Islam? The book suggests that the changes in social groups were more piecemeal than previously thought.
Recent outbursts sparked by a viral video and controversial cartoons powerfully illustrate the passions and sensitivities that continue to surround the depiction of the seventh-century founder of Islam. The Lives of Muhammad delves into the many ways the Prophet’s life story has been told from the earliest days of Islam to the present, by both Muslims and non-Muslims. Emphasizing the major transformations since the nineteenth century, Kecia Ali shows that far from being mutually opposed, these various perspectives have become increasingly interdependent. Since the nineteenth century, two separate streams of writing, one hagiographic and the other polemical, have merged into a single, conte...
Khaled Abou El Fadl's book represents the first systematic examination of the idea and treatment of political resistance and rebellion in Islamic law. Pre-modern jurists produced an extensive and sophisticated discourse on the legality of rebellion and the treatment due to rebels under Islamic law. The book examines the emergence and development of these discourses from the eighth to the fifteenth centuries and considers juristic responses to the various terror-inducing strategies employed by rebels including assassination, stealth attacks and rape. The study demonstrates how Muslim jurists went about restructuring several competing doctrinal sources in order to construct a highly technical discourse on rebellion. Indeed many of these rulings may have a profound influence on contemporary practices. This is an important and challenging book which sheds light on the complexities of Islamic law and pre-modern attitudes to dissidence and rebellion.
The foundation of the Muslim world from 700 to 950 was a seminal period in history, when the Near East enjoyed an age of political unity, prosperity, and cultural dominance. This volume offers new insights into the origins of the economic success of the early Islamic Caliphate, drawing instructive parallels within the contemporary Eurasian context.
Historical materialism as Marx understood this was always an integrated conception or field of research, not one divided into separate disciplines. The essays gathered in this volume are a remarkable example of how this works across a wide range of subjects as diverse as agrarian history, capitalism, Hegel’s influence on Marx, and class struggles in India. They were written over some fifty years of both activism and academic work, embodying Banaji’s lifelong engagement with Marxist theory. His recent papers on merchant capitalism can also be found here, along with a biographical sketch that sets all of his work in context.