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An accessible and stirring representation of what it means to be "the crusaded," The Race for Paradise captures for the first time the rich variety of the Islamic experience of the Crusades during the Middle Ages.
The volume comprises lightly annotated translation of a key medieval Arabic text that bears directly on the Crusades and Crusader society and the Muslim experience of them.
Usama Ibn Munqidh (1095-1188) was a Syrian poet and warrior whose life coincided with some of the most dramatic moments in Islamic history: the invasion of the Turks into the Middle East, the collapse of the Shi'ite political power, and above all, the coming of the Crusades. Often at the frontline of such events whilst on military service representing one of his many Lords, including on occasion the legendary Saladin, Usama was nonethless best-known to his contemporaries as a poet. Covering his exquisite anthologies of Arabic poetry, his witty and well- loved memoirs, and his political adventures, this comprehensive biography examines both the literary works of the famous "Arab- Syrian Gentleman" and the tumultuous life which inspired them. With a guide to further reading, a dynastic family tree and a glossary of the principal characters encountered in the book, it offers an indispensable window into Usmama's life, times and world of thought.
Using Arabic, non-Arabic and newly available local Syrian sources, this richly detailed study examines the central events of medieval Islamic history: the fall of the Syrian Umayyad caliphate and the rise of the 'Abbasid state. As the 'Abbasids forged their new state from Iraq, Syrians raised their white banners of opposition and violently contested the changes that occurred under the 'Abbasid rule. As a result, the Syrian population quickly gained a reputation as uniquely contentious. White Banners traces the divergent fates of Syria's populace in their shift from center to periphery, rooting the many sources of Syrian contention in the nature of early Islamic provincial government. The book also provides answers to key questions concerning the history of medieval Syria: what strategies did the 'Abbasid government use to rule their new province? What was the fate of the Umayyads in Syria who survived the revolution? How did Syria's tribal-military elite cope under new masters? What pushed the common folk to violence?
The Umayyads, the first dynasty of Islam, ruled over a vast empire from their central province of Syria, providing a line of caliphs from 661 to 750. Another branch later ruled in al-Andalus – Islamic Spain – from 756 to 1031, ruling first as emirs and then as caliphs themselves. This book is the first to bring together studies of this far-flung family and treat it not as two unrelated caliphates but as a single enterprise. Yet for all that historians have made note of Umayyad accomplishments in the Near East and al-Andalus, Umayyad legacies – what later generations made of these caliphs and their achievements – are poorly understood. Building on new interest in the study of memory and Islamic historiography and including interdisciplinary perspectives from Arabic literature, art, and archaeology, this book highlights Umayyad achievements and the shaping of our knowledge of the Umayyad past.
In honor of Fred M. Donner's distinguished career as an interpreter of early Islam, this volume collects more than a dozen studies by his students. They range over a wide array of sub-fields in Islamic studies, including Islamic history, historiography, Islamic law, Qur'anic studies and Islamic aracheology.
Known in the West as a "noble heathen," the great Muslim sultan Saladin led Muslim forces in the reconquest of the Crusader kingdoms and captured Jerusalem in 1187. This concise history traces Saladin's role in the contest between Islam and Christianity during the twelfth century. Following the Sultan's life from the rise of the Crusader states through his triumph over the Franks to the Third Crusade, Möhring elucidates the sultan's accomplishments in uniting much of the Middle East, his enlightened relationship with European opponents, and the unique legacy of his rule in the Middle East and beyond. This faithful English-language translation also includes an introduction that places Saladin in his geographic, political, and cultural context.
This editions includes a new chapter on the"Notion of Jihad at the Turn of the 21st Century, n upadated bibliography and a new introduction.Review of the 1996 Edition:" It helps us understand the wider social and moral senses of Jihad"-_Library JournalThis book demonstrates that the notion of jihad (?Holy War?) is very much alive in the Islamic world, and plays a prominent political role. Western observers usually associate jihad with fanaticism, while Islamists emphasize its mission as a crusade against drugs and other societal scourges. ?Six Islamic texts are presented which compiler Peters has translated. These texts include, first of all, a number of hadiths which present the ?raw materi...
In 1105, six years after the first crusaders from Europe conquered Jerusalem, a Damascene Muslim jurisprudent named ’Ali ibn Tahir al-Sulami (d. 1106) publicly dictated an extended call to the military jihad (holy war) against the European invaders. Entitled Kitab al-Jihad (The Book of the Jihad), al-Sulami’s work both summoned his Muslim brethren to the jihad and instructed them in the manner in which it ought to be conducted, covering topics as diverse as who should fight and be fought, treatment of prisoners and plunder, and the need for participants to fight their own inner sinfulness before turning their efforts against the enemy. Al-Sulami’s text is vital for a complete understan...