The Abbasid Caliphate

The Abbasid Caliphate

Author: Tayeb El-Hibri

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2021-04-22

Total Pages: 363

ISBN-13: 1107183243

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A history of the Abbasid Caliphate from its foundation in 750 and golden age under Harun al-Rashid to the conquest of Baghdad by the Mongols in 1258, this study examines the Caliphate as an empire and an institution, and its imprint on the society and culture of classical Islamic civilization.


The Early Abbasid Caliphate

The Early Abbasid Caliphate

Author: Hugh Kennedy

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2016-03-17

Total Pages: 243

ISBN-13: 1317358074

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The early Abbasid Caliphate was an important period for Islam. The dynasty, based in Baghdad, ruled over a vast Empire, stretching from the Indus Valley and Southern Russia to the East to Tunisia in the West; and presided over an age of brilliant cultural achievements. This study, first published in 1981, examines the Abbasid Caliphs from their coming to power in 750 AD, to the death of the Caliph al-Ma’mun in 833 AD, when the period of Turkish domination began. It looks at the political history of the period, and also considers the social and economic factors, showing how they developed and influenced political life. The work is designed as a unique introduction to the period, and will prove invaluable to all students involved with Islamic, Byzantine and Mediterranean history and culture.


The Great Caliphs

The Great Caliphs

Author: Amira K. Bennison

Publisher: Yale University Press

Published: 2014-05-14

Total Pages: 255

ISBN-13: 0300154895

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This endlessly informative history brings the classical Islamic world to lifeIn this accessibly written history, Amira K. Bennison contradicts the common assumption that Islam somehow interrupted the smooth flow of Western civilization from its Graeco-Roman origins to its more recent European and American manifestations. Instead, she places Islamic civilization in the longer trajectory of Mediterranean civilizations and sees the ‘Abbasid Empire (750–1258 CE) as the inheritor and interpreter of Graeco-Roman traditions.At its zenith the ‘Abbasid caliphate stretched over the entire Middle East and part of North Africa, and influenced Islamic regimes as far west as Spain. Bennison’s examination of the politics, society, and culture of the ‘Abbasid period presents a picture of a society that nurtured many of the “civilized” values that Western civilization claims to represent, albeit in different premodern forms: from urban planning and international trade networks to religious pluralism and academic research. Bennison’s argument counters the common Western view of Muslim culture as alien and offers a new perspective on the relationship between Western and Islamic cultures.


Reinterpreting Islamic Historiography

Reinterpreting Islamic Historiography

Author: Tayeb El-Hibri

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 1999-11-25

Total Pages: 260

ISBN-13: 9780521650236

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The history of the early Abbasid Caliphate has long been studied as a factual or interpretive synthesis of various accounts preserved in the medieval Islamic chronicles. Tayeb El-Hibri s book breaks with the traditional approach, applying a literary-critical reading to examine the lives of the caliphs. By focusing on the reigns of Harun al-Rashid and his successors, the study demonstrates how the various historical accounts were not in fact intended as faithful portraits of the past, but as allusive devices used to shed light on controversial religious, political and social issues of the period. The analysis also reveals how the exercise of decoding Islamic historigraphy, through an investigation of the narrative strategies and thematic motifs used in the chronicles, can uncover new layers of meaning and even identify the early narrators. This is an important book which represents a landmark in the field of early Islamic historiography.


Longing for the Lost Caliphate

Longing for the Lost Caliphate

Author: Mona Hassan

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2018-08-14

Total Pages: 408

ISBN-13: 0691183376

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In the United States and Europe, the word "caliphate" has conjured historically romantic and increasingly pernicious associations. Yet the caliphate's significance in Islamic history and Muslim culture remains poorly understood. This book explores the myriad meanings of the caliphate for Muslims around the world through the analytical lens of two key moments of loss in the thirteenth and twentieth centuries. Through extensive primary-source research, Mona Hassan explores the rich constellation of interpretations created by religious scholars, historians, musicians, statesmen, poets, and intellectuals. Hassan fills a scholarly gap regarding Muslim reactions to the destruction of the Abbasid caliphate in Baghdad in 1258 and challenges the notion that the Mongol onslaught signaled an end to the critical engagement of Muslim jurists and intellectuals with the idea of an Islamic caliphate. She also situates Muslim responses to the dramatic abolition of the Ottoman caliphate in 1924 as part of a longer trajectory of transregional cultural memory, revealing commonalities and differences in how modern Muslims have creatively interpreted and reinterpreted their heritage. Hassan examines how poignant memories of the lost caliphate have been evoked in Muslim culture, law, and politics, similar to the losses and repercussions experienced by other religious communities, including the destruction of the Second Temple for Jews and the fall of Rome for Christians. A global history, Longing for the Lost Caliphate delves into why the caliphate has been so important to Muslims in vastly different eras and places.


Women, Islam, and Abbasid Identity

Women, Islam, and Abbasid Identity

Author: Nadia Maria El Cheikh

Publisher: Harvard University Press

Published: 2015-10-06

Total Pages: 171

ISBN-13: 0674736362

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When the Abbasids overthrew the Umayyads in 750 CE and ushered in Islam’s Golden Age, ideas about gender and sexuality were central to the process by which the caliphate achieved self-definition and articulated its systems of power and thought. Nadia Maria El Cheikh’s study reveals the importance of women to the writing of early Islamic history.


The Abbasid Caliphate of Cairo, 1261-1517

The Abbasid Caliphate of Cairo, 1261-1517

Author: Mustafa Banister

Publisher: Edinburgh Studies in Classical

Published: 2022-11-30

Total Pages: 504

ISBN-13: 9781474453370

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Mustafa Banister presents a thorough investigation of a forgotten dynasty: the Cairene descendants of the Abbasid family. He uncovers the public and private lives of the 18 men invested as caliphs during the period of 'Mamluk' rule in Egypt and Syria (1250-1517) and reveals a nuanced understanding of the Abbasid Caliphate according to elite members of Syro-Egyptian society. In doing so, he addresses the function of the caliph and his office amidst the breakdown and recreation of each new socio-political order of the sultanate.


Putting the Caliph in His Place

Putting the Caliph in His Place

Author: Eric J. Hanne

Publisher: Fairleigh Dickinson Univ Press

Published: 2007

Total Pages: 288

ISBN-13: 9780838641132

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Modern scholars have often viewed the Abbasid caliphs of the eleventh and twelfth centuries as pale imitations of their eighth- and ninth- century ancestors. Following the rise of the Buyid amirate in the tenth century, scholars have turned their attention away from the Abbasids - viewing them as inconsequential puppets controlled by stronger powers - and focused their studies on the development of the Buyid and Saljuq dynasties. After the Buyid deposition of the Abbasid caliph, al-Mustakfi, in the mid-tenth century, the Caliphate is said to have been relegated to puppet status, vainly clinging to its past glory until its destruction at the hands of the Mongols in 1258. away their ability to administer and defend the central Islamic lands. All that was left to them was the prestige of their institution, however vaguely defined. For this reason, there has been little if any modern research on the Abbasid caliphs of this period.


The Shaping of 'Abbasid Rule

The Shaping of 'Abbasid Rule

Author: Jacob Lassner

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2017-03-14

Total Pages: 348

ISBN-13: 1400886368

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In order to understand the transition between the revolutionary movement that propelled the Abbasids to power and the imperial government that later took root, Jacob Lassner studies those elements that served to shape the political attitudes and institutions of the emerging regime during its formative years. Originally published in 1980. 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.