Islamic Civilization in Thirty Lives: the First 1,000 Years

Description

Title Page; About the Author; Contents; Preface; Conventions, abbreviations & equivocations; Introduction; Part 1: Islam & Empire 600-850; 1. Muhammad, the Prophet (632); 2. 'Ali, cousin, caliph and forefather of Shi'ism (661); 3. 'A'isha, wife of the Prophet (678); 4. 'Abd al-Malik, engineer of the caliphate (705); 5. Ibn al-Muqaffa', translator and essayist (759); 6. Rabi'a al-'Adawiyya, renunciant and saint (801); 7. al-Ma'mun, caliph-patron (833); Part 2: The Islamic Commonwealth 850-1050; 8. 'Arib, courtesan of caliphs (890); 9. al-Hallaj, 'the Truth' (922).;Religious thinkers, political leaders, lawmakers, writers, and philosophers have shaped the 1,400-year-long development of the world's second-largest religion. But who were these people? What do we know of their lives and the ways in which they influenced their societies? In Islamic Civilization in Thirty Lives, the distinguished historian of Islam Chase F. Robinson draws on the long tradition in Muslim scholarship of commemorating in writing the biographies of notable figures, but he weaves these ambitious lives together to create a rich narrative of Islamic civilization, from the Prophet M.