Download or read book A Pelican Introduction The Caliphate written by Hugh Kennedy and published by National Geographic Books. This book was released on 2016-09-27 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What is a caliphate? What is the history of the idea? How is the term used and abused today? In the first modern account of a subject of critical importance today, acclaimed historian Hugh Kennedy answers these questions by chronicling the rich history of the caliphate, from the death of Muhammad to the present. At its height, the caliphate stretched from Spain to the borders of China and was the most powerful political entity in western Eurasia. In an era when Paris and London boasted a few thousand inhabitants, Baghdad and Cairo were sophisticated centres of trade and culture, and the Umayyad and Abbasid caliphates were distinguished by major advances in science, medicine and architecture. By ending with the recent re-emergence of caliphal ideology within fundamentalist Islam, The Caliphate underscores why it is crucial that we know about this form of Islamic government to understand the political ideas of the so-called Islamic State and other Islamist groups in the twenty first century.
Download or read book The Caliphate written by Hugh Kennedy and published by Penguin UK. This book was released on 2016-07-07 with total page 339 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What is a caliphate? Who can be caliph? And how are contemporary ideologues such as ISIS reviving - and abusing - the term today? In the first modern account of a subject of critical importance today, acclaimed historian Hugh Kennedy answers these questions by chronicling the rich history of the caliphate, from the death of Muhammad to the present. At its height, the caliphate stretched from Spain to China and was the most powerful political entity in western Eurasia. In an era when Paris and London boasted a few thousand inhabitants, Baghdad and Cairo were sophisticated centres of trade and culture, and the Ummayad and Abbasid caliphates were distinguished by extraordinary advances in science, medicine and architecture. By ending with the recent re-emergence of caliphal ideology within fundamentalist Islam, The Caliphate underscores why it is crucial that we understand this form of Islamic government before groups such as ISIS distort its practice completely.
Download or read book In Praise of the Few Studies in Shi i Thought and History written by Etan Kohlberg and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2020-05-06 with total page 650 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume presents a comprehensive selection from Etan Kohlberg’s research, undertaken over a period of fifty years, on doctrinal and historical developments of Imāmī Shiʿi intellectual tradition with a primary focus on the medieval period.
Download or read book Basic Income written by Guy Standing and published by Penguin UK. This book was released on 2017-05-04 with total page 298 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'Basic Income is an idea whose time has come, and Guy Standing has pioneered our understanding of it...as we move into an age where work and leisure become blurred, and work dissociated from incomes, Standing's analysis is vital' Paul Mason Shouldn't everyone receive a stake in society's wealth? Could we create a fairer world by granting a guaranteed income to all? What would this mean for our health, wealth and happiness? Basic Income is a regular cash transfer from the state, received by all individual citizens. It is an acknowledgement that everyone plays a part in generating the wealth currently enjoyed only by a few. Political parties across the world are now adopting it as official policy and the idea generates headlines every day. Guy Standing has been at the forefront of thought about Basic Income for the past thirty years, and in this book he covers in authoritative detail its effects on the economy, poverty, work and labour; dissects and disproves the standard arguments against Basic Income; explains what we can learn from pilots across the world and illustrates exactly why a Basic Income has now become such an urgent necessity.
Download or read book The Classical Age of Islam written by Marshall G.S. Hodgson and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2009-05-15 with total page 545 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Venture of Islam has been honored as a magisterial work of the mind since its publication in early 1975. In this three-volume study, illustrated with charts and maps, Hodgson traces and interprets the historical development of Islamic civilization from before the birth of Muhammad to the middle of the twentieth century. This work grew out of the famous course on Islamic civilization that Hodgson created and taught for many years at the University of Chicago. "This is a nonpareil work, not only because of its command of its subject but also because it demonstrates how, ideally, history should be written."—The New Yorker Volume 1, The Classical Age of Islam, analyzes the world before Islam, Muhammad's challenge, and the early Muslim state between 625 and 692. Hodgson then discusses the classical civilization of the High Caliphate. The volume also contains a general introduction to the complete work and a foreword by Reuben Smith, who, as Hodgson's colleague and friend, finished the Venture of Islam after the author's death and saw it through to publication.
Download or read book A Concise History of Sunnis and Shi is written by John McHugo and published by Georgetown University Press. This book was released on 2018-04-02 with total page 348 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The 1,400-year-old schism between Sunnis and Shi’is is currently reflected in the destructive struggle for hegemony between Saudi Arabia and Iran—with no apparent end in sight. But how did this conflict begin, and why is it now the focus of so much attention? Charting the history of Islam from the death of the Prophet Muhammad to the present day, John McHugo describes the conflicts that raged over the succession to the Prophet, how Sunnism and Shi’ism evolved as different sects during the Abbasid caliphate, and how the rivalry between the Sunni Ottomans and Shi’i Safavids ensured that the split would continue into the modern age. In recent decades, this centuries-old divide has acquired a new toxicity that has resulted in violence across the Arab world and other Muslim countries. Definitive, insightful, and accessible, A Concise History of Sunnis and Shi'is is an essential guide to understanding the genesis, development, and manipulation of the schism that for far too many people has come to define Islam and the Muslim world.
Download or read book King and Emperor written by Janet L. Nelson and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2021-06-08 with total page 704 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Charles I, often known as Charlemagne, is one of the most extraordinary figures ever to rule an empire. Driven by unremitting physical energy and intellectual curiosity, he was a man of many parts, a warlord and conqueror, a judge who promised 'for each their law and justice', a defender of the Latin Church, a man of flesh-and-blood. In the twelve centuries since his death, warfare, accident, vermin, and the elements have destroyed much of the writing on his rule, but a remarkable amount has survived. Janet Nelson's wonderful new book brings together everything we know about Charles, sifting through the available evidence, literary and material, to paint a vivid portrait of the man and his motives. Charles's legacy lies in his deeds and their continuing resonance, as he shaped counties, countries, and continents, founded and rebuilt towns and monasteries, and consciously set himself up not just as King of the Franks, but as the head of the renewed Roman Empire. His successors--in some ways even up to the present day--have struggled to interpret, misinterpret, copy, or subvert his legacy.
Download or read book Object Oriented Ontology written by Graham Harman and published by Penguin UK. This book was released on 2018-03-01 with total page 255 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What is reality, really? Are humans more special or important than the non-human objects we perceive? How does this change the way we understand the world? We humans tend to believe that things are only real in as much as we perceive them, an idea reinforced by modern philosophy, which privileges us as special, radically different in kind from all other objects. But as Graham Harman, one of the theory's leading exponents, shows, Object-Oriented Ontology rejects the idea of human specialness: the world, he states, is clearly not the world as manifest to humans. At the heart of this philosophy is the idea that objects - whether real, fictional, natural, artificial, human or non-human - are mutually autonomous. In this brilliant new introduction, Graham Harman lays out the history, ideas and impact of Object-Oriented Ontology, taking in everything from art and literature, politics and natural science along the way. Graham Harman is Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at SCI-Arc, Los Angeles. A key figure in the contemporary speculative realism movement in philosophy and for his development of the field of object-oriented ontology, he was named by Art Review magazine as one of the 100 most influential figures in international art.
Download or read book Land and Trade in Early Islam written by Hugh Kennedy and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2021-10 with total page 576 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Land and Trade in Early Islam discusses the latest developments in the field of early Islamic economic and social history, focusing on the period between 700 and 1050 CE. The book draws on recent scholarship to better understand the regional economic, social and political dynamics of this period.
Download or read book The Caliphate at War written by Ahmed Hashim and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2018-02-01 with total page 490 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: ISIS's astonishing and unexpected military victories in 2014 and 2015 redrew the geopolitical map of the Middle East. Media attention focused on the organisation's savage treatment of its enemies and its ability to attract foreign fighters, but as this dispassionate book demonstrates it also made important innovations in strategy, ideology and governance. Ahmed S. Hashim argues that by focusing their ideology first and foremost on extreme anti-Shia sectarianism - rather than on Western 'infidels' - ISIS' founders were able to present themselves as the saviours of what they saw as the embattled Sunni 'nation' in Iraq. This enabled them to win the support of Sunni communities. Moreover, ISIS' stunning ability to take major cities was a result of its innovative tactics. It sowed terror in advance of its attacks by using targeted assassinations to kill key city leaders, and its decentralised regional command structure facilitated an unusual degree of coordination between small assault units. At the same time the organisation made a serious effort to engage in state-building and population control. By going beyond the often starkly unpleasant current affairs of the Islamic State, The Caliphate at War undertakes an essential investigation into the successes of the group, to better understand how the movement has survived, thrived, and reshaped the Middle East.
Download or read book A Concise History of Sunnis and Shi is written by John McHugo and published by Saqi Books. This book was released on 2017-09-08 with total page 409 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The 1400-year-old schism between Sunnis and Shi`is has rarely been as toxic as it is today, feeding wars and communal strife in Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Pakistan, Afghanistan and many other countries, with tensions between Saudi Arabia and Iran escalating. In this richly layered and engrossing account, John McHugo reveals how this great divide occurred. Charting the story of Islam from the lifetime of the Prophet Muhammad to the present day, he describes the conflicts that raged over the succession to the Prophet, how Sunnism and Shi`ism evolved as different sects during the Abbasid caliphate, and how the rivalry between the empires of the Sunni Ottomans and Shi`i Safavids contrived to ensure that the split would continue into modern times. Now its full, destructive force has been brought out by the struggle between Saudi Arabia and Iran for the soul of the Muslim world. Definitive and insightful, A Concise History of Sunnis and Shi`is shows that there was nothing inevitable about the sectarian conflicts that now disfigure Islam. It is an essential guide to understanding the genesis, development and manipulation of the great schism that has come to define Islam and the Muslim world.
Download or read book Militant Islam written by Stephen Vertigans and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2008-10-30 with total page 220 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Militant Islam provides a sociological framework for understanding the rise and character of recent Islamic militancy. It takes a systematic approach to the phenomenon and includes analysis of cases from around the world, comparisons with militancy in other religions, and their causes and consequences. The sociological concepts and theories examined in the book include those associated with social closure, social movements, nationalism, risk, fear and ‘de-civilising’. These are applied within three main themes; characteristics of militant Islam, multi-layered causes and the consequences of militancy, in particular Western reactions within the ‘war on terror’. Interrelationships between religious and secular behaviour, ‘terrorism’ and ‘counter-terrorism’, popular support and opposition are explored. Through the examination of examples from across Muslim societies and communities, the analysis challenges the popular tendency to concentrate upon ‘al-Qa’ida’ and the Middle East. This book will be of interest to students of Sociology, Political Science and International Relations, in particular those taking courses on Islam, religion, terrorism, political violence and related regional studies.
Download or read book Handbook of Political Islam in Europe written by Thomas Jäger and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on with total page 648 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Historian of Islam at Work written by and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2022-10-17 with total page 694 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Historian of Islam at Work is a volume in honor of Hugh N. Kennedy. It offers thirty contributions by three generations of prominent scholars in the field of pre-modern Middle Eastern studies, covering the many areas of Islamic historical inquiry in which Hugh Kennedy has been active throughout his career. Grouped around four major themes - Caliphate and power, economy and society, Abbasids, and frontiers and the others - the contributions deal with the history, archaeology, architecture and literature of the Middle East, North Africa and beyond, from the time of the Prophet until the fifteenth century.
Download or read book The Caliphate at War written by Ahmed S. Hashim and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2017-12-20 with total page 390 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The military victories of the Islamic State have completely overturned the geopolitical map of the Middle East. Media attention has focused almost exclusively on Islamic State's savage treatment of its enemies and its ability to attract foreign fighters. In 2011, the first effort to build an Islamic State in Iraq was defeated by US and Iraqi forces. The second attempt to establish themselves, beginning in 2014, has been considerably more successful and that success calls for deeper investigation. In order to explain the successes of Islamic State, The Caliphate at War brings together a dispassionate and objective account of the significant innovations in insurgency, ideology, and governance. By focusing their ideology first and foremost on extreme anti-Shia sectarianism - rather than on Western "infidels" - the Islamic State's founders are able to present themselves as the saviors of what they see as the embattled Sunni "nation" in Iraq. Its success in taking and holding major cities, including Mosul, demonstrates its innovative tactics and skill at exploiting tribal and sectarian rivalries. By going beyond the often starkly unpleasant current affairs of the Islamic State, The Caliphate at War undertakes an essential investigation into the successes of the group, to better understand how the movement is surviving, thriving, and reshaping the Middle East.
Download or read book Chinese Thought written by Roel Sterckx and published by Penguin UK. This book was released on 2019-03-28 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Shortlisted for the PEN Hessel-Tiltman Prize 'A terrific book, rich and endlessly thought provoking. . . If you are looking for one book to understand the core ideas of Chinese civilisation, read this' - Michael Wood An engrossing history of ancient Chinese philosophy and culture from an eminent Cambridge expert We are often told that the twenty-first century is bound to become China's century. Never before has Chinese culture been so physically, digitally, economically or aesthetically present in everyday Western life. But how much do we really know about its origins and key beliefs? How did the ancient Chinese think about the world? In this enlightening book, Roel Sterckx, one of the foremost experts in Chinese thought, takes us through centuries of Chinese history, from Confucius to Daoism to the Legalists. The great questions that have occupied China's brightest minds were not about who and what we are, but rather how we should live our lives, how we should organise society and how we can secure the well-being of those who live with us and for whom we carry responsibility. With evocative examples from philosophy, literature and everyday life, Sterckx shows us how the ancient Chinese have shaped the thinking of a civilization that is now influencing our own.
Download or read book Thalaba the Destroyer written by Robert Southey and published by . This book was released on 1801 with total page 326 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
