The Seljuqs

politics, society and culture

This is a unique collaborative exploration of this pivotal yet understudied Muslim dynasty. The Seljuqs were a Turco-Persian Sunni Muslim dynasty that ruled parts of Central Asia and the Middle East from the 11th to 14th centuries. What was it like to live in Seljuq ...

The odyssey of Ibn Battuta

uncommon tales of a medieval adventurer

Ibn Battuta was, without doubt, one of the world's truly great travellers. Born in 14th century Morocco, and a contemporary of Marco Polo, Ibn Battuta has left us an account in his own words of his remarkable journeys throughout the Islamic world and beyond ...

A labyrinth of kingdoms

10.000 miles through islamic Africa

In 1849 Heinrich Barth joined a small British expedition into unexplored regions of Islamic North and Central Africa. One by one his companions died, but he carried on alone, eventually reaching the fabled city of gold, Timbuktu. His five-and-a-half-year, 10,000-mile adventure ranks among the ...

Modern Afghanistan

a history of struggle and survival

Afghanistan's recent history is a sad one: Soviet invasion in 1979; Pakistan-backed internal conflict in the 1980s; the Taliban regime and then the US invasion and the multi-national occupation after the events of September 11th 2001. Why does Afghanistan remain so vulnerable to domestic ...

A history of Libya

John Wright's concise history of Libya begins in the prehistoric Sahara and concludes with the bloody overthrow of the Gadafi regime and the emergence of a 'new' Libya in 2011. After surveying the story of the central Sahara's early hunter-gatherers and its Garamantian ...

The generalship of Muhammad

battles and campaigns of the Prophet of Allah

His campaigns, military thought, and insurgent strategy "An excellent analysis of Muhammad as a general, placing his battles within the context of military history, and a good introduction to the life of the founder of Islam."--David Cook, author of Understanding Jihad "Provides an essential ...

Did Muhammad exist?

an inquiry into Islam's obscure origins

This title offers an introduction to one of the core methods of approaching biblical texts. "Historical Critical Analysis" is the main way in which the Bible (both the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament and the New Testament) has been examined and read by scholars in the ...

Trial of a Thousand Years

world order and islamism

A Muslim has no nationality except his religious beliefs,” said Egyptian Sayyid Qutb, a key figure in the world of political Islam who was executed by the secular regime in his homeland in 1966. For decades, the ideologues of pan-Islam have refused to accept the ...

How to read the Qur'an

a new guide, with select translations

'Outstanding, timely and much needed.' Amir Hussain, Professor of Theological Studies, Loyola Marymount University 'A very well-written, remarkably accessible, timely and important book. It is sure to be read widely.' Muhammad Qasim Zaman, Robert H. Niehaus '77 Professor of Near Eastern Studies and Religion, Princeton ...

Mahoma, el Guía

La figura de Mahoma continúa siendo una gran desconocida en Occidente. Durante siglos fue considerado el enemigo, el hereje o el anticristo que con su ejército ocupaba Europa y amenazaba su cristiandad. Esta visión deplorable y falsa de Mahoma, y por extensión del Islam, no ...

Al-Andalus

Cuando Iberia era musulmana

Estas páginas encierran una breve y bella crónica de al-Ándalus, el territorio musulmán que aún habita en la memoria colectiva de los españoles. Territorio que a lo largo de los siglos fue adoptando una extensión variable; durante la dinastía omeya creció hasta tocarse con la ...

Historia de Al-Andalus según las crónicas medievales

Vol. XV: La Fitna. El colapso del Califato.

Magna obra, de más de 20 volúmenes, con la traducción de las crónicas históricas sobre Al-Andalus, ordenadas de forma cronológica. Cuando comienza este libro el escenario es espléndido: al-Andalus lleva un siglo de pujanza incontestada que ha abierto camino a un espectacular desarrollo en todos ...

El Libro de los Reyes

historias de Zal, Rostam y Sohrab

"El libro de los reyes" (Shahnameh) es una de las obras maestras de la literatura universal. Escrita por Hakim Abdul-Qasim Firdusi entre finales del siglo X y comienzos del XI, constituye la epopeya nacional de Irán, es decir, de Persia. La presente edición, ilustrada, recoge ...

Islam y libertad

el malentendido histórico

Un libro que es a la vez una crítica de la compleja relación entre Islam y democracia y una profunda crítica a la falta de libertades en Túnez, y por extensión en los países árabes. Con este libro su autor, Mohamed Charfi , puso las bases ...

El saber en Al-Andalus

textos y estudios V. Homenaje a la profesora Dña. Carmen Ruiz Bravo-Villasante

Amplio abanico de temas sobre al-Andalus, centrándose en diversos aspectos de la vida y la sociedad andalusí, temas relacionados con los moriscos o sobre la importancia que al-Andalus sigue conservando en nuestra época, especialmente reflejada en la labor de los literatos árabes actuales o en ...

Iraq at a distance

what anthropologists can teach us about the war

The Iraq War has cost innumerable lives, caused vast material destruction, and inflicted suffering on millions of people. Iraq at a Distance: What Anthropology Can Teach Us About the War focuses on the plight of the Iraqi people, caught since 2003 in the carnage between ...

The great caliphs

the golden age of the 'Abbasid Empire

The flowering of the 'Abbasid caliphate between 750 and 1258 CE is often considered the classical age of Islamic civilization. In the preceding 120 years the Arabs had conquered much of the known world of antiquity and established a vast empire stretching from Spain to ...

Historia de Afganistán

de los orígenes del Estado afgano a la caída del régimen talibán

Antigua nación escenario del paso de grandiosas civilizaciones, Afganistán surgió como un Estado de base tribal hace dos siglos y medio y logró resistir a la colonización occidental, preservando de esta forma una identidad musulmana muy conservadora y una diversidad étnica extraordinaria. Estratégicamente situado en ...

The meaning of Mecca

the politics of Pilgrimage in Early Islam

The hajj, the fifth pillar of Islam, is a religious duty to be performed once in a lifetime by all Muslims who are able. The Prophet Muhammad set out the rituals of hajj when he led what became known as the Farewell Hajj in 10 ...

Un destino desbaratado

la historia universal vista por el Islam

Nosotros los occidentales, cuando escribimos la historia del mundo, solemos escribir la historia de nuestro mundo y olvidar por completo o relegar a un rincón otra historia que se ha ido construyendo en paralelo, la del mundo islámico. Este es un libro sobre la historia ...