'Abd al-Rahman b. 'Amr al-Awza'i

'Abd al-Rahman b. 'Amr al-Awza'i
Author: Steven C. Judd
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 144
Release: 2019-11-07
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1786076861

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‘Abd al-Rahman b. ‘Amr al-Awza‘i (c.707–774) was Umayyad Syria’s most influential jurist, part of a generation of scholars who began establishing the first formal structures for the preservation and dissemination of religious knowledge. Following the Abbasid revolution, they provided a point of stability in otherwise unstable times. Despite his close ties to the old regime, al-Awza‘i continued to participate in legal and theological matters in the Abbasid era. Although his immediate impact would prove short-lived, his influence on aspects of Islamic law, particularly the laws of war, endures to this day.

'Abd al-Mu'min

'Abd al-Mu'min
Author: Maribel Fierro
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 208
Release: 2021-11-04
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 0861541928

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‘Abd al-Mu’min (c.1094–1163) did not establish the first caliphate in the Islamic West, but his encompassed more territory than any that had preceded it. As leader of the Almohads, a politico-religious movement grounded in an uncompromising belief in the unity of God, he unified for the first time the whole of North Africa west of Egypt, and conquered much of southern Spain. Studying every facet of ‘Abd al-Mu’min’s rule, from his violent repression of opposition to the flourishing of scholarship during his reign, Maribel Fierro reveals an intelligent leader and a skilled military commander who sought to build a lasting caliphate across disparate and diverse societies.

Creating an Islamic City

Creating an Islamic City
Author: Rana Mikati
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 319
Release: 2024-03-04
Genre: History
ISBN: 9004682554

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In Creating an Islamic City: Beirut, Jihad, and the Sacred, Rana Mikati examines for the first time the role and contribution of Beirut to the Umayyad and early Abbasid caliphates. This book traces the transformation of Beirut from a Byzantine metropolis to a place of ribāṭ, weaving previously unpublished archaeological material and narrative sources. By examining Beirut’s transformation into a frontier town, the rise of a scholarly community around the Syrian jurist al-Awzā‘ī (d. 157/773-774), and its integration in an Islamic sacred landscape, Creating an Islamic City shows how a provincial frontier town was integrated and participated in the early caliphate.

Prophets in the Quran

Prophets in the Quran
Author: Brannon Wheeler
Publisher: A&C Black
Total Pages: 400
Release: 2002-06-18
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0826449565

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What was the name of Noah's son who did not survive the Flood? Why do Pharaoh and Haman build the Tower of Babel? For what reasons does Moses travel to the ends of the Earth? Who is the 'Horned-One' who holds back Gog and Magog until the Day of Judgement? These are some of the questions answered in the oral sources and Quran commentaries on the stories of the prophets as they are understood by Muslims. Designed as an introduction to the Quran with particular emphasis on parallels with Biblical tradition, this book provides a concise but detailed overview of Muslim prophets from Adam to Muhammad. Each of the chapters is organized around a particular prophet, including an English translation of the relevant verses of the Quran and a wide selection of classical, medieval and modern Muslim commentaries on those verses. Quran commentaries include references to Sunni and Shi'i sources from Spain, Central Asia, the Middle East and Africa. An extensive glossary provides an annotated list of all scholarly transmitters and cited texts with suggestions for further reading.This is an excellent book for undergraduate courses, and students in divinity and seminary programmes. Comparisons between the Quran and Bible, and among Jewish, Christian and Islamic exegesis are highlighted. Oral sources, references adapted from apocryphal and pseudepigraphical works, and inter-religious dialogue are all evident throughout these stories of the prophets. This material shows how the Quran and its interpretation are integral to a fuller and more discerning understanding of the Bible and its place in the history of Western religion.

The History of al-Ṭabarī Vol. 39

The History of al-Ṭabarī Vol. 39
Author: Abū Jaʿfar Muḥammad ibn Jarīr al-Ṭabarī
Publisher: SUNY Press
Total Pages: 448
Release: 1998-01-01
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780791428191

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This is biographical material that al-T'abari appended to his History, bringing together biographies of Companions and successors of the Prophet. Many chapters are devoted to women who played a role in the transmission of knowledge.

Violence and Belief in Late Antiquity

Violence and Belief in Late Antiquity
Author: Thomas Sizgorich
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
Total Pages: 407
Release: 2012-03-19
Genre: History
ISBN: 0812207440

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In Violence and Belief in Late Antiquity, Thomas Sizgorich seeks to understand why and how violent expressions of religious devotion became central to the self-understandings of both Christian and Muslim communities between the fourth and ninth centuries. Sizgorich argues that the cultivation of violent martyrdom as a path to holiness was in no way particular to Islam; rather, it emerged from a matrix put into place by the Christians of late antiquity. Paying close attention to the role of memory and narrative in the formation of individual and communal selves, Sizgorich identifies a common pool of late ancient narrative forms upon which both Christian and Muslim communities drew. In the process of recollecting the past, Sizgorich explains, Christian and Muslim communities alike elaborated iterations of Christianity or Islam that demanded of each believer a willingness to endure or inflict violence on God's behalf and thereby created militant local pieties that claimed to represent the one "real" Christianity or the only "pure" form of Islam. These militant communities used a shared system of signs, symbols, and stories, stories in which the faithful manifested their purity in conflict with the imperial powers of the world.

Ibn 'Asakir of Damascus

Ibn 'Asakir of Damascus
Author: Suleiman A. Mourad
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 148
Release: 2021-08-05
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 0861540468

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‘Ali ibn ‘Asakir (1105–1176) was one of the most renowned experts on Hadith and Islamic history in the medieval era. His was a tumultuous time: centuries of Shi‘i rule had not long ended in central Syria, rival warlords sought control of the capital, and Crusaders had captured Jerusalem. Seeking the unification of Syria and Egypt, and the revival of Sunnism in both, Ibn ‘Asakir served successive Muslim rulers, including Nur al-Din and Saladin, and produced propaganda against both the Christian invaders and the Shi‘is. This, together with his influential writings and his advocacy of major texts, helped to lay the foundations for the eventual Sunni domination of the Levant – a domination which continues to this day.

Ahmad ibn Tulun

Ahmad ibn Tulun
Author: Matthew S. Gordon
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 176
Release: 2021-05-06
Genre: History
ISBN: 1786079941

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Ahmad ibn Tulun (835–884) governed Egypt on behalf of the Abbasid dynasty for sixteen years. An aggressive and innovative actor, he pursued an ambitious political agenda, including the introduction of dynastic rule over Egypt, that put him at odds with his imperial masters. Throughout, however, he retained close ties to the Abbasid house and at no point did he assert outright independence. In this volume, Matthew Gordon considers Ibn Tulun’s many achievements in office as well as the crises, including the betrayals of his eldest son and close clients, that marred his singular career.

Ibn Taymiyya

Ibn Taymiyya
Author: Jon Hoover
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 176
Release: 2019-12-05
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 178607690X

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Ibn Taymiyya (1263–1328) of Damascus was one of the most prominent and controversial religious scholars of medieval Islam. He called for jihad against the Mongol invaders of Syria, appealed to the foundational sources of Islam for reform, and battled against religious innovation. Today, he inspires such diverse movements as Global Salafism, Islamic revivalism and modernism, and violent jihadism. This volume synthesizes the latest research, discusses many little-known aspects of Ibn Taymiyya’s thought, and highlights the religious utilitarianism that pervades his activism, ethics, and theology.

Ibn Hamdis the Sicilian

Ibn Hamdis the Sicilian
Author: William Granara
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 166
Release: 2021-07-01
Genre: History
ISBN: 1786078473

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‘Abd al-Jabbar ibn Hamdis (1055–1133) survives as the best-known figure from four centuries of Arab-Islamic civilisation on the island of Sicily. There he grew up in a society enriched by a century of cultural development but whose unity was threatened by competing warlords. After the Normans invaded, he followed many other Muslims in emigrating, first to North Africa and then to Seville, where he began his career as a court poet. Although he achieved fame and success in his time, Ibn Hamdis was forced to bear witness to sectarian strife among the Muslims of both Sicily and Spain, and the gradual success of the Christian reconquest, including the decline of his beloved homeland. Through his verse, William Granara examines his life and times.