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For millennia, people of faith around the world have viewed their religious texts as sacred, holy, and at times, even infallible when it comes to our understanding of our past. We have all used them as guidelines to chart our journeys on earth; not only regarding spirituality but also our relationship with other humans. Sometimes we use these letters written by our parent in heaven to assert our own ethnic or spiritual superiority over others. But as archaeologists and historians, religious scholars and scientists, have discovered through research, no one seems to have a lock on the truth or the perspective or the right holy way. Rather, this attitude has led to hatred, prejudice and violence as we all try to one-up everyone else. Imagine the consequences of the re-discovery of ancient manuscripts that support the notion of commonality- found in the homeland of World War IIs Third Reich, the idea that, regardless of religious belief, the best people rise to the top in an attempt to bring their society, their community, to the most civilized level possible. Imagine a set of documents that shows that ancient societies were more tolerant, and accepting, than todays world. And just imagine the impact that it might have in changing our world view- slowly, slowly as they say in the MidEast. DR. STEVEN L. DERFLER An international educational consultant, archaeologist, historian, researcher, teacher and writer, Dr. Derfler has been uncovering the histories of ancient civilizations for nearly 40 years. Tracing the development of western religions from their roots in the Middle East and Eastern Mediterranean countries, Dr. Derfler brings insight to current political and social events, bridging the past with the future to promote greater understanding between people from different faiths and walks of life. Dr. Derfler has been associated with institutions both in the Midwest and Israel; including Tel Aviv University's Institute of Archaeology, the Israeli Antiquities Authority, and The Negev Museum of Beersheva. Archaeological work in Israel has included serving as staff of Tel Sheva, Arad, Tel Michal and Tel Gerishe Expeditions, and as American director of the Nahal Yattir and Tel Keriot excavations. International study/travel programs under his aegis include Israel/Jordan/Turkey, Egypt, Morocco, Greece, and Cuba. In the Upper Midwest, he is director of Educational Resources, Inc and is a retired professor from the University of Wisconsin River Falls. He also works closely with the Renaissance Academy of Florida Gulf Coast University and other venues in Southwest Florida.
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.
About a millennium ago, in Cairo, an unknown author completed a large and richly illustrated book. In the course of thirty-five chapters, this book guided the reader on a journey from the outermost cosmos and planets to Earth and its lands, islands, features, and inhabitants. This treatise, known as The Book of Curiosities, was unknown to modern scholars until a remarkable manuscript copy surfaced in 2000. Lost Maps of the Caliphs provides the first general overview of The Book of Curiosities and the unique insight it offers into medieval Islamic thought. Opening with an account of the remarkable discovery of the manuscript and its purchase by the Bodleian Library, the authors use The Book of Curiosities to re-evaluate the development of astrology, geography, and cartography in the first four centuries of Islam. Their account assesses the transmission of Late Antique geography to the Islamic world, unearths the logic behind abstract maritime diagrams, and considers the palaces and walls that dominate medieval Islamic plans of towns and ports. Early astronomical maps and drawings demonstrate the medieval understanding of the structure of the cosmos and illustrate the pervasive assumption that almost any visible celestial event had an effect upon life on Earth. Lost Maps of the Caliphs also reconsiders the history of global communication networks at the turn of the previous millennium. It shows the Fatimid Empire, and its capital Cairo, as a global maritime power, with tentacles spanning from the eastern Mediterranean to the Indus Valley and the East African coast. As Lost Maps of the Caliphs makes clear, not only is The Book of Curiosities one of the greatest achievements of medieval mapmaking, it is also a remarkable contribution to the story of Islamic civilization that opens an unexpected window to the medieval Islamic view of the world.
A compelling look at the Fatimid caliphate's robust culture of documentation The lost archive of the Fatimid caliphate (909–1171) survived in an unexpected place: the storage room, or geniza, of a synagogue in Cairo, recycled as scrap paper and deposited there by medieval Jews. Marina Rustow tells the story of this extraordinary find, inviting us to reconsider the longstanding but mistaken consensus that before 1500 the dynasties of the Islamic Middle East produced few documents, and preserved even fewer. Beginning with government documents before the Fatimids and paper’s westward spread across Asia, Rustow reveals a millennial tradition of state record keeping whose very continuities suggest the strength of Middle Eastern institutions, not their weakness. Tracing the complex routes by which Arabic documents made their way from Fatimid palace officials to Jewish scribes, the book provides a rare window onto a robust culture of documentation and archiving not only comparable to that of medieval Europe, but, in many cases, surpassing it. Above all, Rustow argues that the problem of archives in the medieval Middle East lies not with the region’s administrative culture, but with our failure to understand preindustrial documentary ecology. Illustrated with stunning examples from the Cairo Geniza, this compelling book advances our understanding of documents as physical artifacts, showing how the records of the Fatimid caliphate, once recovered, deciphered, and studied, can help change our thinking about the medieval Islamicate world and about premodern polities more broadly.
Tales of the Caliph is a series of tales featuring the hardship and adventures of Caliph Harun al-Rashid, who was the fifth Abbasid caliph of the Abbasid Caliphate reigning from September 786 until his death. His reign is traditionally regarded to be the beginning of the Islamic Golden Age. Excerpt: "The Caliph, being on a tour of inspection through the various provinces of his empire, chanced on a certain occasion to be stopping at Bussora. And one evening, disguised, as was his wont, as a merchant, and, as usual, accompanied only by his faithful Grand Vizier, Giafer, he strolled through the bazaars silent and observant. Meeting with nothing worthy of arresting his particular attention, he wandered on until he came at length to some very narrow and mean lanes near the waterside."
Von Kremer sC ulturgeaehichte des Orients will be welcome to all English-knowing lovers of Islamic history and culture. Von Kremer still stands unsurpassed. He has had no competitors; he alone occupies the field. His researches patient, laborious, thorough have illumined every aspect of Muslim life. He is the most trustworthy interpreter of the social, political, economic, literary, and legal problems of I slam. The volume before us opens with an account of the death of the Prophet, and the trouble that arose over the question of succession. Paction fought faction. Heavy banks of cloud loomed up menacingly on the political horizon of A rabia. The spirit of tribal faction theretofore checked and kept in restraint asserted itself; and, in its very infancy, I slam was threatened with division, disunion, ruin and disruption. Omar saw the danger, and felt the need of prompt and vigorous action. He did as a practical and sagacious statesman would do. He settled the question of succession at a stroke ;and with that the clouds rolled away, and the danger which had confronted I slam was at once averted. -- From https://www.amazon.co.uk (Sep. 21, 2016).
Elgood presents a continuous history of the fascinating art and practice of medicine in Persia (Iran) from the earliest times.