Sāsānid Soldiers in Early Muslim Society

Sāsānid Soldiers in Early Muslim Society PDF Author: Mohsen Zakeri
Publisher: Otto Harrassowitz Verlag
ISBN: 9783447036528
Category : Futuwwa (Islamic social groups)
Languages : en
Pages : 412

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Book Description


The Armies of the Caliphs

The Armies of the Caliphs PDF Author: Hugh Kennedy
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134531125
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 373

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Book Description
The Armies of the Caliphs is the first major study of the relationship between army and society in the early Islamic period, and reveals the pivotal role of the military in politics. Through a thorough examination of recruitment, payment, weaponry and fortifications in the armies, The Armies of the Caliphs offers the most comprehensive view to date of how the early Muslim Empire grew to control so many people. Using Arabic chronicles, surviving documents, and archaeological evidence, this book analyzes the military and the face of battle, and offers a timely reassessment of the early Islamic State.

The Archaeology of Elam

The Archaeology of Elam PDF Author: D. T. Potts
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521564960
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 528

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Book Description
From the middle of the 3rd millennium BC until the coming of Cyrus the Great, southwestern Iran was referred to in Mesopotamian sources as the land of Elam. A heterogeneous collection of regions, Elam was home to a variety of groups, alternately the object of Mesopotamian aggression, and aggressors themselves; an ethnic group seemingly swallowed up by the vast Achaemenid Persian empire, yet a force strong enough to attack Babylonia in the last centuries BC. The Elamite language is attested as late as the Medieval era, and the name Elam as late as 1300 in the records of the Nestorian church. This book examines the formation and transformation of Elam's many identities through both archaeological and written evidence, and brings to life one of the most important regions of Western Asia, re-evaluates its significance, and places it in the context of the most recent archaeological and historical scholarship.

Sasanian Persia

Sasanian Persia PDF Author: Touraj Daryaee
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 0755618424
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 267

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Book Description
Of profound importance in late antiquity, the Sasanian Empire is virtually unknown today, except as a counterpoint to the Roman Empire. In this highly readable history, Touraj Daryaee fills a significant gap in our knowledge of world history. He examines the Sasanians' complex and colourful narrative and demonstrates their unique significance, not only for development of Iranian civilization but also for Roman and Islamic history. The Sasanians were the last of the ancient Persian dynasties and are best known as the pre-eminent practitioners of the Zoroastrian religion. Founded by Ardashir l in 224 CE, the Sasanian Empire was the dominant force in the Middle East for several centuries until its last king, Yazdgerd lll, was defeated by the Muslim Arabs in the seventh century. In this concise yet comprehensive book, Touraj Daryaee provides an unrivalled account of Sasanian Persia. Drawing on extensive new sources, he paints a vivid portrait of Sasanian life and unravels the divergent strands that contributed to the making of this great empire. This new edition includes updated economic and political histories as well as several inscriptions that have been found in recent years.

Coming of Age in Byzantium

Coming of Age in Byzantium PDF Author: Despoina Ariantzi
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN: 3110576600
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 387

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Book Description
The various phases of life and their manifestations in theory and social reality constitute a well-established area of research in the fields of western medieval studies and ancient history. In this respect the Byzantine East has been widely neglected. This volume will focus on the Byzantine experience of adolescence, which may be defined as the biological transition from childhood to adulthood as well as the social and psychological experience of leaving the care of parents, guardians and family groups and the gradual integration into adult society. The contributions gathered therein treat seven subtopics that correspond to crucial questions in the current research on adolescence: the legal status of adolescents; the mechanisms of transition from childhood to adolescence; the socialisation and gradual integration into adult society; adolescents in Byzantine art; psychological aspects of adolescence from medieval to modern times; illnesses of adolescents; adolescents in the western medieval world.The focus is on the Middle and Late Byzantine Period, where historical, hagiographical,legal and medical sources offer rich material for an investigation of these aspects. The book contributes to a better understanding of all these questions and to show future trajectories for research.

Eastern Rome and the Rise of Islam

Eastern Rome and the Rise of Islam PDF Author: Olof Heilo
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317326636
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 163

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Book Description
The emergence of Islam in the seventh century AD still polarises scholars who seek to separate religious truth from the historical reality with which it is associated. However, history and prophecy are not solely defined by positive evidence or apocalyptic truth, but by human subjects, who consider them to convey distinct messages and in turn make these messages meaningful to others. These messages are mutually interdependent, and analysed together provide new insights into history. It is by way of this concept that Olof Heilo presents the decline of the Eastern Roman Empire as a key to understanding the rise of Islam; two historical processes often perceived as distinct from one another. Eastern Rome and the Rise of Islam highlights significant convergences between Early Islam and the Late Ancient world. It suggests that Islam’s rise is a feature of a common process during which tensions between imperial ambitions and apocalyptic beliefs in Europe and the Middle East cut straight across today’s theological and political definitions. The conquests of Islam, the emergence of the caliphate, and the transformation of the Roman and Christian world are approached from both prophetic anticipations in the Ancient and Late Ancient world, and from the Medieval and Modern receptions of history. In the shadow of their narratives it becomes possible to trace the outline of a shared history of Christianity and Islam. The "Dark Ages" thus emerge not merely as a tale of sound and fury, but as an era of openness, diversity and unexpected possibilities. Approaching the rise of Islam as a historical phenomenon, this book opens new perspectives in the study of early religion and philosophy, as well as providing a valuable resource for students and scholars of Islamic Studies.

Jawanmardi

Jawanmardi PDF Author: Lloyd Ridgeon
Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
ISBN: 0748645993
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 224

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Book Description
How did medieval Sufis express their system of everyday morality? Sufism attracts much attention in the West, yet its ethical dimension is often overlooked. Jawanmardi--a key element of Persian Sufism--was the ethic that encouraged the Sufi to put others before himself and to overlook the sins committed by others, representing a humane and liberal understanding of Islam. Many writers in the Persian tradition wrote about jawanmardi and this book presents three of the key medieval texts in translation: Kitab al-futuwwa by Shihab al-Din Umar Suhrawardi, Futuwwat nama of Mirza 'Abd al-'Azim Khan Qarib, and Risala -yi Hatim al-Tayy by Husayn Wa'iz-i Kashifi. The texts are drawn from across the medieval period, reflecting different timeframes and audiences. This allows the reader to identify shifts in the ethic of jawanmardi and Sufism more generally

Ethics of War and Peace in Iran and Shi'i Islam

Ethics of War and Peace in Iran and Shi'i Islam PDF Author: Mohammad Jafar Amir Mahallati
Publisher: University of Toronto Press
ISBN: 1442629517
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 364

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Book Description
5 War and Peace in Shi'i Primary Narratives and Sources -- 6 Traditional Shi'i Ethics of War and Peace Untested: Jihad, Ideology, Revolution, and War -- 7 Postwar Revision and the Reconstruction of Modern Iranian-Shi'i Ethics of War and Peace -- 8 Terrorism and Shi'i Theologies of Martyrdom, Nonviolence, and Forgiveness -- 9 Diplomacy in between Nuclear Technology and Antibomb Theology -- Conclusion: Beyond a Minority Mentality: The Emerging Shi'i-Iranian Cosmopolitanism

Crime, Poverty and Survival in the Middle East and North Africa

Crime, Poverty and Survival in the Middle East and North Africa PDF Author: Stephanie Cronin
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1838603972
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 329

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Book Description
The concept of the 'dangerous classes' was born in a rapidly urbanizing and industrializing nineteenth century Europe. It described all those who had fallen out of the working classes into the lower depths of the new societies, surviving by their wits or various amoral, disreputable or criminal strategies. This included beggars and vagrants, swindlers, pickpockets and burglars, prostitutes and pimps, ex-soldiers, ex-prisoners, tricksters, drug-dealers, the unemployed or unemployable, indeed every type of the criminal and marginal. This book examines the 'dangerous classes' in the Middle East and North Africa, their lives and the strategies they used to avoid, evade, cheat, placate or, occasionally, resist, the authorities. Chapters cover the narratives of their lives; their relationship with 'respectable' society; their political inclinations and their role in shaping systems and institutions of discipline and control and their representation in literature and in popular culture. The book demonstrates the liminality of the 'dangerous classes' and their capacity for re-invention. It also indicates the sharpening relevance of the concept to a Middle East and North Africa now in the grip of an almost permanent sense of crisis, its younger generations crippled by a pervasive sense of hopelessness, prone to petty crime and vulnerable to induction as foot soldiers into drug and people smuggling, petty gangsterism and jihadism.

Revolution

Revolution PDF Author: Saïd Amir Arjomand
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 0226026841
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 407

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Book Description
A revolution is a discontinuity: one political order replaces another, typically through whatever violent means are available. Modern theories of revolutions tend neatly to bracket the French Revolution of 1789 with the fall of the Soviet Union two hundred years later, but contemporary global uprisings—with their truly multivalent causes and consequences—can overwhelm our ability to make sense of them. In this authoritative new book, Saïd Amir Arjomand reaches back to antiquity to propose a unified theory of revolution. Revolution illuminates the stories of premodern rebellions from the ancient world, as well as medieval European revolts and more recent events, up to the Arab Spring of 2011. Arjomand categorizes revolutions in two groups: ones that expand the existing body politic and power structure, and ones that aim to erode—but paradoxically augment—their authority. The revolutions of the past, he tells us, can shed light on the causes of those of the present and future: as long as centralized states remain powerful, there will be room for greater, and perhaps forceful, integration of the politically disenfranchised.