The Court of the Caliphs: The Rise and Fall of Islam's Greatest Dynasty

Kennedy, Hugh

ISBN 10: 0297830007 / ISBN 13: 9780297830009

Published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2005

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Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Court of the Caliphs: The Rise and Fall of Islam's Greatest Dynasty
• Publisher: Weidenfeld & Nicolson
• Publication Date: 2005
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0297830007
• ISBN 13: 9780297830009
• Binding: Hardcover
• Condition: new

About this title

Synopsis

From a rebellion planned in a remote desert town to the founding of Baghdad in AD 762, the rule of the Abbasid dynasty was looked back on as the golden era of the Islamic Conquest. The Muslim world was ruled by a single sovereign, who waged war against the Byzantines and protected the holy cities of Mecca and Medina. For the last time in history, a mighty empire was based on the ancient Mesopotamian heartland that had once supported the Sumerians, Babylonians and Assyrians.
Every element of his story is drawn from the original Arabic texts: 'the writers of the ninth and tenth centuries knew their rulers had their fair share of human frailties and were quite happy to describe them. To produce a sanitized and whitewashed version of history does no service to our understanding'. The rise and fall of the last great empire centred on the Tigris and Euphrates should be as well known as the histories of Ancient Greece or Rome.

About the Author

Hugh Kennedy has taught at the University of St. Andrews. He was elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 2000.