Islamic Civilization in Thirty Lives: The First 1000 Years

Abstract

Intro -- Title Page -- About the Author -- Other titles of interest -- Contents -- Preface -- Conventions, abbreviations & -- equivocations -- Introduction -- Part 1: Islam & -- Empire 600-850 -- 1. Muhammad, the Prophet (632) -- 2. 'Ali, cousin, caliph and forefather of Shi'ism (661) -- 3. 'A'isha, wife of the Prophet (678) -- 4. 'Abd al-Malik, engineer of the caliphate (705) -- 5. Ibn al-Muqaffa', translator and essayist (759) -- 6. Rabi'a al-'Adawiyya, renunciant and saint (801) -- 7. al-Ma'mun, caliph-patron (833) -- Part 2: The Islamic Commonwealth 850-1050 -- 8. 'Arib, courtesan of caliphs (890) -- 9. al-Hallaj, 'the Truth' (922) -- 10. al-Tabari, traditionalist rationalist (923) -- 11. Abu Bakr al-Razi, free-thinking physician (925 or 935) -- 12. Ibn Fadlan, intrepid envoy (fl. tenth century) -- 13. Ibn Muqla, vizier, scribe, calligrapher? (940) -- 14. Mahmud of Ghazna, conqueror and patron (1030) -- 15. al-Biruni, cataloguer of nature and culture (c. 1050) -- Part 3: A Provisional Synthesis 1050-1250 -- 16. Ibn Hazm, polemicist, polymath (1064) -- 17. Karima al-Marwaziyya, hadith scholar (1070) -- 18. al-Ghazali, 'Renewer' of Islam (1111) -- 19. Abu al-Qasim Ramisht, merchant millionaire (c. 1150) -- 20. al-Idrisi, cosmopolitan cartographer (1165) -- 21. Saladin, anti-Crusader hero (1193) -- 22. Ibn Rushd (Averroes), Aristotelian monotheist (1198) -- Part 4: Disruption & -- Integration 1250-1525 -- 23. Rumi, Sufi 'poet' (1273) -- 24. Rashid al-Din, physician, courtier and global historian (1318) -- 25. al-Hilli, paragon of Shi'ism ascendant (1325) -- 26. Ibn Taymiyya, stubborn reactionary (1328) -- 27. Timur, sheep-rustler, world-conqueror (1405) -- 28. Ibn Khaldun, social theorist and historian (1406) -- 29. Mehmed II, conqueror and renaissance man (1481) -- 30. Shah Isma'il, esoteric charismatic (1524) -- Glossary.