Islamic History Series before you read this, first read part I As I said earlier, the Umayyads were able to operate on a religious level in their claim on authority primarily because they were the symbolic embodiment of the communal unity that Muhammad had established decades earlier. What it meant to be a "Muslim" still … Continue reading Islamic History, Part 20: the Islamic Opposition and the Abbasid Revolution (705-750), Part II
Category: islamic history
Islamic History, part 21: The Abbasids take over (750-786)
Islamic History SeriesWell, it's been a while since I had time to put one of these together. Sorry about that. Trying to eke out some freelance work and desperately looking for a regular gig kind of saps your will for big projects, I find.Aside from lacking the time to undertake another chapter of this series, … Continue reading Islamic History, part 21: The Abbasids take over (750-786)
Islamic History, part 22: the Caliphate of Harun al-Rashid (786-809)
Islamic History Series It's not my intention to spend a lot of future entries on individual caliphs, because that would take forever and because, from this point on, there aren't a lot of caliphs who warrant that much space. But Harun al-Rashid does. If there's one caliph from the Abbasid period who epitomizes what the … Continue reading Islamic History, part 22: the Caliphate of Harun al-Rashid (786-809)
Islamic History, part 23: another civil war and the caliphate of al-Maʾmun (809-833)
Islamic History Series Assuming that I manage to keep going with this series, things are going to get a lot more, well, a lot more everything, really, moving forward. The political situation is going to get more complicated, because, believe it or not, this whole caliphate thing isn't going to remain stable much longer (actually … Continue reading Islamic History, part 23: another civil war and the caliphate of al-Maʾmun (809-833)
Islamic History, part 24: the Islamic West through the early 10th century
Islamic History Series OK, I know last time I said we'd be getting onto Islamic theology with this one, but that's coming next time. Instead, let's talk about what's going on in North Africa and Spain in the period through 909 (in Africa) and 912 (in Spain), because if we don't do it now we'll … Continue reading Islamic History, part 24: the Islamic West through the early 10th century
Islamic History, part 25: early Islamic theology
We're getting into a potentially sensitive area (or back into one, since we've been down this road before), so I want to preface this by saying that I am not a theologian, I never went to divinity school, and I'm not here to assess the truth claims of any particular religion or sect. I'm covering … Continue reading Islamic History, part 25: early Islamic theology
Islamic History, part 26: early Shiʿa history (661-c. 800)
Islamic History Series For the most part, what we've covered until this point has been the history of Sunni Islam. The Rashidun, the Umayyads, the Abbasids, Spain and North Africa, early theology, all of these stories have belonged largely within the Sunni tradition. The irony there is that "Sunni Islam," like most religious majorities (85-90% … Continue reading Islamic History, part 26: early Shiʿa history (661-c. 800)
Islamic History, part 27: early Shiʿa traditions (632-c. 800)
Islamic History Series So last time out we looked at the history we've already covered from the perspective of the emerging Shiʿa minority. Here we'll take a (hopefully shorter) look at Shiʿism itself as it began to emerge over the first century and a half after Muhammad's death. That will then take us back to … Continue reading Islamic History, part 27: early Shiʿa traditions (632-c. 800)
Islamic History, part 28: Islamic legal terms
Islamic History Series If I listed all the caveats I should list about this episode of our series, this post would be nothing but caveats. Suffice it to say that there are lots of people who spend their entire lives pursuing a study of Law, and lots of people who spend their entire lives pursuing … Continue reading Islamic History, part 28: Islamic legal terms
University of Birmingham finds what might be the oldest Qurʾanic text in existence
Infirmities notwithstanding, I couldn't let this story pass by without at least mentioning it. Researchers at the University of Birmingham in the UK have found a manuscript of a part of the Qurʾan that can be dated to the middle of the 7th century CE, shortly after Muhammad's death: Radiocarbon analysis has dated the parchment … Continue reading University of Birmingham finds what might be the oldest Qurʾanic text in existence
The Foreign Exchanges Companion 