The Middle East: A Brief History of the Last 2,000 Years

Type
Book
Authors
ISBN 10
0684832801 
Category
900-GEOGRAPHY AND HISTORY  [ Browse Items ]
Publication Year
1995 
Publisher
Pages
448 
Subject
Middle East -- History; 
Abstract
As the birthplace of three religions as and many civilizations, the Middle East has for centuries been a center of knowledge and ideas, of techniques and commodities, and, at times, of military and political power. With the histoical -- and still growing -- importance of the Middle East in modern politics, historian Bernard Lewis's cogent and scholarly writing brings a wider understanding of the cultures of the region to a popular audience.

In this immensely readable and broad history, Lewis charts the successive transformations of the Middle East, beginning with the two great empires, the Roman and the Persian, whose disputes divided the region two thousand years ago the development of monotheism and the growth of Christianity the astonishingly rapid rise and spread of Islam over a vast area the waves of invaders from the East and the Mongol hordes of Jengiz Khan the rise of the Ottoman Turks in Anatoia, the Mamluks in Egypt and the Safavids in Iran the peak and decline of the great Ottoman states and the changing balance of power between the Muslim and Christian worlds.

Within this narrative, Lewis details the myriad forces that have shaped the history of the Middle East: the Islamic relgion and legal system the traditions of government the immense variety of trade and the remarkably wide range of crops the elites -- military, commercial, religious, intellectual and artistic -- and the commonality, including such socially distinct groups as slaves, women and non-believers.

He finally weaves these threads together by looking at the pervasive impact in modern times of Western ideas and technology, and the responses and reactions they evoked. Rich with vivid detail and the knowledge of a great scholar, this brilliant survey of the history and civilizations of the Middle East reveals the huge Islamic contribution to European life, as well as the European contribution to the islamic world. 
Biblio Notes
Contents

Part 1 Introduction………………………………………………................................P. 1

Part II Antecedents
1. Before Christianity………………………………………................................P. 21
2. Before Islam……………………………………………….................................P. 33

Part III The Dawn and Noon of Islam
3. Origins ……………………………………………………….................................P. 51
4. The Abbasid Caliphate………………………………………...........................P. 75
5. The Coming of the Steppe peoples………………………….....................P. 86
6. The Mongol Aftermath………………………………………...........................P. 102
7. The Gunpowder Empires……………………………………..........................P. 111

Part IV Cross-Sections
8. The State…………………………………………………….................................P. 133
9. The Economy………………………………………………................................P. 157
10. The Elites ……………………………………………………................................P. 179
11. The Commonalty…………………………………………….............................P. 205
12. Religion and Law…………………………………………….............................P. 218
13. Culture……………………………………………………….................................P. 244

Part V The Challenges of Modernity
14. Challenge……………………………………………………................................P. 273
15. Change……………………………………………………….................................P. 286
16. Response and Reaction……………………………………...........................P. 305
17. New Ideas ………………………………………………………............................P. 315
18. From War To War………………………………………………..........................P. 332
19. From Freedom to Freedom…………………………………….......................P. 357

 
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