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A History of the Muslim World to 1750: The Making of a Civilization
A History of the Muslim World to 1750 traces the development of Islamic civilization from the career of the Prophet Muhammad to the mid-eighteenth century. Encompassing a wide range of significant events within the period, its coverage includes the creation of the Dar al-Islam (the territory ruled by Muslims), the fragmentation of society into various religious and political groups including the Shi'ites and Sunnis, the series of catastrophes in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries that threatened to destroy the civilization, and the rise of the Ottoman, Safavid, and Mughal empires. Including the latest research from the last ten years, this second edition has been updated and expanded to cover the fifteenth to eighteenth centuries. Fully refreshed and containing over sixty images to highlight the key visual aspects, this book offers students a balanced coverage of the Muslim world from the Iberian Peninsula to South Asia, and detailed accounts of all cultures. The use of maps, primary sources, timelines, and a glossary further illuminates the fascinating yet complex world of the pre-modern Middle East. Covering art, architecture, religious institutions, theological beliefs, popular religious practice, political institutions, cuisine, and much more, A History of the Muslim World to 1750 is the perfect introduction for all students of the history of Islamic civilization and the Middle East.
- GenresIslam
568 pages, Paperback
Published November 13, 2017
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About the author
Vernon O. Egger
5 books6 followers- Professor of History at Georgia Southern University (1983)
- B.A., Baylor University, 1970;
- M.A., Ph. D., University of Michigan, 1977, 1983
* Teaching and Research Interests:
- Religious and cultural history of the modern Muslim world
- Imperialism in the Middle East
* Selected Publications:
- A History of the Muslim World: The Making of a Global Community, 1260-Present (Upper Saddle Creek, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2007)
- A History of the Muslim World: The Making of a Civilization, to 1405 (Upper Saddle Creek, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2004)
- A Fabian in Egypt: Slamah Musa and the Rise of the Professional Classes in Egypt, 1909-1939 (Lanham, Maryland: University Press of America, 1986)
- B.A., Baylor University, 1970;
- M.A., Ph. D., University of Michigan, 1977, 1983
* Teaching and Research Interests:
- Religious and cultural history of the modern Muslim world
- Imperialism in the Middle East
* Selected Publications:
- A History of the Muslim World: The Making of a Global Community, 1260-Present (Upper Saddle Creek, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2007)
- A History of the Muslim World: The Making of a Civilization, to 1405 (Upper Saddle Creek, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2004)
- A Fabian in Egypt: Slamah Musa and the Rise of the Professional Classes in Egypt, 1909-1939 (Lanham, Maryland: University Press of America, 1986)
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March 15, 2022
I had this as a textbook for a required history course in my MA program. Unlike almost everything else one tends to face in grad school, it's eminently readable, even for a lay person like myself! Full of genuinely intriguing ideas. But what really sets it apart is that it counterbalances granularity with big-picture statements. In my experience, many scholars shy away from the latter, perhaps to avoid accusations of generalizing or essentializing. But without oversimplified dichotomies, where is one to start? Looking at history books in particular, I often struggle to see the forest for the trees. With that in mind, examples of extremely helpful generalizations in Egger include the following:
-In the Abbasid era, the “law” that most Muslims followed did not come from their governments but from independent scholars called jurists; curiously, there was no single leader holding temporal and religious authority.
-A silver lining to the havoc wreaked by the Mongols was that artists and intellectuals fled from Iraq and Khorasan to the Ottoman, Mughal, and Mamluk empires, which culturally was a great boon for these new empires.
-From the 1400s to the 1700s, the Muslim world doubled in size, adding places like Java, Bengal, Xinjiang, the Horn of Africa, and Hausaland.
-In the first century after Muhammad's death, four motivations for Islamic conquests were 1) economic incentives due to spoils of war; 2) religious injunction for jihad; 3) reasserting influence (thus the term Ridda Wars); and 4) preserving cohesion within the Umma.
-Some scholars argue that Sufi lodges were a response to the grim security conditions in the era of Mongol conquests, as the lodges offered spiritual comfort, collective defense, and mutual aid.
-Something impressive about the period of 950-1260 is that even though independent Muslim states developed and began to feud with each other, they never obstructed inter-state trade, travel, pilgrimage to Mecca, or scholarly collaboration. In contrast, the Byzantine and Sasanian empires put each other at a distance by implementing major barriers to commercial and cultural exchange.
-In the Abbasid era, the “law” that most Muslims followed did not come from their governments but from independent scholars called jurists; curiously, there was no single leader holding temporal and religious authority.
-A silver lining to the havoc wreaked by the Mongols was that artists and intellectuals fled from Iraq and Khorasan to the Ottoman, Mughal, and Mamluk empires, which culturally was a great boon for these new empires.
-From the 1400s to the 1700s, the Muslim world doubled in size, adding places like Java, Bengal, Xinjiang, the Horn of Africa, and Hausaland.
-In the first century after Muhammad's death, four motivations for Islamic conquests were 1) economic incentives due to spoils of war; 2) religious injunction for jihad; 3) reasserting influence (thus the term Ridda Wars); and 4) preserving cohesion within the Umma.
-Some scholars argue that Sufi lodges were a response to the grim security conditions in the era of Mongol conquests, as the lodges offered spiritual comfort, collective defense, and mutual aid.
-Something impressive about the period of 950-1260 is that even though independent Muslim states developed and began to feud with each other, they never obstructed inter-state trade, travel, pilgrimage to Mecca, or scholarly collaboration. In contrast, the Byzantine and Sasanian empires put each other at a distance by implementing major barriers to commercial and cultural exchange.
Displaying 1 of 1 review