What do you think?
Rate this book
Impérios Islâmicos - Quinze Cidades que Definem uma Civilização
Justin Marozzi passou a maior parte da sua vida no mundo muçulmano, em locais como o Iraque, a Líbia, o Afeganistão, o Paquistão, o Egito, Marrocos, a Tunísia, a Síria, o Líbano e a Somália.
É ex-administrador da Royal Geographical Society e investigador sénior de Jornalismo e Compreensão Popular de História na Universidade de Buckingham.
É ex-administrador da Royal Geographical Society e investigador sénior de Jornalismo e Compreensão Popular de História na Universidade de Buckingham.
584 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2019
213 people are currently reading
2180 people want to read
About the author
Justin Marozzi
12 books73 followers[Excerpt from http://www.justinmarozzi.com/about/]
Justin is a travel writer, historian, journalist and political risk and security consultant. He has travelled extensively in the Middle East and Muslim world and in recent years has worked in conflict and post-conflict environments such as Iraq, Afghanistan and Darfur. He graduated from Cambridge with a Starred Double First in History in 1993, before studying Broadcast Journalism at Cardiff University and winning a scholarship to the University of Pennsylvania to read a Masters in International Relations. After working in the BBC World Service on ‘News Hour’ and BBC Westminster on ‘Today in Parliament’, he joined the Financial Times as a foreign correspondent in Manila, where he also wrote for The Economist. During his time in the Far East, he shared a Winnebago with Imelda Marcos, a helicopter with the Philippine president and his mistress, and a curry with Aung San Suu Kyi whilst under house arrest in Rangoon.
His first book, South from Barbary, was an account of a 1,200-mile expedition by camel along the slave routes of the Libyan Sahara, described by the desert explorer and SAS veteran Michael Asher as “the first significant journey across the Libyan interior for a generation”. His second, Tamerlane: Sword of Islam, Conqueror of the World, launched in Baghdad in 2004, was the best-selling biography of the world’s greatest Islamic conqueror and a Sunday Telegraph Book of the Year: “Outstanding… Justin Marozzi is the most brilliant of the new generation of travelwriter-historians.”
In 2006, he wrote Faces of Exploration, a collection of profiles of the world’s leading explorers. He has contributed to Meetings with Remarkable Muslims (an interview with the Afghan mujahid hero Ahmed Shah Massoud), The Seventy Greatest Journeys, and most recently The Art of War (essays on Genghis Khan, Kublai Khan and Tamerlane).
His latest book, published in October 2008, is The Man Who Invented History: Travels with Herodotus, based on extensive research in Turkey, Iraq, Egypt and Greece. Apart from a year working for a British security company in Iraq, an encounter with the Grand Mufti of Egypt and an investigation into outwardly religious girls performing oral sex in car-parks in Cairo, one of the many highlights of the Herodotean trail was a retsina-fuelled lunch with the nonagenarian war hero and writer Sir Patrick Leigh Fermor.
Justin is a regular contributor to a wide range of national and international publications, including the Financial Times, Spectator, Times, Sunday Telegraph, Guardian, Evening Standard, Standpoint and Prospect, where he writes on international affairs, the Muslim world and defence and security issues, and has broadcast for the BBC World Service and Radio Four.
Justin is a former member of the International Institute of Strategic Studies, a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, where he has also lectured, and an Honorary Travel Member of the Travellers Club.
Justin is a travel writer, historian, journalist and political risk and security consultant. He has travelled extensively in the Middle East and Muslim world and in recent years has worked in conflict and post-conflict environments such as Iraq, Afghanistan and Darfur. He graduated from Cambridge with a Starred Double First in History in 1993, before studying Broadcast Journalism at Cardiff University and winning a scholarship to the University of Pennsylvania to read a Masters in International Relations. After working in the BBC World Service on ‘News Hour’ and BBC Westminster on ‘Today in Parliament’, he joined the Financial Times as a foreign correspondent in Manila, where he also wrote for The Economist. During his time in the Far East, he shared a Winnebago with Imelda Marcos, a helicopter with the Philippine president and his mistress, and a curry with Aung San Suu Kyi whilst under house arrest in Rangoon.
His first book, South from Barbary, was an account of a 1,200-mile expedition by camel along the slave routes of the Libyan Sahara, described by the desert explorer and SAS veteran Michael Asher as “the first significant journey across the Libyan interior for a generation”. His second, Tamerlane: Sword of Islam, Conqueror of the World, launched in Baghdad in 2004, was the best-selling biography of the world’s greatest Islamic conqueror and a Sunday Telegraph Book of the Year: “Outstanding… Justin Marozzi is the most brilliant of the new generation of travelwriter-historians.”
In 2006, he wrote Faces of Exploration, a collection of profiles of the world’s leading explorers. He has contributed to Meetings with Remarkable Muslims (an interview with the Afghan mujahid hero Ahmed Shah Massoud), The Seventy Greatest Journeys, and most recently The Art of War (essays on Genghis Khan, Kublai Khan and Tamerlane).
His latest book, published in October 2008, is The Man Who Invented History: Travels with Herodotus, based on extensive research in Turkey, Iraq, Egypt and Greece. Apart from a year working for a British security company in Iraq, an encounter with the Grand Mufti of Egypt and an investigation into outwardly religious girls performing oral sex in car-parks in Cairo, one of the many highlights of the Herodotean trail was a retsina-fuelled lunch with the nonagenarian war hero and writer Sir Patrick Leigh Fermor.
Justin is a regular contributor to a wide range of national and international publications, including the Financial Times, Spectator, Times, Sunday Telegraph, Guardian, Evening Standard, Standpoint and Prospect, where he writes on international affairs, the Muslim world and defence and security issues, and has broadcast for the BBC World Service and Radio Four.
Justin is a former member of the International Institute of Strategic Studies, a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, where he has also lectured, and an Honorary Travel Member of the Travellers Club.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 73 reviews
March 22, 2020
I have to give this four stars just because of the ambition and the scope - mad respect to the author. The book takes us through 1500 years, one city a century. I enjoyed the chapters most when he took us through a city in the height of its prosperity and gave rich details into the economies, fashions, customs, etc. I want to hear more about how women wore their hair in 10th Century Cordoba! Tell me more about pearl-diving in early 20th century Dubai!
I struggled with chapters that ended up being mini-histories of strife without a lot of culture. 11th century Jerusalem is a history of the first crusades, 14th century Samarkand is a biography of Tamar, 15th century Constantinople is about the fight for power between the Byzantine and Ottoman empires, and I don't even know what happened in 18th century Tripoli. Not that it isn't, um, interesting - excessive amounts of torture, cannibalism, intriguing uses of severed body parts, etc - but not my cup of tea. Unless I had prior knowledge of the events (like in 14th century Samarkand), I was lost with all the power struggles.
In the end, I choose to live in 17th century Isfahan among the coffee shops and markets, or on the beautiful streets of 13th century Fez. More of that please!
I struggled with chapters that ended up being mini-histories of strife without a lot of culture. 11th century Jerusalem is a history of the first crusades, 14th century Samarkand is a biography of Tamar, 15th century Constantinople is about the fight for power between the Byzantine and Ottoman empires, and I don't even know what happened in 18th century Tripoli. Not that it isn't, um, interesting - excessive amounts of torture, cannibalism, intriguing uses of severed body parts, etc - but not my cup of tea. Unless I had prior knowledge of the events (like in 14th century Samarkand), I was lost with all the power struggles.
In the end, I choose to live in 17th century Isfahan among the coffee shops and markets, or on the beautiful streets of 13th century Fez. More of that please!
July 2, 2022
Para quem se interessa em saber como é que o esplendor da ciência, da arquitectura, da medicina, da arte, etc, islâmica se foi apagando e desaparecendo é um livro esclarecedor .
O auge de todas as 15 cidades descritas no livro, desde Granada, Bagad, Samarcanda e o actual Dubai têm em comum a tolerância e a coexistência de religiões e povos
O auge de todas as 15 cidades descritas no livro, desde Granada, Bagad, Samarcanda e o actual Dubai têm em comum a tolerância e a coexistência de religiões e povos
November 2, 2019
This books grows on you, and leaves you realising how clever it is. The 15 Islamic centuries are described on the basis of one city per century, chosen to justify a summary of what happened in a then newsworthy part of the Islamic World. Add to that a bit of a travelogue and it ends up being interesting. There are probably not many people who could write this, but he can.
I've been to 7 of them, can't go to Mecca, but my desire to go to Isfahan has been reinforced.
I've been to 7 of them, can't go to Mecca, but my desire to go to Isfahan has been reinforced.
June 24, 2021
14th book of 2021: Nomadic Empires
Everybody hates Dubai. The common critique runs that Dubai is “too new, too fake, too flashy, too lacking in history and culture, the cocky young kid on the block.” Yet along with Doha, these two cities have become neutral cities, “with echoes of Vienna in the Cold War, or a Persian Gulf version of the fictional pirate bar in the Star Wars movies.” Every other city has centuries of history, art, and culture to rely upon. So it’s easy to think of these two cities as outliers, but peel away the layers of time, and the nomadic nature of Islamic empires reveals that each of the great capitals in the Arab world each had their brief and gaudyday century in the sun.
Step back to 8th century Damascus, and rather than being able to import workers from South Asia and architects from New York, the Caliph had to resort to more direct means in order to fulfill his urban and architectural dreams. So he went to the ailing Byzantine empire and demanded 200 skilled workers for ‘ I wish to construct a mosque the like of which has never been built and never will be again. If you do not comply, I will invade your countries with my armies. He then built the Umayyad mosque, still in use today. Follow the line of capitals to 9th century Baghdad, and the trend of tolerance and cosmopolitanism soars to new heights, with the invention of the university, and sponsored scientific research. Sadly, “Over time the heterogeneous has given way to the homogeneous. Most of these cities were once vibrantly cosmopolitan, melting pots of two or three of the Abrahamic faiths and a many-layered mosaic of different communities.
Like the Byzantines after the 5th century, Arab capitals quickly descended to religious infighting and moral decrepitude little more than a century after their founding. Unlike the Byzantines, without the advantageous geography or Theodesian walls to keep out invaders, after a city fell from grace, there was little to sustain imperial culture. Thus the ancient round city of Baghdad and most of the monuments in Samarkand are lost to time.
In telling the story of cities, Marozzi shines a light on an oft overlooked missing aspect of Islamic civilization: not only the distinct culture that each city created, but the sheer number of different capitals that held sway over the Islamic world over the last 14 centuries. Each chapter is individually digestible, although I skipped over a few (like Mecca) whose stories I’ve consumed too many times. Also, the travelog into current war-torn countries felt like a rude interruption to my enjoyment of history. I’ve spent enough time in bombed out cities and don’t need an author to describe to me what bullet holes look like.
Everybody hates Dubai. The common critique runs that Dubai is “too new, too fake, too flashy, too lacking in history and culture, the cocky young kid on the block.” Yet along with Doha, these two cities have become neutral cities, “with echoes of Vienna in the Cold War, or a Persian Gulf version of the fictional pirate bar in the Star Wars movies.” Every other city has centuries of history, art, and culture to rely upon. So it’s easy to think of these two cities as outliers, but peel away the layers of time, and the nomadic nature of Islamic empires reveals that each of the great capitals in the Arab world each had their brief and gaudy
Step back to 8th century Damascus, and rather than being able to import workers from South Asia and architects from New York, the Caliph had to resort to more direct means in order to fulfill his urban and architectural dreams. So he went to the ailing Byzantine empire and demanded 200 skilled workers for ‘ I wish to construct a mosque the like of which has never been built and never will be again. If you do not comply, I will invade your countries with my armies. He then built the Umayyad mosque, still in use today. Follow the line of capitals to 9th century Baghdad, and the trend of tolerance and cosmopolitanism soars to new heights, with the invention of the university, and sponsored scientific research. Sadly, “Over time the heterogeneous has given way to the homogeneous. Most of these cities were once vibrantly cosmopolitan, melting pots of two or three of the Abrahamic faiths and a many-layered mosaic of different communities.
Like the Byzantines after the 5th century, Arab capitals quickly descended to religious infighting and moral decrepitude little more than a century after their founding. Unlike the Byzantines, without the advantageous geography or Theodesian walls to keep out invaders, after a city fell from grace, there was little to sustain imperial culture. Thus the ancient round city of Baghdad and most of the monuments in Samarkand are lost to time.
In telling the story of cities, Marozzi shines a light on an oft overlooked missing aspect of Islamic civilization: not only the distinct culture that each city created, but the sheer number of different capitals that held sway over the Islamic world over the last 14 centuries. Each chapter is individually digestible, although I skipped over a few (like Mecca) whose stories I’ve consumed too many times. Also, the travelog into current war-torn countries felt like a rude interruption to my enjoyment of history. I’ve spent enough time in bombed out cities and don’t need an author to describe to me what bullet holes look like.
May 27, 2020
When I picked this book, I supposed it would provide me a unique perspective that would enrich me with immense knowledge. But I was wrong. It seems me purely biased book that intends to defame a religion and its followers. Moreover, on some occasions, the writer appears entirely unaware of the religion, Islam, and its historical background. The sources he took to support his stances are little known to Islamic scholars or to those who have studied Islam deeply but don't belong to the Muslim community.
October 27, 2022
The Islamic world has seen empires rise and fall as their strong founders see their descendants become weak pleasure loving leaders whose weakness leads to civil wars or conquest by more able empires. The cycle of empires rising and falling is reflected in the great cities that went from being centers of wealth, splendid universities, trade, and the arts to former shadows of themselves. The author is a very erudite as seen by the amount of historical facts that the reader finds within. The end of the book gives us Doha and Dubai whose rulers see themselves as inheritors of the older great Islamic cities Cordoba and Bagdad at it's classical zenith. These new cities will eventually fall like the others leaving only Islam as the only thing to endure. I like reading about the great scientists and poets of the great cities and amazed at how tolerant they were to other religions.
March 16, 2020
Superb overview — but incomplete
This is really a wonderful book and gives a very thorough overview of 15 of the Islamic world’s greatest cities but I dock a mark because, despite the protestations of the author as to why, any purported overview of Islamic civilization cannot really be complete if it leaves out completely the Indian Subcontinent which makes up, in terms of population, about a third of the world’s entire Muslim population. If this book had included Lahore, Delhi and Lucknow then it would have been complete. Also you cannot leave out Jakarta, capital of the world’s most populous Muslim nation. I hope these minor gripes are addressed in a second edition. Overall highly recommended for its objective and well researched and beautifully written histories of these cities.
This is really a wonderful book and gives a very thorough overview of 15 of the Islamic world’s greatest cities but I dock a mark because, despite the protestations of the author as to why, any purported overview of Islamic civilization cannot really be complete if it leaves out completely the Indian Subcontinent which makes up, in terms of population, about a third of the world’s entire Muslim population. If this book had included Lahore, Delhi and Lucknow then it would have been complete. Also you cannot leave out Jakarta, capital of the world’s most populous Muslim nation. I hope these minor gripes are addressed in a second edition. Overall highly recommended for its objective and well researched and beautifully written histories of these cities.
September 7, 2019
An outstanding, informative, erudite, and enjoyable work of the very highest quality. I would highly recommend this book to anyone with an interest in the history and cultures of the world.
July 19, 2021
I stopped halfway reading this book.
When i picked this book up i had high hopes of getting an insight about the Islamic empire, the book has sadly disappointed me.
There are some points made which are Islamic accuret. At some chapters it feels like the writer had forgetten to write about the islamic inluence in the named city's/country and the empires which some importend and respected muslims had built.
This book mainly focuses on the speculations and rumors about some named people, which can come over as offensieve.
I don't know if the information given in this book is Islamic or historicly confirmed, my doubts about that are high.
The writer self is not a muslim, so i wonder if the written information are true based on research and experience visiting the named country's.
But there were some very interesting and accuret information in some of the chapters.
When i picked this book up i had high hopes of getting an insight about the Islamic empire, the book has sadly disappointed me.
There are some points made which are Islamic accuret. At some chapters it feels like the writer had forgetten to write about the islamic inluence in the named city's/country and the empires which some importend and respected muslims had built.
This book mainly focuses on the speculations and rumors about some named people, which can come over as offensieve.
I don't know if the information given in this book is Islamic or historicly confirmed, my doubts about that are high.
The writer self is not a muslim, so i wonder if the written information are true based on research and experience visiting the named country's.
But there were some very interesting and accuret information in some of the chapters.
September 30, 2022
“Today the great Islamic Empires are long gone, the lustre of their capital cities sadly dimmed. The best days of almost all the fifteen cities remembered in these pages are probably behind them, like those of other earlier empires headquartered in Athens, Rome and London. Yet in the Asian Century we now inhabit, we can perhaps still make out the echoes of their magnificence, tolerance and invention and their restless, cosmopolitan, risk-taking populations, in cities such as Dubai and Doha. Today, amid all the turmoil in the heart of the Islamic world, the great achievements of its history and the possibilities for its future should not be forgotten.”
Loved it. Books always talk about the oil boom, and our development because of oil revenue. But in reality, it all started with a pearl, and an anonymous diver.
Loved it. Books always talk about the oil boom, and our development because of oil revenue. But in reality, it all started with a pearl, and an anonymous diver.
August 27, 2020
“Brilliant, evocative and erudite . . . a work of love and a homage to a place that has somehow survived the depredations of its conquerors, the fractiousness of its population and the duplicity of its rulers.”
What happened to us? The question haunts us in the Arab and Muslim world. They repeat it like a mantra. You will hear it from Iran to Syria, from Saudi Arabia to Pakistan. The past is a different country, one not mired in the horrors of sectarian killings. It is a more vibrant place, without the crushing intolerance of religious zealots and seemingly endless, amorphous wars.
It has a turbulent history, the countless bloodbaths over strife of succession, unjustified coups, relentless wars but all are contained in time and space. As the sands of Arabia have shifted, the crescent over the Levant has risen and set, vindictive dynasts have wielded, exploited, and distorted religion in the pursuit of raw power. Today the chador, the all-enveloping black cloth masks the blunt truth of conservatism. Now this is what schools teach all across the world, news anchors scream at you and bureaucrats utter in damp speeches. Extremism and bloodletting of today haven’t always been the norm. The people of Islamic caliphates have been triumphant in the battle of ideas, their cities unrivalled homes of artistic grandeur, spiritual sanctity and forward thinking. This is what author; Justin Marozzi brings out in Islamic Empires: Fifteen Cities That Define a Civilization.
As malignant defame, ravages of conflict and corrupt leadership plague the Arab world, Marozzi opens in conversation with a Tunisian friend who is “embarrassed to be Arab these days,” distressed as he is by the “chaos, fighting bloodshed, dictatorship, corruption, injustice, unemployment.” These were the days when the Arab Spring was in its infancy, yet to bring a wave of protests across the south Mediterranean. For his friend to take pride in himself, Marozzi advises him to think back when, “for an Arab Muslim, pride in occupying the very summit of the global pecking order”. Its colourful, narrative history of the finest kinds: pacey, crimson and fraught with controversy. A journalist’s pedantic notes fused with a story of a golden age.
The author offers potted histories of 15 mainly Arab cities across the Golden Age of Islam. He picks them during their most opulent eras: Baghdad in the ninth century; Cairo in the 12th; Constantinople in the 15th; Isfahan in the 17th; ending with Doha in the 21st. As a journalist, he has visited nearly all the cities he describes, and starts his chapters by speaking to interlocutors often depressed about the state of the country. Then he swiftly whisks us back into a glorious past, emphasizing the most lurid tales.
Islam began amid the parched Hijaz desert, necessarily starting in Mecca, the book begins there too. It provides intangible aspiration, haunting the non-believers, it has been from where Arab horsemen surged out of the desert, leaving behind a blazing trail of Islamic conquest beyond the peninsula into the north and west, and it has never looked back since. From Umayyad Damascus to Abbasid Baghdad; it chronicles the feat of a religion turned to the way of life we know today. Scepticism trudges down the same path as livid descriptions, but is selective.
His intellectual history is quite shaky. Euphemism replaces criticism frequently. He simplifies the narrative to suit modern tastes, pitting “conservative clerics with closed minds” against “the free-wheeling philosophical, religious and scientific discussions” at the Abbasid court. Ignored even are the sharia scholars who also contributed to Islamic intellectual culture. Rather there’s no escaping (who would want to?) the endless procession of medieval caravan historians and their dazzling details. One is transported, to the markets of Abbasid Baghdad, dizzied by commercialism; the boundless libraries of Fez; glamorous nights in the souks of Beirut; apocalyptic Jerusalem after the Crusades; provincial towers donning the Cairo on the banks of the Nile; at a poetic feast in Timur’s Samarkand. . . The author’s abiding theme is that the mark of every successful Islamic empire and/or its capital was diversity and tolerance. But what actually connects these disparate times and places? Is there something essentially Islamic in glorifying violence, louche hedonism and conservative intellect? Both go unanswered, but one can draw a substantial conclusion after finishing this bountiful volume.
After reading the colourful narratives of an eve of celebration in each city’s history, all are prone to evident collapse at the end. There emerges a wearyingly inevitable pattern, typically within just a couple of generations, of imperial cities regressing into close-minded, purgative misrule – followed swiftly by defeat, plunder and the burning of social pillars. Every chapter has a tainted beautiful high of perpetual charm but at the end succumbs to the free soul that longs to escape the cage of limits. History is bound to repeat itself, and it cautiously does, at the dawn of each century but cities are not broken they are transformed.
The author’s immersion and passion for his subject deserve much admiration. But his seemingly random city selections (modern centres of Islam, such as India, Indonesia and Philippines are missing), historical omissions do not. Overall it was a much sought after learning opportunity. The spirit of Islam and its people is beyond the sects of leadership, it’s a celebration of hidden liberty. We all have got expectations but sometimes they do get right.
For more such reviews visit and follow my blog
https://crackabookopen.wordpress.com/
Read
October 10, 2020This was a helpful introduction to a dizzying number of historical topics that I now want to find other books about. The conceit of learning about empires through their major cities was an interesting idea, but perhaps not entirely well executed. The main thing that concerned me was the description of slavery. Pretty much every city is described as cosmopolitan, tolerant, and diverse due primarily to the fact that thousands of enslaved people were being forced to live and work there. The author glides over this little detail in a cheerily unconcerned way (!). It seems to in no way affect his admiration of the empires he writes about. He also has very little interest in exploring this topic or looking at the historical ramifications. Even regarding present-day Dubai, he writes that if you are “not one of the many debt-ridden migrant South Asian workers toiling beneath the pitiless sun,“ Dubai is pretty fun to live in, and that in fact “It is one of the great success stories of the Arab world in recent decades...[and] surely exemplifies the wisdom and benefits of tolerance, free trade and efficient governance.” Excuse me?
February 13, 2021
I learnt a lot from this book, an introduction to the history of the Muslim world told through its great cities.
June 12, 2024
Great history book! very much a dip in and out type thing
November 4, 2025
The content was interesting, but the writing was a bit dry. I think I’m just a bit burned out on nonfiction at this point
March 13, 2021
Very well written chronology of the rise and fall of 15 cities that define Islamic civilization. What is definitely interesting is the info on how each of these cities when at their pinnacle were both cosmopolitan and tolerant. A far cry from what they have become today.
October 19, 2024
Immense respect for covering such a large scale topic, theme and the scope provided is pretty decent considering that you can only fit so much in a book before it becomes an eyesore. Some omissions concerning choices of cities (heavy on the SWANA [Arab] region, less so on Asia or non Arab histories). It’s a sweeping, grand historical narrative and although I trust the sources/guides Marozzi uses, it’s less concerned with technical matters or specific phases of each city’s history so you could argue he did less justice to some than others. I liked this style though - it felt conversational, adventurous and therefore enjoyable to read. I liked his narrative voice - it was authorial, confident and I’m envious of his willingness to have such dramatic flair. Would highly recommend! Onto Tamerlane next…🤓
July 31, 2022
I would read and reread this book endlessly ! It is the kind of book that requires your attention, memory and the cultural background you have to understand it. It shows in a captivating way the evolution of Islam between the 7th and 20th centuries, through the story of its rulers and capitals, from the Prophet Muhammad and Mecca to the glittering Dubai and Doha of today, with their emirs and sheikhs. It is fascinating by the coherence of the stories, the richness of the information, by the Muslim world that it describes with passion, involvement and a good knowledge of its history and present. It manages to portray an extremely complex world, with a fantastic past, equally harsh and delicate, poor and opulent, ignorant and erudite, which left humanity symbols of its value and potential. Valuable in terms of subject matter, information and writing quality.
November 27, 2023
There are two aspects of Islamic Civilization that never cease to amaze me. One is the vast diversity that manifests itself in differing cultural expressions of Islam. The other is the centering of Islamic culture and power around great cities. This book highlights both. By picking cities from different corners of the Muslim-majority world as well as different historical contexts, Marozzi paints a vivid picture of the rich cultural legacy of Islamic civilization. My one criticism of the book is that while I appreciated the inclusion of Doha and Abu Dhabi, I did find the chapters to be a little redundant. I do recognize that they are not identical and differ both in the historical circumstances of their founding and their modern-day geopolitics. However, for the purposes of this book I think a chapter on one or the other would have sufficed. Then, a chapter could have been dedicated to a city in South/South East Asia or Sub-Saharan Africa instead (important areas not directly represented by any of the cities discussed).
July 9, 2020
Intense and time-traveling review
This book provides a well researched and magnificently written survey of 15 great Islamic cities stretching from antiquity to modern times. Throughout this journey, you learn lesser known facets (in the Western Christian world) of life in medieval Muslim empires, and the height of Islamic civilization across large swaths of Europe, Africa, and Asia, including the origins of scientific and social customs adopted by the West which endure to this day. I highly recommend this book to any serious student of humanity who seeks a fascinating introduction to Islamic history.
This book provides a well researched and magnificently written survey of 15 great Islamic cities stretching from antiquity to modern times. Throughout this journey, you learn lesser known facets (in the Western Christian world) of life in medieval Muslim empires, and the height of Islamic civilization across large swaths of Europe, Africa, and Asia, including the origins of scientific and social customs adopted by the West which endure to this day. I highly recommend this book to any serious student of humanity who seeks a fascinating introduction to Islamic history.
February 13, 2021
The chapter on Tripoli is especially vile and one of the most evil things I've read in a while.
December 23, 2024
It is a rare occurrence that a book throws open the windows inside you, to let light through in after ages of captivity. “Islamic Empires” did that to me. Justin Marozzi has carefully picked 15 cities - one city for a century - since the inception of Islam, starting from Mecca of the 7th all the way to Doha of the 21st. It takes you on an extra-ordinary journey, through empires that Islam set up over the course of its defining conquests across the globe.
The glory in which 8th Century Damascus basked - the majesty and the tragedy of it all - Syria reminded of India, in the sense of being a Palimpsest of civilizations and religions. The story of a whole splendorous city erected at an almost vacant premise by Al-Mansoor and later nurtured into unparalleled fame by his grandson Haroon Al-Rashid, Marozzi’s narration on the 9th century Abbasid Baghdad makes you go spell-bound.
The 10th century Cordoba, Andalusia was a stunning revelation; a lone standing empire emerging from the leadership of a fleeing Umawi prince placed in today’s Europe. Beyond that, delight was to find how the remains of its once magnificent Muslim past still stand in testimony. Although wrecked tremendously, the Author tells us how parts of the glorious Madinat Zahra have survived the test of time.
Descriptions of Salahuddin Ayyubi’s 12th century Cairo and the glitters of Timur’s 14th century Samarkand is intensely tempting and prompts one to put those cities right at the top of a bucket list. However, the most over-whelming of emotions arrived when I touched down Istanbul while turning the last page of the 15th century Constantinople. Without Justin Marozzi’s introduction on Al-Fatih’s conquest and the Ottoman era thereafter, my visit to Turkey would have been depressingly different.
The author’s pick of 17th century Isfahan marks the Shia representation in the book – without which the index would have looked odd. And it all ends with a brilliant, exciting climax putting forth Dubai and Doha as the cities of the 20th and 21st centuries respectively. Having lived almost all my life in Qatar, I couldn’t have asked for a better landing to this journey.
As Marozzi stresses in the preface, this could be quite a personal selection. One would easily catch that Lahore and Delhi are missing. A few alternates are also striking; Samarkand is picked over Bukhara, Damascus against Aleppo, despite all these other cities having sparkled once across the Islamic sphere. However, regardless of how non-exhaustive the list is and how pathetically contrary are the contemporary images of most of these cities, Justin Marozzi’s book gives a panoramic view of the Islamic civilization. The very idea of it was instantly irresistible and the book exceeded expectations.
The glory in which 8th Century Damascus basked - the majesty and the tragedy of it all - Syria reminded of India, in the sense of being a Palimpsest of civilizations and religions. The story of a whole splendorous city erected at an almost vacant premise by Al-Mansoor and later nurtured into unparalleled fame by his grandson Haroon Al-Rashid, Marozzi’s narration on the 9th century Abbasid Baghdad makes you go spell-bound.
The 10th century Cordoba, Andalusia was a stunning revelation; a lone standing empire emerging from the leadership of a fleeing Umawi prince placed in today’s Europe. Beyond that, delight was to find how the remains of its once magnificent Muslim past still stand in testimony. Although wrecked tremendously, the Author tells us how parts of the glorious Madinat Zahra have survived the test of time.
Descriptions of Salahuddin Ayyubi’s 12th century Cairo and the glitters of Timur’s 14th century Samarkand is intensely tempting and prompts one to put those cities right at the top of a bucket list. However, the most over-whelming of emotions arrived when I touched down Istanbul while turning the last page of the 15th century Constantinople. Without Justin Marozzi’s introduction on Al-Fatih’s conquest and the Ottoman era thereafter, my visit to Turkey would have been depressingly different.
The author’s pick of 17th century Isfahan marks the Shia representation in the book – without which the index would have looked odd. And it all ends with a brilliant, exciting climax putting forth Dubai and Doha as the cities of the 20th and 21st centuries respectively. Having lived almost all my life in Qatar, I couldn’t have asked for a better landing to this journey.
As Marozzi stresses in the preface, this could be quite a personal selection. One would easily catch that Lahore and Delhi are missing. A few alternates are also striking; Samarkand is picked over Bukhara, Damascus against Aleppo, despite all these other cities having sparkled once across the Islamic sphere. However, regardless of how non-exhaustive the list is and how pathetically contrary are the contemporary images of most of these cities, Justin Marozzi’s book gives a panoramic view of the Islamic civilization. The very idea of it was instantly irresistible and the book exceeded expectations.
March 7, 2023
Overall, this book is good (not great, or even excellent; just good), relevant, and very informative on a variety of hot spots in the Islamic world. The cover design of the edition I read was very beautiful, and I enjoyed the quotes at the beginning of each chapter (I found the one at the top of Chapter 9, on Istanbul, particularly amusing).
However, Marozzi's biases as a white British (and presumably not Muslim) journalist are painfully evident at times. His air of superiority colours his writing and he seems almost to apologise to and about Muslims at times, simply for the fact that they are Muslim. It's clear that his target audience is primarily white and non-Muslim, and there is nothing wrong with that. In fact, I think that's a good thing; it is important that we all be educated, and take it upon ourselves to be educated, about the lives and histories of others. However, the way Marozzi goes about doing this is somewhat alienating. It feels almost as if he is talking about the proverbial "Muslim" with the knowledge that they are not actually in the room to hear him or comment on what it is he's saying about them. While Marozzi's book is well-written and well-researched, it smells strongly of post-colonialist orientalism.
As a historian, I might recommend this book to an undergraduate or graduate student of history, but only in addition to another book or set of books. If you are a reader who wants a single volume to educate you about the history of Islam and the Islamic world, this is not that book. But it would be good to read if you have other voices, and preferrably at least a few Muslim voices, in the mix as well.
However, Marozzi's biases as a white British (and presumably not Muslim) journalist are painfully evident at times. His air of superiority colours his writing and he seems almost to apologise to and about Muslims at times, simply for the fact that they are Muslim. It's clear that his target audience is primarily white and non-Muslim, and there is nothing wrong with that. In fact, I think that's a good thing; it is important that we all be educated, and take it upon ourselves to be educated, about the lives and histories of others. However, the way Marozzi goes about doing this is somewhat alienating. It feels almost as if he is talking about the proverbial "Muslim" with the knowledge that they are not actually in the room to hear him or comment on what it is he's saying about them. While Marozzi's book is well-written and well-researched, it smells strongly of post-colonialist orientalism.
As a historian, I might recommend this book to an undergraduate or graduate student of history, but only in addition to another book or set of books. If you are a reader who wants a single volume to educate you about the history of Islam and the Islamic world, this is not that book. But it would be good to read if you have other voices, and preferrably at least a few Muslim voices, in the mix as well.
May 21, 2023
Go back in time to the birth of Islam and for each century that passes choose a city that played an outsized role in Islam and talk about it at that time. An excellent concept that was executed very well by Justin Marozzi in his book Islamic Empires. The book was an absolute pleasure to read. Marozzi covers in order:
* Mecca (birth of Islam)
* Damascus (first Imperial Caliphate - the Umayyads)
* Baghdad (the Abbasid Caliphate)
* Cordoba (Caliphate of Cordoba)
* Jerusalem (First Crusade)
* Cairo (Fatimid Caliphate, Saladin - Ayubbid Dynasty)
* Fez (Athens of Africa, Marinid Dynasty)
* Samarkand (Timur's unification of Asian Islamic polities under the sword)
* Istanbul (Ottoman Empire and fall of Constantinople)
* Kabul (Babur and birth of the Mughal Empire)
* Isfahan (Safavid Empire, a Shia muslim empire)
* Tripoli (Karamanli Dynasty Barbary corsairs)
* Beirut (Paris of the East, city of merchant kings)
* Dubai (Maktoum - "build it and they shall come")
* Doha (Al Thanis - Oil & Gas money)
Marozzi mentions this list of cities is his personal selection influenced to a large degree by his own visits to these places. That may be the case, but selecting Tripoli & Doha over say Delhi, Kuala Lumpur, Riyadh or Teheran is hard to understand. But this is the authors prerogative and it all comes together anyway.
Marozzi writes very well, is very knowledgeable and is passionate about this part of the world. I have now procured 2 of his other books and look forward to reading them soon. "Islamic Empires" is highly recommended.
* Mecca (birth of Islam)
* Damascus (first Imperial Caliphate - the Umayyads)
* Baghdad (the Abbasid Caliphate)
* Cordoba (Caliphate of Cordoba)
* Jerusalem (First Crusade)
* Cairo (Fatimid Caliphate, Saladin - Ayubbid Dynasty)
* Fez (Athens of Africa, Marinid Dynasty)
* Samarkand (Timur's unification of Asian Islamic polities under the sword)
* Istanbul (Ottoman Empire and fall of Constantinople)
* Kabul (Babur and birth of the Mughal Empire)
* Isfahan (Safavid Empire, a Shia muslim empire)
* Tripoli (Karamanli Dynasty Barbary corsairs)
* Beirut (Paris of the East, city of merchant kings)
* Dubai (Maktoum - "build it and they shall come")
* Doha (Al Thanis - Oil & Gas money)
Marozzi mentions this list of cities is his personal selection influenced to a large degree by his own visits to these places. That may be the case, but selecting Tripoli & Doha over say Delhi, Kuala Lumpur, Riyadh or Teheran is hard to understand. But this is the authors prerogative and it all comes together anyway.
Marozzi writes very well, is very knowledgeable and is passionate about this part of the world. I have now procured 2 of his other books and look forward to reading them soon. "Islamic Empires" is highly recommended.
October 23, 2025
... 'Islam kirjutas üle kristluse, mis oli vahetanud välja paganliku Rooma mälsestusmärgid, mis olid omakorda asendanud muistsete assüürlaste omad.
Üksnes Damaskuse linn ise jäi püsima.' ...
... 'Põnev on otsida Umajaadide segatud verest, araablastest isade ja enamjaolt ristiusku emadest tolle Hispaanias kolm sajandit kestnud märkimisväärse kultuurilise kosmopolitismi geneetilisi juuri.
Alates esimestest vallutajatest-emiiridest voolasid kristlasnaistest vangid ja orjatarid Umaijaadide haaremitesse.
Mitmed sajandid kestnud kooselud berberi, ibeeria ja läänegooti naistega kujundas välja kuningasoo, kelles oli säilinud vähe araabiapärast, - küll aga rohkesti heledaid või ruugeid juukseid ja siniseid silmi.
Lastena kasvasid need tulevased valitsejad üles kuulates Kastiiliast, Leonist, Katalooniast ja Prantsusmaal pärit kristlikke rituaale, lugusid ja ballaade, elades keset arhitektuuri, mida täitsid sümbolid nii nende emade kui isade kultuuripärandist. ...
Cordoba õitses oma heledapäiste Umajaadide emiiride valitsuse all ning muutus 10.sajandil Maailma ehteks / Decus Orbis’eks.' ...
Üksnes Damaskuse linn ise jäi püsima.' ...
... 'Põnev on otsida Umajaadide segatud verest, araablastest isade ja enamjaolt ristiusku emadest tolle Hispaanias kolm sajandit kestnud märkimisväärse kultuurilise kosmopolitismi geneetilisi juuri.
Alates esimestest vallutajatest-emiiridest voolasid kristlasnaistest vangid ja orjatarid Umaijaadide haaremitesse.
Mitmed sajandid kestnud kooselud berberi, ibeeria ja läänegooti naistega kujundas välja kuningasoo, kelles oli säilinud vähe araabiapärast, - küll aga rohkesti heledaid või ruugeid juukseid ja siniseid silmi.
Lastena kasvasid need tulevased valitsejad üles kuulates Kastiiliast, Leonist, Katalooniast ja Prantsusmaal pärit kristlikke rituaale, lugusid ja ballaade, elades keset arhitektuuri, mida täitsid sümbolid nii nende emade kui isade kultuuripärandist. ...
Cordoba õitses oma heledapäiste Umajaadide emiiride valitsuse all ning muutus 10.sajandil Maailma ehteks / Decus Orbis’eks.' ...
November 6, 2021
Islamic Empires is the most delicious of feasts in history, travel writing and story-telling giving superb insight into one of the most bedevilling issues of the day -- the Islamic world. Justin Marozzi introduces us to the charismatic leaders in Muslim history, from Saladin in Cairo to the mighty Tamerlane of Samarkand and guides us around a succession of glittering, cosmopolitan capitals. Islam once lorded it over the Middle East, North Africa, Central Asia and swathes of the Indian subcontinent, while Europe cowered feebly at the margins. In the Ninth Century Baghdad had a population of 800,000 against London's mere 30,000. For centuries Islamic socoeties won on the battlefields and were triumphant in the battle of ideas, its cities unrivalled powerhouses of artistic grandeur, commercial power, spiritual sanctity and forward-looking thinking. So what happened? Justin Marozzi has travelled extensively in the Middle East and Muslim world and has worked in conflict and post-conflict environments such as Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan, Somalia and Darfur.
January 1, 2022
Due to its length and density, starting and then finishing this book took discipline, but it was worth the effort. I already feel more informed about current events; I can open a newspaper and see stories involving places in the Islamic world. Given what has happened Beirut and Kabul in 2021 alone, it’s clear these places are still relevant.
This book is successful in part because it doesn’t take any sort of stance about the course of history or current politics. Instead, it provides a survey of 15 cities - one for each of the centuries since the establishment of the Islamic religion. The author weaves in some of his experiences as a journalist and as someone with family members who came from this part of the world, but for the most part, the book is mainly about historical events and the on-going tensions between powers for control over these great cities. The author clearly delights in his subject matter, and I think this is another reason why this book is so good.
Thank you, Seattle Public Library, for having an electronic version of this great book!
This book is successful in part because it doesn’t take any sort of stance about the course of history or current politics. Instead, it provides a survey of 15 cities - one for each of the centuries since the establishment of the Islamic religion. The author weaves in some of his experiences as a journalist and as someone with family members who came from this part of the world, but for the most part, the book is mainly about historical events and the on-going tensions between powers for control over these great cities. The author clearly delights in his subject matter, and I think this is another reason why this book is so good.
Thank you, Seattle Public Library, for having an electronic version of this great book!
October 27, 2020
It only took 15 cities for Justin Marozzi to contribute diligently to the historical knowledge of most laymen. He did so with some controversies though.
Expressing his holiday account on these cities before taking his audience on a train tunnelling through the important era of history became the very format of Islamic Empires.
While 15 cities were dedicated a chapter each, I barely lasted the very first. Did Marozzi had several bad weeks whilst writing his first chapter?
It does not take knowledge on textual palaeography to establish the different tonality in his first chapter than the other fourteen!
The subtle expletive contain in it I found to be bemusing. May be he just felt inferior toward the Meccan.
A 3 star award does not mean that I got disgruntled by several explicit words. I only wished he would have provided for scholarships rather than repeating the major works out there!
With all that has been said, his works on Tamerlane, I ought not to miss!
Expressing his holiday account on these cities before taking his audience on a train tunnelling through the important era of history became the very format of Islamic Empires.
While 15 cities were dedicated a chapter each, I barely lasted the very first. Did Marozzi had several bad weeks whilst writing his first chapter?
It does not take knowledge on textual palaeography to establish the different tonality in his first chapter than the other fourteen!
The subtle expletive contain in it I found to be bemusing. May be he just felt inferior toward the Meccan.
A 3 star award does not mean that I got disgruntled by several explicit words. I only wished he would have provided for scholarships rather than repeating the major works out there!
With all that has been said, his works on Tamerlane, I ought not to miss!
October 25, 2020
From the moment I started this book, it spun a web of amazing dynasties Muslim empires have created throughout the birth of Islam. Going through each distinct city over the last 15 centuries since the advent of Islam, Justin Marozzi has accomplished a task which no other author has been able to achieve to explain the rise and decent of Islam. Since the establishment of Islam in Mecca to the modern day cities of Dubai and Doha, Justin keeps his audience engaged with a well researched transcript which depicts the highs and lows of various empires.
Must read for history buffs as it explores the dynasties and cities, some of which are less known among Muslims and non Muslims, like Fez, Samarkand, Isfahan etc. It can also work as an excellent source for tourist who would want to visit these places.
Must read for history buffs as it explores the dynasties and cities, some of which are less known among Muslims and non Muslims, like Fez, Samarkand, Isfahan etc. It can also work as an excellent source for tourist who would want to visit these places.
Read
January 1, 2021I enjoyed this book and learned a lot! Reading up on all of these cities also scratched the ol’ travel itch, which I enjoyed in present circumstances.
The book’s scope is at once a strength and its biggest weakness. We zoom over so much space and time that you can’t connect with any particular place or person. The one exception to this is the incredible travel writer Ibn Battuta, who somehow managed to see apparently the entire world in the 14th century and write about it so future generations can quote him at length in books like this. Shout outs to Ibn Battuta.
So it feels more like an anthology of essays than a book proper, but it works out because most of the essays are pretty good. I particularly liked learning about Babur and Kabul in the 16th century, Timur and Samarkand in the 14th, Dubai in the 20th, and Doha in the 21st.
The book’s scope is at once a strength and its biggest weakness. We zoom over so much space and time that you can’t connect with any particular place or person. The one exception to this is the incredible travel writer Ibn Battuta, who somehow managed to see apparently the entire world in the 14th century and write about it so future generations can quote him at length in books like this. Shout outs to Ibn Battuta.
So it feels more like an anthology of essays than a book proper, but it works out because most of the essays are pretty good. I particularly liked learning about Babur and Kabul in the 16th century, Timur and Samarkand in the 14th, Dubai in the 20th, and Doha in the 21st.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 73 reviews