Islamic Civilization in Thirty Lives

The First 1000 Years

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An accessible introduction to pre-modern Islam, showcasing the individuals – caliphs, law-makers, theologians, poets, mystics and scholars – who shaped the course of early Islamic history.

Religious thinkers, political leaders, law-makers, writers and philosophers have shaped the 1,400-year-long development of the world’s second-largest religion. But who were these people? What do we know of their lives, and the ways in which they influenced their societies? 

Chase F. Robinson draws on the long tradition in Muslim scholarship of commemorating in writing the biographies of notable figures, weaving these ambitious lives together to create a rich narrative of early Islamic civilization, from the Prophet Muhammad in the seventh century to the era of the world-conqueror Timur and the Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II in the fifteenth.

An illuminating read for anyone interested in learning more about this often misunderstood civilization, this book creates a vivid picture of life in all arenas of the pre-modern Islamic world.

Extent: 288 pp
Format: Paperback
Illustrations: 19
Publication date: 2018-05-03
Size: 19.8 x 13.0 cm
ISBN: 9780500293782
1. Islam and Empire 600–850 • 2. The Islamic Commonwealth 850–1050 • 3. The Sunni Synthesis 1050–1250 • 4. Conflict & Change 1250–1550

Press Reviews

A beautifully written set of brief, vividly drawn portraits
Times Higher Education




About the Author

Chase F. Robinson taught Islamic history for fourteen years at the University of Oxford before being appointed President of the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, and later Distinguished Professor of History. His extensive publications on pre-modern Islam include Islamic Historiography (2003), Empires and Elites after the Muslim Conquest: The Transformation of Northern Mesopotamia (2000) and The New Cambridge History of Islam, Vol. 1 (2010).

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