When Baghdad Ruled The Muslim World by Hugh Kennedy
The Rise and Fall of Islam's Greatest Dynasty
A sweeping narrative of how Baghdad grew from a newly founded Abbasid capital into the political, economic and intellectual heart of the Muslim world, recounting the city's cosmopolitan court life, administrative innovations, trade networks and the flowering of learning — the House of Wisdom, translators, scientists, philosophers and poets — that produced the classical Islamic civilization. The book traces the rise of powerful caliphs and viziers, the patronage that encouraged scholarship and cultural synthesis between Arab, Persian, Greek and Indian traditions, and the tensions, factionalism and provincialism that gradually eroded centralized authority. It explains how Baghdad’s wealth and institutions shaped the wider Islamic world and how internal rivalries and external pressures led to a slow fragmentation of power, leaving a lasting legacy in law, science and literature.
- Published
- 2004
- Nationality
- British
- Length
- Unknown
- Pages
- Unknown
- Original Language
- English
- Avg User Rating
-
(4.0)
- Alternate Titles
- None
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