Product Description
`History: Fiction or Science? Chronology 2` is the second volume of the most explosive and astounding tractate on history ever written - however, every theory it contains, no matter how unorthodox, is backed by rock solid scientific data. The book is easy and pleasant to read; it is well-illustrated, contains hundreds of charts, graphs and illustrations, copies of ancient manuscripts, and countless facts attesting to the falsity of the chronology used nowadays. You will be amazed to discover: - That the chronology universally accepted today and taken for granted is simply wrong; - That ALL methods of dating of ancient sources and artefacts known today are erroneous or non-exact; - That there is not a single document that could be reliably dated earlier than the XIth century; The Author refers to the Middle Ages as the Antiquity and proves mutual superimposition of the Second and the Third Roman Empire, both of which become identified as the respective kingdoms of Israel and Judah. Furthermore, he asserts that the famous reform of the Occidental Church in the XI century by Pope Gregory Hildebrand was the reflection of the XII century reforms of Byzantine emperor Andronicus who in his turn identifies with Jesus Christ. The Trojan war counted by Homer happened only as late as of the XIII century A.D. and the great poet actually lived in XIV century A.D. No stone in history of Antiquity is left unturned. Literally. This book is the beginning of a major correction to the chronology we live with.
Customer Reviews:
Check and see.......2007-06-21
I don't care what other people say of this book. Those affirmig it's fake, they hadn't ever read it. Or have some special reasons to do so. "Living is easy with eyes closed, misunderstanding all you see..." This book won't make you feel comfortable. It'll make you feel free. It'll make you feel you're "not the only one" to feel you'd been lied to for centuries.
Suprise! Suprise!.......2007-03-22
Here is a serie of books which turns "the whole world" upside down. I learned a lot of it and I hope that a new book from A.T. Fomenko will follow very quick. A absolute must for everybody who is interested in history or even a little bit from it.
Prescient St Augustine?.......2006-02-05
We can so far divide the New Chronology into the following three parts:
a) The verifiable theory that proves consensual chronology wrong with the aid of astronomy, statistics and mathematics;
b) The new chronology hypothesis based on a new understanding of known historical facts and the most likely logical explanation of the most obvious inconsistencies inherent in the official version of history;
c) The history conjectures, that is experimental historical reconstructions based on assumptions that the authors believe to make sense in the light of their research and linguistic parallels - void of ironclad factual support to date.
Fomenko's theory complies with the most rigid scientific standards as a whole:
It gives a coherent explanation of what we already know.
- It is consistent: independent lines of inquiry all lead to the same conclusion.
- The predictions it makes are confirmed empirically.
Fomenko goes by the following axioms:
- Chronology is the basis of history;
- Human evolution has always been linear, gradual and irreversible;
- The "cyclic" nature of human civilization is a myth, likewise all the gaps, duplicates, "dark ages" and "renaissances" that we know from consensual history;
- The accumulation of geographical knowledge as reflected in cartography is a gradual and irreversible process;
- The chronological distance between a given manuscript and the events described therein is proportional to the amount of distortions it contains;
- There is no "useless" information in authentic ancient sources.
Why the mainstream historians do not shower mathematician Academician Dr.Prof Fomenko with thanks and laurels?
The Russians:
Because Fomenko asserts that there was no such thing as the Tartar and Mongol invasion followed by three centuries of slavery, providing a formidable body of documental evidence to prove his assertion. The so-called "Tartars and Mongols" were the actual ancestors of the modern Russians, living in a bilingual state with Arabic spoken as freely as Russian. The ancient Russian state was governed by a double structure of civil and military authorities. The hordes were actually professional armies with a tradition of lifelong conscription (the recruitment being the so-called "blood tax"). Their "invasions" were punitive operations against the regions that attempted tax evasion. Fomenko proves that Russian history as we know it today is a blatant forgery concocted by a host of German scientists brought to Russia by the usurper dynasty of the Romanovs, whose ascension to the throne was the result of coup d'état, charged with the mission of making their reign look legitimate. Fomenko proves Ivan the Terrible to be a collation of four rulers, no less. They represented the two rival dynasties - the legitimate rulers and the ambitious upstarts. The winner took it all! Over some 30 years of controversy, Russian historians have made a most remarkable transition - they were initially accusing the young mathematician Fomenko of anticommunist dissident activity and attempts to deface the historical legacy of Soviet Russia; nowadays the middle-aged mathematician is accused of adhering to "pro-communist Russian nationalism" and defacing the proud historical legacy of Great Russia.
The Westerners:
Because Fomenko blows consensual Russian history to smithereens, successfully removing a crucial cornerstone from underneath the otherwise impeccable edifice of World History. Fomenko adds insult to injury, wiping out one by one the Ancient Rome (the foundation of Rome in Italy is dated to the XIV century A. D.), the Ancient Greece and its numerous poleis, which he identifies as the mediaeval crusader settlements on the territory of Greece, and the Ancient Egypt (the pyramids of Giza become dated to the XI-XV century A. D. and identified as the royal cemetery of the Global "Mongolian" Empire, no less). The civilization of the Ancient Egypt is irrefutably dated to the XII-XV century A. D. with the aid of the ancient Egyptian horoscopes cut in stone. He was the first one to decipher and date all such horoscopes, coming up with mediaeval dates in every case. English historians rage at the suggestion that the history of Ancient England was de facto a Byzantine import transplanted to the English soil by the fugitive Byzantine nobility. To reward the English historians who consider themselves the true scribes of World History, the cover of the present book portrays Tintoretto's Jesus Christ crucified on the Big Ben.
The Chinese:
Because Fomenko wipes out the Ancient History of China outright. No such thing. Full point. The compilation of the so-called Ancient Chinese History is reliably datable to the XVII-XVIII century only. It is perfectly recognizable as the Ancient European history, reworked and transcribed in hieroglyphs as yet another historical transplantation, this time performed on the Chinese soil by the loving Jesuit hands. The Chinese are the next in line to go berserk. Chinese history is inevitably bound to get both more ancient and more eventful, proportionally to the growing involvement of China in the world affairs. Chinese historians will keep on finding valid proof of prehistoric Chinese spaceflights until the Politburo orders them to shut up.
The Arabs:
Too bad. Islam with all its key figures is datable to XV-XVI century A. D. Arabic historians may find consolation in the crucial historical role of the Ottoman Empire in the XVI-XVII century. The trouble is that this empire was initially a Christian state, with Hagia Sophia identifiable as Temple of Solomon, according to Fomenko! We can only guess if the acquisition of Alexander the Great (a Macedonian and a Christian) as the founder of the Muslim World Empire will make Fomenko's theories more acceptable to the Arabic mainstream. He certainly does not spare any holy cows at all, claiming The Stone of Qa'Aba in Mecca to contain the lost Arch of the Covenant.
The Divinity:
Despite of reiterated statement that his theory is all about chronology and not Religion, Fomenko stirs up a whole condominium of wasp nests. His collection of anathemas, fatwa, and other condemnations from all parties concerned is already considerable. Little wonder, considering that the history of religions à la Fomenko looks as follows: the pre-Christian period (before the XI century and JC), Bacchic Christianity (XI-XII century, before and after JC), JC Christianity (XII-XVI century) and its subsequent mutations into Orthodox Christianity, the Catholicism, Islam, Buddhism, and so on.
According to Fomenko we know strictly NOTHING about the events that predate the X century A. D.
St Augustin was prescient when he spoke unto us: "be wary of mathematicians, particularly when they speak the truth."
Something of a disappointment.......2005-09-09
After having read the first volume of this expected series of 7 volumes I was triggered by the thesis of these authors that ancient Greek and Roman history did in fact take place in the Middle Ages. So I started studying medieval history of the Middle East - also known as Islamic history - to find out if the opponents of the ancient Greeks and Romans - the Acheamenid Persians, Sassanids, Scythians, Egyptians, etc. - also have their duplicates in medieval history. My search was disappointing: none of the many medieval Islamic dynasties seemed to correspond to the ancient middle eastern rulers.
However, I did find a close correspondence between Herodotus' Persian kings and medieval events:
- the defeat and capture of an Anatolian king - the Lydian Croesus - by the Persian conqueror Cyrus is identical to the defeat and capture of another Anatolian king - sultan Bayezid - by the Asian/Mongol conqueror Tamerlane;
- the Persian conquest of Egypt by the cruel tyrant Cambyses reds almost exactly as the Ottoman conquest of Egypt by Selim the Grim (note the nickname!);
- Darius the Lawgiver of the Persian Empire looks very much alike to Sulayman the Magnificent, the Lawgiver in Islamic history;
- Xerxes, whose main claim to fame is to be defeated by the Greeks at the naval battle of Salamis, looks like Selim II (the Sot) whose main claim to fame is to be defeated by a Spanish-Italian alliance at the naval battle of Lepanto.
I should have expected Fomenko et al. to arrive at similar conclusions, however, they claim that the Persian kings are the alter egos of the Angevin kings of Sicily whose biographies do not contain the exploits of the Persian kings.
The similiarities I indicate lead to the conclusion that Herodotus must have written his Histories at the close of the 16th century. But this is extremely late, given that Herodotus is "the Father of History", so therefore all other "ancient" histories must have been fabricated even later. Yet, the founders of modern chronology - Scaliger and Petavius - laid their foundations also at the close of the 16th century and had the full corpus of ancient histories already at their disposal.
It seems to me that Fomenko has to address these inconsistencies, maybe in the forthcoming 5 volumes?
Another critique of their book is that the correspondencies between different rulers are often based on a superficial comparison of the biographies; upon a more thorough comparison many details appear that do not correspond at all.
Finally, the authors rely heavily on the works of Gregorovius (1821-1891!!) - his medieval histories of Rome and Athens - as the source of medieval history; these works are - at least in the West - hoplessly outdated and have been superceded by more up-to-date works (for instance, Julius Norwich's trilogy on Byzantine history is not even cited).
Romulus courts Helen, Paris founds Rome, Moses goes to Troy.........2005-07-30
If you agree with Fomenko that Roman chronology is basically the foundation of the entire edifice of global chronology; you would also certainly agree that despite its numerous gaps and inconsistencies, Roman history is the best-documented field of ancient history, and thus a reference scale. But how well is the actual date of the Eternal City's foundation known?
Firstly, Rome is supposed to have been founded by the Trojans who had to flee after the fall of Troy. Some claim Rome to have been founded by Aeneas and Ulysses shortly after Troy had fallen; others are of the opinion that there was an entire dynasty that ruled for 500 years between the fall of Troy and the foundation of Rome.
Well, that's just an innocent 500 years long misunderstanding compared with what heretic Fomenko says, asserts, proves in his second volume: Second Roman Empire, Third Roman Empire, Biblical Kingdom of Israel, Biblical Kingdom of Judah, Holy Roman Empire are stories about basically same events, written from different points of view at different times. The underlying events have actually taken place during xii-xv cy. These histories have been written and perfected by multitude of highly talented humanist and clerical writers of xiii-xvi cy disguised as "ancients" with glorious names like Homer, Pluto, Thucydides etc..Chronology 2.0 beta..
Historians are kindly invited to report the bugs.
Book Description
Writing in 1991, the late French theologian and philosopher Jacques Ellul observed,
"In a major encyclopedia, one reads phrases such as: `Islam expanded in the eighth or ninth centuries…'; `This or that country passed into Muslim hands …' But care is taken not to say how Islam expanded …. Regarding this expansion, little is said about jihad. And yet it all happened through war!"
The Legacy of Jihad provides a comprehensive, meticulously documented corrective to the genre of ahistorical assessments decried by Ellul. This unique, extensive compilation includes Muslim theological and juridical texts, eyewitness historical accounts by both Muslim and non-Muslim chroniclers, and essays by preeminent scholars analyzing jihad war and the ruling conditions imposed upon the non-Muslim peoples conquered by jihad campaigns. The Legacy of Jihad reveals how, for well over a millennium, across three continents—Asia, Africa, and Europe—non-Muslims who were vanquished by jihad wars, became forced tributaries (called dhimmi in Arabic), in lieu of being slain. Under the dhimmi religious caste system, non-Muslims were subjected to legal and financial oppression, as well as social isolation. Extensive primary and secondary source materials, many translated here for the first time into English, are presented, making clear that jihad conquests were brutal, imperialist advances, which spurred waves of Muslims to expropriate a vast expanse of lands and subdue millions of indigenous peoples. Finally, the book examines how jihad war, as a permanent and uniquely Islamic institution, ultimately regulates the relations of Muslims with non-Muslims to this day. Scholars, educators, and interested lay readers will find this collection an invaluable resource.
Customer Reviews:
It's a Scary (Islamic) World.......2007-08-09
I have no intention of reading this cover to cover, as this is quite a tome. The idea that "jihad" is simply a spiritual "striving" seemed like whitewash, and this confirms it. Plenty of energy has gone into diving in the medieval records, and other periods, through centuries of Islamic jurisprudence and commentary in fact. I cannot, however, countenance the reliance upon fanatical personalities like Khomeini and Qutb. There's a large burden of proof that these are representative of mainstream Islamic opinion, I think. Then again I have not done the work Bostom has. The final judgment needs to wait.
Accurate account of cruelties inflicted by islam.......2007-08-07
This is a stupendous, monumental effort that chronicles the horrors perpetrated on nearly the whole world because of the the intolerance preached by Islam.
The reader gets a convincing picture that Islamic fundamentalism is a problem because the fundamentals of Islam are a problem. There is no solution to this problem except by educating the muslim mind, which could take several centuries.
It is very unfortunate that Muslims believe that-or at least have to pretend to believe-the numerous contradictions and the exortions to violence that are contained in the Koran are the actual words of God. The God of the Koran is a very jealous God like the God of the old testament. Both ignorance and fear of punishment keeps muslims in obedience to their mullahs and rulers even to this day. We cannot therefore be hopeful that Islam will ever let muslims live in peace with non muslims.
I would also recommend Arun Shourie's book " The World of Fatwas" to those who liked Bostom's compilation. Shourie's book shows how Muslims to this day ask their scholars (ignorant mullahs in reality) for answers and guidance on mundane matters and how banal the guidance they get is. Shourie's book also extensively deals with the cruelty that muslims inflict on their divorced women.For instance, a man can divocrce a woman merely by repeating thrice the words " I divorce thee". If he regrets his decision and wishes to remarry his former wife he cannot do so until his ex-wife first marries some one else, consummates that marriage, and is then divorced by her new husband.
Please read this book. It will accurately fill you in on Islamic attitude towards non muslims from its origin till the present day
The complete source on Islamic Jihad.......2007-07-08
Dr. Bostom's book "The Legacy of Jihad: Islamic Holy War and the Fate of Non-Muslims" is clearly not for the simple minded and faint hearted readers of this world. Of the countless books I have read on Islam and the art of Jihad perpetrated by Muslim's since the birth of Muhammad, Dr. Bostom's books ranks number one in actual scholarly research, facts documented, and the utilization of both Muslim and non-Muslim historical text.
All aspects of Jihad are discussed from every prospective that includes sources from the Muslims that conquered non-Muslim lands through the sword, and from the people that survived the bloody conquests to write about it. Readers will also be surprised to read many authentic writings from scholarly Hindu, Christians, Greeks, Zoroastrian and numerous other civilizations that were enslaved by the Muslim invaders.
Nothing escapes Dr. Bostom in this book and clearly anyone looking for a wealth of information regarding life under Islamic Sharia Law needs to have this book on their book shelve as an endless source or reference that even the most scholarly Muslim can't refute.
My only criticism concerning this book is that the print is small and at times, Dr. Bostom has so many sources in the book, at times, you lose the sense of `flow' in the book.
This isn't a book you read from cover to cover considering its length and depth, but, this is most certainly a book all serious minded people intent on understanding Islam have to read if they really want to understand the history and factual evidence of Jihad.
Andres Bostom writes with knowledge and facts.......2007-07-02
I have been following the writing of Andrew Bostom long before I have the honor of meeting him. His articles and writings are unique as they not only give facts, they are footnoted, and backed up with reasons and statements to prove the points. Regardless of your views on Islamic Holy War, you cannot read this book and not understand the situation we are facing and the fate of Dhimmitude and Sharia law if this goes under the radar of being PC. We must understand, we can lose not only Israel but the USA if we do not fight the enemy within. Great Book, Great Reading, and a must have.
A must read for those trying to understand the violence associated with Islam. .......2007-03-14
This is an excellent resource to study about the violence that is inherent to Islam.
Islamic terrorism has been around right from the time of the `prophet' Mohammed. In fact if you study the life and deeds of Mohammed, you will realize that he is the first Islamic terrorist. All the actions and deeds of all the tyrants listed in this book, and those of today's terrorists like Al Zarqawi, Bin Laden or the Taliban, mirrors the life and deeds of Mohammed.
Here are a few of the atrocities committed by Mohammed. They give a feeling of Déjà vu
1) Massacre of unarmed merchants during sacred month
Date: Late January(Rejeb), 623 A.D.
Place: Nakhla
Victims: 4 Merchants from Quraysh tribe of Mecca, the Tribe to which Mohammed himself belonged
Four UNARMED merchants were traveling to Mecca to sell their goods consisting of raisins, honey and animal skins. It was the holy month of Rejeb which was considered sacred for trade in Arabia. It was a point of honor that any form of warfare or violence was strictly forbidden in this month. Mohammed's gang attacked the helpless men from behind and stabbed two of them to death. They plundered all the goods as booty and Mohammed got one fifths of the share.
This shows the utter lack of morals or scruples on Mohammed's part. The Prophet of Islam did not possess a shred of pity or kindness, or the slightest sense of justice. He cold-bloodedly murdered two innocent people who had never done him any harm and did not even know him! All this was done in a month that the Prophet himself declared was a sacred month in which no warfare should take place. Mohammed was obviously motivated by nothing but hatred and greed.
2) Slaughter of Meccans who came to defend their caravans
Date: March (Ramadan) 17, 623 A.D
Place: The well of Badr
Victims: 70 merchants from Quraysh Tribe of Mecca, The Quraysh army which came to defend them
The merchandise being carried by this caravan was worth more than 50,000 Gold Dinars. Mohammed ganged up all the criminals of Medina and set out to raid the caravan with 300 men. The Meccans got word of the raid and sent out an army to protect the caravan. Throughout the entire battle Mohammad cowered in a hut which his men made for him. There he cried and prayed with feverish anxiety. At one point he came out of the hut and threw pebbles in the enemy's direction, screaming "Let evil look on your faces!" and "By him who holds my soul in his hands, anyone who fights for me today will go to paradise!" The Muslims killed over two hundred and took seventy prisoners. All seventy of the prisoners were ransomed, and any prisoner who did not fetch a ransom had his head chopped off.
Mohammed was gratified at the sight of his murdered victims. After the battle, he sent his followers to look for the corpse of Abu Jahal, one of the Meccans who had criticized him openly. When his corpse was found,they cut off the head and threw it down at Mohammed's feet. The "Apostle of peace" cried out in delirious joy, "Rejoice! Here lies the head of the enemy of Allah! Praise Allah, for there is no other but he!" The Prophet then ordered a great pit to be dug for the bodies of the innocents to be dumped. The Muslims then proceeded to hack the corpses limbs into pieces. As the bloodied mass of bodies was being thrown into the pit, a feverishly excited Mohammed shrieked, " O People of the Pit, have you found that what Allah threatened is true now? For I have found that what my Lord promised was true! Rejoice All Muslims!" One of the prisoners taken was the defiant Al Nadr Ibn al Harith, who had earlier taken Muhammad's challenge of telling better stories than him. Muhammad ordered Ali to strike off Nadr's head in his presence, so he could watch and exult in the pleasure of beheading the man who had insulted him. Another prisoner Uqba ibn Abi Muait was decapitated in front of the Prophet. Before being killed the prisoner cried out pitifully "O Prophet, who will look after my children if I should die?" The "Great Prophet of the Religion of Peace" coldly spat out "Hellfire", as the blade came down and spattered his clothes with Uqba's blood.
3) Assassination of poets who criticized Mohammed's murderous ways
Date: Late March-April, 623 A.D
Place: Medinah
Victims: Two of the most famous poets of Medinah, who had the courage to criticize the murderous actions of Mohammed and his gang
After the battle of Badr, the people of Medinah were horrified that they had given refuge to such a blatant criminal and his followers in their city. Many began protesting the presence of such violent and murderous people in their city. In a free society like Pre-Islamic Arabia, the poets acted as society's conscience and were free to criticize, satirize and examine the actions of people. The two most famous poets of this kind were Abu 'Afak; an extremely old and respected poet and Asma bint Marwan; a young mother with the gift of superb verse.
Muhammad was enraged at their criticism. When he heard the verses composed by Asma Bint Marwan he was infuriated and screamed aloud, "Will no one rid me of this daughter of Marwan!" That very night a gang of Muslims set out to do the dirty deed. They broke into the poets' house. She was lying in in her bedroom suckling her newborn child, while her other small children slept nearby. The Muslims tore the newborn infant off her breast and hacked it to pieces before her very eyes. They then made her watch the murder of all four of her children, before raping and then stabbing her repeatedly to death. After the murder when the Muslims went to inform the Prophet, he said "You have done a service to Allah and his Messenger, her life was not worth even two goats!"
A month later the distinguished and highly respected Abu Afak, who was over a hundred years old and renowned for his sense of fairness, was killed brutally in the same manner as he slept. Once again the Prophet had commented that morning "Who will avenge me on this scoundrel!"
This shows us exactly how much the tolerant and peace loving Prophet respected life. Muslims claim that Mohammed was extremely gentle and loved children. Indeed the horrifying way he had Asma Bint Marwan's five infants slaughtered certainly attests to this "loving" side of the Prophet.
4) The Siege of the Banu Qaynuqa
Date: April, 623 A.D
Place: Medinah
Victims: The Jewish Tribe of Banu Qaynuqa
In order to get full control of Medinah, Mohammed needed to get rid of all his opponents. The strongest of these opponents was Abdallah Ibn Ubayy, a powerful chief who was allied with the Jewish Tribe of Banu Qaynuqa. This tribe was also the weakest, because they were made up of craftsmen, in particular goldsmiths. By attacking them, Mohammed knew he could plunder a huge amount of wealth and weaken Ibn Ubayy. Mohammed needed an excuse to attack them so he made a girl married to one of his followers, pretend that she had been teased by the Jews. The Muslims blockaded the fort of the Banu Qaynuqa for fifteen days until the starving Jews surrendered. Immediately, the Prophet was ready to kill them all, but Ibn Ubayy seized hold of Mohammed and protested. Mohammed's face became black with rage as he shouted "Let go of me", but Ibn Ubayy was adamant and shouted back "No, by God, I will not let you go until you deal kindly with my allies. 400 men without armour and 300 with, who have always supported me against enemies. And you want to slay them all in one morning! By God, If I were in your place I would fear a reversal of fortune"
At this threat, the cowardly Mohammed turned pale, as he realized that all the people of Medinah were against him. He hit Ibn Ubayy on the face and ordered that the Jews be kicked out of their own homes. All their property was seized and looted, many of the prettiest women were taken as prisoners to become sex-slaves. Mohammed kept one-fifths of the enormous booty for himself. This is the way he repaid the kindness of the Jews of Medina, who had given him shelter and a refuge, when Mohammed had run away from Mecca in fear.
The revelations in the Eighth Sura of the Koran were clearly in reference to the Banu Qaynuqa and anyone who opposed the Muslims.
Note to expected Muslim commenters; please explain Muhammad's actions after the battle of Badr before adding your opinions.
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- A Brave New Look at the History of Islam in Africa
|
The Legacy of Arab-Islam in Africa: A Quest for Inter-religious Dialogue
John Azumah
Manufacturer: Oneworld Publications
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
 Africa
| History
| Subjects
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| African Studies
| Algeria
| Angola
| Benin
| Botswana
| Central Africa
| Comoros
| Democratic Republic of Congo
| Djibouti
| East Africa
| Egypt
| Equatorial Guinea
| Eritrea
| Ethiopia
| Gabon
| Gambia
| General
| Ghana
| Guinea
| Guinea Bissau
| Ivory Coast
| Kenya
| Lesotho
| Liberia
| Libya
| Madagascar
| Malawi
| Mali
| Mauritania
| Morocco
| Mozambique
| Namibia
| Niger
| Nigeria
| North Africa
| Rwanda
| Sao Tome and Principe
| Senegal
| Sierra Leone
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| South Africa
| Southern Africa
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| Tunisia
| Uganda
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Muslim Societies in African History (New Approaches to African History)
ASIN: 1851682732 |
Book Description
This new book reassess the presence of Islam in Africa.
Customer Reviews:
A Brave New Look at the History of Islam in Africa.......2002-04-01
This book gives an entirely new perspective on the history of the spread of Islam in Africa. It argues that while Christianity has had a great deal written about its negative impact on African culture and religions, and its role in the slave trade, Islam on the hand has been perceived as a natural fit for the Africans and one which spread without resort to violence, slavery and other sins that Christians were guilty of. Azumah argues credibly that this perception is biased and uncritical. And that the evidence would suggest otherwise. An excellent read for those interested in the history of religion in Africa.
Book Description
Now available in paperback, Legacy of the Prophetis a sweeping, first-person account of the transformation in the style and message of Islamic politics at the beginning of the twenty-first century. As terrorism floods our headlines, this book offers a rare but much-needed counterpoint: it shows that Islamic activists have increasingly renounced violence in order to form political parties, engage in grass-roots work, and enter into civil society to bring about peaceful reform in their authoritarian societies. Drawing on his years of reporting in more than a dozen countries of the Muslim world, Anthony Shadid charts the way in which the adolescence of yesterday's Islamic militants is yielding to the maturity of today's activists. Through personal interviews and extensive travel, he chronicles that new generation, which is finding a more realistic and potentially more successful future through democratic politics. Complete with a new introduction, Legacy of the Prophetpromises to redefine the debate over the future of political Islam.
Customer Reviews:
September 11th renders some of 'Legacy' dated.......2003-04-03
This optimistic view of Islamists published in January 2001 was rendered somewhat dated by events later that year. Even though Legacy of the Prophet continues to be a solid account of the moderation and rise of religious political movements in the Middle East, some of the more hopeful assertions would have been naive even if the World Trade Center remained intact. September 11th, of course, also changed some assumptions that would have been reasonable otherwise. All that aside, there remains considerable merit in many of the author's analyses of the region and its politics, and much of the book holds up. Legacy deserves three stars--but barely.
Author Anthony Shadid was an Associated Press correspondent based in Cairo. He understandably focuses much of the book on Egypt, and this provides Legacy with some great insight from the sources he cultivated there over the years. Unfortunately, the concentration on Cairo also minimizes those Islamic countries that probably are more important to the future of the relationship between the Muslim world and the West, notably Pakistan and Saudi Arabia.
Shadid does an excellent job in explaining the contest between Islamist groups and the repressive regimes that govern them. The social welfare system provided by Hamas, for example, stands in stark contrast with the corrupt government led by the Palestinian Authority. Hezbollah provides for the impoverished Shia while the Beirut government stuggles to bring the nation back from the ashes of civil war.
The darker aspects of these and other groups, though, aren't really explored. One particularly galling aspect of the book is Shadid's near-apologies for the persececution of Christians and other religious minorities in the region. This is particularly strange given that Shadid comes from a Christian Lebanese background. It is difficult to imagine that anyone would try to minimize the persecution of Egypt's large Coptic minority, but that sometimes seems to be the case here.
The author does take a long, hard look at the failed Islamic experiments in the Sudan and in Iran, and attempts to differentiate between those governments and those where religious and secular parties compete. What Shadid fails to do is explain exactly why an Islamist Egypt or Turkey wouldn't, in the end, resemble the Sudan. Shadid's thesis is that once in power, the Center Party in Egypt, as one example, would synthesize the Islamic concept of the umma with Western-style pluralism and tolerance. The record indicates otherwise.
So the question that always lingers, but is never answered, is how a state based on religion can truly embrace democracy and pluralism. Shadid thinks it can, but history---events that predate Osama bin Laden and even Mohammed by millinnea---indicates otherwise.
A Hopeful Look at Political Islam.......2003-01-08
Anthony Shadid, though not a native of the Middle East, comes off sounding like one. From his vantage position of a Boston Globe Middle East reporter and Lebanese lineage, he has spent significant time in the Middle East and seems to have an insider's eye in analyzing the torrid political landscape there.
I went on a spate of reading books on the Middle East and Islam after September 11th and this book is at the top of my list and comes highly recommended. In comparison to V.S. Naipul's "Beyond Belief," I would point you to Shadid's book for a good in depth analysis of Islam's current and powerful effect on the Middle East. Naipul's book is good for telling a story of people's lives in non-Arabic Islamic countries, but Shadid's work is what I was looking for...a well-written and engaging breakdown of a variety of Middle East countries and how Islam shapes the politics and daily underpinnings of those places.
Shadid's purview is definitely broad but doesn't loose out in the details of each country and movement. "Legacy of the Prophet," primarily covers Sudan's failed Islamic government, Iran's petered out revolution and Khatami's reform, Egypt's emerging democratic Islamic movements, with several stops in between in Turkey, Palestine, Lebanon, and Afghanistan to name a few.
Shadid's overly optimistic thesis is that Islamic extremism is taking in it's last dying desperate breaths and emerging from it, or as a more widespread alternative, a form of democratic political Islam that seeks to inculcate change from within existing governments. Though optimistic, Shadid at least has taken the time to expose the broader good of political Islam to a West that largely seeks out confirmation of presupposed suppositions of a political Islam that is violent, close-minded, and bent on death and destruction of all things Western. It seems a case of a narrow-minded and hopeless small minority of Islamic extremists that continue to represent to the West what is accepted (but uninformed) as the face of Political Islam. Shadid points out that this may not be the case and does it in a way that will keep you interested from beginning to end.
I'm surprised more people aren't reading and reviewing this highly engaging work.
A broad, authoritative history of Islamic politics today.......2002-07-12
Legacy Of The Prophet: Despots, Democrats, And The New Politics Of Islam by journalist and Middle East expert Anthony Shadid offers the reader a broad, authoritative history of Islamic politics today. Drawing upon his many years of reporting in more than a dozen countries throughout the Muslim world, Shadid accurately chronicles how a new generation of Islamic militants are coming around to a more realistic and potentially more successful advocacy of their goals through democratic politics. Legacy Of The Prophet is strongly recommended for Islamic Studies, Middle East Studies, and International Political Studies supplemental reading lists and academic reference collections.
Interesting & engaging tour of the Middle East.......2001-02-07
This book teaches through interesting and engaging stories about misunderstood people and places. It provides hope and a inspiration that peace in the trouble region may be possible.
Great work of a long time Middle East reporter.......2001-01-16
A.Shadid has been covering the M.E for many years and this books sums up a many persons he met during these years. His in depth knowledge of that region, its people, their culture, traditions and believes is unvaluable. I hope to read more of his work soon.
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- Exception reference now at an afforadable price
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The Legacy of Muslim Spain (Studien Und Texte Zur Geistesgeschichte Des Mittelalters,)
Manufacturer: Brill Academic Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 9004119450 |
Book Description
The civilisation of medieval Muslim Spain is perhaps the most brilliant and prosperous of its age and has been essential to the direction which civilisation in medieval Europe took. This volume is the first ever in any language to deal in a really comprehensive manner with all major aspects of Islamic civilisation in medieval Spain. Contents Foreword: Salma Khadra Jayyusi History: Mahmoud Makki, The Political History of al-Andalus (92/711-897/1492). James Dickie, Granada: A Case Study of Arab Urbanism in Muslim Spain. Robert Hillenbrand, `The Ornament of the World: Medieval Cordoba as a Cultural Centre. Rafael Valencia, Islamic Seville: Its Political, Social and Cultural History. Mikel de Epalza, Mozarabs: An Emblematic Christian Minority in Islamic al-Andalus Margarita Lopez Gomez, The Mozarabs: Worthy Bearers of Islamic Culture. L.P. Harvey, The Mudejars. Raymond P. Scheindlin, The Jews in Muslim Spain. L.P. Harvey, The Political, Social and Cultural History of the Moriscos. Madeleine Fletcher, Al-Andalus and North Africa in the Almohad Ideology. Aziz Al-Azmeh, Mortal Enemies, Invisible Neighbours: Northerners in Andalusi Eyes. Abbas Hamdani, An Islamic Background to the Voyages of Discovery. Language and Literature: Pierre Cachia, Andalusi Belles Lettres. Salma Khadra Jayyusi, Andalusi Poetry: The Golden Period. Salma Khadra Jayyusi, Nature Poetry in al-Andalus and the Rise of Ibn Khafaja James T. Monroe, Zajal and Muwashshaha: Hispano-Arabic Poetry and the Romance Tradition. Lois A. Giffen, Ibn Hazm and the Tawq al-Hamama F. Corriente, Linguistic Interference Between Arabic and the Romance Languages of the Iberian Peninsula. Dieter Messner, Further Listings and Categorisations of Arabic Words in Ibero-Romance Languages. Roger Boase, Arab Influences on European Love-Poetry Maria Rosa Menocal, Al-Andalus and 1492: The Ways of Remembering. Luce Lopez-Baralt, The Legacy of Islam in Spanish Literature. Music: Owen Wright, Music in Muslim Spain Art and Architecture: Oleg Grabar, Two Paradoxes in the Islamic Art of the Spanish Peninsula. Jerrillynn Dodds, The Mudejar Tradition in Architecture. Jerrillynn Dodds, The Arts of al-Andalus. James Dickie, Space and Volume in Nasrid Architecture. J.C. Burgel, Ecstasy and Control in Andalusi Art: Steps towards a New Approach. A. Fernandez-Puertas, Calligraphy in al-Andalus. Social History and Lifestyle Pierre Guichard, The Social History of Muslim Spain. Maria J. Viguera, Asluhu li 'l-mabuli: On the Social Status of Andalusi Women. David Waines, The Culinary Culture of al-Andalus. Economic History: Pedro Chalmeta, An Approximate Picture of the Economy of al-Andalus. Olivia Remie Constable, Muslim Merchants in Andalusi International Trade. Philosophy: Miguel Cruz Hernandez, Islamic Thought in the Iberian Peninsula. Jamal al-Din al-bAlawi, The Philosophy of Ibn Rushd J.C. Burgel, Ibn Tufayl and his Hayy Ibn Yaqzan: A Turning Point in Arabic Philosophical Writing. Religious Studies: Dominique Urvoy, The bUlamac of al-Andalus. Manuela Marin, Muslim Religious Practices in al-Andalus (2nd/8th- 4th/10th Centuries). Maria Isabel Fierro, Heresy in al-Andalus. Claude Addas, Andalusi Mysticism and the Rise of Ibn bArabi. Science, Technology and Agriculture: J. Vernet, Natural and Technical Sciences in al-Andalus. Julio Samso, The Exact Sciences in al-Andalus. Thomas F. Glick, Hydraulic Technology in al-Andalus. Expiracion Garcia Sanchez, Agriculture in Muslim Spain. Lucie Bolens, The Use of Plants for Dyeing and Clothing. James Dickie, The Hispano-Arab Garden: Notes towards a Typology. Charles Burnett, The Translating Activity in Medieval Spain. Margarita Lopez Gomez, Islamic Civilisation in al-Andalus: A Final Assessment.
Customer Reviews:
Exception reference now at an afforadable price.......2001-01-23
Now that this major contribution to the history and culture of Andalusian Spain during the heyday of high medieval Muslim culture is available in a paper edition, this text should be considered for course work as there is quite simply no other resource like it in English that attempts to provide a fulsome account of Islam in Spain.
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- Modernity in a Black Sea village
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A Nation of Empire: The Ottoman Legacy of Turkish Modernity
Michael E. Meeker
Manufacturer: University of California Press
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Ataturk: The Biography of the founder of Modern Turkey
ASIN: 0520234820 |
Book Description
This innovative study of modern Turkey is the result of many years of ethnographic fieldwork and archival research. Michael Meeker expertly combines anthropological and historical methods to examine the transition from the Ottoman Empire to the Turkish Republic in a major region of the country, the eastern Black Sea coast. His most significant finding is that a state-oriented provincial oligarchy played a key role in successive programs of reform over the course of more than two hundred years of imperial and national history. As Meeker demonstrates, leading individuals backed by interpersonal networks determined the outcome of the modernizing process, first during the westernizing period of the Empire, then during the revolutionary period of the Republic.
To understand how such a state-oriented provincial oligarchy was produced and reproduced along the eastern Black Sea coast, Meeker integrates a contemporary ethnographic study of public life in towns and villages with a historical study of official documents, consular reports, and travel narratives.
A Nation of Empire provides anthropologists, historians, and students of Eastern Europe and the Middle East with a new understanding of the complexities and contradictions of modern Turkish experience.
Download Description
This innovative study of modern Turkey is the result of many years of ethnographic fieldwork and archival research. Michael Meeker expertly combines anthropological and historical methods to examine the transition from the Ottoman Empire to the Turkish Republic in a major region of the country, the eastern Black Sea coast. His most significant finding is that a state-oriented provincial oligarchy played a key role in successive programs of reform over the course of more than two hundred years of imperial and national history. As Meeker demonstrates, leading individuals backed by interpersonal networks determined the outcome of the modernizing process, first during the westernizing period of the Empire, then during the revolutionary period of the Republic. To understand how such a state-oriented provincial oligarchy was produced and reproduced along the eastern Black Sea coast, Meeker integrates a contemporary ethnographic study of public life in towns and villages with a historical study of official documents, consular reports, and travel narratives. A Nation of Empire provides anthropologists, historians, and students of Eastern Europe and the Middle East with a new understanding of the complexities and contradictions of modern Turkish experience.
Customer Reviews:
Modernity in a Black Sea village.......2004-11-21
Michael Meeker's A Nation of Empire examines the way in which certain tactics deployed by the imperial Ottoman state have been redeployed in the context of the modern nation-state of Turkey. He is particularly concerned with the supposed conflict between local elite rulers and the centralized state government. Meeker views the presence of the local elite not in opposition to the central government, but rather as an extension of the centralized government (Porte) that arose during the decentralization processes of the post-classical imperial period.
Key to understanding this development are two aspects of life: a support of universalism, in the guise of both normative Islam and Ottoman imperialism, and a system of interpersonal association.
The localized forms of power, invested in the aghas, their mansions, associated clans, and later affiliations with parties "had arisen as district social formations in the course of local participation in the imperial system" (30). By means of this, the Oflu "turned away from parochial customs and habits and turned toward the universal norms of the imperial system" (39). This resulted through the orientation of the Oflu to places other than their homeland. Meeker argues that because of economic orientations and a predisposition to leave subsistence work to women, Oflu men "tended, then, as both individuals and communities, to see themselves as participants in universal projects of power and truth" (97) and that "local and global factors combined to reinforce a preoccupation with...`the horizon of elsewheres'" (98). This orientation provided a subjective experience, such that they "conceived themselves in relationship to all kinds of elsewheres" (100). The result, according to Meeker is that "in the absence of technological modernity, a collection of peoples living in a rural landscape more of less without towns had become a state-oriented society" (108).
Interpersonal association was crucial to this orientation, as it was a recursive application of the power dynamics used by the emperors in their palace machine. That is to say that the local elite of Of were able to redeploy "a distinctive imperial tactic: sovereign power through interpersonal association" (152). In the same way that strangers, eunuchs, deafs, and others removed from any local connections were employed as slaves in the interpersonal association that was the palace machine, Meeker remarks that "anyone at all no matter who he was could become an Oflu through interpersonal association" (44). The modular aspect of interpersonal associations allowed power to be diffuse in ways that are similar to that of Foucault's analysis of the Panopticon, but different in that the gaze was not fixed individuals, but rather on associations of people. This type of interpersonal association is evidenced by the fact that "salons were places of interpersonal association, and hence the instruments of building a following, and therefore a move toward the assertion of sovereign power" (344). Such "everyday interpersonal association was still based on a discipline of Islamic sociability" (63), just as was the case in the palace machine. Both in the palace and in the coffeehouses, Islam served as the universalizing tendency such that "ordinary townsmen...would have been inclined to claim moral standing and social prestige by their performance of the discipline of official Islam" (78).
Through this deployment of power tactics, seen as a recursive application of the principle of sovereignty through interpersonal association, Meeker argues that "the Muslims of Trabzon were the creatures of imperial undertakings and accomplishments, not a marginal people at the fringe of the Ottoman Empire" (228). That is to say that the local elites, in redeploying the same tactics of the imperial and later nationalist government, were creating themselves in the fashion of the state bureaucrats. Rather than being a local enclave, in resistance to the modernizing government, Of represents a situation in which the continuous application of principles of governing appropriated from the state serve to incorporate Of entirely within the purview of the state.
The picture that Meeker presents is not one of a region that is left outside of modernity, but rather a place that is coming to be modern in its own way. A French consul whose writings Meeker cites, had difficulty dealing with the Oflu interpersonal association, due to his inability to understand the alternative modernity expressed by his interlocutor in Rize who "also feels himself to represent the future, one based on an ethical rather than an instrumental relationship to self and other" (237). The ethical stipulations of Islam for interpersonal associations form the basis of Oflu modernity: a modernity that is fundamentally state-oriented, especially for the elites, whose "ability to reposition themselves with changes in the state system had always been a feature of their very existence as a local elite" (80). Rather than seeing a conflict between local elites and the rapid increase in economic productivity, urbanization, and new technology associated with modernity, Meeker argues that the "new awareness of aghas and agha-families was actually a harbinger of a new degree of institutional rationalization that was accompanying economic differentiation and expansion" (386). Sovereignty through interpersonal association was not going away, nor was the oligarchy that relied on this novel imperial tactic for its secure power base. In contemporary Of "the city was an anonymous urban environment, but it enabled interpersonal associations by concentrating the population, facilitating communication, and expanding economic opportunities" (388). What we see in Of is not a remote area of the world suffering from rupture and intense globalization, but rather a people who are in some senses pre-adapted to modernity, Oflus connected to the outside as they have been for centuries, where the political situation involving the local elites and their new ventures into tea cooperatives serve "as indications of the transformative and inventive potential of the old imperial devices in the environment of modernity" (395).
Book Description
This intellectual biography of Muhammad al-Shawkani, one of the founding fathers of modern Islamic reformism, is also a study of an important transitional period in Yemeni history which saw the shift from traditional Shi'ism to Sunni reformism. The transition propelled political, religious and social change. While Shawkani espoused a socio-religious order which echoed aspects of Western thinking, the book demonstrates that it was indigenous to Islamic thought. Shawkani's ideas remain vital to the intellectual debates happening in Islam today.
Customer Reviews:
Great introduction to Salafi ideology.......2005-10-24
I found this book to be an incredibly instructive introduction to Salafi thought and legal practice. Imam al-Shawkani, along with Sheikh Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab, is one of the principal scholars of the Salafi movement. This book situates al-Shawkani's life in the intricate context of Yemeni history and politics, but do not be put off by this because it repays the effort. Haykel is able to show how and why some scholars adopt a Salafi methodology and in so doing accumulate an awesome degree of authority and power. Among the many things I learned from this book is why the Salafis are obsessed with expelling non-Muslims from Arabia and what arguments they put forth for this against Muslims who disagree on this point. This topic it turns out was hotly debated in 18th-century Yemen, well before Shaykh Usama Bin Laden brought it up in more recent times.
Khuda Hafiz, Ahsan ul-Haqq, Deoband, India
Book Description
This collection examines the roots of the artistic renaissance of Sufism from the twelfth to the fifteenth centuries.
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Sanctity and Mysticism in Medieval Egypt: The Wafa Sufi Order and the Legacy of Ibn Arabi
Richard J. A. McGregor
Manufacturer: State University of New York Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
Egypt
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ASIN: 0791460118 |
Book Description
Using the original, little known writings of Sufis Muhammad and Ali Wafa', this book explores the development of the idea of Islamic sainthood in the post-Ibn 'Arabi period.
Customer Reviews:
Finally!.......2005-03-29
This is a brilliant study of a rich and controversial aspect of Islam and Islamic mysticism. Every course on comparative mysticism, Islamic Studies, and Sufism in society should assign this as a textbook.
Bravo, McGregor!
I was lucky enough to read the book before it "hit the market" and I recommend it very highly indeed.
Comments from a sincere seeker after truth in academia and the world.
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Turkey At the Crossroads: Ottoman Legacies and a Greater Middle East
Dietrich Jung , and
Wolfango Piccoli
Manufacturer: Zed Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 1856498670 |
Book Description
Turkey at the Crossroads examines the country’s attempts at modernization, from the Ottomans in the 19th century to the Kemalist Republic and the current day. The book argues that in order to fully achieve the level of modernization and democratization that will enable itto become a regional power, Turkey must first confront its authoritarian legacy of Ottoman imperial and political culture. Examining current ideological and political conflicts, the authors discuss a range of obstacles posed to future opportunities—especially that of the Kemalist ruling elite and its politically influential military.
Books:
- History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)
- History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)
- History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)
- History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)
- History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)
- History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)
- History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)
- History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)
- History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)
- History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)
Books Index
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