Islam

Building Baghdad

February 22, 2012

Today we think of Baghdad in terms of tyranny, terrorism and mistakes. A sinkhole for American troops.  A sandbox for suicide bombers. In the eighth century, Baghdad was the largest city in the world–and the most exciting.  Like Paris in the 1890s, Baghdad was a cultural magnet that drew scientists, poets, scholars and artists from [...]

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The Fourth Crusade Takes a Detour

December 17, 2011

At first the Fourth Crusade looked like all the other Crusades. In 1198, Pope Innocent III called for Christian knights to sail to the Holy Lands and re-capture Jerusalem, which Saladin had taken back from crusaders in 1187. In response to his call, thousands signed up, eager to fight Muslims in the Holy Lands and [...]

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Wonders & Marvels–and me!

October 19, 2011

For those of you who don’t know it, Wonders & Marvels is one of the best history sites on the web.  Holly Tucker, the author of Blood Work, has put together a lively community “for curious minds who love history, its odd stories and good reads”. In addition to book reviews and guest posts by [...]

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A Crusade by Any Other Name….

September 8, 2011

Sometimes the name you give to an historical event says a lot about where you stand in relation to that event.  Is it the Civil War, or the War of Northern Aggression?   The Sepoy Rebellion, the first Indian war of independence, or (my personal choice) the violence of 1857? Other times, what you call an [...]

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Word with a Past: Assassin

July 5, 2011

The original Assassins were members of a revolutionary Shiite splinter group founded in eleventh century Persia by Hassan Sabbah. Like many schismatic religious groups, the Assassins believed that Muslims, including mainstream Shiites, had taken a wrong turn.  Islam needed to go back to its foundations.  As far as other Muslims were concerned, Sabbah’s beliefs were [...]

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Cowboys and Indians: North African Style

June 12, 2011

Unlikely though it seems, I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about the French Foreign Legion over the last week. I bet most of you have a few stock images of the Foreign Legion in your heads: men fleeing from their past into the desert and anonymity, absinthe, burning sands and blazing sun, those funny [...]

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If You Only Read One Book on Islamic History…

June 2, 2011

I’ve been studying Islamic history for a long time now.  (Stops to count on her fingers. Thirty years??  Really??  Counts again. Dang. ) Last year I discovered the best general book on Islamic history I’ve ever read:  Destiny Disrupted: A History of the World Through Islamic Eyes by Tanim Ansary.  I underlined as I read.  [...]

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Muslim Spain: The Soundtrack

May 27, 2011

These days, I’m spending a lot of time in Muslim Spain–a golden age of cross-cultural pollination by any standard.  At a time when most of Europe was wallowing in the Dark Ages, Muslim Spain was a center of wealth, learning–and tolerance. If you wanted libraries, hot baths, or good health care, Spain was the place [...]

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Sylvester II: Scientist, Pope, Wizard, –Vampire?

May 18, 2011

Gerbert of Aurilac (ca. 940-1003), later  Pope Sylvester II, has been tracking me down for months. I first met up with the “scientist-pope” when I was working on Islamic Spain’s influence on medieval Europe.  Gerbert was one of the first of the European scholars who traveled to Spain to study the lost quadrivium of the [...]

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