Islam and Travel in the Middle Ages

Islam and Travel in the Middle Ages
Title Islam and Travel in the Middle Ages PDF eBook
Author Houari Touati
Publisher University of Chicago Press
Pages 321
Release 2010-08
Genre History
ISBN 0226808777

Download Islam and Travel in the Middle Ages Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle

In the Middle Ages, Muslim travelers embarked on a rihla, or world tour, as surveyors, emissaries, and educators. On these journeys, voyagers not only interacted with foreign cultures—touring Greek civilization, exploring the Middle East and North Africa, and seeing parts of Europe—they also established both philosophical and geographic boundaries between the faithful and the heathen. These voyages thus gave the Islamic world, which at the time extended from the Maghreb to the Indus Valley, a coherent identity. Islam and Travel in the Middle Ages assesses both the religious and philosophical aspects of travel, as well as the economic and cultural conditions that made the rihla possible. Houari Touati tracks the compilers of the hadith who culled oral traditions linked to the prophet, the linguists and lexicologists who journeyed to the desert to learn Bedouin Arabic, the geographers who mapped the Muslim world, and the students who ventured to study with holy men and scholars. Travel, with its costs, discomforts, and dangers, emerges in this study as both a means of spiritual growth and a metaphor for progress. Touati’s book will interest a broad range of scholars in history, literature, and anthropology.

The Travels of Ibn Batūta

The Travels of Ibn Batūta
Title The Travels of Ibn Batūta PDF eBook
Author Ibn Batuta
Publisher
Pages 298
Release 1829
Genre Africa
ISBN

Download The Travels of Ibn Batūta Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle

Sons of Ishmael

Sons of Ishmael
Title Sons of Ishmael PDF eBook
Author John Victor Tolan
Publisher
Pages 0
Release 2013
Genre Christianity and other religions
ISBN 9780813044675

Download Sons of Ishmael Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle

"This collection will be welcomed by anyone working on the interactions of the Muslim and Christian worlds in the Middle Ages--and the more casual reader will be struck by the persistence of stereotypes on both sides of the divide."--Medium Aevum LXXIX "The essays explore what, from the ninth to the fourteenth century, Western Christian clerks and kings, monks and abbots, friars and bishops, and scholars and poets wrote about Muslims and Islam. . . . Tolan's book is among the best in the field."--Journal of Religion "Considers such examples as portrayals of Muhammad in thirteenth-century Spain, Saladin in the medieval European imagination, and Saracen philosophers who secretly deride Islam. . . . Tolan is an engaging writer, accessible to the general as well as the scholarly reader."--Book News "Tolan has a talent for unraveling often tangled threads and subplots in a complex and intriguing story."--Religion and the Arts "Tolan's writing distinguishes itself by being insightful, nuanced, and magnificently lucid as well as highly accessible. Certain chapters will particularly enthrall: the chapter on Saladin will be one favorite; the chapter on the floating coffin of prophet Muhammad--a rhetorical masterpiece--will delight and fascinate. Every chapter is illuminating."--Geraldine Heng, University of Texas The Bible and the Qur'ân agree that the Arabs were the descendants of Ishmael, son of Abraham and Hagar. To many medieval Christians, the description of Ishmael in Genesis ("a wild man; his hand will be against every man and every man's hand against him") was a prophecy of the violence and enmity between Ishmael's progeny and the Christians--spiritual descendants of his half-brother Isaac. John Tolan, one of the world's foremost authorities on early Christian/Muslim interactions, offers ten essays that explore the history of conflict and convergence between Latin Christendom and the Arab Muslim world during the Middle Ages, deepening our understanding of the roots of current stereotypes of Muslims and Arabs in Western Culture. John V. Tolan, professor of history at the University of Nantes, is the author of numerous articles and books, including the acclaimed Saracens: Islam in the Medieval European Imagination.

Ibn Battuta

Ibn Battuta
Title Ibn Battuta PDF eBook
Author Edoardo Albert
Publisher A Concise Life
Pages 0
Release 2019-01-15
Genre Islamic Empire
ISBN 9781847740472

Download Ibn Battuta Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle

This introduction to medieval-age Battuta and his journey provides a fascinating window into what the world was like in the 14th century with illustrations, photographs, and maps that bring the rich and diverse world that produced Battuta to vivid life. Illustrations.

The Abrahamic Religions

The Abrahamic Religions
Title The Abrahamic Religions PDF eBook
Author Charles L. Cohen
Publisher
Pages 175
Release 2020
Genre Religion
ISBN 0190654341

Download The Abrahamic Religions Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle

Connected by their veneration of the One God proclaimed by Abraham, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam share much beyond their origins in the ancient Israel of the Old Testament. This Very Short Introduction explores the intertwined histories of these monotheistic religions, from the emergence of Christianity and Islam to the violence of the Crusades and the cultural exchanges of al-Andalus.

Jews, Christians, and the Abode of Islam

Jews, Christians, and the Abode of Islam
Title Jews, Christians, and the Abode of Islam PDF eBook
Author Jacob Lassner
Publisher University of Chicago Press
Pages 332
Release 2012-03-15
Genre History
ISBN 0226471071

Download Jews, Christians, and the Abode of Islam Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle

In this volume, Jacob Lassner examines the triangular relationship that during the Middle Ages defined - and continues to define today - the political and cultural interaction among the three Abrahamic faiths.

Housing the Stranger in the Mediterranean World

Housing the Stranger in the Mediterranean World
Title Housing the Stranger in the Mediterranean World PDF eBook
Author Olivia Remie Constable
Publisher Cambridge University Press
Pages 441
Release 2004-01-15
Genre History
ISBN 1139449680

Download Housing the Stranger in the Mediterranean World Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle

The Greek pandocheion, Arabic funduq, and Latin fundicum (fondaco) were ubiquitous in the Mediterranean sphere for nearly two millennia. These institutions were not only hostelries for traders and travelers, but also taverns, markets, warehouses, and sites for commercial taxation and regulation. In this highly original study, Professor Constable traces the complex evolution of this family of institutions from the pandocheion in Late Antiquity, to the appearance of the funduq throughout the Muslim Mediterranean following the rise of Islam. By the twelfth century, with the arrival of European merchants in Islamic markets, the funduq evolved into the fondaco. These merchant colonies facilitated trade and travel between Muslim and Christian regions. Before long, fondacos also appeared in southern European cities. This study of the diffusion of this institutional family demonstrates common economic interests and cross-cultural communications across the medieval Mediterranean world, and provides a striking contribution to our understanding of this region.