The Great Arab Conquests

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Authors: Hugh Kennedy

BOOK: The Great Arab Conquests
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Table of Contents
 
Praise for
The Great Arab Conquests
 
“[
The Great Arab Conquests
] states historical truths most nonexperts, general readers and politicians ignore.”—
Philadelphia Inquirer
 
 
“Kennedy tells a remarkable tale with skill and authority.”
 
—
The Economist
 
 
“Weighing the sources carefully, Kennedy has composed a vivid and plausible narrative of events that continue to shape the daily news.”—
Milwaukee Shepherd Express
 
 
“
The Great Arab Conquests
does a splendid job of showing how the core territories of early Christianity fell under Muslim power.”
 
—
Books & Culture
 
 
“Brings to resonant life the dazzling achievements of the military machine Muhammad created. . . . A major achievement of scholarship and readability.”—
ForeWord
 
 
“Will likely become a standard account of the conquests for many years to come.”—
First Things
 
 
“Kennedy here brings history to glowing life and, in the process, illuminates a part of our present in rich and meaningful ways. Unforgettable.”—
January
 
 
“An extremely valuable addition to the discipline. . . . Highly recommended.”—
Choice
 
 
“Kennedy vividly introduces the formative establishment of Islam.”—
Booklist
 
 
“A welcome addition to Islamic studies and history shelves.”
 
—
Midwest Book Review
 
for CJG
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
 
The old Empires
1. Emperor Justinian I and his retinue; mosaic
c
. AD 547.
2. A dish depicting King Yazdgard III (632-51) hunting; Sasanian school, seventh century.
3. Mushabbak Church, Syria.
4. A Zoroastrian fire-temple in Konur Siyah, Fars, Iran.
5. Taqi-kisrā, Iraq; the arch of the great palace at Ctesiphon.
6. The ruin of the Marib dam, Yemen.
7. A seventh-century Sasanian helmet.
8. A seventh-century Sasanian sword.
9. The arms and armour of Byzantine troops, as depicted on the ‘David Plates’.
10. A swing-beam siege engine in operation, from an early eighth-century wall-painting; tile fragment and modern sketch.
 
 
Landscapes and cities of the Conquests
11.Wadi Du
c
ān.
12.The Syrian desert.
13.The ancient Roman walls of Damascus.
14.Jerusalem seen from the Mount of Olives.
15.The Zagros Mountains.
16.The walls of Bishapur.
17.Sistan.
18.Central Iranian landscape.
19.The ramparts of old Samarqand.
20.Old Bukhara seen from the walls of the citadel.
21.The Tashtakaracha Pass in the mountains south of Samarqand.
22.The view from the ancient walls of Balkh to the Hindu Kush.
23.Cordova, Spain.
24.Toledo, Spain.
25.The Ribat of Sousse, Tunisia.
26.A modern reconstruction of a Byzantine dromon.
27.Tyre, Lebanon.
28.The site of early Muslim Basra, Iraq.
29.The centre of old Kūfa, Iraq.
 
 
The Conquests remembered
30.The Prophet Muhammad preparing for his first battle against the Quraysh of Mecca at Badr in 634; early fourteenth-century Persian manuscript.
31.The assassination of Chosroes II in 628; fifteenth-century Persian manuscript.
32.The battle of Qādisiya; fifteenth-century Persian book painting.
33.The Legend of the True Cross, by Piero della Francesca (
c
. 1415- 92).
 
LIST OF MAPS
 
1. The world on the eve of the Muslim conquests,
x
2. Limit of Muslim rule in 750,
xii
3. Syria and Palestine,
xv
4. Iraq,
xvi
5. Egypt,
xvii
6. Iran,
xviii
7. North Africa,
xx
8. Transoxania,
xxii
9. Spain,
xxiii
 

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