num_pages: 248
description: From 610 A.D., when Muhammad received his "call," to the Mongol conquest of Baghdad in 1258, Islam thrived both as a political structure and as a religious and intellectual community. This was Islam's great classical period, the era of expansion that established the base for the development of the high Islamic civilizations of North Africa, the Near East, Persia, and India, as well as the spread of the Islamic tradition throughout the world. In this history, the author examines the cultural and political relationships between the Islamic world and the Mediterranean countries and India. Elaborating on the diverse factors and forces that shaped the Muslim world and molded its interactions with the "infidels," the book focuses on the major trends and events of the period. The author concludes that the fall of Baghdad, calamitous as it was, brought people to the realization that the vitality of Islam no longer required the institutional support of a caliphate.
language: English
title: Classical Islam: A History 600-1258
titlecomplete: Classical Islam: A History 600-1258
genres: History, Islam
ratings_count: 13
publisher: Barnes Noble Books